Each fall, DCPS is mandated to hear from the public concerning the DCPS budget. The exercise for 2018 was supposed to have happened back on November 7–but an electricity outage at Phelps forced the event to be postponed.

Now, the budget hearing is slated to happen this coming Tuesday November 27, starting at 5:30 pm, again at Phelps High School, 704 26th St NE.

If you wish to testify about your school’s FY2020 budget, sign up by 3 pm on Monday November 26, here.

(NB: Be sure to sign up if you hope to say anything at all–last year, a DCPS parent did not sign up ahead of time and was barred from speaking until other parents tweeted about it.)

Testimony is only for 3 minutes, and those testifying needs to bring five (5) copies of their testimony and whatever documentation they have, which will become part of the record. The DCPS School Funding Team is fielding questions at (202) 442-5112 or dcps.schoolfunding@dc.gov.

Should you find yourself at a loss for words, here are some topics for discussion:

–DCPS reportedly has a $20-30 million shortfall–already.

–The recently released master facilities plan (MFP; which I was repeatedly told isn’t really a *plan* but kinda like a plan for a plan) has some, uh, interesting trends outlined for DCPS. (Well, if annihilation were a trend, that is.)

–We have no idea who is being considered for the next DCPS chancellor–even though the mayor has interviewed several candidates already, according to the Post–and even though the panel she assembled was supposed to review resumes.

–This year’s Healthy Schools Act report was recently released–and schools are still shorting student exercise, in violation of the law. (See Figure H on p. 31 here.)

–The rating framework for the STAR school rating was released by our office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE)–and it appears that schools with lower percentages of at risk students will get a little more ratings stardust.

–Some people in our city hall really do not want an education collaborative with regular citizens guiding it, such that education data (and conclusions from it) would be handled only by DC’s education leaders, who stand to benefit from its manipulation. We know how that turned out the last time.