"Congratulations" card from DCPS sent today - another complete waste of money!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My god. You people have completely lost it. And that is saying a lot. Move on. Please. You cannot keep doing these absurd rage-a-thons about the pettiest of issues.

THIS. This is the pettiest of petty, even for DCUM.

Exactly. Maybe it's a good sign -- we used to have to rage against not having books or air conditioning / heat for first week of school.

Totally! This OP is exactly what is wrong with parents who think their perspective is the only view there is!

OP if it makes you feel any better I have 3 kids in 3 different DCPS schools. Only my elementary level one got it. The other 3 (middle and high school) won't be getting a prize their first day. And oddly enough we are going to miss the first few days because of the eclipse. I am sure we won't be the only ones.

Nope, we are also planning an eclipse viewing outside of the DMV with our rising first grader. (We will be hustling back in time to attend a conference with rising preKer's teacher the next day.) First grader, btw, managed to read the entire postcard and was so flattered that it mentioned her by name. I'm hoping that the eclipse lives up to expectations so she won't be disappointed that she missed the first-day-of-school tchotchke.

[Anonymous]

I hope the prize is working a/c at our EOTP school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are about 47,000 kids in DCPS. Assume 2000 graduated this year, so 45,000 could be returning.

It costs about 4 cents for a full-color postcard at http://www.www.cactusmailing.com/. So that's $1800.

According to https://savepostage.com/bulkmail101/rates.html it could be as low as 9.9 cents to mail each postcard since DCPS is a nonprofit. Figure 10 cents each and that's another $4500.

Figure 10,000 kids actually show up with the postcard on the first day of school (that seems kinda high to me but whatever) and they spend a dollar on each prize. So $10,000 more.

I'm now up to $16,300 and let's round it up to $19,000 for printing addresses and whatever else needs to happen.

For $19,000 you could do some things that could help a small number of kids, but you can't do much. You can't hire another staff member or put a kid in a private special ed placement or renovate a playground. You could reduce aftercare by $100 a month for 19 kids. You could probably buy and install a kiln for art classes, or get the supplies for a garden. You could get a classroom set of laptops and related technology. And none of those would be terrible choices. But sending out postcards is also not a terrible choice. Getting some more kids to come to school on time is valuable, not just for them but for their teachers and classmates. And I'm not sure that the other ways of spending $19k will affect as many kids. Because I'm not an educational expert and I don't spend my career immersed in DCPS.

I will eat my hat if DCPS did this for less than $200k with almost all of it going to staff time and/or a contractor with convenient ties to someone high up in the organization. Not that I'm calling for an audit! (that would be throwing good money after bad)

It's just another annoying symptom of the system. Move along.

I do this type of work for a living. This is about a 20K job. Not arguing about whether or not this program makes sense. Just sayin' whoever says that it would cost 200K, I'd love to sell you something.

[Anonymous]

You think DCPS got a competitive rate for this job? See: Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You think DCPS got a competitive rate for this job? See: Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

Was going to say something similar, u know they paid top dollar!

[Anonymous]

My children (who live and attend school in Ward 3) were thrilled to get their cards.

[Anonymous]

I -- parent with a lot of resources -- have still to get this card to my son. It may or may not ever happen, and then he'll probably lose it before the beginning of the year, or forget to bring it to school. I say it is a waste, and better to use the $20,000 to pay for a part-time aide in some school that needs it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I -- parent with a lot of resources -- have still to get this card to my son. It may or may not ever happen, and then he'll probably lose it before the beginning of the year, or forget to bring it to school. I say it is a waste, and better to use the $20,000 to pay for a part-time aide in some school that needs it.

There's a difference between "use or lose" local funds that must be spent by the end of the fiscal year, and recurring funds for staff. This mailing was likely the former. The central office came under budget somewhere and wanted to spend on an attendance incentive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I -- parent with a lot of resources -- have still to get this card to my son. It may or may not ever happen, and then he'll probably lose it before the beginning of the year, or forget to bring it to school. I say it is a waste, and better to use the $20,000 to pay for a part-time aide in some school that needs it.

There's a difference between "use or lose" local funds that must be spent by the end of the fiscal year, and recurring funds for staff. This mailing was likely the former. The central office came under budget somewhere and wanted to spend on an attendance incentive.

Don't make excuses unless you really are downtown and then shame on you, still better to stockpile copy paper and other materials teachers regularly pay out of pocket for. I can think of a lot more uses for the money, and why are we throwing around this arbitrary sum - we all know it probably cost a lot more than that, that would be the well-researched and sent out to tender price

[Anonymous]

I am the OP of this thread... and I got all kinds of crap thrown at me for complaining this was a waste of money. Well, I sent the cards in to school yesterday and nothing. Even the principal doesn't know what the "prize" is. So, I stand by my original statement: a waste of money. And if the goal was to encourage kids to show up on the first day of school with the promise of a prize, DCPS just sent the complete opposite message by reneging on that promise. Why bother showing up next year on time? DCPS didn't hold up their end of the deal, why should the kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the OP of this thread... and I got all kinds of crap thrown at me for complaining this was a waste of money. Well, I sent the cards in to school yesterday and nothing. Even the principal doesn't know what the "prize" is. So, I stand by my original statement: a waste of money. And if the goal was to encourage kids to show up on the first day of school with the promise of a prize, DCPS just sent the complete opposite message by reneging on that promise. Why bother showing up next year on time? DCPS didn't hold up their end of the deal, why should the kids?

The prize was free eclipse glasses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the OP of this thread... and I got all kinds of crap thrown at me for complaining this was a waste of money. Well, I sent the cards in to school yesterday and nothing. Even the principal doesn't know what the "prize" is. So, I stand by my original statement: a waste of money. And if the goal was to encourage kids to show up on the first day of school with the promise of a prize, DCPS just sent the complete opposite message by reneging on that promise. Why bother showing up next year on time? DCPS didn't hold up their end of the deal, why should the kids?

Relax. No puppies were harmed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the OP of this thread... and I got all kinds of crap thrown at me for complaining this was a waste of money. Well, I sent the cards in to school yesterday and nothing. Even the principal doesn't know what the "prize" is. So, I stand by my original statement: a waste of money. And if the goal was to encourage kids to show up on the first day of school with the promise of a prize, DCPS just sent the complete opposite message by reneging on that promise. Why bother showing up next year on time? DCPS didn't hold up their end of the deal, why should the kids?

The prize was free eclipse glasses.

No, I heard from DCPS, it was apparently a pencil, but no one at our school knows about it. Our school paid for eclipse glasses out of PTA funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the OP of this thread... and I got all kinds of crap thrown at me for complaining this was a waste of money. Well, I sent the cards in to school yesterday and nothing. Even the principal doesn't know what the "prize" is. So, I stand by my original statement: a waste of money. And if the goal was to encourage kids to show up on the first day of school with the promise of a prize, DCPS just sent the complete opposite message by reneging on that promise. Why bother showing up next year on time? DCPS didn't hold up their end of the deal, why should the kids?

Relax. No puppies were harmed.

But plenty of money was wasted. Again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are about 47,000 kids in DCPS. Assume 2000 graduated this year, so 45,000 could be returning.

It costs about 4 cents for a full-color postcard at http://www.www.cactusmailing.com/. So that's $1800.

According to https://savepostage.com/bulkmail101/rates.html it could be as low as 9.9 cents to mail each postcard since DCPS is a nonprofit. Figure 10 cents each and that's another $4500.

Figure 10,000 kids actually show up with the postcard on the first day of school (that seems kinda high to me but whatever) and they spend a dollar on each prize. So $10,000 more.

I'm now up to $16,300 and let's round it up to $19,000 for printing addresses and whatever else needs to happen.

For $19,000 you could do some things that could help a small number of kids, but you can't do much. You can't hire another staff member or put a kid in a private special ed placement or renovate a playground. You could reduce aftercare by $100 a month for 19 kids. You could probably buy and install a kiln for art classes, or get the supplies for a garden. You could get a classroom set of laptops and related technology. And none of those would be terrible choices. But sending out postcards is also not a terrible choice. Getting some more kids to come to school on time is valuable, not just for them but for their teachers and classmates. And I'm not sure that the other ways of spending $19k will affect as many kids. Because I'm not an educational expert and I don't spend my career immersed in DCPS.

But the marginal difference in attendance because of the postcard amd prize is tiny. You could pay for a part-time classroom aide with $19,000 and it would make a big difference to about the same number of kids.

Don't forget most DC kids don't graduate so there's your savings