Ward Five Quality  Education Proposal

Presented by: Ward Five Council on Education!

What quality schools in Ward 5 would look like...

- Embrace the neighborhood school model which would support the ability for our children to walk to school and nurture parent/community engagement! - Have small class sizes that can meet the academic and emotional needs of our students! - Preserve resources not only for individual schools but consider those resources as district wide resources (i.e. pools, planetarium, green house, park, accredited Montessori program, etc) - Maintain the application status of specialty schools! - Implement a new plan for mitigating truancy and absenteeism! - Re-imagine school boundaries! - Transitions, of any kind, should be as minimally disruptive as possible - to the students academic success, to the teachers/staff of the school, to the neighborhoods and families that the schools serve!

Our major issue with the DCPS Consolidation Proposal...

This plan displaces students and ultimately kills the ideas and principles of neighborhood schools - this principle is the model that DCPS was built on.! The farther children have to travel to get to school the less likely it will be for them to get to school on time...or at all.! Closing neighborhood schools, which are community assets and resources, eliminates choice for parents, students and families. Consolidation pushes families out of DCPS.!

Thurgood Marshall Elementary

(a community gem)
We do understand the issues that have lead to Marshall being placed on the consolidation list but we do know Marshalls potential. The W5COE and the Marshall community are committed to doing whatever we can to keep Marshall open.! A major reason to ensure that Marshall stays open is the population boom that is anticipated in the next few months and years. Without a traditional school option in the neighborhood new families will be pushed out of the system before they even have the opportunity to experience it.!

Thurgood Marshall Elementary

(the plan)
The Marshall community has been diligently working on a plan that they will present to DCPS but in advance of that plan here are some of the ideas that would ensure that Marshall could continue to be a thriving school and a community resource:! (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) !Active retention of 90% of current families! !Marketing to attract 40 additional students! !Addition of gifted and talented program! !Open house for planetarium; Expand as resource for whole city! !Marketing - direct mail, social media, create podcasts of child learning ! activities! !Expand community uses/partnerships! !Planning to raise test scores! !Power hour after school enrichment/tutoring! !Create media center at school that would be staffed and supported by the ! community!

Spingarn High School

(a beacon of light)
We do understand the issues that have lead to Spingarn being placed on the consolidation list and we do support the modernization and re-imaging of the school. Although we are in agreement, we also know that even in its current state Spingarn has the potential to be a beacon of light for the community. The W5COE and the Spingarn community are committed to doing whatever we can to support the Spingarn community and keep the students in their current location throughout the modernization.! There are a few major reasons that we believe that it is essential to ensure that Spingarn students stay in their community - those reason include: transportation challenges, the delicate academic state that students are already in, and the issues that can arise from placing these students in a new academic environment and neighborhood.! Taking the student out of their environment will not only increase absenteeism and truancy but transportation issues will be the barrier that will keep students from receiving the quality education that they deserve.! Spingarn is home to the only STAY program in Ward 5 and this program is vital to the community!!

Spingarn High School

(the plan)
The W5COE is committed to keeping the Spingarn students in their community during the process of modernization. Below we have listed a few items that we believe must be addressed to ensure that Spingarn becomes the thriving institution that we know it can be and a beacon of light for the surrounding community, Ward 5 and the DCPS system.! (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) !Initiate a steering committee or school improvement team for the ! modernization (target start date: the late winter or early spring 2013)! !Engage the community and stakeholders in the process of developing tracking processes/measures of success! !Use the modernization at Eastern as a model how did the process work?! !Trailers! !Multi-year phase in/phase out! !9th grade academy at Browne ! !IB program 9 + 10 tied to Browne EC IB program! !Not only should Spingarn have a robust CTE program but it should also ! continue to be a neighborhood school that will provide its students with a ! similarly robust general education curriculum!

We hope for change but if not...

(considerations)
The W5COE truly hopes that you will consider our proposal to keep Marshall and Spingarn open but if you do not, we propose the following list of considerations:!
o o o o o o o o o o o o !Every parent should be able to nish the following statement: If my students school is ! closed my child will be better off at the receiving school because ! !School based mentoring! !Bridge program at receiving school for student integration! !Transitional stafng! !Marshall Montessori classes and teachers move together! !Plan for Langdon middle grades zone middle grades student to attend McKinley! !Transportation options for parent engagement! !Securing of materials/facility in anticipation of reopening or transition fund! !Help with replacing uniforms! !Steering committees or school improvement teams initiated for Marshall and Spingarn! !If students have to leave Spingarn be mindful of the academic disruption that it might cause for the receiving schools (i.e. only 9th grade transfers to Dunbar)! !Funds for Langdon Montessori accreditation!