Why can’t Watkins get traction with Capitol Hill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, go back to older Watkins threads. This issue has been thrashed out on these boards many times in the last decade. Size of Watkins (too big), the rise of language immersion charters up in NE, in-bound hostile leadership and strong buy in from Ward 7 and 8 parents have featured heavily in the story. Despite frequent predictions that things would get better at Watkins for IB families, they only seem to get worse.

The answer is one word is “Leadership”

They have had REALLY bad leaders for the last 8 years - and essentially they ruined the place

How many seats did they offer when reopening after Covid?

For my fourth grader - none - the entire fourth grade did not go back that whole year and the leaders of that school allowed that to happen - and so we left - end of our Watkins story and our families 8 year history at the cluster.

Wasn't this the case at every DCPS school that year?

No, and I wish more people understood this.

We are at another CH DCPS elementary during Covid and then transferred after to a different one (neither was Peabody or Watkins). The schools handled it differently, and they continued to handle it differently.

Some schools really prioritized maintaining community connections during Covid, through playdates and masked community events, even during the 2020-2021 school year. Other schools truly went full virtual and outside a handful of at-risk kids, there was extremely limited community interaction for almost two years. Some schools offered more extensive in-person options in the spring of 2021, some did way more outreach in the summer of 2021. Even once all DCPS schools were back full time in person in 2021-2022 school year, you saw a lot of variation in what this meant for communities, in terms of allowing parents on campus and into schools, holding back to school events, and just how welcoming the schools were.

And I think you still see the results of those choices now. Some DCPS schools on the Hill have even stronger communities post-Covid, because of efforts made by school leadership, teachers, and PTAs to stay connected and keep the community alive. Some don't. These were choices schools made, and the schools you see shedding families quickly post-Covid, in many cases, took for granted that people would stick with them. In DC with the lottery, you cannot take your community of families for granted. I think Watkins is finding that out now.

Yes, this is one of the strange things about the DC covid response - leaving reopening up to the individual schools.

Our school did make a big effort by T3 and I appreciated that they did in-person back to school in fall 2021. Masking outdoors went on longer than I thought reasonable, but 2021-2022 did restart most of the big school events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, go back to older Watkins threads. This issue has been thrashed out on these boards many times in the last decade. Size of Watkins (too big), the rise of language immersion charters up in NE, in-bound hostile leadership and strong buy in from Ward 7 and 8 parents have featured heavily in the story. Despite frequent predictions that things would get better at Watkins for IB families, they only seem to get worse.

The answer is one word is “Leadership”

They have had REALLY bad leaders for the last 8 years - and essentially they ruined the place

How many seats did they offer when reopening after Covid?

For my fourth grader - none - the entire fourth grade did not go back that whole year and the leaders of that school allowed that to happen - and so we left - end of our Watkins story and our families 8 year history at the cluster.

Wasn't this the case at every DCPS school that year?

No, and I wish more people understood this.

We are at another CH DCPS elementary during Covid and then transferred after to a different one (neither was Peabody or Watkins). The schools handled it differently, and they continued to handle it differently.

Some schools really prioritized maintaining community connections during Covid, through playdates and masked community events, even during the 2020-2021 school year. Other schools truly went full virtual and outside a handful of at-risk kids, there was extremely limited community interaction for almost two years. Some schools offered more extensive in-person options in the spring of 2021, some did way more outreach in the summer of 2021. Even once all DCPS schools were back full time in person in 2021-2022 school year, you saw a lot of variation in what this meant for communities, in terms of allowing parents on campus and into schools, holding back to school events, and just how welcoming the schools were.

And I think you still see the results of those choices now. Some DCPS schools on the Hill have even stronger communities post-Covid, because of efforts made by school leadership, teachers, and PTAs to stay connected and keep the community alive. Some don't. These were choices schools made, and the schools you see shedding families quickly post-Covid, in many cases, took for granted that people would stick with them. In DC with the lottery, you cannot take your community of families for granted. I think Watkins is finding that out now.

+100. Very well stated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, go back to older Watkins threads. This issue has been thrashed out on these boards many times in the last decade. Size of Watkins (too big), the rise of language immersion charters up in NE, in-bound hostile leadership and strong buy in from Ward 7 and 8 parents have featured heavily in the story. Despite frequent predictions that things would get better at Watkins for IB families, they only seem to get worse.

The answer is one word is “Leadership”

They have had REALLY bad leaders for the last 8 years - and essentially they ruined the place

How many seats did they offer when reopening after Covid?

For my fourth grader - none - the entire fourth grade did not go back that whole year and the leaders of that school allowed that to happen - and so we left - end of our Watkins story and our families 8 year history at the cluster.

Wasn't this the case at every DCPS school that year?

No, and I wish more people understood this.

We are at another CH DCPS elementary during Covid and then transferred after to a different one (neither was Peabody or Watkins). The schools handled it differently, and they continued to handle it differently.

Some schools really prioritized maintaining community connections during Covid, through playdates and masked community events, even during the 2020-2021 school year. Other schools truly went full virtual and outside a handful of at-risk kids, there was extremely limited community interaction for almost two years. Some schools offered more extensive in-person options in the spring of 2021, some did way more outreach in the summer of 2021. Even once all DCPS schools were back full time in person in 2021-2022 school year, you saw a lot of variation in what this meant for communities, in terms of allowing parents on campus and into schools, holding back to school events, and just how welcoming the schools were.

And I think you still see the results of those choices now. Some DCPS schools on the Hill have even stronger communities post-Covid, because of efforts made by school leadership, teachers, and PTAs to stay connected and keep the community alive. Some don't. These were choices schools made, and the schools you see shedding families quickly post-Covid, in many cases, took for granted that people would stick with them. In DC with the lottery, you cannot take your community of families for granted. I think Watkins is finding that out now.

+100. Very well stated.

Same for a lot of charters. We were at one that seemed to assume that there was an endless supply of goodwill from families which really is not the case.

[Anonymous]

I heard new principal took over during pandemic but things are improving now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Peabody is overwhelmingly IB. Watkins IB enrollment is extremely low. It seems all the other hill neighborhood schools are increasing their IB enrollment while Watkins is going in the opposite direction.

What will it take for neighborhood buy-in? They renovated Watkins not long ago and the IB % has been steadily dropping.

Really? It was much less than it is today when my kid went through a few years ago.

I think you're mistaken. It's only 36% IB today and has slid back to Title 1 eligibility (in a boundary where T1 eligibility is approaching 0%).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The boundary is too big and weirdly shaped. Most people within the boundary are closer to another school on the Hill, so they go there instead. Watkins then becomes a school for Ward 7 and 8.

+1. On the blocks converging around 7th & Maryland, nearly everyone goes to L-T despite being zoned for Watkins. They all get proximity preference so can get in by PK4 or K if they want to and most families do these days. L-T is about 5 blocks straight down 7th (older kids can commute alone) vs Watkins being virtually on the other side of the Hill. Most kids go to Peabody for PK3 (can't get into L-T then even with older siblings typically) and then change to L-T by 1st at the latest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, go back to older Watkins threads. This issue has been thrashed out on these boards many times in the last decade. Size of Watkins (too big), the rise of language immersion charters up in NE, in-bound hostile leadership and strong buy in from Ward 7 and 8 parents have featured heavily in the story. Despite frequent predictions that things would get better at Watkins for IB families, they only seem to get worse.

The answer is one word is “Leadership”

They have had REALLY bad leaders for the last 8 years - and essentially they ruined the place

How many seats did they offer when reopening after Covid?

For my fourth grader - none - the entire fourth grade did not go back that whole year and the leaders of that school allowed that to happen - and so we left - end of our Watkins story and our families 8 year history at the cluster.

Wasn't this the case at every DCPS school that year?

No, and I wish more people understood this.

We are at another CH DCPS elementary during Covid and then transferred after to a different one (neither was Peabody or Watkins). The schools handled it differently, and they continued to handle it differently.

Some schools really prioritized maintaining community connections during Covid, through playdates and masked community events, even during the 2020-2021 school year. Other schools truly went full virtual and outside a handful of at-risk kids, there was extremely limited community interaction for almost two years. Some schools offered more extensive in-person options in the spring of 2021, some did way more outreach in the summer of 2021. Even once all DCPS schools were back full time in person in 2021-2022 school year, you saw a lot of variation in what this meant for communities, in terms of allowing parents on campus and into schools, holding back to school events, and just how welcoming the schools were.

And I think you still see the results of those choices now. Some DCPS schools on the Hill have even stronger communities post-Covid, because of efforts made by school leadership, teachers, and PTAs to stay connected and keep the community alive. Some don't. These were choices schools made, and the schools you see shedding families quickly post-Covid, in many cases, took for granted that people would stick with them. In DC with the lottery, you cannot take your community of families for granted. I think Watkins is finding that out now.

+100. Very well stated.

Same for a lot of charters. We were at one that seemed to assume that there was an endless supply of goodwill from families which really is not the case.

Yep. We were likely at the same charter, which now appears in peril. Inept leadership can really have devastating effects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The boundary is too big and weirdly shaped. Most people within the boundary are closer to another school on the Hill, so they go there instead. Watkins then becomes a school for Ward 7 and 8.

+1. On the blocks converging around 7th & Maryland, nearly everyone goes to L-T despite being zoned for Watkins. They all get proximity preference so can get in by PK4 or K if they want to and most families do these days. L-T is about 5 blocks straight down 7th (older kids can commute alone) vs Watkins being virtually on the other side of the Hill. Most kids go to Peabody for PK3 (can't get into L-T then even with older siblings typically) and then change to L-T by 1st at the latest.

We just wrapped up K at Peabody and are not going to Watkins. The boundary is really weird, most of my kids class has proxmity preference at Brent, LT or Maury. We live near Peabody and have proximity at both LT and Maury and got into one of those this year and would have gotten into the other one if we had ranked it before the one we got into. We are moving to Arlington so didn't enroll in another option but if we stayed on the Hill, we would have. Most people IB have options at other schools and use those options. We had a pretty good experience at Peabody - loved the teachers, did not love school leadership. The people we know who have kids at Watkins and are IB are very committed to Watkins and public school in general and do a lot of work to make the Cluster a good place, but I don't have the energy to do a part time job on top of my fulltime job so my kids can have the basics. Watkins will not get better until the boundary is changed to limit peoples other options to get into other more attractive DCPS schools.

[Anonymous]

This is so interesting because 8-10 years ago very very few people got into Brent or Maury off the waitlist, even with proximity, and LT was still "in transition." It seems like a lot of people remained at Watkins during that time because they didn't have other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so interesting because 8-10 years ago very very few people got into Brent or Maury off the waitlist, even with proximity, and LT was still "in transition." It seems like a lot of people remained at Watkins during that time because they didn't have other options.

I think this is correct with respect to Brent (lottery a bit softer now than previously as the IB families have aged) and L-T (more attractive now than previously), but Maury is harder to get into now than it was 8-10 years ago. Obviously that's not going to be true every year for every grade, but Maury has a much higher percentage of IB families now than it did 10 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The boundary is too big and weirdly shaped. Most people within the boundary are closer to another school on the Hill, so they go there instead. Watkins then becomes a school for Ward 7 and 8.

+1. On the blocks converging around 7th & Maryland, nearly everyone goes to L-T despite being zoned for Watkins. They all get proximity preference so can get in by PK4 or K if they want to and most families do these days. L-T is about 5 blocks straight down 7th (older kids can commute alone) vs Watkins being virtually on the other side of the Hill. Most kids go to Peabody for PK3 (can't get into L-T then even with older siblings typically) and then change to L-T by 1st at the latest.

We just wrapped up K at Peabody and are not going to Watkins. The boundary is really weird, most of my kids class has proxmity preference at Brent, LT or Maury. We live near Peabody and have proximity at both LT and Maury and got into one of those this year and would have gotten into the other one if we had ranked it before the one we got into. We are moving to Arlington so didn't enroll in another option but if we stayed on the Hill, we would have. Most people IB have options at other schools and use those options. We had a pretty good experience at Peabody - loved the teachers, did not love school leadership. The people we know who have kids at Watkins and are IB are very committed to Watkins and public school in general and do a lot of work to make the Cluster a good place, but I don't have the energy to do a part time job on top of my fulltime job so my kids can have the basics. Watkins will not get better until the boundary is changed to limit peoples other options to get into other more attractive DCPS schools.

Yup, a ridiculously gerrymandered boundary only works if the school in question is the most desirable one. Now it's a massive liability... I'm also confused why they zoned the Tyler folks who don't want Spanish into Payne, when (1) Payne and Tyler aren't contiguous -- Watkins is in between; and (2) Watkins is huge, nearly 2/3rds OOB and didn't fill it's lottery seats this year, so could easily accommodate Tyler overflow. It seemed like sending those folks to Watkins was an obvious solution to multiple problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Peabody is overwhelmingly IB. Watkins IB enrollment is extremely low. It seems all the other hill neighborhood schools are increasing their IB enrollment while Watkins is going in the opposite direction.

What will it take for neighborhood buy-in? They renovated Watkins not long ago and the IB % has been steadily dropping.

Really? It was much less than it is today when my kid went through a few years ago.

I think you're mistaken. It's only 36% IB today and has slid back to Title 1 eligibility (in a boundary where T1 eligibility is approaching 0%).

It was 20% IB when my kid went to first grade 6 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so interesting because 8-10 years ago very very few people got into Brent or Maury off the waitlist, even with proximity, and LT was still "in transition." It seems like a lot of people remained at Watkins during that time because they didn't have other options.

+1. This was us, but at the same time, the IB percentage was still lower than it is today. You had many more people leaving the Hill entirely after Peabody than you do today.

[Anonymous]

We just wrapped up Prek4 at Peabody and got into Maury with proxmity preference. If you look at the lottery data, this year on match day, 3 kids got into Maury K who are OOB but have siblings attending, 7 kids got in with proxmity and 2 got in with no preference. That's 12 kids who are not inbound. Last year there were NO kids who got in on match day.

For Ludlow this year for K, 2 kids matched in OOB with sibling attending, 1 OOB with sibling offered, 3 with proximity and 9 with no preference. That's 15 who are OOB. Last year there were 2 OOB with sibling offered, 0 proxmity and 5 with no preference, that's 7 who are OOB.

For Brent this year for K, 10 kids were OOB with sibling attending, 1 proxmity, and 7 no perference (18 OOB). Last year, 1 matched OOB with sibling attending, and that's it, so 1 OOB kid on match day.

Obviously not everyone went so the actual make-up of the class is different but the data tells me two things 1) kids with promixity preference are definitely choosing Maury and Ludlow over other schools this year (not necessarily Peabody maybe? I don't know if there are kids in the Miner or JO zone that have proxmity to Maury and Ludlow respectively) but I do know that of the 7 that matched at Maury, 5 are coming from Peabody (including us). 2) Something is going on with Hill K enrollment overall where there are more slots this year. It's either the schools opened more slots to avoid uncertaintly later on in the year or there are fewer K kids generally. I'm not sure. If this pattern continues though and it's easier for proxmity kids to keep getting into Maury and Ludlow, then Watkins will continue to struggle.

[Anonymous]

Tyler needs a sister school that offers K. I think Watkins inbound participation rate is maybe still somewhat close to 50%. But it is a weird boundary where a sizable number of kids end up attending the all of the surrounding schools: Brent, Maury, SWS, Tyler (for Spanish), Ludlow, Payne, CHML.