Extra-Curricular Activities/After School Programs
1)   What would you do to ensure that we have certain programs such as arts/crafts, computer labs?

 

Since our meeting on November 3, I have kept your suggestions in mind in creating new proposal for a plan to bring these programs to schools. I hope you will read about this plan on our website, and let me know what you think! It includes technology-based programs, art-themed schools, and a variety of other exciting choices for learning.

2) When are we going to have different activities after school? (water polo, soccer, tennis, etc.)

Extracurricular programs, especially those that require students to work together on teams, should be available across the District. Adding these programs is also a part of my larger goal to establishing a college-going culture in all of our schools, as extracurricular activities are not only good for students but they are also required to make you competitive candidates for college admission. However, because our academic problems as a whole are so severe, enhancing extracurricular activities is in my longer term plans; first I must ensure that we can provide strong academics and student support in every ward.

3) What type of programs can we create to help students who get pregnant to stay in school?

I believe that our programs must start with prevention, and the Office of the State Superintendent for Education recently passed new health standards that in part, will aim toward this prevention. For students who are pregnant, we will be replicating the work that has been successful in fostering achievement. We will also be looking at the partnerships that give teen parents the skills to balance the demands of being a young parent with the academic challenges of a strong education.

4) Why do teachers and principals take such harsh measures when students are only 5 or 10 minutes late? Suggestion: Students will come to school if you tap into the child’s interests.

I agree that students are more likely to come to school when they are engaged and motivated by excellent teachers and school leaders. One of my goals is to make sure that kids have these leaders to guide them. However, I do believe there should be consequences for lateness to school. Without consequences, 10 minutes can stretch into 20, and 30. Even if it does not, a student who loses 10 minutes of instruction per day loses more than one class period per week. In addition, a student coming in after class has begun often creates a disruption for the instruction that is already taking place. If there were no consequences for lateness, then many students would be coming in a few minutes late every day, making it much harder for the teachers and students to concentrate on your work. You may not like to hear it but I support clear and enforced consequences so that you have all the time you need in the classroom in order to achieve.

5) What is the appropriate consequence for truancy?

On paper, our consequences for truancy involve partnering with truancy officers, holding conferences with parents and consulting with students and parents to address each student’s truancy issue on an individual basis. However, the school- and city-enforced consequences of truancy, while necessary, are not enough because they do not address the root of the problem. When students are excited by learning, motivated to do the hard work necessary to succeed, given the expectations, the support and the skills to succeed, they are less likely to be truant. We need to be providing great programs, and many of the kids who are chronically truant have needs that we are not addressing when we don’t have school psychologists in every school. As with school safety, this is an issue I will be taking on from many angles.

6) Can you expand social services for students? For example: social workers.

Yes! This is an important part of my plan mentioned in number 1. Some schools in our District do have all the teachers and counselors that they need, but many others don’t, and I am working over the next few years to make sure they will.

7) How can you prevent kids from dropping out?

I believe that when we send high expectations to students and back up our belief in their abilities with the quality instruction that will guide them in meeting our expectations, students will want to stay in school. The work will be hard, but expectations are powerful. When you have someone believing in you, or a whole team of people believing in you and giving you the tools you need to succeed, you want to work hard, you want to succeed, and you will. That said, the ‘tools’ necessary extend beyond teachers and include the social workers, etc., mentioned in the previous question. Every student should feel that the adults around him or her believe and expect that the student can achieve and are willing to work with them to get there.

8) Is it possible to add more variety of classes to prepare for college and help in walking through college applications?

Yes! This is in my plans. It is only fair for college preparatory classes to be available in every ward, including AP classes and the staff needed to teach them. Our number of counselors as well as new programs in which adult mentors are involved in this process, will be increased.

9) How do you think I can prepare for college when my Spanish teacher is teaching me French?

Please clarify. The name of a course should match its curriculum.

10) We need to have preparatory classes on how to take the SAT. We need to learn strategies on the different ways we can take it and succeed on our SAT scores.

I agree. Some schools have strong SAT preparatory courses, and as we replicate successful models of programs and partnerships across the District, we can not only help to create a college-going culture but ensure that our students are prepared to compete in the college application process.

11) Why are programs for college preparation losing funding?

This depends upon the specific program; a program can lose funding for a variety of reasons, from rules in grant applications to changes in federal laws to performance data that showed other programs to be more effective. However, it is my job to ensure that all of our students are prepared for college. Regardless of the specific program to which you are referring, we need to  set students’ eyes on college, give you the skills to get there, and guide you through the application process.

12) Why aren’t school lunches fresh?

13) Why are school lunches cold?

14) Why is Monday’s chicken still offered on Friday?

15) Why are there not healthy alternatives?

16) Why are cafeteria lunches nasty and sometimes expired?

17) Can we have healthier meals? For example not spoiled milk.

18) When is the lunch going to get better?

19) Will we ever have a variety of healthy lunches that we don’t have to pay for?

20) How do you plan on making breakfast and lunch healthier and accessible to all students?

The reason for poor quality of DCPS food is because in the past, the provider DCPS chose to work with was chosen for being the least expensive rather than the most healthy or tasty. Yet there is a connection between the food that you eat and the success you have in school. I am working to bring new food choices to our schools, including a pilot for a new breakfast program. Students who eat breakfast are better able to concentrate, and less likely to be overweight and obese, than students who do not. We need to replicate successful health and wellness programs in our schools, and increasing the quality of school lunches will be a large component of this plan.

Read more about Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee’s new initiative to improve the quality of food service at DCPS.

21) How do you plan on making school security both efficient and humane?

DCPS has two different organizations providing security within schools—MPD and Hawk One. We are reviewing the training provided to these officers, and we will make changes to their training to make sure that the officers learn how to make schools both safe and welcoming.

22) Why isn’t safety in every part of the school? At times we are offended going through metal detectors everyday.

I understand completely that this must be hard. However, the purpose of the metal detectors is not to offend. It is to protect you. Unfortunately, we have had incidents in the past where students have been wounded or killed on school grounds when outsiders or other students brought weapons to school. I wish metal detectors were not necessary, and hope that over time their numbers will be reduced as we work on the complex issues related to violence in schools. I am sorry that you have to go through this every day; I hope you will try not to see it as an accusation toward any one student personally but rather a necessary safety measure that we need in place in order to protect you.

23) Why aren’t adult websites blocked at school?

Adult websites are blocked at schools. Occasionally, a site may ‘get by’ our filters. I hope students will notify me or our IT Department (Joe Renard: joseph.renard@dc.gov when this happens so that we can make sure to block the site system-wide).

24) What can be done to improve and monitor health concerns; like staph virus or other outbreaks?

The staph virus is prevented through maintaining basic hygiene. Wash your hands thoroughly and regularly and you are less likely to become sick from this virus. The Department of Health is monitoring the occurrence of staph infections and they assure me that most of the time our bodies do quite a good job of fighting it.

25) What can be done to increase and improve police and security presence for school dismissal and after hours (when practices let out)?

Mayor Fenty introduced the Safe Schools Initiative (SSI), which is a collaboration of District agencies and community organizations that are working to reduce school violence and to keep students safe between school and home. The two major components of the Safe Schools Initiative are the Safe Routes Project and the CNE Violence-Free Zone Program. The Safe Routes Project is designed to offer students a secure path to go to and from school in areas that are directly affected by crime, violence, and public disorder. The CNE Violence-Free Zone Program uses the experiences and talents of young adults from the same backgrounds as the students they serve. These young adults, called Youth Advisors, act as hall and cafeteria monitors, mentors, counselors, conflict resolvers, and role models. The CNE Violence-Free Zone Program is currently at two schools, Johnson Junior High and Anacostia Senior High School, and the Administration is looking to expand the program.

26) What are other preventative steps beyond peer mediation to help prevent violence among students?

Peer mediation is a good beginning, but I believe that many of our measures can prevent school violence before peer mediation is necessary. The reality of violence in and around some of our schools is a devastating and complex issue that we must approach from many angles. We must enforce consistent discipline policies, but we also need strong programs fully staffed by adults; many of our kids need school psychologists and don’t have them. We also need mentoring opportunities within schools so that all of our students have strong adult role models who are present during school and after- school time. As we foster higher levels of achievement and increase the life hope and life opportunities of our students, supporting them to meet higher expectations for achievement, students will become hopeful. Students who are hopeful about their future and equipped to meet its challenges are less likely to engage in violence than those who are not. When our schools are better places for learning, incidents of violence will decrease.

27) What safety tactics do you have for the students in after-school activities?

Safety for after-school programs needs to encompass safety issues when kids are in school and when they are in transit to and from after-school programs. Our Safe Schools Initiative described above will also address after-school programs, and we are working with the Department of Transportation and MPD to protect our kids who are in transit to and from after-school activities. School administrators will work with other city agencies to identify the safety needs for each school community. Within the school, school security continues to be on school campuses after school hours. However, as I stated in the question above, the solution extends beyond the increase of security, and we must address the issue as I described above, during school hours and after school.

28) Why can’t security guards assist students who participate in late night activities get home safely?

If you are referring to school sponsored or after-school activities and you are concerned about walking home in an unsafe neighborhood, security should be assisting and keeping you safe on and around school grounds. As your walk extends beyond school grounds, I will keep your point in my mind when we coordinate wraparound services from the Metropolitan Police Department. Chief Cathy Lanier is increasing police presence in many neighborhoods, and I hope that you might give me specifics about your school and neighborhood if this is a concern for you.

29)  Are you ever going to improve Eastern Senior High School?

Eastern is on the schedule for modernization. As we look at the Master Facilities Plan to update it, we will have community meetings in affected wards before the plan is finalized. I hope you will attend the Ward 6 meeting in the spring in order to express your views!

30) What can be done to have a cleaner and fresh smelling school environment?

Our school environments must be clean and conducive to learning, so that students and teachers enjoy learning and teaching. To achieve this, we are reviewing our current maintenance and custodial services to ensure that our systems operate efficiently and that we hold people accountable for providing the quality of services to schools that are needed.

31) Can remodeling be done on auditoriums by 2010?

Remodeling to most auditoriums will take place as part of the modernization and renovation program that happens at particular schools. Unfortunately, due to the large number of schools that must be modernized, not every school, or every auditorium, can be completed in 2010. The Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization (OPEFM) is developing and implementing an aggressive school stabilization program that will ensure that outstanding work orders are addressed and that all schools have working systems and facilities that will allow the school to be a safe and comfortable environment until a full-scale modernization can be completed.

32) What are you going to improve the school environment and upgrade the school equipment?

The Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization is developing and implementing an aggressive school stabilization program that will ensure that outstanding work orders are addressed over the next 18 months. Classrooms must be heated in the winter and cool during the summer. As of October 15th all of our classrooms had heat, broken boilers have either been replaced or given temporary boilers until new ones can be installed, and OPEFM is now working on enabling schools’ ability to control room temperature. In addition, air conditioning should all be functional by the time you need it this spring. Bathrooms and water fountains must be clean and in working condition. In addition, students and teachers must have access to computers, the Internet, and modern laboratories to facilitate teaching and learning. The stabilization program, along with additional investments in technology and other resources, will foster significant improvements at our schools.