November and December Events

Dear Capitol Hill Public School Parent Organization Members,

We won’t have a CHPSPO meeting in November.  Instead, we’ll:

1.  See each other at the School Information Night on Tuesday, November 15, from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at the Hill Center (http://www.champsdc.org/);

2.  See each other at the FREE screening of Race to Nowhere on Monday, November 21, at 7 p.m. at the Atlas Performing Arts Center at 1333 H Street, NE.  There are only 45 tickets remaining, so please encourage anyone interested in attending the film to reserve their ticket now at http://rtncapitolhillpo.eventbrite.com/.  Drinks and snacks will be available in the Atlas Cafe beginning at 6:00pm, and Dangerously Delicious Pies, down the street at 1339 H St., NE, is offering a 20% discount to those who bring their registration email.

3.  See each other at our December 13 meeting which will start at 6:30 p.m. at Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School.  Ed Lazere, chair of the Finance Commission that has been convened to make recommendations on the funding for public and public charter schools for the 2013 budget will attend our meeting.

And, finally, congratulations to all the members of CHPSPO.  Last night, CHPSPO received the runner-up Hilly Award for Community Service from the Capitol Hill Area Merchants and Professionals (CHAMPS) (http://www.champsdc.org/) in recognition of our efforts to support the public schools on Capitol Hill!

Suzanne Wells

Get your tickets for Race to Nowhere TODAY!

CHPSPO is hosting a screening of Race to Nowhere on Monday, November 21, 7 PM @ the Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Space is limited so click here to get your tickets TODAY. For more about this film, visit http://www.racetonowhere.com/

CHPSPO Meeting Notes – October 18, 2011

Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization

Maury Elementary School

1250 Constitution Ave., NE

October 18, 2011

6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

 

  1. Walk-to-School Day Recap, George Blackmon. Action: Suzanne G. and Sandra M. to document “how tos” – including accountability/sign off from each school, get a school to take it on next year. Goal is to get all schools to budget for next year. Laura H. and Isabella H. to compile thank yous to donors, partners.
  2. Advocating for Bike Lanes, Sandra Moscoso-Mills. Action: Letter was signed by CHPSPO school reps and sent to DDoT on Wednesday, Oct 19.
  3. Hilly Awards, Laura Marks – Deadline for voting 10/28. Action: Laura to blurb for schools to post. Schools to forward to list-servs.

 

  1. Community-based marketing idea, Joe Weedon – Web-based, tool to market schools. Focus on extra-curricular activities. Ex: Atlas, CHAW, Portal-style. Target 2nd grade – middle school. Break down by age groups. Q: Advertising? Partners: CHAMPS, Real Estate companies. Action: Joe to follow up with more details.

 

  1. School Information Night, Suzanne Wells. Action: Suzanne to update flyer, ensure have information about Race to Nowhere, bring middle school survey, list of school representatives. Action: Suzanne to PTAs to put links to CHPSPO on their site.

 

  1. Race to Nowhere Screening, Sherry Trafford and Liz Festa  CHCF donation that enables us to offer the screening free. Need to register in advance to see the film. Invite PTSO meetings to talk about film, speaker to guide discussion. 30-45 mins of discussion. Reach out to T. Wells, Lisa Raymond, DCPS, Monica WJ, list of possible babysitters

 

  1. Elephant in room discussion, Discussed importance of individuals refraining from identifying themselves as representatives of CHPSPO in public forums when not representing CHPSPO’s official positions; invited opportunities for future discussion of ongoing dynamic issues within CHPSPO; reinforced value of respecting our process of group decision-making, and need for opportunities within CHPSPO to continue discussions as perspectives develop.
  2. Discussed the Finance Commission that has been convened to make recommendations on the funding for public and public charter schools for the 2013 budget, and suggested that Ed Lazere, the chair of the Finance Commission be invited to the December 13 meeting.

 

 

Next CHPSPO Meeting:   December 13, 2012

 

Upcoming Events:

 

October 22      Literary Feast, CHCF Fundraiser to Benefit Capitol Hill Schools

October 28      Polls close for Hilly Awards at 11:59 p.m.

October 29      Tyler Harvest Festival, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.  1001 G St., SE

Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan Haunted House 6-9 p.m.  215 G St., NE

November 5    Public oversight hearing “Youth Perspectives on Middle Grades Education in the District,” Council Chamber Room 500, (10:00 a.m.)

November 10  DCPS’ Engaging Families in a New Path Forward – Ward 6 event. 6-8 p.m., Ludlow-Taylor, 659 G St., NE

November 15  School Information Night @ Hill Center 6-8:30 p.m.

November 21  Race to Nowhere Screening, Atlas Performing Arts Center – 7 p.m.

 

Vote for CHPSPO for Hilly Awards (Community Service) http://www.champsdc.org/), polls close on October 28

Race to Nowhere Film screening hosted by CHPSPO

CHPSPO will host a FREE screening of this ground-breaking documentary on Monday, November 21, 7:00 to 9:30pm at Atlas Performing Arts Center. Mark your calendars now, and check back for details on how to get your free registration ticket.

Support the Stuart-Hobson and Eliot-Hine Football Teams!

Dear CHPSPO Members,

On Monday, October 24, at 6:30 pm come out to cheer our local middle school football teams when Stuart-Hobson plays Eliot-Hine to fight for the Capitol Hill bragging rights. The game will be at Eastern High School, 1700 East Capitol Street, NE. This is a great chance to support our local middle schools. Sources describe it as, “a huge, huge game.”

Please post to your school list serves.

Suzanne Wells

Letter to DDoT Advocating for Bicycle Master Plan

Michael Goodno, Bicycle Program Specialist
District Department of Transportation
55 M Street, SE, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20003

October 18, 2011

Dear Mr. Goodno,
As members of the Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization (CHPSPO), we are writing to express our enthusiastic support of the District of Columbia’s (DC) commitment to providing creative, sustainable, and altogether green transportation options for the residents of DC.
CHPSPO is made up of PTA members, principals and interested community members from the elementary and middle schools on Capitol Hill.  CHPSPO’s mission is to promote cooperation among the parent organizations of the public schools on Capitol Hill in order to improve the education received by all children attending our schools. Among our endeavors, we pursue a number of efforts to make our schools and community healthy, safe and environmentally conscious. As an example of our commitment to supporting a ‘green community’, representatives from our schools coordinated our annual Walk and Bike to School Day celebration at Lincoln Park, which drew over 300 participants from local schools.
It has come to our attention that there are several bicycle lanes under consideration for Ward 6, which would help to create safe routes to our schools. We support the DDoT Bicycle Master Plan and ask for your support in implementing these proposed lanes with urgency. We look to DDoT to consider safe bicycle routes leading to schools and routes that work safely for families residing in and outside of Ward 6.
Each year, our school populations grow in number and we hope to encourage our families to commit to choosing bicycles or walking to get to schools. In order for this to take hold, we need to ensure our families and community have safe routes for cyclists and pedestrians to transit.
Our community meets monthly and we invite you to join us to further discuss this.
We look forward to your support in this matter and thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,

The members of CHPSPO

Click here: CHPSPO Bicycle Lanes to see original letter and signatures.

CHPSPO Meeting, Oct 18 @ Maury

CHPSPO will have its monthly meeting this Tuesday, October 18, starting at 6:30 p.m @ Maury Elementary School.

We have many topics on the agenda including a community-based marketing idea and the November 21 screening of Race to Nowhere.

Also, please spread the word about CHPSPO being nominated for the Hilly Public Service Award. It just takes a few minutes to go to http://www.champsdc.org/) and vote for CHPSPO. Polls close at 11:59 p.m. on October 28.

Thanks. Suzanne Wells

CHPSPO Meeting Notes – September 20, 2011

1. Walk-to-School Day, October 5, Dave Salovesh (CHCS) and George Blackmon (Maury):

· 7:30 AM at Lincoln Park
· Add to planning – map out routes to schools
· See flyer on http://chpspo.org, and on FB/Twitter for details

2. Advocating for Bike Lanes, Sandra Moscoso-Mills

· Update letter to DDoT w/ discussion and circulate

3. Ward 6 Middle School Plan:

· Generally, most school collaboration teams have not met over the summer (see short notes below); concern about future of plan given changes in DCPS staffing (Office of Transformation)
· Action: agreement to follow up with Chancellor Henderson on April, 2011 meeting and touch base on overall plan; include Chairman Brown, in light of recent focus on middle schools
· Jefferson:

o Overall, academy is an improvement over what would have happened had MS plan not been implemented.
o However, several components of plan have not yet been implemented (application process for 6th grade academy, technology + other resources are lacking, IB has not yet kicked off)· Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan: o School opened
o Some resource issues (materials for 4 out of 9 classrooms) are in process of being resolved
o Montessori middle school will not be implemented; students will feed to Stuart-Hobson/Eliot-Hine/in-boundary for SY12/13 through SY13/14 and then Eliot-Hine/in-boundary for SY14/15 and beyond.
o CHM@L have not had any schoolwide discussions around middle school since the middle school decision was made

· Eliot Hine:

o IB Coordinator in place
o Principal hired w/out panel/involving community
o Enrollment is up (2 sixth grade teachers/classes to be added)
o Principal and IB Coordinator being trained to on IB principles/how to describe IB
o Back to School Night is Thursday – 6:30 PM at Eliot-Hine – all Hill schools are invited.
o Overall, in good shape. Contingent on community showing up. Bulb planting effort being planned for fall.

· Stuart Hobson

o Implementing measures, such as the 5th grade team meeting, charting system to assess children
o Education Spec for capitol improvement in process; working w/ OPEFM, OCTO (Merging boys/girls gyms; arts/music above gym)
o Arts integration + museum program is set to kick off (funded by the school); grantwriting club; part-time grantwriter
o Largest 6th grade class ever
o Working on enhancing comms to parents/parent engagement for Stuart-Hobson; using ‘STARS’

· Other discussion:

· How can we find out where the kids at SH and EL coming from? o LT, JO Wilson kids

o Other wards
o Center City, 2 Rivers, Latin, Edison· How are schools leveraging STARs? Enable Blackboard Connect; SWW – robocalls + emails

· How can CHPSPO further engage EH and Jefferson?o Invite IB coordinator(s) to meetings?

o Meet at middle schools?–

4. By-laws Vote, Sherry Trafford: please review – will discuss next time

5. Race to Nowhere Screening, Sherry Trafford – look out for November date, Need for volunteers6. Interest in working on after-school care collaborations?, Suzanne Wells – did not discuss

Next CHPSPO Meeting: October 17, 2011

Upcoming Events:

September 27 10 a.m., Public Roundtable Middle Grades Education in the District, Wilson Building

September 29 6 p.m., DC Parent Power, Thurgood Marshall Center

September 30 5 p.m., Capitol Hill Community Foundation Fall Grant Deadline

October 5 7:30 a.m., Lincoln Park, Walk-to-School Day

October 22 Literary Feast, CHCF Fundraiser to Benefit Capitol Hill Schools