CHPSPO Meeting Notes – September 19, 2017

Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization
Watkins Elementary School
September 19, 2017
6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

 

Implementation of the OSSE State Plan, Shana Young, Chief of Staff, OSSE

The DC state plan (also called the ESSA plan) details the accountability and support system for all public schools in DC. As a part of the state plan, states are required to create a unified report card that will help families understand how schools are performing.

The goal of the meeting was for OSSE to share a vision for the statewide report card to communicate school performance and progress to the public. State report cards will include federally required information as well as other information open for public input. Shana Young shared that OSSE plans to work with PCSB and DCPS to share a common set of information across all, but at this time, there is not a commitment on the part of those groups to consolidate their report cards into one statewide report card.

During Q&A, members voiced concern that report cards might be used to increase student mobility as parents move students to get to higher-performing schools or certain feeder patterns, creating more churn and instability in the overall system.

Members also raised other goals for the report cards beyond using them to make comparisons across schools.

  • Report cards can be created as a tool that allows parents to engage with principals and LSATs around school improvement efforts.
  • Reports cards can be civil rights tools to support advocacy efforts, thus the need for greater data transparency, clarity, and context in the final rollout.

Members stressed the need to get substantive information from the report cards, displayed in a way that allows for easy understanding and comparison. Parents want more transparency and more information, but also need context to support the interpretation of data.

Discussed that there will likely be some data points that OSSE cannot access, especially from the charter school sector, which may be omitted from report cards or displayed as null value. Members suggested that when districts opt out of sharing any given data point, the report cards should be transparent about them opting out.  Importance of displaying location and transportation was raised. Also that teachers need to be engaged in the creation of report cards as well as the teacher union leadership.

Next steps from OSSE

  • OSSE will create a facilitation guide/toolkit to help parents and community members conduct focus groups and collect feedback. It is also the goal for LSATs, PTAs and schools to facilitate discussions and share back to OSSE. CHPSPO will have such a focus group at the October 23 meeting.
  • OSSE will send out a survey to collect information directly from the public on content for report cards through January 2018. All information will be categorized and shared back with the public in a timely manner. This includes comments from the general public as well as advocacy groups that meet with OSSE.
  • In the Spring, OSSE will report back about content/data points to be included and begin to engage the public on design and display of data.
  • Final report cards will be launched in December 2018. However, data will still be shared as it becomes available before then (ie PARCC scores).

The DC State Board of Education has an ESSA Task Force. Learn more here: https://sboe.dc.gov/page/essa-updates

Walk-to-School Day

Walk-to-School Day is on October 4th. All will meet at Lincoln Park at 7:30am and walk to school by 8:10am. Expecting several city officials to be in attendance, including Chancellor Wilson, Mayor Bowser, CM Allen, Tommy Wells, CM Silverman, among others. Also expecting US Rep. John Lewis to attend. The Capitol Hill Community Foundation (CHCF) provided a mini-grant to support the event. Will work with public speakers at the event to promote safe streets as a theme.

Education Public Roundtable, Committee on Education, DCPS 2017 – 2022 Strategic Plan

Martin Welles will be testifying about inaccuracy of the underlying data used to support the strategic plan and his concerns that the data skews goal-setting. Danica Petroshius will testify about the need to include facilities and heath/safety measures of our schools in the plan. She will also testify about the need for more transparency in the goals around college and career readiness indicators. State Board Rep Joe Weedon suggested there is a need for transparency and clarity about the actual growth of subgroups given community-eligibility may mask underlying issues. For instance, the subgroup for economically disadvantaged students includes high-income students at some schools, particularly in Ward 6, which makes it difficult to see the real performance of the subgroup. Suzanne Wells will testify on the lack of an aggressive goal to increase DCPS enrollment.

Vote for CHPSPO Officers

Elected to the CHPSPO Board: Suzanne Wells to serve another term as president; Danica Petroshius and Suzy Glucksman as co-vice presidents and Sandra Moscoso-Mills and Iris Bond Gill as co-secretaries.

Next CHPSPO Meeting

October 23, 2017 (NOTE: This meeting will be a focus group on school report cards under the OSSE State Plan. This meeting will be the 4th Monday in October)

Upcoming Events

Cross Sector Collaboration Task Force: Tuesday, September 26, 2017, Education Counsel (101 Constitution Ave, NW, Suite 900)

Walk-to-School Day: Wednesday, October 4, Lincoln Park

Education Public Roundtable, Committee on Education, DCPS 2017 – 2022 Strategic Plan: Thursday, September 21, 10 am, Room 412.  To testify sign-up online at bit.do/EducationHearings or call the Committee on Education at (202) 724-8061 by 5:00pm Tuesday, September 19.

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

Join us for Walk to School Day on October 4, 2017!

Special thanks to the Capitol Hill Community Foundation for supporting this event!

Walk to School Day-Oct 4-2017 (1)

CHPSPO Meets Tuesday, September 19, at Watkins

CHPSPO will meet on Tuesday, September 19, at 6:30 pm at the newly renovated Watkins. Shana Young, the Chief of Staff at OSSE, will join us for a discussion of the implementation of DC’s state Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan.

At the meeting we will also discuss Walk-to-School Day that will be October 4. The Mayor, Chancellor Wilson, Council member Charles Allen, U.S. Representative John Lewis, National Transportation Safety Board Member Bela Dinh-Zarr,and Tommy Wells, Director of the District Department of Energy and the Environment, are scheduled to join us!

We’ll also discuss the recently released DCPS 2017-2022 Strategic Plan, a vision for the historic Miner building, and will elect the CHPSPO Board.

Hope to see you on Tuesday.

Suzanne Wells

091917 CHPSPO Agenda.docx

Nominations Open for CHPSPO Board of Directors

Nominations are now open for the Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization (CHPSPO) Board of Directors. Serving on the CHPSPO Board of Directors is one way you can make meaningful contributions to public education in our community. The following positions are open, along with with a brief description of the responsibilities:

Chair – Prepare for monthly meetings including developing the agenda, inviting speakers and identifying meeting locations. Inform membership about relevant education issues affecting public schools in Ward 6. Testify on an as needed basis to represent the views and opinions of the CHPSPO membership.

Vice-Chair – Assist the Chair in all responsibilities.

Secretary – Maintain the CHPSPO website, including CHPSPO’s Flickr, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Prepare minutes from the monthly meetings.

Treasurer – Maintain CHPSPO’s 501(c)3 status and file appropriate tax documents.

2018 Bike-to-School Chair (May 2018) – Lead a group of parent volunteers to plan the 2018 Bike-to-School Day event.

2018 Walk-to-School Chair (October 2018) – Lead a group of parent volunteers to plan the 2018 Walk-to-School Day event.

Nominations will be accepted until midnight, Sunday, September 10, 2017. Self-nominations are encouraged. Please send your name and the position for which you wish to serve to George Blackmon at gblackmon.

We will vote for the Board of Directors at our September 19 meeting. Please consider running for a position. Thank you.

Suzanne Wells

Bylaws December 2011.docx

Walk to School Day is October 4 – save the date!

WTSD_2inch_Color

How to plan a fantastic party with all your school friends….

Stay tuned…

CHPSPO Meets Tuesday August 15 at NE Library

Dear Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization members,

CHPSPO will meet on Tuesday, August 15, at 6:30 pm at the Northeast Library (330 7th Street, NE) in the conference room on the lower level. We will be joined by Claudia Lujan from DCPS who will be discussing a strategic regional analysis being done by DCPS. Claudia will be seeking input from us on what we believe Ward 6’s biggest planning needs and priorities are.

Please mark your school calendars for Walk-to-School Day which will be Wednesday, October 4. Registration for Walk-to-School Day will open on August 15.

CHPSPO will be electing officers at our September meeting. Please consider running for Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Walk-to-School Coordinator, and Bike-to-School Coordinator.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that there will be a solar eclipse on the first day of school on August 21. Many Ward 6 schools have already received FREE solar eclipse glasses from the National Air and Space Museum so students can safely view the solar eclipse. Supplies of the glasses are limited. You can contact Becca Ljungren at LjungrenR to make a bulk request for the glasses.

Suzanne Wells

081517 CHPSPO Agenda.docx

CHPSPO Meeting Notes – July 19, 2017

CHPSPO Meeting Notes – July 19, 2017

Jefferson Academy

 801 7th Street, SW

6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

 

Feed-the Feeder – Bruce DarConte, President Near Southeast Community Partners

Goal of Feed-the-Feeder effort for Jefferson Academy has been to raise teacher morale, and help teachers get to know each other.

Two Feed-the-Feeder events have been held at Agua 301 with dinner and an open bar.  Teachers and administrators from Jefferson Academy, and its feeder schools (Amidon-Bowen, Van Ness, Tyler and Brent) were invited.  Councilmembers Robert White and Silverman attended the first event.  Councilmember Mendelson and Bonds along with the DME attended the second event (275 people came).  Teachers were encouraged to mingle with teachers and principals from schools other than their own

The Near Southeast Community Partners has been administering the CSX Community Mitigation Fund, and recently gave Amidon-Bowen $15K for a new sign outside the school, and Tyler $15K for technology.  The CSX Mitigation Fund covers ANC 6B and 6D.  There are six phases of funding planned (five phases have been awarded)

Starting to plan the third Feed-the-Feeder event scheduled for early November.  Partnering with Companies for Causes for the next event.  Plan to have a principal roundtable, and have a discussion on vertical integration, closing the achievement gap, and keeping students in the feeder pattern.  Planning for the next event to include the Jefferson Academy and Eliot-Hine Middle School feeder patterns, and to also include Eastern High School.

A Learning and Development Committee has been formed.

Discussed that in Ward 3 the Deal principal goes to each of the feeder schools, and takes students who graduated from the feeder school and are now at Deal.  The Capitol Hill Cluster School works to ease the transition from Watkins to Stuart Hobson; more outreach is needed for Ludlow-Taylor and J.O. Wilson that feed into Stuart Hobson.

Discussed a desire to see DCPS do more to institutionalize efforts to promote staying within the feeder pattern.

Wilson Feeder Pattern Community Working Group, Brian Doyle, Ward 3 Wilson Feeder Education Network (W3EdNet)

Brian Doyle shared that almost all the schools in the Wilson High School feeder pattern are at or above capacity, and even conservative projections show overcrowding will get substantially worse in the coming years.  Five schools currently have enrollments over 100% of the total capacity (Eaton ES, Hyde-Addison ES, Janney ES, Mann ES and Wilson HS).

DCPS convened an advisory group with representatives from each school in the feeder group, the Ward 3 Education Network, the Ward 3 school board representative, and a representative from Councilmember Cheh’s office.  The advisory group is planning to meet monthly through October/November 2017. Advisory group is broken into three subcommittees (facilities, enrollment policies and programming).  DCPS is conducting a community survey.  Expect to make recommendations in November/December in time for the FY19 budget and the Master Facilities Plan.

Many ideas have been raised so far:

  • Reopen old Hardy School that currently houses the Lab School
  • Look for additional space or partnerships, e.g., at UDC or Fannie Mae
  • Make more use of existing space, e.g., year-round use, overlapping schedules, use space at the renovated Duke Ellington
  • Combine Deal and Hardy Middle Schools
  • Dual feeder rights

It was noted that many of the Ward 3 schools have sizeable number of out-of-boundary students, e.g., Hardy MS is 76% out-of-boundary students in SY16/17, Eaton 45% out-of-boundary.  DCPS is not considering removing schools from the feeder pattern, discontinuing out of boundary feeder rights, or widely redrawing boundaries.

Challenges facing DCPS are:

  • Limited renovation funds, and renovations needs across the city
  • DCPS has substantial existing capacity in other Wards
  • Most solutions are imperfect
  • Wilson feeder parents reluctant to try options outside of the feeder

You can follow the Ward 3 Wilson Feeder Pattern Community Working Group on the DC Planning Blog.

Attachments:

Out of Bounds Percentages in Wilson Feeder Schools-2

Overcrowding in Wilson High school feeder Pattern.CHPSPO.20170719

CHPSPO Officer Nominations (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Walk-to-School Coordinator, Bike-to-School Coordinator)

 During the month of August, CHPSPO will seek nominations to fill its officer positions.  Information will be sent out about the responsibilities of each position, and people are encouraged to volunteer for the different positions.  Expect to hold elections in September

Walk-to-School Day Volunteers

Walk-to-School Day is October 4.  If you would like to volunteer to help organize this year’s Walk-to-School Day, please contact Suzanne Wells at m.godec@att.net.  Many hands make light work!

Next CHPSPO Meeting: August 15, 2017

Upcoming Events

State Board of Education

Application period for the ESSA Task Force has been extended to noon on July 24th. https://sboe.dc.gov/page/essa-updates

Cross Sector Collaboration Task Force

Tuesday, July 25, Location TBD

Walk-to-School Day

Wednesday, October 4, Lincoln Park

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

CHPSPO Meets Wednesday, July 19 at Jefferson Academy

Dear Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization Members,

CHPSPO will meet on Wednesday, July 19, at 6:30 pm at Jefferson Academy (801 7th St., SW). At our meeting, Bruce DarConte with the Near Southeast Community Partners will be discussing the activities they’ve undertaken for their Feed the Feeder effort, and Brian Doyle with the Ward 3 Wilson Feeder Education Network will discuss the Wilson Feeder Pattern Community Working Group that DCPS recently formed to discuss the persistence of crowding issues in the Wilson High School feeder pattern. I hope you will be able to join us for these discussions.

Please let me know if your school has recently held PTA/PTO elections, and if there are any changes to your PTA/PTO president and/or CHPSPO representatives.

Hope to see you on Wednesday.

Suzanne Wells

071917 CHPSPO Agenda.docx

CHPSPO School Year 2017 2018 Representatives-2.docx

SBOE Announces #ESSA Task Force Application

Dear Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization members,

Please share with your school communities information about the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Advisory Task Force the DC State Board of Education is forming. This is an important Task Force that will help create a citywide school report card, and look at the possibility of including assessments beyond reading and math in the DC accountability plan as well as school climate information. Applications to serve on the Task Force are due by midnight on July 17.

Suzanne Wells

On Monday, July 10, 2017 1:16 PM, DC State Board of Education <dcdocs@dc.gov> wrote:

Moves to Include Historically Marginalized Voices
sboe-banner-two_crop.png

For Immediate Release

CHPSPO Meeting Notes – June 20, 2017

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

  1. 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
  • 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?
      • 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