Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the amoutn of debt CMI has, I dpnt understand how they pay it off. Yes, they recieve tas dollars for students but is that nearly enough to cover the debt servce and salaries and growth of the middle school. I alraedy know their teachers arent paid nearly enough. I honestly don't understand why there isnt more oversight from the charter board on spending at schools. I know they are "independent" but clearly they need a better CFO!

There is oversight. That is literally what these reports are - the result of oversight activities. There are limits to how much debt is allowed and monitoring of cash flow and contracts.

CMIs Board now needs to act, or not. Same for their academic performance.

When is the CMI charter up for review/renewal?

It's only meaningful oversight if the board or DCPCSB actually does something. Just reporting that there's a deficit is not enough.

What they can do is defined by the charter law and very limited. They can issue "notices of concern" and require additional reports, and of course they can decline to renew the charter when it is next up for review. They can literally only revoke a charter when a school runs out of money (like Washington Math Science recently) or after failing to achieve academic targets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the amoutn of debt CMI has, I dpnt understand how they pay it off. Yes, they recieve tas dollars for students but is that nearly enough to cover the debt servce and salaries and growth of the middle school. I alraedy know their teachers arent paid nearly enough. I honestly don't understand why there isnt more oversight from the charter board on spending at schools. I know they are "independent" but clearly they need a better CFO!

There is oversight. That is literally what these reports are - the result of oversight activities. There are limits to how much debt is allowed and monitoring of cash flow and contracts.

CMIs Board now needs to act, or not. Same for their academic performance.

When is the CMI charter up for review/renewal?

It's only meaningful oversight if the board or DCPCSB actually does something. Just reporting that there's a deficit is not enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the amoutn of debt CMI has, I dpnt understand how they pay it off. Yes, they recieve tas dollars for students but is that nearly enough to cover the debt servce and salaries and growth of the middle school. I alraedy know their teachers arent paid nearly enough. I honestly don't understand why there isnt more oversight from the charter board on spending at schools. I know they are "independent" but clearly they need a better CFO!

Basically, what are they going to cut to pay it off? Parents should insist on knowing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the amoutn of debt CMI has, I dpnt understand how they pay it off. Yes, they recieve tas dollars for students but is that nearly enough to cover the debt servce and salaries and growth of the middle school. I alraedy know their teachers arent paid nearly enough. I honestly don't understand why there isnt more oversight from the charter board on spending at schools. I know they are "independent" but clearly they need a better CFO!

There is oversight. That is literally what these reports are - the result of oversight activities. There are limits to how much debt is allowed and monitoring of cash flow and contracts.

CMIs Board now needs to act, or not. Same for their academic performance.

When is the CMI charter up for review/renewal?

Anonymous wrote:Based on the amoutn of debt CMI has, I dpnt understand how they pay it off. Yes, they recieve tas dollars for students but is that nearly enough to cover the debt servce and salaries and growth of the middle school. I alraedy know their teachers arent paid nearly enough. I honestly don't understand why there isnt more oversight from the charter board on spending at schools. I know they are "independent" but clearly they need a better CFO!

Anonymous wrote:Based on the amoutn of debt CMI has, I dpnt understand how they pay it off. Yes, they recieve tas dollars for students but is that nearly enough to cover the debt servce and salaries and growth of the middle school. I alraedy know their teachers arent paid nearly enough. I honestly don't understand why there isnt more oversight from the charter board on spending at schools. I know they are "independent" but clearly they need a better CFO!

Anonymous wrote:Start another Langley thread already!!!

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cause for concern in the FAR report that just came out from DCPCSB.

https://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Creative%20Minds%20International%20PCS_FAR.pdf

This is super concerning. I don’t understand why they’re not on probation. The only reason they have mediocre scores is due to the significant number of wealthy students that attend. Ludicrous that anyone would send their kid there over any DCPS in Petworth (assuming most folks live in Petworth from what I hear).

Its a good thing they built a 300k playground.

There is no way this school should still be open. They need to be put on probation this school year. Let KIPP take over. Or maybe MV can take over that location in lieu of Brookland.

I'm not saying CMI should close, but they should reconsider their middle school, create a feed with ITS or someone, and open more elementary/ECE instead. I also took a look at Harmony and City Arts and Prep-- two schools DCUM has IDed at struggling, and their financials are remarkably better than CMI

City Arts' problems are something other than financial. Harmony is looking pretty bad. They're not as deep in debt as CMI, but they're a much, much smaller school and unable to attract students. I suspect the parent company is propping them up. But it's probably time to call it, and poor Langley will have to take in the kids.

I feel bad for sweet little Langley. Parents, teachers and admin have worked their tails off, and now Seaton is opening a new Kindergarten and has seats available. It's going to kill any rising K momentum they had going

I know I'm contributing to the tangent here, but I think this is a little off (and mean spirited). I don't think Langley's rising K momentum will be that great (mostly bc i know most of the bloomingdale/eckington families with a kid that age, and they are all happily situated at charters, another DCPS or have moved and I don't see anyone coming back to Langley), but I don't think it's related to Seaton, and the Seaton vs. Langley dynamic is off. (I am a Seaton family btw and we love it. It's such a gem. Mostly bc it was already a successful school before UMC families started enrolling -- Seaton has been serving middle class and working class families VERY well, as evidenced by the test scores -- there are zero "gentrifiers" in the testing grades, but the scores are really quite good.)

I do think Langley will be successful very soon -- there are so many baby people who paid $1 million to move to bloomingdale within the last couple of years. They are not moving. The wave is coming.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cause for concern in the FAR report that just came out from DCPCSB.

https://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Creative%20Minds%20International%20PCS_FAR.pdf

This is super concerning. I don’t understand why they’re not on probation. The only reason they have mediocre scores is due to the significant number of wealthy students that attend. Ludicrous that anyone would send their kid there over any DCPS in Petworth (assuming most folks live in Petworth from what I hear).

Its a good thing they built a 300k playground.

There is no way this school should still be open. They need to be put on probation this school year. Let KIPP take over. Or maybe MV can take over that location in lieu of Brookland.

I'm not saying CMI should close, but they should reconsider their middle school, create a feed with ITS or someone, and open more elementary/ECE instead. I also took a look at Harmony and City Arts and Prep-- two schools DCUM has IDed at struggling, and their financials are remarkably better than CMI

City Arts' problems are something other than financial. Harmony is looking pretty bad. They're not as deep in debt as CMI, but they're a much, much smaller school and unable to attract students. I suspect the parent company is propping them up. But it's probably time to call it, and poor Langley will have to take in the kids.

I feel bad for sweet little Langley. Parents, teachers and admin have worked their tails off, and now Seaton is opening a new Kindergarten and has seats available. It's going to kill any rising K momentum they had going

I know I'm contributing to the tangent here, but I think this is a little off (and mean spirited). I don't think Langley's rising K momentum will be that great (mostly bc i know most of the bloomingdale/eckington families with a kid that age, and they are all happily situated at charters, another DCPS or have moved and I don't see anyone coming back to Langley), but I don't think it's related to Seaton, and the Seaton vs. Langley dynamic is off. (I am a Seaton family btw and we love it. It's such a gem. Mostly bc it was already a successful school before UMC families started enrolling -- Seaton has been serving middle class and working class families VERY well, as evidenced by the test scores -- there are zero "gentrifiers" in the testing grades, but the scores are really quite good.)

I do think Langley will be successful very soon -- there are so many baby people who paid $1 million to move to bloomingdale within the last couple of years. They are not moving. The wave is coming.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cause for concern in the FAR report that just came out from DCPCSB.

https://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Creative%20Minds%20International%20PCS_FAR.pdf

This is super concerning. I don’t understand why they’re not on probation. The only reason they have mediocre scores is due to the significant number of wealthy students that attend. Ludicrous that anyone would send their kid there over any DCPS in Petworth (assuming most folks live in Petworth from what I hear).

Its a good thing they built a 300k playground.

There is no way this school should still be open. They need to be put on probation this school year. Let KIPP take over. Or maybe MV can take over that location in lieu of Brookland.

I'm not saying CMI should close, but they should reconsider their middle school, create a feed with ITS or someone, and open more elementary/ECE instead. I also took a look at Harmony and City Arts and Prep-- two schools DCUM has IDed at struggling, and their financials are remarkably better than CMI

City Arts' problems are something other than financial. Harmony is looking pretty bad. They're not as deep in debt as CMI, but they're a much, much smaller school and unable to attract students. I suspect the parent company is propping them up. But it's probably time to call it, and poor Langley will have to take in the kids.

I feel bad for sweet little Langley. Parents, teachers and admin have worked their tails off, and now Seaton is opening a new Kindergarten and has seats available. It's going to kill any rising K momentum they had going