Sojourner Truth Montessori PCS (grades 6-12)

[JLessek]

Hi all,

My name is Justin Lessek, and I’m the Founding Executive Director of The Sojourner Truth Public Charter School. Truth is currently accepting applications for 6th and 7th grade and will eventually go all the way through high school. With just a week left in the MySchoolDC lottery and a recent thread on DC Urban Moms and Dads (here) raising some questions, I wanted to provide some brief responses and background. While you are of course welcome to continue the conversation with follow-up posts and discussion, I likely won’t check back in for some time and so I encourage you to write me directly at [e-mail] or call me directly at 202-747-0904 if you’re looking for a response or want to learn more about anything specific. Also, we have an open house coming up next Saturday (2/29) at 9:30am and we would love to see you there! If you are interested, please RSVP (here) so that we can have enough materials ready for you and your student.

I’m extremely proud of Truth’s leadership team and the staff we are bringing on for the upcoming school year. Founding Principal Denise Edwards and I were administrators in DCPS together at a grade 6-12 school which served a population where over 80% of students receive TANF or SNAP benefits. We led initiatives in personalized, competency-based learning with the goals of both promoting equity and encouraging student self-direction and agency, and over three years it led to a quadrupling in the number of students scoring levels 4 and 5 on PARCC in math and a nearly doubling of the students scoring levels 4 and 5 in ELA. Denise has an AMI certificate in Montessori leadership, and brings extensive experience and a track record of success serving students in the District that are furthest from privilege. Our Director of Operations has come here from Memphis, TN, where he was the Founding Director of Operations at Libertas Montessori, the state’s first public Montessori school (where 90% of families receive SNAP benefits). In addition, our board brings experience in education, diversity, equity, and inclusion (see bio’s here).

While “Montessori” connotes privilege and whiteness to many, we are working extremely hard to disrupt this and are confident our team has what it takes to do so. What Montessori really means - particularly at the middle and high school level - is focusing on meaningful work with real-life application, meeting students where they are, and emphasizing skills that prepare kids for real life. We do not think that these are approaches that favor privileged students, but rather that they are an ideal approach for all students - including those that will come to us significantly below grade level or with other gaps. Further, these are not unfounded convictions, as our team is comprised of individuals with a record of success serving students furthest from opportunity.

We have been excited by the families at open houses and the applications we are seeing on MySchoolDC. Some students are coming in with extensive Montessori experience, and many are coming in with no experience whatsoever - and we are thrilled to welcome both. Many of you who have studied Montessori know that adolescence marks what Montessori theory calls “the third plane” of development, and that this plane mirrors the first plane (infancy) due to all of the physical and emotional changes taking place. For this reason, Montessori methodology and approach is significantly different at the middle and high school level than it is in the elementary school years, and most Montessorians agree that adolescence is an ideal entry point for those that don’t have prior experience.

We look forward to being a place where students will be supported and challenged regardless of whether they come in above grade level or below grade level. We believe strongly that this will manifest itself not only in PARCC growth but also significant social and emotional growth, which we think is every bit as important.

Thank you again for your interest and the discussion, and please do contact me directly at [e-mail] if you’re hoping for a response on any followup questions! We hope to see you at an event sometime soon (calendar here).

Justin Lessek

[Anonymous]

I have a question. Seeing as most of the kids' PARCC scores are below grade level at Lee, SSMA, CHML, and LAMB (in math), it seems like your entering 6th grade class will be below grade level. At SSMA, fully 39% of students are scoring a 1 in math-- they're really quite far behind. Then you'll have kids who are not from Montessori elementary schools and many of them will be below grade level as well. What is your plan to remediate this?

As I'm sure you know, adequate PARCC scores are important for admission to Walls, Banneker, McKinley, and other application high schools. What support do you plan to provide for the high school application process?

[Anonymous]

I'm concerned there won't be enough kids to make your budget. How many kids do you need to have enrolled in the fall to open the school at all? Will parents be told sometime after the lottery whether the school is going forward?

How will you manage the behavior issues that typically come with low-income middle school students, while simultaneously keeping your high-income parents from freaking out? If they come from the feeder schools they're really not used to economic diversity.

[Anonymous]

Justin, it's considered rude here to start a thread and not participate in it.

[Anonymous]

Trying to disrupt the idea of Montessori as being for privileged kids by posting on DCUM is .... ironic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Justin, it's considered rude here to start a thread and not participate in it.

I think you're supposed to email him your questions.

It is disheartening for me to see admin all over this board, which is basically a gossip site. But at lead he is posting publcially. I sometimes recognize admin from my school posting anon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm concerned there won't be enough kids to make your budget. How many kids do you need to have enrolled in the fall to open the school at all? Will parents be told sometime after the lottery whether the school is going forward?

How will you manage the behavior issues that typically come with low-income middle school students, while simultaneously keeping your high-income parents from freaking out? If they come from the feeder schools they're really not used to economic diversity.

Not OP.

In the materials the PCSB just posted (ahead of the public hearing on ST's temporary location), it says that as of 2/20 they have had a total of 103 entries in the current lottery. If they enroll 90 students they will break even on lease costs (the per pupil facility funds will cover it). Their "low enrollment" scenario is 75 students and that they can absorb the least costs at that level as well.

So the short answer is that they will open, no matter what. But the more students (up to their cap) the better.

https://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MjAxMTcwOTI=

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm concerned there won't be enough kids to make your budget. How many kids do you need to have enrolled in the fall to open the school at all? Will parents be told sometime after the lottery whether the school is going forward?

How will you manage the behavior issues that typically come with low-income middle school students, while simultaneously keeping your high-income parents from freaking out? If they come from the feeder schools they're really not used to economic diversity.

Not OP.

In the materials the PCSB just posted (ahead of the public hearing on ST's temporary location), it says that as of 2/20 they have had a total of 103 entries in the current lottery. If they enroll 90 students they will break even on lease costs (the per pupil facility funds will cover it). Their "low enrollment" scenario is 75 students and that they can absorb the least costs at that level as well.

So the short answer is that they will open, no matter what. But the more students (up to their cap) the better.

https://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MjAxMTcwOTI=

What if they end up wih less than 75, though? Not everyone who enters will match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm concerned there won't be enough kids to make your budget. How many kids do you need to have enrolled in the fall to open the school at all? Will parents be told sometime after the lottery whether the school is going forward?

How will you manage the behavior issues that typically come with low-income middle school students, while simultaneously keeping your high-income parents from freaking out? If they come from the feeder schools they're really not used to economic diversity.

Not OP.

In the materials the PCSB just posted (ahead of the public hearing on ST's temporary location), it says that as of 2/20 they have had a total of 103 entries in the current lottery. If they enroll 90 students they will break even on lease costs (the per pupil facility funds will cover it). Their "low enrollment" scenario is 75 students and that they can absorb the least costs at that level as well.

So the short answer is that they will open, no matter what. But the more students (up to their cap) the better.

https://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MjAxMTcwOTI=

What if they end up wih less than 75, though? Not everyone who enters will match.

IF they have fewer than 75 students then they will need to dip into their per-pupil allowance to pay their rent which will exceed the facilities funding limit (unless they have some private source of funding that is prepared to donate. That's not unusual for a first-year charter although not ideal.