Good Afternoon,
I think these are the initial necessary steps that needs to be taken and I am sure others have some to offer.
1. We need a Moratorium on Charter Schools entering DC opening up, expansion or even expanding to include more grades.
If Kaya does closes our Schools -- With all this school closure and consolidation planned, Kaya/DCPS should have no complaints about under-enrollment, underfunding and nowhere to hide when we do evaluate Kaya and DCPS in 1 or 2 years from now. Right now, they can run because they will Continue to excuse it on "Charter Schools" Truancy, underenrollment, and whatever else. We need to get them to focus on a "Beta" type approach to renew their contract or put in place something to really grade them on. If she is so willing to offer her "curricula" to Charter Schools then she must believe that is better. Let's see how good it is in her fully enrolled schools.
2. We need a Moratorium on closing schools for a year until we come up with a REAL PLAN - not a "proposal" that has no real numbers attached and is so out of sequence. I will identify below some of the things we absolutely need before moving forward;
a. An analysis on what it would cost to keep the schools open and operate vs. closing them? It might be cheaper to fund them as under enrolled schools vs. closing them. We need those numbers. Then we can figure out if the disruption is worth it.
b. Separate o (a) t– Since there seemed to have all the custodial staff in place, what staffing is needed in each school (breakdown) and the cost to fund that.
c. We need an analysis of the Central Staff Cost of Operation and whether we have a lot of Waste in that part of DCPS. We need their jobs thoroughly examined and how important their positions are to the success of the kids.
d. ln the meantime, we need to see if we can currently relocate some duties to the Central Staff to assist with the duties within the school that are proposed to close – they at least can be security, librarian, teacher and whatever we need. They as "bosses" need to get off of their Ass and pitch in.
e. We need a study/plan on the safety/social issues that will occur when combining schools.
All the things that I just listed are necessary before you propose closing schools in order for us/Mayor/Council to allow you to close our schools.
To the Chancellor -- As confident as you are that you can operate our Public Schools and implement a curriculum that will be able to teach our kids, how do we evaluate you if the you allow the variables to be changed by Charter Schools coming in and enticing your subjects away. This dysfunctional approach will never allow for us to evaluate you nor allow our schools to remain "enrolled"/financially solvent. Since you like to evaluate and follow "demographics" and Studies, we need to be able to analyze you (Kaya and Staff) to appreciate your abilities from a real "numbers" approach!! We need the right stable environment, right analysis and done by NON DCPS or School Related companies -- we cannot allow you or your friends to POLICE you. In the NFL/NBA -- 6 years and in your case if you want to say 2 years - as we know you are the continuation of Rhee -- you would be fired. For God's Sake -- other school systems in the country have similar if not identical issues that you are facing here and here you are DEAD LAST in Graduating Students -- and you have the HIGHEST BUDGET. What am I missing. You should step down on your own or at least BE SO WIDE OPEN TO a MUCH DIFFERENT APPROACH!! So you understand, I don't want you fired because I want you here to participate and for us to utilize the experience and knowledge that you do have to ensure the quickest success of our failing children. Give me the failing ones and I and the rest of this DC community will show you what you what you are missing that you can't really get from herding us like animals at a round table 2 days out of the year.
I will tell you why I would do much better than you are doing now -- Unlike you, I will have your resourses because you and the rest want to keep your jobs and I will have the inclusiveness of thousands of people who are also smart and have lots of ideas, energy, experience and time to offer. Bet me anything -- I am a betting man.
To the Community - WE cannot afford to allow this hap-hazard approach to educating our kids only to be moving kids around to skew that the Literacy numbers are moving in the "positive" direction. Furthermore, I (as I am sure you are as well) am having a HUGE problem with Chancellor admitting that we have 9th Graders who cannot read while she has been a very active part/role of "educating" our kids since they were in 3rd grade (6 years -- our kids should at least be able to READ).
That's failure on the JOB at the most basic level -- No matter how many BEAUTIFUL SCHOOLS you build when simple renovation and brightening a kids life/enviroment with a more focused curriculum to their NEED should be addressed as it is most detrimental to the basic foundation of education -- READING!!!
The MOST IMPORTANT STUDY/ANALYSIS -- we need to know exactly where every child is on READING and MATH LEVEL to understand their capability. From there we can implement a plan to rectify most if not all of them from a reading and math level. Only then they will be able to utilize all the mordern Science and Technology labs.
Faith -- please send this to the other Wards.
Rob Ramson
R. Ramson
3744 12th Street, N.E.,
Washington D.C., 20017
202-438-5988
"We must become the change we want to see" - Mohandas Gandhi-
(Together, for a Brighter Tomorrow)
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