Attendees:

LSAT

• Principal Byrd
• Josh Smith
• Becky Cook Shyovitz
• Aaron Schumacher
• Tiffany Brown
• Tim Gordon
• Rebecca Hunt
• Stacy Larracey

Agenda

• Scheduling budget feedback meeting
• Budget priorities and possible scenarios

Notes

• Budget inputs from Payne community?
  • Becky: There was a board conversation re: aftercare. Advocate for more DCPS aftercare spots? Or out of our control?
• Josh shares budget documents from last year
  • mid-Feb, schools will get their initial school education, in a doc similar to last year
  • Enrollment figure will come from projection, adjusted by Principal’s input: 402
  • Previous years have included extra “stability funds” – may or may not have this year
  • 3 types of funding: Enrollment-based, targeted support, stability funding
  • Some roles funded based on school size, number of students
  • Includes 21st Century grant for aftercare (for Title 1 schools) – expect at least some (unclear how much)
  • Most flexibility in use of enrollment-based and targeted support funding (also depends on contract requirements, etc.)
  • Title 1 funding
  • Principal Byrd will have some time to allocate all funds into specific budget, then she’ll submit it, leading to publicly available budget document
    • LSAT should advise this process
    • Expected to be submitted before end of Feb
  • LSAT chair has access to DCPS app to submit LSAT comments
    • Can see what Principal Byrd has put into working budget
    • (Not available yet)
  • Next LSAT meeting may need to be moved due to short time available for preparing the budget (to week before Feb 22?)
• Principal Byrd: Hope to keep things the same, as a starting point
  • Priorities based on student performance, to determine what’s most needed
  • Started two weeks ago: mid-year data collection
  • Will look at trends and what positions are needed to support student growth
• Josh: What did PTA support that would otherwise have been from budget?
• Get your auction tickets!
• Process for inducing snow day: Wear pajamas inside-out, flush three ice-cubes down the toilet, and do a snow dance
  • Very strict adherence required.

Actions

• Stay flexible for the February budget meeting!

Attendees:

LSAT

• Principal Byrd
• Josh Smith
• Becky Cook Shyovitz
• Rebecca Hunt
• Mr Gordon
• Ms Brown
• Stacy Larracey

Observers

• Jenn Comey
• Bethany Carcone
• Andrew Lemens
• Carolyn Bowen
• Diane Klopack
• Emily Smith
• Andria Thomas
• Alexis Arieff
• Alison Mitchell
• John-Anthony Meza
• Dana Koffman
• Elise
• May
• Jessica Tate
• Rocco
• Prashant Choudhary
• Geraldine
• Felecia Soso
• Rekha Sherman
• Rory Lawless
• Mike Leikin

Agenda

• Boundary presentation from DME office (and soliciting feedback from Payne families)
• Schedule LSAT meetings for Jan – Jun 2024
• Aftercare pickup procedures

Notes

• Spring LSAT meetings
  • Schedule set for third Thursdays Jan 18th, Feb 22nd, Mar 21st, Apr 25, May 16, Jun 6
  • Josh will send invitation to LSAT members, Becky will post on PTSA calendar
• Aftercare pickup procedures
  • Concern raised from some parents that students are being released early.  Principal Byrd confirmed she has been made aware and is implementing changes to address this.

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