Reply to Overcrowding and lack of space in Ward 3 Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thanks Brian
I will come to the meeting, but will not offer or propose solutions. I am not an educator or school system expert and I do not plan to be. ...

It's not my job to find a solution, rather the job of those who are paid to do that and supposedly have the skills to do that.[/quote]

This. A thousand times this. What is it about DCPS that they expect parents to come up with the answers? It drives me crazy when I go to a meeting and they say things like, "We're here to listen to your ideas." OK, listening is better than not listening, but who's supposed to be the expert here? When you go to the dentist, does he ask you your opinion of the best way to crown a broken tooth? Does the airline pilot ask the passengers to vote on a cruising altitude? Does the quarterback take suggestions from the fans on what play to run?

Brian Doyle wrote, "The Councilmember is not coming to offer us solutions. So please come to this meeting ready to offer your own constructive suggestions and feedback." I can kind of get behind the councilmember not offering solutions, her job is to be a generalist not a specialist, she should be pushing the specialists for answers -- not the parents.[/quote]

Brian again.  DCPS is not going to be there (okay outside of the very nice liaison person they send to every meeting).  This is for us to talk among ourselves first, albeit with a councilmember in the room.  Then as I noted, we would have the DCPS planning office (at least we hope to) come back at a future meeting.  Frankly, I would have been happy to get the DCPS planning office to just come first.  But I do agree that having a meeting before that point in time (1) allows Mary Cheh some ability to help us get the DCPS planning people to show up, (2) for us to listen to each others' concerns and ideas, so that we show up at the next meeting a little more on the same page, and (3) and helps us steer that conversation a little more, rather than DCPS steering it for us.  But look, I am not expecting magic solutions or for DCPS to suddenly say, "Of course, we do x, y, and z for you right away!" or "We have never thought of that amazing and easy solution!"  All of the options are hard.  And most require tradeoffs.  That is not something that experts can tell us.  They can talk about options, their feasibility, and the considerations.  But weighing the tradeoffs is something that we as community members should have input in.  And, of course, not just folks in the Wilson feeder, before you point that out.

Brian Doyle
W3EdNet [/quote]

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