Payne Elementary School, 1445 C Street, SE
June 20, 2017 – 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.
SBOE Update – Joe Weedon, Ward 6 SBOE Representative
- Additional funding allocated by DC Council
When council added additional funding to schools, came w/ a directive to put money into local schools. Chancellor committed that $$ would go to schools and would reinstitute cuts. How to ensure this will happen?
- Budget changes should be announced via LSATs
- Council called for DCPS to issue report by September 30
2. ESSA Advisory Task Force,
- Chair of task force is Lanette Woodruff – Ward 4
- ESSA over-emphasized ELA, Math; did not emphasize public process going forward for outstanding items
- Task force to work w/ OSSE on those outstanding items: science assessment, school climate pilot, develop system to measure growth in high schools. These outstanding ESSA elements to be sorted out while school report card (likely to come out at year 2 of new state rankings) is under development. The items should align w/ what is used for accountability;
- Represents all Ed entities: DCPS, DC PCS, OSSE Superintendent, individual schools, teachers, Ward Ed councils, business leaders and policy experts, community activists, 25 voting members who will work to approve recommendations; 2-3 seats reserved for parents
- Over course of next year – monthly meetings for different topics related to the outstanding elements. Developing schedule and identifying speakers, experts, etc.
- Changes for ESSA need to come from OSSE (w/ SBOE vote)
- Application for task force participation will going up in next week or so on https://sboe.dc.gov/
3. High School Graduation Task Force; https://sboe.dc.gov/gradreqs
- Open application for high school graduation task force; looking at HS graduation requirements and identifying ways to be more flexible to meet student needs
- DC has some of highest requirements in nation for HS grad; very prescriptive – hoping for more flexibility: https://sboe.dc.gov/gradreqs
- Ideas: computer coding could count as world language and science credit
- How to better prepare students for college or career
- Align skills w/ growth in local economy: what are key elements we need to build into curriculum?
- Board is willing to listen and bring in a wide range of stakeholders
Does Ward 6 need an education strategic plan?
- Ward 3 working on overcrowding issues; unclear how the formal structure w/ DCPS was initiated
- Ward 7 – Opposite issue of Ward 3, as many kids go to Ward 6 (and other wards) schools
- Recently sent letter to DME, PCSB, DCPS to engage w/ them re: charter schools. Have abundance of charters, making them defacto neighborhood schools. DC Prep and KIPP in last few months, have asked for enrollment increases, adding 4000 new seats (2 elementary schools (ES), 1 middle school (MS), 1 high school (HS)
- Public Charter School Board recently denied DC Prep’s ES
- KIPP approved for HS, and withdrew ES and MS applications
- Recently sent letter to DME, PCSB, DCPS to engage w/ them re: charter schools. Have abundance of charters, making them defacto neighborhood schools. DC Prep and KIPP in last few months, have asked for enrollment increases, adding 4000 new seats (2 elementary schools (ES), 1 middle school (MS), 1 high school (HS)
- Ward 6
- Maury overenrolled and about to be renovated while Miner is under-enrolled
- Eliot-Hine and Jefferson under-enrolled
- Overcrowding at PreK3-PreK4; many go to Appletree as a result
- Eastern enrollment has dropped from 1066 to <900 projected for next year.
- Enough big picture issues facing Ward 6 that warrants planning discussion
- Claudia Lujan just selected to be director of strategic planning for DCPS – has history with Ward 6 in willingness to listen
- How are additional Prek-3/PreK-4 classrooms granted?
- Ward 3 is focused on facilities
- Experience w/ facilities planning w/ DCPS shows inputs are:
- Expected retention?
- DCPS’ numbers are artificially low and dated
- Facilities meet requirements?
- Expected retention?
- Discussion re: needs
- Need for predictability and stability around enrollment and budgets
- Need alignment in the feeder pattern from elementary to middle to high school, e.g., begin preparing students from beginning in “Eastern Way”
- We say we have a system of schools, but not preparing them for what’s next
- DCPS reluctance is re: we have to teach the students who are here today – schools need vision around what they want to be excellent at
- IB à MYP à pulls from ES, but need to be articulated in that way
- How to convince DCPS to sell the schools and the community of schools?
- Need for schools to talk; parents should be able to match a school w/ children’s needs and interests; schools should coordinate around strengths, weaknesses, resources; good to keep children within the system
- Need to be better about branding
- Invite representative from Ward 3 Education Council to future CHPSPO meeting to discuss the working group on overcrowding
Chancellor’s Parent Cabinet
- https://dcps.dc.gov/page/chancellors-parent-cabinet
- application period through June 30
- Encourage Ward 6 parents to apply
- A critical responsibility of cabinet members is to disseminate discussions w/ community and to engage community in providing input into issues raised w/in cabinet
CHPSPO Officer Positions Elections (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Walk-to-School Coordinator, Bike-to-School Coordinator) – election in September 19, 2017 meeting.
Next CHPSPO Meeting: July 18, 2017
Upcoming Events
Twitter Town Hall with Chancellor Wilson
Thursday, June 22, 3:30 – 4:30 pm, #AskChantwan
Cross Sector Collaboration Task Force
Tuesday, June 27, EducationCounsel (101 Constitution Ave, NW, Suite 900)
Chancellor’s Parent Cabinet
Application can be found online at bit.ly/dcpsparentcabinet. Applications are due by 11:59 on June 30.
Capitol Hill Independence Day Parade
Visit CHPSPO on the web at http://chpspo.org
