Reply to Oyster relocating?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Oyster relocating?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Could someone break down the problem here? [/quote]

From what I can gather:

The principal and some members of the Oyster-Adams community are unhappy with the balance of native Spanish and native English speakers in just about every grade. In the elementary years, the balance is 60% English, 40% Spanish (roughly). In the middle school years, this reverses to 60% Spanish and 40% English, due to attrition to other middle schools (Deal, or private). Ideally, they would like it to be 50-50.

In response to this, the principal and some members of the currently school community would like to revisit ways to address this issue and revert it back to a 50-50 mix. In order to do this, they feel they must wrest control of admissions. At the moment, DCPS handles the Oyster-Adams lottery. Oyster-Adams is a "school of right," which means that if you live within boundary, your kids enroll there no matter your language dominance. DCPS does not assign lottery numbers based on a balance of Spanish or English speakers.

Because of Oyster's location, the in-boundary kids are overwhelmingly native English-speaking from a high-income level bracket. Instead of admitting an equal number of native Spanish speakers at the elementary level, which would lead to over-crowding, Oyster-Adams does not enroll more than they can physically handle. From a numbers standpoint this is squeezing out the Hispanic population, the majority of which, historically, has been first generation American born children from poor immigrant families.

Because of DCPS's intentions to redraw some boundary lines, the Oyster-Adams principal and some members of the school community have decided that they would like to have a voice in any boundary changes, and are also taking this opportunity to put forward some other options to relieve possible overcrowding in the future, if they are to retain the 50-50 mix. Some of these options have included: moving the school physically, narrowing the boundaries, expanding the school by constructing new wings to accomodate more children, consolidating the school into one building for administrative ease, taking the Oyster-Adams program and turning it into a magnet school with a city-wide lottery, or a combination of those options.

As you might imagine, there is angst among the parent community, the Woodley Park residents who want the school to remain as it is, and the principal who wants to move the school to one location, expand the special needs/inclusion program, and control admissions.

Unanswered questions: does Kaya Henderson even care what the parent community says? Does a principal get to move in to a school, decide she can run it better somewhere else without the constraints of the system under which she is currently employed, and move it? Will Henderson's office bother to read the 30+ page "report" sent to them by the LSAT and Oyster-Adams faculty?

I think the "problem" is that the English speaking Woodley Park residents want the school to remain a bilingual school of right, while the principal feels that it needs to better serve the Hispanic population, in a more Hispanic neighborhood. She's been pretty vocal about her desire to move the school, while admitting that Woodley Park residents are stacked against such a move. Yet, that is still the recommendation the principal and the LSAT are putting forth, and presenting it as the majority desire of the entire school parent community.

That's about all I can figure, and that probably isn't that clear. Hope it helps.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics