Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:26     Subject: Proposal is up!
Well, this proposal confirms that my family is going to have to move unless we get some lottery luck with charters. We had no such luck this year.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:25     Subject: Proposal is up!
Anonymous wrote:Bowser will endorse this and win the election. There's not much for Catania to punch at in the latest DME report. Congratulations, public servants.


Catania will win the Cleveland Park precinct for sure. People are not happy about losing feeder rights to Deal.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:23     Subject: Proposal is up!
Anonymous wrote:I think the Ward 3 and other popular schools are going to have to get rid of PK or severely limit it in order to make room for the OOB set-aside.


Limiting p-K doesn't help, all those kids are coming in K anyway. Fitting in another pre K classroom does not impact the number of seats you need to get all the IB kids plus the set asides through 5th. I don't think fully enrolled ward 3 schools need preK3. That said, with the renovations the schools have quite a bit of capacity.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:22     Subject: Proposal is up!
Anonymous wrote:I think the Ward 3 and other popular schools are going to have to get rid of PK or severely limit it in order to make room for the OOB set-aside.


I think Janney is the only school that's over 90% inbounds now, so I don't see why this should require significant changes at PK.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:20     Subject: Proposal is up!
[quote=Anonymous]

One thing I don't know is whether a child who is at risk, and ceases to qualify (such as leaving foster care, or homelessness, or increasing income and coming of SNAP/TANF) will be able to stay through graduation? I hope so.[/quote]

This.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:20     Subject: Proposal is up!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why would CHEC, which is dual-language only for middle school with no English track, have as its only 2 feeder schools Tubman and Cooke, neither of which is a dual-language school? Especially when there are other dual language schools close by (Bancroft, Powell, Bruce Monroe@Park View).



Because they've looked at the demographics, and are counting on a majority of those students being ESL - Spanish - anyway.


First, there are a substantial number of kids at both schools--especially Tubman, which is less than 50% Latino--who are not native speakers. What happens to them? And even for those who are, it's totally different going to a middle school that requires them to learn every subject in Spanish, when they have conversational abilities but have never learned to read and write in the language.

Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:16     Subject: Proposal is up!
Anonymous wrote:It sounds to me like they are also eliminating principal discretion to let people who got into a school in boundary stay when they move out of boundary, unless they are high-risk. I think that's great and might relieve some of the overcrowding, to the extent that principals let students stay even when they move. I've heard this is a real problem at Oyster.


I didn't interpret it that way. I think they are guaranteeing that at-risk kids can stay, not eliminating principal discretion in all cases.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:16     Subject: Proposal is up!
I think the Ward 3 and other popular schools are going to have to get rid of PK or severely limit it in order to make room for the OOB set-aside.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:15     Subject: Proposal is up!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I like the cap hill feeder patterns. I think the JO, Peabody/Watkins, and Ludlow taylor feed is especially appealing (if, and a big if, these schools can keep attracting and attaining neighborhood families).


Absolutely none of them retain neighborhood families now.


But they are starting to. The families at these schools are starting to stay past pk4 now.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:15     Subject: Proposal is up!
A new North and Center City MS will be housed or built where? Does DCPS have any empty buildings in their inventory for these schools? Could they merge two elementary schools and make one a Middle School?
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:14     Subject: Proposal is up!
Individual school sheets are up on the site now.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:13     Subject: Re:Proposal is up!
Can you point to the vagueness in the proposal, because frankly this seems a lot clearer than things are now.

The one thing I think they need to establish, that I don't see in the report, is the schools that kids in dual language can attend if they opt out of dual language.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:12     Subject: Proposal is up!
Anonymous wrote:Bowser and Catania have publically stated they will support none of these proposals. Catania also stated in April that he would not support any plan that would reassign parents into lower performing schools. These proposals do not meet Catania's criteria.

Elementary school students should have guaranteed access to schools less than half a mile (0.5) from their homes. Item 12 of the proposal is exceptionally convoluted. You only have a right to your closest neighborhood school if your other option is over a mile away. Why not make it simple and have a right of access provision that states that children can go to the closest school to their homes?

The new mayor can undertake these matters in a serious way. Saying there is data underlying assumptions for demographic estimates and not providing it in the proposals is unacceptable.

The data that DCPS is not disclosing readily is that the system is rapidly losing students -- the only way to retain enrollment is by extending preK 3 to larger and larger sections of the city, including the most affluent Wards. It is unacceptable that Ward 3 gets more optional expanded preK3s while Ward 7 struggles to offer a minimum quality neighborhood school for elementary students.

Where is the evidence of the stated overcrowding in the listed schools. Haven't several of these schools been renovated? Aren't some of these schools slated for major renovations in the next year? The prinicipals don't think they are overcrowded because are offering optional programming such as expanded preK4. Why work on perks when you can't provide an acceptable level of education for the majority of DC children? DCPS please get your priorities straight.




^ +1,000. That looks like the ultimate motivation. This isn't about retaining - much less acquiring - students. It's a strategy more akin to the Little Dutch Boy, with his finger in the dyke.
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:11     Subject: Proposal is up!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Bowser will endorse this and win the election. There's not much for Catania to punch at in the latest DME report. Congratulations, public servants.


You are joking, right? DME had thousands of DCPS parents and real estate agents not sleeping for months over this, gritting their teeth through meetings and meetings with nothing but vague phrases, only to get to this? A proposal that is just as vague on many issues? At the very least, Catania can attack a process that was reckless and did real damage to people's sense of stability, predictability, and in many cases community.


Meh. Where's the "yawn" smiley when you need it?
Anonymous
Post 06/12/2014 22:10     Subject: Proposal is up!
Anonymous wrote:Bowser will endorse this and win the election. There's not much for Catania to punch at in the latest DME report. Congratulations, public servants.


You are joking, right? DME had thousands of DCPS parents and real estate agents not sleeping for months over this, gritting their teeth through meetings and meetings with nothing but vague phrases, only to get to this? A proposal that is just as vague on many issues? At the very least, Catania can attack a process that was reckless and did real damage to people's sense of stability, predictability, and in many cases community.