Ward 6 Public Schools Parent Organization – August 20, 2019 – Meeting Notes

Ward 6 Public Schools Parent Organization – August 20, 2019 – Meeting Notes

Claudia Lujan, Deputy Chief, DCPS Strategic School Planning and enrollment, shared information on enrollment trends for the Eastern High School feeder pattern.  DCPS prepares school level Recruitment Planning Tools to help schools with recruitment.  These Recruitment Planning Tools show the percent of students living in-boundary who enrolled in the school, and they also show the “Top 5 School Competitors,” i.e., the schools where in-boundary students attend.

In general, DCPS is seeing a high in-boundary capture rate at the elementary schools (around 85%), a much lower in-boundary capture rate for middle schools, and a slighter higher in-boundary capture rate over middle schools for high schools.  Recently, DCPS has seen the middle school in-boundary capture rate increase by 3%.

Principals can use these recruitment planning tools to help in recruiting from feeder schools.  The keys to a strong recruitment strategy are:

• Parents saying good things about schools (parents listen to other parents)
• Principals’ vision for the school
• Teachers and their connection with students and their families.

Principal Brown from Eastern High School shared his thoughts and the steps he is taking to increase in-boundary enrollment.  He said building relationships with the feeder schools is key. He feels it is important to get to know the leadership and counselors at the feeder schools.

He wants parents and students to come into Eastern to begin to take away myths about the school.  Some of the myths Principal Brown identified are:

• Eastern can’t service English language learners (the school can serve these students)
• Brown Education Campus is a feeder school to Eastern, but many families at Brown believe they fed into Spingarn when it was open or to Friendship Public Charter School Collegiate Academy.

Eastern is working on communicating the strong academic framework it has with its International Baccalaureate program, and its 9^th grade academy.  Eastern developed a vision when it reopened in 2010 that it would be the highest performing comprehensive high school in the city by 2020.  Principal Brown is working to update the school’s vision beyond 2020. Principal Brown plans to hold vision setting sessions with the community in the coming months.

The meeting ended with Sarah Livingston sharing some basic facts from the FY2020 budget for DC and DCPS based on information she has gathered from the final budget approved by the Council.  Three changes the Council made to the Mayor’s March 20 proposed budget are:

• Increased the per pupil formula from 2.2% to 3% which raised the foundation level to $10,980
• Allocated $5.35 million, to be spent on 31 schools that had net budget decreases in the proposed budget, including Payne, Walker-Jones, and Watkins in W6.
• Allocated $260,000 to maintain bus service for the Capitol Hill Cluster School.

Next W6PSPO Meeting: September 17, 2019

Upcoming Events

October 2, 2019          The Education Committee/Committee of the Whole will hold a hearing on on Councilmember Allen’s Public School Transparency Act.  If you wish to testify you may sign-up online at bit.do/EducationHearings or call the Committee on Education at (202) 724-8061 by 5:00pm on Monday September 30. 2019.

October 2, 2019          Walk-to-School @ Lincoln Park