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