Question for Supporters of New WotP High School

[Anonymous]

What did DCPS do to market the rebuilt Eastern to families across the city? Did they not engage the families they want to attend in the process?

Given all the support/demand for better options, they need to figure out what they did wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there was talk of a new charter opening in your neighborhood, giving your neighbors the option (if they get lucky in the lottery!) of a good ms/hs without having to do the work of getting DCPS to cooperate with getting a good neighborhood school up and running. I hope I'm wrong, but I think DCPS is more eager to help charters than it is to help parents. Keep that in mind when dealing with them.

PP here and I don't agree that DCPS wants to help charters......

Whether or not you agree is not the issue. I am speculating and ask you to stay alert to signs that DCPS is supporting charters.

What are the signs that DCPS is supporting charters? Not a facetious question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What did DCPS do to market the rebuilt Eastern to families across the city? Did they not engage the families they want to attend in the process?

Given all the support/demand for better options, they need to figure out what they did wrong.

I followed that somewhat, but there wasn't much reported about it and it did not affect me personally. My sense was that high SES hill parents never took it seriously as an option and that not much was done to lure them except to hope that if a nice building were available to them (and it was beautiful -- I've been there) they would come to it.

I'd love to hear from hill parents about this.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there was talk of a new charter opening in your neighborhood, giving your neighbors the option (if they get lucky in the lottery!) of a good ms/hs without having to do the work of getting DCPS to cooperate with getting a good neighborhood school up and running. I hope I'm wrong, but I think DCPS is more eager to help charters than it is to help parents. Keep that in mind when dealing with them.

PP here and I don't agree that DCPS wants to help charters......

Whether or not you agree is not the issue. I am speculating and ask you to stay alert to signs that DCPS is supporting charters.

What are the signs that DCPS is supporting charters? Not a facetious question.

Please take this discussion to another thread so we can stay on topic here.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing I'd love to see is a health specialty program where Ballou teams with United Medical Center (it's a 1.5 mile walk, but it could be shorter if they put a path to the back parking lot of UMC and there could be a shuttle). The hospital does not need all its space and it does need a lot more money. It could involve kids at various academic levels, from vocational training on medical coding, phlebotomy, CNA, etc. to AP math and science classes and biomedical/psych research. Electives could include psychology, anatomy, health policy, etc. Ballou is recently renovated, under capacity, and already has a strong evening adult ed program, so this would be a natural fit.

It is frankly going to take something amazing to get middle-class families to try Ballou, but I could see this working. They'd have to really work on it though--partnerships with a university, great lab equipment, perhaps recruiting teachers from TJ, Montgomery Blair, Bronx Science, or other places that have really good science research programs, etc.

I've mentioned the idea to BB Otero (Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services) and really need to email David Catania, as education is his focus now but he's been very involved with United Medical Center.

This is great. I've heard CM Barry (I know, I know) talk about the city producing nurses like the Philippines. This would be a good place to start.

I also remember Barry talking about that. I'll tweet a link to the the original post about Ballou to Barry (if you don't know, Barry has a great Twitter feed). Also, I am co-hosting a meet and greet for David Catania a week from tomorrow. I'll mention this idea to him then.

Please do. This is the PP who originally mentioned the Ballou/UMC idea. I emailed him yesterday (also sent it to Abigail Smith, Kaya Henderson, BB Otero, and Yvette Alexander and realized when Catania's name popped up in "to" field that I had actually sent him an email about this in March 2013 (cc'ing Jennifer Leonard, who was the DME at that time). Never got a response. I don't have a lot of faith in DCPS doing this the way I envision. I bet if anything happens it will be very vocationally focused (which is important too, as many health care jobs pay a living wage and can't be outsourced) without any of the science research or other aspects that would make it desirable to higher-achieving students. But I would love to be proven wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there was talk of a new charter opening in your neighborhood, giving your neighbors the option (if they get lucky in the lottery!) of a good ms/hs without having to do the work of getting DCPS to cooperate with getting a good neighborhood school up and running. I hope I'm wrong, but I think DCPS is more eager to help charters than it is to help parents. Keep that in mind when dealing with them.

PP here and I don't agree that DCPS wants to help charters......

Whether or not you agree is not the issue. I am speculating and ask you to stay alert to signs that DCPS is supporting charters.

What are the signs that DCPS is supporting charters? Not a facetious question.

1) that they close schools rather than try to help improve them -- making a new charter opening in the neighborhood very attractive.

2) That Kaya said in a city council meeting that charters know how to do middle school, so perhaps that should be left to them (this is after her friend and predecessor, Michelle Rhee, unilaterally closed some middle schools and opened grades 1 to 8 educational campuses in their place). Thus, it looks like they purposely destroyed middle schools, then propose that charters take them over.

3) Just a hunch based on the above and that their original plan to reform DCSP failed, plus they got caught cheating -- so why aren't they out? Because, let's say, they can stay as long as they cooperate with the move to convert DC to a charter system. Kind of like Vichy France.

4) then the DME boundary study comes out with options that seem to play off parents proven willingness to get their kids to schools in distant neighborhoods.

A lot of speculation, but worth keeping in mind, I think, as things progress.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing I'd love to see is a health specialty program where Ballou teams with United Medical Center (it's a 1.5 mile walk, but it could be shorter if they put a path to the back parking lot of UMC and there could be a shuttle). The hospital does not need all its space and it does need a lot more money. It could involve kids at various academic levels, from vocational training on medical coding, phlebotomy, CNA, etc. to AP math and science classes and biomedical/psych research. Electives could include psychology, anatomy, health policy, etc. Ballou is recently renovated, under capacity, and already has a strong evening adult ed program, so this would be a natural fit.

It is frankly going to take something amazing to get middle-class families to try Ballou, but I could see this working. They'd have to really work on it though--partnerships with a university, great lab equipment, perhaps recruiting teachers from TJ, Montgomery Blair, Bronx Science, or other places that have really good science research programs, etc.

I've mentioned the idea to BB Otero (Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services) and really need to email David Catania, as education is his focus now but he's been very involved with United Medical Center.

This is great. I've heard CM Barry (I know, I know) talk about the city producing nurses like the Philippines. This would be a good place to start.

I also remember Barry talking about that. I'll tweet a link to the the original post about Ballou to Barry (if you don't know, Barry has a great Twitter feed). Also, I am co-hosting a meet and greet for David Catania a week from tomorrow. I'll mention this idea to him then.

Please do. This is the PP who originally mentioned the Ballou/UMC idea. I emailed him yesterday (also sent it to Abigail Smith, Kaya Henderson, BB Otero, and Yvette Alexander and realized when Catania's name popped up in "to" field that I had actually sent him an email about this in March 2013 (cc'ing Jennifer Leonard, who was the DME at that time). Never got a response. I don't have a lot of faith in DCPS doing this the way I envision. I bet if anything happens it will be very vocationally focused (which is important too, as many health care jobs pay a living wage and can't be outsourced) without any of the science research or other aspects that would make it desirable to higher-achieving students. But I would love to be proven wrong.

I think Council Member Barry liked your idea. He just retweeted my tweet linking to your post.

[Anonymous]

They did not rebuild Eastern to appease Hill residents because Eastern never dependent on Hill parents in the past. Consider this when Eastern benefitted from being nationally recognized in all things that were grand it was due to the city-wide school population. As Michelle Rhee informed the Eastern PTSA during those pivotal and heated times; she couldn't embrace the stroller-brigade that wantrd to infiltrate Eastern. Kaya had pretty much kept those same people off of Eastern's radar and the school is doing remarkably well and is on their way to be the second largest comprehensive high school. That would never happened if the focus was on 10 neighborhood blocks that have about 20 strollers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They did not rebuild Eastern to appease Hill residents because Eastern never dependent on Hill parents in the past. Consider this when Eastern benefitted from being nationally recognized in all things that were grand it was due to the city-wide school population. As Michelle Rhee informed the Eastern PTSA during those pivotal and heated times; she couldn't embrace the stroller-brigade that wantrd to infiltrate Eastern. Kaya had pretty much kept those same people off of Eastern's radar and the school is doing remarkably well and is on their way to be the second largest comprehensive high school. That would never happened if the focus was on 10 neighborhood blocks that have about 20 strollers.

Word Salad! How you been, girl?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They did not rebuild Eastern to appease Hill residents because Eastern never dependent on Hill parents in the past. Consider this when Eastern benefitted from being nationally recognized in all things that were grand it was due to the city-wide school population. As Michelle Rhee informed the Eastern PTSA during those pivotal and heated times; she couldn't embrace the stroller-brigade that wantrd to infiltrate Eastern. Kaya had pretty much kept those same people off of Eastern's radar and the school is doing remarkably well and is on their way to be the second largest comprehensive high school. That would never happened if the focus was on 10 neighborhood blocks that have about 20 strollers.

Eastern was "nationally recognized" in band and choir. Not nothing, but also not enough to build a school on, as history has shown.

[Anonymous]

Roosevelt Modernization RFP

Above is the RFP document published in 2012. Contains good information about the plans for the new building and the proposed academic structure. Would be nice to know if the plans were implemented as they are laid out in this document.

Regardless, this is a good style guide for anyone who is contributing to the alternative plan.

[Anonymous]

I added some IB stuff to the document here: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/Roosevelt

Through this process, I learned that B-CC and Einstein in Kensington are IB schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They did not rebuild Eastern to appease Hill residents because Eastern never dependent on Hill parents in the past. Consider this when Eastern benefitted from being nationally recognized in all things that were grand it was due to the city-wide school population. As Michelle Rhee informed the Eastern PTSA during those pivotal and heated times; she couldn't embrace the stroller-brigade that wantrd to infiltrate Eastern. Kaya had pretty much kept those same people off of Eastern's radar and the school is doing remarkably well and is on their way to be the second largest comprehensive high school. That would never happened if the focus was on 10 neighborhood blocks that have about 20 strollers.

Eastern was "nationally recognized" in band and choir. Not nothing, but also not enough to build a school on, as history has shown.

Why don't you raise your head out of the ground ostritch... and stop depending on your one finger research project with the help of google. The rich history of Eastern is probably older than you so to say otherwise is understandable. You'll know more when you read more, stop by the school and learn about the Ramblers. Stop sprouting off at the mouth on subject that your clearly know not one iota about. If to use your logic, then why was it necessary to save, relaunch and support a school if the only recognizable attribute was band and choir? I guess in your world those who participate in those activities are not worthy to be scholastic too?

As such is life, the school that you don't care for, just might not care for you too. Choice of schools benefits everyone.

[Anonymous]

^^word salad strikes again

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^word salad strikes again

Yes, and DCUM is more colorful and flavorful as a result. (Not to mention funny.) I am actually glad for her return.