Petition to Save Aftercare Program at Alice Deal iddle School

[Anonymous]

Attention parents of children attending Alice Deal Middle School in the 2012-13 school year: Principal James Albright announced on July 3, abruptly and without forewarning, that Deal was ending its structured aftercare program that many working Deal families relied on during the past school year. As a result, Deal is the only DCPS middle school not to offer a regular, structured aftercare program. If you're concerned about this deicion and want to do something about it, please consider adding your name to this petition. To be added please email [e-mail]. Thank you for your support.

Petition to Save the Alice Deal Aftercare Program

Dear Mr. Albright:

We, the undersigned Alice Deal Middle School parents, are writing to express our strong opposition to your decision to abruptly end the Deal aftercare program for the 2012-13 school year. This decision is troubling to us on many levels:

• First, it appears this decision was made unilaterally, without consulting any of us, the parents who have children in the program and are directly affected by the decision.
• Second, the decision was slipped into an email sent out the day before a holiday (when many families are out of town) and not broadcast earlier or more broadly to those us affected by the decision. Some aftercare families who do not have email or don’t subscribe to the e-newsletter may not even know of the decision yet.
• Third, announcing this decision just weeks before the start of the new school year leaves many of us furiously scrambling to find other aftercare options come August.

Needless to say, we are extremely displeased with the decision itself and very disappointed with the manner in which it was made and announced.

As you point out yourself in the “Weekly Bulletin,” the Deal aftercare program provides “a safe and structured place” for our children. For many families, aftercare is a necessity that cannot be filled simply by trying to “pigeon hole” our children into a smattering of other after-school programs that may or may not interest them, and which do not provide the reliable, five-day-a-week coverage that so many of us have relied on in the past and, until now, were expecting for the future. Furthermore, this decision leaves Deal as the only middle school in the DCPS system to not offer regular, structured aftercare to its students—hardly a distinction we want to have.

Therefore, we parents are requesting the following:

1. That you immediately rescind the decision to end the Deal aftercare program and ensure that there will be aftercare when school reopens on August 27.
2. That you will meet right away with a representative group of Deal parents to discuss any challenges facing the aftercare program and to explore various options for maintaining the program into the future. (Because any issues with the program were never discussed with parents in advance, we cannot know what those challenges may be, and you cannot possibly know what solutions the parents may have in mind and be willing to implement. We can find that common ground only by sitting down and talking.)

We thank you for your prompt consideration of our request, and we look forward to working with you, the Deal PTA and other partners, to ensure the continued viability and success of the Deal aftercare program.

38 Deal Parents -- and growing!

[Anonymous]

What is the cost to save the program?

[Anonymous]

I have a soon to be 6th grader and need more info. We were looking forward to using after care.

How much was aftercare?
Who was the provider?
How many kids were enrolled?
Did the HSA or school contribute funds to the program?

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Aftercare was free and paid for by DCPS which has cut the program here and elsewhere. 150 kids were enrolled, but only about 70 were there on any given afternoon. The school hired the coordinator - who eventually left.

Teachers supported the program, but many run the many, many afterschool activities and not ready to do even more, so staffing was a problem.

Parents hope to meet with the principal soon to discuss options for keeping the program going.

[Anonymous]

Why not contact a private provider such as Springboard or Innis, since it's undoubtedly a budget issue.

[Anonymous]

I read this as "idle" school - as in the kids are sitting around doing nothing. I was thinking - "you wanna save that???"

[Anonymous]

I would very much like to have an after school option that runs later than activities restored at Deal, but I don't appreciate the accusatory language in the petition.

It seems much more to me like the program needed to be sacrificed as the result of hard choices in austere times. Perhaps, since most Deal families are not experiencing the same level of austerity in their personal budgets, we can come up with a private solution that will still cost each of us less than individually contracted supervision.

[Anonymous]

OP why do you need a petition to ask for an opportunity to sit down and hash this out with the principal and others? We emailed him directly and he gave a fairly lengthy explanation about why the decision was made. And would hear ideas to help solve the problem.

[Anonymous]

I agree it should be saved. And I also think parents should pay market rate.

[Anonymous]

You will open up a can of worms if you start paying for items that were free at a public school. Did you send out a petition when you sent the principal to Cancun? Considering DCPS had free money in the budget for the same conference that was offered in Tahoe but not Cancun.

It is pretty evident there's a line drawn in the sand and I can guess, what side the petition is on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You will open up a can of worms if you start paying for items that were free at a public school. Did you send out a petition when you sent the principal to Cancun? Considering DCPS had free money in the budget for the same conference that was offered in Tahoe but not Cancun.

It is pretty evident there's a line drawn in the sand and I can guess, what side the petition is on.

In every other public school district I've ever heard of, after-care was extra. As long as these petitioners are on board for paying for it, full-freight, I'll sign. If they are demanding it for free, fuck them. And I don't talk to me about conferences at Tahoe or Cancun. Those shouldn't happen either, but that doesn't mean that money should be used to subsidize aftercare. If

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would very much like to have an after school option that runs later than activities restored at Deal, but I don't appreciate the accusatory language in the petition.

It seems much more to me like the program needed to be sacrificed as the result of hard choices in austere times. Perhaps, since most Deal families are not experiencing the same level of austerity in their personal budgets, we can come up with a private solution that will still cost each of us less than individually contracted supervision.

While Deal does serve many wealthy families, I don't know that these are the ones using aftercare. The Deal families I know personally who choose Aftercare are OOB families who don't feel comfortable with their kids home in less safe neighborhoods, or with their kids commuting on public transportation. These families come from a range of economic circumstances.

A sliding scale seems like a reasonable compromise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would very much like to have an after school option that runs later than activities restored at Deal, but I don't appreciate the accusatory language in the petition.

It seems much more to me like the program needed to be sacrificed as the result of hard choices in austere times. Perhaps, since most Deal families are not experiencing the same level of austerity in their personal budgets, we can come up with a private solution that will still cost each of us less than individually contracted supervision.

While Deal does serve many wealthy families, I don't know that these are the ones using aftercare. The Deal families I know personally who choose Aftercare are OOB families who don't feel comfortable with their kids home in less safe neighborhoods, or with their kids commuting on public transportation. These families come from a range of economic circumstances.

A sliding scale seems like a reasonable compromise.

How do elementary schools such as Murch or Eaton handle this situation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would very much like to have an after school option that runs later than activities restored at Deal, but I don't appreciate the accusatory language in the petition.

It seems much more to me like the program needed to be sacrificed as the result of hard choices in austere times. Perhaps, since most Deal families are not experiencing the same level of austerity in their personal budgets, we can come up with a private solution that will still cost each of us less than individually contracted supervision.

While Deal does serve many wealthy families, I don't know that these are the ones using aftercare. The Deal families I know personally who choose Aftercare are OOB families who don't feel comfortable with their kids home in less safe neighborhoods, or with their kids commuting on public transportation. These families come from a range of economic circumstances.

A sliding scale seems like a reasonable compromise.

IB parent here that has used Deal's aftercare. The idea of having a sliding scale doesn't seem feasible when you have such a tiny % of students that even use aftercare. We were using it to cover days when my kid didn't have an afterschool activity or sport, maybe 2-3 days per week. The challenge is both funding and staffing for it. If parents want to explore bringing in an aftercare provider that may be a way to go, but I just can't see how it would work financially with the small numbers of students we're talking about. And it sounds like Deal is exploring more robust afterschool activities that might help fill the gap. I can say the aftercare offered was pretty lackluster and my kid complained about going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would very much like to have an after school option that runs later than activities restored at Deal, but I don't appreciate the accusatory language in the petition.

It seems much more to me like the program needed to be sacrificed as the result of hard choices in austere times. Perhaps, since most Deal families are not experiencing the same level of austerity in their personal budgets, we can come up with a private solution that will still cost each of us less than individually contracted supervision.

While Deal does serve many wealthy families, I don't know that these are the ones using aftercare. The Deal families I know personally who choose Aftercare are OOB families who don't feel comfortable with their kids home in less safe neighborhoods, or with their kids commuting on public transportation. These families come from a range of economic circumstances.

A sliding scale seems like a reasonable compromise.

No, I don't think so. The public school is in loco parentis from 8-3 or whatever the school day is. That's what your tax dollars pay for. Before school care and aftercare should be entirely out of pocket of parents at market rates. Why should taxpayers pick up the tab just so two parents can work? Ridiculous.