Bancroft Loses Title I Status?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hardly believe that losing $90,000 is going to make or break a school’s budget especially since it was used for personnel.

There are so few flexible staff positions that losing one is a big deal at lots of schools. Also? They are getting bridge funding from the Mayor. When that dries up, they be down another spot or two as well. Also, the Council only funds FoodPrints for T1s currently, so if that’s the garden program referred to, they have to fund it or it’s gone. L-T’s PTO paid $30K+ for FoodPrints last year.

Most positions are flexible.

Not actually though once you account for the ones you realistically have to have. Schools try to cut classroom teachers where they can, but that’s how you end up with 30 kid 1st grade classes which isn’t awesome either.

Bancroft already has 30 kids per classroom in elementary grades. With the Title 1 funding…

30 kids?!!!

Yep, it’s masssively popular in the community and I guess space is more of an issue than staff. Urban neighborhood, so no space for trailers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hardly believe that losing $90,000 is going to make or break a school’s budget especially since it was used for personnel.

There are so few flexible staff positions that losing one is a big deal at lots of schools. Also? They are getting bridge funding from the Mayor. When that dries up, they be down another spot or two as well. Also, the Council only funds FoodPrints for T1s currently, so if that’s the garden program referred to, they have to fund it or it’s gone. L-T’s PTO paid $30K+ for FoodPrints last year.

Most positions are flexible.

Not actually though once you account for the ones you realistically have to have. Schools try to cut classroom teachers where they can, but that’s how you end up with 30 kid 1st grade classes which isn’t awesome either.

I mean that actually seems like the definition of flexibility. If a school wants to have three coaches and 30 kids in a 1st grade class, they can do that. They can look at the smallest class and cut a teacher there. They can cut an ELL intervention position.

If you are concerned, go to an LSAT meeting. They are open meetings so anyone is allowed to attend. Budget decisions are happening now because the teachers who serve on the LSATs are off all next week and they are due March 1. So go find out when they are and show up.

The point is the loss of a full teaching position ($90K) is not nothing. And I bet the cuts are actually deeper than that. The initial budgets are misleading because of the increases in teacher salaries. Our budget looks like we lost 2 positions, but we lost at least 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They will lose OSTP aftercare entirely. That is the biggest immediate difference. Also, DC Scores will pull out like L-T lost City Year. If they already have plans in place, they may stay next year to ease the transition; they will definitely leave the year after.

Does Bancroft currently have any aftercare alternative to OSTP that isn't T1-linked? If not, their PTA needs to get on this for next year ASAP. Absolutely not joking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They will lose OSTP aftercare entirely. That is the biggest immediate difference. Also, DC Scores will pull out like L-T lost City Year. If they already have plans in place, they may stay next year to ease the transition; they will definitely leave the year after.

Does Bancroft currently have any aftercare alternative to OSTP that isn't T1-linked? If not, their PTA needs to get on this for next year ASAP. Absolutely not joking.

The only other aftercare provider that Bancroft has is Champions. This organization serves grades PK3-2 at the school. I don’t believe this organization is linked to T1 status since they are also operating at Hyde-Addison. However, 98% of their programming is at Title I schools. Bancroft also has the LAYC which serves 3rd graders. However, registration is done through OTSP so Bancroft will probably lose this partnership next school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hardly believe that losing $90,000 is going to make or break a school’s budget especially since it was used for personnel.

There are so few flexible staff positions that losing one is a big deal at lots of schools. Also? They are getting bridge funding from the Mayor. When that dries up, they be down another spot or two as well. Also, the Council only funds FoodPrints for T1s currently, so if that’s the garden program referred to, they have to fund it or it’s gone. L-T’s PTO paid $30K+ for FoodPrints last year.

Most positions are flexible.

Not actually though once you account for the ones you realistically have to have. Schools try to cut classroom teachers where they can, but that’s how you end up with 30 kid 1st grade classes which isn’t awesome either.

I mean that actually seems like the definition of flexibility. If a school wants to have three coaches and 30 kids in a 1st grade class, they can do that. They can look at the smallest class and cut a teacher there. They can cut an ELL intervention position.

If you are concerned, go to an LSAT meeting. They are open meetings so anyone is allowed to attend. Budget decisions are happening now because the teachers who serve on the LSATs are off all next week and they are due March 1. So go find out when they are and show up.

The point is the loss of a full teaching position ($90K) is not nothing. And I bet the cuts are actually deeper than that. The initial budgets are misleading because of the increases in teacher salaries. Our budget looks like we lost 2 positions, but we lost at least 3.

Well mine lost 8. 🤷‍♀️ The point is that the loss of Title 1 dollars isn’t a big deal. It’s based on need and it was decided that Bancroft no longer needed as much funding because it no longer had as much need. We should be celebrating that. I get that a lot of families are disappointed that they received services as a result of their kid going to school with poor kids, but this is also the result of the changing demographics that they had a role in. Overall, $90k is a drop in the bucket.

[Anonymous]

Bancroft could probably easily regain their Title I status if they improve their recruitment efforts. There are tons of income eligible families in Columbia Heights and Brightwood who could enroll at the school. Bancroft should definitely think about implementing a language fluency test and request equitable access seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bancroft could probably easily regain their Title I status if they improve their recruitment efforts. There are tons of income eligible families in Columbia Heights and Brightwood who could enroll at the school. Bancroft should definitely think about implementing a language fluency test and request equitable access seats.

Bilingual DCPS schools already have separate lotteries for English and Spanish dominant seats through first grade. Mount Pleasant has a ton of Spanish dominant families along 16th St already. Very few Spanish dominant seats go to no preference, including OOB, now. There would be no change to recruiting because there aren’t available seats left to fill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bancroft could probably easily regain their Title I status if they improve their recruitment efforts. There are tons of income eligible families in Columbia Heights and Brightwood who could enroll at the school. Bancroft should definitely think about implementing a language fluency test and request equitable access seats.

They could also give up their feeder to overcrowded Deal.

[Anonymous]

Bancroft should have tried harder to keep their status. I’m going to email all of their community partners and aftercare providers to make sure that each organization is aware of the change. Bancroft no longer deserves to have access to programs meant for low income students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bancroft could probably easily regain their Title I status if they improve their recruitment efforts. There are tons of income eligible families in Columbia Heights and Brightwood who could enroll at the school. Bancroft should definitely think about implementing a language fluency test and request equitable access seats.

They could also give up their feeder to overcrowded Deal.

I was at a Bancroft open house and an admin warned me that this is a very real possibility with the upcoming boundary review. It’s no longer economically diverse “enough”, it’s physically surrounded by non-feeder school boundaries, and there’s legitimate programmatic reasons to feed a bilingual elementary into the DCPS bilingual middle school (MacFarland). Like Powell before it, there would be a long grandfathering period, but I’d be very hesitant to buy in-bounds with a baby/toddler at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bancroft could probably easily regain their Title I status if they improve their recruitment efforts. There are tons of income eligible families in Columbia Heights and Brightwood who could enroll at the school. Bancroft should definitely think about implementing a language fluency test and request equitable access seats.

They could also give up their feeder to overcrowded Deal.

I was at a Bancroft open house and an admin warned me that this is a very real possibility with the upcoming boundary review. It’s no longer economically diverse “enough”, it’s physically surrounded by non-feeder school boundaries, and there’s legitimate programmatic reasons to feed a bilingual elementary into the DCPS bilingual middle school (MacFarland). Like Powell before it, there would be a long grandfathering period, but I’d be very hesitant to buy in-bounds with a baby/toddler at this point.

When is the boundary review expected to be finished?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bancroft could probably easily regain their Title I status if they improve their recruitment efforts. There are tons of income eligible families in Columbia Heights and Brightwood who could enroll at the school. Bancroft should definitely think about implementing a language fluency test and request equitable access seats.

They could also give up their feeder to overcrowded Deal.

I was at a Bancroft open house and an admin warned me that this is a very real possibility with the upcoming boundary review. It’s no longer economically diverse “enough”, it’s physically surrounded by non-feeder school boundaries, and there’s legitimate programmatic reasons to feed a bilingual elementary into the DCPS bilingual middle school (MacFarland). Like Powell before it, there would be a long grandfathering period, but I’d be very hesitant to buy in-bounds with a baby/toddler at this point.

When is the boundary review expected to be finished?

It's supposed to occur in 2023, so it probably wouldn't be finished until a year from now, and then there would likely be grandfathering for some time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bancroft could probably easily regain their Title I status if they improve their recruitment efforts. There are tons of income eligible families in Columbia Heights and Brightwood who could enroll at the school. Bancroft should definitely think about implementing a language fluency test and request equitable access seats.

They could also give up their feeder to overcrowded Deal.

I was at a Bancroft open house and an admin warned me that this is a very real possibility with the upcoming boundary review. It’s no longer economically diverse “enough”, it’s physically surrounded by non-feeder school boundaries, and there’s legitimate programmatic reasons to feed a bilingual elementary into the DCPS bilingual middle school (MacFarland). Like Powell before it, there would be a long grandfathering period, but I’d be very hesitant to buy in-bounds with a baby/toddler at this point.

Also look at the data on the where kids in the neighborhoods actually go to school. It looks like a significant number of the Latino kids actually wind up choosing CHEC and MacFarland over Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bancroft could probably easily regain their Title I status if they improve their recruitment efforts. There are tons of income eligible families in Columbia Heights and Brightwood who could enroll at the school. Bancroft should definitely think about implementing a language fluency test and request equitable access seats.

It also needs more diversity in general. Bancroft is 4.0 % African American. That is shocking for a Ward 1 school. I believe the only school with a lower percentage in the city is Oyster and just barely at 3.5%. For perspective, Eaton is 19.4%, Murch is 13.1% and Mann is 7.9%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 2 kids who go to a non-title 1 school pay for school lunch. My child who goes to a title 1 school does not (everyone gets free lunch).

Free lunch for all is only for community eligibility schools — a subset of title I schools that are highest poverty