Reply to PCSB Monday November 17 meeting

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Meeting materials are now up, mostly.

Re Harmony, i don't really get why a building for 947 students is right for a school that's not even at its 250-kid enrollment cap! But I guess the Harmony organization wants to buy the building. So maybe they're planning to seek permission to expand. They were just a few years ago bailed out by their headquarters and are in general low to middling performance, so that's not a sure thing. I've never understood the appeal of all this.

Capital Village: Enrollment shortfall of 19 kids seems to be the financial problem. If not financially viable, revocation is the next step.

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It's not a building for 947 students. It's a 34,962 square foot building. The DCPS standard for school facilities is 192 square feet per student. That works out to a building for 182 students. Of course, charters don't typically have the same facilities as DCPS but even if you lower the standard to 120 square feet a student, it's a building for under 300 students. It's an appropriate building for their current enrollment without any growth.

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Harmony's materials say this: "The proposed new location has already received a certificate of occupancy, allowing it to operate as a charter school with food service and a maximum capacity of 947 people. This capacity greatly exceeds the the number of students and staff that we plan to accommodate in the space."

Ok so it's not 947 *students*, but it's way, way, way more than 250 or 300 students. I have no idea how that meshes with what you're saying about building size-- that's something I hope the PCSB would ask Harmony to clarify.

Harmony had 182 students in last year's enrollment audit data. Yes they have recently increased their enrollment by adding preschool, but it's still not a school that has much of a waitlist or attracts a lot of interest. For the most recent lottery they had four students on the waitlist, total, so I don't know where additional students would come from. No doubt the PCSB will go along with this half-baked plan to increase occupancy cost while laying off staff, but I really don't see how it's such a bright idea. [/quote]

Certificates of occupancy are about life-safety loads not educational capacity. They are often calculated on 20-50 square feet a person and include classrooms, hallways, gyms etc. I have no idea why (or even if) the PCSB allows the CofO to be used to determine how many students can be in a space. Previous reports on charter school facility capacity listed a maximum capacity of 540 students for the space. So, yes, the space can fit more than the Harmony ceiling.

The budget documents suggest that the contingency plan is the reduction of expense IF they fall short of enrollment. [/quote]

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