Anonymous wrote:Let's be fair, DCPS hasn't barely had 10 full school weeks this year. The number of PD/Conference/other days off is insane

This school year? DCPS has had 3 PD days so far since August, with another scheduled for tomorrow for the end of term. There has also been one day off for parent-teacher conferences (that was combined with one of the PD days for a 4 day weekend).

The remaining days off have all been holidays or scheduled breaks, which charters also observe.

I would rather have to figure out childcare for 4 full PD days from August to January, all of which are scheduled to coincide with a weekend and several to coincide with existing holidays to create 4 day weekends, than to pay for childcare for my child every single Wednesday due to early release.

Also isn't the early release more disruptive to their schedule? At our DCPS, there is instruction after lunch. Missing a full day of instruction for a PD day feels far less disruptive to learning than having a half day every single week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cap City does early release on Wed at 1

Wednesday is insane. Parents have a full day of work! Wednesdays are typically mandatory in-office days. WTF. How do you all cope?

We're at Cap City this year. They offer aftercare for Wednesday afternoons if needed.

Our family has been at MV C8 for many years. The early Wednesday drives me nuts but I knew about going in so… I just wish it was on Friday instead of Wednesday, it would be a bit less annoying.

I don’t think it’s been mentioned yet but Stokes also has a 1pm dismissal on Fridays.

I think it’s safe to assume MOST elementary charters have weekly half days. They’re wildly annoying and even worse is having to pay for and enroll in the unorganized aftercare program for time my kid should be in class anyways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two Rivers has regular half days. Every Wednesday. We looked at them for this current school year but when they told me about this at the open house, it was a no for me. There is an option for after care but if you aren't already paying for 5 days a week of aftercare, it costs extra on Wednesdays just for your kid to stay until the normal release time. This was insane to me. We do aftercare 2 days a week but the idea of paying for an extra day just to cover normal school hours makes no sense to me.

I get teachers need PD time but building it into the school week like that is such an FU to working parents. We are at a DCPS now and they usually tack PD days onto existing 3 day weekends (like we just had a 4 day weekend for MLK day because they made Friday a PD day). That is much easier to plan for IMO.

Op here- this is exactly how I feel. Lamb honestly isn’t good enough to have me wreck my life so they can have extra half days. I don’t want to pay even more to Casa Lala either.

Agreed. I honestly feel like charters do this intentionally because they know a lot of working class parents rely on school for childcare and will balk, so it's a way to artificially ensure they have a higher SES student base, which is easier for them. Sketchy for a taxpayer funded public school IMO.

As someone who has worked in DC schools for decades, you sound insane. This is not a thing.

Regular half days at charters that leave working parents scrambling for childcare is definitely a thing. Read the thread.

Nobody is arguing about that. What is insane is arguing that schools do this to force out poor families. That’s a crazy thing to think.

If you think that's crazy wait to you hear other ways charters cook the books to force out low SES students, like waiting until November after numbers have been solidified for the following year to kick kids out.

That is interesting because that’s when our charter just stopped providing IEP services. I complained and complained and they basically told me to find another school.

+1

I posted this on another thread but in the winter a family we know was told their child was struggling at the charter and probably should transfer from the school. Not surprised knowing which school this is, nor is it surprising given the ward this family lives in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two Rivers has regular half days. Every Wednesday. We looked at them for this current school year but when they told me about this at the open house, it was a no for me. There is an option for after care but if you aren't already paying for 5 days a week of aftercare, it costs extra on Wednesdays just for your kid to stay until the normal release time. This was insane to me. We do aftercare 2 days a week but the idea of paying for an extra day just to cover normal school hours makes no sense to me.

I get teachers need PD time but building it into the school week like that is such an FU to working parents. We are at a DCPS now and they usually tack PD days onto existing 3 day weekends (like we just had a 4 day weekend for MLK day because they made Friday a PD day). That is much easier to plan for IMO.

Op here- this is exactly how I feel. Lamb honestly isn’t good enough to have me wreck my life so they can have extra half days. I don’t want to pay even more to Casa Lala either.

Agreed. I honestly feel like charters do this intentionally because they know a lot of working class parents rely on school for childcare and will balk, so it's a way to artificially ensure they have a higher SES student base, which is easier for them. Sketchy for a taxpayer funded public school IMO.

Agree with this. We were at a charter that explicitly said in their open house that they recognized that this tended to attract a certain kind of family... and they didn't seem sad about it.

Please share the name of that charter. I have my guesses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two Rivers has regular half days. Every Wednesday. We looked at them for this current school year but when they told me about this at the open house, it was a no for me. There is an option for after care but if you aren't already paying for 5 days a week of aftercare, it costs extra on Wednesdays just for your kid to stay until the normal release time. This was insane to me. We do aftercare 2 days a week but the idea of paying for an extra day just to cover normal school hours makes no sense to me.

I get teachers need PD time but building it into the school week like that is such an FU to working parents. We are at a DCPS now and they usually tack PD days onto existing 3 day weekends (like we just had a 4 day weekend for MLK day because they made Friday a PD day). That is much easier to plan for IMO.

Op here- this is exactly how I feel. Lamb honestly isn’t good enough to have me wreck my life so they can have extra half days. I don’t want to pay even more to Casa Lala either.

Agreed. I honestly feel like charters do this intentionally because they know a lot of working class parents rely on school for childcare and will balk, so it's a way to artificially ensure they have a higher SES student base, which is easier for them. Sketchy for a taxpayer funded public school IMO.

As someone who has worked in DC schools for decades, you sound insane. This is not a thing.

Regular half days at charters that leave working parents scrambling for childcare is definitely a thing. Read the thread.

Nobody is arguing about that. What is insane is arguing that schools do this to force out poor families. That’s a crazy thing to think.

If you think that's crazy wait to you hear other ways charters cook the books to force out low SES students, like waiting until November after numbers have been solidified for the following year to kick kids out.

That is interesting because that’s when our charter just stopped providing IEP services. I complained and complained and they basically told me to find another school.

We left a charter that had a weekly half day for DCPS. It wasn’t the reason we left, but after not having it anymore, i realized that a weekly half day is a terrible idea. We much prefer the regular 5 full day schedule. Would rather have the full PD days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two Rivers has regular half days. Every Wednesday. We looked at them for this current school year but when they told me about this at the open house, it was a no for me. There is an option for after care but if you aren't already paying for 5 days a week of aftercare, it costs extra on Wednesdays just for your kid to stay until the normal release time. This was insane to me. We do aftercare 2 days a week but the idea of paying for an extra day just to cover normal school hours makes no sense to me.

I get teachers need PD time but building it into the school week like that is such an FU to working parents. We are at a DCPS now and they usually tack PD days onto existing 3 day weekends (like we just had a 4 day weekend for MLK day because they made Friday a PD day). That is much easier to plan for IMO.

Op here- this is exactly how I feel. Lamb honestly isn’t good enough to have me wreck my life so they can have extra half days. I don’t want to pay even more to Casa Lala either.

Agreed. I honestly feel like charters do this intentionally because they know a lot of working class parents rely on school for childcare and will balk, so it's a way to artificially ensure they have a higher SES student base, which is easier for them. Sketchy for a taxpayer funded public school IMO.

As someone who has worked in DC schools for decades, you sound insane. This is not a thing.

Regular half days at charters that leave working parents scrambling for childcare is definitely a thing. Read the thread.

Nobody is arguing about that. What is insane is arguing that schools do this to force out poor families. That’s a crazy thing to think.

If you think that's crazy wait to you hear other ways charters cook the books to force out low SES students, like waiting until November after numbers have been solidified for the following year to kick kids out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two Rivers has regular half days. Every Wednesday. We looked at them for this current school year but when they told me about this at the open house, it was a no for me. There is an option for after care but if you aren't already paying for 5 days a week of aftercare, it costs extra on Wednesdays just for your kid to stay until the normal release time. This was insane to me. We do aftercare 2 days a week but the idea of paying for an extra day just to cover normal school hours makes no sense to me.

I get teachers need PD time but building it into the school week like that is such an FU to working parents. We are at a DCPS now and they usually tack PD days onto existing 3 day weekends (like we just had a 4 day weekend for MLK day because they made Friday a PD day). That is much easier to plan for IMO.

Op here- this is exactly how I feel. Lamb honestly isn’t good enough to have me wreck my life so they can have extra half days. I don’t want to pay even more to Casa Lala either.

Agreed. I honestly feel like charters do this intentionally because they know a lot of working class parents rely on school for childcare and will balk, so it's a way to artificially ensure they have a higher SES student base, which is easier for them. Sketchy for a taxpayer funded public school IMO.

Agree with this. We were at a charter that explicitly said in their open house that they recognized that this tended to attract a certain kind of family... and they didn't seem sad about it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our charter is 8:30-3:30, which is an hour longer than our IB which is 9-3.

Also, if you like the charter and value it for other characteristics, there is likely a childcare solution. Casa Lala, for example, caters to many charter schools with early release days. I believe Brillando does as well.

It's not my favorite from a work perspective, but my kids look forward to their early release day, and I think 2 hours a week for them to do an aftercare activitiy (yoga,dance,art) or come home and get some extra down time is also valuable to them.

I think this might be your charter trying to stretch the truth.

Our IB's instructional hours are 9-3, but drop off starts at 8:15 and pick-up starts at 3:15 and you are not late for pick up as long as you get there before 3:30. Which I'm guess is similar to what your charter is doing, it's just they are fudging and making it sound like instructional hours are 8:30-3:30 when in reality they are probably 9-3 and the extra 30 minutes on each end is spent getting kids to the classroom or to the pick-up location or aftercare, as is the case at all elementary schools.

Our IB advertises its hours as 8:45-3:15 and I imagine it's more-or-less equivalent to both the 9-3 IB and your 8:30-3:30 charter in real terms. FWIW after school activities don't start until 3:45, because many classes really don't stop instruction until 3:15, so the actual dismissal time is later.