Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about the state of the actual building. I work at the Navy Yard and walk past this school every day and it is a disaster - broken windows, rusted out AC units, crumbling brickwork, etc. There's no way it isn't infested with mice, cockroaches and worse. When are they actually going to start making the building a safe place for kids to go to school? Fall of 2015 is not that far away.

I don't think it's infested with rodents. It's been used as an administration building for DCPS for the last 8 years. I would think these employees would've been complaining about infestation if that were the case.

PP here.

Nevermind, I see it's slated to start in March.

I'm curious about the state of the actual building. I work at the Navy Yard and walk past this school every day and it is a disaster - broken windows, rusted out AC units, crumbling brickwork, etc. There's no way it isn't infested with mice, cockroaches and worse. When are they actually going to start making the building a safe place for kids to go to school? Fall of 2015 is not that far away.

I'm hearing through the grapevine that Van Ness will be a popular school for families on the Hill to apply OOB for PS3/PK4. Can't wait to see the lottery results!

Anonymous wrote:

Do you really not think there's anything families of prospective students, or DCPS, can be doing now so that a higher percentage of kids are ultimately successful? Given the range of CAS scores among schools with fairly similar FARMs percentages, I think there must be some things schools can do to help low-income kids succeed. Also, I'm not sure that race and income are the only determinants of whether little kids need "intensive behavioral interventions." I've seen some pretty wealthy kids act badly in school settings, especially if they've never been to day care or gotten to socialize much with other kids their age. It's also been my experience that poorer kids get potty trained sooner and have fewer accidents (which makes sense: diapers and laundry are expensive!).

I don't think people are saying that "race and income are the only determinants of whether little kids need intensive behavioral interventions". We all know that kids, in general, will misbehave (Its all a part of growing up). The difference is, in general, kids that come from a stable and nurturing environment at home will have a number of advantages as opposed to kids who come from unstable and non-nurturing environments. For example, kids from stable environments will be corrected in a nurturing way when they misbehave instead of being yelled at and cursed at. The reality is that uneducated parents (in much higher numbers than educated parents) raise their kids in this manner. So what happens is, these kids take the negativity that they are surrounded by at home, and naturally bring this to school.

This is why Title I type schools will have more dysfunctional classrooms than schools in Ward 3.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's not Title I, it won't have guaranteed PK and will have to take a certain percentage of OOB at-risk kids. The boundary is basically half public housing and half market rate housing, so it seems unlikely that the school will be overwhelmingly non-eligible for FARMS.

How much energy is being put into figuring out ways to help low-income families (and others) succeed at Van Ness? Will there be a uniform closet? Good before and aftercare? A full-time social worker or psychologist? Parenting education classes so families can support what their kids are learning in school? Partnership with a family strengthening collaborative? I did appreciate that DCPS started holding some planning meetings on the SW side of the boundary--that seemed like a step in the right direction. But there's a lot more that could happen.

I'm pretty confident that VN will surpass the 10 percent OOB and "at Rick" thresholds in 2016-17, regardless of Title I status. With Title I status comes a lot of bells and whistles, including DCPS aftercare and other supports. A more interesting question is whether DCPS will make VN a Community Eligible Option school whereby all students get free meals. In the end, the demographic profile of the K class will set the trajectory of the school. How many kids will be reading and writing by the end of the year? How many will need intensive behavioral interventions? Only time, not the number of apartment units being built, will tell.

Do you really not think there's anything families of prospective students, or DCPS, can be doing now so that a higher percentage of kids are ultimately successful? Given the range of CAS scores among schools with fairly similar FARMs percentages, I think there must be some things schools can do to help low-income kids succeed. Also, I'm not sure that race and income are the only determinants of whether little kids need "intensive behavioral interventions." I've seen some pretty wealthy kids act badly in school settings, especially if they've never been to day care or gotten to socialize much with other kids their age. It's also been my experience that poorer kids get potty trained sooner and have fewer accidents (which makes sense: diapers and laundry are expensive!).