SPECIAL PERMISSION PROCESS OCTOBER 1
JANUARY 29
DC PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND INDEPENDENT PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS GIVE STUDENTS ACCESS TO
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
The D.C. Public School system offers a variety of school programs you may want for your
child. We encourage you to take advantage of these options, as well as encourage the
school system to expand the offerings when there are waiting lists. If the program you
want is not in your neighborhood school, you must apply directly to the school
you want your child to attend for "Special Permission" or to the specific
charter school. Many of the special programs have specific application forms, so you might
have two application forms to fill out. Principals admit out-of-boundary students based on
the number of spaces in the school that are not taken by in- boundary students. These are
the six acceptable criteria for granting special permission to attend a DCPS school that
is out of boundary for your home address.
- Economic hardship to the family;
- Physical handicap of the student;
- Medical reasons;
- Psychological difficulties which impair learning;
- Gross inconvenience to adult student or minor student's parent or guardian including
disruption of family routine;
- Neighborhood school does not offer specific curriculum or special course of study.
If you are interested in more than one school, you will have to go to each school to
pick up the application form because many schools individualize the forms. Remember, that
some schools have more than one special program, each one requiring a separate
application. Students rejected by the principal for special permission admission to the
school, have sometimes been admitted to that same school through a special program
application. And sometimes students are accepted into the school but not the special
program. Make sure you have done everything you need to do to get your child into the
program you want.
To remain in a school when you are out of boundary you simply reapply every year
at the school you currently attend. If you have questions, call the assistant
superintendent who handles that school 442-4099 (ele) 442-5055 (jh/ms) and 442-
5100 (shs). Parents will be notified in February so that DCPS is now competitive with
private schools in the admissions process.
There is a great variety of special programs and public charter schools. For a
complete list of special programs, please send us a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a
note requesting the list of special programs and we will send it out to you right away. If
you want more information on how to apply to charter schools, call the Public School
Charter Resource Center at 835-9011.
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STUDENTS GET A SHORTENED LEARNING YEAR
Although the school year is, by law, 180 days long, our children actually will have
only 176 full learning days 176 days that are 8:45 3:15 school days. Parents
United worked hard to get former Superintendent Franklin Smith to lengthen the school day
so that it matched those in the surrounding counties; we are concerned by this erosion of
educational time.
There are nine days when students leave at 12:30 to give teachers time for staff
development or record keeping. Because these days are a bit over one half day, the system
can count them as full school days. Parents and students know that half days are a wash.
In schools that use block scheduling, students will be missing two classes. Since most of
the half days are on Wednesdays, students may be missing the same classes consistently.
There will also be lost academic time because the calendar shows seven days of Spring
Testing in April. If this year is like the first year of Stanford-9 mania, we may find our
children's general education in science, history, and foreign languages sacrificed to prep
classes in English and math before the test, and to test overload during test week.
An additional three days have been set aside this school year for parent teacher
conferences November 18, February 10 and April 28. Make
sure you go! Teachers must be there to meet with you - take advantage of this
opportunity and make these conference days worth the loss of school learning time.
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A SURVEY OF THE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT IN YOUR CHILDS
SCHOOL
Are you concerned about the supply of texts, having enough teachers, etc., in your
child's school. Does your child have access to the kind of program you want in his or her
school? Help us take a brief sampling of parents' observations about their child's school.
Fill out the survey and send it back to us. Make sure you put
the school on it. You don't have to put your name on, if you want to stay anonymous. If
enough parents return this to us, we'll bring the results to the attention of the
Superintendent, the Board of Education and any other policy makers.
Send the completed survey to:
Parents United
1300 19th St., NW Suite 330
Washington, DC 20036
Remember, the administration can't solve problems if they don't hear about them. If
work requests and book orders get lost in the shuffle, parent voices are the key to
getting attention paid to these problems.
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DCPS has put in place a new vending machine policy. Many parents were
alarmed about the change, when they found out that their children's clubs, which had
received funds in the past, were not necessarily going to receive that money in the
future. Here is what we have learned from John Peterson, the contracting officer (442-5093).
Principals were never actually "authorized" to have
these machines in their buildings. The administration never knew how much revenue was
generated or how it was used. (Inspector General may be looking into the financial
reports.) The administration decided to establish rules for vending machine use through
the Food Services Division, and to give some of the funds back to the schools while
monitoring how that money is spent.
Horton and Barber Professional Services Inc. won the competition to
provide the vending machines. They represent Coca Cola (water, soda, juices, juice drinks)
and Monarch enterprises (snacks). The contract set the prices as $.75 for 12 oz. sodas and
$1.00 for 20 oz. sodas. All unauthorized machines were replaced. Principals choose the
vending sites, but the machines must not compete with the food line. In fact, they may be
turned off when appropriate. Federal guidelines for school systems that receive food
subsidies forbid selling soda or candy in the cafeteria during lunch periods.
Of every dollar taken in by each machine, Horton and Barber gets $0.35,
the school system gets $0.15, and the school that has the machine gets $0.50. The
principal will receive the money and is supposed to put it into the Student Activity Fund
which will be audited four times a year.
Not all schools have vending machines. Although the system can have up to 400 by
contract, there are now only 159 beverage and 33 snack machines in D.C. schools. Vending
machine revenues are controlled by the principal. Only the teacher's lounge is exempt from
this contract, because the teachers' union contract allows teachers to contract for their
own vending machines.
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The good news is that there has been an appreciable increase in funding for schools
repairs and maintenance over the past three years as illustrated in the chart below.
This is great news for D.C. But money is only one part of solving the facilities
problems in DCPS. Capital funds need to be spent efficiently, equitably and so they
improve education and communities.
The school system is working on developing the capital project list for
fiscal year 1999. A working group selected by Superintendent Ackerman is reviewing
proposed projects submitted by the Army Corps of Engineers. The members of this group are:
Joe Howze (DCPS Capital Program); Gene Kilby (Dir, Level 1 and Level 2 Facilities); Mark
Robertson (Asst. Super. for Student Services); Dave Morrow (Army Corps of Engineers); Don
Brown (advisor to DCPS on facilities); and Mary Filardo and Sarah Woodhead from the 21st
Century School Fund.
A list of proposed capital projects will come from this group based on criteria that
evaluate the severity, urgency, impact and type of deficiencies of the problems. The
deficiencies in each school were identified during in-depth assessments done by the Corps
of Engineers over the summer. The task of the working group will be to see that the
criteria are applied to arrive at a responsible list of projects. This proposed list will
then be submitted to the Board of Education, Board of Trustees and Control. Board. There
should be public hearings on this proposed list, a revision to the list and then Board
approval of the actual projects, at which point, work will begin on the projects.
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What are the 21st Century School Funds standards for our school facilities? Review the
Goals 2000 Interim Report on Rebuilding Public Schools, available from the 21st Century
School Fund web page at www.erols.com/t2lstcsf or call (202) 745-3745 for a copy.
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Local School Restructuring Teams are finally getting the attention they
need to become effective and none too soon. Arlene Ackerman sent a number of people to
Seattle to see how governance teams there work. In Seattle, the principal gets the entire
budget, not just teacher allotments but the actual money, and spends it with the advice of
governance teams that include parents and teachers. Every school's budget and spending is
so public that it's available on the Internet.
After many attempts to work with the administration to monitor the
process, the Governance Committee was convened on November 5th. Participants representing
the Washington Teachers Union (WTU), the administration (Mark Robertson and Brenda
Dunson), and parents (Delabian Rice-Thurston and Sheila Carr of Parents United, Alieze
Stallworth of the DCPTA). Only the principals' union was not represented. The WTU and
parent participants were adamant that we want to see the existing structure made effective
rather than an effort to reconfigure participation and change its name.
Our next meetings will improve the guidelines for the 1998/99 school
year. We will discuss:
- The composition - who is a member, how are members selected, and how do members relate
to the group they represent
- The responsibilities of the LSRT
- The relationship with the principal
Guidelines for resolving issues
When the LSRT meets and who must attend meeting frequency,
attendance
We know parents are concerned about training, access to information and
relationships with principals. If Ms. Ackerman wants the Seattle model to operate here,
more effective LSRTs and trained parents are essential. Tell us what changes are needed to
improve your LSRT experience. Call 833-4766.
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Parents United is once again in a funding slump. We have a major cash
flow problem that will not be alleviated until late in January. You can help. If every
recipient of this newsletter (around 9,000 people) would send us just $5, the cash flow
problem would be solved. The UPDATE costs us almost $5,000, and that's using third class
mail. If we send it first class, it costs over $6,000. Please consider a tax deductible
donation to support the work we do.
Consider the fact that it was Parents United who brought parents
together with Arlene Ackerman on October 8th for an informative hour of Questions and
Answers. Or, that we will be bringing more policy makers together with parents at our
December 1st Education Summit.
Support our work and you will be supporting improving public education
in the District of Columbia. Send your donation with the form
below to: Parents United, 1300 19th St., NW Suite 330, Washington, DC 20036. Donors
will receive a copy of our Parent Handbook, if wanted. It contains all the critical
administrators names and their new phone numbers you'll need to solve problems. Please
check off below if you want the handbook. Thank you for your help!
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In our last edition of the UPDATE, Parents United incorrectly identified the State
Advisory Panel on Special Education as being a member of the D.C. Special Education
Coalition. We had meant to say that they were among those present
at a meeting with Arlene Ackerman and members of the Special Education Coalition.
We are sorry for our mistake.
D.C. students have lost the promise of a new alternative high school at
Taft. Ira Thomas, who was praised in an article in the Washington Times for work
he did to upgrade education for disruptive students in New York city, was supposed to be
in charge of the new school. Instead, he has been moved to upgrade the Oak Hill school.
Emyrtle Bennet is the new administrator of the Alternative School, which is housed at the
Hamilton School. It is a day program for students suspended for 10 or more days, GED
students and students needing an alternative learning environment.
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Delabian L. Rice-Thurston is the editor of the UPDATE and executive
director. R. Loraine Wilson is the office manager. The board of Parents United consists of
Co-Chairs: Janice Autrey and Sheila Carr; Treasurer: Elder Wellborn; and At- Large
Members: John Pfeiffer and Ron Stroman. Parents United receives its funding through
Foundations such as The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and The Eugene and Agnes
E. Meyer Foundation; PTAs and HSAs and individual contributions. Our e-mail address is pudeps@hotmail.com and our web page is located at http://www.keybridge.net/parentsunited/
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