How is the new Principal at Janney?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC is in one of the maligned 3rd grade classes. She is doing fine and having a great year. Personal attention is overrated for most kids.

A couple of the 3rd grade classes have been great. Some of the others have been crazy. It's all about the mix of kids. They really didn't distribute the more "challenging" kids evenly.
That said, my child is in one of the difficult classes and comes home daily telling us about the chaos. But still he/she is learning. Kids are FAR, FAR more resilient than we give them credit more.
They don't need the perfect environment or much teacher time to learn. Most can learn despite chaos around them.

Wait. There are challenging kids at Janney???? Say it ain't so.

Your bad faith is showing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a number of families who have kids at Janney now who are going to attempt to lottery into Mann or Hearst for grades 3, 4, or 5.

If you give it a chance, you will be very impressed with Hearst. No school is perfect, but class sizes of 20-22 kids at Hearst is unbelievable for this region. Brand new facilities, access to Sidwell and DCPR facilities. Tremendous aftercare program. Path to Deal. There is a lot to like.

24 kids in both kindergarten classes at Hearst. Still good, but 20-22 might be a dream going forward given the number of IB kids now flocking to the school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a number of families who have kids at Janney now who are going to attempt to lottery into Mann or Hearst for grades 3, 4, or 5.

If you give it a chance, you will be very impressed with Hearst. No school is perfect, but class sizes of 20-22 kids at Hearst is unbelievable for this region. Brand new facilities, access to Sidwell and DCPR facilities. Tremendous aftercare program. Path to Deal. There is a lot to like.

24 kids in both kindergarten classes at Hearst. Still good, but 20-22 might be a dream going forward given the number of IB kids now flocking to the school

And don't look to DCPS to throttle back the OOB number anytime soon. There's very strong political pressure to maximize the number of OOB spaces in WOTP schools. So Hearst will just get more crowded, same as Eaton has.

[Anonymous]

So can't the new Principal make changes? Can't she push out students who lived IB and no longer live IB and are there from "Principal discretion"

Can't she reduce the # of PreK classes so that 3rd - 5th is not over crowded? Didn't Stoddert eliminate all but 1 preK class this year because of space?

[Anonymous]

Hearst parents will be very vocal about maintaining small class sizes. No school should increase class size just to take in more OOB. That is counterproductive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearst parents will be very vocal about maintaining small class sizes. No school should increase class size just to take in more OOB. That is counterproductive.

Isn't this where Janney is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearst parents will be very vocal about maintaining small class sizes. No school should increase class size just to take in more OOB. That is counterproductive.

I don't see Hearst necessarily taking in "more" OOB. But it's quite likely that they will keep the very considerable number of OOB spots constant so as not to upset political expecations, when they should be managing the OOB number down as IB enrollment goes up and as classes "graduate." The result will be that Hearst gets bigger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst parents will be very vocal about maintaining small class sizes. No school should increase class size just to take in more OOB. That is counterproductive.

I don't see Hearst necessarily taking in "more" OOB. But it's quite likely that they will keep the very considerable number of OOB spots constant so as not to upset political expecations, when they should be managing the OOB number down as IB enrollment goes up and as classes "graduate." The result will be that Hearst gets bigger.

vicious circle

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst parents will be very vocal about maintaining small class sizes. No school should increase class size just to take in more OOB. That is counterproductive.

I don't see Hearst necessarily taking in "more" OOB. But it's quite likely that they will keep the very considerable number of OOB spots constant so as not to upset political expecations, when they should be managing the OOB number down as IB enrollment goes up and as classes "graduate." The result will be that Hearst gets bigger.

vicious circle

And while folks may tout the number and percentage of IB students going up, the substantial number of OOB students will stay at least constant and overall enrollment will continue to climb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst parents will be very vocal about maintaining small class sizes. No school should increase class size just to take in more OOB. That is counterproductive.

I don't see Hearst necessarily taking in "more" OOB. But it's quite likely that they will keep the very considerable number of OOB spots constant so as not to upset political expecations, when they should be managing the OOB number down as IB enrollment goes up and as classes "graduate." The result will be that Hearst gets bigger.

vicious circle

And while folks may tout the number and percentage of IB students going up, the substantial number of OOB students will stay at least constant and overall enrollment will continue to climb.

How exactly do you *think* you know this to be the case? Are you a parent at Hearst? Have you ever even visited the school? Had a conversation with the principal ? Attended an LSAT or PTA meeting at Hearst? I have to believe the answes to all of the above are 'no' because in my case the answers are all 'yes' and what I have heard consistently for 4 years is there is no intention to increase enrollment above the fire Marshall- determined max capacity of 325 (inclusive of the soon to be open expanded facility for gym/library. Not to mention I have never heard principal even hint at 'political pressure' around OOB enrollment.

[Anonymous]

3 pages and has anyone actually talked about the principal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:3 pages and has anyone actually talked about the principal?

That's what I was thinking! I've had some interaction with her and I like her... but I don't know how she plans to handle the large size of the school. I do like that jamboree starts on time and moves more quickly. From what I hear from the teachers she is very supportive of them.

FWIW I wasn't a fan of the old principal so I am hoping some new blood does the school good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live IB and thinking of switching from where we are to our IB school. Now that she has been there a few months are there any changes that you see?

+1. We are, too. I'd also like to hear about any future plans for managing class sizes. The giant 3rd grade class doesn't sound like a good solution to me.

The rumor is that 3, 4, 5 will be large (30+) going forward, except with one teacher in grades 4 and 5 (and 2 in grade 3). There really isn't any other solution. There are too many kids, the city won't redistrict them, the school is out of rooms and they aren't allowed to put trailers outside.

I'm a teacher and I think that's just too many children for one. Is there an aide? A second teacher who floats grades? 30+ is way too many for positive behavior management, many activities, and meaningful feedback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live IB and thinking of switching from where we are to our IB school. Now that she has been there a few months are there any changes that you see?

+1. We are, too. I'd also like to hear about any future plans for managing class sizes. The giant 3rd grade class doesn't sound like a good solution to me.

The rumor is that 3, 4, 5 will be large (30+) going forward, except with one teacher in grades 4 and 5 (and 2 in grade 3). There really isn't any other solution. There are too many kids, the city won't redistrict them, the school is out of rooms and they aren't allowed to put trailers outside.

There will be

I'm a teacher and I think that's just too many children for one. Is there an aide? A second teacher who floats grades? 30+ is way too many for positive behavior management, many activities, and meaningful feedback.

There are floating aides.
The 30 kids classes have two full time teachers, in addition to the special subjects teachers. It is working very well.

[Anonymous]

Not every at Janney thinks it is working well.