Good Evening Mayor Bowser, DME Kihn, Members of DC Council, Chancellor Ferebee and DCPS: 

My name is Marty Welles and I have three children at Jackson-Reed High School. My children participate in a total of 7 different sports – Soccer (Fall); Cross-Country (Fall); Cheerleading (Year-Round); Ultimate (Year-Round); Track (Winter/Spring); Lacrosse (Fall/Spring); and Softball (Spring). All of these teams have DCIAA and DCPS requirements for equipment, gear, uniforms, coaches, physical trainers, referees, bus transportation, conduct, grades, and attendance. All of these teams use DCPS facilities (when available) for conditioning, practice, and games. All of the teams report to the school’s athletic director. 

DCPS needs to provide an annual grant to DCIAA in its budget so that unfunded high school sports teams throughout DCPS can proudly represent our city and our schools while competing under the DCIAA banner. A start-up budget of $15,000 per unfunded team would go a long way toward establishing equity in sports throughout DCPS. 

Right now, schools that can’t raise about $15,000 per year from their parents, can’t have a lacrosse team, a field hockey team, a bowling team, an archery team, an ultimate team, a hockey team, or a crew team. This is despite the fact that many unfunded high school sports are funded at the middle school level – archery and lacrosse are two examples. 

Estimated cost for an unfunded team: 

$ Head coach – $3,000 (in season) (required by DCIAA) 

$ Assistant coach – $1,000 (in season) (required by DCIAA based on team size) 

$ Athletic Trainers – $2,800 (8 home games x $175 per hour x 2 hours) (required by DCIAA) 

$ Referees – $2,400 ($100 per hour x 3 referees x 8 home games) (required by DCIAA) 

$ Uniforms – $2,000 (annual cost for game and practice – $6,000 every three years) 

$ Bus Transportation – $4,000 (8 away games at $500 each round-trip) 

$ Gear –

• o $1,000 Ultimate (discs, cones) 

• $10,000 Lacrosse (pads, helmet sticks, balls, nets, etc.) 

Some high school teams have less costs (such as Ultimate) others have more (such as boys and girls lacrosse. Welles – Testimony FY2023 DCPS Budget – November 16, 2022 

By placing $250,000 in the budget, DCIAA can issue grants each season to unfunded teams that apply. A grant-type program alleviates DCIAA from the majority of its administrative work, such as scheduling, tournaments, uniform procurement, etc. As more teams begin to field teams, then the $250,000 budget can be increased each year. 

If DCIAA doesn’t want to mess with the grant process, allow non-profits to bid on the opportunity to distribute grants. Capital Community Partners, of which I serve on the Board, has a proven track record of serving youth in our community through the Feed the Feeder program. 

This is about equity and inclusion, mental and physical health, creating opportunities for all of our youth. 

I thank you for your time and I look forward to partnering with each of you again this year. We have a lot of work to do, but I am proud to be able to send my children to public school in the District of Columbia. 

Thank you, 

Martin Welles 

Parent of 3 Children at Jackson-Reed High School (DCPS) 

Board of Directors, Capital Community Partners (Ward 8 HQ) 

Member, Student Assignment and Boundary Committee 

Member, Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Cabinet 

Board of Directors, Capitol Hill Little League – Treasurer 

LL.M. Georgetown University Law Center – Taxation 

LL.M. George Washington Law School with Highest Honors – Litigation 

J.D. Loyola New Orleans – International Law 

M.A. Loyola New Orleans – Communications 

B.A. Viterbo University 

A.A. University of Wisconsin – La Crosse 

Hello, Thank you for your time this evening. My name is Tim Abdella. I’m a Parent of 2 Capitol Hill Montessori DCPS students, Gabriella Abdella, age 13 in the 8^th grade and Lauren Abdella, age 10 in the 5^th grade. Both girls started at Capitol Hill Montessori, Gabriella was born in September, she started at the age 2. They have been at the school their entire lives, and we have been fighting for them the entire time; we are exhausted of the fight for basic, safe education of our children; yet here we are again.

We live across the street from the school, in Ward 6 for the last 22 years. My wife Betsy and I participate on the PTSO, Chair committees, we are room parents, LSAT members, SIT members, PIT members, advocates, cheerleaders, soccer moms and when needed activists.

You have heard from some of my fellow parents at Capitol Hill Montessori, we are grossly underfunded and have been for years – THIS MUST BE CORRECTED.

As part of my testimony, I submitted the “Capitol Hill Montessori School 2023” budget as evidence. It is publicly available on the DCPS website: https://dcpsbudget.com/datasets/capitol-hill-montessori-submitted-budget-2023/

Using the numbers in this budget document, I will walk us through the simple math that all schools should conduct. This math will provide all of us, with a year-over-year, per student funding value, and in the case of Capitol Hill Montessori, it will show a Million Dollar shortfall.

The only other number needed, which is not included on the budget document, is the FY23 certified enrollment count – Capitol Hill Montessori’s 2023 official enrollment count is 423 students.

The Total FY22 budget was $5,590,417. The FY22 project enrollment was 355. Total Budget $5,590,417 divided by the 355 Enrollment equals $15,747.65 as an average per student funding amount in FY22.

(FY22 Formula: 5,590.417 / 355 = 15,747.65)

We do the same for FY23, with a $5,659,997 budget. Our official FY23 enrollment is 423. Same formula, Total Budget $5,659,997 divided by 423 Enrollment equals $13,380.61 as the average per student funding amount in FY23.

         (FY23 Formula: 5,659,997 / 423 = 13,380.61)

13,380.61 is significantly less than 15,747.65.    $2,367.04 per student – to be exact.

If Capitol Hill Montessori was funded at the same level per student this year, as last year, (which I argue is still underfunded, and does not account for inflation) the Capitol Hill Montessori budget should be $6,661,256.

         (CHML Should be Budget Formula: 15,747.65 * 423 = 6,661,255.95)

Our actual budget for FY23 is $5,659,997. This is a $1,001,259 Year-Over-Year shortfall.

(Shortfall Formula: 6,661,256 – 5,659,997 = 1,001,259)

A Million Dollar shortfall is simply not equitable for Gabriella, Lauren and all of their classmates. The school is short 8-12 staff members depending on how the funding is allocated.

Capitol Hill Montessori is grossly underfunded, has been for years – THIS MUST BE CORRECTED NOW.

Good evening, Chancellor Ferebee, DCPS staff and leadership, parents and students and participants of this DCPS Budget engagement process. My name is Tommie Jones, and I am proud CHML parent of a rising first grade scholar. I am the new chair of our LSAT and am committed to supporting CHML for years to come.

My wife Monica and I are proud DC residents and reside in the Hillcrest community of Ward 7. Three years ago, we did what so many PK-3 parents do and that is research the best elementary schools for our kids, enroll our kids in the DC school lottery and hope our kid gets into the best school community that meet his or her needs.

Luckily for us we got a DCPS school. As products of public education, we are committed to supporting our son’s education here in DC Public Schools. We have made it our priority to be involved in our son’s school communities. Both of us have served on his schools PTO boards, been classroom parents and have even served on DCPS parent boards. So, for the Jones family—we DCPS proud and are all in for our son and his school having whatever they need to learn and be successful.

Tonight, before I begin, I would like to introduce my LSAT parent colleagues Tim Abdalla and Danica Petroshius. Both Tim and Danica have been involved in our school community for many years. They both have been apart of this budget process and can speak in more details about the needs of our school community and about the lack of clear, concise and transparency around our school budget.

As part of my testimony, I have three central budget items that need to be corrected for our school community:

1. Maintain our enrollment numbers over 400+ students and properly fund our school with the needed resource as an education campus that reflects both the elementary and middle school student we serve

For the past few years, we have seen that DCPS has projected our school enrollment under 400 students. This projection has been wrong, caused challenges for our school community and was an unrealistic number of students served at the students served. Furthermore, this under enrollment project has hampered our base funding, decreased the number of teachers we can hire and has made it more challenging for our young people to have the kind of school experiences that they deserve. You will notice for example our school FY23 enrollment project was based at 396 students and to date we have 423 students and growing with a waiting list of families interested in Montessori education for their children.

2. Right size our school budget to reflect our growth, need and education mission.

My colleagues Tim and Danica will both elaborate more on the true budget shortfall we are experiencing at our school.

But let’s put this in prospective—our school budget if based on our current enrollment and the DCPS formula that is on your website is one million dollars short and 8-10 positions.

What we know is our students in PK-3 to the eighth grade have a limited number of specialty courses such as music and the arts. We also know that these same teachers teach multiple grades, students and are stretched thin serving all students in the school.  

3. Budget Process and Transparency

As a new LSAT leader I am challenged by how this budget process is conducted. As parents we are eager to support our schools and are asking for your help to make are schools’ budget easy to read, reflect true student enrollment and need for our school.

Closing

In closing, thank you for the opportunity to testify today at this budget hearing. I am eager to see who the testimonies received today we will reflect in the upcoming FY24 budget.

Good evening DCPS Budget Team and Chancellor Ferebee. I am Danielle Drissel, a Ward 6 parent of students at Brent Elementary and Stuart Hobson, I am also a member of W6PSPO and the Capitol Cluster PTA Advocacy Chair but am addressing you in my personal capacity. 

I am testifying this evening about the need for the FY2024 budget to meet three key goals:  DCPS initial budgets that are stable and ensure full staffing; targeted support for before and after-school needs for working families at all schools and strategic budget allocations address learning loss and capitol investment to avoid losing federal resources tied to pandemic.

Our schools need full and consistent budgets.  The annual stress of needing to advocate to fully fund their existing payroll is unnecessary and inefficient.  In this era of teacher and staff attrition, the message that full staffing is not the budget baseline is demoralizing.  The initial central office budgets for each school should fully fund payroll at existing staff levels.    

Unfunded mandates are unacceptable.  If schools will be required to implement new staffing mandates for the upcoming year, each school’s budget should include the funds for the additional staff.  New requirements without new funds force schools to cut existing programming.

Budget for the true cost of staffing.  At many schools, unfilled positions are directly attributable to insufficient budget.  The mental health needs of our students are unmet due to underfunded positions, particularly at the elementary level.  Librarians need to be permanent fixtures in every DCPS school.  These staffing gaps are consistently attributed to DCPS not offering salaries that are competitive with what these skilled professionals can obtain with other District employers and neighboring school districts.  Similarly, we have many paraprofessionals openings because the page grade is not commiserate with the demands of the position. Passion for serving the children only goes so far when you can make more stocking shelves at the grocery store.

Subsidize before and after-school care based on financial need regardless of DCPS school.  DCPS has strong policies to ensure families at Title 1 schools have the before and after school care needs met.  This support for working low-income families only at Title 1 schools is essential but insufficient.  No DCPS student should be turned away from their school’s childcare provider due to inability to pay.

Be strategic about addressing learning loss and capital needs to avoid leaving federal funds unspent.  In FY2024 our schools will face non-recurring significant needs to address pandemic learning loss and capital investment.  The budgeting process should leverage federal funds to directly give each classroom teacher budget to obtain for learning materials for classroom-based recovery support.  Likewise, the significant federal resources should be used to meet essential non-recurring facility needs identified during the pandemic.  Across the city, schools have air quality concerns tied to acute HVAC challenges and safety issues tied to locks that tied to door lock issues   In Ward 6 the capital needs also include the field at Eastern High School and the auditorium at Stuart Hobson. 

Thank you!

Thank you for the opportunity to testify tonight. Let me start by saying that I believe we have the same goals for all DC students, and that is for all students to flourish. But it’s easy to give lip service to equity, and a lot harder to actually implement equitable policies and allocate resources equitably. How DCPS allocates resources tells the story about what and who DCPS cares about. I want to raise awareness about 3 parts of this story:

1. We’re not telling the truth about how much we’re spending on students, and we’re spending less on targeted students than we say we are. DCPS did not give schools adequate funds in the SBB base weight to cover basic general education costs – like the assistant principal, grade-level teachers, and a minimum number of related arts teachers. For example, Amidon-Bowen was short in the SBB base weight funding by $377k to cover the assistant principal, grade-level teachers, kindergarten aides, and a minimum number of related arts teachers. That means that the school had to use $377k of its targeted funding on basic education costs. When you look at the targeted funding for Amidon-Bowen, you don’t get an honest picture of how much funding was truly supplemental and could be targeted to bolster student learning for students behind grade level. It makes it more difficult to have these conversations with DC leadership if DCPS isn’t straightforward about what is covered in various buckets of money. The bare minimum staff needed for a school to operate should be under the SBB base weight and not under targeted funds, period, so that we can have honest conversations about how much funds are truly supplemental and whether these targeted resources are sufficient for the work at-hand.
2. DCPS continues to use self-contained special education classrooms as an unfunded mandate. For example, DCPS opened three new CES (autism) classrooms at Amidon-Bowen this year, despite none of the staff having any relevant trainings for serving students in these classrooms. The school had to spend over $50k of its budget on training for staff so that staff would be adequately prepared. Self-contained classrooms are DCPS run, and DCPS should cover all of the costs of these classrooms and not push these costs down to the school. DCPS’s posture for these self-contained classrooms should be, how can I set up these students for success, and not, how can I do the bare minimum and push the costs and burden down to the individual schools.
3. Given that teachers haven’t had a new contract within 3 years, DCPS continues to tell the story that DC is a toxic place for teachers to work. It is beyond time to change that narrative. Let’s start with a teacher contract.

Along those lines, schools have been short-staffed since before the pandemic, and the pandemic has made it worse. Schools can’t find enough paraprofessionals and substitutes to hire, in part because the pay for these positions is embarrassingly low. Staffing shortages means that students are shifted around to other classrooms during the day when teachers are absent, and no learning happens; so learning loss is happening every day, and nothing is being done about it. A recent education study found that incentive pay worked to recruit substitutes to work in underserved schools in Chicago Public Schools. DCPS should implement policies to ensure there is equity for students, in terms of adequate staff coverage in underserved schools, and also equity for workers, in terms of having more reasonable wages for paraprofessionals and substitutes.

My name is Suzanne Wells, and I am the president of the Ward 6 Public Schools Parent Organization.

I am testifying this evening about the need to increase the salaries of Educational Aides in DCPS, school-based technology, and librarians.

Based on information from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 2921, the pay scale for a new Educational Aide (EG/DS-04, Step 1) in 2021 was $16.62. After ten years of service, the pay of an Educational Aide rises to only $21.16; a $4.54 increase. The starting salary of Educational Aides is only $0.52 above the minimum wage in DC.

According to DCPS’ Educational Aide job description, these positions require the educational aide on a daily basis to work with students individually and in small groups, reinforce daily lessons, motivate learning, assess progress, and assist with classroom management. An educational aide is a partner with the classroom teacher in implementing the daily lesson plans, and reinforces student learning. Educational aides seamlessly move into the teacher position when the classroom teacher is absent. All of these tasks are important to helping students perform at their grade level, and to narrowing the achievement gap.

I have been substituting for DCPS since 2016. When students returned to in-person instruction in 2021, I began substituting almost full time because the need for substitutes was so great. During this time, I have substituted primarily as an educational aide because schools have had the most difficulty filling these positions. The low salaries are the primary reason people are not attracted to the position. The educational aides I have worked with are professional and dedicated to the students. DCPS should raise their salaries in SY24 to be commensurate with their responsibilities.

DCPS has made significant progress in recent years in achieving a 1:1 device to student ratio. Our organization fully supports the testimony of Digital Equity in DC Education. We urge DCPS to fund a robust device refresh cycle, resolve issues with Smartboard installations, provide school-level funding for asset

management and IT support, and integrate digital literacy in the classroom curriculum.

Finally, our organization fully supports funding a librarian at every school, and providing funds to purchase books. Certified librarians and robust book collections support a love of reading, enhance student learning, and bring equity across schools.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Good evening DCPS Budget Team and Chancellor Ferebee. I am Sandra Moscoso, a member of the School Without Walls High School Home and School Association (HSA) and LSAT and an officer of the Ward 2 and Ward 6 education councils.

Our schools need budget stability. Unfortunately, year after year, central office has not been successful in securing budgets that meet the needs of our schools. Funding gaps are only filled after citywide fights that require DC Council to intervene. 

The erratic budget process is exacerbating teacher turnover. Please correct this by providing schools with adequate budget envelopes from the start.

Even in circumstances when communities succeed in restoring budgets and positions, trust is lost and educators leave, seeking stability. 

At School Without Walls, this played out in SY22 when a foreign language teacher’s position was cut. After months of city-wide advocacy, the position was restored. However, the damage was done, and the teacher, a 10 year veteran at the school, left. On paper, the position was funded, but in reality, many students paid the price of a chaotic semester without a teacher. 

What will happen in SY24? Under the current DCPS budget model, when DCPS’ mystery temporary stability funds are gone, as things stand, School Without Walls will lose 3 staff members. Not due to a drop in enrollment, not due to a drop in student needs, but due to DCPS’ underfunding of the school.

DCPS must fund new requirements, not force schools to cut programming.

Changes to DCPS policy and requirements that don’t come with budget support cause damage to school programming. We learned this lesson from Hardy’s LSAT about the devastating impact a change in Special Education funding requirements had on the school’s scheduling and student access to music, foreign language and more. New policies or funding needs should not require principals to cut existing school resources and programming.

Fund, implement, maintain, and provide oversight of technology.

I support Digital Equity in DC Schools’ calls for strengthening rollout of devices for students and teachers, implementation and replacement of smartboards (School Without Walls HS is in dire need of working smartboards), improving tech support and asset management, and strengthening digital literacy.

Finally, please finalize the WTU contract with an agreement that is fit for 2022. An agreement that addresses wages, planning time and job flexibility. 

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Grace Hu and I am a parent at Amidon-Bowen Elementary. Today I am here on behalf of Digital Equity in DC Education, a citywide coalition of parents working to close the digital divide and to provide a 21^st century education for our children.  

We’ve come a long way with DCPS technology since we first met with DCPS leadership in 2018.

While DCPS has made significant progress in some areas, such as the provision of devices to students and teachers, it is still faltering in areas such as school-level asset management and digital literacy instruction.

1. Devices

We were encouraged to see the FY 2023 budget investment in student and teacher devices. Moving forward, we ask that you maintain the 1:1 student-device ratio for grades 3-12 throughout the year and continue to provide a device for every teacher.

Additionally, we urge you to plan for and fund a robust tech refresh cycle with sufficient contingency inventory of devices to account for annual device loss. After three years of the Empowered Learners initiative, we expect that you have better data on device loss rates and tech refresh needs. At this point, we should be able to order and replace devices before the school buildings close for the year so they are ready to go on Day 1 of teacher in-service which is August 16, 2023.

2. Classroom Technology

We are encouraged by recent investments in new Smartboards. However, the Smartboard installation project has been an uncontested failure. We understand that the selected installation vendor was only able to install a small number of Smartboards a day and that some schools have been struggling with outdated equipment in the classroom while Smartboards have been sitting in boxes waiting to be installed. We urge you to resolve the installation issues as soon as possible so that schools can make use of Smartboards that you have invested in. Again, we all know when the first day of school is so all planning should be focused with implementation well in advance of August 29, 2023.

3. Tech Support/Asset Management

IT asset management continues to be a significant challenge for schools and has real impacts on learning. This past year, some schools struggled with keeping their school IT inventories updated. Since DCPS relies on the school inventories to determine the number of computers to provide to schools, outdated school inventories led to delays in Central Office provision of the correct number of student devices.  We still do not understand why DCPS has not provided additional asset management support to schools, including requesting that OCTO provide more support to schools in this area. Until we address challenges with asset management and IT support, we will not be maximizing the use of our technology assets to provide a seamless teaching and learning experience. OCTO knows how many computers they have to service at each school, therefore they should be able and responsible for supplying an accurate count and functionality update.

4. Digital Literacy

Digital literacy skills are critical for effective use of technology, yet we are not seeing consistent support and teaching of digital literacy skills at the school level. The extent to which digital literacy skills are taught often depends on whether a school principal or school staff have prioritized instruction in this area. We urge you to provide teachers and schools with the time and supports to fully integrate digital literacy instruction into curriculum. Without robust digital literacy students can not perform well in the annual standardized or grade assessment tests.

DCPS Digital Equity Act of 2022

This past September we were delighted to see the DC Council pass the DCPS Digital Equity Act of 2022. As you know, we have been advocating for a comprehensive, multi-year technology plan and school technology assessments that are mandated by this law. Until DCPS has a funded, multi-year comprehensive plan, tied to instructional goals and budgets, technology will continue to be managed in an unpredictable, costly, and inefficient manner. We look forward to working with you on implementation of this important law. Any delay greatly impacts our DCPS students and stunts their academic growth for years to come.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.