At-Large City Councilmember Candidate Forum – Tues April 9: Education and Youth Issues

534048_10151236072209655_617469530_nPlease save the date, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, 6:30–8:00 pm, at Eliot-Hine Middle School, for a candidate forum for the upcoming April 23rd At-Large City Councilmember special election. This forum will focus on education and youth issues.

The candidate forum is being sponsored by the Eliot-Hine Middle School Civics Club, Stuart Hobson Middle School, Jefferson Academy, Defeat Poverty DC, and the Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization (CHPSPO).  This non-partisan forum will be co-moderated by Elliot-Hine Middle School students, and a member of the DC media.

  • What: At-Large City Councilmember Special Election Candidate Forum
  • When: Tuesday, April 9, 2013, 6:30-8:00 pm
  • Where: Eliot-Hine Middle School, 1830 Constitution Ave, NE (Stadium/Armory Metro; D6, 96, 97, & B2 Metrobus; BikeShare at Stadium/Armory Metro; on-site parking available)

Letters to Mayor Gray Regarding Randall Recreation Center and KIPP

Letter from ANC6D

Letter from Capitol Park IV Condominium Association

Register for Bike to School Day, be entered to win a bike rack!

biketoschooldayRegister for Bike to School Day, be entered to win a bike rack!

Are you planning a National Bike to School Day event? Be sure to register your event at www.walkbiketoschool.org by noon on Wednesday, March 27, to be entered into the first drawing for a Saris bicycle parking rack.

Additional drawings will be held each Wednesday up to and on Bike to School Day, Wednesday, May 8, with three special drawings held on Monday, June 3, to cap off National Bike Month. All events registered before each drawing will be eligible to win an eight-bike capacity Saris Racks bike rack. View the contest rules for more information. Thanks to Saris Racks for co-sponsoring this contest again in 2013.

Bike to School Day registration is free and open to all individuals and/or organizations planning a 2013 Bike to School Day event in the United States. Registering provides organizers access to a variety of downloadable materials, including stickers, certificates, badges and classroom activities.

Nearly 950 schools across the country participated in the inaugural national Bike to School Day in 2012. This year’s celebration on Wednesday, May 8, is expected to be even bigger. With six weeks to go before the day, events are already registered from 46 states.

Register now at www.walkbiketoschool.org and stay tuned!

CHPSPO March 19, 2013 Meeting at Stuart Hobson – 6:30PM

The Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization (CHPSPO) will hold its March 19 meeting at Stuart Hobson Middle School at 410 D Street, NE at 6:30 p.m. We will be discussing the upcoming at-large city councilmember candidates forum and the recently released SY14 proposed budgets. The agenda is attached.

CHPSPO is one of the sponsors for the upcoming at-large city councilmember forum that will be focused on youth and education issues. We would appreciate it if individual schools would co-sponsor the forum, and help spread the word among your parents about the forum. You can let us know at our March 19 meeting, if your school is interested in co-sponsoring the forum. A flyer will be available in the near future to use to advertise the forum.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote on CHPSPO’s 2013 priorities. Attached are the results of your voting.

Suzanne Wells

031913 CHPSPO Agenda.docx

CHPSPO Priorities-SurveyMonkey-Results 031713.xlsx

CHPSPO Meeting Notes – February 19, 2013

Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization

JO Wilson School Library

February 19, 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

 

1)      At-large City Council Candidates Forum (Bonnie Cain, Councilmember Wells’ Education Advisor)

CHPSPO to host forum focused on education and youth issues.

When: Tuesday April 9 at 6:30

Where: Eliot-Hine Middle School, 1830 Constitution Ave NE

Civics club (students) from Eliot-Hine will come up with questions. Will invite other Ward 6 middle schools to participate.

Action: Suzanne Wells to reach out to middle school principals.

2)     Bike to school day

May 8, 7:30-8:30 AM at Lincoln Park. All schools are invited.

Register your school: http://www.walkbiketoschool.org/ (especially so DDOT’s Safe Routes to School Coordinator can track – last year, reflectors were distributed to participating schools)

Please get the word out and find coordinators for your school. Contact sandramoscosomills@gmail.com for details.

Can you help w/ the following?:

–    Coordinate on behalf of your school (mostly making sure folks know what’s going on)

–    Find parents or teachers from your school to lead Bike trains from park to your school

–    Map (safe) Bike routes from Lincoln park to Schools

–    Reach out to MPD to see if they can participate

–    Find someone to donate coffee (BYO reusable cup or $1 for paper cups)

–    Reach out to local bike shops to participate, lead bike trains

–    Clean up (if necessary)

–    ACTION: Sandra to get permit for Lincoln Park (need to confirm construction won’t interfere)

3)      Priorities

a. Collectively advocate to DCPS on agreed upon issues

b. Engage with Councilmember Catania on what is working/isn’t working in Ward 6

c. Working jointly to support our middle schools

d. Identify best practices to support math proficiency so students entering Eastern are prepared for high school math

e. Promote vertical articulation and horizontal integration through supporting a program, e.g., Robotics, debate clubs, GeoPlunge, Street Law

f. Promoting more events at individual schools that are open to all schools, e.g., Maury’s Think Tank, Cluster’s Family Game Night

g. More cross-school collaboration that is led by the schools

h. Promote cross-school events, e.g., a Ward 6 field day, music festival, art show, Jumprope for Heart, school zone at H Street Festival

i. Promote Class of XX events to build community; use existing events when possible

j. Promote innovative summer programs at the Hill schools

k. Advocate for open data and more transparency from DCPS, OSSE, and PCSB

l. Support extended day, extended year, summer bridge programs

m. Support building skills

n. Finalize CHPSPO’s 501(c) 3 application

– ACTION: Suzanne will circulate the priorities before the next meeting, and ask everyone to rank the priorities.  We will discuss the priorities at the March meeting, and reach agreement on how we want to move forward.

4)     501c3 – Sherry Trafford

– Members in attendance voted to adopt the conflict of interest policy that is listed in the appendix to the 501(c)(3) application

 

Jefferson Academy Open Houses on February 2013!

Lots of great reasons to visit Jefferson Academy and get to know the community!


JA Open house feb flyer

Open Data Day and DC Education – Open Letter to Mayor Gray‏ by Sandra Moscoso

by Sandra Moscoso

———————————————

Dear Mayor Gray –

I’m reaching out on behalf of all Washington DC families, who love living in this city and are committed to making the public education system(s) work for our children and for our communities.

Recognizing that while the DCPS and Charter school systems offer a variety of options around public education, as a city, DC has not quite managed to gain the confidence of residents nor has it been able to portray the options as good ones. As a parent navigating the public education landscape, I find it difficult to separate what the schools (and systems) want me to see from feedback I receive through my own networks. Factor in our own fears and biases, and it becomes even more difficult to see the options clearly.

While we should all be educated consumers of education, I cannot imagine that you intend for every family to have to go through extensive research each time our children hit a transition point in their academic careers (at PS/K, at Elementary, at Middle School, at High School)? Yet, as things stand, for many families, to find the right school requires research and winning the lottery. This creates a situation that further disenfranchises families who cannot afford this investment of time or who do not have access to networks that would enable them to pursue the best options for their children.

The choices exist and given success in many pockets, how to make this process more manageable? I believe this answers comes from you and commitments you have made toward transparency and your support of technology and innovation.

I am writing to challenge you to join a community of civic activists, by asking the Office of the School Superintendent of Education (OSSE) open up education data this week. Why this week? On Saturday and Sunday, DC will participate in International Open Data Day, by holding a 1 (correction) day hackathon at the World Bank. Over 260 civic hackers (technologists and activists) have signed up to volunteer their time and talents for social good.

Among the projects, there will be a local education theme. Several DC parents will attend, to share ideas on how they think education-related problems can be solved through technology. There will be experts in the problem, there will be experts in technology solutions, what we’re missing is the data.
Mayor Gray, you have an incredible opportunity to connect your pledge of transparency in a way that can help leverage the talents of the tech community.  To collaborate with average people committed to working with DC government in an effort to make our city (and it’s services) great

Recognizing that pulling data could take time, I am asking that OSSE focus on data that has been made public via recent reports or online databases. The difference between public and open is that when the data is open, it is in it’s raw format and reusable (this means no PDFs or PPT slides – excel spreadsheets at a minimum).

Below are datasets that should be easily available given the above conditions, and that do not in any way put student confidentiality at risk.

  1. Raw data from OSSE’s statewide student mobility study – broken down to the school and grade levels (http://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/release_content/attachments/DC%20Student%20Mobility%20Study%20%28Feb%202013%29.pdf )
  2. DC CAS School by School Results – this is great (in xlsx), but can it be broken down to grade level?http://osse.dc.gov/release/mayor-vincent-c-gray-announces-2012-dc-cas-results
  3. ALL DCPS and CHARTER Lottery Results for the past 5 (or more) years, including waitlist numbers at SCHOOL and GRADE levels.
    • Recognizing DCPS lottery became centralized in 2008? then as long as it is available. Recognizing that all waitlists are managed at the school level, then I realize we’re not likely to get how far down waitlist schools got each year.
  4. All DCPS and Charter location data: Files that were used to create the following: http://www.dcpubliccharter.com/PerformanceTier.aspx and http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/
  5. All DCPS and Charter capacity and enrollment at SCHOOL and GRADE levels .
  6. All DCPS and Charter Tier level data
  7. All DCPS and Charter Title I schools
  8. All DCPS and Charter school student demographics; race, special ed for past 5 years.
  9. For all DCPS and Charter schools, whether they have a music teacher, art teacher and librarian, and if so, whether full or part-time and credentials.
  10. All DCPS and Charter teacher retention rates at the school and grade levels.
  11. All DCPS and Charter special programming: (Montessori, Reggio, STEM focus, Global Studies, IB, etc)
  12. A dataset of all children (identified as Student00000X or whatever makes sense) who have been enrolled in a charter or DCPS for the past 5 years (at least). Am guessing children can be cross-referenced by their name, address and age in order to follow them between DCPS/Charters. For each record,
    • Student ID (see made up suggestion)
    • School Year
    • Neighborhood the student lives in (example: Adams Morgan, Capitol Hill, Hillcrest)
    • School the student is enrolled in
    • Grade the student is enrolled in

Getting all of the above datasets for this weekend would be optimal, but certainly some will be easier to get than others in a short timeline.

For data that cannot be made available by this weekend, it would still be great to have them, as there is a team committed to working on this on the longer term via http://codefordc.org/ (the DC chapter of Code for America).

Thank you in advance for your support of DC families and civic activists. I hope you join us over the weekend to see the amazing work that can come when average people commit to supporting their community (regardless of whether that community is a local or global one).

Respectfully,

Sandra Moscoso

Proud DCPS parent, average person
(sandramoscosomills@gmail.com)

To: vincent.gray@dc.gov

cc: kaya.henderson@dc.gov, jennifer.leonard@dc.gov, pmendelson@dccouncil.us, dcatania@dccouncil.us,twells@dccouncil.us, jevans@dccouncil.us, yalexander@dccouncil.us, mbarry@dccouncil.us,mbowser@dccouncil.us, jgraham@dccouncil.us, kmcduffie@dccouncil.us, vorange@dccouncil.us,dgrosso@dccouncil.us, mcheh@dccouncil.us, abonds@dccouncil.us, osse.superintendent@dc.gov,tauberer@govtrack.us

CHPSPO Meeting Tuesday February 19 at JO Wilson

The Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization will meet on Tuesday, February 19, at 6:30 p.m. at J.O. Wilson (660 K St., NE).  We will be discussing CHPSPO’s 2013 priorities.  I hope you can be a part of this discussion, and help decide where CHPSPO will focus its attention in 2013.

Suzanne Wells

…See last year’s priorities here:http://chpspo.org/2012/01/19/chpspo-meeting-notes-january-12-2012/ (SPM)

Final lottery season Open Houses at Francis-Stevens

From our friends at Francis-Stevens PTA…Francis-Stevens is a PS-8 Education Campus located in Foggy Bottom/West-end of Dupont. One of the results of recent consolidation by DCPS is that Francis-Stevens will be merging with School Without Walls, an application-only public HS based near the campus of the George Washington University. Francis-Stevens PS-8 students will continue to occupy their current building and entry to Francis-Stevens will continue to be through DCPS’ PS/PK/OOB lottery.   70% of Francis-Stevens students come from OOB and the PTA hopes the school can continue to serve a citywide population.

See their brochure: SWW at FS Brochure Feb

Francis-Stevens is hosting the following Open Houses for prospective families (all grades):

*Saturday 2/16, 10am – Noon
Thursday 2/21, 8:30 – 10 am

*At this Saturday’s open house, School Without Walls (SWW) Principal Richard Trogisch – who will now administer FS as well as SWW – will outline his vision for the 2013/14 year and the future of Francis-Stevens. The Saturday session may be of particular interest to families looking at middle schools. Mr. Trogisch has mentioned plans to align Grades 5-8 curriculum with SWW and College Board standards.All sessions will take place at Francis-Stevens Educational Campus at 2425 N St. NW.

LOTTERY NOTE:  DCPS now lists us as “School Without Walls at Francis-Stevens” on its on-line lottery form.

Learn more by visiting:
https://www.facebook.com/FrancisStevensPTA
http://www.francisstevens.org/

Contacts:
FrancisStevensPTA@gmail.com
megan.hanley@dc.gov — DCPS Parent Coordinator

$400 Million – by Peter MacPherson

by Pether MacPherson

Dear Friends:

 

Some of you may not be aware that last week the news was released that the city has a $400 million budget surplus. This is far in excess of the $140 million that was reported back in November. There are many worthwhile projects that could benefit from access to these funds. I’m hoping you’ll join with me in using a portion of these monies to address some severe shortcomings and inequalities that exist in the District of Columbia Public Schools. The needs fall in three areas: libraries, technology and music. We’ve made considerable progress on the library issue in the past year. The chancellor has publicly committed herself to a library and librarian in every school. Unfortunately the libraries need much more help. In most schools the library collections are old and thin or non-existent. Anacostia High School has a media center with no books. H.D. Woodson High School has 400. It should have 16,400. The average age of the books in Eastern High School’s small collection is 1980. The average age of the books at Watkins Elementary School is 1993. And even Wilson High School has a collection that is only half the size it should be. The libraries need a massive influx of new resources. Spending $14 million to $16 million would allow DCPS to bring most of its libraries to accepted norms in terms of collection size. It would give each school at least 30 periodical subscriptions and give students access to a much larger number of databases. It would allow the creation of a 40,000 volume digital library and give schools the eReaders needed to access these digital assets. And money would be available to upgrade library spaces in a poor state of repair.

The second area where the poverty in DCPS is profound is in technology. The limited presence of computers in many schools is quite profound. And even schools that have gone through modernization often received no computers or the ones they did are reaching the end of their useful life. At Maury Elementary School, for example, no computers were provided as part of its renovation. The school has two carts of laptops bought by the PTA. At Watkins, the computer lab is full of eight-year-old eMacs bought by the PTA. They are no longer supported and once they fail have to be removed. And no replacement is available. DCPS needs 15,000 computers, at a cost of $15 million.

Finally, the music programs are in very poor shape as a result of being starved for resources. I was in a District  elementary school music class recently and there weren’t nearly enough instruments to go around. One child ended up using an empty copy paper box as a drum. DCPS needs $1 million in new instruments. It needs 60 new upright and 20 new grand pianos as well as new music software and access to online music libraries. The need in this area is around $2.8 million.

The hole that DCPS is in prevents making much improvement simply using the operating budget. All schools would benefit from this investment and it would allow the city to bring some equity to resources all schools should have. And there are programs stakeholders want–like International Baccalaureate–that require properly staff and resourced libraries. And none are present in the schools currently angling for this certification. In addition there is no currently mechanism to buy books for modernized schools. Right now we’re looking at the prospect of Dunbar High School and the new Ward Five middle school opening with no new books.

We now have a special opportunity to fix these problems and, in the process, greatly improve DCPS. A vibrant DCPS is key to the future of this city. The need here is between $35 million and $40 million. I’ve written the mayor and council and asked them to divert some of the surplus funds to deal with these issues. I hope you’ll do the same. The appropriate email addresses are listed below.
Best,

Peter MacPherson
pmacpher at aol.com

vincent.gray@dc.gov
Jennifer.leonard@dc.gov
pmendelson@dccouncil.us
jevans@dccouncil.us
mcheh@dccouncil.us
mbowser@dccouncil.us
dcatania@dccouncil.us
vorange@dccouncil.us
dgrosso@dccouncil.us
kmcduffie@dccouncil.us
mbarry@dccouncil.us
yalexander@dccouncil.us
jgraham@dccouncil.us
abonds@dccouncil.us