W6PSPO Meets Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Dear Ward 6 Public Schools Parent Organization members,

1.  W6PSPO will meet on Tuesday, May 18, at 7 pm.  The following items will be on our agenda:

• FY21/22 Budget – Mayor Bowser recently announced $14M would be added to school budgets.  We’d like to have report outs from each school to learn if funds were restored to your school budgets, if you will be able to retain your current staff positions, and if your school needed to submit a new petition to address budget shortfalls.
• Covid Recovery – We believe the Council will hold a hearing on May 26 to address education recovery post Covid.  We’d like to hear from you what you think will be important for the City to focus on, e.g., how recovery from learning loss might be accomplished, what support will students, families, teachers and administrators need to address any emotional trauma experienced, and what will it take to safely reopen schools.
• W6PSPO accomplished a lot during the past 15 months including leading a city-wide petition to pause the PARCC test for this year (OSSE submitted a waiver from PARCC testing that was approved by the Department of Education), leading a city-wide petition to ensure no school lost staff that resulted in the Mayor announcing the $14M increase, sharing among Ward 6 schools what was working at your schools during this past year, supporting Digital Equity in DC Education that continues to work to ensure all students have access to adequate technology and internet, and holding safe Walk and Bike-to-School events.  We’d like to discuss what you think W6PSPO’s strengths are, and how we can continue to work with our member schools to support them.

If you registered for a previous W6PSPO meeting, the link you received for that meeting will work for this and future W6PSPO meetings.  If you don’t already have the meeting link, contact w6pspo@gmail.com.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

2.  Please share the following items with your school communities:

• goDCgo is offering District school staff up to $250 towards a new bike used for commuting. If you or your staff have recently purchased a bike or plan to buy one, get rewarded for doing your part to reduce congestion and improve air quality in DC. The only requirements are that participants work at a District school and use the bike for commuting around DC. Those who are interested can learn more at goDCgo.com/bike-incentive.  Please post attached flyer at your schools.
• The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has appropriated $3.2 billion to help low-income residents subsidize their at-home internet service. The Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) will provide eligible District residents with much-needed free and subsidized internet service.
  • The EBB subsidy helps low-income households struggling to pay for internet service during the pandemic with:
    • Up to $50/month for internet service for low-income households (HH); and
    • A subsidy of up to $100 to participating internet service providers (ISPs) to offer a laptop, desktop or tablet for between $10-$50/HH.
  • We have an opportunity to help our neighbors get access to this highly valuable benefit – and we need your help! The EBB subsidy helps eligible households pay for internet service and a device, but it does not fund communications and training. That’s why we’ve partnered with Connected DMV to organize a DMV-wide outreach effort to ensure every eligible resident knows about this program.
  • EBB is separate from Mayor Bowser’s Internet for All program, which provides one year of low-cost internet service for students in Pre-K3 to 12^th grade and in an adult charter schools through RCN or Comcast. We see the EBB subsidy as an alternative program for residents who:
    • Do not have a student enrolled in DC traditional or Public Charter School
    • Need device assistance in addition to Internet for All
    • Need higher speed internet than Internet Essentials (Comcast) or Internet First (RCN), which are both 50 Mbps.

If you have family eligible for Internet for All please reach out to (202) CONNECT or email connectdc@dc.gov.

We Need Your Help

We want to drive awareness and adoption of the new benefit and Internet for All.  Let’s maximize DC’s participation by spreading the word and encouraging eligible residents to apply. Please join us for one of two 60-minute information sessions for you to learn more, ask questions and get involved:

• Session 1 Monday, May 17, 12 pm
• Session 2 Tuesday, May 18, 5 pm

Click here to register: techtogetherdcinternetaccess.splashthat.com

Hope to see you on Tuesday.
Suzanne Wells