Will Janney eventually reduce or eliminate PK4

[Anonymous]

We're thinking of moving into the AU Park neighborhood in the next few years. We plan on moving so our youngest kid could start at Janney in K. We just saw that the Janney school population has increased from 690 to 735 in the past year. What population is the school designed for? We're starting to get worried about overcrowding at Janney. What are the chances that PK4 gets reduced or eliminated so that the school has room for manageable class sizes.?

[Anonymous]

Ugh, how will this population size be sustainable?

[Anonymous]

I hope so!! (Janney parent here with a younger child not at the school yet). I would gladly give up PK4 classrooms so that we don't have any more jumbo classes.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I doubt it will be eliminated as DCPS and the city want to be able to say that early childhood education is offered everywhere. But I would guess that the number of PK4 classes will be reduced (this is *speculation*) if what has happened at other overcrowded schools like Stoddert is any indication.

[Anonymous]

Agreed.

The fact of the matter is that if you need free PK, you can get it at another school. No, it won't be Janney, but it shortchanges the children who are there for education (not just daycare) to have gigantic class sizes. Pay for PreK or go get it free at some undesirable school and then come back for real school at K.

[Anonymous]

Who knows.
Just don't listen to the school. They consistently feed a line of crap.
According to the school the rising 4 grade class is the "bubble year". Well, the rising 2nd grade has MORE KIDS in it! LOL. And the incoming PK had more inboundary applicants than when either of those previous classes lotteried for PK predicting an even larger K in fall 2017.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who knows.
Just don't listen to the school. They consistently feed a line of crap.
According to the school the rising 4 grade class is the "bubble year". Well, the rising 2nd grade has MORE KIDS in it! LOL. And the incoming PK had more inboundary applicants than when either of those previous classes lotteried for PK predicting an even larger K in fall 2017.

Any year that requires the addition of another classroom teacher is a bubble year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed.

The fact of the matter is that if you need free PK, you can get it at another school. No, it won't be Janney, but it shortchanges the children who are there for education (not just daycare) to have gigantic class sizes. Pay for PreK or go get it free at some undesirable school and then come back for real school at K.

If you think ECE is "just daycare" then you really don't understand ECE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed.

The fact of the matter is that if you need free PK, you can get it at another school. No, it won't be Janney, but it shortchanges the children who are there for education (not just daycare) to have gigantic class sizes. Pay for PreK or go get it free at some undesirable school and then come back for real school at K.

If you think ECE is "just daycare" then you really don't understand ECE

I understand ECE. I just don't believe what DCPS provides across the board necessarily counts as ECE.

So, kick the ECE program out of Janney, which doesn't need it anyway. The parents can afford pre-school. (In case you've forgotten everybody paid for pre-school up until 5 or so years ago. It's not a hardship.) The actual school experience will improve, and if you desperately want the free Pre-K, then get into one of the dozens of Pre-K programs that go begging for students (even on the PG County flight-path!) and have your au pair drive her there. It's only for a year, after all.

[Anonymous]

Those classes should have never been there in the first place, for all of the reasons PP just stated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed.

The fact of the matter is that if you need free PK, you can get it at another school. No, it won't be Janney, but it shortchanges the children who are there for education (not just daycare) to have gigantic class sizes. Pay for PreK or go get it free at some undesirable school and then come back for real school at K.

If you think ECE is "just daycare" then you really don't understand ECE

I understand ECE. I just don't believe what DCPS provides across the board necessarily counts as ECE.

So, kick the ECE program out of Janney, which doesn't need it anyway. The parents can afford pre-school. (In case you've forgotten everybody paid for pre-school up until 5 or so years ago. It's not a hardship.) The actual school experience will improve, and if you desperately want the free Pre-K, then get into one of the dozens of Pre-K programs that go begging for students (even on the PG County flight-path!) and have your au pair drive her there. It's only for a year, after all.

Free pre-k at DCPS is not a new program. I went to PK at Murch 35 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed.

The fact of the matter is that if you need free PK, you can get it at another school. No, it won't be Janney, but it shortchanges the children who are there for education (not just daycare) to have gigantic class sizes. Pay for PreK or go get it free at some undesirable school and then come back for real school at K.

If you think ECE is "just daycare" then you really don't understand ECE

I understand ECE. I just don't believe what DCPS provides across the board necessarily counts as ECE.

So, kick the ECE program out of Janney, which doesn't need it anyway. The parents can afford pre-school. (In case you've forgotten everybody paid for pre-school up until 5 or so years ago. It's not a hardship.) The actual school experience will improve, and if you desperately want the free Pre-K, then get into one of the dozens of Pre-K programs that go begging for students (even on the PG County flight-path!) and have your au pair drive her there. It's only for a year, after all.

Free pre-k at DCPS is not a new program. I went to PK at Murch 35 years ago.

Terrific that your poor yet resourceful parents navigated the system for you to get into Head Start a few decades ago. Yippee.

The conversation is about whether or not it makes sense to compromise the education of K-5 students at Janney, by cramming them into overloaded classrooms, so that parents who can afford to live in Janney's catchement can have free PreK.

I for one, think no. No, it's not worth it. Smaller classrooms are a better experience for the students K - 5. As darling as PreK students are, they're a drain on resources for a school that can't spare the space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed.

The fact of the matter is that if you need free PK, you can get it at another school. No, it won't be Janney, but it shortchanges the children who are there for education (not just daycare) to have gigantic class sizes. Pay for PreK or go get it free at some undesirable school and then come back for real school at K.

If you think ECE is "just daycare" then you really don't understand ECE

I understand ECE. I just don't believe what DCPS provides across the board necessarily counts as ECE.

So, kick the ECE program out of Janney, which doesn't need it anyway. The parents can afford pre-school. (In case you've forgotten everybody paid for pre-school up until 5 or so years ago. It's not a hardship.) The actual school experience will improve, and if you desperately want the free Pre-K, then get into one of the dozens of Pre-K programs that go begging for students (even on the PG County flight-path!) and have your au pair drive her there. It's only for a year, after all.

Some people rent and are scraping together savings to buy. Some people spend ALL their money on housing to live in a good school district. You have no idea if this is true. It may be true that most people in the boundary can afford it, but it's silly and narrow-minded to say they all categorically can afford it. We know someone who almost rented at $2k/month apartment in boundary for Janney for this school year. They no longer have preschoolers, but they couldn't really afford preschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed.

The fact of the matter is that if you need free PK, you can get it at another school. No, it won't be Janney, but it shortchanges the children who are there for education (not just daycare) to have gigantic class sizes. Pay for PreK or go get it free at some undesirable school and then come back for real school at K.

If you think ECE is "just daycare" then you really don't understand ECE

I understand ECE. I just don't believe what DCPS provides across the board necessarily counts as ECE.

So, kick the ECE program out of Janney, which doesn't need it anyway. The parents can afford pre-school. (In case you've forgotten everybody paid for pre-school up until 5 or so years ago. It's not a hardship.) The actual school experience will improve, and if you desperately want the free Pre-K, then get into one of the dozens of Pre-K programs that go begging for students (even on the PG County flight-path!) and have your au pair drive her there. It's only for a year, after all.

Free pre-k at DCPS is not a new program. I went to PK at Murch 35 years ago.

Terrific that your poor yet resourceful parents navigated the system for you to get into Head Start a few decades ago. Yippee.

The conversation is about whether or not it makes sense to compromise the education of K-5 students at Janney, by cramming them into overloaded classrooms, so that parents who can afford to live in Janney's catchement can have free PreK.

I for one, think no. No, it's not worth it. Smaller classrooms are a better experience for the students K - 5. As darling as PreK students are, they're a drain on resources for a school that can't spare the space.

We weren't poor and it wasn't head start. It was PK4 that was part of the K-12 system, just like now. My point was that it isn't a new program.

I'm sorry that Janney planned poorly for its renovations (plural). It might need to have portable classrooms just like the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed.

The fact of the matter is that if you need free PK, you can get it at another school. No, it won't be Janney, but it shortchanges the children who are there for education (not just daycare) to have gigantic class sizes. Pay for PreK or go get it free at some undesirable school and then come back for real school at K.

If you think ECE is "just daycare" then you really don't understand ECE

I understand ECE. I just don't believe what DCPS provides across the board necessarily counts as ECE.

So, kick the ECE program out of Janney, which doesn't need it anyway. The parents can afford pre-school. (In case you've forgotten everybody paid for pre-school up until 5 or so years ago. It's not a hardship.) The actual school experience will improve, and if you desperately want the free Pre-K, then get into one of the dozens of Pre-K programs that go begging for students (even on the PG County flight-path!) and have your au pair drive her there. It's only for a year, after all.

Free pre-k at DCPS is not a new program. I went to PK at Murch 35 years ago.

Terrific that your poor yet resourceful parents navigated the system for you to get into Head Start a few decades ago. Yippee.

The conversation is about whether or not it makes sense to compromise the education of K-5 students at Janney, by cramming them into overloaded classrooms, so that parents who can afford to live in Janney's catchement can have free PreK.

I for one, think no. No, it's not worth it. Smaller classrooms are a better experience for the students K - 5. As darling as PreK students are, they're a drain on resources for a school that can't spare the space.

We weren't poor and it wasn't head start. It was PK4 that was part of the K-12 system, just like now. My point was that it isn't a new program.

I'm sorry that Janney planned poorly for its renovations (plural). It might need to have portable classrooms just like the rest of us.

Janney parent here. I would be happy to have trailers (vs. 30+ 3rd grade class) but there's a rumor/myth that they are "not allowed" for some reason.