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DC Public and Public Charter Schools
Parents are more (politically) powerful than teachers. We need your help.
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Anonymous
| I work at Ballou Senior High School in SE and there are a lot of things that happen there that well-informed parents probably wouldn't stand for: 95 degree classrooms with no plan for moving the students or teachers out of the affected rooms was the most recent. Teachers complain, administrators file requests...nothing happens. I'm working on a way to either train parents on how to effectively express their outrage, and/or motivate parents who know how to get things done (like you folks on this site) to use your voice to help us down here. Any thoughts? Suggestions? |
Anonymous
I have to say that contacting Rhee directly about these issues is what works for many upper NW schools, and it's something that should work even better for SE schools. I can not imagine for a second that Rhee would like to have news stories in the paper about how poor African American students at Ballou sweat it out while white wealthy students in upper NW learn in air conditioned classrooms (at least at our upper NW school....) That said, contacting for every problem is not the most useful long term strategy. What about approaching a school with a strong HSA (like Janney) and asking for a mentoring/partnership type program with Ballou parents to help develop advocacy and organization? Could also be done principal-to-principal, or LSRT-LSRT. Janney has a very strong HSA, in my opinion, and has successfully advocated in the past to extend a principal search in opposition to the DCPS candidate, to explore school/developer partnerships, etc. On the other hand, since Janney is an elementary maybe another high school would be better; sorry I'm not more familiar with effective high school parent orgs. |
Anonymous
| Courtland Miloy has done many stories on the state of DC schools, and so has Marc Fisher. Try contacting one of them... |
Anonymous
| I'd organize an "email in" and have the community start emailing Fentry, Rhee, Reinoso and your council member. I'd call the papers after you got a sense of their response -- not just "Thank you for your email," but a sense of when things would be fixed and how long it would take. This is outrageous! Good luck. |
Anonymous
| Agree with all of the above suggestions -- and would add a vote for contacting Marc Fisher. This is right up his alley, and he's very responsive. I'd use that as a short-term strategy and 23:06's suggestion about making connections with a school with a strong HSA as a long-term strategy. Perhaps Wilson; my sense is that the parent community is very active there and is currently fighting some facilities battles with DCPS. Definitely don't stop at Fisher -- he can generate some immediate outrage and possible action, but you'll need long-term commitment to ensure real change. |
Anonymous
| I was right with all of you until the Marc Fisher suggestion. It's true that generating outrage is right up his alley, but he has done so much of it that it has undermined his credibility. I think Miloy writes with a little more integrity. |
Anonymous
| I'd hold off on contacting the press until you're deeper into this. As for training, all you have to do is put together an email list and ask that they write asking for help, listing their concerns. Short and personal is better than a plugged-in form email. (My daughter's class was boiling yesterday etc.) |
Anonymous
| Colby King at the Post is also very effective in voicing community outrage. |
Anonymous
Undermined his credibility with whom? I'm not sure I understand. That said, I do agree with other poster that Colbert King is a great suggestion -- he does great work with these sorts of situations. |
Anonymous
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Go to Rhee first to give her a chance to respond, but be ready to show her that you are ready to take it public in an organized way.
Journalist Ron Suskind wrote a book called "A Hope in the Unseen" about a Ballou alum who went to Brown University. Write to his publicist to let him know what is still wrong at Ballou. Also: Education Secretary Arne Duncan Michelle Obama Jill Biden Eleanor Holmes Norton Colbert King (best option at the Post) Every member of the Senate and House education committees The best bet would be to get Ballou students and parents to write an open letter to the city or to any of these officials. |
Anonymous
Whoah, settle down there fella. Before you advise someone to write the FIRST LADY (much less EVERY member of the House and Senate Ed Committees) about air-conditioning in schools, how about working up the chain of command? This attempt to "fly straight to the top" when the person you're aiming at has no actual authority, no understanding of the situation, no knowledge of the scene etc. is likely to backfire. It will annoy the people who you really want to have on your side. Do you really think that even if Michelle Obama gets the message that she will arrange something personally? No. She's going to shake her head and at most ask her secretary to call over to DCPS. Work UP the chain of command (not DOWN). If you don't get satisfaction at one level THEN you go over their heads. Don't make enemies unless you have to. LONG before you attempt the federal level you would be well advised to remember you have a councilmember plus four at large representatives who are beholden to your interests. Don't make yourself look like a complete novice, it will not help people to take you or your cause seriously. Also, you know people who take Colbert King seriously? Really? I guess I gave up on real news from the WaPo long ago. |
Anonymous
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Can you share some more basic information? For example, when you asked the Principal why the students were in the heat, what was the answer?
Nobody in the federal government or at the Washington Post is going to blow their personal or political capital over something that makes them look stupid, as though they haven't researched the question. And the truth is that you are personally closer to finding out the truth than they are. (They'd have to make a lot of phone calls, whereas you only have to ask your administration.) If the answer is "because temperatures in the high eighties are aberrant in April. Our heating system is still dependent on radiant heat and the system-wide policy isn't to cut off the radiators until the 1st of May because we've had freak storms in April and once the heat has been turned off it can't be turned back on. A/C will be available next week. Upgrading the heating system would cost $2.5 million and we're not slated for a facilities upgrade until 2011." then you're not going to get help on this issue from any of the high profile people that some PPs are suggesting. There is a reason that the students are in school when it's so hot, and the reason is NOT some Grinch-like figure in a private office rubbing his hands together over a pot of money. The reason is probably that as uncomfortable as they are, they would be worse off if the school closed for 88 degree heat and left the students with no place to go with supervision and an entire school day in which to get into trouble. I'm not trying to be harsh, btw. I'm just trying to get to the crux of the problem. |
Anonymous
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I'm a journalist. You have a situation but I don't think you have a story. I'd leave the press out of it for now* and focus on community organizing. Identify your goals and get emailing/calling. I'd concentrate on Fenty, Rhee and other D.C. officials and not bother the White House.
* One problem with contacting the press is the journalist/columnist might start poking around and find a school with worse conditions than yours and end up writing a story about that school. Or you could spend hours talking to the journalist and he/she would not write an article or a column. |
Anonymous
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Agree with pp.
When you contact the press you can't control your story and the direction it could go in. We have seen dozens of stories in WaPo about the heat/cold in schools - has anything been done? Apparently not because these conditions still exist. But I would suggest you take a step back and really dig deep to assess your parents. Are there 2 or 3 who are really active? Is there a core group that can be organized first and then reach out to other parents? How tech-savvy are your parents? Are you certain that this is a top priority issue for your parents? If you can identify 2 or 3 parent champions and have those parents write a letter to Rhee, Fenty and Lew and appropriate council person that might be effective. Adding kids to the mix always gets attention. I would also approach any Ballou alums who work for the city or outside - at the highest level you can find. I would recommend drafting sample language for parents to use for a letter/email and let the parents take it from there. Use this issue of hot classrooms as a starting point for organizing your parents. But I can't emphasize enough the importance of really understanding what is a priority for your parents and determing the ways they feel most comfortable communicating with "higher ups" |
Anonymous
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Have you tried OPEFM? I think Lew's serious about HVAC issues (and wants to know what's working and what's not and why). If contacting his office directly doesn't work (Tony Robinson is probably the place to start), go through Rhee. If Rhee doesn't work, how about Vince Gray?
Bottom line is that OPEFM is the only agency that can fix the problem you describe. Then the question is how do you get on their "to do" list. |