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Better D.C. Schools Email Update

January 31, 2003 - Issue #7

This email update is provided by the 21st Century School Fund (21CSF), an education nonprofit in Washington, DC, and is designed to provide our community with information about the efforts of 21CSF and other local education advocates at improving the District of Columbia Public Schools. It is sent out the last week of each month. If you know of someone who would like to be added to our mailing list, or if you would like your email address removed from this list, then please email us at newsletter@21csf.org.

FY 2004 DCPS Budget Development Process Continues

In December, the Board of Education approved the FY04 DCPS Proposed Operating and Capital Budgets, and then submitted these requests to the Mayor. For the Operating Budget, DCPS is requesting approximately $848M, which includes about $803M to maintain the same services from the current year, and about $45M more for self-described enhancements in academic achievement, facility maintenance, athletics, parent outreach, management, and information systems. For the Capital Budget, DCPS is requesting approximately $313M, which includes about $212M for Modernizations/Replacements, $27M for Small Capital projects, $50M for Component Replacements, and $24M for Mandates (for an explanation of the Capital Budget, contact us for “The 21st Century School Fund’s Guide to the DCPS Capital Budget”). The Mayor will be holding a public hearing on the DCPS FY04 Budgets on February 13th (call 724-7696 to register and for info), and the Council will be holding a public hearing on the DCPS FY04 Budgets on March 25th (call 724-8056 to register and for info).

Update on DCPS Capital Improvement Program (CIP)

We are unable to provide project updates for this month. The January report of the Office of Facilities Management (OFM) was issued to the Board of Education’s Facilities & Finance Committee on January 28th, however, the Committee chairs (W. Lockridge and M. Saez) refused to release the report to the public before the whole Board had received it. 21CSF has objected to this action, believing that the report is public information, and that it’s important that DCPS operate with full transparency except in confidential matters. We are currently pursuing this matter, and will provide the CIP project updates to our email subscribers as soon as we receive them, hopefully before our next full monthly update.

21CSF Developing Report on Citizen Oversight of Public School Construction

The 21st Century School Fund has completed a draft report entitled "Citizen Oversight of Public School Construction Programs: In Search of Promising Practices." The report draws from interviews with ten citizen oversight committees (COCs) around the country, and a literature review. It covers the purpose of oversight committees, advantages to their establishment, and promising practices for their development and implementation. In summary, COCs were found to be a cost-effective and politically important method for supplementing a school board in its monitoring and oversight functions. There is currently no COC for the District’s school construction program, but 21CSF is advocating for one. Please see our website (www.21csf.org) in mid-February for a copy of the report. D.C. Board of Education Approves New Out-of-Boundary Policy

Following is a brief description of this recently passed policy:

After compliance with Federal requirements have been met, preference will be given to students in accordance with the reasons for their transfer requests in the following order until all spaces are filled or all requests are granted:

(a) The applicant’s sibling currently attends the requested school;

(b) The applicant attends a school that, by virtue of location or its being designated as a “feeder school” by the Superintendent, sends its students, after school completion, to the requested school.

(c) The applicant resides within reasonable walking distance of the requested school (within a three city-block radius for elementary students, and a five city-block radius for middle and junior high students);

(d) The adult student or the minor student’s parent/guardian prefers the requested school to his or her designated in-boundary school.

If the number of requests exceeds the number of spaces available at the school, a lottery procedure, using a computerized random selection process, will be administered by DCPS headquarters. Check the DCPS website (www.k12.dc.us) for information on feeder schools and spaces available.

Specialized Programs/academies are housed in schools that also admit students through an attendance boundary. There is an admissions process at the school for these programs. At the high school level: Ballou Technology Center; Cardozo Transtech Academy; Dunbar Pre-Engineering; Eastern Health and Human Services; Eastern Law and Legal Services; Wilson Humanities, Arts, and Media; Wilson SciMaTech Academy; Wilson Academy of Finance; and Woodson Business and Finance. The specialized highs school that are citywide with no attendance boundaries are Banneker, Bell, Ellington, MM Washington, Luke Moore, and School Without Walls.

At the elementary level, the designated specialized programs are: Reggio Emilia at Peabody; Montessori programs at Kimball, Langdon, Marshall, Merritt, Nalle, and Watkins; and the Oyster Bilingual program.

The Board voted to designate these as special programs or schools. They also voted to approve the admission criteria submitted by the Superintendent which was solicited from the schools for one year. The admissions process for these schools will be done at each site. Call the DCPS Office of Student Services at 442-5200 if you have specific questions.

For more information, contact:

Jordan Spooner: (202) 745-3745 x 16 jspooner@21csf.org