To Deal parents: has the confidence & trust in Wilson decreased?

[Anonymous]

I am asking this following a conversation with a person I absolutely trust and has first-hand information about a nearby private high school. This private high school received last year twice as much the"normal" number of applications from Deal families compared to the previous years.
Anecdotal talks and exchanges in my neighborhood tell me that Deal's community confidence in Wilson has been negatively affected by: 1) the change in leadership (a trusted principal being arbitrarily replaced by an outsider, who seems to be struggling to establish her way in such a complex school and system); 2) by last year's loaded gun episode; 3) and now by the worsened PARCC outcomes (regardless of the explanation re. the conflict with the APs tests and DCPS mismanagement).

I am very interested in hearing Deal parents' views. We are considering returning IB, after 3 middle school years at a good charter and almost 1,000 hours spent in commuting time, we can't take no more. Wilson is a 15 minute bike ride.

8th grade charter parent IB for Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Following

[Anonymous]

7th grade parent. Had I been in a position to apply out while all of that was going on, I would have put in applications too, just in case. We have so many options around here that it does not surprise me that people were hedging their bets last year. But, none of those issues concern me today.

What I am keeping an eye on is DCPS's treatment of Wilson's budget, and the class sizes in the AP rooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7th grade parent. Had I been in a position to apply out while all of that was going on, I would have put in applications too, just in case. We have so many options around here that it does not surprise me that people were hedging their bets last year. But, none of those issues concern me today.

What I am keeping an eye on is DCPS's treatment of Wilson's budget, and the class sizes in the AP rooms.

This is worth watching and asking about--

The Beacon this week reported on a new AP bio teacher (so there are now 2). Article notes that the previous classes had 60 students in them, but that the class sizes haven't changed much despite the new hire given the demand for the class.

Is this typical for all APs or unique to Biology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am asking this following a conversation with a person I absolutely trust and has first-hand information about a nearby private high school. This private high school received last year twice as much the"normal" number of applications from Deal families compared to the previous years.
Anecdotal talks and exchanges in my neighborhood tell me that Deal's community confidence in Wilson has been negatively affected by: 1) the change in leadership (a trusted principal being arbitrarily replaced by an outsider, who seems to be struggling to establish her way in such a complex school and system); 2) by last year's loaded gun episode; 3) and now by the worsened PARCC outcomes (regardless of the explanation re. the conflict with the APs tests and DCPS mismanagement).

I am very interested in hearing Deal parents' views. We are considering returning IB, after 3 middle school years at a good charter and almost 1,000 hours spent in commuting time, we can't take no more. Wilson is a 15 minute bike ride.

8th grade charter parent IB for Wilson.

Decreased confidence significantly, because of 1) and 3) above, plus the budget issues.

Not planning to send DD to Wilson at this point.

[Anonymous]

I know nothing about what Deal parents think of Wilson. I also think that's not a super important question except inasmuch as it impacts whether your kids' friends will attend Wilson. To me, the important question is what current Wilson parents think.

As a Wilson parent, I would strongly urge you to make decisions by visiting the school. DS is a freshman, so our experience is limited, but here's my take so far:

- Safety concerns (e.g. gun in the school) aren't on the radar of kids attending the school based on my conversations with DS and his friends. None of them have expressed that the feel unsafe. Asking the question elicits and eye roll and a laugh. I tend to spend a fair amount of time at the school because I pick DS up from sports practices, and it seems _much_ safer than my high school was.

- The administration struggles with some things. We did not get any mailings over the summer, and when I tried to check on what electives DS would be in before school started, I got a very annoying run around. The only direct answers that I got were all wrong. Literally. With that said, DS is in the honors classes that he is supposed to be in, which is what I was trying to find out.

- Teachers are better than expected. 7 out of 8 seem great. One is so-so.

- There are tons of opportunities for kids to explore new interests and learn and grow, which is very cool. Much more than DS's middle school (not Deal).

There are many, many folks on DCUM who don't have kids there but seem to really dislike Wilson, which you see just about any time a Wilson thread comes up. Based on having read a lot of these, I was very pleasantly surprised by our family's experience with the school. Do yourself a favor and spend some time at open houses and talking to current parents rather than reading DCUM and hearing lots of second hand rumors from other middle school parents. We almost made a different choice based on second-hand information relayed by other middle school parents specifically related to DS's interests, but when we investigated for ourselves we learned that those parents were completely wrong in just about everything that they said. Not out of ill will or bias against Wilson, they just didn't know and were repeating rumors. I'd go straight to the school for information.

[Anonymous]

We are a Deal family and would certainly consider Wilson for our DS. However, the size of AP classes worries me, as does the new principal. I'm not sure those would be deciding factors for us or for my DS, but they give us enough pause that we would at least look around when the time comes. I think this is what many Deal families have always done, though, so I'm not sure this is a huge change. We know kids from Deal who have gone all over for high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know nothing about what Deal parents think of Wilson. I also think that's not a super important question except inasmuch as it impacts whether your kids' friends will attend Wilson. To me, the important question is what current Wilson parents think.

As a Wilson parent, I would strongly urge you to make decisions by visiting the school. DS is a freshman, so our experience is limited, but here's my take so far:

- Safety concerns (e.g. gun in the school) aren't on the radar of kids attending the school based on my conversations with DS and his friends. None of them have expressed that the feel unsafe. Asking the question elicits and eye roll and a laugh. I tend to spend a fair amount of time at the school because I pick DS up from sports practices, and it seems _much_ safer than my high school was.

- The administration struggles with some things. We did not get any mailings over the summer, and when I tried to check on what electives DS would be in before school started, I got a very annoying run around. The only direct answers that I got were all wrong. Literally. With that said, DS is in the honors classes that he is supposed to be in, which is what I was trying to find out.

- Teachers are better than expected. 7 out of 8 seem great. One is so-so.

- There are tons of opportunities for kids to explore new interests and learn and grow, which is very cool. Much more than DS's middle school (not Deal).

There are many, many folks on DCUM who don't have kids there but seem to really dislike Wilson, which you see just about any time a Wilson thread comes up. Based on having read a lot of these, I was very pleasantly surprised by our family's experience with the school. Do yourself a favor and spend some time at open houses and talking to current parents rather than reading DCUM and hearing lots of second hand rumors from other middle school parents. We almost made a different choice based on second-hand information relayed by other middle school parents specifically related to DS's interests, but when we investigated for ourselves we learned that those parents were completely wrong in just about everything that they said. Not out of ill will or bias against Wilson, they just didn't know and were repeating rumors. I'd go straight to the school for information.

OP: thanks. I already went to last year's open house (the night the school choir sang, beautiful) , to one of the Principal's coffee at 8am, and to one general PTO meeting. So, not that I am sparing myself or wasting my little time in front of a PC. Deal's community endorsement of the school is a very important factor for us for several reasons.

[Anonymous]

when will the boundary changes go into effect?

[Anonymous]

Most kids from Deal still go to Wilson. The teachers are excellent and they manage the few very large classes very well. The kids learn a lot and most got into very good colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:when will the boundary changes go into effect?

Which ones? Different timelines for different parts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most kids from Deal still go to Wilson. The teachers are excellent and they manage the few very large classes very well. The kids learn a lot and most got into very good colleges.

I would have to agree. The teachers are great and very passionate about the subjects they teach. I really like my child's Physics teacher, young guy and very very passionate.

[Anonymous]

I have a student at Deal. Always expected to send children to Wilson. But not as sure now for all the reasons discussed above. I have no idea what we will decide in the end, but we will definitely be investigating all our options more closely than I ever thought we would be over the last 5-7 years in DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Wilson parent here- many of the issues are more problematic for the parents than the students. My DC never feels unsafe and does not complain about class size. There is a range. He has excellent teachers- we've been lucky. He has thrived at Wilson and came from Deal. My biggest issue is DCPS. They annually change so many things- LEAP, 8 classes instead of 7, Aspen instead of Jupiter, testing... the list is endless. There is never any consistency year to year That's not Wilson's fault- it's central office all the way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wilson parent here- many of the issues are more problematic for the parents than the students. My DC never feels unsafe and does not complain about class size. There is a range. He has excellent teachers- we've been lucky. He has thrived at Wilson and came from Deal. My biggest issue is DCPS. They annually change so many things- LEAP, 8 classes instead of 7, Aspen instead of Jupiter, testing... the list is endless. There is never any consistency year to year That's not Wilson's fault- it's central office all the way.

I would agree with this. I taught in DCPS for a while and the bureaucracy is insane. When it came time to sign my own child up for Deal/Wilson track and I was handed the foot thick stack of paperwork, I just had bureaucracy flashbacks and we bolted for a charter where DD was happy and so were we.
A question I would ask current Wilson parents is how responsive are teachers / admin in Wilson? I don't mean to obnoxious helicoptering, but to real inquiries, concerns and needs for partnership that come up from time to time? That's what I look for in a school because bottom line that affects my own child's trajectory the most.