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?
- Is the volunteer form an obstacle to equity?
- What actions have been taken since the last meeting on 9/28?
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.
- Boundary and Student Assignment Study 2023 https://dme.dc.gov/boundaries2023
- Enrollment projections: expected November
- City Office of Engagement has LSAT toolkit
- Public link on the DC website has an issue, but here is a working link
- LSAT Newsletter from the Office of Engagement: LSAT members can email ceo.info@k12.dc.gov and ask to be added to the LSAT newsletter.
- DC LSAT Collective is a good resources to learn more: https://sites.google.com/view/dc-lsat-collective/home?authuser=0
- City Office of Engagement has LSAT toolkit
- 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
Payne Elementary School 