s/o: DCPS boundary and assignment rules that really need to change

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01/09/2020 19:11

Subject: s/o: DCPS boundary and assignment rules that really need to change

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Anonymous

With the next boundary/assignment/feeder review only a few years away, I've started keeping a list of things I think should change. There's probably something to piss off everyone here but I do think all of this would be an improvement. Do others want to share what they'll be pushing for?

End rule that you get to stay in DCPS school once you move OOB (unless foster care, homelessness, or other reasons why DCPS is legally obligated to let you stay--and centralize the process of granting those exemptions as much as possible, with less discretion for principals and registrars). Just let kids finish out the school year if they move.

End rule that getting in to an elementary school or middle school OOB gives you the right to continue on to its destination middle/high school. It just gets you through the terminal grade at the school you got into. There could be a destination school preference in the middle and high school lotteries, but I’d rather not.

Money follows the kid--if kid changes school before the end of the year, the new school gets a percentage of the per-pupil funding. Since school year is 10 months long, I’d say 10% for each month they’re at a given school. Round to the nearest month.

All bilingual elementary schools (and bilingual programs at schools like Marie Reed and Tyler that have bilingual tracks) have programmatic feeder into MacFarland and Roosevelt (that’s right, Oyster and Bancroft lose their Deal/Wilson feeds). Oyster becomes a PK3-5 school, with younger grades at Oyster and older grades at Adams. More kids in each grade, and more PK classes.

Lafayette and Shepherd to Wells and Coolidge. For folks who say it won’t fit, there is room at Coolidge. Make an 8th grade academy in the Coolidge building and use Wells for just 6th and 7th if necessary.

Francis-Stevens drops the SWW name, gets its own principal, and becomes a PK3-5 school. Schools that feed there for middle go to Cardozo for middle along with the schools that already feed into Cardozo. Cardozo middle gets its own principal too (ideally someone well-liked from Francis-Stevens who can bring along a lot of the teachers there), along with some enrichment classes and extracurriculars that make more IB and middle class families take a closer look.

CHML becomes PK3-5. This creates more PK spots on Capitol Hill (though open to everyone). DCPS offers Montessori middle school program at Brookland middle (closer to Montessori charters and is centrally located with CHML, Langdon, and Nalle (all of which would have programmatic feeder rights to the BMS program).

Schools that currently use Fillmore take their art classes in-house (with fewer kids after the rules change for moving OOB, there should be some room), or DCPS uses some of the Ellington classrooms if they must bus kids to art. Fillmore becomes an early childhood school like Stevens. Sweeten the pot for families losing Fillmore by giving them a preference for Fillmore spots, right below an at-risk preference.