Anonymous wrote:Sorry to be off topic, but could you please tell us if Hearst Elementary will have PS3 next year? Strangely, no one at the school/PTA seems to know the answer to this question and DCPS has not made a peep. There is a long backstory here, but we will spare you the details. Thank you.

Our office doesn't work on Hearst Elementary, so we're unfortunately not able to speak to that question. We've forwarded it to the Office of Early Childhood Education.

Anonymous wrote:Are there any publicly available documents describing decisions already made and the timeline moving forward?

My understanding is the school will open with pk3 through k students. Which school is the by right school for children living in the boundary who are in 1st through 5th grade?

Has a principal or person been identified who can begin engaging the community and making decisions on curriculum, teacher hiring, etc?

Thanks!

While we have confirmed PK3 and PK4 for SY15, we are in the final stages of a decision for Kindergarten. More information on that to come soon! For 1st through 5th grade students, the school of right is Amidon-Bowen Elementary School, and students enrolled at Amidon who have younger siblings entering Pre-K 3 or Pre-K 4 will qualify for a sibling preference there, reducing inconvenience for families.

We have a team currently working with the community during the planning process, which includes the Office of Early Childhood Education. We are also grateful to community organizations like the Van Ness Parent Group, returning residents to the Capper Carrollsburg redevelopment, and the James Creek Resident Council for helping us connect with the community.

The Deputy Chief of Early Childhood Education, Monica Liang Aguirre, will be acting as school principal until that leader is hired in the spring. She has six years of experience as a principal at Oyster Adams Bilingual. For more specific information about lottery and curriculum, please take a look at the presentation we used at our November community meetings: https://vannesses.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/111814_112014-van-ness-es-community-meetings-presentation.pdf.

We plan to hold a meeting in early January to provide information on curriculum options at Van Ness and guidance on the MySchoolDC lottery, and we will widely advertise the dates once we have confirmed. In the meantime, if you would like to be added to our listserv, please email us at Andrew.katz-moses@dc.gov.

Anonymous wrote:How can other schools get the guaranteed PK3 and PK4 admission that Van Ness has? I would like our Title I neighborhood school to have it.

Historically, Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 are all lottery-based in DCPS, including for in-boundary families. Per the boundaries and feeders recommendations, we plan to move towards universal neighborhood by-right Pre-K though as you can imagine, that takes aligning facilities to potential enrollment which may be a multi-year process. For SY15-16, we plan to pilot this effort in 5 of our schools – Amidon-Bowen, Van Ness, Brookland at Bunker Hill, Stanton, and Burroughs. More information can be found on pages 3-5 of the implementation summary: http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/Files/downloads/COMMUNITY/Narrative%20Student%20Assignment%20FINAL.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:I really appreciate the DCPS School Planning team reaching out to DCUM users. I live in a neighborhood that will be inbounds for Roosevelt under the new boundaries accepted by Mayor Gray (whether this will continue to be true under Mayor Bowser remains to be seen). Several months ago, I started a discussion here about what it would take for Roosevelt to attract families like mine. A recurring theme of that discussion was that parents wanted assurance that the academic opportunities offered at Wilson would also be available at Roosevelt.

It seems that there is a "chicken and egg" problem when trying to develop a school. The per-pupil funding mechanism means that a school with low enrollment cannot offer a variety of classes due to insufficient funding and not enough students to fill those classes. But, without appealing programming, the school cannot attract a large number of new students. Has there been thought to utilizing an alternative approach to funding so that a "build it and they will come" approach to programming can be introduced? In other words, promise to offer a specific portfolio of classes such as languages and advanced math and science regardless of whether enrollment in those classes is only one or two students for the first couple of years.

Thanks again for initiating this discussion.

Agreed, it's a really positive sign that DCPS is initiating these discussions. Good on them for recognizing that while this may be a subset of DC parents, its the biggest online community.

My question si around projections- how many students are you projecting at Roosevelt for the first few years? As Jeff said, the chicken and egg problem is real, and it seems to me that getting significant enrollment the first few years is key- if you don't get it then you could go into a death spiral. What things have been done at other newly renovated schools to boost enrollment?

This question has come up a fair amount in our community meetings. The Roosevelt Re-envisioning, and a focus on improving DCPS high schools in general, is a top priority for Chancellor Kaya Henderson. We are exploring a number of creative ways to fund the new programming and will have updates once we have finalized the academic program plan (with community input) and corresponding budget needs.

Anonymous wrote:There's a reputation for violence / unruly behavior at the school. Can you share any measures you've been tracking and what you're doing to create a better environment?

The scores are pretty abysmal. Why would someone with a capable child envision sending them there?

The purpose of the re-envisioning is to improve what Roosevelt has to offer students and parents. With a newly renovated building next fall and a multi-year roll-out of new academic and career training offerings, we want to make Roosevelt a high school more parents will choose. That kind of effort doesn't happen overnight. To see a more detailed explanation of proposed changes, you can take a look at the presentation we’ve been giving at community meetings:
https://reenvisioningroosevelt.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/december-2014_academic-proposal-for-community-input1.pdf

As you look at the presentation, please feel free to pose questions or provide input by emailing us at andrew.katz-moses@dc.gov

Anonymous wrote:Which schools will convert back to PK-5th.

There are three feeders that are currently education campuses that will all become elementary only once Brookland is open. They are Brookland at Bunker Hill, Burroughs, and Noyes Education Campuses.

Hi DC Urban Moms and Dads!

We’re writing to you from DC Public Schools Central Office on the School Planning and Implementation Team. We were inspired by a recent thread here on Brookland Middle School (opening Fall 2015) to give people an opportunity to ask some questions and give feedback on the school planning process.

This thread will focus on the Re-envisioning Roosevelt High School project. If you have questions/comments about Roosevelt’s academic programming, career pathways, or anything else Roosevelt, we’ll be checking in here today and tomorrow to try to answer any questions you may have.

Roosevelt blog: http://reenvisioningroosevelt.wordpress.com/

If you’re interested in discussing Brookland Middle School or Van Ness Elementary, check out the threads below:

Brookland: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/431504.page#6068516
Van Ness: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/0/431507.page#6068521

Hi DC Urban Moms and Dads!

We’re writing to you from DC Public Schools Central Office on the School Planning and Implementation Team. We were inspired by a recent thread here on Brookland Middle School (opening Fall 2015) to give people an opportunity to ask some questions and give feedback on the school planning process.

This thread will focus on Van Ness Elementary, opening in the Navy Yard next fall. If you have questions/comments about the school planning process, boundaries, or anything else Van Ness, we’ll be checking in here today and tomorrow to try to answer any questions you may have.

If you’re interested in hearing about The Re-envisioning Roosevelt High School project or Brookland Middle School, check out the threads below:

Roosevelt: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/431508.page
Brookland: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/431504.page#6068516

Hi DC Urban Moms and Dads!

We’re writing to you from DC Public Schools Central Office on the School Planning and Implementation Team. A recent thread here on Brookland Middle School got a fair amount of questions and comments, and helped set a record for traffic to our blog!

We’ll be here this morning and checking in the rest of today and tomorrow to answer any questions you have about the Brookland Middle School building, boundaries and feeders, and plans for academic programming when the school opens next fall. The school is still in the planning phase, so we may not have a concrete answer to every question, but we'll do our best!

Reference links:

Lottery information: http://www.myschooldc.org/
Virtual Tour: https://brooklandms.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/a-look-inside-brookland-middle-school
Academic Vision: https://brooklandms.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/academics-at-brookland-middle-school
Background on School Planning and Ward 5 Great Schools Initiative: https://brooklandms.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/brookland-middle-school-planning-how-did-we-get-here
Brookland twitter: twitter.com/BrooklandMSDCPS

If you’re interested in discussing Van Ness Elementary (opening next fall), or the Re-envisioning Roosevelt High School projects, please visit the threads below:

Van Ness: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/0/431507.page#6068521
Roosevelt: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/0/431508.page#6068526