Kaya Henderson has Undermined her own Leadership

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Define urgent. You're with DCPS in wanting to wait decades until we have decent neighborhood middle schools? Why should the city wait?

A reasonable question. I think the urgent priorities for DCPS in dealing with high SES areas (they also have urgent issues in improving education for the more at risk, of course) are making Hardy a successful neighborhood school (achieves the same thing that fixing the Hill does, but is almost certainly a lot easier) improving EOTP elementaries, and implementing the proposed new middle schools. At that time (5 years? ten years?) they can seriously reexamine the Hill - by that point they may also have improved EOTR schools enough to make OOB access to the Hill less of a political hot button. Or, maybe, ongoing demographic change will partially solve the problem, and open up new options for solving it.

[Anonymous]

Catania is not supportive of MacFarland reopening in any way, shape or form. He wants to put other projects ahead of it and thinks its possible programming would make it a CHEC clone. I have no idea what he thinks middle years schooling for Barnard, Truesdell, etc., should be, but he is openly hostile to MacFarland reopening (probably because Bowser is openly supportive).

By leaving MacFarland closed and placing other projects ahead of it, Catania would effectively give it to the charter system, as it is too tempting a location to give up on and Catania has promised them easier facility access.

This would effectively doom Roosevelt High School (if it has chances to survive in its current form) and allow a full charter takeover of Ward 4 above the elementary level.

This is my analysis of the Catania positions together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or lets put it this way. Follow me

Catania wins in November. He prevails on the council to delay implementation of DME plan by one year, the lottery is held in December under the current boundaries, rules, etc (don't ask me the mechanics of that)

First thing Mayor Catania does on taking office is work with the council and DCPS and the community to develop a plan for the renovation of McFarland, with details as to cost and capactiy, design parameters, curriculum plan, etc. And passes the budget to implement that. Something similar, if perhaps less fleshed out, is prepared for the other new middle schools.

Its now summer 2015. Do you think EVERY high SES family (with choice, IOW) that objected to the DME plan in 2014 will now accept it? Do you think some will still object, and that some of them will say "The new McFarland is not good enough, I bought for Deal, I will move if I am cut out of Deal"? And what will the logical response at that point be, if not "go, we can live without you"

At some point the only response to threats to leave is to point at the door.

I think at that point, if you are an elected official (which Kaya has the luxury not to be), you keep your mouth shut on any of the 'go, I don't care anyway' lines you feel like retorting with and issue a general statement that the new MS is great and many families are happy and we know the neighborhood and city will love it blah blah blah. Politics 101, IMO.

so the gaffe here is that she said what she really thought, what everyone knows anyone in her position would likely really think, but which a good pol would not say. We complain about pols being phoney, and then complain when public officials are not phoney.

Maybe DC where so many are professionals at spin gives us unrealistic expectations. She's the chancellor of a school system of a jurisdiction of less than 700,000 people (not the largest or even second largest in the metro area) not a congressional leader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or lets put it this way. Follow me

Catania wins in November. He prevails on the council to delay implementation of DME plan by one year, the lottery is held in December under the current boundaries, rules, etc (don't ask me the mechanics of that)

First thing Mayor Catania does on taking office is work with the council and DCPS and the community to develop a plan for the renovation of McFarland, with details as to cost and capactiy, design parameters, curriculum plan, etc. And passes the budget to implement that. Something similar, if perhaps less fleshed out, is prepared for the other new middle schools.

Its now summer 2015. Do you think EVERY high SES family (with choice, IOW) that objected to the DME plan in 2014 will now accept it? Do you think some will still object, and that some of them will say "The new McFarland is not good enough, I bought for Deal, I will move if I am cut out of Deal"? And what will the logical response at that point be, if not "go, we can live without you"

At some point the only response to threats to leave is to point at the door.

I think at that point, if you are an elected official (which Kaya has the luxury not to be), you keep your mouth shut on any of the 'go, I don't care anyway' lines you feel like retorting with and issue a general statement that the new MS is great and many families are happy and we know the neighborhood and city will love it blah blah blah. Politics 101, IMO.

so the gaffe here is that she said what she really thought, what everyone knows anyone in her position would likely really think, but which a good pol would not say. We complain about pols being phoney, and then complain when public officials are not phoney.

Maybe DC where so many are professionals at spin gives us unrealistic expectations. She's the chancellor of a school system of a jurisdiction of less than 700,000 people (not the largest or even second largest in the metro area) not a congressional leader.

I think there is a happy medium between phony and rude/dismissive but ultimately, what bothers me more about her statement is that she is incorrect (I am the PP who pointed out upthread that new families aren’t any more likely to stay in bad schools than old ones).

Also, she is a school chancellor. She should not be blithe and dismissive about students leaving her system for any reason, other than graduation.

[Anonymous]

I wasn’t a fan of Rhee, but can deal with Henderson. What school district has a superintendent where administration and parents are happy?

[Anonymous]

First, DCPS spends millions of dollars to try to make their schools more physically attractive, to give students and teachers brand new technology, books, etc. It spends millions of dollars trying to pay teachers the highest in the area so that the best ones will stay here. It has shown success compared to other urban jurisdictions on the NAEP "TUDA" which shows growth in DCPS at a higher rate than other US cities. Lastly, enrollment is over 47,000 for the first time in forever and that had a lot to do with the begging (door knocking) that principals did over the summer. So to say that Kaya, et al doesn't care if kids go to DCPS or not is completely incorrect. Kaya could have quit long before now and taken a much more lucrative job in consulting or something if she didn't have her heart in the work.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carolyn Reynolds, who’s lived in Crestwood for slightly more than four years, is indignant upon learning that her two children at a nearby charter school won’t be grandfathered into Deal and Wilson under the new policy. “That’s outrageous,” she says. “That’s unacceptable.”

#####

Really? Congratulations to her for being able to afford to freeride her way into the best feeder pattern, but I'm not feeling sorry for her at all.

Oh, Ms. Reynold's house was free? Lucky her. I am not sure you understand the meaning of "freeride".

If there is one lesson I have learned from the DME process, it is that only fools feel empathy.

You understand perfectly well what it means....her kids don't attend either IB elementary school, they go to a tax payer funded charter. Perfectly fine. But no one wants to hear her crying when she loses the benefit she would have had by sending her kids IB. Get in the OOB lottery like everyone else.

Apparently you are determined to demonstrate that you are the least informed poster on this board. Reynolds would not get a right to Deal by sending her kids to the local inbound school. That school is not a Deal feeder. It is currently a CHEC feeder. Many families living elsewhere who were able to gain entry to charter schools moved to Crestwood in order to have Deal and Wilson options. While buying a house doesn't guarantee rights to a school -- though it generally has in DC for the last 40 years -- it is still understandable that someone would be upset. Calling people who made a major financial investment based on information that has turned out not to be true "freeriders" is pretty ignorant.

Are you saying that if she lives in Crestwood and her child attended, say, West, her child wouldn't have the right to feed into Deal for the foreseeable future?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carolyn Reynolds, who’s lived in Crestwood for slightly more than four years, is indignant upon learning that her two children at a nearby charter school won’t be grandfathered into Deal and Wilson under the new policy. “That’s outrageous,” she says. “That’s unacceptable.”

#####

Really? Congratulations to her for being able to afford to freeride her way into the best feeder pattern, but I'm not feeling sorry for her at all.

Oh, Ms. Reynold's house was free? Lucky her. I am not sure you understand the meaning of "freeride".

If there is one lesson I have learned from the DME process, it is that only fools feel empathy.

You understand perfectly well what it means....her kids don't attend either IB elementary school, they go to a tax payer funded charter. Perfectly fine. But no one wants to hear her crying when she loses the benefit she would have had by sending her kids IB. Get in the OOB lottery like everyone else.

Apparently you are determined to demonstrate that you are the least informed poster on this board. Reynolds would not get a right to Deal by sending her kids to the local inbound school. That school is not a Deal feeder. It is currently a CHEC feeder. Many families living elsewhere who were able to gain entry to charter schools moved to Crestwood in order to have Deal and Wilson options. While buying a house doesn't guarantee rights to a school -- though it generally has in DC for the last 40 years -- it is still understandable that someone would be upset. Calling people who made a major financial investment based on information that has turned out not to be true "freeriders" is pretty ignorant.

Are you saying that if she lives in Crestwood and her child attended, say, West, her child wouldn't have the right to feed into Deal for the foreseeable future?

West is an Educational Campus that serves PK-8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Define urgent. You're with DCPS in wanting to wait decades until we have decent neighborhood middle schools? Why should the city wait?

A reasonable question. I think the urgent priorities for DCPS in dealing with high SES areas (they also have urgent issues in improving education for the more at risk, of course) are making Hardy a successful neighborhood school (achieves the same thing that fixing the Hill does, but is almost certainly a lot easier) improving EOTP elementaries, and implementing the proposed new middle schools. At that time (5 years? ten years?) they can seriously reexamine the Hill - by that point they may also have improved EOTR schools enough to make OOB access to the Hill less of a political hot button. Or, maybe, ongoing demographic change will partially solve the problem, and open up new options for solving it.

I don't think the Chancellor should have the luxury of choosing her battles. She's the Chancellor for all of DCPS, not just the easy wins at Hardy or shiny new middle schools proposed by the DME.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Are you saying that if she lives in Crestwood and her child attended, say, West, her child wouldn't have the right to feed into Deal for the foreseeable future?

Crestwood residents will have a right to attend Deal until MacFarland opens. We don't know what day that will be -- if it ever comes. But, if one assumes that 2016-2017 is a reasonable guess, her child will be assigned to MacFarland (just as my younger child would be) and not have a right to attend Deal. This is one reason why we moved our son to a Deal feeder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Define urgent. You're with DCPS in wanting to wait decades until we have decent neighborhood middle schools? Why should the city wait?

A reasonable question. I think the urgent priorities for DCPS in dealing with high SES areas (they also have urgent issues in improving education for the more at risk, of course) are making Hardy a successful neighborhood school (achieves the same thing that fixing the Hill does, but is almost certainly a lot easier) improving EOTP elementaries, and implementing the proposed new middle schools. At that time (5 years? ten years?) they can seriously reexamine the Hill - by that point they may also have improved EOTR schools enough to make OOB access to the Hill less of a political hot button. Or, maybe, ongoing demographic change will partially solve the problem, and open up new options for solving it.

I don't think the Chancellor should have the luxury of choosing her battles. She's the Chancellor for all of DCPS, not just the easy wins at Hardy or shiny new middle schools proposed by the DME.

given limited resources, and limited political capital, I do not see how the Chancellor has the luxury of NOT choosing her battles. And of course she is still chancellor of the Hill schools, where teachers get paid, kids go to class, and learning takes place. Failing to resolve the desires of Hill families for a feeder arrangement that works better for them does not mean she is not their chancellor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, DCPS spends millions of dollars to try to make their schools more physically attractive, to give students and teachers brand new technology, books, etc. It spends millions of dollars trying to pay teachers the highest in the area so that the best ones will stay here. It has shown success compared to other urban jurisdictions on the NAEP "TUDA" which shows growth in DCPS at a higher rate than other US cities. Lastly, enrollment is over 47,000 for the first time in forever and that had a lot to do with the begging (door knocking) that principals did over the summer. So to say that Kaya, et al doesn't care if kids go to DCPS or not is completely incorrect. Kaya could have quit long before now and taken a much more lucrative job in consulting or something if she didn't have her heart in the work.

Kayla wants sheep for parents, not fidgety, demanding, anal parents.

[Anonymous]

There are people who think she needs to be beholden to people whose kids are not at any risk of real difficulties who want to fight over whether their kids get to go to Murch, Hearst, or Janney.

I would want to ignore those people too. And I hope her attention is on those at risk of real problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, DCPS spends millions of dollars to try to make their schools more physically attractive, to give students and teachers brand new technology, books, etc. It spends millions of dollars trying to pay teachers the highest in the area so that the best ones will stay here. It has shown success compared to other urban jurisdictions on the NAEP "TUDA" which shows growth in DCPS at a higher rate than other US cities. Lastly, enrollment is over 47,000 for the first time in forever and that had a lot to do with the begging (door knocking) that principals did over the summer. So to say that Kaya, et al doesn't care if kids go to DCPS or not is completely incorrect. Kaya could have quit long before now and taken a much more lucrative job in consulting or something if she didn't have her heart in the work.

Could she? or does she have to prove herself here, before any of those more lucrative jobs are offered?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are people who think she needs to be beholden to people whose kids are not at any risk of real difficulties who want to fight over whether their kids get to go to Murch, Hearst, or Janney.

I would want to ignore those people too. And I hope her attention is on those at risk of real problems.

+1

As an affluent parent of a DCPS student, I find many of my peers to be insufferably privileged. (Hello DCUM!)