LSAT Meeting Minutes – November 2023

Posted on by smittyjd23

Attendees:

  • Becky Cook-Shyovitz
  • Mr. Gordon
  • Aaron Schumacher
  • Josh Smith
  • Rebecca Hunt
  • Principal Byrd
  • John-Anthony Meza (observer)

Agenda

  • Reviewing enrollment projections
  • Discuss potential Payne boundary changes for SY25-26

Notes

  • Reviewed SY 2024-2025 enrollment projections from DCPS
    • Enrollment stats:
      • SY 2022-2023 audited enrollment: 317
      • SY 2023-2024 reported enrollment: 376, at-risk percentage 32.9% (124/376)
      • SY 2024-2025 projected enrollment: 393, at-risk percentage of 39.9% (157/393)
    • Principal Byrd presented her adjustments, which add a few students in most grades, bringing the total projected enrollment to 402.
      • Planning for three classes in PK3, PK4, K, and First grade
        • Building capacity is around 500.  There are still rooms used as offices or for programs (e.g. Food Prints), which could be used as classrooms.
        • Departmentalization in a First grade with three teachers will be new
      • Principal Byrd is optimistic DCPS will accept her adjustments.  In general she believes Payne school and community should embrace enrollment growth as a positive sign and an opportunity to bring Payne education to more students.
    • LSAT needs to put in a comment by Tuesday.  The LSAT consensus is agreement with the Principal’s adjustments.
    • Discussion of why last year’s enrollment projections did not anticipate needing three K classes this year
      • In previous years, we saw a net neutral change in number of students between PK4 and K, but this year we saw a 50% net increase in the cohort size
      • MySchoolDC website reported K had 20 open slots.  Discussion about why that number was so high.  Principal Byrd and Ms Asante reported those numbers are set by DCPS.
      • Two Kindergarten classes had filled by July, then more in-boundary “by-right” students enrolled in late summer – expecting this to happen again
      • Max students in K classroom is 20, by WTU contract (although the contract lists a number of caveats and exceptions)
    • Principal has opted in to being an Equitable Access School
      • This program improves access to Payne education for students who are in-boundary AND at-risk
      • In SY 2024-2025: at-risk, in-boundary students will get higher preference rank in the DC lottery than general in-boundary students; although sibling, in-boundary students still have the highest preference rank
      • This program only applies to PreK3 and PreK4 lottery because K-5 in-boundary students already have “by-right” access
    • Enrollment audit process is underway:
      • Counting number of students actually enrolled and showing up, going from “reported” to “audited” numbers
      • In the past, schools did a “count day” where people showed up to count students in the building
      • Now, it is an audit of records and enrollment packets.  Outreach to parents where enrollment paperwork may be missing.
      • If student paperwork isn’t complete by the audit deadline, then those students don’t get counted in the audited enrollment number.  
      • If the audit number is much lower than the reported number, then DCPS could remove the funds they added to Payne’s budget for the additional K teacher.
  • Potential Payne boundary changes for SY 2025-2026
    • Specific meeting for Payne is being scheduled (update: scheduled Dec 7 6:15pm)
    • General townhalls have been shared at PTSA meetings, and are promoted here: https://dme.dc.gov/page/townhalls-2023
  • Discussion of potential agenda topics for upcoming meetings
    • Efforts to improve equity and inclusion
    • How to integrate equity into budget scenarios

LSAT Meeting Minutes – October 2023

Posted on by payneelementary

Attendees:

  • Principal Byrd
  • Joshua Smith
  • Rebecca Hunt
  • Tim Gordon
  • Becky Cook-Shyovitz
  • Carolyn Bowen (guest speaker)
  • Stacy Larracey

Agenda

  • Review progress on action items
  • Transitioning to more open meetings
  • Updates to Comprehensive School Plan
  • Updates from ongoing DCPS Boundary Study (Carolyn)
  • Enrollment Projection Topics
    • K enrollment
    • Tyler boundary
  • Update from PTA meeting
  • Update from APTT meetings
  • Principal Byrd wants to center equity and ensure all families (parents and students) feel welcome, comfortable, and supported at Payne, which connects with addressing chronic absenteeism and lower academic performance.
    • What actions have been taken since the last meeting on 9/28?
      • Rebecca offered: “Josh – maybe in that email re: vacancies you can also let people know that our meetings are open to the public if others aren’t quite ready to commit but want to join us to explore being an LSAT member in the future (as a way to pull in a more diverse representation of the students)?”
      • Actions to improve air quality in connection with asthma: To what extent have air fresheners been removed and the use of Clorox wipes and related practices decreased?
      • Parents Paint Payne: How did this go? How many people participated?
        • As of 10/1, 3 new people added to DOPE email list
        • Parent requests for childcare in order to participate: What mechanisms are in place? (Childcare during PTA exists; also for Parent Academy? How to set up for other events?)
        • 8 parents worked on Oct 13/14 to prepare all the walls in the cafeteria and paint the green walls! 8 gallons of new paint contributed!
        • Still need to schedule a time to paint the gray walls
      • How does Parent Academy fit into this strategy? How is it going? How can it be improved?
      • What percentage of families are on Remind? Other channels? What are we doing to guarantee that no families “fall through the gaps” re: channels of communication?
    • What actions should be taken next?
      • Is the volunteer form an obstacle to equity?
        • It doesn’t work on mobile, requiring volunteers to use a desktop or laptop computer, making access difficult for people who don’t have easy access.
        • The UI and process doesn’t seem clear; does this discourage people from volunteering?

Notes

  • Reviewing action items
    • LSAT notes posted on website
    • LSAT meetings added to school Google calendar
    • New requirement that LSAT meetings be public
  • Carolyn (guest speaker) – There are two active initiatives run by the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME).  Both are discussed in this recorded presentation.
    • Boundary and Student Assignment Study 2023 https://dme.dc.gov/boundaries2023
      • The goal of the study is to ensure there is 1) clear assignment of students to schools, 2) adequate capacity for assigned students, 3) equitable access to high-quality schools
      • Carolyn is on the advisory committee for this study and provided some insight into process.  Slide deck: Boundary Review Update_Payne LSAT
      • Any changes would not take effect until the SY 2025-2026 year
      • The committee is chaired by DME Paul Kihn and comprised of about 19 parents, plus other representatives
      • The committee is discussing boundaries, feeder patterns, and where programs are offered across whole city
      • In the next months, the committee is soliciting more into community feedback.  All meetings are open, online.  The next town hall meeting is in December.  The first town hall was dominated by one or two schools, so the committee is looking to broaden inputs from the community.
      • Final recommendations from the Study are expected March 2024
    • Master Facilities Plan 2023 https://dme.dc.gov/mfp2023
      • Can schools colocate? Is expansion feasible?
      • Expecting to share information soon
    • Payne impacts are not yet known, but anyone who wants to learn more can join the open meetings or the town hall.
  • Enrollment projections: expected November
  • Four big milestones for LSAT
    • Comprehensive School Plan
    • Enrollment Projections
    • Budget Allocations
    • Elect next LSAT
  • Kindergarten class higher than expected / higher than projections this year?
    • More ECE kids staying at Payne rather than going elsewhere; transitioning more kids to kindergarten
    • ECE has been expanding to 3 classrooms
    • Expecting even more kids in K next year?
    • Principal Byrd also observing class size growth: Good number of parents who couldn’t get in PK3, couldn’t get PK4, waited to come in for Kindergarten – thus influx of students
      • Will open third K classroom (in process now)
      • Years ahead: According to Wash Teachers’ Union, limits on number of students per classroom – once students get to 3rd grade, number changes (also pk to k)
      • Prior to this year, fully enrolled but projection less than capacity – adding students builds out into capacity; have capacity for 500-600 students in the building, and not at that; a little over half of this currently.
      • Some spaces currently have one person, but could have a whole class
      • Strategy: enroll students toward capacity (slowly, to not burst at seams) – want to build our numbers because expecting building to be renovated / built again (this is on master plan) – when they get to us, don’t want them to say that we don’t need space b/c not at capacity AND when funding changes (title 1, at-risk students) need to increase enrollment to get money allocated in budget
      • Some positions on the budget currently being paid for, but with more students they would be auto-allocated rather than charged against budget
        • Example: AP, at 400 students is allocated position rather than out of school budget
    • Renovation timeline? Not any time soon
      • Building was done 10-11 years ago (not long in building time)
      • Other schools ahead of us
      • Don’t want to keep students out, demand is there, want to bring in students, want to bring in students with a variety of backgrounds etc.
    • Josh notes prior concern from schools with lots of students but funding formula didn’t allocate enough, according to some
      • More advantaged students don’t add as much to budget
    • Rebecca: Do we have discretion over which students come to Payne?
      • Students who live in-boundary are eligible, students coming via lottery are put on wait-list and as seats come up they become eligible; Principal Byrd does not have access to choose students
      • But, people are applying, Payne is school of choice
    • Becky notes there were 20 slots for K at Payne this year
      • PB: decided by DCPS, 20 is standard number (regardless of number of students coming from prek) – we were fully enrolled by July, then parents who hadn’t been able to get in prior to K came in August b/c in-boundary
      • Josh notes this is a flip from the past: families drawn to K-5 program more now than in the past
    • Josh: this was first year Tyler by-right kids who didn’t want Spanish could get Payne by-right – impact from this change?
      • Principal Byrd: Haven’t seen a change, not expecting a change – people choosing Tyler (but Payne would welcome these students)
  • Comprehensive school plan
    • The executive summary was shared with LSAT members
    • CSP was finalized in September and will be shared with LSAT in its entirety
  • Aaron: Do we reach all families with school communications?
    • Principle Byrd: 100% of families are on Remind
    • To reach everyone: Remind, blackboard, text/email
    • Whoever enrolled a student is signed up
    • Bigger numbers on Remind because multiple people sign in
    • Only used blackboard in the past; now more Remind
    • Becky: Some teachers help facilitate class-level comms, sometimes more ad hoc
    • Principal Byrd: Engagement goal for school is separate from any PTSA initiatives. (work of teachers, Principal, etc.)
  • This is the first LSAT meeting that was posted publicly on school calendar (good!)
    • Open Meetings Act applicable to LSAT meetings
    • Considerations for future meetings?
    • Makes it easier for parents to learn about LSAT before running for LSAT spot, for example
    • Josh will announce at the PTSA meeting (and send listserv email) about LSAT meetings (LSAT members to conduct votes etc. but observers welcome)
    • Presentation on Open Meetings Act https://www.open-dc.gov/open-meetings-act
  • Becky: PTSA update
    • Fall Festival! Free tickets available, can be sponsored/requested
  • APTT meetings update
    • Principal Byrd: They went well. Good parent turnout, teachers were prepared and shared
    • Josh: Scheduling during the school day?
    • Principal Byrd: Some scheduled at 5:30
    • Stacey: 1st grade was 11am
    • Principal Byrd: During-the-day was on designated parent-teacher days
    • Becky: Scheduling one-on-ones more flexible, relative to one fixed time for APTT meeting
    • Principal Byrd: Teachers given planning flexibility to choose times; may not be possible to schedule an after-school time
  • Volunteer form discussion
    • PTSA has a guide!
    • Parents can fill out at school if they don’t otherwise have a compatible device!
  • Rebecca: In the interest of time — putting this into the chat.Since we talked about this last meeting — also wanted to come back and offer my appreciation to Principal Byrd for starting the conversation with Parents on Race at your coffee chat earlier this month.  I thought it was a really productive and good conversation and am glad that you’re wading into this!
    • Becky: December PTA meeting will focus on race and equity