Future of Brent Pk3?

[Anonymous]

I hear you, PP, but not sure what your choice of MV has to do with the future of Brent PreK3.

[Anonymous]

Brent has behavioral issues that they had to hire a behavioral specialist to address. I also know many K parents who haven't been thrilled with the school experience. Happy we left and went private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brent has behavioral issues that they had to hire a behavioral specialist to address. I also know many K parents who haven't been thrilled with the school experience. Happy we left and went private.

Oh come on, every school has some behavioral issues and the Brent PTA Board is to be applauded for hiring the with-it tech guy to improve matters. I can live with not being thrilled with the K experience, knowing that the first grade teachers are all strong and what a terrific job the music, art, science, PE, and Spanish teachers do. Brent is a deal for your tax dollars, a 5 or 10-minute walk from the homes of most of us who use the school. At this age, you can easily supplement at home so your kid thrives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brent has behavioral issues that they had to hire a behavioral specialist to address. I also know many K parents who haven't been thrilled with the school experience. Happy we left and went private.

Oh come on, every school has some behavioral issues and the Brent PTA Board is to be applauded for hiring the with-it tech guy to improve matters. I can live with not being thrilled with the K experience, knowing that the first grade teachers are all strong and what a terrific job the music, art, science, PE, and Spanish teachers do. Brent is a deal for your tax dollars, a 5 or 10-minute walk from the homes of most of us who use the school. At this age, you can easily supplement at home so your kid thrives.

I agree. Hiring a behavioral tech was a great idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brent has behavioral issues that they had to hire a behavioral specialist to address. I also know many K parents who haven't been thrilled with the school experience. Happy we left and went private.

Oh come on, every school has some behavioral issues and the Brent PTA Board is to be applauded for hiring the with-it tech guy to improve matters. I can live with not being thrilled with the K experience, knowing that the first grade teachers are all strong and what a terrific job the music, art, science, PE, and Spanish teachers do. Brent is a deal for your tax dollars, a 5 or 10-minute walk from the homes of most of us who use the school. At this age, you can easily supplement at home so your kid thrives.

I agree. Hiring a behavioral tech was a great idea.

Great idea? He doesn't have a specialty in anything. While it may be a good idea in theory, these wealthy parents need to address their children's behavior at home and not expect the school to do it. That's the problem.

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering if this is finally reaching the tipping point as there are enough parents that have lost in the lottery process getting to leadership positions. The issue is, if you have a current 1st grader or up, you don't understand how bad it is. The fact that 9 IB sibling families didn't get in through the lottery last year (mind you there were only 10 in the entire city) should have been a wake up call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering if this is finally reaching the tipping point as there are enough parents that have lost in the lottery process getting to leadership positions. The issue is, if you have a current 1st grader or up, you don't understand how bad it is. The fact that 9 IB sibling families didn't get in through the lottery last year (mind you there were only 10 in the entire city) should have been a wake up call.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brent has behavioral issues that they had to hire a behavioral specialist to address. I also know many K parents who haven't been thrilled with the school experience. Happy we left and went private.

Oh come on, every school has some behavioral issues and the Brent PTA Board is to be applauded for hiring the with-it tech guy to improve matters. I can live with not being thrilled with the K experience, knowing that the first grade teachers are all strong and what a terrific job the music, art, science, PE, and Spanish teachers do. Brent is a deal for your tax dollars, a 5 or 10-minute walk from the homes of most of us who use the school. At this age, you can easily supplement at home so your kid thrives.

I agree. Hiring a behavioral tech was a great idea.

FYI, the principal proposed hiring a behavior tech in the aftermath of the Steateguc Planning process recommendations. It was reported that teachers identified behavioral disruptions as one of the issues that interfered with classroom activities. It is also the case that a few teachers (most of whom have left) had difficulty controlling their classrooms. Like many DCPS schools, Brent used to have a behavior tech who could work with children who have more challenging behavioral issues, some of which may be tied to an IEP. There are reasons schools have social workers and psychologists. In any event, the PTA was asked to pick up the tab to hire the behavior tech because of the manner in which Brent reallocates funds to pay for things like the science teacher. Paying a behavior tech and teacher aides through the PTA affords the school somewhat greater budget flexibility and autonomy but it's ultimately the principal and hiring committee who select the candidate. The idea that anyone would take issue with having someone who can help teachers by affording the opportunity for an out-of-classroom "time out" from time to time is bizarre. Indeed, while it may be fair to criticize Brent for certain policies and priorities, taking issue with having an extra body (and male authority figure) on staff is illogical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is only PK4 in NW, it would make sense for them to eliminate PK3 at Brent since there is no real financial need; however since it's years ahead of other Capitol Hill schools, it's unlikely DCPS would eliminate PK3 at just Brent without eliminating it at all Hill schools.

They should likely eliminate the mixed classes in PK3 and PK4 to accommodate more IB kids at Brent.

I don't think Brent is years ahead of Van Ness, Maury, or Ludlow-Taylor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering if this is finally reaching the tipping point as there are enough parents that have lost in the lottery process getting to leadership positions. The issue is, if you have a current 1st grader or up, you don't understand how bad it is. The fact that 9 IB sibling families didn't get in through the lottery last year (mind you there were only 10 in the entire city) should have been a wake up call.

Leadership positions? How bad it is? Parents with kids who are in K or younger lack perspective that comes with having ushered an older kid through the elementary grades. Being an inbound family excluded from PK at Brent sucks, particularly if you have an older kid already attending but it's hardly the end of the world. How many IB families with sibling preference were excluded from PK3 as the result of this year's lottery? It's fair to question whether mixed-age classrooms make the most sense, and it's also fair to ask if maintaining PK4 is the best use of limited resources in terms of serving the larger community, even if Central Office is unlikely to allow Brent to phase out PK3, but don't blow things out of proportion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS, Brent principal and PTA board have made it clear that they don't want to ditch PreK3/mixed-age classes. Issue is not being discussed seriously. If you really need a PreK3 somewhere on or around the Hill, you'll get a spot by the start of school from your 12 choices, probably at an AppleTree campus. You just can't apply only to super popular programs. try JO Wilson, Miner, Payne, Walker Jones, Amidon etc. They're all decent for that age group.

I wouldn't dismiss a number of 150+ if you're willing to jump in after the school year starts. You'd be surprised how low schools will still dip into waiting lists come late Sept. or early Oct.

This is simply not true any more. None of the schools on or near the hill are a guarantee for PK3 or 4 even after the school year starts. We never got off the waiting list at Payne or Tyler (traditional not Spanish) or Van Ness last year. The schools are all improving. They are all on people's communizing route in. There are more and more young families staying on the Hill and trying their neighborhood schools, in part because they can't get into charters. And for Brent families some of the schools you mentioned are far away and in the opposite direction. People tend to live on the hill because they love a walkable community. Two miles each way twice a day is not walkable with small kids.

And to the poster who said that the Brent boundary is fine, what are you smoking? The school is not big enough to accommodate all the in bounds kids. When next year's kindergarten class starts (the one that had 40 or so in bounds kids wait listed for PK3) where are they going to put them? Or are they just going to cram them all into the existing classrooms and have 40 kids in a K class. They either need to expand the school or shrink the boundary. The boundary review was a joke because it didn't do any forward projections. Five years ago you could lottery into Brent out of bounds, now you can't even get in if you are IB, yet they used the upper grades OOB stats to say the boundary/capacity was fine.

No politician in their right mind would push to shrink Brent's boundary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is only PK4 in NW, it would make sense for them to eliminate PK3 at Brent since there is no real financial need; however since it's years ahead of other Capitol Hill schools, it's unlikely DCPS would eliminate PK3 at just Brent without eliminating it at all Hill schools.

They should likely eliminate the mixed classes in PK3 and PK4 to accommodate more IB kids at Brent.

I don't think Brent is years ahead of Van Ness, Maury, or Ludlow-Taylor.

Please tell us all about those Van Ness academic programs for preschool and kindergarten. And then go spend some time mentoring or volunteering at Brent and LT and report back to us on your first-hand observations and experiences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS, Brent principal and PTA board have made it clear that they don't want to ditch PreK3/mixed-age classes. Issue is not being discussed seriously. If you really need a PreK3 somewhere on or around the Hill, you'll get a spot by the start of school from your 12 choices, probably at an AppleTree campus. You just can't apply only to super popular programs. try JO Wilson, Miner, Payne, Walker Jones, Amidon etc. They're all decent for that age group.

I wouldn't dismiss a number of 150+ if you're willing to jump in after the school year starts. You'd be surprised how low schools will still dip into waiting lists come late Sept. or early Oct.

This is simply not true any more. None of the schools on or near the hill are a guarantee for PK3 or 4 even after the school year starts. We never got off the waiting list at Payne or Tyler (traditional not Spanish) or Van Ness last year. The schools are all improving. They are all on people's communizing route in. There are more and more young families staying on the Hill and trying their neighborhood schools, in part because they can't get into charters. And for Brent families some of the schools you mentioned are far away and in the opposite direction. People tend to live on the hill because they love a walkable community. Two miles each way twice a day is not walkable with small kids.

And to the poster who said that the Brent boundary is fine, what are you smoking? The school is not big enough to accommodate all the in bounds kids. When next year's kindergarten class starts (the one that had 40 or so in bounds kids wait listed for PK3) where are they going to put them? Or are they just going to cram them all into the existing classrooms and have 40 kids in a K class. They either need to expand the school or shrink the boundary. The boundary review was a joke because it didn't do any forward projections. Five years ago you could lottery into Brent out of bounds, now you can't even get in if you are IB, yet they used the upper grades OOB stats to say the boundary/capacity was fine.

No politician in their right mind would push to shrink Brent's boundary.

Brent is a mosquito on the back of the DCPS elephant. It's cute that inbound parents whose kids might not get into PK think they are a matter of concern at the top of anyone's action list, when the overwhelming number of schools are struggling to serve poor and at-risk kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS, Brent principal and PTA board have made it clear that they don't want to ditch PreK3/mixed-age classes. Issue is not being discussed seriously. If you really need a PreK3 somewhere on or around the Hill, you'll get a spot by the start of school from your 12 choices, probably at an AppleTree campus. You just can't apply only to super popular programs. try JO Wilson, Miner, Payne, Walker Jones, Amidon etc. They're all decent for that age group.

I wouldn't dismiss a number of 150+ if you're willing to jump in after the school year starts. You'd be surprised how low schools will still dip into waiting lists come late Sept. or early Oct.

This is simply not true any more. None of the schools on or near the hill are a guarantee for PK3 or 4 even after the school year starts. We never got off the waiting list at Payne or Tyler (traditional not Spanish) or Van Ness last year. The schools are all improving. They are all on people's communizing route in. There are more and more young families staying on the Hill and trying their neighborhood schools, in part because they can't get into charters. And for Brent families some of the schools you mentioned are far away and in the opposite direction. People tend to live on the hill because they love a walkable community. Two miles each way twice a day is not walkable with small kids.

And to the poster who said that the Brent boundary is fine, what are you smoking? The school is not big enough to accommodate all the in bounds kids. When next year's kindergarten class starts (the one that had 40 or so in bounds kids wait listed for PK3) where are they going to put them? Or are they just going to cram them all into the existing classrooms and have 40 kids in a K class. They either need to expand the school or shrink the boundary. The boundary review was a joke because it didn't do any forward projections. Five years ago you could lottery into Brent out of bounds, now you can't even get in if you are IB, yet they used the upper grades OOB stats to say the boundary/capacity was fine.

No politician in their right mind would push to shrink Brent's boundary.

This comment reminds me of old Janney threads; now look at their class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS, Brent principal and PTA board have made it clear that they don't want to ditch PreK3/mixed-age classes. Issue is not being discussed seriously. If you really need a PreK3 somewhere on or around the Hill, you'll get a spot by the start of school from your 12 choices, probably at an AppleTree campus. You just can't apply only to super popular programs. try JO Wilson, Miner, Payne, Walker Jones, Amidon etc. They're all decent for that age group.

I wouldn't dismiss a number of 150+ if you're willing to jump in after the school year starts. You'd be surprised how low schools will still dip into waiting lists come late Sept. or early Oct.

This is simply not true any more. None of the schools on or near the hill are a guarantee for PK3 or 4 even after the school year starts. We never got off the waiting list at Payne or Tyler (traditional not Spanish) or Van Ness last year. The schools are all improving. They are all on people's communizing route in. There are more and more young families staying on the Hill and trying their neighborhood schools, in part because they can't get into charters. And for Brent families some of the schools you mentioned are far away and in the opposite direction. People tend to live on the hill because they love a walkable community. Two miles each way twice a day is not walkable with small kids.

And to the poster who said that the Brent boundary is fine, what are you smoking? The school is not big enough to accommodate all the in bounds kids. When next year's kindergarten class starts (the one that had 40 or so in bounds kids wait listed for PK3) where are they going to put them? Or are they just going to cram them all into the existing classrooms and have 40 kids in a K class. They either need to expand the school or shrink the boundary. The boundary review was a joke because it didn't do any forward projections. Five years ago you could lottery into Brent out of bounds, now you can't even get in if you are IB, yet they used the upper grades OOB stats to say the boundary/capacity was fine.

No politician in their right mind would push to shrink Brent's boundary.

Brent is a mosquito on the back of the DCPS elephant. It's cute that inbound parents whose kids might not get into PK think they are a matter of concern at the top of anyone's action list, when the overwhelming number of schools are struggling to serve poor and at-risk kids.

not a Brent parent and I totally disagree. DCPS recognizes its middle school problem and it will not be able to improve MS performance without more buy in from neighborhood schools. Schools like Brent and Maury provide the largest pools of this demographic. Economic diversity benefits those at risk students, but if they ignore the broader needs of their constituents they'll continue to get the toughest cases with the worst prospects for academic success. The more affluent parents also bring great social capital, and as much as some Hill parents bash the Cluster (I'm not a Cluster parent either), they've historically been effective at advocating for their schools in a way that Jefferson and Eliot Hine have not.