Emergency DCPCSB meeting re Washington Math Science Technology high school

[Anonymous]

I drive past them every day and notice they seem to be closed. Did they close already?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've wondered for a while what happens when a charter goes bankrupt. I guess we'll see now.

Seems like more of a liquidity crisis. Sale of the building and various things will likely cover it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've wondered for a while what happens when a charter goes bankrupt. I guess we'll see now.

Seems like more of a liquidity crisis. Sale of the building and various things will likely cover it.

The school has a dry short window to prove this, if they choose.

In the meantime, a larger portion of tax dollars will keep it afloat until the school year ends.

[Anonymous]

very short window (not dry)

[Anonymous]

What's really shitty is that the school has had this crisis looming for a while-- at least since their enrollment figures came out. Had they started to unwind a month or two ago, those kids could have gotten into the normal lottery. They could have done the right thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:poor kids. I hope they're able to find good places to go for next year.

Sorry for the students, but seems an appropriate closure "DC PCSB did not see evidence that all students are held to high academic standards and attendance was consistently poor. The level of rigor in many classrooms was low and students were inconsistently held accountable for school-wide expectations such as tardiness, use of cell phones in classrooms or removal of their jackets. Behavior in the halls was not entirely appropriate. While many teachers stood in their doorways during transitions there are long stretches of hallway with no classrooms and little monitoring. Some students in the hall were on phones, yelling profanity, play fighting and wandering around extremely tardy with no apparent consequence or tracking system."

this. Why would anyone want to save this school? Its a joke and those kids would be better off at their week IB schools honestly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:poor kids. I hope they're able to find good places to go for next year.

Sorry for the students, but seems an appropriate closure "DC PCSB did not see evidence that all students are held to high academic standards and attendance was consistently poor. The level of rigor in many classrooms was low and students were inconsistently held accountable for school-wide expectations such as tardiness, use of cell phones in classrooms or removal of their jackets. Behavior in the halls was not entirely appropriate. While many teachers stood in their doorways during transitions there are long stretches of hallway with no classrooms and little monitoring. Some students in the hall were on phones, yelling profanity, play fighting and wandering around extremely tardy with no apparent consequence or tracking system."

this. Why would anyone want to save this school? Its a joke and those kids would be better off at their week IB schools honestly.

When was the last time you were in a high school? The same could be said of most of them.

The school was actually performing better than its peers; it has a mostly at-risk population. Had they not screwed up the money they were headed toward a charter renewal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:poor kids. I hope they're able to find good places to go for next year.

Sorry for the students, but seems an appropriate closure "DC PCSB did not see evidence that all students are held to high academic standards and attendance was consistently poor. The level of rigor in many classrooms was low and students were inconsistently held accountable for school-wide expectations such as tardiness, use of cell phones in classrooms or removal of their jackets. Behavior in the halls was not entirely appropriate. While many teachers stood in their doorways during transitions there are long stretches of hallway with no classrooms and little monitoring. Some students in the hall were on phones, yelling profanity, play fighting and wandering around extremely tardy with no apparent consequence or tracking system."

this. Why would anyone want to save this school? Its a joke and those kids would be better off at their week IB schools honestly.

When was the last time you were in a high school? The same could be said of most of them.

The school was actually performing better than its peers; it has a mostly at-risk population. Had they not screwed up the money they were headed toward a charter renewal.

I wonder though. If you look at the enrollment figures, it was tapering off. Only 32 9th graders this year, 52 in the two years above but 74 seniors. I don't know why it was dropping, but they couldn't have held it together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:poor kids. I hope they're able to find good places to go for next year.

Sorry for the students, but seems an appropriate closure "DC PCSB did not see evidence that all students are held to high academic standards and attendance was consistently poor. The level of rigor in many classrooms was low and students were inconsistently held accountable for school-wide expectations such as tardiness, use of cell phones in classrooms or removal of their jackets. Behavior in the halls was not entirely appropriate. While many teachers stood in their doorways during transitions there are long stretches of hallway with no classrooms and little monitoring. Some students in the hall were on phones, yelling profanity, play fighting and wandering around extremely tardy with no apparent consequence or tracking system."

this. Why would anyone want to save this school? Its a joke and those kids would be better off at their week IB schools honestly.

When was the last time you were in a high school? The same could be said of most of them.

The school was actually performing better than its peers; it has a mostly at-risk population. Had they not screwed up the money they were headed toward a charter renewal.

I wonder though. If you look at the enrollment figures, it was tapering off. Only 32 9th graders this year, 52 in the two years above but 74 seniors. I don't know why it was dropping, but they couldn't have held it together.

I agree. I think other charter schools with more attractive moved close to them, and they weren't able to compete.

But hallway behavior isn't really a reason to close a school. Financial mismanagement clearly is.

[Anonymous]

So what happens to the kids? Do they all have to go to IB schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what happens to the kids? Do they all have to go to IB schools?

unless they entered the lottery and get in somewhere, or go on a waitlist post-lottery and get a spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:poor kids. I hope they're able to find good places to go for next year.

Sorry for the students, but seems an appropriate closure "DC PCSB did not see evidence that all students are held to high academic standards and attendance was consistently poor. The level of rigor in many classrooms was low and students were inconsistently held accountable for school-wide expectations such as tardiness, use of cell phones in classrooms or removal of their jackets. Behavior in the halls was not entirely appropriate. While many teachers stood in their doorways during transitions there are long stretches of hallway with no classrooms and little monitoring. Some students in the hall were on phones, yelling profanity, play fighting and wandering around extremely tardy with no apparent consequence or tracking system."

this. Why would anyone want to save this school? Its a joke and those kids would be better off at their week IB schools honestly.

When was the last time you were in a high school? The same could be said of most of them.

The school was actually performing better than its peers; it has a mostly at-risk population. Had they not screwed up the money they were headed toward a charter renewal.

I wonder though. If you look at the enrollment figures, it was tapering off. Only 32 9th graders this year, 52 in the two years above but 74 seniors. I don't know why it was dropping, but they couldn't have held it together.

I agree. I think other charter schools with more attractive moved close to them, and they weren't able to compete.

But hallway behavior isn't really a reason to close a school. Financial mismanagement clearly is.

They've had their days like some other former high-level charters, basically there are only so many higlly-effective student to go around, if that is the group you're marketing too! Another reason the market model does not work for education ...so much waste! Sorry for the children

[Anonymous]

The Washington post just wrote about this situation today:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/one-of-the-citys-oldest-charter-schools-is-so-broke-that-it-cant-make-payroll/2018/03/13/81b775d2-264b-11e8-874b-d517e912f125_story.html?utm_term=.b1f1986c470d

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my opinion, WMST was a solid school but could not overcome the purchase of its current site on Bladensburg Rd.

A truly horrible location!

Candid question: What's wrong with the location? Did they own it rather than lease it? Is that common among charter schools?
Haven't there been arrangements where a different charter takes over the building and students of closing charters? Could that happen here? Or might another charter be interested in the space?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my opinion, WMST was a solid school but could not overcome the purchase of its current site on Bladensburg Rd.

A truly horrible location!

Candid question: What's wrong with the location? Did they own it rather than lease it? Is that common among charter schools?
Haven't there been arrangements where a different charter takes over the building and students of closing charters? Could that happen here? Or might another charter be interested in the space?

They owned the building. Some charters own their building (see also LAMB, BASIS) others lease.

THeir address is 1920 Bladensburg Rd NE. It's a non-descript building surrounded by light industrial buildings and warehouses.

They will need to sell the school's building to settle their debt, and they supposedly have a buyer who will supposedly pay $9M for the site. Unlikely any other charter can afford that.

The school has a short window of time to come up with a plan to get out of their financial crisis. That could involve being taken over by someone else -- too soon to tell.