Tag: budget

June 2015 HTML Newsletter

ruth4schools@yahoo.com @ruth4schools ruth4schools.com

The City Council adopted its final budget yesterday, and the full $900,000 requested by Wilson leaders is included! Not only that, but the Council made clear that these funds were allocated to DCPS in order to assure (along with another priority), that Wilson got this full amount.

Congratulations to all—and especially to CM Mary Cheh!
Thanks to all of you who phoned and emailed Chairman Grosso. Thanks to all the parent leaders across all the schools that feed into Wilson High School who mobilized their own school’s parents, wrote, and testified. Thanks to the ANC’s that passed resolutions, testified, and visited Council members. Thanks to Wilson PTSO president Kim Bayliss and LSAT chairman and Jeffrey Kovar–and to Wendy Jacobson who helped lead a parent mobilization effort at Wilson. Also kudos to the folks at Wilson who made the decision early on to make the “ask” only for one-half of the lost per student funding.

A special, special thanks goes to Council member Mary Cheh, who has been totally and effectively on this without a break since the cut was first announced. Thanks to her efforts, Chairman Mendelson totally understood the importance of the issue and really took it on himself to make sure the money was found to restore the funds. Thanks, Chairman Mendelson! Thanks as well to Education Committee Chair David Grosso, who was able to put some extra money into the Education Committee budget two weeks ago, without which it would have been much harder to reach full restoration. And we are all indebted to Matt Frumin, who launched the very successful petition campaign that many of you signed and circulated and, through all of this, has provided information and analysis that everyone has used so effectively.

A special note to current and future Wilson parents: We have every reason to feel fully confident about the future of our high school. It is unfortunate that we have had to deal with the challenges of the last few months. But I think it’s clear that between our very strong community and our committed city leaders, Wilson’s future as an increasingly excellent school is secure!
Congratulations and thanks again!

Ruth Wattenberg,
Ward 3 Member, DC State Board of Education
@ruth4schools
ruth4schools.com
ruth4schools@yahoo.com

Wilson HS budget cut update (7/17)

Despite DC council vote to increase school funding and relieve staff cuts…

Wilson HS still faces large staff cuts, with no apparent plan to restore them

Email Mayor eom@dc.gov, Deputy Mayor for education dme@dc.gov, about unrelenting staff cuts at Wilson. cc:ruth4schools@yahoo.com.  Details below; scroll down for City Council addresses.

Also, scroll down for information on: new ESSA Task force; Chancellor Wilson on Social-emotional learning; survey for Wilson feeder school families on space/overcrowding; DC’s extremely high teacher turn-over rates are much higher than in other urban districts.

Last spring, the Mayor proposed a city budget that dramatically underfunded the city’s schools.   As a result of the underfunding, DC Public Schools (DCPS) cut the 2017-18 budgets of schools across the city.
The cuts sparked huge opposition, with many people on this list emailing, calling, and visiting their City Council members. The DC Council scraped funds from other parts of the budget and voted to increase per-student funding by 3%–compared to the Mayor’s inadequate, below-inflation increase of 2%.
Moreover, the Council explicitly stated in its budget report (p5) that “the Council expects the additional funds at DCPS to be used for restoring instructional staff and programs at schools.”

Despite these efforts, it appears DCPS will not restore staff at Wilson HS 

The chancellor has emailed Bethany Nickerson, the chair of Wilson’s Local School Advisory Team (LSAT), writing that he believes “Wilson is positioned well for School Year 2017-18” and that the additional funds will be targeted instead to a variety of DCPS initiatives.

Wilson has lost 30+ positions in 3 years, despite stable enrollment

In fact, Wilson is not well positioned.  It has lost over 30 positions in 3 years, with no significant decline in enrollment (see below).  And, the council was clear: The extra funding was intended to allow schools to restore staff and programs that had been cut.

Councilwoman Cheh calls for explanation

Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh has written the Chancellor and Deputy Mayor for Education, noting that “Wilson has been regularly subjected to drastic budget cuts…. and has had “to cut nearly 30 staff members over 3 years…. Today, with an additional $11.5 million available and an obvious need at Wilson for additional financial support, it would be unacceptable for Wilson to yet again be denied the funding it needs to succeed.”

Please add your voice; email the Mayor

Unlike in most of the country, DC schools are under mayoral control. It’s important for her to understand the issues.

Please write the Mayor and tell her the relentless cutting of Wilson staff–30+ over 3 years–is not fair.  It will hurt a school that so many have worked so hard to improve over the years–a school that serves students from every ward.  It serves over 400 students classified as “at-risk,” roughly the same or more at risk students than all but 4 DCPS schools.  See enrollment and staffing details below

Please email:

1.  Mayor Bowser, eom@dc.gov;
Dep. Mayor for Education Niles, dme@dc.gov.
2. Would love if you copied me:  ruth4schools@yahoo.com
3. Consider copying your city council person as well, so that they are fully aware of how their wishes are being ignored. Here is a list of council members:
abonds@dccouncil.us, At-large
dgrosso@dccouncil.us At-large
esilverman@dccouncil.us At-large
rwhite@dccouncil.us At large
bnadeau@dccouncil.us Ward 1
jevans@dccouncil.us Ward 2
btodd@dccouncil.us Ward 4
kmcduffie@dccouncil.us Ward 5
callen@dccouncil.us, Ward 6
twhite@dccouncil.us, Ward 8
pmendelson@dccouncil.us, Chairman

________________

Enrollment and staffing details

Wilson has lost over 30 staff in 3 years, despite stable enrollment

It is unclear what is driving these cuts.  Sometimes officials with DC Public Schools or the Mayor’s office have argued that the staff cuts are due to enrollment cuts. But over these same three years, Wilson’s enrollment has remained essentially stable.  Enrollment in 2014-15 was 1788.  Enrollment on “audit” day this past October, 2016, was 1749.  Actual enrollment this past April 20 was 1806.  DCPS’s official projected enrollment for next year (almost surely underestimated) is 1745. Many parents believe, based on the large class coming in from Deal, that Wilson’s actual enrollment next year is likely to exceed 1800.
Regardless of which numbers you use, enrollment has declined by 43 at most, or has increased, using this spring’s actual enrollment, by 18.  The fact is: Wilson has lost nearly a full staff person or more for each 1-student decline in enrollment. 

Schlyr
10/14
10/15
10/16
4/17
Proj 17/18
Enrlmnt
1788
1791
1749
1806
1745
Lost staff
-12 staff fr 14/15 to 15/16
– 9 staff fr 15/16-16/17
– 10 staff fr 16/17-17/18
  Enrollment #s from OSSE

Thanks for lending your voice!

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Apply for new Task Force on ESSA
Apply here.  Deadline Monday, July 24, at noon. As readers of this newsletter know, this spring the DC State Board of Education adopted a new plan for judging the quality of DC’s public schools.  But the new plan is intended to be a first strong step towards a better accountability system, not the final word.  The SBOE is convening a public task force to advise it on further improvement and changes.
_________________
Chancellor discusses the need for Social/Emotional Learning
DCPS Chancellor Antwan Wilson is developing his first strategic plan for DC Public Schools.  He is a strong advocate of social/emotional learning.  He explains his ideas on this important educational approach and how he hopes to bring it to DC in this story for the Hechinger Report.  I look forward to supporting this initiative (but, yes, implementation requires adequate staffing!)
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Wilson Feeder School Families: complete the survey on school space/overcrowding

If you haven’t yet filled out a survey on the space/overcrowding challenges faced by your school, please click here and get your survey in to DCPS.  These surveys are helping DCPS and a community Task Force (made up of parents and principals from each Wilson feeder school, the chair of the W3/Wilson Feeder Education Network, a representative from CM Mary Cheh’s office, and me) develop recommendations for alleviating the current and future overcrowding that our schools face.
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DC’s extremely high teacher turn-over rate is much higher than in other urban areas. Find out more: 

Hear teachers/researchers discuss the causes, implications for student achievement and solutions for this crisis-level issue.  From testimony  at the DC State Board of Education meeting, July 19. Click here:

Ruth’s testimony on school budget and at-risk transparency, 6-26-19

Testimony of Ruth Wattenberg, June 26, 2016

Bills 23-0046 and 23-0239, on at-risk and school budget transparency

Thank you Councilmembers for holding this important hearing. My name is Ruth Wattenberg, I am the Ward 3 member of the DC State Board of Education.

  1. Proper use and reporting of At Risk funds

First and foremost, I want to add my voice to others who are calling on the Council to assure that at-risk funds are used to supplement, not supplant, other funding and to create reporting categories and requirements to assure that.  The reality of misuse of these funds is most recently and precisely shown in the new report from the DC Auditor. The misuse must stop and enforcement must begin.

It is also critical that the transparency we require of our DCPS schools, including the ability to FOIA, be required of our charters as well.

I also want to support the comments of Danica Petrocious in calling for immediate answers and long-term transparency about sexual assault in our schools.

The DCPS budgeting system is strewn with problems. I greatly appreciate that Chancellor Ferebee is committed to revising it, and I appreciate that the Council is looking at it as well. I will make a few additional points on budgeting–and on transparency.

First, on school discretion—

Schools—meaning, principals along with their Local School Advisory Teams–need greater discretion. There was a good reason for the Comprehensive Staffing Model—it helped to assure many years ago that curricular offerings at more and less affluent schools were comparable. The goal is still right. But, the approach has proven too rigid, denying schools the ability to move dollars around in ways that make sense for student learning.

–The lack of discretion is exacerbated by what seems to be a lack of coordination of priorities at the DCPS level.  For example, a school might be told to staff a CTE program in a certain way, professional development in a certain way, sped in a certain way, and ELL in a certain way.  It all makes sense, except that when all these mandates along with scarce funds hit the school, it requires the school to shortchange—meaning, overcrowd!—its core classes.  That’s not helpful for students.

–Plus, really great ideas—both about what a given school’s kids really need and how to make the scarce dollars do double-duty–flow best from dynamic conversations at the school level.  Right now, these ideas can’t get funded. Some greater discretion must be allowed.

–This isn’t black and white.  I don’t think school discretion should be unlimited.  But, neither should Central Office decision-making.  Plus, the over-centralization of programming helps drive the unhealthy, excessive Central Office spending. I hope the Chancellor will shift this balance—and that the Council will insist on it and follow up.

Second, on Central Office spending:

That’s my next quick point: It’s now well known that our Central Office is excessively staffed relative to comparable districts. The budget reporting rules need to help us understand where these dollars are going.  A new report from the State Board of Education’s Task Force on ESSA has made recommendations about line items that should be included. We will pass on that report.

Third, Program Evaluation:  Whether it’s the LEAP professional development program, Impact, DCPS’s curriculum units, our pre-k program, how we teach early reading, or any of the dozens of initiatives that have been introduced over the years:  There is no public evaluation of these efforts.  They go on forever, absorbing millions and millions of dollars.  They are all well-intentioned–and may be effective–but we don’t know.  Moreover, programs aren’t born excellent.   They growto excellence, as they learn from their experience—and benefit from feedback, from those who use the programs and from independent research. Are their ways to strengthen these programs? The Council should insist that key programs undergo periodic public evaluation.  I hope such evaluations will be a focus of the new Research Practice Partnership.   That also is a recommendation of our ESSA Task Force.

The use of “additional targeted research,” “to ensure equitable Outcomes” conducted by the new RPP as well as by smaller networks of schools, is another recommendation of the State Board of Education’s Task Force on ESSA, which has just released its report, and which I will pass on.

Fourth, differentiated funding for–and disaggregated reporting of–different At-Risk categories.  We should consider increasedat-risk funding for those at-risk students with the most at-risk factors. What I mean: Roughly 45% of our DC public school students are at-risk—some 40,000 students. In any category this large, there’s a lot of diversity.  It includes students whose families are on SNAP, meaning an income of no more than roughly $48,000 for a family of 4.  But about half of our at-risk students are from homes where the income is significantly less; these students are homeless, in foster homes, or in families on TANF, meaning an annual income for a family of 4 of less than roughly $8,000.  The students in the latter categories are likely to need much greater support.  And, especially, if a given school has a high concentration of students in these latter categories, its need for greater resources will likely be much larger than schools whose at-risk population has fewer students in these categories.

Speaking about transparency: We should also report our test score data and school progress according to these categories. Specifically, the State Board of Education has asked OSSE to disaggregate its at-risk data in its reporting.  That is, we shouldn’t just report how the whole diverse at-risk group is faring. We should report how different subgroups are doing—or, at least—and likely more realistically– separate out a category of those who are most at risk so that we know whether certain policies are potentially working with part of the AR group but not the other.  In particular, it will help us better understand the effects of the most devastating poverty and the greatest concentrations of such poverty—and help us adapt our programming appropriately.

Thank you.

Thanks for revised Wilson Budget; School report cards! Nov 5, 2017

November 5, Newsletter from Ruth Wattenberg, Ward 3 Member, DC State Board of Education. Click to subscribe. 

Please Circulate...

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Wilson budget: Thanks to Chancellor Wilson and DCPS for restoring the staff positions cut this spring!

     Anybody who reads this newsletter knows that I have been extremely critical of DC Public Schools (DCPS) for its budgeting practices–and especially for the repeated, 3-years-in-a-row staff cuts at Wilson High School, totaling some 30 staff cuts over three years.
But now there’s good news! To their great credit, Chancellor Antwan Wilson and his staff worked with Wilson Principal Kim Martin and the Wilson LSAT (local school advisory team) to restore the positions that were lost last spring.  Many, many thanks! (For details on the staffing restoration, see the letter below to Wilson parents from the school’s PTSO presidents.)
Kudos and thanks as well to the community that cares so much about Wilson. Many, many parents, students, and community members wrote, emailed, and called the Chancellor, the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and members of the City Council.  Wilson’s PTSO and LSAT leaders testified before the Council and wrote letters and called throughout the summer. Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh was tireless in pressing the issue.

A very welcome beginning… but, just a beginning!

      This is an important, very welcome start! That said, Wilson was understaffed when it opened in the fall–hiring to make up for the cuts is still underway–all the positions aren’t permanent, and Wilson is still down about 20 staff over three years, despite higher enrollment (1793 in spring 2015;1835 today.). But fingers crossed, I am hopeful that in this next budget cycle, Wilson’s overall staff situation will be addressed–and that the broader broken budget process, in which inaccurate budget projections lead to reduced budgets that never get remedied (for all schools, not just Wilson!), will be fixed. I’ll keep you posted.

DCPS Budget Hearing, November 14, 6-8PM, at Stuart Hobson Middle School

Speaking of the budget…. DCPS will hold its first Budget Hearing for the new fiscal year on Tuesday.  If you are interested in testifying, register online no later than 3 pm, Friday, November 10. For questions/concerns, contact the DCPS School Funding Team: (202) 442-5112 or dcps.schoolfunding@dc.gov.  I encourage you to attend!

 

Chancellor’s Community Forums.           

DCPS has announced a series of Forums at which the Chancellor and his top leadership will discuss priorities with the community.  For a full list of dates/times, click here.  For Ward 3/Wilson Feeder schools, the forums are:

       ***Monday, January 9, 6-7:30PM, Lafayette ES, 5701 Broad Branch Rd.
       ***Monday, February 6, 8:45AM-10 am, Oyster-Adams, 2801 Calvert St.
       ***Monday, February 6, 6-7:30PM, Hardy MS, 1819 35th St. NW

DC Council Ed Committee Roundtable on Special Education 
Monday, November 20, 2017 – 10:00AM – Room 412

The topic: The state of special education services in DC’s traditional and public charter schools and OSSE’s implementation report on the “Enhanced Special Education Services Act of 2014. To testify, sign-up online or call the Committee at (202) 724-8061 by 5:00pm Thursday, November 16. 2017.

 

Apply: Student/Parent Advisory Committee, Office of the Student Advocate. 

The Office of the Student Advocate, housed at the State Board of Education, is charged with supporting families in their efforts to navigate the complexities of the DC public education system, including developing resources and boosting parent engagement.  To aid its efforts, the office is launching the Parent and Student Advisory Committee. For more information on the Advisory committee, click here.  To apply, click here.

SPECIAL FOCUS:

School Report Cards:
What do you want to know about your school?

 

         DC is developing a new “school report card,” as required by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This new report card will, for the first time, be common across traditional DC Public Schools (DCPS) and charter schools.  It will allow parents to compare schools “apples to apples.” As importantly, it will give parents the info they need to have useful conversations about the strengths and needs of their children’s schools.
The process:  The content of the report card will be proposed by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and must get approved by the SBOE.  To aid its work, the SBOE has convened a Task Force on ESSA that will offer recommendations on the Report Card as well as other issues. To solicit public views, the SBOE and OSSE are running focus groups, SBOE members are meeting with school communities, and residents are encouraged to complete an online survey. (For participation information, go to bottom.)

What must the Report Card include?

As many of you know, starting next fall, every DC public school will be evaluated based on a new rating system that will grade each school with 1-5 stars.  The number of stars a school gets will be based mainly on whether students reach specific test score thresholds. The remainder is based mainly on attendance, re-enrollment rates, and English-learning progress among limited-English speakers. In high school, the rating will also be based on the percent of students who graduate and take advanced courses [Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB)]. In k-8 schools, a small amount will reflect how much students’ test scores increased relative to similar students.
The report card must also include such required information as per-student funding (provided by government sources); # of suspensions/expulsions; and the number of teachers who are inexperienced, on emergency credentials, uncertified in the subject they’re teaching.

What should the Report include?

What else would provide parents, educators, and policymakers the most useful, accurate view of our schools? What do you want to see on the report card?  See below to take the survey and for information on focus groups that you can attend.  Here are a few of my favorite ideas.  They mainly reflect some of the most common requests that were expressed to the State Board of Education during the city’s debate about ESSA last spring.

1.  Let’s highlight the “growth” made by a school’s students, so that a school’s progress isn’t masked by the heavily income-correlated STAR ratings. Almost every aspect of the STAR rating tells us more about the affluence of students’ families than what students have learned or school quality. In terms of test scores, consider this: Low-income students typically begin the school year multiple grades behind their more advantaged peers. Even if a school full of students with very low initial scores improve their average achievement by well over a full grade—let’s say a grade-and-a-half or even a huge two full years!—that school’s students are still unlikely to reach the test score thresholds that would earn the school a high STAR rating.  This means that the STAR rating will almost certainly award the largest number of stars to the schools with the highest-income students and the smallest number to schools with the lowest-income students.
A poor rating for these schools, even though they may be effective, could and likely will lead families to avoid them, possibly leading to enrollment and budget drop-offs, causing great harm to effective schools and the students who attend them.  But, if we highlight the growth students make, not just whether they meet a certain score threshold, we would reduce this unfortunate problem.

2. Let’s highlight the attention elementary schools give to social studies, science, and the arts.
The STAR rating holds schools accountable for an important, but very narrow, band of outcomes: mainly math and reading scores—sometimes to the disadvantage of other subjects and school goals.  I have heard many, many complaints about this, especially at the elementary level, where protected time for social studies, science, and the arts isn’t typically provided.  Research literature also speaks to the damage done by curriculum-narrowing.  The report card is our chance to encourage our schools to focus on a broad rich curriculum.  One idea: elementary schools should report how much time per week students spend on these subjects.

3. Report on the quality of a school’s culture or “feel.”  Known in education jargon as “school climate,” it refers to such intangibles as whether students in a school feel safe, challenged, and nurtured; whether staff feel that they have the tools and support to be successful in educating their students; and whether parents feel welcome and respected.  This important aspect of school quality goes largely unmeasured in the STAR rating.  So let’s highlight it on the Report Card.  Some states are using sophisticated, nationally- normed student/teacher/parent surveys to report on this aspect of school quality. OSSE is currently piloting such surveys.  Also, especially high teacher turnover is often an indicator of an unhealthy school culture; the Report Card can report on that as well. (I called exceedingly high teacher turnover the “canary in the classroom” in this City Paper article.)

4. Health information: I hear a lot of interest from parents in having access to health information: For example, does the school have a full-time nurse? How much time is devoted to recess and physical education? Are the lunches nutritious?

5. Beyond school quality and effectiveness, schools have strengths, weaknesses, and offerings that may be of great interest to parents.  Does it have a special curricular focus?  What clubs/teams are available? Does it offer an after-school program? How much emphasis is put on test preparation Do students go on field trips?

What’s your view? Please take this survey.  Plus, the State Board’s ESSA Task Force, State Board members, and OSSE are scheduling community feedback meetings around the city.
I’ll be leading a session hosted at Hardy Middle School on November 16 at 7pm.  To register, click here. In addition, I’m meeting (or met with) with PTSO’s and/or LSAT’s at Janney, Wilson, and Eaton and would be very happy to schedule meetings at other schools as well.  Let me know if you’d like to be part of such a discussion.
See here and here for a list of additional focus groups around the city.
And, as always, if you have thoughts on the above suggestions or anything else, please email me, ruth4schools@yahoo.com.

I’m off to visit the leaves in West Virginia! Happy Fall!!!!

Ruth Wattenberg,
ruth4schools@yahoo.com, @ruth4schools, ruth4schools.com

New accountability plan is adopted by the State Board of Education (April 2017)

April 2017  Update: New accountability plan is adopted by the State Board of Education
I’ve reported a number of times that the new federal law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, gave every state a chance to change how it evaluates its schools. The law replaces the old No Child Left Behind Act, which required states (including DC) to evaluate schools almost exclusively based on reading and math test scores and on the proportion of students who reached the score threshold deemed “proficient.”
After many months of discussion, testimony, and two drafts, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) brought its final accountability proposal to the State Board of Education (SBOE) for a vote at the end of March.
I voted against the proposal, along with my colleagues from wards 6 and 8, because I didn’t believe the plan moved far enough towards judging schools based on more than just reading and math scores. I also was disappointed that it didn’t move further towards crediting schools for their students’ progress, especially at the high school level, where schools will continue to get no credit for their students’ test score growth. This Washington Post article explains the issues surrounding the new proposal, and this Post op-ed explains the additional changes my colleagues and I had hoped for.
Without question though, the new policy is an improvement over the previous system. Moreover, I credit my colleagues on the State Board for encouraging OSSE to improve on its original January proposal and OSSE for incorporating some of these improvements. All involved are committed to further improving the process over time.
The State Board will be establishing a task force and a process for following up on some of the commitments made in the final proposal, including a way to measure high school “growth” and an indicator for “access and opportunities,” aimed at encouraging schools to provide students with a well-rounded education.
I look forward to working with my SBOE colleagues, OSSE, and the community to bring about the improvements we all still hope to see.

July 2017 HTML Newsletter

More steps still necessary, but…

Education Budget is increased;
New funds targeted for “restoring” staff and program cuts

                  The DC Council voted on May 30 to substantially raise the amount of money that will go to DC’s public schools this coming year.  An additional required vote on the budget will be taken on June 16.
The original budget proposal submitted by the Mayor provided a per student increase (known as the UPSFF-the Uniform per student funding formula) of only 1.5%, much less than the cost increases that schools will confront—and much less than the 3% increase recommended by the Mayor’s own state education agency.  The budget also put much less money into school renovation/modernization than previous budgets.
The result was staff and program cuts across the city, including ten staff cut at Wilson High School (for a total of 30 staff cut in 3 budget cycles), staff cut at other large high schools (especially Ballou, CHEC, and Eastern) and inadequate progress on needed renovations and modernizations across the city. See Washington Post and Northwest Current articles.
The Council budget will send an additional $11.5 million to DC public schools as well as $7.2 million to the city’s charter schools.  The Council “expects the additional funds at DCPS to be used for restoring instructional staff and programs at schools (itals mine) and is requiring the Chancellor of DCPS, by September 1, 2017, to submit to the Council a report that outlines how the additional funding to DCPS will be used and a detailed analysis of the changes to the use of “At-Risk” funds.
This statement from the Council is critical because in past years, the Council has provided DCPS with additional funds to stave off staff cuts, and DCPS has instead allocated the funds to other projects.  Likewise, funding appropriated by the Council to support at-risk students has been used by DCPS to cover general school costs.
Chancellor Antwan Wilson has stated publicly that the funds will go to schools, not the central office.  That’s a good start.  But, it’s important to understand: If schools are to hold on to staff members who have already been told that they’re cut, the schools must be given their revised budgets quickly. It will be important for the Chancellor, the Council, and the Mayor–as well as those of us who advocated for the increased funding–to make sure that schools are notified quickly about their revised budgets.

Thanks Due to Many

                  The exceedingly low budget proposed for education inspired great parent/citizen activism!  The main group that pushed for both increased funding for all public schools (traditional DCPS and charters) and an assurance that DCPS funds would be used to restore program and staff cuts was the Coalition For DC Schools (C4DC), which led a petition and letter-writing effort.  In addition, high-profile advocacy efforts calling for increased funding for all DC public schools were led by the Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) and DC Education Coalition for Change (DECC). It was an amazing outpouring in favor of adequate funding for all of our public schools.  Thanks to all!!!! 
We also have many to thank on the DC Council.  Chairman of the Education Committee David Grosso and committee members Anita Bonds, Charles Allen, Robert White, and Trayon White issued a committee report in favor of providing at least a 3% increase in the per student (UPSFF) funding.  To make the increase possible, Councilmembers Mary Cheh (3) and Vincent Gray (7) (who respectively chair the committees on the Transportation and Environment; and Health) were able to identify funds from agency budgets overseen by their committees and make them available to the education committee.  Chairman Phil Mendelson was then able to use the report and funds as the foundation for cobbling together the 3% increase as well as funds for other educational programs (including transportation costs for adult students, made possible by a transfer from Elissa Silverman’s Labor and Workforce Development committee).
Thanks to all of you who signed petitions and wrote your councilmembers, to all the city’s advocates who really revved up for this campaign, and to the City Council who made the increase a reality—and, who are insisting that the DCPS funds are used to restore instructional staff and programs.

Community Working Group launched by DCPS to address overcrowding issues

                Many thanks to Chancellor Antwan Wilson, who in one of his earliest actions as our new Chancellor established a Community Working Group to discuss and make recommendations to address the overcrowding/space needs afflicting Wilson High School and the elementary/middle schools that feed it (largely, but not just located in Ward 3).  Virtually every school that feeds into Wilson High School, as well as Wilson itself, is badly overcrowded, and projections indicate that enrollments will continue to go up, up, up.
The first meeting of the group (and a prior discussion sponsored by the Ward 3/Wilson Feeder Education network) focused mainly on ways to increase available space, both to relieve overcrowding and restore the ability of schools to offer seats to students who live out-of-bounds, as promised by the Report on Boundaries
Space could potentially be identified for, say, an early childhood center, which could relieve crowding at area elementaries.  Participants identified possible new space at such sites as the Fannie Mae complex, which is being redeveloped, the Lower School that is being vacated by Georgetown Day School, and the old Hardy school. Let me know if you have other ideas!
Provide DCPS and the Working Group with your input here:
You can follow the committee’s work via the DCPS blog at https://dcpsplanning.wordpress.com.
The Working Group includes the principal and a parent representative from each school, plus Brian Doyle (chair of the Ward 3/Wilson Feeder school Education Network); a representative from Councilwoman Mary Cheh’s office; and me, as the Ward 3 representative to the State Board of Education.  The plan calls for the group to meet monthly over the next 4-5 months to develop recommendations that will then be presented to the broader community for feedback.