Important Upcoming Dates

Important Upcoming Dates:

Friday, March 2nd

Parent Teacher Conference Day 12:30pm to 7:00pm: Students not in school.

Thursday, March 8th

DC Action for Children, DC Fiscal Policy Institute and The Arc of the District of Columbia are sponsoring “What’s In Store for The FY 2008 Budget?” from 9:45am-11:15am: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Room A-5: 901 G St. NW.

Wednesday, March 14th

Board of Education Committee of the Whole – increased graduation requirements to be on the agenda

3:00pm to 5:00pm, 5th Floor Board Room;

825 North Capital St. NE

Wednesday, March 21st: Stated Board of Education Meeting: 5pm; 5th Floor Board Room

825 North Capital St. NE

Friday, March 23rd: End of the 3rd Advisory

Wednesday, March 28th: SHAPPE Meeting

Out of Boundary Enrollment Deadline Extended to March 15th, 2007

April 2nd through April 9th: DCPS Spring Break – no school

Cathy Reilly – SHAPPE Director – 723-3310

. Newsletters are posted on the 21st Century School Fund website: www.21csf.org

SHAPPE Celebrates 9th Anniversary

SHAPPE started 9 years ago this month with a spaghetti dinner at Wilson. At the invitation of Dr. Wilma Bonner the principal and Cathy Reilly, a parent, the principals, parent leaders, and a number of teachers came together to see if we could better address the violence in our high school students’ lives. At that meeting we found we had quite a lot of common ground. We set priorities and decided to meet again. We came up with the name SHAPPE at the second meeting and authored a joint letter to then Superintendent Julius Becton. Many of the requests from that first letter have been fulfilled. We are still working on the deeper solutions to the problems and solutions referenced however, like expanded opportunities in vocational/career tech education and more mediation and discipline measures that work to keep students in a more resourced educational environment instead of the current dependence on expulsion and suspension.

This year has seen the initiation of a middle grades group started by Margot Berkey of Parents United modeled after SHAPPE. High schools are prioritized in the Master Facilities Plan and many of the initiatives in the Master Education Plan have SHAPPE’s fingerprints on them from a jointly sponsored series of public forums.

SHAPPE will work closely with the high schools and the District on the planning referenced in the Gates grant this year. SHAPPE receives funding in the form of a sub grant from the 21st Century School Fund. It has also received a smaller sub-grant from DC VOICE.

Cardozo Construction Academy

The renovations to the Cardozo Construction Academy have been completed and an Open House was held Wednesday, February 28, 2007. “The Cardozo Academy introduces students to architecture and design, carpentry, electricity and heating/ventilation/air conditioning/refrigeration (HVACR), using academic studies, technical content, applied learning, and field experiences. Program graduates earn certification leading to apprenticeship and job opportunities, including carpenter helper, HVAC technician assistant, sheet metal apprenticeship, electrical technician, steamfitter apprentice, HVAC installation technician, HVAC equipment sales person.

There were 60 students enrolled in the fall of 2006 and there are 120 to 150 projected in grades 10 to 12 by 2009.” ( from the DCPS press release)

Proposed Change in DCPS Governance

The DC City Council currently plans to have a first reading of Mayor Fenty’s District of Columbia Public Schools Mayoral Reform Act of 2007 (bill B17-0001) by the end of March; a second reading can take place 14 days after the first reading. This bill is on an extremely fast track with a vote possible in April. According to sources who have worked closely with the Council a omnibus bill of this complexity might normally take up to a year to come to a final vote.

The Board of Education has also asked the Council to submit and consider a bill. Both bills can be viewed on the 21st Century School Fund website: http://www.21csf.org/csf%2Dhome/

The Mayor’s bill will require a change to the Home Rule charter. At this time the Mayor and the City Council are not planning to hold a referendum but rather to go directly to the US Congress without going back to the voters. The bill will be voted on prior to the election of the Ward 4 and Ward 7 council members.

The hearings before the Council established beyond a doubt the public’s dissatisfaction and frustration with the current state of the District of Columbia Public Schools. No one testifying advocated maintaining the status quo. All applaud the Mayor for prioritizing the issue. While there are many supportive and eager for this radical change, there are others worried about the details of such concentrated power and a pace perceived to be too fast to get the specifics right. Those strongly in favor of the legislation believe that the Mayor will indeed increase funding to the schools as he assumes full responsibility. The Mayor has clearly stated that he does not plan to request additional funding.

Individuals from Parents United, DCPTA, SHAPPE, 21st Century School Fund, DC VOICE all testified in support of separating the state functions, essentially granting the executive branch of the Mayor significant expanded powers of oversight. This would finally solve the current problem of having the same entity in charge of both state and local functions. It would create a state. It follows that they also supported maintaining the Board of Education as the policy making body for the District of Columbia Public Schools. In Goal 7 of the Mayor’s plan submitted on February 27th in draft to the Council, he has stated he will solicit input from “regularly scheduled parent and community forums, summits, focus groups, advisory committees, opinion polls and other techniques to garner public input into DCPS decision making processes and initiatives.” Is this an adequate substitute for elected representation and the Board of Education process of policy making?

One of the most basic assumptions of SHAPPE is that wise decisions are only made with the input of those affected. We are especially concerned with this aspect of the proposed changes. While the legislation promises a more service oriented system and commits the Mayor to fixing the schools; it is not clear from the language if this will be a partnership.

While everyone would like to see the work on school facilities sped up and improved; there is concern that the model suggested does not have a good track record in other jurisdictions and that it is too far removed from the schools.

There is wide spread support overall for the Mayor’s full initiative especially for the interagency commission to provide coordinated services to the city’s youth. The Council will be working hard now on the actual language for the legislation and on amendments that may address the concerns raised by the public in the hearings. Please contact and visit your Council member with your suggestions this month. It is very important. See full testimonies at the 21st Century School Fund website: www.21csf.org

Weighted Student Formula Committee

While DCPS is engaged in rightsizing its schools, the WSF committee recommended it keep the current small school (under 300 students) subsidy of 3.9 million in place. It also acknowledged the particular situation of schools in space constrained buildings.

Reconciliation will again take place initially in September with minor adjustments made following that count. It is vital for the high schools to track the effect of the larger incoming 9th grade with the Office of Resource Allocation and Management over the summer and early fall. The September reconciliation is being done to avoid the movement of teachers later in the fall and even into the winter that was the previous practice.

This will be the final year schools receiving additional specialty funds will be granted this subsidy without having to competitively apply for it. There is 1.4 million available for specialty grants this year which will provide supplemental funding to Oyster-Adams; Peabody; Ballou IT Program; Banneker; Ellington; School Without Walls; Spingarn Phelps, Reggio Emilia; Ward 8 Bilingual School and McKinley. Following this year the funding applications for these and other schools applying will be reviewed by a committee and awarded for a three year period.

Summer Bridge

There was a one year evaluation performed by the American Institutes for Research on the District of Columbia Schools District wide Summer Bridge Program. The program for the summer of 2006 was primarily implemented by the Office of Career and Technical Education and served 9th and 10th graders coming into the high schools for the first time. CTE worked in collaboration with many other DCPS departments. The 6 week tuition free program was designed to help students become familiar with their new school, receive academic instruction in mathematics and reading/language arts and to explore post secondary education and career opportunities. The four goals of the program were to:

·  Increase student achievement in reading and mathematics;

·  Prepare 9th and 10th graders for educational and career opportunities and success in high school and beyond.

·  Create safe, supportive learning environments for all incoming 9th and 10th grade students

·  To provide high quality professional development for all Summer Bridge instructors.

The findings of the study indicated that overall Summer Bridge had a positive impact on the students transition to high school; stakeholders perceived the academic component as beneficial. In addition the counseling component for job readiness and college readiness had a positive impact and students felt safe and supported in their schools and learning environments.

The challenges noted were: There were technology problems posing a threat to the timely delivery of services; the partnership between DCPS and DOES was not well enough defined; parental involvement was limited and the standardized measure selected to assess student achievement over the 6 weeks was not available for analysis.

Recommendations for this summer include:

·  Begin preliminary planning no later than November of 2006;

·  Establish a planning committee or task force to assist in the planning for 2007 Summer Bridge;

·  Partner with middle and junior high guidance counselors to develop and implement a recruitment campaign;

·  Identify and hire key personnel early in 2007;

·  Begin marketing the program as early as November 2006 and recruitment in January 2007:

·  Collaborate with DOES on summer work specifics;

·  Collaborate with DOES to revise the Summer Bridge application and revamp the registration process;

·  Reassess the selection of materials to be used for instruction and personal development, job awareness and college awareness counseling;

·  Reassess the technology infrastructure at each school;

·  Increase and expand professional development opportunities offered to all Summer Bridge staff;

·  Coordinate with Facilities to develop a schedule that ensures all program sites are operating optimally no later than 2 weeks prior to the start of the program;

·  Increase parental involvement;

·  Enhance and diversify the academic component;

·  Enhance and diversify student activities; Improve and monitor the quality of breakfast and lunch provided to the students and

·  Provide facilities that are more conducive to meeting the goals, objectives and expectations of Summer Bridge.

Overall for the first year of a citywide program the evaluation was positive and there is a foundation to build upon for next year.

Reconstitution

Some form of reconstitution in the high schools seems to be part of both the Mayor’s and the Board of Education’s current proposals. SHAPPE would like to hear your thoughts and experiences on this strategy. It generally involves installing new leadership and asking all employees to re-apply for their positions. Please contact Cathy Reilly at or call 202-723-3310 if you would like to work further on giving input and feedback on this proposed strategy of high school reform.

High School Enrollment and Boundaries for 2007-2008

All rising 8th graders will enroll in high school next year with the conversion of the junior high schools to middle schools. The movement of 6th graders will not take place this fall, but will be staggered in the following years. The Out of Boundary deadline has been extended to March 15th, 2007 specifically to accommodate the many rising 8th grade parents and students the opportunity to make choices. The current high school boundaries will be used for the 2007-2008 school year.

All students have an automatic right to attend their neighborhood school. There is no special application procedures required, however, all families must provide proof of residency when registering. If you are uncertain about which school is your neighborhood, in-boundary school please contact your nearest high school or check this website: http://citizenatlas.dc.gov/atlasapps/reporthometab.asp.

From the DCPS website: The Out-of-Boundary application process (discretionary transfer) is for parents/guardians who wish to apply for permission to enroll their children in DCPS schools other than their neighborhood school.

·  No more than three (3) applications can be submitted per child.

·  No photocopied, faxed, or mailed applications will be accepted.

·  You must apply online: https://webb.k12.dc.us/OOB/index.asp

After compliance with Federal requirements has been met, preference will be given to students in accordance with the reasons for their transfer requests in the following order until all spaces are filled or all requests are granted:

(a) The applicant’s sibling currently attends the requested school;
(b) The applicant attends a school that, by virtue of location or its being designated as a “feeder school” by the Superintendent, sends its students, after school completion, to the requested school;
(c) The applicant resides within reasonable walking distance of the requested school (within a three city-block radius for elementary students and a five city-block radius for middle and junior high students);
(d) The adult student or the minor student’s parent/guardian prefers the requested school to his or her designated in-boundary school.

If the number of requests exceeds the number of spaces available at the school, a lottery procedure, using a computerized random selection process, will be administered by DCPS headquarters. For questions or additional information, please contact: District of Columbia Public Schools, Division of Student Services, 825 North Capitol Street, N.E.,
8th floor, Washington, D.C., 20002 (202)442-5099