Walk, ride, scoot, bike, dribble, (do it all!) in this year’s July Fourth Parade on Barracks Row!
What: Annual July Fourth Parade on Capitol Hill
Where: 10:00 AM on Barracks Row (if you’re walking with your school, no later than 9:30 AM)
Want to help Save School Libraries?: Carry a “Save School Libraries” sign while you walk in the parade – pass it on! After the parade, stop by the CHPSPO table on Eastern Market Metro Plaza, say hi and show your support of DC Public School Libraries!
Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization
Tyler Elementary School Library
June 19, 2012
6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Next CHPSPO Meeting: July 17, 2012
Upcoming Events:
The Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization will meet on Tuesday, June 19 at 6:30 p.m. I don’t have a location yet, and will send a note around before Tuesday with the location. We’ll be discussing what we want to do to follow up on the library funding issue and the Ward 6 State of the Schools meeting. If you have other agenda items, please let me know.
The Bake Sale to protest the funding cuts DCPS is planning to make to school libraries raised $264, and was on Channel 9 news on Friday evening! Thanks to Peter MacPherson for his continued leadership on the libraries issue, and to Laura Marks and Sandra Moscoso-Mills for their help in organizing the bake sale.
Suzanne Wells
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 14
Contact: CHPSPO, chpspo@gmail.com,
Parents and Students Hold Bake Sale to Support DCPS Libraries
Washington, DC- On Friday, June 15, 2012, parents and students from across Washington, DC will be raising funds to support funding school librarians in District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Contact: Peter MacPherson, pmacpher@aol.com, 202-315-8155
Parents and Students Protest DCPS Cuts to Libraries
Washington, DC- On Monday, May 21, 2012, parents and students from across Washington, DC will be protesting school librarian cuts by the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) in the FY13 budget. The event will take place in front of DCPS headquarters at 1200 First Street, N.E. between 1pm and 6pm.
In the FY13 DCPS budget, important changes were made that dramatically impact school libraries:
As a result of the new Budget Guidelines for 2013, 34 additional schools did not fund school librarians for 2013 bringing the total number of schools without a school librarian to 57. In 2013, almost 50% of the DC public schools will be without librarians. Over 16,000 students will be without a school library, if these cuts go through.
Research has shown school libraries positively impact teacher effectiveness, increase the likelihood that students will become literate and independent learners, and support at-risk students. Yet DCPS is choosing to ignore this research, and make deep cuts to its school libraries.
The Breakdown
57 schools with no school librarian budgeted for 2013 by Ward.
|
||||||||||||||||
| 57 schools with no school librarians budgeted for 2013 by grade level. |
| Elementary (63) | Education Campus(20) | Middle (13) | High (18) | Alternative (10) |
| 24 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
Chancellor Henderson is being asked to:
Cutting Libraries During a Recession is Like Cutting Hospitals During a Plague. Eleanor Crumblehulme |
Please join with the Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization in protest of cuts in school librarians by the District of Columbia Public Schools.
The event will take place in front of DCPS headquarters at 1200 First Street, N.E. between 1pm and 6pm. on Monday, May 21st.
If these proposed cuts go through 58 District schools, with an enrollment of 16,600, will have no librarian. And no librarian will inevitably mean no library either. The chancellor, mayor and city council need to continue to hear in a loud and sustained voice that school libraries are essential to a vibrant, sustainable and successful school system.
Please attend. Bring your children. Encourage everyone you know to take part. School libraries and those who staff them are crucial to literacy development.
Do you care what our kids are eating at school?
Tony Geraci, as food-service director for Baltimore’s public schools, embarked on an ambitious project: to “green” the lunches of the city’s 83,000 students by replacing pre-plated, processed foods with locally-grown, freshly prepared meals. A charismatic chef from New Orleans, Geraci describes himself as a “little bit lunch lady, a lot P.T. Barnum.” His bold vision includes school vegetable gardens, student-designed meals, meatless Mondays and nutrition education in the classroom. Over the course of two years, the film documents the efforts of parents, teachers, administrators, farmers, chefs and dozens of creative and motivated students to overhaul a dysfunctional nutritional system. Healthy food advocates Michael Pollan and Will Allen and First Lady Michelle Obama also make appearances. Directed and produced by Richard Chisolm and Sheila Kinkade.
This is a FREE event but please reserve your seat as space is limited: http://hillcenterdc.org/home/programs/238
Sponsored by Capitol Hill Public School Parent Organization
The Capitol Hill Public School Parent Organization will hold its May 15 meeting at 6:30 pm at Miner Elementary (601 15th St., NE). We will be talking about school libraries, middle school issues, the upcoming Ward 6 State of the Schools meeting, and more. If you have other agenda topics, please let me know.
A huge shout-out to Sandra Moscoso-Mills for organizing a terrific Bike to School Day on May 9!
Suzanne Wells
Dear Supporters of School Libraries:
We wish we could tell you we’d completely closed the distance separating us and the restoration of full funding for school librarians. Sadly that is not the case. At this moment, the council chairman is recommending that $1 million be taken from the “Proving What’s Possible” grant program and be given to help fund the librarians. Unfortunately, that sum does not even restore the existing status quo vis-à-vis library staffing. And that leaves the vast majority of school libraries with little in the way of resources. So we’re several million dollars short of what’s needed to get a librarian in every school and to begin to give them the tools to succeed. We still have low literacy scores in DCPS and now we can add science as well. District eighth-graders who took the science portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress test last year scored at the bottom nationally. In most DCPS facilities, if a student wanted to find a book on nearly any scientific topic they would be unable to do so. Yet there are more than 60 studies going back to 1965 that show school libraries have a significant impact on literacy and help bolster academic achievement in all academic areas. Last fall, Woodson High School opened in a new $110 million building. It has 200 books in its library. There are schools within DCPS that have good libraries. But they exist because the parents of many of those children have the means to help will a good library into being. The parent organization at Lafayette Elementary School contributes $10,000 a year toward the acquisition of new library materials. The School Libraries Project on Capitol Hill created eight beautiful libraries for neighborhood schools. But this is not the world of many District school children. If the chancellor’s proposal goes through, 16,600 students will not have access to a school librarian next year. Many of these children are among our city’s most disadvantaged.
We need you to do one task twice. Please call and e-mail the office of the council chairman and the chancellor. Tell them you are opposed to the cuts in school librarians and that you want adequate funding for library materials. The council votes on Tuesday. Please do this today. And ask others to do the same. Hillary Clinton had it right. It takes a village to raise a child.
DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson
(202)478-5738 (you will either leave a message or speak with someone from the DCPS Critical Response Team)
Send a message to the Chancellor at http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/Contact+Us/Ask+the+Chancellor
DC Council Chairman Kwame Brown
(202)724-8032
kbrown@dccouncil.us
Dear PTA Presidents,
I apologize I am having to reach out to you one more time to help in the effort to save school libraries. Collectively we have done a terrific job advocating for school libraries. The Council of the Whole FY13 DCPS budget recommendations noted the “decision that the Committee has heard about the most, through testimony and emails, is the reduction in school librarians.” The issue of school libraries has received press coverage on WAMU, by Washington Examiner columnist Jonetta Rose Barras, and The Washington Post (article expected on Thursday). The president of the American Association of School Libraries has written to the council (attached). But one last push is required. We are asking parents across the city make calls on Thursday to show their support for school libraries.
On Wednesday, we received from the DC city council their budget markup (attached). They recommended DCPS take $1million of the $10 million currently allocated for the “Proving What’s Possible” grant program and put it toward school libraries. There is nothing binding in the request and the sum proposed would not even preserve the existing status quo, which is grossly inadequate. Even if the Chancellor were to act on this recommendation, there would still be schools with no librarian. And no progress would be made on the considerable weaknesses that exist in the resources of most school libraries.
We are asking you to ask your parents on Thursday to call Council Chair Kwame Brown, Deputy Mayor for Education De’Shawn Wright, and your elected council member to let them know you support school libraries. These three calls should take you no more than five minutes. We have provided a sample of what to say when you call, and the phone numbers of those who should be called. We ask that you post this information on your list serves, and share with others who care about school libraries.
Statement:
“My name is ______________. I am calling to express my concerns about the support DCPS is providing to school libraries. In my opinion, the recommendations from the Committee of the Whole on the FY13 DCPS budget do not go far enough in supporting school libraries. I request the Council recommend DCPS:
1. Require all schools to have a librarian;
2. Move the librarian position out of the flexible spending account; and
3. Provide funds to update the book collections and buy new technology such as computers and eReaders.
Now is the time to make investments in our school libraries. Thank you.”
Who to call:
Kwame Brown–Chairman
(202)724-8032
Tommy Wells–Ward 6
(202)724-8072
De’Shawn Wright
(202)727-3637
Thank you.
Suzanne Wells
American Association of School Libraries.pdf
Contact List.pdf
FY2013 COW Budget Draft Report-0502.pdf
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