Mark Simon Testimony – Roundtable on Chancellor of DCPS Dr Ferebee Confirmation – February 6, 2019

Testimony of Mark Simon

Wednesday, February 6th 2019

DC Council COW and Ed Committee Joint Public Roundtable Hearing on Lewis Ferebee

Chairman Mendelson, Committee chair Grosso, members of the Council, my name is Mark Simon. I’ve lived in DC for 46 years, sent my daughter through DCPS, served on 2 LSATs, and tried to be an active parent advocate for public education.  I’m part of the newly formed Ward 1 Education Council.  I’ve been a life-long educator, serve on the Board of Directors of EmpowerEd. and I’m an education policy associate with the Economic Policy Institute, a national think tank in Washington.

DC is a tough city to get to know the education landscape.  Antwan Wilson came in mouthing support for the education reforms in place but quickly came to realize there were huge problems with the culture in schools and system-wide.  He became a quiet advocate for changing the education culture, listening carefully to teachers, but he wasn’t around long enough to see it through.

Teachers hate the IMPACT evaluation system and blame it for teacher turnover.  Parents and teachers decry a lack of transparency in the charter sector.  We’re all frustrated by the lack of credibility of education data and the opaqueness of decision-making under mayoral control.

But most importantly, we have clearly not done right by our lowest performing students. The achievement gap has widened, not narrowed.

When the SBOE held hearings in 2017 on how the criteria for evaluating schools should be changed, parents and educators asked for school climate surveys to be part of the report card, but OSSE refused.  Parents and teachers wanted to be heard. And they should be. OSSE says now that they’re coming around. But why the resistance?

I’ve listened closely to Lewis Ferebee since he arrived and looked into his track record in Indianapolis. He seems to have a lot of confidence in strategies he tried there, enabling charter schools to take over neighborhood schools that were failing. But what he did, we’ve already done. It’s no panacea.

He says he believes in the reform strategies in place here, that teacher turnover isn’t a big problem. I’m not sure we need an apologist for what we’re doing, a stay the course leader. He seems like a nice guy, but with all due respect, what we need is someone who’s curious and willing to be honest about what isn’t working, someone who will join the Council in welcoming independent research and transparency. We need a leader willing to recognize we need a mid-course correction. The fear-based culture that’s driving teachers away needs to be replaced with a collaborative culture. Teachers and parents must be listened to.  I don’t hear that from Lewis Ferebee.

Amanda Alexander seemed more humbled, a listener.  Perhaps after 20 years in DCPS she she’d have insights into what’s not working.  The mayor provided only one resume to the Council, the public, and to the committee she empaneled to conduct the search.

Whether or not you vote down the nomination of Ferebee and suggest to the Mayor that continuing Amanda Alexander would be preferable, the instructions and oversight this DC Council provides need to be much more hands-on.  Require DCPS to fix the broken fear-based culture that pushes compliance, replacing it with a culture that builds trust and collaboration.  Bring in experts on building the teaching and learning school level culture and don’t assume that the reform strategies and top down mandates are working.

Over the past several years many others have spoken at length about this with you.  The era of test-driven gimmicks and using rosy data to mask problems needs to be over. We need a leader willing to be honest about what’s working and what isn’t.

I’ve attached a letter that over 100 individuals and over a dozen organizations sent to the Mayor and Members of the DC Council last June when the Mayor was beginning her chancellor search.  They never got a response, or the meeting asked for from the mayor or her search committee.  The very thoughtful letter details the nature of the climate change that’s needed. You might take a moment to re-read it in preparation for asking questions of the proposed Chancellor.

 

Rebecca Reina Testimony – Roundtable on Chancellor of DCPS Dr Ferebee Confirmation – February 6, 2019

Testimony of Rebecca Reina

to DC Council, Committee on Education, public hearing

on the nomination of Dr. Lewis Ferebee as Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools,

on 2/6/19 at 6:00 pm,

Cardozo Education Campus cafeteria (1200 Clifton St, NW)

 

Hello, I‘m Becky Reina, mother of 2 Cleveland Elementary School students, where I have served on the PTA and LSAT. I am also the Interim Chair of the newly relaunched Ward 1 Education Council; although I am here today in my capacity as a parent, not on behalf on the Education Council. Thank you for this opportunity to testify on the nomination of Dr. Lewis Ferebee to lead DC Public Schools.

I have not yet met Dr. Ferebee.  He seems to be an earnest, committed educator.  There are things about his work in Indianapolis that give me pause: I am very much against handing traditional public schools to charter operators and against dismantling a system of neighborhood, by-right schools at any age-level, including high school; I am also concerned about his oversight of the sexual abuse case that has come to light in Indianapolis, particularly because that school district’s response appeared not to be focused on what was best for the student, but instead on limiting liability.

I am gladdened by Dr. Ferebee’s immediate outreach to the DC community, including the Ward coffees he has already begun and the invitation to meet that I and my fellow Chairs of Ward-based education groups have received. This engagement is a vital first step. But, now Dr. Ferebee must not only listen to community concerns, but also change his thinking and actions based on what he hears. In the past 5 years, I have been to many beautiful stage-managed community engagement meetings and watched numerous Chancellors and Acting Chancellors listen with furrowed brows.  I have not seen those same Chancellors defend DCPS against the encroachment of charter schools and the gradual degradation of our by-right, neighborhood feeder system that can and should take children on a clear, well-supported school journey from PK3 to 12th grade in *every* part of this city. To start that defense, our DCPS schools need:

1) adequate At-Risk and ELL funding which supplements not supplants the funding of core school functions,

2) a dedicated technology budget for every school that supports not only laptops for testing but also continuing classroom use of a computers, laptops, tablets, headphones, and SMART boards and maintenance of all these devices — funding that is reliable and continuing, and not based on grants or PTA largess,

3) a clear, adequate feeder pattern in every neighborhood — including but not limited to the reopening of Shaw Middle School in the Cardozo feeder pattern at the site of the former Shaw Junior High School and robust community engagement prior to any changes that affect feeder patterns,

4) additional funding for translation services for schools that require it to communicate with their families,

5) a plan for and funding of transporting middle school students to school in parts of town where public transit is not currently adequate,

6) increased seats in dual language programs,

7) adequate Out of School Time funding for both before and aftercare for every student that wants a seat,

8) a full roll out and adequate training on social/emotional learning curricula and trauma-informed teaching and discipline, including fully funding and implementing the Student Fair Access to School Act,

9) an overall DCPS budget that is adequate and fair to individual schools, both in terms of money and time. — As an aside I confirmed this morning that school leaders still don’t have their budgets although they are due back to Central Office at the end of next week, which is not enough time for adequate engagement with school communities nor to undertake the budget gap-closing measures school leaders are regularly forced to engage in outside the official budget process, such as applying for outside grants,

— and perhaps most importantly,

10) the bravery to end the hyperfocus on flawed test metrics that results in a culture of fear, lack of transparency, top-down unfunded mandates, high teacher turnover, and a narrowing of curriculum; meaning to have the bravery to embrace, nurture, and trumpet the amazing work our students, educators, and families are doing in our DCPS schools every day and to hold space for them as they honestly confront challenges, whether academic or not.

This laundry list of problems are things that our school Chancellor must advocate for if he is not given them by the Mayor. We need a DCPS Chancellor who will have those hard conversation on behalf of our children. And frankly, we need a City Council that uses the full breadth of its power to make sure we have that Chancellor. Please fully vet Dr. Ferebee before voting on his nomination to determine whether he will be the Chancellor that DCPS and its students need.

Thank you very much.

Sandra Moscoso Testimony – Roundtable on Chancellor of DCPS Dr Ferebee Confirmation – February 6, 2019

Sandra Moscoso Testimony

Committee on Education’s public roundtable on PR23-0067, the “Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools Dr. Lewis D. Ferebee Confirmation Resolution of 2019.”

February 6 at 6:00 P.M. at Francis L. Cardozo Education Campus

Good evening, Chairpersons and Councilmembers. I am Sandra Moscoso, the parent of a 7th grader at Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan and 10th grader at School Without Walls. I am also a long-time member of the Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization, which has served as the Ward 6 education council for 14 years.

During our time with DCPS and also DC Charter Schools my family has seen one superintendent and six acting-interim-chancellors at the helm. I share this as a reminder that my children are in the end, the beneficiaries or victims of your decisions, but also a reminder that most of us are here not as watch dogs, but rather, for the long haul. We come in peace, as community members seeking to collaborate with you and DCPS to strengthen our schools.

I have attached an excerpt from a letter released June 2018 by the Coalition for DC Public Schools & Communities to reiterate what CHPSPO supports in a Chancellor.

Today, I will focus on transparency, advocacy, and institutional commitments.

I have heard Acting Chancellor Ferebee cite transparency as the way to build trust. This is heartening, but it’s important we have a shared understanding of what transparency means. To me, this means transparent decision-making, creating opportunities for families and school educators to weigh in on decisions, and it means transparency around the data, facts, and evidence upon which decisions are made. Today, there is a very active conversation about transparency in charter schools. DCPS is ahead here and has the opportunity to continue to lead, by publishing decision-useful data in open formats. I will plug data.dc.gov as the perfect home for now.

On advocating for DC Public Schools, I say – join us! Las month was “School Choice Week” and this reminds me there is a huge lobby effort supporting DC charters. This does not exist for DCPS. Neighborhood schools are also schools of choice. It has been a source of frustration for families who spend blood, sweat and tears supporting our local schools to have efforts undermined by glossy marketing campaigns. For years, we have pushed for DCPS to leverage built-in strengths like geographic communities, feeder pattern communities, and multi-generational alumni networks. After years of leaving these feeder relationships up to schools, in Ward 6, we’re finally starting to see feeder-wide events and open houses supported by DCPS. I hope this type of support will continue and grow.

Finally, I want to talk about institutional commitments. Early in this testimony I shared the number of DCPS leaders my family and community have engaged with. As you can imagine we have all been through many many visioning sessions, where we have been asked what we want from our schools. I think by now, our city has a good sense of what the community wants and this is captured at a high level in the DCPS Strategic Plan for 2017-2022. I ask Council to hold DCPS’ Chancellor to this commitment and to please not start over.  Dr. Ferebee comes to DC having developed a network of innovation schools. I hope he will take the time to get to know our schools and recognize the local, on-the ground innovation that takes place every day. I hope he will not be tempted to push schools to run after externally mandated shiny things at the expense of honoring DCPS’ commitments.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Sign-on Letter for Bicycle Lane Between Chinatown (NW) and H St (NE)

Sign-on to support a bicycle lane on K St to serve Chinatown (NW) and H St (NE). This effort is organized by the “Safe Streets for Hill East and Near Northeast” community. (scroll for full letter/form)

Mary Levy Testimony – Roundtable on At-Risk Funding – February 1, 2019

TESTIMONY BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE AND THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COUNCIL
At-Risk Funding Transparency

Mary Levy   –   February 1, 2019

Thank you for holding this hearing, and thanks to the Council members who introduced and who supported this legislation.  Since 1980, I have analyzed public school budgets, expenditures, and staffing to determine where the money goes.  For each of the past five years I have worked with the Coalition for DC Public Schools and the DC Fiscal Policy Institute to analyze local school budgets, especially the use of at-risk funding.

Clearly, each year DCPS has used at-risk funding to supplant funds for other programs, in contravention of the DC Code.  My colleagues and I have documented this practice; the Committee on Education itself has consistently made the same finding in annual Committee reports; and DCPS officials have admitted it in testimony to this Council.  Yet it has continued.

This practice cheats at-risk students by using funds designated to services to support them to instead fund services for which all qualifying students are entitled, regardless of at-risk status.  These services include legally required special education and ELL student services as well as general education services provided to all students in each grade level.  Schools with few at-risk students and little money to take have virtually all of their core program funded with regular funds, while schools with large at-risk enrollments have less per pupil in regular funding.  This is classic supplant rather than supplement.[1]

In addition, our analyses show that this practice is inequitable among schools with similar populations.  The siphoning off of at-risk funds varies greatly among individual schools in any given year; some schools lose most of their at-risk funds to supplanting and others very little.

There already being a law against using at-risk funds this way, the proposed legislation is an important further step in securing more effective services for at-risk students.  I see two main strands:  transparency and an increased role for local schools in determining the best use of the funds.   Transparency in the form of full information both in budget formulation and in reporting on actual use of funds is important and necessary.  Sunshine makes a difference, and the specific provisions here will help prevent the budget fait accomplis that we have experienced, where mis-allocation becomes visible only when it is too late to correct.

Having the plans for use of at-risk funds formulated by principals and Local School Advisory Teams brings in the expertise of those closest to individual students and their needs.  This was part of the original enactment providing at-risk funding, and the Council was right the first time.  The Chancellor will retain the ability to amend inappropriate plans, and the incidence of siphoning at-risk funds off for core program use will probably be eliminated.

Please enact this legislation.

——-

APPENDIX

DCPS officials have argued that they cannot afford to fully fund the core program services provided to all students regardless of at-risk status.  More money from the Council would be helpful, but even without it, there are at least three alternatives available:

(a) Rethink general education entitlements: do all students, even the most advantaged, need every single staff/NPS level entitlement?

(b) Reduce funding for programs not based on student need that are available to only a select few schools chosen by criteria unknown. I have a list.

(c) Cut down on central office staff, who are much more numerous and much more highly paid than was the case 12 years ago

As to alternative (c), according to the most recent statistics from Census Bureau fiscal reports, DCPS central office spending in FY 2016 was 10.8% of total current expenditures, compared to the U.S. average of 1.9% percent.  DCPS is spending $2,260 per pupil, which is ten times the US average of $226.[2]  For many years I have categorized DCPS employees by whether or not they serve students directly, which is what most members of the public want to know when they ask about central office or “administration.”[3]   The number of central office full-time equivalent staff performing the same functions that DCPS now performs has risen from 516 in 1981, when we had 95,000 students to 626 in 2007, when we had 52,000, to 797 this year for about 49,000.

Below are November 2019 counts of central office staff with common titles.  Certainly the system needs some number of these people.  Those who are really good are worth a great deal.  But do we really need 45 Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs?  86 Directors?  180 Program Specialists?

Title # of FTEs Title # of FTEs
Chief 14 Program Specialist 180
Deputy Chief 31 Project Manager 73
Director 86 Coordinator 144
Manager 79 Analyst 55
Specialist 84 Program Coordinator 9

If central office were reduced to a more reasonable level, DCPS would not have to appropriate at-risk funds for core program services that are funded with regular funds at schools in well-to-do neighborhoods.

[1] Some alternatives are listed on the reverse of this testimony.

[2] Derived from U.S. Census Bureau, Public Education Finances:  2016, May, 2018 Tables 6, 7 and 19.  https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2016/econ/school-finances/secondary-education-finance.html.  These figures are self-reported by DCPS.

[3] The source is lists of DCPS employees, obtained by FOIA or from submissions to the D.C. Board of Education (before FY 2008) or to the DC Council (since FY 2008), based on office of employment, program, job title, purpose of applicable grant funding, and DCPS website descriptions.  Employees performing functions subsequently transferred or contracted out are excluded in the earlier year calculations.

Jessica Sutter Testimony – Roundtable on At-Risk Funding – February 1, 2019

February 1, 2019

Jessica Sutter

Testimony at Council Oversight Roundtable on At Risk Funding Transparency

Thank you Chairman Mendelson and Members of the DC Council for inviting public testimony today. My name is Jessica Sutter and I have the honor of representing Ward 6 on the DC State Board of Education. I am testifying here today as an individual, and not on behalf of the SBOE.

I support the goal of this bill: to help guarantee that the original purpose of the at-risk funding mechanism—promoting equity of opportunity in education—is fully realized. Increasing equity of opportunity for all young people is why so many educators decided to work in or with public schools. But we have not yet realized the goal of providing all DC children with equitable opportunities to succeed and I believe that some modifications to the bill can help us get a bit closer than we are today.

I have three requests to modify the bill as currently written.

First – there is simply a need for more funding to serve students who are identified as “at-risk.” We know this. The 2014 Adequacy Study from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education recommended for $3906 per student identified as “at-risk.” Our current funding is nowhere near that. In order to best serve the diverse needs of our diverse student body in Ward 6, and all across the city, we need the UPSFF to be adjusted to weight “at-risk” funding at the recommended level. This will benefit early childhood students at Amidon-Bowen ES and AppleTree PCS, it will benefit middle school students at Eliot-Hine and it will benefit young people in the alternative education programming at Kingsman Academy. All Ward 6 students – and all students District-wide – who meet the definition of being “at risk” deserve these funds as a matter of educational equity. I ask that you increase the funding to the recommended level and ensure that school leaders have the power to spend it in ways that can best serve the needs of children in their care.

Second, I’d recommend streamlining the reporting on how at-risk funds are spent. As written, the bill would require LEAs to provide reports to the Council each year that explain how each school used its at-risk funds. Rather than create an additional report, it would be great to see this information reported as part of the DC School Report Card, allowing students and families a chance to gain an understanding of schools’ budgeting priorities and spending histories. This would increase school budget and funding transparency – a matter for which parents and teachers across the city are currently advocating. DC PAVE has selected school funding and budget transparency as one of their key advocacy issues for 2019.

The ESSA Task Force of the SBOE is working with OSSE to establish how data on per pupil expenditures will be displayed on the School Report Card (starting in December 2019), the at-risk funding expenditures could, perhaps be displayed in the same section. This would streamline information for the public, especially families, and it could reduce the administrative burden on schools that are saddled with many reporting requirements to their LEA, to OSSE, the federal government, and other external partners and grantors.

Finally, adding a standardized set of terms and definitions—like a common set of expenditure categories—to the language of this bill would ensure all LEAs are reporting the same data points and pieces of information. It would also allow for easier at-a-glance understanding of how schools use these funds to promote both well-being and improved achievement among at-risk students, and better (if still limited) comparisons across schools. Common categories would allow for public transparency in considering how schools spend these funds, while also acknowledging that the kinds of expenditures that benefit students classified as “at risk” are often hard to tie directly to immediate (i.e. – within year) academic outcomes.

I thank you for your consideration of these recommendations and for allowing me time to speak today.

 

Grace Hu Testimony – Roundtable on At-Risk Funding – February 1, 2019

Grace Hu
Amidon-Bowen Elementary PTA
mailto:amidonbowendc@gmail.com
February 1, 2019

My name is Grace Hu. I serve on the PTA of Amidon-Bowen Elementary and have previously served on the Amidon-Bowen Local School Advisory Team.  On behalf of the Amidon-Bowen PTA, I would like to thank you for holding this hearing and specifically thank Councilmember Charles Allen for introducing legislation on the important topic of at-risk funding.

Earlier this week Comments on CM Allen At Risk Funding bill Jan 29 2019. Our PTA contributed to and endorses those comments. My testimony today provides additional views specific to our school community.

Chronic underfunding not an excuse to misuse at-risk funding

Amidon-Bowen Elementary, the neighborhood elementary school for Southwest DC, serves approximately 350 students, of which more than 70% have been identified as “at risk”.  Our parents notice that staffing positions are on the chopping block each year and students lack basic resources (e.g., computers to support online testing and curricula, paper, other supplies) in the classroom. We wonder how are we expected to close the achievement gap (and overcome our 2-star OSSE rating) without a serious investment of resources?

But while we believe there is a chronic underfunding of our schools, we also believe that chronic underfunding is not an excuse for the misuse of at-risk funds.  As long as at-risk funding is being used to cover budget gaps at our neediest schools while schools without at-risk funding are provided base positions and resources without this shell game (see footnote [1]) of moving around at-risk money to cover shortfalls, funds that are designed to provide equity will continue to be used to create inequity.

At-risk funds and student achievement

Although the intent of existing law is to improve student achievement among at-risk students, we currently use at-risk funding on things like social workers, psychologists, and afterschool staffing. These provide significant value to our students and families and should be available, but they are not specifically targeted to closing the achievement gap. If we want to narrow the achievement gap, we have to be more intentional about targeting instructional resources to at-risk students. Research shows that biggest bang for your buck in improving student performance is supplementing instruction, for example, providing more staffing to enable small group tutoring and smaller class sizes.

We have seen encouraging early evidence of the impact of supplemental instructional support at Amidon-Bowen. Last year was the first year that Amidon-Bowen employed both a reading specialist and a math intervention coach. The math intervention coach provides small group and intensive tutoring to roughly 30 low-performing students in grades 4 and 5. The reading specialist provides intensive tutoring to 25 low-performing students in grades 2 to 5. The initial results are promising: a higher percentage of students receiving additional math support met their middle-of-the-year growth targets compared to students who did not receive the additional support. 80% of those who met with the reading specialist met their growth goals, and average gains for “below basic” students who met with the reading specialist were higher than those of similarly low-performing students who did not receive this support.

Despite this progress, we’ve been told by DCPS to not expect these positions to be continued in future years. One of these positions was funded with at-risk funds; the other was gifted to us because we could not afford it in our budget.

If we could focus all of our at-risk funding (~$500K per year) on instructional supports with a direct tie to student achievement, we believe our school could make significant academic progress. Instead our at-risk funding is used to cover legally mandated special education (even though the majority of our at-risk population are not students in need of special education services) and other positions that should be covered under a base budget.

Lastly, transparency and other requirements related to at-risk funds should apply to all Local Education Agencies (LEAs) across both sectors to ensure all at-risk students are getting the supplemental support they need and deserve.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

[1] School budgets should be equally funded according to the comprehensive staffing model before at-risk funds are allocated. In Title 1, this is called “Title 1 neutral” and is guidance we follow every year. Instead, in DC it’s easy to tell which schools receive at-risk funds before they’ve been allocated. The budgets of schools with high percentages of at-risk students have holes in core staffing. DCPS then uses at-risk funds to fill these manufactured gaps. Large gaps in core staffing only exist at our schools most in need.

CHPSPO Meeting Notes – December 2018 and January 2019

Miner Elementary School – 601 15th Street, NE

January 15, 2019 – 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

 

  1. 2019 Performance Oversight and Budget Hearings, Laura Marks and Anne Phelps
  • Budget Presentation. See presentation.
  • Important to make priorities heard by Mayor before it is transmitted to Council (March 20), as agencies are formulating their budget now. Citizen priorities are captured in decisions.
    • Email Jenny Reed jennifer.reed@dc.gov (Director, Office of Budget & Performance) , John Falcicchio john.falcicchio@dc.gov (Mayor’s Chief of Staff), (see more on slide 19).
    • Look up Mayor’s schedule (https://mayor.dc.gov/newsroom)
    • Only chairman has scope to re-fund/fund priorities. Typically, this cannot be done at committee level (committees develop recs).
    • Attend hearings: http://www.davidgrosso.org/education-committee/
    • Education-related committee changes:
      • Grosso is chair; Mendelson somewhat co-chairing. Possibly joint hearings for performance and budget – Education; DCPS, DME, OSSE, Library
    • DGS now under Robert White
  • Timing
    • Once Mayor’s budget is transmitted to Council, it will be published on https://cfo.dc.gov/ (circa March 20)
    • DCPS has slightly different budget timeline; Council does not engage in school-level budget recommendations on Operating budget. However, Council has some discretion on Capital Budget. (See slide 13)
  • Highlights
    • Of 14.6B, 8B are used locally; education is second largest allocation (18.2%),
    • Of 1.67B Capital budget, DCPS 20.9%
    • DC Public Library – many opportunities for collaboration w/ DCPS, and libraries need adequate budget support
  • Requests:

2. FoodPrints Funding, Jennifer Mampara

  • In 13 schools in all wards but ward 3. In Ward 6: Watkins, Peabody, LT, SWS, Tyler – http://freshfarm.org/foodprints.html
  • Funded by OSSE, PTAs, Federal Grants, Private Donors, Indiv School Budgets through contract by DCPS Office of School Nutrition Svcs
  • At the end of the school year, DCPS contract funds will run out, OSSE grants are for kickstarting (not ongoing) programs
  • Requesting from DC Gov, fund existing programs,
  • Letters to Mayor, DME, DCPS advocating for food education programming in schools. High demand
  • Language to include in testimony. See language.

3. Technology Advocacy, Grace Hu

4. Wilson Building Visits, Danica Petroshius

  • Early to mid Feb; refresh on CHPSPO; set agenda
    • ~10 per day + twitter amplifying
  • CHPSPO Strategic Plan: 
  • STAR Rating

5. Chancellor Selection, Group Discussion

6. It’s time for CHPSPO to change its name (come with ideas for names, new logo, etc.), Group Discussion. Suggestions:

  • Ward 6 Education Council
  • Ward Six Public Schools Parent Organization (WSPSPO)
  • Capital Helpers for Public Schools and Parent Organizing (CHPSPO)
  • Creative Help for Public School and Parent Organizing (CHPSPO)

Next CHPSPO Meeting: February 12, 2019

—————————————————–

Capitol Hill Montessori@Logan – 215 G Street, NE, December 18, 2018

December 18, 2018 – 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

  1. Safe Passages Program, Office of the Student Advocate
  • Who is Office of the Student Advocate? See presentation. 
  • 50% of Ward 6 Requests for Assistance to Student Advocate are re: Safe Passage
  • Parent and Family Go To Guide. See guide.
  • Safe Passage Toolkit
  • Potomac Ave (MPD)
    • MPD Daily juvenile conference call
    • MPD Detail at L’enfant plaza
    • MPD Daily usually start at stadium and l’enfant and follow groups
    • Casual/plain clothes anti-terrorism which focus on Eastern Market and Potomac Ave
    • Fights/violence are priority; fights can turn into robberies
  • MPD Resource Officers focusing on youth advisory council ; suggestions
    • School leaders and school staff present at ‘hot points’ can be a deterrent
    • Lighting the path; stand out on the street between 3-5
    • Advocate for heads of school to join the calls
  • Next Steps: Fulcrum host DME, Office of Student Advocate, MPD, and Potomac Ave community planning around Safe Passage. Contact Tom Kavanaugh tom@fulcrumpg.com

2. LSAT Coordination, Steve Bowen, Payne LSAT

  • What is the best way to coordinate across LSAT members?
    • Mailing list
    • LSAT training in May; alongside with Council budget presentation

3. School Report Card reactions, Group Discussion – Deferred

4. CHPSPO 2019 Strategic Plan Action Items, Danica Petroshius and Suzanne Wells – Deferred

5. Is it time for CHPSPO to change its name?, Group Discussion – Deferred

Next CHPSPO Meeting: January 15, 2019

EliotHine Community Feedback Session about STAR rating – Jan 31, 6-8PM

dyh_chqw0aabklt.jpg-large

Sign Up: bit.ly/eliothinecommunitysession

Connect on DCPS Chancellor: DC Council Public Rountables and Acting Chancellor Meet and Greets

Chancellor Confirmation Public Roundtables:

DC Council’s Committee of the Whole and Education will host a series of Public Roundtables on Chancellor of DC Public Schools Resolution of Confirmation on:

  • Wednesday, January 30, 6:00pm
  • Wednesday, February 6, 6:00pm
  • Tuesday, February 12, 11:00am

Visit http://www.davidgrosso.org/education-committee/ for details and register to testify here.

Acting Chancellor Meet and Greets:

DCPS’s Acting Chancellor Ferebee will host a Ward 6 meet and greet on Friday, March 29, 8-9:30 am @ The Pretzel Bakery (257 15th St., SE – near Payne Elementary School!).

Screenshot 2019-02-25 21.18.29