I think that the school recognizes that communications are an issue and had ideas to address that in the strategic plan. That said, the happiest parents in a public school are those that take an active role in meeting their needs. TuesNews is generally available on the website. Anyone can join BrentNeighbors which is a good place to try to organize a playdate. PTA meetings should be on the school calendar, are usually the 2nd Weds of the month, and are regularly attended by families without kids currently enrolled. LSAT meetings are also open to the public and have a community representative member who last year was a shut out parent. The meeting in 2013 that discussed the structure of the ECE was announced on BrentNeighbors and also attended by families who had been shut out.

For the past few years, the school has needed to find additional classroom space for the growing upper grades. At first, this required moving a few things around, then the language teacher lost a dedicated classroom, this year DCPS is helping to fund moving more stuff around (I think the art room might be shrinking?). The ECE classes were re-thought out as all mixed-age. DCPS did a boundary and student assignment review, which so far has not had much effect on Brent, but there’s uncertainty in how the at risk set-asides will be determined. Needless to say, there are a lot of moving parts, only some of which are under the principal’s control.

I agree communication to shut-out families could be better and Mr Young's communication with current families could be better too. However, he hires amazing teachers and he supports them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Agree 100% with both PPs above. If you love Young, you'll love Brent (if and only if).

Shutting out the majority of in-boundary families for both PreK3 and PreK4 (which Brent will succeed in doing next year if another ECE class isn't added) obviously doesn't bode well for community cohesion or, by extension, fund-raising in the long term.

Ok, really? Those of you shut out for PK3/4 are really going to turn down a great school you are guaranteed entry for kindergarten? That'll show Brent! Isn't that a perfect example of the old adage "cutting off your nose to spite your face"? And, my family doesn't love Young (he's fine), but we do love Brent!

After havnig been shut out for the past 2 school years, landing at another DCPS program, I'm not going with "great" for Brent, no matter what I find there for K. I'm OK with good, or adequate, but great's pushing it. I'll give to the PTA, but probably not as generously as I would have if the school had reached out to me and the other shut-out parents at any point along the way.

I don't think I received a single note from Brent until I was invited to a rising K play date several weeks back.

Huh? No notes from Brent? (Who gets notes from a school you are not even attending?) You will show Brent when you don't contribute when your child attends? It cannot be a great school because your child did not get to go there for preschool? Okaaaay. Actually it is amusing because all these up in arms shut out PK folks will soon be singing kumbaya once they are in. It is that good!

Come on people, Brent could reach out to the many shut-out families, e.g. making a point of inviting them to this or that once in a while, emailing them links to Tues News, inviting them to the odd playground play date. The PTA Board has already talked about doing it. When those who lotteried into PreK3 trivialize the concerns of those who didn't, and almost certainly won't for PreK4 either, the community cohesion issue comes to mind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the problem is that the pta and young won't engage in dialogue w/parents about this and that, including language choice and the future of prek3. there are 8 or 9 dcps elementary schools in upper nw that have made the decision to drop prek3 to make room for almost everybody in prek4. brent won't even discuss the future of prek3, even though most of the parents arrive two years after a select group started (only 30 families out of more than 70 who applied over the winter). say what you like but the arrangement isn't ideal.

they never had PK3 in upper nw, what are you talking about?

Oh yes they did, but not since the 90s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Agree 100% with both PPs above. If you love Young, you'll love Brent (if and only if).

Shutting out the majority of in-boundary families for both PreK3 and PreK4 (which Brent will succeed in doing next year if another ECE class isn't added) obviously doesn't bode well for community cohesion or, by extension, fund-raising in the long term.

Ok, really? Those of you shut out for PK3/4 are really going to turn down a great school you are guaranteed entry for kindergarten? That'll show Brent! Isn't that a perfect example of the old adage "cutting off your nose to spite your face"? And, my family doesn't love Young (he's fine), but we do love Brent!

After havnig been shut out for the past 2 school years, landing at another DCPS program, I'm not going with "great" for Brent, no matter what I find there for K. I'm OK with good, or adequate, but great's pushing it. I'll give to the PTA, but probably not as generously as I would have if the school had reached out to me and the other shut-out parents at any point along the way.

I don't think I received a single note from Brent until I was invited to a rising K play date several weeks back.

Huh? No notes from Brent? (Who gets notes from a school you are not even attending?) You will show Brent when you don't contribute when your child attends? It cannot be a great school because your child did not get to go there for preschool? Okaaaay. Actually it is amusing because all these up in arms shut out PK folks will soon be singing kumbaya once they are in. It is that good!

Anonymous wrote:the problem is that the pta and young won't engage in dialogue w/parents about this and that, including language choice and the future of prek3. there are 8 or 9 dcps elementary schools in upper nw that have made the decision to drop prek3 to make room for almost everybody in prek4. brent won't even discuss the future of prek3, even though most of the parents arrive two years after a select group started (only 30 families out of more than 70 who applied over the winter). say what you like but the arrangement isn't ideal.

they never had PK3 in upper nw, what are you talking about?

People are really arguing that families are "second class citizens" because they started at kindergarten vs. PK3?

Do you realize how completely absurd you sound?

Anonymous wrote:the problem is that the pta and young won't engage in dialogue w/parents about this and that, including language choice and the future of prek3. there are 8 or 9 dcps elementary schools in upper nw that have made the decision to drop prek3 to make room for almost everybody in prek4. brent won't even discuss the future of prek3, even though most of the parents arrive two years after a select group started (only 30 families out of more than 70 who applied over the winter). say what you like but the arrangement isn't ideal.

You seem to know almost as little about Brent as you do about the 8 or 9 schools in Upper NW which purportedly dropped PK3. If you want to have dialogue with the PTA reach out to its Board members or come to a meeting and speak up. Better yet, address your concerns to the LSAT, which has a community representative and is the proper forum for airing your grievances. No, the situation isn't ideal but Brent just invested significant time and resources developing a Reggio-inspired PK program for mixed age classes. There was a public forum sponsored by the LSAT back in 2013 to discuss these very same issues. The resulting decision was to add an additional 3rd Grade class in the interest of fostering greater academic achievement for upper grade students in a smaller classroom setting. If you or others want to put forth a principled argument for adding another ECE classroom please take the time to address logistical and administrative realities, such as where the classroom would be located, how time will be allocated for art, music, world language and PE classes, the fact that adding another ECE class would have accommodated another 17 PK3 students at most, and last (but certainly not least) the fact Principal Young doesn't have the discretion to drop PK3 (and Central Office won't ever dign off on this, particularly with the new "at risk" set asides on the horizon. Bottom line: Brent's boundaries are probably too large and need to be redrawn in a couple of years. That will be an absolute shit storm. Welcome to the Hill, where a good percentage of kids don't get into their IB school for PK3.

Anonymous wrote:Jesus H. Cap Hill parents are next to impossible to please. The fact that people are complaining in any way/shape/form about SWS and Brent, which weren't even existing options 5 years ago, is absolutely beyond me. you all should take your whiney butts to private and be done with it already. I challenge any of you, ANY of you Ivy-league educated lawyers to compare what your kids are getting at these schools to what YOU got at your own public elementary school.

Shut up already.

Uh, Brent has been a pretty solid option for IB families seeking a solid ECE program for a good eight years. The higher grades have shown continued improvement as our kids articulate toward the jumping off point after 4th Grade. I find all the Young bashing pretty humorous given that hisbiggest flaw is probably giving parents too much of a say in how the school is run. I also can't wait for a new batch of disgruntled parents who feel they have been slighted because their neighborhood PUBLIC school apparently didn't satisfy their singular need for outreach and so they will concoct a plan to shortchange their own child, as well as those of their friends and neighbors, by withholding donations. WTF?

the problem is that the pta and young won't engage in dialogue w/parents about this and that, including language choice and the future of prek3. there are 8 or 9 dcps elementary schools in upper nw that have made the decision to drop prek3 to make room for almost everybody in prek4. brent won't even discuss the future of prek3, even though most of the parents arrive two years after a select group started (only 30 families out of more than 70 who applied over the winter). say what you like but the arrangement isn't ideal.

I suppose the problem is they all paid 900K for their 1700 sq feet without a 20 sq foot yard -- so they best damn well get free PK to go with it!!! And they certainly can't feel bested by their Mundo Verde friends over cocktails when junior is counting out the ice cubes in Spanish. Why isn't BRENT DOING EVERYTHING I WANT?!? Solution? I'll short-change the PTA! That'll fix it...

Jesus H. Cap Hill parents are next to impossible to please. The fact that people are complaining in any way/shape/form about SWS and Brent, which weren't even existing options 5 years ago, is absolutely beyond me. you all should take your whiney butts to private and be done with it already. I challenge any of you, ANY of you Ivy-league educated lawyers to compare what your kids are getting at these schools to what YOU got at your own public elementary school.

Shut up already.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Agree 100% with both PPs above. If you love Young, you'll love Brent (if and only if).

Shutting out the majority of in-boundary families for both PreK3 and PreK4 (which Brent will succeed in doing next year if another ECE class isn't added) obviously doesn't bode well for community cohesion or, by extension, fund-raising in the long term.

Ok, really? Those of you shut out for PK3/4 are really going to turn down a great school you are guaranteed entry for kindergarten? That'll show Brent! Isn't that a perfect example of the old adage "cutting off your nose to spite your face"? And, my family doesn't love Young (he's fine), but we do love Brent!

After havnig been shut out for the past 2 school years, landing at another DCPS program, I'm not going with "great" for Brent, no matter what I find there for K. I'm OK with good, or adequate, but great's pushing it. I'll give to the PTA, but probably not as generously as I would have if the school had reached out to me and the other shut-out parents at any point along the way.

I don't think I received a single note from Brent until I was invited to a rising K play date several weeks back.

Huh? The PP wrote that policy/practice doesn't bode well for COMMUNITY COHESION, and implied that some of the shut-out parents won't be dying to throw MONEY at Brent if they arrived feeling like 2nd class citizens. You're arguing with their....feelings? Yes siree, they may be cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Who's going to convince them to behave differently. You? How?

Anonymous wrote:^Agree 100% with both PPs above. If you love Young, you'll love Brent (if and only if).

Shutting out the majority of in-boundary families for both PreK3 and PreK4 (which Brent will succeed in doing next year if another ECE class isn't added) obviously doesn't bode well for community cohesion or, by extension, fund-raising in the long term.

Ok, really? Those of you shut out for PK3/4 are really going to turn down a great school you are guaranteed entry for kindergarten? That'll show Brent! Isn't that a perfect example of the old adage "cutting off your nose to spite your face"? And, my family doesn't love Young (he's fine), but we do love Brent!