Anonymous
06/15/2023 00:08
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
Open letter signed by over a 100 families sent to the administration and the board—- also copied outside agencies like the charter board. They got no response from the school or their board.
Dear Mundo Verde Board of Directors and School Executives,
We hope this letter finds you well. We would like to draw your attention to a large collective voice of very concerned third grade and other Mundo Verde (MV) parents and caregivers regarding pressing matters related to the children's education and experience with the school, and parents’/caregivers' experiences in communications with school Executives and school Administrators. We sincerely hope that by sharing our perspectives and concerns, we can collaborate with the Board, Executives and Administrators to address these critical issues, ensure a positive learning environment for all students, and establish better communications protocols to ensure complete, accurate and “time-stamped” data is compiled and accessible by appropriate School Board of Directors and School Executives relatively tasked with oversight and accountability of School Executives and School Administrators.
Over the past two years, our community has witnessed an unsettling pattern of instability within the third grade classrooms, with five lead teachers leaving their positions mid-year. This constant turnover has resulted in significant disruptions, negatively impacting our children's academic progress. A clear example is the loss of a full classroom (from second to third grade), which, to our knowledge, is unprecedented in MV history.
Furthermore, the combined impact of these departures, the challenges posed by the pandemic, and the instructional model that requires students to learn the curriculum 50% of the time in Spanish have further complicated the situation for many students. Some are struggling to catch up due to pandemic-related learning loss, while others are new to the Spanish or English language.
Unfortunately, relying solely on substitutes as a temporary solution falls short of meeting the needs of ALL children. We firmly believe that MV requires an active and comprehensive plan to address the consequences of the staffing challenges faced by the third grade over the past two years, and we deserve to know the details of this plan to better inform our decisions to re-enroll next year. While we may not have data available for all students, we believe that, generally speaking, this grade is academically behind grade-level expectations. Many parents who have the means have resorted to hiring tutors to ensure their children do not fall further behind. This creates a two-tier education system and significant inequities among students. We cannot simply hope that the fourth grade teachers or the new model of two principals will solve the specific issues related to this grade.
We understand that managing the daily operations of MV Charter School is a complex task and that the school has a dedicated team of educators and administrators. However, we are addressing this letter to the School Board and School Executives because we are desperate for change.
A number of recent events highlight a lack of control over the daily operations of MV for the past couple of years, and MV's leadership must start taking responsibility for them. Just last week, our students had to take the PARCC test. However, the substitute teacher did not arrive on time on Monday or on Tuesday. On Monday, it took approximately 15 minutes for the school to realize the absence of the substitute. As a result, the lead teacher had to run from one classroom to another to ensure students' safety and well-being. This situation is unacceptable.
When caregivers approached leadership for answers following these events, administrators often seemed oblivious to material facts. Caregivers are repeatedly told that teachers are being adequately supported by administrators, but this simply wasn’t the case last week and our analysis shows a similar lack of support has led to most of the school’s daily issues. It was beyond frustrating to hear a chief of school say they are not aware of the problem, especially when children are unsupervised for any length of time two days in a row. Trust and confidence are our most critical bridges between caregivers and the administration, and they’re dangerously eroding. This shouldn’t be allowed to continue.
The Importance of Proper Staffing, Staff Assignments and Support
While we would welcome a debate around the proposed Academy model and the need for additional administrative resources at the school, we cannot shift our attention from the obvious shortage of resources in the classrooms. For immediate operational improvements that matter far more than reorganizing and bolstering the administration, we urge you to consider these specific suggestions formed after countless conversations with third grade teachers and students:
Classes need to be properly staffed and supported to meet MV’s mission of quality bilingual and special education. To us, this means:
English and Spanish teachers are always present in each classroom. One or more bilingual Teachers’ Aides should always be present in at least each grade level. Bilingual Teachers’ Aides should be assigned to address classroom disruptions utilizing Restorative Practices regardless of the tier of the infraction. This ensures:
That teachers can continue to teach and maintain order in the classroom with minimal disruption to the lesson plan.
An orderly transition for the disruptive student(s) to rejoin the class if/when appropriate or an escalation in intervention to include the Restorative Practice team members should behavior worsen or continue (even for Tier 1 offenses) to draw upon critical classroom resources. See next point.
The Restorative Practice disciplinary approach needs to prioritize returning critical classroom human resources (with their full attention) to the classrooms to perform their primary objectives.
Restorative Practice team members should never feel that their time and energy would be wasted on Tier 1 or Tier 2 infractions. They should always be ready and willing to assist any teacher or aide should a request be made, with the understanding that our collective priority is to return classroom human resources able to apply their full attention to the class and their lesson plan.
All staff should be trained on the Restorative Practice model and be able to implement and assist where needed. This is a continued training and not just a one time session.
Daily failures to meet these critical staffing requirements should be communicated with parents/caregivers quickly, in a safe and secure manner, so we can assist, in any way we can, to help the school to restore order.
One or more Special Education Teachers need to be on staff where necessary. One of the third grade classrooms has a Spanish speaking autistic child that spends most if not all of his day on an iPad due to lack of a necessary SPED Teacher. Subtitle A, Title 5, Chapter 30 (5-A DCMR §3000-3099) clearly states appropriate procedures to follow and how to access free appropriate public education (FAPE) for this child and possibly others in need.
A clear plan for the fourth grade. We respectfully request that you communicate your staffing plans for next year. Ideally, the school will be able to retain the current fourth-grade teachers. However, if that is not possible, we urge you to hire teachers with at least some experience. Given the unique MV instructional model, it is challenging for new teachers to learn the model, especially if they are brand new to teaching.
Address the issue of accepting new students in the fourth grade. We are aware that more families will leave our grade due to the issues we have experienced. Adding more students who are new to Spanish or English will continue to pose challenges. If you plan on adding new students, please explain how the school proposes to support these students when fourth grade concepts, writing, and reading levels will be difficult to follow for those new to the Spanish or English languages. We have heard from teachers in different grades that the direction is translating everything to English. This practice is not conducive to a bilingual immersion program and places unreasonable expectations on teachers.
The school’s existing policies and procedures for teachers are also not being followed and are seemingly inadequate; the curriculum must be updated immediately. Meetings conducted by parents with three of the four third grade teachers who left mid-year this year exposed an eight-year-old curriculum supposedly accessible via Google Docs consisting of hyperlinks, half of which were broken with no alternatives provided. When questioned, Dr. Joseph merely stated that MV has convened a “Curriculum Task Force” to address the issue. Meanwhile, some teachers have informed parents that they do not have any clear curriculum from which to teach following PARCC testing. This process simply can’t wait, and parents/caregivers deserve transparent, real-time communications showing that this has been addressed.
We all know that teacher salaries at MV are not competitive even after the raises approved for next year. The MV Teachers’ Union is crystal clear that money is chief among the improvements they seek. Before using critical resources to bolster existing administrator ranks, the current situation calls for an honest, transparent assessment of the core team that plans to continue with MV after what has been an incredibly difficult number of years, particularly for some stakeholders. We should have an open discussion to explore all viable avenues (including whatever money is being made available for additional administrators) to achieve competitive pay for all our classroom teachers and the school should use clear, unambiguous terms regarding compensation in their contracts.
The Importance of Communication and Collaboration
Furthermore, we emphasize the importance of transparency and communication. Communications must be accurate and transparent. Recently, the message we received from Principal Netta and Dean Ronald titled “Message to Third Grade Families” on May 11, 2023 (more than 48 hours after the first event) regarding insufficient staffing in the third grade, during PARCC testing, included important inaccuracies. Several adults involved, supported by many students’ accounts, informed us that the appropriate staff was unaware that the students were alone for extended periods on two consecutive days. Unfortunately, this is just one example of a systemic issue that hinders proper communications and prevents effective crisis management.
Collectively, as teachers, administrators, staff, parents/caregivers, volunteers, etc., we deserve to understand the roles and responsibilities of everyone on campus and gaps in coverage so together we can address issues in real-time and actively assist if necessary. We strongly urge you to open these specific, active lines of communication in a safe and secure manner.
Caregivers are immensely frustrated with their inability to meaningfully engage directly with School Executives, and School Administrators. Your greatest stakeholders (representing ourselves and our children) ought neither be viewed nor treated as adversaries. Yet, we are repeatedly denied meetings that we request with Administrators and Executives are critically absent from important meetings they are scheduled to attend. We are begging to be heard and allowed to better participate and provide support. Many in attendance for our most recent “Coffee with the Principal” meeting were delivering messages and sentiments on behalf of others that understandably couldn’t be present for a meeting in person at 2 PM on a workday. Despite our requests to broadcast the meeting to ensure other voices can be heard, the administration consistently denies this request. This is but one example of a much bigger structural issue at this school that stifles the flow of information.
Finally, we formally request that the Board Chairs of the Governance and Internal Committees and the “Parents/Guadians” Directors be granted full access to the email address, board@mundoverdepcs.org, (not forwarded some possibly filtered subset of messages) so stakeholders can be assured that they are aware of important matters pertaining to the oversight and accountability of Executives and Administrators. We should all want to avoid potential conflicts of interest that may lead to the suppression of information necessary for the School Board to properly carry out these official duties.
Conclusion
We’re all trying our best to reserve judgment on MV’s plan to restructure the administration at each campus and hoping for the best. That said, your proposed changes do not directly address our major concerns with the school. Since coming back physically to the school, caregivers have been advocating for more support in the classroom and have asked that at every grade there is a lead teacher for each language and an aide. Our collective experiences reflect an ill-defined, poorly assigned and/or critically unmet roles and responsibilities pertaining to classroom affairs, the administration being disrespectful and often disingenuous regarding internal affairs and external communications, and a void of true oversight and accountability by the School Board and School Executives of this school, rather than a shortage of administrators.
This school has some very serious issues that now require a level of engagement from you that we need and have yet to experience. We have no doubt that you are aware of the many communications caregivers are having with the DC SBOE and the DC PCSB. If not, know that they are active and will continue until observable changes are made to adequately involve our amazing caregiver community. Please understand, the events at MV, various unacceptable responses from administrators and our inability to engage the School Board due to restrictive internal and external communications policies, leave caregivers with no other current viable options to seek necessary changes. We strongly urge you to enact policies that allow for better transparency and more thoughtful and meaningful parent/caregiver engagement so we can resolve these issues amicably and build a more cohesive environment throughout the school’s ranks. Together, we know that we can create a positive learning environment for all students at MV.
Finally, whether you agree with our perspective or have a different plan to address the issues mentioned above, this group would greatly appreciate a formal response to our letter.
Thank you for your attention to these critical concerns.
Sincerely,
Very Concerned Third Grade and other MV Parents/Caregivers
Dear Mundo Verde Board of Directors and School Executives,
We hope this letter finds you well. We would like to draw your attention to a large collective voice of very concerned third grade and other Mundo Verde (MV) parents and caregivers regarding pressing matters related to the children's education and experience with the school, and parents’/caregivers' experiences in communications with school Executives and school Administrators. We sincerely hope that by sharing our perspectives and concerns, we can collaborate with the Board, Executives and Administrators to address these critical issues, ensure a positive learning environment for all students, and establish better communications protocols to ensure complete, accurate and “time-stamped” data is compiled and accessible by appropriate School Board of Directors and School Executives relatively tasked with oversight and accountability of School Executives and School Administrators.
Over the past two years, our community has witnessed an unsettling pattern of instability within the third grade classrooms, with five lead teachers leaving their positions mid-year. This constant turnover has resulted in significant disruptions, negatively impacting our children's academic progress. A clear example is the loss of a full classroom (from second to third grade), which, to our knowledge, is unprecedented in MV history.
Furthermore, the combined impact of these departures, the challenges posed by the pandemic, and the instructional model that requires students to learn the curriculum 50% of the time in Spanish have further complicated the situation for many students. Some are struggling to catch up due to pandemic-related learning loss, while others are new to the Spanish or English language.
Unfortunately, relying solely on substitutes as a temporary solution falls short of meeting the needs of ALL children. We firmly believe that MV requires an active and comprehensive plan to address the consequences of the staffing challenges faced by the third grade over the past two years, and we deserve to know the details of this plan to better inform our decisions to re-enroll next year. While we may not have data available for all students, we believe that, generally speaking, this grade is academically behind grade-level expectations. Many parents who have the means have resorted to hiring tutors to ensure their children do not fall further behind. This creates a two-tier education system and significant inequities among students. We cannot simply hope that the fourth grade teachers or the new model of two principals will solve the specific issues related to this grade.
We understand that managing the daily operations of MV Charter School is a complex task and that the school has a dedicated team of educators and administrators. However, we are addressing this letter to the School Board and School Executives because we are desperate for change.
A number of recent events highlight a lack of control over the daily operations of MV for the past couple of years, and MV's leadership must start taking responsibility for them. Just last week, our students had to take the PARCC test. However, the substitute teacher did not arrive on time on Monday or on Tuesday. On Monday, it took approximately 15 minutes for the school to realize the absence of the substitute. As a result, the lead teacher had to run from one classroom to another to ensure students' safety and well-being. This situation is unacceptable.
When caregivers approached leadership for answers following these events, administrators often seemed oblivious to material facts. Caregivers are repeatedly told that teachers are being adequately supported by administrators, but this simply wasn’t the case last week and our analysis shows a similar lack of support has led to most of the school’s daily issues. It was beyond frustrating to hear a chief of school say they are not aware of the problem, especially when children are unsupervised for any length of time two days in a row. Trust and confidence are our most critical bridges between caregivers and the administration, and they’re dangerously eroding. This shouldn’t be allowed to continue.
The Importance of Proper Staffing, Staff Assignments and Support
While we would welcome a debate around the proposed Academy model and the need for additional administrative resources at the school, we cannot shift our attention from the obvious shortage of resources in the classrooms. For immediate operational improvements that matter far more than reorganizing and bolstering the administration, we urge you to consider these specific suggestions formed after countless conversations with third grade teachers and students:
Classes need to be properly staffed and supported to meet MV’s mission of quality bilingual and special education. To us, this means:
English and Spanish teachers are always present in each classroom. One or more bilingual Teachers’ Aides should always be present in at least each grade level. Bilingual Teachers’ Aides should be assigned to address classroom disruptions utilizing Restorative Practices regardless of the tier of the infraction. This ensures:
That teachers can continue to teach and maintain order in the classroom with minimal disruption to the lesson plan.
An orderly transition for the disruptive student(s) to rejoin the class if/when appropriate or an escalation in intervention to include the Restorative Practice team members should behavior worsen or continue (even for Tier 1 offenses) to draw upon critical classroom resources. See next point.
The Restorative Practice disciplinary approach needs to prioritize returning critical classroom human resources (with their full attention) to the classrooms to perform their primary objectives.
Restorative Practice team members should never feel that their time and energy would be wasted on Tier 1 or Tier 2 infractions. They should always be ready and willing to assist any teacher or aide should a request be made, with the understanding that our collective priority is to return classroom human resources able to apply their full attention to the class and their lesson plan.
All staff should be trained on the Restorative Practice model and be able to implement and assist where needed. This is a continued training and not just a one time session.
Daily failures to meet these critical staffing requirements should be communicated with parents/caregivers quickly, in a safe and secure manner, so we can assist, in any way we can, to help the school to restore order.
One or more Special Education Teachers need to be on staff where necessary. One of the third grade classrooms has a Spanish speaking autistic child that spends most if not all of his day on an iPad due to lack of a necessary SPED Teacher. Subtitle A, Title 5, Chapter 30 (5-A DCMR §3000-3099) clearly states appropriate procedures to follow and how to access free appropriate public education (FAPE) for this child and possibly others in need.
A clear plan for the fourth grade. We respectfully request that you communicate your staffing plans for next year. Ideally, the school will be able to retain the current fourth-grade teachers. However, if that is not possible, we urge you to hire teachers with at least some experience. Given the unique MV instructional model, it is challenging for new teachers to learn the model, especially if they are brand new to teaching.
Address the issue of accepting new students in the fourth grade. We are aware that more families will leave our grade due to the issues we have experienced. Adding more students who are new to Spanish or English will continue to pose challenges. If you plan on adding new students, please explain how the school proposes to support these students when fourth grade concepts, writing, and reading levels will be difficult to follow for those new to the Spanish or English languages. We have heard from teachers in different grades that the direction is translating everything to English. This practice is not conducive to a bilingual immersion program and places unreasonable expectations on teachers.
The school’s existing policies and procedures for teachers are also not being followed and are seemingly inadequate; the curriculum must be updated immediately. Meetings conducted by parents with three of the four third grade teachers who left mid-year this year exposed an eight-year-old curriculum supposedly accessible via Google Docs consisting of hyperlinks, half of which were broken with no alternatives provided. When questioned, Dr. Joseph merely stated that MV has convened a “Curriculum Task Force” to address the issue. Meanwhile, some teachers have informed parents that they do not have any clear curriculum from which to teach following PARCC testing. This process simply can’t wait, and parents/caregivers deserve transparent, real-time communications showing that this has been addressed.
We all know that teacher salaries at MV are not competitive even after the raises approved for next year. The MV Teachers’ Union is crystal clear that money is chief among the improvements they seek. Before using critical resources to bolster existing administrator ranks, the current situation calls for an honest, transparent assessment of the core team that plans to continue with MV after what has been an incredibly difficult number of years, particularly for some stakeholders. We should have an open discussion to explore all viable avenues (including whatever money is being made available for additional administrators) to achieve competitive pay for all our classroom teachers and the school should use clear, unambiguous terms regarding compensation in their contracts.
The Importance of Communication and Collaboration
Furthermore, we emphasize the importance of transparency and communication. Communications must be accurate and transparent. Recently, the message we received from Principal Netta and Dean Ronald titled “Message to Third Grade Families” on May 11, 2023 (more than 48 hours after the first event) regarding insufficient staffing in the third grade, during PARCC testing, included important inaccuracies. Several adults involved, supported by many students’ accounts, informed us that the appropriate staff was unaware that the students were alone for extended periods on two consecutive days. Unfortunately, this is just one example of a systemic issue that hinders proper communications and prevents effective crisis management.
Collectively, as teachers, administrators, staff, parents/caregivers, volunteers, etc., we deserve to understand the roles and responsibilities of everyone on campus and gaps in coverage so together we can address issues in real-time and actively assist if necessary. We strongly urge you to open these specific, active lines of communication in a safe and secure manner.
Caregivers are immensely frustrated with their inability to meaningfully engage directly with School Executives, and School Administrators. Your greatest stakeholders (representing ourselves and our children) ought neither be viewed nor treated as adversaries. Yet, we are repeatedly denied meetings that we request with Administrators and Executives are critically absent from important meetings they are scheduled to attend. We are begging to be heard and allowed to better participate and provide support. Many in attendance for our most recent “Coffee with the Principal” meeting were delivering messages and sentiments on behalf of others that understandably couldn’t be present for a meeting in person at 2 PM on a workday. Despite our requests to broadcast the meeting to ensure other voices can be heard, the administration consistently denies this request. This is but one example of a much bigger structural issue at this school that stifles the flow of information.
Finally, we formally request that the Board Chairs of the Governance and Internal Committees and the “Parents/Guadians” Directors be granted full access to the email address, board@mundoverdepcs.org, (not forwarded some possibly filtered subset of messages) so stakeholders can be assured that they are aware of important matters pertaining to the oversight and accountability of Executives and Administrators. We should all want to avoid potential conflicts of interest that may lead to the suppression of information necessary for the School Board to properly carry out these official duties.
Conclusion
We’re all trying our best to reserve judgment on MV’s plan to restructure the administration at each campus and hoping for the best. That said, your proposed changes do not directly address our major concerns with the school. Since coming back physically to the school, caregivers have been advocating for more support in the classroom and have asked that at every grade there is a lead teacher for each language and an aide. Our collective experiences reflect an ill-defined, poorly assigned and/or critically unmet roles and responsibilities pertaining to classroom affairs, the administration being disrespectful and often disingenuous regarding internal affairs and external communications, and a void of true oversight and accountability by the School Board and School Executives of this school, rather than a shortage of administrators.
This school has some very serious issues that now require a level of engagement from you that we need and have yet to experience. We have no doubt that you are aware of the many communications caregivers are having with the DC SBOE and the DC PCSB. If not, know that they are active and will continue until observable changes are made to adequately involve our amazing caregiver community. Please understand, the events at MV, various unacceptable responses from administrators and our inability to engage the School Board due to restrictive internal and external communications policies, leave caregivers with no other current viable options to seek necessary changes. We strongly urge you to enact policies that allow for better transparency and more thoughtful and meaningful parent/caregiver engagement so we can resolve these issues amicably and build a more cohesive environment throughout the school’s ranks. Together, we know that we can create a positive learning environment for all students at MV.
Finally, whether you agree with our perspective or have a different plan to address the issues mentioned above, this group would greatly appreciate a formal response to our letter.
Thank you for your attention to these critical concerns.
Sincerely,
Very Concerned Third Grade and other MV Parents/Caregivers
Anonymous
06/15/2023 00:03
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
During PARCC testing this year, one of the long-term subs didn’t show up. At all. Classroom completely unattended until a student alerted another teacher. This happened TWO days in a row! When parents demanded from the chief of schools on the third day to know if their kids were going to have a teacher that day, he had no idea what they were talking about. (Not sure if it’s worse if he was lying or if he was telling the truth.)
Later that day, all the third grade parents get a note from the school telling us our kids were never unsupervised, testing was never interrupted, etc. They tell us repeatedly to disregard what we hear from our kids and our teachers and only believe the administration.
Later that day, all the third grade parents get a note from the school telling us our kids were never unsupervised, testing was never interrupted, etc. They tell us repeatedly to disregard what we hear from our kids and our teachers and only believe the administration.
Anonymous
06/15/2023 00:00
Subject: Re:Protest at Mundo on P street
This is the message that the school administrators sent to the entire community in response to the protest. It seems a little apathetic to the issues the children are facing—
“Dear Mundo Verde Families,
We are writing to let you know that a group of Third Grade parents and caregivers from J.F. Cook campus organized a protest today, June 14, during arrival. Please be aware that while we hope to minimize disruptions during arrival and 5th grade Expo, this small group may continue these actions tomorrow. While we hope it will not be repeated on Thursday, some parents and caregivers brought accusatory signage to campus on Wednesday - a regrettable and unfortunate public display of disrespect for the core values of ESPICA that we teach our students and ask everyone to practice.
Some students might have seen this action by these parents/caregivers, some might have been encouraged to participate in various ways, and some might have been upset as a result. Teachers and staff will be on alert Thursday to identify any unusual stress or worry that this situation may have caused and will encourage students to share any concerns they may have.
The stated goal of this protest was to schedule a meeting with the school leadership to talk about staffing and their experience with the school. Without listing all the meetings, hours and events, please know that school leadership has held many hours of meetings throughout the year to listen carefully to the concerns raised. If you would like to know more about the specific opportunities that have been provided for these discussions please contact us.
As school leaders, we will continue to actively engage with all members of the community who are contributing to the school’s overall success.”
“Dear Mundo Verde Families,
We are writing to let you know that a group of Third Grade parents and caregivers from J.F. Cook campus organized a protest today, June 14, during arrival. Please be aware that while we hope to minimize disruptions during arrival and 5th grade Expo, this small group may continue these actions tomorrow. While we hope it will not be repeated on Thursday, some parents and caregivers brought accusatory signage to campus on Wednesday - a regrettable and unfortunate public display of disrespect for the core values of ESPICA that we teach our students and ask everyone to practice.
Some students might have seen this action by these parents/caregivers, some might have been encouraged to participate in various ways, and some might have been upset as a result. Teachers and staff will be on alert Thursday to identify any unusual stress or worry that this situation may have caused and will encourage students to share any concerns they may have.
The stated goal of this protest was to schedule a meeting with the school leadership to talk about staffing and their experience with the school. Without listing all the meetings, hours and events, please know that school leadership has held many hours of meetings throughout the year to listen carefully to the concerns raised. If you would like to know more about the specific opportunities that have been provided for these discussions please contact us.
As school leaders, we will continue to actively engage with all members of the community who are contributing to the school’s overall success.”
Anonymous
06/15/2023 00:00
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
Anonymous wrote:I had kids at MV and the school’s leadership truly is horrendous. They marginalize parents and teachers, and undervalue curriculum. MV has had some really good teachers throughout the years, but they leave out of frustration.
I agree with others that the charters are in a difficult financial situation. They don’t have the structural support of a DCPS school and so they turn to expansion to help to create scales of economy.
But the there are much bigger problems at MV than the normal charter school issues. Frankly, I’m shocked that the MV board has been so feckless, disinterested, and/or ignorant about the challenges facing the school. There’s long been a need for new leadership and ample evidence to make changes. But they do nothing. The board should be called out for their inaction.
Re: fundraising, maybe things have changed but MV has always had weak fundraising. Equity issues sidelined what had been a successful gala. But the school shows such disdain for parents that it discourages giving. Also, fundraising can have the effect of empowering parents and this school has survived by disempowering and disengaging parents.
It’s truly sad because this school had so much wonderful energy at the outset.
The MV board and the public school charter board need to step in.
Immediate meetings with affected parents should have already been scheduled. This is bananas.
Anonymous
06/14/2023 23:57
Subject: Re:Protest at Mundo on P street
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that the third grade class has experienced serious issues with teacher attrition this year as well as last year, to the point where kids have been without a teacher for long periods of time.
I think that's why their requests for teachers for this year seem excessive -- the issue is that kids have had short term subs and been stuck with virtual learning aids for significant portions of this year, and the families want the school to prioritize getting teachers in those classrooms NOW to address learning loss that has happened this year and last due to the school's inability to retain teachers.
I also suspect that is what the request for summer programming is for -- not just regular summer school/camp, but extra services for these specific kids to address deficiencies in their experience over the last two years from teacher attrition.
I feel bad for the kids who are struggling through this. I know a kid at another immersion charter who had a bunch of teacher losses this year and it's so hard on the kids. A school should be able to, at a minimum, provide kids with continuity in teaching during the duration of the school year. The fact that multiple teachers are bailing in the middle of the year is really bad.
What do you mean? In school virtual learning with subs?
Is MV8 really not having these issues? If it's about pay and structural issues with MV, why wouldn't MV8 teachers be having the same problems?
I mean, it's not even clear that this is a problem with all of Cooke campus, or just specific to the 3rd grade cohort. I can see a situation where these kids came out of Covid virtual school, lost a teacher last year maybe mid-year, got a new teacher but had lag time in between, the new teacher had a huge hill to climb because the kids really had not had consistent instruction since pre-Covid, and that led that teacher to quit, too.
(I have serious questions about any teacher who will quit mid-year, it's something I've never understood unless your job is actually abusive or you have extenuating circumstances in your life -- I would stick it out until the end of the year if I could for the kids, but it happens).
Anyway, it's unclear if this is a school-wide issue or just a series of unfortunate circumstances for this class. Either way, the school is responsible to these kids for fixing it, obviously.
I will say there may be something about 3rd graders. These were the kids in kindergarten when the pandemic hit. Our 3rd graders in our fancy WOTP elementary are kind of jerks too. So are a lot of the 4th graders. Missed some formative life skills from 5-7 years old
Fancy elementary school? And you come to post on a thread about a school that is struggling? Wow. And you’re calling 9 year olds jerks? Take a look at yourself in the mirror.
Anonymous
06/14/2023 23:50
Subject: Re:Protest at Mundo on P street
Chiming in to support MV.
Our family is very happy with MV8. We have had great teachers, and the community is strong. Agree there are issues (as with every school), but not enough to make me want to send my kids elsewhere. They are so happy at school, speak great Spanish, and are learning a lot. Wish we could do more to support all teachers everywhere.
Our family is very happy with MV8. We have had great teachers, and the community is strong. Agree there are issues (as with every school), but not enough to make me want to send my kids elsewhere. They are so happy at school, speak great Spanish, and are learning a lot. Wish we could do more to support all teachers everywhere.
Anonymous
06/14/2023 23:26
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wow. Did the protest at Cook happen too?
The flyer at the twitter link says:
Enough is Enough
Our kids deserve better
3rd grade caregivers are writing to demand a response. We asking for:
Two adults in all 3rd grade classrooms for the remainder of SY 22/23
Commitment to at least 2 hour of actual instruction in Math and ELA each day for the remainder of SY 22/23
Additional academic support (tutoring, summer programming, after care enrichment, etc) specifically for 3rd grade students
An additional teacher (or aide) for each teaching pair for SY 23/24
Okay, hold on now. I'm no MV booster (far from it!), but how many schools have two teachers/aides per classroom in third grade? What does an additional teacher/aide for each teaching pair mean? A third adult in the classroom half of the time? How many charters provide tutoring, summer academics, and academics in after care?
Without context this seems like a lot to ask from a charter school, and even DCPS when it comes to having two adults in the classroom. Is this a post-pandemic issue with third grade (who did K and 1st virtually)? Has there not been enough intervention to get those kids caught up? Are classrooms totally out of control that they need 2-3 adults in third grade every day? I deleted my Twitter, but can anyone see the comments to see (hopefully) more details?
I'd really love more information because I came here fully ready to pile on MV, but it's a charter school, not DCPS, they don't HAVE to offer all of the bells and whistles if they don't want to.
Re the bolded above, Inspired Teaching has at minimum a lead teacher and an assistant teacher or teaching resident in each classroom.
I will say "assistant teacher" is a term ITS uses when other schools might call the person an aide. Teaching residents are in half the classrooms or less.
ITS does have a high adult-child ratio, and it keeps teacher salaries low, for sure. But that feels fair to me. If ITS went to a more DCPS-like staffing model, they could pay more DCPS-like salaries.
ITS teacher salaries are higher than Mundo.
I'm not sure if that's true, how did you find out?
It seems like MV was founded on the idea that parents would be willing to contribute enough money to make the budget support the kind of school that they wanted. And that's not crazy-- it's basically how Ward 3 operates. But the Achilles heel of that model is when parents get dissatisfied, the fundraising tanks, and then you're in a bad situation and enter that bad budget situation of having empty seats so less money coming in. It's hard to pull out of that kind of spiral.
MV expects families to contribute financially to the school? Outside of regular PTA fundraising?
No, in the normal fundraising. Plus whatever the board members ante up. That's really normal for DCPS and charter schools both. But when a school's model is premised on full enrollment and robust parent fundraising, it's doubly vulnerable to parent dissatisfaction.
This is not at all accurate. MV does not encourage fundraising by parents and in fact makes it difficult for parents to do so. Donations play absolutely no role in MV's budget (to its detriment!).
My experience matches this most recent poster. I don't think the operations and staffing budget relies on donations whatsoever. Parental offers to fundraise for additional classroom support and behavior management have been shut down or ignored.
The budget info at least is public.
Anonymous
06/14/2023 22:55
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
Anonymous wrote:I had kids at MV and the school’s leadership truly is horrendous. They marginalize parents and teachers, and undervalue curriculum. MV has had some really good teachers throughout the years, but they leave out of frustration.
I agree with others that the charters are in a difficult financial situation. They don’t have the structural support of a DCPS school and so they turn to expansion to help to create scales of economy.
But the there are much bigger problems at MV than the normal charter school issues. Frankly, I’m shocked that the MV board has been so feckless, disinterested, and/or ignorant about the challenges facing the school. There’s long been a need for new leadership and ample evidence to make changes. But they do nothing. The board should be called out for their inaction.
Re: fundraising, maybe things have changed but MV has always had weak fundraising. Equity issues sidelined what had been a successful gala. But the school shows such disdain for parents that it discourages giving. Also, fundraising can have the effect of empowering parents and this school has survived by disempowering and disengaging parents.
It’s truly sad because this school had so much wonderful energy at the outset.
I agree with this poster. MV works actively to disempower parents, in the name of "equity." MV8 has been discouraged from creating a meaningful parent organization, and MVP has one despite efforts by the administration to prevent its reincarnation.
I also agree about the need for new executive leadership. I think the significant turnover of principals is evidence in and of itself of the need for new leadership at the top. Instead, the school has chosen to further disempower principals by dispersing power through a 2 principal per school model. MV principals already lack authority to make decisions other than instructional at their schools, and now their authority will be further diminished.
Anonymous
06/14/2023 22:48
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
Anonymous wrote:Last year: lost 6 of 8 teachers
This year: lost 3 of 4 teachers
No notice provided to parents. No real remediation to address legitimate parent concerns. No supervision during testing. Top-heavy administration with insufficient teacher support. Lax approach to classroom management. . . .
This. Parents have very legitimate concerns. I'm not part of this group of parents, but I raised similar concerns last year when both of my children lost their lead teachers mid-year. I got no response to my emails, and I can definitely understand how the 3rd grade parents became frustrated enough to hold a protest.
Anonymous
06/14/2023 22:46
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wow. Did the protest at Cook happen too?
The flyer at the twitter link says:
Enough is Enough
Our kids deserve better
3rd grade caregivers are writing to demand a response. We asking for:
Two adults in all 3rd grade classrooms for the remainder of SY 22/23
Commitment to at least 2 hour of actual instruction in Math and ELA each day for the remainder of SY 22/23
Additional academic support (tutoring, summer programming, after care enrichment, etc) specifically for 3rd grade students
An additional teacher (or aide) for each teaching pair for SY 23/24
Okay, hold on now. I'm no MV booster (far from it!), but how many schools have two teachers/aides per classroom in third grade? What does an additional teacher/aide for each teaching pair mean? A third adult in the classroom half of the time? How many charters provide tutoring, summer academics, and academics in after care?
Without context this seems like a lot to ask from a charter school, and even DCPS when it comes to having two adults in the classroom. Is this a post-pandemic issue with third grade (who did K and 1st virtually)? Has there not been enough intervention to get those kids caught up? Are classrooms totally out of control that they need 2-3 adults in third grade every day? I deleted my Twitter, but can anyone see the comments to see (hopefully) more details?
I'd really love more information because I came here fully ready to pile on MV, but it's a charter school, not DCPS, they don't HAVE to offer all of the bells and whistles if they don't want to.
Re the bolded above, Inspired Teaching has at minimum a lead teacher and an assistant teacher or teaching resident in each classroom.
I will say "assistant teacher" is a term ITS uses when other schools might call the person an aide. Teaching residents are in half the classrooms or less.
ITS does have a high adult-child ratio, and it keeps teacher salaries low, for sure. But that feels fair to me. If ITS went to a more DCPS-like staffing model, they could pay more DCPS-like salaries.
ITS teacher salaries are higher than Mundo.
I'm not sure if that's true, how did you find out?
It seems like MV was founded on the idea that parents would be willing to contribute enough money to make the budget support the kind of school that they wanted. And that's not crazy-- it's basically how Ward 3 operates. But the Achilles heel of that model is when parents get dissatisfied, the fundraising tanks, and then you're in a bad situation and enter that bad budget situation of having empty seats so less money coming in. It's hard to pull out of that kind of spiral.
MV expects families to contribute financially to the school? Outside of regular PTA fundraising?
No, in the normal fundraising. Plus whatever the board members ante up. That's really normal for DCPS and charter schools both. But when a school's model is premised on full enrollment and robust parent fundraising, it's doubly vulnerable to parent dissatisfaction.
This is not at all accurate. MV does not encourage fundraising by parents and in fact makes it difficult for parents to do so. Donations play absolutely no role in MV's budget (to its detriment!).
Anonymous
06/14/2023 22:44
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wow. Did the protest at Cook happen too?
The flyer at the twitter link says:
Enough is Enough
Our kids deserve better
3rd grade caregivers are writing to demand a response. We asking for:
Two adults in all 3rd grade classrooms for the remainder of SY 22/23
Commitment to at least 2 hour of actual instruction in Math and ELA each day for the remainder of SY 22/23
Additional academic support (tutoring, summer programming, after care enrichment, etc) specifically for 3rd grade students
An additional teacher (or aide) for each teaching pair for SY 23/24
Okay, hold on now. I'm no MV booster (far from it!), but how many schools have two teachers/aides per classroom in third grade? What does an additional teacher/aide for each teaching pair mean? A third adult in the classroom half of the time? How many charters provide tutoring, summer academics, and academics in after care?
Without context this seems like a lot to ask from a charter school, and even DCPS when it comes to having two adults in the classroom. Is this a post-pandemic issue with third grade (who did K and 1st virtually)? Has there not been enough intervention to get those kids caught up? Are classrooms totally out of control that they need 2-3 adults in third grade every day? I deleted my Twitter, but can anyone see the comments to see (hopefully) more details?
I'd really love more information because I came here fully ready to pile on MV, but it's a charter school, not DCPS, they don't HAVE to offer all of the bells and whistles if they don't want to.
MV has extremely inexperienced teachers and plenty of kids with behaviors, and the teachers can't both teach and maintain safety/peace in the classroom. The situation becomes much worse in the 2nd grade when the model of 2 teachers per classroom ends.
Anonymous
06/14/2023 22:43
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
I had kids at MV and the school’s leadership truly is horrendous. They marginalize parents and teachers, and undervalue curriculum. MV has had some really good teachers throughout the years, but they leave out of frustration.
I agree with others that the charters are in a difficult financial situation. They don’t have the structural support of a DCPS school and so they turn to expansion to help to create scales of economy.
But the there are much bigger problems at MV than the normal charter school issues. Frankly, I’m shocked that the MV board has been so feckless, disinterested, and/or ignorant about the challenges facing the school. There’s long been a need for new leadership and ample evidence to make changes. But they do nothing. The board should be called out for their inaction.
Re: fundraising, maybe things have changed but MV has always had weak fundraising. Equity issues sidelined what had been a successful gala. But the school shows such disdain for parents that it discourages giving. Also, fundraising can have the effect of empowering parents and this school has survived by disempowering and disengaging parents.
It’s truly sad because this school had so much wonderful energy at the outset.
I agree with others that the charters are in a difficult financial situation. They don’t have the structural support of a DCPS school and so they turn to expansion to help to create scales of economy.
But the there are much bigger problems at MV than the normal charter school issues. Frankly, I’m shocked that the MV board has been so feckless, disinterested, and/or ignorant about the challenges facing the school. There’s long been a need for new leadership and ample evidence to make changes. But they do nothing. The board should be called out for their inaction.
Re: fundraising, maybe things have changed but MV has always had weak fundraising. Equity issues sidelined what had been a successful gala. But the school shows such disdain for parents that it discourages giving. Also, fundraising can have the effect of empowering parents and this school has survived by disempowering and disengaging parents.
It’s truly sad because this school had so much wonderful energy at the outset.
Anonymous
06/14/2023 22:42
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wow. Did the protest at Cook happen too?
The flyer at the twitter link says:
Enough is Enough
Our kids deserve better
3rd grade caregivers are writing to demand a response. We asking for:
Two adults in all 3rd grade classrooms for the remainder of SY 22/23
Commitment to at least 2 hour of actual instruction in Math and ELA each day for the remainder of SY 22/23
Additional academic support (tutoring, summer programming, after care enrichment, etc) specifically for 3rd grade students
An additional teacher (or aide) for each teaching pair for SY 23/24
Can you provide the link, I don’t see all this information in the Twitter link.
https://twitter.com/JonastyB/status/1668329636869324800/photo/1
Thank you! My kids are at MV8 and this is not the case there. I am not sure why P St is having these issues.
There are absolutely similar problems at MV8. Last year two of the kinder teachers left midyear and most of the 2nd grade teachers. I'm sure others as well -- MV lost something like 10% of their staff in the first couple months of school last year.
Anonymous
06/14/2023 22:21
Subject: Protest at Mundo on P street
Last year: lost 6 of 8 teachers
This year: lost 3 of 4 teachers
No notice provided to parents. No real remediation to address legitimate parent concerns. No supervision during testing. Top-heavy administration with insufficient teacher support. Lax approach to classroom management. . . .
This year: lost 3 of 4 teachers
No notice provided to parents. No real remediation to address legitimate parent concerns. No supervision during testing. Top-heavy administration with insufficient teacher support. Lax approach to classroom management. . . .
Anonymous
06/14/2023 21:02
Subject: Re:Protest at Mundo on P street
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that the third grade class has experienced serious issues with teacher attrition this year as well as last year, to the point where kids have been without a teacher for long periods of time.
I think that's why their requests for teachers for this year seem excessive -- the issue is that kids have had short term subs and been stuck with virtual learning aids for significant portions of this year, and the families want the school to prioritize getting teachers in those classrooms NOW to address learning loss that has happened this year and last due to the school's inability to retain teachers.
I also suspect that is what the request for summer programming is for -- not just regular summer school/camp, but extra services for these specific kids to address deficiencies in their experience over the last two years from teacher attrition.
I feel bad for the kids who are struggling through this. I know a kid at another immersion charter who had a bunch of teacher losses this year and it's so hard on the kids. A school should be able to, at a minimum, provide kids with continuity in teaching during the duration of the school year. The fact that multiple teachers are bailing in the middle of the year is really bad.
What do you mean? In school virtual learning with subs?
Is MV8 really not having these issues? If it's about pay and structural issues with MV, why wouldn't MV8 teachers be having the same problems?
I mean, it's not even clear that this is a problem with all of Cooke campus, or just specific to the 3rd grade cohort. I can see a situation where these kids came out of Covid virtual school, lost a teacher last year maybe mid-year, got a new teacher but had lag time in between, the new teacher had a huge hill to climb because the kids really had not had consistent instruction since pre-Covid, and that led that teacher to quit, too.
(I have serious questions about any teacher who will quit mid-year, it's something I've never understood unless your job is actually abusive or you have extenuating circumstances in your life -- I would stick it out until the end of the year if I could for the kids, but it happens).
Anyway, it's unclear if this is a school-wide issue or just a series of unfortunate circumstances for this class. Either way, the school is responsible to these kids for fixing it, obviously.
I will say there may be something about 3rd graders. These were the kids in kindergarten when the pandemic hit. Our 3rd graders in our fancy WOTP elementary are kind of jerks too. So are a lot of the 4th graders. Missed some formative life skills from 5-7 years old