CHPSPO Meeting Notes – June 16, 2015

Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization

Jefferson Academy

June 16, 2015

1. Public Education Reform Amendment Act (PERRA) Roundtable (June 22)

We discussed the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences Summative Evaluation of the District of Columbia’s Public Schools. This evaluation was on the Public Education Reform Amendment Act (PERAA) of 2007 that gave control of the public schools to the mayor, established the office of Chancellor of DCPS, and established the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME), the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and the State Board of Education (SBOE).

The report found significant areas of concern regarding 1) the lack of an entity that can support interagency coordinations, i.e., information sharing, collaboration and support, 2) the lack of data infrastructure that could support interagency coordination; and 3) lack of coordination between OSSE, SBOE and the DME. The report found coordination among DCPS and the charter schools “is also limited.”

Individual CHPSPO members are planning to submit written comments or testify regarding concerns with lack of accountability for the public charter schools, the need for open data, the need for a cross-sector task force that has “real teeth behind it,” and that public charter schools should be subject to FOIA requirements.

2. Ward 6 Education Town Hall meeting (June 24)

The State Board of Education was not asked to co-sponsor the Town Hall meeting that was scheduled by Councilmember Grosso.

Individuals are asked to RSVP and post topics they’d like to discuss online.

There is expected to be a discussion about the “tool” the Education Committee developed that set out criteria to determine the prioritization for school modernization funds. Concerns with the criteria dealing with enrollment were discussed. This criteria leads to investments in large, established schools, and delays investments in schools that are small, but trying to build their populations. There are significant concerns with the data that were used to populate the tool. The tool does not look at basic education specs, e.g., does the school have adequate lighting, are there science labs, are the acoustics adequate for learning, etc. Concern was expressed that there was not adequate public input into a tool that has such far reaching implications.

Topics also suggested for discussion were expansion of language immersion programs, and siting of new public charter schools.

3. Ward 6 Speaks

We discussed the Ward 6 Forum on Language Immersion that was held June 11. About 40 people attended the forum, and attendees felt the information provided by the panel on the positive impacts on student achievement was very informative. At the forum, there was discussion about the possibility

of expanding the Tyler Spanish Immersion program within the school, and prospective parent efforts to start a Mandarin Immersion program at Miner.

It was decided CHPSPO would establish a Language Immersion Committee to 1) share information among schools seeking to expand/establish language immersion programs, 2) to develop recommendations across Ward 6 regarding language immersion programs, and 3) to inform and support city-wide language immersion efforts.

The following volunteered to be members of the committee: Gimbiya Lin, Tammy Alexander, Erin Roth, and Suzanne Wells. We will seek additional members.

Next CHPSPO Meeting:  July 21, 2015

Upcoming Events

June 22 – Public Education Reform Amendment Act (PERRA), Roundtable Part II – 11am

This is the continuation of a public roundtable on the summative evaluation of public schools in the District of Columbia as required by the Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007. Copies of the National Academy of Sciences report can be found here. Contact Ade Adenariwo at aadenariwo@dccouncil.us by close of business Thursday, June 18 to testify.

June 24 – Education Committee Chairman David Grosso’s Ward 6 Education Town Hall together with Councilmember Charles Allen, 6:30-8:30pm, SW Library, 900 Wesley Place SW.

July 3 – 4th of July Parade, Barracks Row.  The Barracks Row 4th of July Parade falls on a Friday this year.   Contact Phil Guire  (pguire@cbmove.com)  for more information on the parade.

July 8 – DC Council Roundtable: DGS Contracting and Procurement Practices for Constructing and Modernizing District of Columbia Public Schools, 11am, Room 500.  Contact Aukima Benjamin, staff assistant to the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, at (202) 724-8062 or abenjamin@dccouncil.us. Persons representing organizations will have five minutes to present their testimony. Individuals will have three minutes to present their testimony.

CHPSPO meeting on Tuesday, June 16

Just a reminder that CHPSPO will meet on Tuesday, June 16, at 6:30 p.m. at Jefferson Academy. See you on Tuesday.

Suzanne Wells

061615 CHPSPO Agenda.docx

Jungle Book Kids (J.O. Wilson Elementary)- Atlas Perf Arts Center, Thursday, 6pm

J.O. Wilson ES presents:

Jungle Book Kids

Thursday, June 4, 2015

6:00 PM

ATLAS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

1333 H St NE Washington, DC 20002
*admission is free

Tickets are required. Call the school to get tickets. Limit 4 per person. 202.698.4733

CHPSPO Meeting Tuesday May19

CHPSPO will meet on Tuesday, May 19, at 6:30 p.m. at Miner Elementary (601 15th Street, NE) in their library. We will have representatives from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute discuss the attached letter supporting a sales tax increase. They are asking if CHPSPO would be willing to sign on to the letter. According to our by-laws, we will need 50% of our member schools supporting the letter in order for CHPSPO to sign.

We will also have Claudia Lujan from the Deputy Mayor for Education’s office at our meeting discussing the plans for the cross-sector task force.

Because we learned late last week that the Council did not vote to add funds for the modernization of Jefferson or Eliot-Hine to the Capital Improvement Plan, we will be discussing next steps in advocating for facility improvements for our middle schools. Finally, we will be discussing plans for a Ward 6 Community Forum on language immersion programs.

Hope to see you on Tuesday.

Suzanne Wells

51915 CHPSPO Agenda.docx

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Committee on Education DRAFT Report and Recommendations on the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget for Agencies under Its Purview

> DRAFT Committee on Education FY16 Budget Report [PDF] as released May 13, 2015

> Facility Analysis Table [PDF] based on Councilmember Grosso’s proposed factors and measures for prioritizing projects in the FY2016-2021 Capital Improvement Plan

> Recommendations and amendments to be voted on in Committee on Education Budget Markup, May 14, 2015

Bike to School Day: May 6th!

Bile to school dayOn Wednesday, May 6th, families from Capitol Hill schools will have our annual bike-to-school gathering at Lincoln Park at 7:30am.

Join us! Grab a snack! Guest speakers, performers, and sponsors will round out the Lincoln Park Bike-to-School event:

  • Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen will kick off the festivities
  • The J.O. Wilson Elementary School Cheerleaders and the Tyler Elementary School Step Team will perform
  • Community members and local businesses from the District of Columbia Department of Transportation (DDOT), Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), National Park Service (NPS), The Daily Rider, and Friends of DC Dino will participate
  • The Capitol Hill Community Foundation and member schools are generously supporting the event
  • The Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization (http://chpspo.org) is organizing the event via the efforts of participating schools (Brent ES, Capitol Hill Cluster School, Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan, J.O. Wilson ES, Maury ES, Payne ES, School Within a School at Goding, Tyler ES and more, as well as participating private and charter schools).

Register your school HERE to get free stickers from DDOT’s Safe Routes to School program. Registered schools also have the opportunity to compete for the DDOT Golden Bicycle Award. The Golden Bicycle goes to the DC school with the highest percentage of students who arrive by bicycle, scooters, or skateboards on May 6th.

Bike to School Day
Wednesday, May 6th
Lincoln Park (13th & East Capitol Streets, SE)
7:30 AM
Bike trains to schools depart between 8:00 and 8:25 AM

Testimony by Suzanne Wells at the Public School Charter Board Hearing, April 20, 2015

Thank you for the opportunity to testify this evening. My name is Suzanne Wells. I am a resident of the District of Columbia, and I have a daughter who is a fourth grader in the Tyler Elementary Spanish Immersion program.   I have been a strong supporter of my neighborhood public schools, and believe the public schools can and should provide a top-quality education for all children regardless of race or economic status.

I am testifying this evening about my concerns with the lack of planning between the Public Charter School Board and DCPS in making decisions about the opening of new schools. This lack of planning results in an inefficient use of our tax dollars that go towards education, has a detrimental impact on both existing charter schools and the DC public schools, and creates more open seats than this city has students to fill them. As Benjamin Franklin is attributed to saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

The outcome of last year’s Student Assignment process reinforced the principle that families and communities in all parts of the city want the assurance of quality, matter-of-right schools in their neighborhoods. Parents do not want to be at the mercy of lotteries, and they don’t want their children to have long commutes in order to attend quality schools.

Currently there is no overall strategy for how we will meet the educational needs of our children and communities, and how we will spend nearly one fifth of our tax revenue each year to do so. We must have coordinated planning, overseen by an accountable city agency, with active community input, to consider proposed modernizations, expansions, closings, and openings of any school.

For example, this evening the Public Charter School Board is considering the Washington Leadership Academy’s application for a new high school. Our city has made heavy investments in modernizing our neighborhood high schools, investing well over $600 million dollars to renovate high schools across the city, including Anacostia and Ballou High Schools in Ward 8. These renovations were much needed. At Eastern High School, the impact of the renovation in 2010 played an important role in the rebirth of the school where it went from being virtually closed to now being fully enrolled.

The PCSB announced after the first round of the My School DC lottery that there were over 400 open 9th grade seats at public charter school campuses. Similarly, many of our high schools are under enrolled.

In addition, DCPS recently announced a $20 million commitment to its Empowering Males of Color initiative that aims to increase enrollment in Advanced Placement courses, improve graduation rates, increase college acceptance, and prepare students for high-wage, high-growth careers. As part of the initiative DCPS is planning to open a high school designed to support the academic and social-emotional development of male students.

Should our city be opening a new high school when we know we have open seats in both the public charter schools and neighborhood high schools? Should our city be investing in yet another high school facility after substantial dollars have been invested in the neighborhood high schools? Are the goals of the Empowering Males of Color Initiative and Washington Leadership Academy the same?

Similar concerns can be raised about the applications for Legacy Collegiate and Breakthrough Montessori. These applications duplicate programs that already exist in our public school system, create excessive seats, and will require the taxpayers to invest in new facilities.

There must be better planning between DCPS and the Public Charter School Board before any new public charter schools are approved.

CHPSPO Meeting WEDNESDAY April 22

Hope everyone has been enjoying their Spring break!

The CHPSPO April meeting will be held on WEDNESDAY, April 22, at School-Within-School (920 F Street, NE). The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m., and we’ll meet in the library.

Scott Pearson and Josh Henderson from the Public Charter School Board will attend our meeting to discuss the PCSB’s process for approving new charter schools.

We’ll also be discussing efforts to support the modernization of Jefferson and Eliot-Hine, along with planning for a meeting with the Deputy Mayor for Education, and Bike-to-School Day.

Hope to see you on Wednesday.

Suzanne Wells

042215 CHPSPO Agenda.docx