–The continued rationing of school nurses (in the wake of zero enforcement of the many years’ old law mandating a full-time nurse in every DC publicly funded school) has galvanized some DCPS families to organize a community meeting on the subject for Tuesday, November 28, at 6 pm at the Northeast Library. (For questions and to RSVP, email Robert Allen (rga.rn@hotmail.com), interim vice chair of the DC Nurses Association.) As far as I know no DC agency responsible for school nurses has a public roster for nurse staffing by school this school year. The only one I have seen is a weekly update in the charter board’s Wednesday bulletins. Here’s the latest one. (I thought it would be longer until we got to the point when the charter board speaks for all DC education agencies—but here we apparently are.)

–Speaking about unhealthy DC schools: There is no more covid vaccine mandate in DC’s schools. Recall that due to concerns about implementation, the DC council last year pushed back the mandate’s full implementation by a year.

While a September 2023 DC council report acknowledged the covid vaccine’s efficacy; the terrible toll covid has wrought; and the general importance of vaccines for control of deadly disease, the report also noted that disparities in covid vaccine compliance meant that students most likely to miss school for lack of compliance are not White.

Yet, instead of addressing that disparity by ensuring DC students have INCREASED access to vaccinations, doctors, and health care, DC leaders have agreed to get rid of the covid vaccine mandate altogether and potentially allow the mayor to reduce enforcement of all vaccinations in our schools to the four grades at which most are administered: PreK-3, Kindergarten, 7th grade, and 11th grade.

(Or, as our DC leaders have not said: Good luck if some student gets sick with measles in grade 5, polio in grade 3, and/or mumps in grade 4 because herd immunity is so very 20th century.)

–And speaking of DC parents forced to create their own CDCs: Two DC council members have worked with families to draft legislation to train and empower staff in all publicly funded schools to recognize and treat seizures. This legislation came about because DC students have been denied timely recognition and treatment of seizures in school. It remains unclear how much of this would be necessary if every school had a nurse empowered to act on behalf of students. Hopefully, the legislation will be permitted to be introduced, have a hearing, and not disappear into the abyss along with the school nurse mandate.

–Last month, on October 12, the DC council held a hearing on school readiness and bill B25-218, which would ensure a DCPS staff member signs off on completed work orders in DCPS schools. These two, seemingly simple, things would not be needed if DGS, the agency in charge of DCPS facilities, did its job well. But not only does DGS not manage work orders well, it also has failed to address critical school infrastructure issues. As a result, witness testimony included many tales of poorly managed work orders, nonfunctioning but necessary building parts, and the complete inability of DGS to fulfill sometimes the most basic of repairs. (See here for more of the same from February.)

Yet there are some recent bright spots, including a DGS work order dashboard that also has DPR work orders and the ability in the near future to report rec center maintenance issues directly to DGS via 311.

–Lack of swing space in DCPS continues to haunt multiple school communities, with families at Burroughs, Bunker Hill, and Amidon-Bowen facing brutal commutes during their much-needed renovations. A Ward 5 ANC has outlined just how neglect of DCPS neighborhood schools–and the push to close and tie them up out of public access for decades–has got us to this point.

–Just don’t expect help on any of that from the deputy mayor for education (DME). The DME has scheduled meetings with specific school communities over proposed boundary and facility changes. But not only are the proposals siloed to these specific schools (even when some schools are literally in spitting distance of each other and/or feeders), there is also no public data on what the proposals are, why they are being made, and the data they are based on, which the boundary advisory committee was given in September.

–At the same time, the DME is working on the adequacy study (about funding levels for our public schools) and has promulgated a survey (ending on November 15–take it here) that is supposed to aid in that. The survey begins by outlining three goals: understanding the primary reasons families choose schools; what is going well; and what success means to families. There is nothing about how inadequate funding for decades has influenced any of that nor what adequate funding would look like anywhere. Rather, the entire survey appears to be predicated on choice.

For instance, participants with children attending school are asked to rank six of the following factors that most influence their selection of schools for their kids:

Positive academic reputation
Aligned education philosophy
Close to home
Safe and secure environment
Small class sizes
Extracurricular activities/before and after school programs
Highly qualified teachers
Variety of curriculum options
Racially or socioeconomically diverse student population
Effective parent teacher communication
Comprehensive special education services
Positive school cultures and values
Favorable standardized test scores
Modern and well-maintained facilities
Engaging student activities
Access to social/emotional support services
Recommendations from trusted sources
Well-attended by other kids in our community

There’s no place for someone who selects (or gets a lottery slot at) their school *despite* not having some or even all of these (presumably valued) things. As it is, if you think being close to home is more important to you than, say, highly qualified teachers, that result can be cast as you saying that being close to home is more important than ANYTHING, including highly qualified teachers.

Perhaps the most egregiously tilted question asks for a reaction (ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”) to the following statement: “In my opinion, lower-performing schools should be given more financial resources than others.” But there is no definition of “lower-performing school”; no definition of “more financial resources”; and no context for literally the only question on the entire survey directly about fiscal adequacy (which is what the survey is supposedly in service of). And no matter the definition of “lower-performing school” (lower test scores, higher poverty rates, both, neither), there is no threshold here for what “more financial resources” means. Thus, participants may strongly agree OR disagree with that statement without there ever being any clarity on what they are agreeing or disagreeing about–which for all anyone knows may be the entire purpose.

–Speaking about money in schools: Schools have been denied ANC grants—well, DCPS schools. (OTOH, charters and private schools are perfectly entitled to public money from ANCs.)

–The PARCC test is no more in DC! All hail . . . the next standardized test that will cause schools to lose funding, teachers to lose jobs, and ed reformers to rejoice.

–Shocking absolutely no one, DCPS continues to have security issues.

–DC recently settled a lawsuit over jailed students not receiving their educations.

–Speaking of lawsuits: With more stuff apparently being foisted on DCPS educators this school year from the Relay Graduate School of Education, depositions may soon start for a lawsuit filed last year around alleged retaliation against DCPS administrators who fought the imposition of Relay at their school and were fired. Recall that in 2020, principals from Kimball, Boone, Simon, and Burrville were told to leave apparently because they did not accept DCPS’s embrace of Relay. That private teacher training school was created and embraced by ed reformers (notably, KIPP personnel) because it emphasizes test scores and “no excuses” ideation. Not only is Relay still benefitting from copious DCPS funding, but former DCPS deputy chancellor (and former KIPP employee and Relay proponent) Melissa Kim is part of an ongoing legal battle with the former head of DCPS elementary schools.  (If all this seems clubby, rest assured it’s nothing new.)

–DCPS teachers once again don’t have a contract, the last of which expired on September 30, having been approved just a few months earlier. Expect years of inaction by DCPS and city leaders until a new contract is signed only to more or less immediately expire, while charters bleat that they deserve the money that DCPS teachers fought for and earned.

–Speaking about charter money: The DC charter school board recently released its latest (FY22) financial analysis report (FAR). In its note about this in a recent Wednesday bulletin, the charter board noted that “DC public charter schools’ aggregated financial results continue to show strong financial results. . . . Of the 68 LEAs operating in FY 2022, 39 LEAs, or 57% of the total LEAs in the sector, met or exceeded the standard for every indicator.”

Now, you might think that barely half of charter LEAs meeting fiscal standards is not exactly a “strong financial result,” particularly when the FY21 result was 70%. By way of explanation, the FY22 FAR notes that the difference between FY21 and FY22 reflects “the disproportionately larger increase in operating expenses in comparison to operating revenues primarily in response to the covid 19 pandemic and return to in class instruction.” OTOH, since a 70% compliance rate isn’t exactly a top grade either (but watch that curve!), FY22’s new low of DC charter fiscal compliance may turn out not entirely due to loss of covid funding and/or return to in person instruction (well, provided anyone ever looks into it).

–The DC office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) was recently awarded $21 million from the U.S. department of education to provide post secondary scholarships and pre-college mentoring to 480 ward 7 and 8 DC middle school students. For a good background read, see here.