CHPSPO Meeting Notes – July 17, 2012

Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization

Maury Elementary, 1250 Constitution Ave., NE, Library

July 17, 2012 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

1. DCPS Library Funding Follow up, Suzanne Wells

• June 15, July 4, and July 11 Bake Sales were successful in generating awareness (media, Washington DC Teacher’s Union, DC Council, general public)
• CHPSPO and ‘in ward parents’ have had a presence at all ‘State of the Schools meetings (all Wards) and have raised the libraries issue in all meetings.
• CHPSPO requested meeting to present check to Kaya Henderson of $ raised by bake sales – were instructed by DCPS to submit online
• CHPSPO requested meeting with DCPS (Kaya Henderson) to discuss libraries, and were told because of her busy schedule she could not meet with us. Follow up requests stressing the need for a thoughtful discussion with DCPS on the library issue has gotten no response

Discussion:

• Money is there (example: prove what’s possible grants), but “cuts” are really about choices

Next Steps:

• Reach out to Deputy Mayor Wright, since DCPS is not responsive

2. What does vertical and horizontal integration mean to us? (Brainstorm)

• Much of this was captured in Ward 6 Middle School Plan (math, languages, IB to feed from feeder ES to MS, then from MS to Eastern)
• In our current feeder pattern, principals don’ t currently have to talk to each other; principals operate their schools as separate “islands”
• 2-3 languages should be offered at middle schools (and the elementary schools that feed into them should offer at least one of those languages). Currently, misaligned; JO Wilson offers award winning French, but Stuart Hobson (it’s feeder MS) offers Spanish…
• Math: Algebra for 7th graders; plan to get ES kids up to speed so they are prepared for Algebra. What happened to summer bridge programs for rising 6th graders?
• Robotics programs across all feeder schools; similar sports/other programs that can be offered across all schools, and coordinated so schools can share resource
• International Baccalaureate
• Lucy Kulkins writing workshops
• Responsive classroom

Next steps:

• Draft a white paper (Suzanne Wells to kick off) on what we think should be expectation for Eastern feeder pattern and what needs to happen to make these expectations possible; gather community input (via voting/survey); outlines responsibilities (parents, principals, students, DCPS)
• Follow up w/ DCPS re: Ward 6 MS plan implementation point person (raised again at State of Schools and still no follow up)
• Follow up on communications among principals that cut through current ‘clusters’ model – need teachers, principals to communicate with each other and align. Currently, many feeder schools do not coincide with clusters, so principals (and staff) have no incentives to talk to each other.

Upcoming Events:

• August 21, Next CHPSPO Meeting:
• August 25, School Beautification Day
• October 3, Walk-to-School Day – NEED COORDINATORS!!! Contact George Blackmon (gblackmon@hewfcu.com) if you can coordinate on behalf of your school

Visit CHPSPO on the web at http://chpspo.org