Meeting re BASIS DC wanting to expand to PK-4th

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love it!!! One less source of "brain drain" at 5th grade. Best of luck Basis.

Agreed, if this has a bright side, it's this. And the Cap Hill parents will have a tough choice to make much earlier.

That's one way of looking at it. Many of us will stay in our strong Cap Hill neighborhood schools, and SWS, for elementary no matter what BASIS is offering. Life is too short to be squiring a PreK kid to a school downtown in case you need a middle or high school there. For me, the convenience of having my little kid socialize mainly with kids who live within a few minutes walk of my house is a big deal. And I'm not giving up the chance to get involved in PTA events held across the street from our place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love it!!! One less source of "brain drain" at 5th grade. Best of luck Basis.

Agreed, if this has a bright side, it's this. And the Cap Hill parents will have a tough choice to make much earlier.

That's one way of looking at it. Many of us will stay in our strong Cap Hill neighborhood schools, and SWS, for elementary no matter what BASIS is offering. Life is too short to be squiring a PreK kid to a school downtown in case you need a middle or high school there. For me, the convenience of having my little kid socialize mainly with kids who live within a few minutes walk of my house is a big deal. And I'm not giving up the chance to get involved in PTA events held across the street from our place.

No one knows where a BASIS elementary will be located. It will not be in the current building.

I agree that their elementary seats will be filled with kids from neighborhoods without decent elementary schools. If those students stay for middle it COULD mean fewer seats for kids just entering at middle school - like the ones who now come from Brent or Maury or Stoddert.

No opinion if that would be good or bad. It will be interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they still saying Ms Sardek will be the elementary' new Head of School? She is ridiculously unqualified choice for the position.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love it!!! One less source of "brain drain" at 5th grade. Best of luck Basis.

Agreed, if this has a bright side, it's this. And the Cap Hill parents will have a tough choice to make much earlier.

That's one way of looking at it. Many of us will stay in our strong Cap Hill neighborhood schools, and SWS, for elementary no matter what BASIS is offering. Life is too short to be squiring a PreK kid to a school downtown in case you need a middle or high school there. For me, the convenience of having my little kid socialize mainly with kids who live within a few minutes walk of my house is a big deal. And I'm not giving up the chance to get involved in PTA events held across the street from our place.

You like PTA events that much? Ugh!

And you do realize there are many families on the Hill who squire their elementary children across town to Deal feeder elementaries and to far away charters like LAMB and YuYing right now? All of this because of the dismal middle and high school options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't think they are qualified, especially given their record on SN kids and the punitive atmosphere in the MS and HS. Do you think they might deign to have a school nurse at a PK-4th? They don't at the present school, serving 600 plus students... mostly in 5th-8th grade. But you are supposed to leave your inhaler at the door with a designated person at the front desk, and if she isn't there when you need it, well, you can just have an asthma attack while you wait....

Why wouldn't a 5th grader just carry an inhaler with them? He's old enough to know how to use it on his own by then?

BASIS for some crazy reason doesn't even allow a 6th grader or a 9th grader to carry one either, or any medication fr that matter, while at our DC ES they were permitted to as of 3rd grade and we had a spares in the nurse's office.

That's illegal. The doctor makes the decision about whether a kid is ready to self carry and self administer emergency meds in DC, not the school

Why do BASIS parents let the school push them around like that?

Is the BASIS environment really worth risking your kid's life every day? Why? Because it lets you stay in DC? Because you can boast about how many AP's they took?

You're right, PP. It's not worth it. So, we left.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure this school will appeal to someone. Not me.

Unless they expand the middle school, it will definitely mean fewer spots for Cap Hill kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love it!!! One less source of "brain drain" at 5th grade. Best of luck Basis.

Agreed, if this has a bright side, it's this. And the Cap Hill parents will have a tough choice to make much earlier.

That's one way of looking at it. Many of us will stay in our strong Cap Hill neighborhood schools, and SWS, for elementary no matter what BASIS is offering. Life is too short to be squiring a PreK kid to a school downtown in case you need a middle or high school there. For me, the convenience of having my little kid socialize mainly with kids who live within a few minutes walk of my house is a big deal. And I'm not giving up the chance to get involved in PTA events held across the street from our place.

You like PTA events that much? Ugh!

And you do realize there are many families on the Hill who squire their elementary children across town to Deal feeder elementaries and to far away charters like LAMB and YuYing right now? All of this because of the dismal middle and high school options.

I've been on Cap Hill for long time and don't talk to many Maury or Brent in-boundary families who use Deal feeders, LAMB, YY etc. A handful in-boundary who really want Spanish or Mandarin immersion use those charters, yes, but most of those leaving do it from other school districts (Payne, Miner, Cluster etc.). DCI isn't close, and may or may not live up to the hype. Middle school options haven't in fact been dismal from the Hill in the past four years - everybody's gotten into Latin or BASIS. But it looks like they're about to get worse, possibly a lot worse, as demand for desirable charter middle schools fails to keep up with supply. There was an eye-opening presentation about all this at last week's Brent PTA meeting. Yea, we like being involved in the PTA.

[Anonymous]

Also re DCI - by design there will be very few seats at 6th for nonfeeder students unless, of course, it doesn't turn out to be a good school and feeder families make other choices.

[Anonymous]

Dream come true! Love the programs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love it!!! One less source of "brain drain" at 5th grade. Best of luck Basis.

Agreed, if this has a bright side, it's this. And the Cap Hill parents will have a tough choice to make much earlier.

That's one way of looking at it. Many of us will stay in our strong Cap Hill neighborhood schools, and SWS, for elementary no matter what BASIS is offering. Life is too short to be squiring a PreK kid to a school downtown in case you need a middle or high school there. For me, the convenience of having my little kid socialize mainly with kids who live within a few minutes walk of my house is a big deal. And I'm not giving up the chance to get involved in PTA events held across the street from our place.

You like PTA events that much? Ugh!

And you do realize there are many families on the Hill who squire their elementary children across town to Deal feeder elementaries and to far away charters like LAMB and YuYing right now? All of this because of the dismal middle and high school options.

I've been on Cap Hill for long time and don't talk to many Maury or Brent in-boundary families who use Deal feeders, LAMB, YY etc. A handful in-boundary who really want Spanish or Mandarin immersion use those charters, yes, but most of those leaving do it from other school districts (Payne, Miner, Cluster etc.). DCI isn't close, and may or may not live up to the hype. Middle school options haven't in fact been dismal from the Hill in the past four years - everybody's gotten into Latin or BASIS. But it looks like they're about to get worse, possibly a lot worse, as demand for desirable charter middle schools fails to keep up with supply. There was an eye-opening presentation about all this at last week's Brent PTA meeting. Yea, we like being involved in the PTA.

I think the info at the PTA meeting wasn't completely accurate. I think Latin always releases its total numbers (with the 14% getting spots), when the critical numbers are really for 5th grade (which I would guess is more like 30-45%). Also 2rivers, DCI and even Basis are easy to get into for the next year or two at least.

[Anonymous]

BASIS will start limiting 5th grade openings to comply with the building's occupancy numbers. The more students stay for high school, the less 5th grade openings.

Maury and Brent parents might start thinking about all of their options across the city (not just hoping for BASIS and Latin) unless they plan to all hold hands and jump into EH together.

[Anonymous]

One's take on the risk of not landing a spot at an acceptable charter middle school from the Hill hinges on how old your kids are, and how confident you feel that appealing charter MS spots will continue to be added at a good clip.

I see what you're saying, maybe 1/3 of those who apply to Latin this year will be in by the start of school, and all who apply for BASIS. Maybe next year, too. But will that remain the case for 3-5 years? On current trends, I can't see the escape-from-DCPS valve working indefinitely, even if Bowser is voted out partly for her somewhat anti-charter stance, but hope I'm wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BASIS will start limiting 5th grade openings to comply with the building's occupancy numbers. The more students stay for high school, the less 5th grade openings.

Maury and Brent parents might start thinking about all of their options across the city (not just hoping for BASIS and Latin) unless they plan to all hold hands and jump into EH together.

How could those parents do that? Brent feeds into Jefferson, and will surely continue to for at least 10 years, maybe 20 or more. Many of us asked for Brent, Maury and SWS to feed into the same DCPS MS two years ago, but nobody in charge listened.

[Anonymous]

I thought Brent fed to both Jefferson and EH -- and I bet it's not hard to get in OOB if I am wrong. SWS feeds to EH with Maury, though the parents don't seem to be interacting much about this.

And I don't feel too rosy about all applicants getting slots at Basis next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought Brent fed to both Jefferson and EH -- and I bet it's not hard to get in OOB if I am wrong. SWS feeds to EH with Maury, though the parents don't seem to be interacting much about this.

And I don't feel too rosy about all applicants getting slots at Basis next year.

Feeding to Jefferson + EH = looking at Basis!
sorry, but it's true