Friday, August 22, 2014

neighbor: "school boundary changes mean changes for Bloomingdale, maybe not for best for some‏"

                                 

Hello! Don't know if you saw the announcement re Mayor Gray and the acceptance of the boundary change proposal. A big deal for us Bloomingdale parent types, as at least in our case, we have gone from a choice of Seaton, Garrison and Langley schools down to just Langley. 
                                     
And sadly, despite some efforts being made at Langley, safety survey there showing what it has (per DCPS profile, only 57% of students feeling safe there?!), I know we -- who would really prefer to make this place home for 20-30-50 years -- are now considering leaving if we don't get lucky with a good charter school or Langley turns it around *fast*. Probably not what the authors of this plan intended. Curious as to what other Bloomingdalers, particularly affected parents, have to say or think about this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-mayor-gray-adopts-new-school-boundary-recommendations/2014/08/21/9fed7d4a-249b-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html?hpid=z1

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have great news for Eckington & Bloomingdale neighbors, regarding Langley! If DCPS allows the current principal, Charlotte Spann, to continue the outstanding work that she started last year (2013-14) at Langley, it will quickly become the neighborhood school that you WANT for your children.

I had the pleasure of working with Principal Spann during her internship at McKinley Tech a couple years back. She is an outstanding leader! She knows how to create a positive learning environment that employs positive behavior modification. Thanks to DCPS management decisions, this will be her first opportunity to have a second year at the same school. I shared the neighbor's concern regarding District school boundary changes with her. Here’s her response:

Charlotte Spann, Principal, Langley Education Campus said:
"The data point below of 57% student safety comes from the SY12-13 school profile- the year before I arrived. The Student Satisfaction Survey Data from SY13-14 (last year) shows that 86% of the students feel safe at school. However, we are not satisfied with that and are setting a goal of at least 95% this school year through instituting more student support strategies, mentoring programs, and 1:2 adult to student check-ins on their satisfaction and experience.

Thank you for sharing this information from the listserv. Please, spread the word to your neighbors that they can feel free to visit Langley any time and that we have a dynamic team this year."

I hope that neighbors especially those with young children will make time to contact her, visit the school, and let DCPS know that the community supports the continued great work of Principal Spann and her staff!

Alexandra in Bloomingdale said...

Sue- as the neighbor who forwarded this on to Scott, thanks for both taking the time to reach out to Charlotte Spann and to respond here. I am encouraged by that 86% data point and by the goal for yet further progress-- unfortunately, as of today, DCPS still has the 57% figure from SY12-13 as the last data available from Langley, which I am sure you could understand was troubling to see and was what we had to go on when initially reacting to the boundary change. As per what I forwarded to Scott, my wife and I (and other new parents in the neighborhood) have noted the efforts at Langley beyond this most recent data point, through both touring the school and through community input sessions held over the last 12-18 months facilitated by David Tansey. Based on this new information on such progress with safety, my wife and I will definitely take the time to visit again, and to see if we can be of any help to Langley and Principal Spann with DCPS. Being products of neighborhood public schools ourselves and having seen and lived the benefits thereof, we would most definitely prefer to have our son in neighborhood public schools and to see them and him succeed together.