Coffee in Lincoln Park with David Catania

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody makes good points here, apparently without having noticed that we don't exist electorally on schools issues. If we did, Payne and Miner would gentrifier friendly by now, and Watkins wouldn't be a little less so with each passing year.

What is Catania going to do for us but lose the mayoral race and end up as a talking head gadfly on local TV? He couldn't win four years from now either.

If you are so sure that Catania is going to lose, why are you wasting your time telling us he is going to lose? If people want to come and ask him questions, what is the harm? Why don't you use your time more constructively and ask your favorite candidate to meet with constituents in a similar manner?

[Anonymous]

*cough* blows nose. Where's Schwartz coffee-clutch being held...I am getting a little vaklempt over here.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:*cough* blows nose. Where's Schwartz coffee-clutch being held...I am getting a little vaklempt over here.

Rehoboth

[jsteele]

Bumping to remind everyone who is interested.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Bumping to remind everyone who is interested.

Thanks! There was a very good turn out and we took a sign home for the front yard.

[Anonymous]

Can someone offer an update?

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

I thought the turnout was great. Mostly the people I suspected or knew would be there, but good numbers nonetheless.

I only spoke directly to Catania about special education reforms, and felt he understood the challenges parents face in dealing with DCPS/OSSE on services. The discussions were in loose groupings, and I overheard a few questions about a predictable path for middle school for the Hill. I didn't hear much of his response other than the need for strengthening the offerings in Ward 6.

[Anonymous]

I went to the even open-minded and came away disappointed, in Catania, not the parents I talked to. I listened in on more than an hour of his small group chats and didn't hear him say anything that convinced me he understands the need for bold action to reinvent most of the Hill DCPS schools (ES, MS and HS) as true neighborhood schools to keep parents from voting with their feet to privates, charters and the burbs somewhere between PreK and high school. He was pleasant, friendly and more appealing as a candidate than Bowser, but that was about it.

[Anonymous]

Thank God that was your take away. I don't think the Hill schools need a bold reinvention. What I want in a mayor is much broader than that.

[Anonymous]

So. What does he think the solutions are on the Hill? Anyone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So. What does he think the solutions are on the Hill? Anyone?

He's the smartest guy in the room. The End.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank God that was your take away. I don't think the Hill schools need a bold reinvention. What I want in a mayor is much broader than that.

Every "neighborhood" school on the Hill is overwhelmingly OOB but Maury and Brent...and that's perfectly OK? I want a mayor for all seasons myself, but can't see what harm it would do if more Ward 6 schools were to become majority IB under a new major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So. What does he think the solutions are on the Hill? Anyone?

For one thing, he said he wants the City Council to coax the leadership of in-demand MS charters to come together to voluntarily agree to stop creaming off most of the 5th graders from high-performing DCPS Hill schools. Right, right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank God that was your take away. I don't think the Hill schools need a bold reinvention. What I want in a mayor is much broader than that.

Every "neighborhood" school on the Hill is overwhelmingly OOB but Maury and Brent...and that's perfectly OK? I want a mayor for all seasons myself, but can't see what harm it would do if more Ward 6 schools were to become majority IB under a new major.

What is your proposal?

Don't start with having Maury and Brent feed to SH. That ship has sailed at least for the near future. By the way, Brent and Maury didn't become what they are because of the Mayor.

Would you really vote for Bowser?