jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, Jeff, for the info on charter school preference. I still disagree with him, but I will vote Settled in the at-large.

Curious of anyone knows the positioning charter school neighborhood preference of Jim Graham's opponent, Brianne Nadeau. I emailed to ask her and never heard back. Does Graham support neighborhood preference? (I have assumed so but now realize that I am not sure.)

Signed,

Ward 1 single-issue Democratic voter

Nadeau opposes neighborhood preference and Graham supports. I got that information from this questionnaire:

http://voterguide.wamu.org/race-detail.do?id=12719987&party=Dem

Not that I should criticize given the number of typos I make, but Graham really needs to improve his typing.

jsteele wrote:NEIGHBORHOOD PREFERENCE INFO:

Okay, I just returned form a meet and greet with John Settles. He had been forewarned about this issue and actually offered to set up a conference call with our users. If anyone is interested in that, let me know. But, for the time being I told hims simple post here (such as I'm posting now) is probably sufficient.

First, unbeknownst to me, David Grosso has already introduced legislation to allow neighborhood preference. The bill has gone nowhere, but you can see the text here:

http://dcclims1.dccouncil.us/images/00001/20130410125256.pdf

This bill is completely unacceptable to me. It allows a neighborhood preference for 20% of the students, but the preference doesn't apply to pre-K (this seems like a strange limitation to me).

Settles said that this bill is the basis of his position. However, he further said that he believes this should only be applied to situations in which the local DCPS school has been closed and a charter opened in its building. I am not aware of examples that would meet that qualification.

He repeatedly stressed that he does not see charter schools as a replacement for local DCPS schools and that the focus needs to be on creating strong local DCPS schools in every neighborhood.

Having had several conversations about education with Settles, I see his education priorities like this:

1) Getting DCPS and Charters to cooperate in an organized manner so that they are partners not competitors;
2) Fixing DCPS internal structures to increase accountability and improve outputs;
3) Creating great neighborhood schools (this might even be number 2 instead of 3);
..
..
..
Way, way down...

x) Neighborhood preference for charter schools.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, Jeff, for the info on charter school preference. I still disagree with him, but I will vote Settled in the at-large.

Curious of anyone knows the positioning charter school neighborhood preference of Jim Graham's opponent, Brianne Nadeau. I emailed to ask her and never heard back. Does Graham support neighborhood preference? (I have assumed so but now realize that I am not sure.)

Signed,

Ward 1 single-issue Democratic voter

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:@ Mrs Settles,
Can you give the reason(s) why your family left Inspired Teaching for Hearst? Also, since your kids are OOB for Hearst, what are your husband's thoughts about the OOB feeder rights? Should those be revoked before changing the boundaries of Deal?

Still would like to hear a response on this question. Jeff, did he reference this? Mrs Settles, are you still out there? Thanks in advance for your responses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:@ Mrs Settles,
Can you give the reason(s) why your family left Inspired Teaching for Hearst? Also, since your kids are OOB for Hearst, what are your husband's thoughts about the OOB feeder rights? Should those be revoked before changing the boundaries of Deal?

Still would like to hear a response on this question. Jeff, did he reference this? Mrs Settles, are you still out there? Thanks in advance for your responses.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Ok I'll vote for him if you think everyone else is more stuck in their position..............

Is that your position?

My position is that you could remove education from the table completely and Settles is still the best candidate for the At-Large seat. Add education and it is not even a contest. As someone recently said to me, the only way you can find a candidate with whom you agree completely is to run yourself. I don't agree with Settles completely about the neighborhood preference issue, but since I'm not running myself, I am happy to support him.

The issue about cooperation instead of competition goes back to the entire structure of education in DC. We have the Deputy Mayor of Education, the Superintendent (OSSE), the DCPS Chancellor, the State Board of Education, and the Public Charter School Board. These groups are not working off the same sheet of music. Settles wants them all working together to achieve the best outcomes for our students rather than working either inadvertently or purposely to undermine each other.

Anonymous wrote:@ Mrs Settles,
Can you give the reason(s) why your family left Inspired Teaching for Hearst? Also, since your kids are OOB for Hearst, what are your husband's thoughts about the OOB feeder rights? Should those be revoked before changing the boundaries of Deal?

Anonymous wrote:
Ok I'll vote for him if you think everyone else is more stuck in their position..............

Is that your position?

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:NEIGHBORHOOD PREFERENCE INFO:

Okay, I just returned form a meet and greet with John Settles. He had been forewarned about this issue and actually offered to set up a conference call with our users. If anyone is interested in that, let me know. But, for the time being I told hims simple post here (such as I'm posting now) is probably sufficient.

First, unbeknownst to me, David Grosso has already introduced legislation to allow neighborhood preference. The bill has gone nowhere, but you can see the text here:

http://dcclims1.dccouncil.us/images/00001/20130410125256.pdf

This bill is completely unacceptable to me. It allows a neighborhood preference for 20% of the students, but the preference doesn't apply to pre-K (this seems like a strange limitation to me).

Settles said that this bill is the basis of his position. However, he further said that he believes this should only be applied to situations in which the local DCPS school has been closed and a charter opened in its building. I am not aware of examples that would meet that qualification.

He repeatedly stressed that he does not see charter schools as a replacement for local DCPS schools and that the focus needs to be on creating strong local DCPS schools in every neighborhood.

Having had several conversations about education with Settles, I see his education priorities like this:

1) Getting DCPS and Charters to cooperate in an organized manner so that they are partners not competitors;
2) Fixing DCPS internal structures to increase accountability and improve outputs;
3) Creating great neighborhood schools (this might even be number 2 instead of 3);
..
..
..
Way, way down...

x) Neighborhood preference for charter schools.

This makes Settles sound incredibly pragmatic, in a good way.

jsteele wrote:NEIGHBORHOOD PREFERENCE INFO:

Okay, I just returned form a meet and greet with John Settles. He had been forewarned about this issue and actually offered to set up a conference call with our users. If anyone is interested in that, let me know. But, for the time being I told hims simple post here (such as I'm posting now) is probably sufficient.

First, unbeknownst to me, David Grosso has already introduced legislation to allow neighborhood preference. The bill has gone nowhere, but you can see the text here:

http://dcclims1.dccouncil.us/images/00001/20130410125256.pdf

This bill is completely unacceptable to me. It allows a neighborhood preference for 20% of the students, but the preference doesn't apply to pre-K (this seems like a strange limitation to me).

Settles said that this bill is the basis of his position. However, he further said that he believes this should only be applied to situations in which the local DCPS school has been closed and a charter opened in its building. I am not aware of examples that would meet that qualification.

He repeatedly stressed that he does not see charter schools as a replacement for local DCPS schools and that the focus needs to be on creating strong local DCPS schools in every neighborhood.

Having had several conversations about education with Settles, I see his education priorities like this:

1) Getting DCPS and Charters to cooperate in an organized manner so that they are partners not competitors;
2) Fixing DCPS internal structures to increase accountability and improve outputs;
3) Creating great neighborhood schools (this might even be number 2 instead of 3);
..
..
..
Way, way down...

x) Neighborhood preference for charter schools.