Reply to Petition to Save Aftercare Program at Alice Deal iddle School

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Reply to "Petition to Save Aftercare Program at Alice Deal iddle School"

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[quote=Anonymous]Attention parents of children attending Alice Deal Middle School in the 2012-13 school year: Principal James Albright announced on July 3, abruptly and without forewarning, that Deal was ending its structured aftercare program that many working Deal families relied on during the past school year. As a result, Deal is the only DCPS middle school not to offer a regular, structured aftercare program. If you're concerned about this deicion and want to do something about it, please consider adding your name to this petition. To be added please email kevinpmorison@gmail.com. Thank you for your support.

Petition to Save the Alice Deal Aftercare Program

Dear Mr. Albright:

We, the undersigned Alice Deal Middle School parents, are writing to express our strong opposition to your decision to abruptly end the Deal aftercare program for the 2012-13 school year. This decision is troubling to us on many levels:

• First, it appears this decision was made unilaterally, without consulting any of us, the parents who have children in the program and are directly affected by the decision. 
• Second, the decision was slipped into an email sent out the day before a holiday (when many families are out of town) and not broadcast earlier or more broadly to those us affected by the decision. Some aftercare families who do not have email or don’t subscribe to the e-newsletter may not even know of the decision yet.
• Third, announcing this decision just weeks before the start of the new school year leaves many of us furiously scrambling to find other aftercare options come August.

Needless to say, we are extremely displeased with the decision itself and very disappointed with the manner in which it was made and announced.

As you point out yourself in the “Weekly Bulletin,” the Deal aftercare program provides “a safe and structured place” for our children. For many families, aftercare is a necessity that cannot be filled simply by trying to “pigeon hole” our children into a smattering of other after-school programs that may or may not interest them, and which do not provide the reliable, five-day-a-week coverage that so many of us have relied on in the past and, until now, were expecting for the future. Furthermore, this decision leaves Deal as the only middle school in the DCPS system to not offer regular, structured aftercare to its students—hardly a distinction we want to have.

Therefore, we parents are requesting the following:

1. That you immediately rescind the decision to end the Deal aftercare program and ensure that there will be aftercare when school reopens on August 27.
2. That you will meet right away with a representative group of Deal parents to discuss any challenges facing the aftercare program and to explore various options for maintaining the program into the future. (Because any issues with the program were never discussed with parents in advance, we cannot know what those challenges may be, and you cannot possibly know what solutions the parents may have in mind and be willing to implement. We can find that common ground only by sitting down and talking.)

We thank you for your prompt consideration of our request, and we look forward to working with you, the Deal PTA and other partners, to ensure the continued viability and success of the Deal aftercare program.

38 Deal Parents -- and growing![/quote]

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