Janney third grade parents--what do you think of the giant class sizes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:most of this should rest on the shoulders of the former principal. she made decisions without teacher input and then told them it was a done deal. as often happened, teachers were not told their assignments until the last day of school or later. some had no choice. we can't make a blanket statement such as "my child was in a class with thirty children and it worked well." we have to look at the classroom size, school curriculum and the experience of the teachers. the principal did this once before and it was a mess. one teacher said she would not do it again, after three years and was told if she didn't like it she could leave. which she did.
many good, experienced teachers left because of her style of "running the school." so glad the new administration is more focused on the children. she has inherited a difficult situation and should be given an opportunity and support in trying to work through the mess left by the last principal. do you all know that she was not in the building during the last few days of school? she left her office a mess for the new principal to clean. how professional. good riddance to bad rubbish. PS- her comamndo style is not working at her new school with middle school parents and students. karma !!

It's nice to know I'm not the only parent that was not a fan of the old principal. So far my impression of the new one has been good. I like the on time and speedy Jamboree; I like how she let teachers into their classes early this year for set up; I like the increased security in the school. It will be interesting how she handles setting up the classes next year and if she continues with all the PK classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This comment is pretty revealing. Much of the postings have been about redrawing boundaries so that Hearst becomes more of a neighborhood/IB school, thereby relieving overcrowding at Janney. But it's clear that the Hearst community would view this as an "occupation." They have no interest in Hearst becoming a primarily neighborhood-based school because they want Hearst to remain a Distrct-wide school that just happens to be located in the neighborhood.

Exactly. If 100 new kids were zoned to Hearst from current Murch and Janney streets -- kids who in many cases could walk -- then that -could- mean 80-100 fewer kids from Mt. Pleasant, Crestwood, 14th St and Columbia Hts. And naturally, we can't turn off that cross-park tap for some reason. Historical established rights or somethin'

I've read this on several threads but haven't found a reasonable explanation of what this means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:most of this should rest on the shoulders of the former principal. she made decisions without teacher input and then told them it was a done deal. as often happened, teachers were not told their assignments until the last day of school or later. some had no choice. we can't make a blanket statement such as "my child was in a class with thirty children and it worked well." we have to look at the classroom size, school curriculum and the experience of the teachers. the principal did this once before and it was a mess. one teacher said she would not do it again, after three years and was told if she didn't like it she could leave. which she did.
many good, experienced teachers left because of her style of "running the school." so glad the new administration is more focused on the children. she has inherited a difficult situation and should be given an opportunity and support in trying to work through the mess left by the last principal. do you all know that she was not in the building during the last few days of school? she left her office a mess for the new principal to clean. how professional. good riddance to bad rubbish. PS- her comamndo style is not working at her new school with middle school parents and students. karma !!

You sound somewhat unhinged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:most of this should rest on the shoulders of the former principal. she made decisions without teacher input and then told them it was a done deal. as often happened, teachers were not told their assignments until the last day of school or later. some had no choice. we can't make a blanket statement such as "my child was in a class with thirty children and it worked well." we have to look at the classroom size, school curriculum and the experience of the teachers. the principal did this once before and it was a mess. one teacher said she would not do it again, after three years and was told if she didn't like it she could leave. which she did.
many good, experienced teachers left because of her style of "running the school." so glad the new administration is more focused on the children. she has inherited a difficult situation and should be given an opportunity and support in trying to work through the mess left by the last principal. do you all know that she was not in the building during the last few days of school? she left her office a mess for the new principal to clean. how professional. good riddance to bad rubbish. PS- her comamndo style is not working at her new school with middle school parents and students. karma !!

You sound somewhat unhinged.

NP here. I can't stand it when people write that "you sound unhinged" - when someone writes something reasonable and normal. Get a life!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:most of this should rest on the shoulders of the former principal. she made decisions without teacher input and then told them it was a done deal. as often happened, teachers were not told their assignments until the last day of school or later. some had no choice. we can't make a blanket statement such as "my child was in a class with thirty children and it worked well." we have to look at the classroom size, school curriculum and the experience of the teachers. the principal did this once before and it was a mess. one teacher said she would not do it again, after three years and was told if she didn't like it she could leave. which she did.
many good, experienced teachers left because of her style of "running the school." so glad the new administration is more focused on the children. she has inherited a difficult situation and should be given an opportunity and support in trying to work through the mess left by the last principal. do you all know that she was not in the building during the last few days of school? she left her office a mess for the new principal to clean. how professional. good riddance to bad rubbish. PS- her comamndo style is not working at her new school with middle school parents and students. karma !!

You sound somewhat unhinged.

Actually, this sounds like it was good analysis. Although we started at Janney this year, you can see the cumulative effect of prior decisions- relaxed OOB rules applied to families who have moved, expanding optional PK4 at the expense of older classes.

[Anonymous]

^^exactly, all those decisions add up over time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:most of this should rest on the shoulders of the former principal. she made decisions without teacher input and then told them it was a done deal. as often happened, teachers were not told their assignments until the last day of school or later. some had no choice. we can't make a blanket statement such as "my child was in a class with thirty children and it worked well." we have to look at the classroom size, school curriculum and the experience of the teachers. the principal did this once before and it was a mess. one teacher said she would not do it again, after three years and was told if she didn't like it she could leave. which she did.
many good, experienced teachers left because of her style of "running the school." so glad the new administration is more focused on the children. she has inherited a difficult situation and should be given an opportunity and support in trying to work through the mess left by the last principal. do you all know that she was not in the building during the last few days of school? she left her office a mess for the new principal to clean. how professional. good riddance to bad rubbish. PS- her comamndo style is not working at her new school with middle school parents and students. karma !!

what a great summary!

I think the last principal was a step up of over the short term one - but the bar was so low!

[Anonymous]

I completely disagree with the rambling post about the former Janney principal.
She was not perfect but she did a lot of good things for Janney. Expanding preK classes is a very rational decision and something the new principal will not change.
Including PreK classes is good for the community and these classes bring in a lot of money for the school as a whole.
The last principal worked all the time and genuinely cared about the students. Were all her decisions good - no, of course not.
However, she transformed Janney into a powerhouse school with strong values. She has a challenge with her new school but I wish her the best of luck.
It will be a sad day when she leaves DCPS. Individuals like her are few and far between at DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Why is it rational to expand PK when other students are in classes over 30?

[Anonymous]

It makes NO sense to expand PK4 in a neighborhood full of affluent families who can afford to send their kids to high quality preschool programs in lieu of PK4 in DCPS. Maybe in a lower-income neighborhood where it would make a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I completely disagree with the rambling post about the former Janney principal.
She was not perfect but she did a lot of good things for Janney. Expanding preK classes is a very rational decision and something the new principal will not change.
Including PreK classes is good for the community and these classes bring in a lot of money for the school as a whole.
The last principal worked all the time and genuinely cared about the students. Were all her decisions good - no, of course not.
However, she transformed Janney into a powerhouse school with strong values. She has a challenge with her new school but I wish her the best of luck.
It will be a sad day when she leaves DCPS. Individuals like her are few and far between at DCPS.

Please explain how including PK classes bring in a lot of money for the school. Are you thinking in terms of fundraising?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I completely disagree with the rambling post about the former Janney principal.
She was not perfect but she did a lot of good things for Janney. Expanding preK classes is a very rational decision and something the new principal will not change.
Including PreK classes is good for the community and these classes bring in a lot of money for the school as a whole.
The last principal worked all the time and genuinely cared about the students. Were all her decisions good - no, of course not.
However, she transformed Janney into a powerhouse school with strong values. She has a challenge with her new school but I wish her the best of luck.
It will be a sad day when she leaves DCPS. Individuals like her are few and far between at DCPS.

Please explain how including PK classes bring in a lot of money for the school. Are you thinking in terms of fundraising?

No. The enrollment formulas are weighted toward ECE on the assumption that ECE students requrie more resources/lower teacher-student ratios (ironic given the title of this thread).

FWIW the amount that a PK3 or PK4 ELL is allocated is even higher (same reasoning as above). This is something the dual language/immersion charter schools have figured out. Of course when the schools get popular among higher SES, English-dominant families that bump in funding goes away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a Janney parent, but it seems like the overcrowding blame should fall squarely on the folks who fought the boundary revision process so hard. I guess DCPS could have done a better job standing up to that interest group, but it looks to me like DCPS is basically just letting Janney parents reap what they sowed.

I love you.

This is so true. And shame on DCPS for caving to those parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I completely disagree with the rambling post about the former Janney principal.
She was not perfect but she did a lot of good things for Janney. Expanding preK classes is a very rational decision and something the new principal will not change.
Including PreK classes is good for the community and these classes bring in a lot of money for the school as a whole.
The last principal worked all the time and genuinely cared about the students. Were all her decisions good - no, of course not.
However, she transformed Janney into a powerhouse school with strong values. She has a challenge with her new school but I wish her the best of luck.
It will be a sad day when she leaves DCPS. Individuals like her are few and far between at DCPS.

Please explain how including PK classes bring in a lot of money for the school. Are you thinking in terms of fundraising?

wondering the same thing. Even if the per student money is higher than other grades, aren't the costs higher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I completely disagree with the rambling post about the former Janney principal.
She was not perfect but she did a lot of good things for Janney. Expanding preK classes is a very rational decision and something the new principal will not change.
Including PreK classes is good for the community and these classes bring in a lot of money for the school as a whole.
The last principal worked all the time and genuinely cared about the students. Were all her decisions good - no, of course not.
However, she transformed Janney into a powerhouse school with strong values. She has a challenge with her new school but I wish her the best of luck.
It will be a sad day when she leaves DCPS. Individuals like her are few and far between at DCPS.

Please explain how including PK classes bring in a lot of money for the school. Are you thinking in terms of fundraising?

wondering the same thing. Even if the per student money is higher than other grades, aren't the costs higher?

I think they get like $12k per PK kid vs. $8K per K and up.
It's enough of a difference when multiplied by 19 kids a class in PK that even though the cost of educating those PK is higher (lower teacher ratio), the school still makes money of each class.

If they "make" $25K per PK class this is a huge deal for a school. They function with VERY little margin in the budget.