Thursday, 17 January 2013

[WardFive] Re: [concerned4DCPS] Re: [ward5] Chancellor Kaya Henderson names 15 D.C. schools on closure list - The Washington Post

The middle school planned for Ward 5 are on target and progressing forward. I will forward information shortly regarding their progress. 

McKinley Middle (STEM focused school) will open in the fall of 2013 for the 2013-14 school year. It will be collocates at McKinley Tech - in a separate wing. 

Brookland Middle (an arts integration and world languages school) will open, as a brand new building on the current campus of the old Brookland School, in the fall of 2014. 

Brown Education Campus will continue to be a K-8 options and wills have an International Baccalaureate program for the middle grades - this program will take a three year period to be completely certified. 

Wheatley Education Campus will continue to be a K-8 option as well.   

Sent from the iPad of Faith Gibson Hubbard

On Jan 17, 2013, at 2:24 PM, KPW <WKPW3@aol.com> wrote:

 

One would think that a small school would be a good thing.  All you have to do then is to make sure there are good programs.  Are there any  small schools operating in the District that are good?  Will those programs be moved to other schools.

By the way, what is the status of the middle schools that are supposed to be established in Ward 5?  Are they still on target?


KPW


Excerpt from article
"Ultimately, we're paying too much and offering too little," Henderson told reporters Thursday morning. "There are too many schools, and too many small schools, to allow our students to get the full benefit of the resources that we have."


-----Original Message-----
From: Faith Gibson Hubbard <fg1913@gmail.com>
To: ward5coe-members <ward5coe-members@googlegroups.com>; wardfive <wardfive@googlegroups.com>; ward5 <ward5@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thu, Jan 17, 2013 1:57 pm
Subject: [ward5] Chancellor Kaya Henderson names 15 D.C. schools on closure list - The Washington Post

 



Chancellor Kaya Henderson names 15 D.C. schools on closure list

By , Updated: Thursday, January 17, 1:00 PM

Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced Thursday that she has decided to shutter 15 D.C. schools for low enrollment, five fewer than she initially proposed for closure in a plan put forth last year.

Among the schools to remain open are Garrison Elementary and Francis-Stevens Education Campus, two Northwest Washington schools where parents had mounted vigorous campaigns against closure. Some students from the selective School Without Walls will move into the Francis-Stevens building.

Smothers Elementary in Northeast also will stay open, as will Southeast's Johnson Middle School and Malcolm X Elementary. The latter will be operated in partnership with a "high-performing charter school," which Henderson declined to name.

Still, more than one in 10 schools across the city will close in the next two years, the latest sign of a system battling budget pressures and competition from fast-growing public charter schools.

Henderson says that closing half-empty schools will allow her to use resources more efficiently, redirecting them from administration and maintenance to teaching and learning.

"Ultimately, we're paying too much and offering too little," Henderson told reporters Thursday morning. "There are too many schools, and too many small schools, to allow our students to get the full benefit of the resources that we have."

Thirteen schools will close at the end of this academic year, with the remaining two — Sharpe Health and Mamie D. Lee, both schools for students with disabilities — to close in 2014.

For the first time, Henderson offered an estimate of the money to be saved through consolidations: $19.5 million. About $11 million will be needed for transition costs, Henderson said, resulting in a net savings of $8.5 million.

The last round of 23 school closures, in 2008, cost millions more than initially reported, according to an audit released in August. Henderson said the school system is more confident in its savings estimates now, after learning from the mistakes of 2008.

The savings will be plowed back into schools to improve programming, including into libraries and arts and foreign language offerings, Henderson said, adding that the public will get a detailed view when school-by-school budgets are released in the coming months.

She said that about 140 staff positions may be lost, but given normal attrition through resignations and retirements, "we actually feel like the loss will be minimal." She said she does not expect any teacher evaluated "effective" to be out of a job.

In a move that is likely to disappoint many charter school advocates, who often struggle to find suitable and affordable facilities, Henderson said she does not anticipate releasing any buildings from the D.C. public schools inventory. She said she needs to keep the facilities so she can reopen schools as enrollment rebounds.

Schools slated for closure will be assigned a coordinator who will help families prepare for the transition to a new school, Henderson said.
The prospect of closures has triggered intense debate about the future of the city school system, including at community meetings and two D.C. Council hearings that together lasted longer than 14 hours.

Some parents and activists worry that shuttering schools will drive families into the city's charter schools, which could lead to declining enrollment and further closures in the traditional public school system.

Henderson acknowledged that concern Thursday but said she disagreed.

"I don't believe that this is a step toward a downward spiral," she said. "I believe this is the next step in creating a set of schools across the city that are able to deliver a high-quality education to our young people and that families will increasingly choose."

Henderson said she took the five schools off the proposed closure list in response to concerns and ideas brought forth by parents and others during the community meetings and council hearings.

The chancellor said she was "humbled and inspired" by parents' and activists' input.

Garrison will stay open in part because of parents' commitment to help recruit new students and in part because of demographic information showing that the school's Logan Circle neighborhood is growing faster than officials previously understood, Henderson said.

Francis-Stevens Education Campus will remain open, the chancellor said, because its extra space will be filled by an expansion of the School Without Walls. Johnson will stay open because of safety concerns.

Moving Johnson students to another school might cause fights among students from rival neighborhoods, creating "powder kegs that we are not ready to deal with," Henderson said.

Still, many parents and community members are likely to be disappointed in the final plan. Parents at School Without Walls expressed concern about splitting that school across two campuses, and Shaw Middle School parents have opposed the plan to move their children into Cardozo High School. Supporters of Kenilworth Elementary, which will close, had hoped their school would be saved by a $25 million grant awarded to strengthen education and social services in that neighborhood east of the Anacostia River.

The final plan includes several other changes. MacFarland Middle School will not be consolidated into Roosevelt High, for example. Instead, MacFarland students will be sent to nearby preschool-through-eighth-grade schools, shoring up those buildings' enrollment.

Three of the city's selective high schools will expand next year: McKinley Technology High School will add 300 students in sixth through eighth grades; Benjamin Banneker Academic High School's freshman class will grow by nearly 50 students; and School Without Walls will expand by an as-yet-unknown amount because of its expansion onto the Francis-Stevens campus.

Asked whether those expansions would draw more of the best students out of neighborhood schools, weakening those schools, Henderson said the selective schools — which are the highest-performing in the system — have far more applicants every year than they can hold.

"If I have a good thing going, I should make that available to as many families as possible," she said.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) expressed confidence in Henderson's decisions.

"Although school consolidations are difficult, I am confident that the decisions the Chancellor announced today will ultimately help strengthen D.C. Public Schools, speed education reform and — most importantly — guarantee our children are getting the resources they need for the world-class education they deserve," Gray said in a statement.

"I appreciate the Chancellor's hard work in not only formulating a consolidation plan that made sense, but also listening attentively and working collaboratively with affected parents, students, educators and neighborhoods," Gray said. "From day one, the Chancellor said this would be an open and inclusive process and that she would listen with an open mind. Today's decisions demonstrate that she was true to her word."

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