Updated: The LRCA is giving students an extra day to submit applications. Now due May 10, 2022.
The Lamond-Riggs Citizens Association is accepting scholarship applications from graduating high school seniors who reside in Lamond-Riggs, attend a DC public school (traditional or charter), and who will attend college full-time in the fall. The application and guidelines are available at http://www.lrcadc.org/scholarships.
The Application Deadline is May 10, 2022. Please spread the word!
The Lamond-Riggs Citizens Association is accepting scholarship applications from graduating high school seniors who reside in Lamond-Riggs, attend a DC public school (traditional or charter), and who will attend college full-time in the fall. The application and guidelines are available at http://www.lrcadc.org/scholarships.
The Application Deadline is May 9, 2022. Please spread the word!
Passing along information provided by a resident
Registration is open for the Verizon Innovative Learning STEM Achievers 2022 Summer Camp at the University of the District of Columbia!
Details:
Students must be entering the 6th, 7th, or 8th grade in the DMV.
Students must provide proof of COVID 19 vaccination.
The program offers two 3-week sessions. Your child can only participate in one session. Here are the sessions:
Session 1: June 20 – July 8
Session 2: July 11 – July 29
The camp hours are 9:30am to 3:30pm
The camp will consist of intensive learning experiences, including augmented and virtual reality courses, coding, 3D design, robotics, electronics, Artificial Intelligence, entrepreneurship, and design thinking principles.
Camp Location: University of the District of Columbia, 4200 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
There is no cost to attend this camp.
Application:
Please complete the application to register for the summer program at UDC. You must select the University of the District of Columbia as the college of choice.
Register Here: https://sri.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eWhKbdmbBshSsJM
The Korean-American Grocers Association of Greater Washington DC (KAGRO-DC) is accepting scholarship applications from DC area graduating high school students who plan to enter college in the fall. Over the years, John Yoo, owner of Riggs Wine & Liquor and member of KAGRO-DC, has supported many Ward 4 students, including those living in Lamond-Riggs, with scholarship money through the organization.
The KAGRO-DC scholarship application is available here. The application deadline is March 20, 2022.
Thanks to resident Tischa Cockrell for sharing this information.
Last night, ANC 5A distributed the following communication from the principals of Rocketship Infinity Community Prep Public Charter School, AppleTree at Rocketship, and The Social Justice Public Charter School. The schools are located on one campus in the newly renovated warehouses at 5450 3rd Street NE (off Kennedy Street NE near Fort Totten Metro station). If you would like to be added to ANC 5A’s email distribution list, please contact ANC Commissioner Emily Singer Lucio (5A03), secretary for ANC 5A, at 5A03@anc.dc.gov.
From ANC 5A
Greetings Valued Members of the Ward 5 Community,
The 5450 3rd street Campus, which comprises Rocketship Infinity Community Prep, AppleTree at Rocketship, and Social Justice School, are excited to start the 2021-2022 school year in person. In anticipation of our start, we wanted to be proactive in communicating start and end times for arrival and dismissal and efforts we are making to mitigate traffic in the local community.
Rocketship and AppleTree will begin school on Monday, August 23 with 225 students in grades PK3-Third Grade. Social Justice School will begin school on Thursday, August 26 with 115 students in grades 5-7. With that in mind, Rocketship and AppleTree will begin arrival at 7:30 a.m. Monday-Friday. Dismissal will begin at 3:30 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesdays are an early release day with dismissal beginning at 1:50pm.
Social Justice will begin at 8:00 a.m. Monday-Friday. Dismissal will begin at 3:45 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesdays are an early release day with dismissal beginning at 12:30pm. Our goal is to ensure a safe and efficient arrival and dismissal for our students and mitigate excessive traffic in the area.
To that end, we have put the following plans into place.
We do express gratitude in advance for your patience through the first few weeks of school as we get our families, many of whom are joining us in person for the first time, used to the flow of the system and routine of arrival and dismissal. We are proud to be a part of the Ward 5 Community and look forward to partnering together. Please feel free to contact us, via our information below, with any questions and we will be sure to schedule a meeting and or tour to address questions in the coming weeks.
Respectfully,
Angel McNeil, Founding Principal, Rocketship Infinity Community Prep
amcneil@rsed.org
Paige Lester, Principal, AppleTree at Rocketship
paige.lester@appletreeinstitue.org
Brandon Johnson, Founding Principal, Social Justice School.
brandon@thesocialjusticeschool.org
At last night’s ANC 5A meeting, Ward 5 State Board of Education Representative Zachary Parker mentioned that he and the former state board rep Mark Jones are having an informational meeting tonight at 6:00 pm about standing up an organization to support Ward 5 schools called Ward 5 Education Trust.
Those of us who live on the Ward 5 side of Riggs Park are actually zoned for Ward 4 schools, but there are a number of charter schools in Ward 5 that serve Riggs Park families. I do not have any more information than what was briefly shared at the meeting last night, but I think the idea is to develop an organization that will be able to provide financial support PTA-style to Ward 5 schools. Some schools in the District have strong PTAs that have lots of money to fund supplies and all sorts of enrichment activities for those school communities, but they are few and far between in Ward 5.
If you are interested in learning more and being involved in this effort, you can register for the informational meeting at this link.
UDC is apparently installing a bioretention and cistern system at UDC-CC Backus in the grassy area of the campus on the corner of South Dakota Avenue and Hamilton Street NE. The work is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. That will be a big improvement for that corner area. I always that it would be a nice spot for a demonstration native plant garden, so it is nice to hear that it will hold a bioretention system to help with stormwater runoff. Now we just need UDC to paint the fence, replace the dead trees on the Galloway Street side, and install native landscaping around the campus and things will be looking much better.
On June 29, 2020, the DC Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) voted to fully approve a 15-year charter for the Social Justice School, effective July 1, 2020. School officials have attended several ANC 5A meetings over the past year to inform residents about plans. The school will be located at 5450 3rd Street NE. The school has a three year lease agreement with Rocketship Public Charter School to co-locate at the site, with a one-year option to extend. Construction to renovate the old warehouses at this location to house school facilities is ongoing.
According to documents on file, Social Justice School will operate a middle school serving grades 5 through 8. For its first year of operation in school year 2020-2021, the school has a target enrollment of 65 students–maximum 75 students–in grades 5 and 6. Its goal is to grow the student population to a total of 300 students in grades 5 through 8 by school year 2023-2024. On June 16, 2020, the day after the school enrollment deadline, the school had 41 enrolled students. Because enrollment lags target, the DCPCSB required the school to develop a contingency budget. See the contingency budget here and the contingency budget narrative here. The DCPCSB determined that the school will be financially viable with an enrollment of 41 students and that the school will have sufficient resources to deliver its programs:
Based on the review of the contingency budget, DC PCSB staff concludes that, at an enrollment of 41 students:
● The school will be financially viable. The budget shows a positive net income of $59,558 and 112 days of cash on hand. To help offset decreased revenue, Social Justice PCS has secured a $500,000 credit enhancement from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and a $250,000 loan from CityBridge for facilities-related costs if required. Also, NewSchools Venture Fund has promised an additional $160,000-grant pending its full charter approval (see Attachment B).
● The school will have sufficient resources to deliver its program. The budget maintains appropriate levels of staffing, including one English language arts teacher, one math teacher, one science/wellness teacher, and one liberatory design thinking teacher. Some key personnel positions have been reimagined. For example, the executive director will assume the responsibilities of the principal, while the previously identified principal will serve as the founding math teacher. Also, the director of student supports with [sic] oversee both case management and service delivery for the projected four English learners and nine students with disabilities.
It is still too early to know what school will look like for DC students in the fall. If in-person classes are scheduled, with Rocketship, AppleTree, and Social Justice School at the campus at 3rd Street and Kennedy Street NE, we will have quite a few new students in this corner of the neighborhood.
As reported on the blog over the past several months, Rocketship Schools is in the process of opening a campus near Fort Totten metro station, known right now as simply Rocketship Fort Totten. Rocketship has two other campuses in DC, Rocketship Legacy Prep in Ward 7 and Rocketship Rise in Ward 8. Rocketship Rise has been in the news for a couple of terrible incidences in the past few months. We previously covered the lack of communication around an attempted kidnapping at Rocketship Rise, reported by Fox 5 DC news back in October 2019, right around the time when Rocketship was going before the DC Public Charter School Board seeking approval to open the Rocketship Fort Totten campus. This incident led community members to question Rocketship’s commitment to transparency and the safety of students (see minutes of ANC 4B’s November 2019 meeting). Rocketship leadership acknowledged it should have handled that situation in a better manner and stated its commitment to restoring parent trust.
On Feburary 24, 2020, Fox 5 DC news reported that the assistant principal at Rocketship Rise was charged with felony sex abuse in April 2019. The charges were not related to his duties as a school official, did not take place on the campus, and did not involve children. The news report made it sound as if the school knew about the charges but did not notify parents, and allowed the assistant principal to remain at the school until the media reported on it and only then placed him on leave.
I reached out to Angel McNeil, Founding Principal of the Rocketship Fort Totten campus, to get a sense of whether something was awry with Rocketship’s corporate leadership, whether they were not providing enough support to their schools in general, or if something was going on with leadership at Rocketship Rise where these problems were occurring. She asked to meet in person to share what Rocketship’s leadership is doing to address the situation and to share updates about the forthcoming campus.
She explained that neither Rocketship leadership at the school level nor at the corporate level actually knew about the charges until they were reported in the media. The reporter received a tip from someone. Once the school found out, the school placed the employee on leave and notified parents. According to Ms. McNeil, Rocketship school employees are supposed to self-report charges of the nature involved to their school. If the employee does not do so, though, then the school can easily remain unaware of serious charges involving the employee. If the arrest is not reported in the news or if the school does not peruse public arrest records on a regular basis, then the arrest and any subsequent charges could go undetected for some time. I looked up the court case. While the allegations are serious, they are not necessarily something that would be reported in local news, and as far as I can tell, the incident was not reported by local media when it happened.
On March 3, 2020, DC At-Large Councilmember Robert White introduced the Reporting Sexual Misconduct in Schools Amendment Act of 2020 (B23-0700). Reports on the bill described it as a bill that would require schools to notify parents when school employees are charged with sexual misconduct offenses. The bill proposes a number of reporting requirements to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) of sexual misconduct incidences between school staff and students. The specific provision on notification states,
“OSSE, in consultation with schools, direct service providers, community partners, mental heatlh professionals, governmental and community-based sexual abuse experts, the Metropolitan Police Department, parents, and students shall develop a model policy for how LEAs report to the school community in a timely manner criminal investigations of sexual misconduct involving school staff.”
So the bill directs OSSE to develop a model notification policy, presumably for any criminal sexual misconduct investigation involving school staff, not just for a criminal investigation of sexual misconduct between school staff and students. But unless there is some means by which the schools themselves would timely become aware of such criminal investigations involving an employee, it is not clear how this bill would address a situation such as the one involving the assistant principal at Rocketship Rise. According to Ms. McNeil, in California, where Rocketship headquarters is located, there is a law that schools are automatically notified when school employees are arrested for certain crimes. No such law exists in DC, according to Ms. McNeil.
I went down the rabbit hole of looking at state laws on this issue. Lots of states have parental notification laws requiring schools to notify parents when a school employee is under investigation for certain offenses, but it looks like fewer states have notification laws in which the schools themselves are notified when school employees are arrested for certain offenses. In California, police are supposed to notify a school district when a school employee is arrested for a sexual offense. Even there though, the law simply says police notification is required if the police knows that the individual is a school employee. I do not know if people are regularly asked for employer information or if they are a school employee when they are arrested; perhaps they are. Closer to home, Virginia requires police and other individuals with the power to arrest, to report the arrest of an individual for certain offenses to the school superintendent if it is known or discovered that the individual is a school employee or adult student. In a few states, teachers are required to self-report and if they do not, it is a separate felony. In other states, courts or police use fingerprinting to do a search or otherwise must determine if the person arrested or charged is a teacher and notify the school system. Perhaps owing to different balances accorded to due process rights or perhaps what is allowed under collective bargaining agreements, there is a distinction in the states that require some sort of notification to the school system based on whether the person is actually charged or convicted or merely arrested.
Councilmember White’s recently introduced bill would amend the School Safety Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018. That law was enacted after an issue arose with background checks of employees of a widely utilized aftercare provider by DC schools. According to Ms. McNeil, due to the school safety omnibus law, employees who work with certain populations must undergo a background check annually, not just when they are hired. This includes school employees who work with children under 18 years of age. That will certainly be helpful in picking up criminal arrests and charges, but there could still be a problem if an employee is arrested for a serious crime in between background checks and fails to self-report.
Rocketship’s team is investigating its handling of the incident involving the assistant principal at Rocketship Rise and evaluating its policies to determine what more can be done to avoid similar situations in the future.
Rocketship Fort Totten
Turning to the forthcoming campus here in the neighborhood, Ms. McNeil shared that the new campus is on pace to reach target enrollment for its first year of operation beginning in fall 2020. Ms. McNeil estimates that a majority of the students will be Ward 4 or Ward 5 residents. There will be hard hat tours for families by appointment beginning this spring. Over the summer, the school plans to host community activities for neighbors and families to interact with the school. Last year, Ms. McNeil spent several months on the ground opening a Rocketship school in California. She is excited about opening the Rocketship Fort Totten campus and for the school to be an integral part of the larger community.
Neighborhood school LaSalle-Backus Education Campus received 4 stars on the latest DC School Report Card. The school received 3 stars last year. The improvement in the star rating comes on the heels of the school’s recognition as a leveler elementary school by the DC Policy Center. The Center describes a leveler school as one that meets the high targets for growth for their at-risk students. This is quite the turnaround for the school, which just 10 years ago was under restructuring for failure to make adequate yearly progress.
I remember when former principal Justin Ralston was installed at LaSalle in 2016 and he noted that residents and others thought of LaSalle as a failing school, but he did not view the school that way. The school has made steady improvements every year since. The school cycled through interim principals due to an incident at Roosevelt High School that resulted in Mr. Ralston’s abrupt installation as interim principal at that school in October 2018. Shelly Gray, who served as an assistant principal at LaSalle for several years, became the new permanent principal of LaSalle in June 2019.
Whittier Education Campus, which serves the Lamond community as well, also received 4 stars. The DC Policy Center recognized Whittier as a leveler middle school. Whittier and LaSalle are in the middle of phasing out their middle school grades.
Kudos to both school communities.
As expected, on October 28, 2019, the DC Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) voted to approve Rocketship’s application to amend its charter to open a third campus serving grades preK3-5 at 5450 3rd Street NE near Fort Totten metro station (off Kennedy Street NE). I wrote about the proposal here, here, and here.The Board’s full public meeting record can be viewed here. The amendment to the charter agreement is here. According to DCPCSB, 14 comments were submitted in support and 3 in opposition prior to close of the comment period and a public hearing on September 16. DCPCSB noted ANC 5A requested additional time to submit comments before DCPCSB’s vote, but as we know, the full ANC did not get around to voting on the application despite the many meetings on the topic, so the ANC did not submit additional comments for the record. ANC Commissioner Gordon Fletcher (5A08), in whose single member district the school will sit, submitted a letter in support in his capacity as commissioner of ANC 5A08. That letter was included with Rocketship’s application. I expect the ANC will work with Rocketship to address concerns as the school progresses towards opening.
When DCPCSB approved Rocketship’s original charter application to open up to eight campuses in DC, it set a number of conditions in order for the school to open new campuses. One of the conditions is that each existing campus must be Tier 1 with a minimum Performance Management Framework (PMF) score of 65. Rocketship currently has two campuses open in DC. According to Rocketship’s submission, Rocketship Legacy Prep, which began operations in Ward 7 in the 2017-2018 school year, is Tier 1 with a 94.6% PMF. Rocketship Rise Academy, which began operations in Ward 8 in the 2016-2017 school year, is Tier 2 with a 62.4% PMF. I suppose that is close enough to meeting the PMF condition for the Board’s purpose. At the request of the Board, the school submitted for the record a summary of its market analysis in response to two letters in opposition questioning the school’s analysis regarding need for another charter elementary school in Ward 5. The Board noted some concerns with Rocketship’s long-term financial stability and therefore will monitor the school’s financials as the third campus progresses.
On October 29, the day after the Board’s vote, Fox 5 DC reported disturbing news that apparently leadership at Rocketship Rise Academy waited until October 29 (the same day the news story was published) to notify parents about an attempted kidnapping that occurred at the school on October 11. According to the news report, in a letter to parents, Rocketship acknowledged they should have notified parents earlier. Apparently, the incident occurred during the school’s aftercare program, which is operated by Springboard Education. Staff from Rocketship and Springboard were able to stop the individual from taking the children out of the school. An investigation is ongoing. This appears to involve the same Springboard contractor that operated many before care and aftercare programs in DCPS and several charter schools until earlier this year when it made headlines following allegations that a Springboard employee inappropriately touched and kissed a student and an investigation revealed that Springboard could not show that all of its employees completed a background check. While DCPS and some charter schools terminated their contract with Springboard following that news, it appears Rocketship did not. I imagine this incident will make Rocketship reconsider its contract with Springboard and also how it will make sure students are safe at all Rocketship campuses.
The new campus in Riggs Park will open in two phases. A construction trailer has already been set up at the site, and construction workers are present to begin interior renovation of the north building. Renovation of that building is supposed to be completed in time for students to attend the school in the 2020-2021 school year. As previously noted, Rocketship plans to sublease part of the campus to a middle school, the Social Justice Charter School, contingent on demand for Rocketship seats.
The ANC meeting on Rocketship Charter School’s traffic study on September 10 was interesting. Three commissioners were present: Chair Ronnie Edwards (5A05) and Commissioners Sandi Washington (5A07) and Gordon Fletcher (5A08). The proposed school sits in Commissioner Fletcher’s single member district (SMD). The ANC realized they could not call the meeting a special meeting or even an official meeting because they only provided one day of notice, so the meeting turned into more of an informal discussion about the traffic study. This link is to Rocketship’s presentation and this link is to the traffic memo prepared for the school.
Comments on the school’s application to open a third campus in two existing warehouses at 3rd and Kennedy Street NE near Fort Totten metro station are due to the DC Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) by September 16. DCPCSB will hold a public hearing on September 16 and vote on the application on October 28.
Middle School
Before we get to the traffic study, we have to talk about the surprise that Rocketship dropped on the ANC. Rocketship is exploring the possibility of a a subtenant. That information is in Rocketship’s application. What Rocketship did not spell out in its application is that the proposed subtenant is a middle school. Rocketship has always stated that it has a partnership with AppleTree Learning Center to provide pre-kindgerten instruction at Rocketship campuses, but Rocketship announced at the meeting that they signed a letter of intent with the Social Justice School to operate a middle school on the campus for three years. The Social Justice School’s charter application was approved by DCPCSB on June 3, 2019.
Rocketship said technically the Social Justice School will have to go through its own community engagement process, but Rocketship also said it still needs to talk to the DCPCSB about how the process will work given that Rocketship is seeking approval for its third campus and they want to lease part of the campus to the Social Justice School. Rocketship invited leadership of the Social Justice School to the meeting to introduce themselves, but given that this was a complete surprise to the ANC and the only thing on the agenda was Rocketship’s traffic study, the ANC opted not to have Social Justice School representatives speak at all. (An aside: DCPS is in the process of phasing out middle school grades at its education campuses so that elementary grades and middle school grades are on separate campuses. Consequentely, neighborhood elementary schools are now zoned for the new Ida B. Wells Middle School near the Coolidge Campus.)
Rocketship officials stated they knew they would have underutilized space on the campus and stated that they did not have any news about the middle school to share with the ANC previously. They stated that a leter of intent was signed with the Social Justice School only on Friday (I am assuming this means Friday, September 6 or maybe even August 30). Rocketship’s traffic study is dated August 27 and assumes the presence of a middle school on the campus. Their application for the new campus, which was submitted on August 2, states, “We expect to be able to meet the total cost of the lease by sharing the building with a possible sub-tenant. We have engaged in serious conversations with two prospective sub-tenants and expect to finalize a lettter of intent between both parties by mid-August 2019.” It is not clear if having a subtenant is absolutely essential to the financial viability of the new campus. It is not clear if Rocketship intends to have a subtenant only for the period of time in which they are growing their enrollment to full capacity, and once they reach their full capacity or close to full capacity (say after three or five years), the subtenant goes away. The ANC did not ask any of these questions.
Traffic Study
Turning to the traffic study, the study is based on the presence of pre-kindergarten, elementary, and middle school grades, specifically 120 AppleTree pre-K students, 440 Rocketship elementary students, and 160 middle school students. There will be around 74 faculty and staff.
There will be 17 vehicle parking spaces in a small lot near the front of the campus, with 10 spaces reserved for teachers/staff, five for visitors, and two for handicap accessbility. There will be 26 short-term bicycle spaces. The traffic memo states that under current zoning regulations, the school is required to have a minimum of 8 long-term bicycle spaces and 28 short-term bicycle spaces, so it is not clear why they landed on 26 short-term bicycle spaces. There is likely room for more.
The only vehicular access is via Kennedy Street. School officials will strongly encourage parents, students, faculty, and staff to use public transit, walk, and bike to the school. Faculty and staff will receive Smartbenefits. The traffic engineers anticipate many of the pre-kindergarten students will arrive by car and most of the older students and faculty and staff will use other means to get to campus. The traffic engineers said school officials can get students out of the cars in two minutes. Staff will be present to escort children into the school so that parents do not have to park and escort their children into the school. They anticipate having 15-minute parking limits for on-street spaces during peak hours for those parents who may wish to park briefly. They will also stagger start and dismissal times to avoid having everyone arrive and leave at the same time. School officials will also encourage carpooling.
Commissioner Washington noted there is not a left-turn signal for motorists who want to turn west onto Kennedy Street from South Dakota Avenue, so conceivably motorists waiting to turn could impact the flow of traffic to Riggs Road. There is also a public alley just east of the site that conceivably some parents might use to get to Kennedy Street to access the campus. There was a bit of back-and-forth discussion about having traffic control officers or crossing guards at intersections like South Dakota and Kennedy and who exactly would be responsible for working with DDOT on that. Rocketship does intend to work with DDOT, but also recommended that the ANC make the request to DDOT as well so that DDOT takes it seriously (I guess).
The traffic study was largely based on current conditions, but Kennedy Street between South Dakota Avenue and 3rd Street will look much different in the next few years than it does today. Construction on the second phase of Art Place at Fort Totten, which would sit right next to the campus, could begin at some point in the next one to two years. The Cafritz Foundation is the developer of Art Place at Fort Totten and also owns the warehouses that Rocketship is leasing for the school. I tried to find an image that would show the relation of the existing warehouses to the second phase as well as a general site plan for the second phase. If all goes according to plan, 4th Street between Ingraham and Kennedy will become a shared pedestrian/vehicular path. There will be a grocery store at the corner of South Dakota and Kennedy, a dog run near 4th and Kennedy, and truck loading for Art Place via 4th and Kennedy. Parking garage access will also be available via Kennedy Street. The traffic engineers believe most of these uses will not present conflicts during school peak hours and also believe the new parking garage may be useful for occassions in which the school might need additional parking.
Next Steps
Rocketship wants to begin construction renovating the interior of the existing warehouses soon after the DCPCSB vote on October 28, assuming the vote is in their favor. The ANC plans to reach out to DCPCSB to ask for an extension of time to file a report by the ANC. Given that the Board will not vote until October 28, the ANC and Rocketship seem to believe the ANC will have no problem getting additional time after September 16 to submit comments. It is not clear if the commissioners will attend the hearing on September 16 or what they plan to say if they do show up, or if they simply plan to file a comment with DCPCSB by September 16 saying they need more time. As previously mentioned, Rocketship stated they wanted to reach out to DCPCSB to get clarity on the process for the Social Justice School. It is not clear if that conversation has happened. I have been told the ANC has invited both Rocketship and the Cafritz Foundation to the next ANC meeting on September 25 to look at the bigger picture. So it seems as if this process is a bit convoluted at this point.
I have not seen the ANC present any standards by which it will evaluate whether to support Rocketship’s application. DCPCSB approved Rocketship’s initial charter application to open up to eight campuses in DC, conditioned on four factors:
(a) All previously authorized campuses have opened; (b) All operating DC campuses have PMF scores of at least 65 for the most recent year of reporting; (c) All operating DC campuses have early learning programs that are the equivalent of “tier 1” on the forthcoming EC PMF for the most recent year of reporting; and (d) There have been no material violations of the law and neither the school nor any of its campuses are under “charter warning” status by PCSB.”
There are a number of other conditions in the approval.
I asked a DCPCSB representative how they evaluate whether to approve a new campus and that representative stated they look at whether the school is operating according to its charter, whether its existing schools are meeting standards, and whether this is a need for another school. It is not clear to me whether the ANC has asked for information from Rocketship about the performance of its two existing campuses (Rise Academy and Legacy Prep). A quick glance at the schools’ PARCC scores show them to be in the middle range. It is not clear if the ANC has asked for information about the schools’ suspension and retention rates. It is not clear to me if the ANC has discussed with Rocketship how opening a new elementary and middle school campus will impact enrollment at traditional neighborhood schools. Rocketship’s application points to the long waiting list for highly ranked charter schools in Ward 5 as evidence of need. I am not sure if the ANC has asked Rocketship if Rocketship itself had long waiting lists for any of its campuses, including the initial Ward 5 campus that ending up getting scuttled. And again, unclear if the Rocketship needs to rely on a subtenant to make this campus work and what their plan is if the ANC objects to having a middle school on the campus.
Some have asked my opinion on this proposal or assumed that I am against this new campus for some reason, but I am actually mostly agnostic. The existing Rocketship campuses appear to be swimming in the middle of the pack, so a new campus will probably do fine. Residents will deal with the changes that are coming to the corridor. I do not have children and so I tell people I am just one resident with opinions about the way District officials have handled the charter school experiment. I do not have a favorable view of the DCPCSB but again that is largely a function of how District officials and Congress have chosen to handle the charter school experiment. Generally, my focus is more on having the ANC be a bit more thougtful in how it operates, read relevant documents, and ask critical questions in order to make informed decisions.
There is still time to share your thoughts with the ANC and file comments with DCPCSB. Stay tuned for updates from the ANC about the September 25th meeting.
August 21, 2019
The Parks Main Street Community Meeting
6:30 pm
Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center
501 Riggs Road NE
Hear survey results & ways the Main Street will utilize community input to help improve the Riggs Park commercial corridor.
Follow The Parks Main Street:
Facebook (@TheParksMainStreet)
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Instagram (@TheParksMainStreet)
ANC 5A Special Public Meeting
6:45 pm
UDC-CC Backus
5171 South Dakota Avenue NE
Revised Agenda: (1) Wesley Housing Develpment; (2) Fort Totten Civic Association. Note it appears from the revised agenda that Rocketship will not attend this special meeting as they are awaiting traffic study results, but the agenda may change again.
August 23, 2019
Fridays at Fort Totten Concert Series: Deacon Izzy & the Congregation Band
6:00 pm-8:00 pm
South Dakota Avenue & Galloway Street NE
Bring a lawn chair for seating. Sponsored by On Tap Magazine and The Modern at Art Place
August 24, 2019
Bertie Backus Farmstand
10:00 am-2:00 pm
UDC-CC Backus
5171 South Dakota Avenue NE
Explore! Children’s Museum August Festival
10:00 am-1:30 pm
The Modern at Art Place
400 Galloway Street NE
Free RSVP on eventbrite
Performance Schedule:
10:30-11:00 am: Story Time with Lamond-Riggs Children’s Librarian
11:15-12:00 pm: A Mad Science of DC Show: Up, Up and Away!
12:30-1:15 pm: District Dance Arts
From 10:00am-1:30pm:
Cowboy Barry’s Farm Petting Zoo
Face Painting by Fairy Jennabelle
Makerspace with District Dance Arts
Double Dutch from DC Retro Jumpers
Color with Luna from Adventures with Luna and Friends
The Uncle Devin Show’s Percussion Playground
Coolidge High School Renovation & Ida B. Wells Middle School Ribbon Cutting with Mayor Bowser
11:30 am
6315 5th Street NW
Free cookout & games for all ages
The DC Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) is accepting comments on Rocketship’s application to open a new campus in two warehouses at 5450 3rd Street NE off Kennedy Street near Fort Totten metro station. Part 1 and Part 2 of the school’s application are available on DCPCSB’s website. Comments are due by September 16, 2019. A public hearing will be held on September 16 at 6:30 pm. DCPCSB will hold a vote on October 21, 2019.
ANC 5A is holding a special public meeting on August 21 to hear more from Rocketship. School leaders presented a high level overview at the ANC’s meeting in June. The new campus will be located in the single member district (SMD) of ANC Commissioner Gordon Fletcher (5A08). Interestingly enough, Commissioner Fletcher provided a letter of support dated August 1 that was included with Rocketship’s August 2nd application to DCPCSB. If you have questions or concerns about the school, please plan to attend the special meeting. If you cannot attend the special public meeting, I highly recommend reaching out to Commissioner Fletcher with any questions or comments before the special meeting.
At Commissioner Fletcher’s SMD meeting on August 12, school officials stated if all goes well, they will begin construction renovating the interior of the warehouses some time in October, finishing in July 2020. They plan to open in phases accepting students for grades PK3-2 for fall 2020. Recognizing the plethora of charter schools in Ward 5, including highly ranked charter schools in close proximity to the proposed campus, school leadership stated in their application that there is still unmet need in Ward 5 for high quality schools. They believe they can help to fill that need by offering a personalized blended learning currciulum with a STEM focus, as well as Spanish instruction starting in kindergarten.
A traffic study is currently being conducted, and school leaders hope to present results of that study and more design plans at the ANC special meeting. There will be a small parking lot on the campus. The school will offer transit subsidies to staff and encourage staff and parents to take public transportation to the campus.
The school has to document its community engagement efforts, a challenging task during the summer months. DCPSCB expects that any issues will have been raised before the public hearing on September 16 in order for the school to address them, so it is really important that residents share any share any concerns with Commissioner Fletcher and submit comments to DCPCSB.
Rocketship is holding two more community meetings this week on its proposal to open a third campus near the Fort Totten metro station.
August 8, 2019
6:00 pm-7:30 pm
Library Tavern
5420 3rd Street NW
August 9, 2019
5:30 pm-7:00 pm
North Michigan Park Rec
1333 Emerson Street NE
Based on the timeline shared by Rocketship’s leadership, it is possible the DC Public Charter School Board will hold a public hearing on the proposal some time in September, possibly before the regularly scheduled ANC 5A meeting on the fourth Wednesday of September. I know Rocketship has asked the ANC about the possibility of holding a special ANC meeting to make sure residents receive a fuller presentation of the plans for the new campus before any public hearing. Recall Rocketship presented a high level overview of the Rocketship model and preliminary plans at the June 2019 ANC 5A meeting.
The proposed campus will be located in the single member district (SMD) of ANC Commissioner Gordon Fletcher (5A08). Commissioner Fletcher plans to hold an SMD meeting with a number of agenda items on August 12, 2019, at 6:30 pm at UDC-CC Backus, so he may provide additional information about the ANC’s plan for addressing Rocektship’s proposal for a new campus in the neighborhood then.
Please take advantage of these opportunities to learn about the plan for the new campus, meet the school’s leadership, and ask questions. If you have questions about their traffic plan, blended learning curriculum, disciplinary policy, approach to community engagement, impact on surrounding traditional public and public charter schools and the need for an additional charter school in the neighborhood, anything at all, now is the time to raise them.
We previously reported that in fall 2020, Rocketship plans to open a new campus at 5450 3rd Street NE (near 3rd Street and Kennedy Street NE near Fort Totten metro station). Over the weekend, flyers were distributed to nearby homes with information on upcoming community engagement meetings. The first is tomorrow July 30 at Lamond-Riggs Library at 5:30 pm. If you have any questions about plans for the new school, these meetings would be a good opportunity to meet the leadership and have your questions answered.
July 30, 2019
5:30 pm-7:00 pm
Lamond-Riggs Library
5401 South Dakota Avenue NE
August 1, 2019
6:00 pm-7:30 pm
Culture Coffee Too
300 Riggs Road NE
August 8, 2019
6:00 pm-7:30 pm
Library Tavern
5420 3rd Street NW
August 9, 2019
5:30 pm-7:00 pm
North Michigan Park Recreation Center
1333 Emerson Street NE
On June 11, 2019, Shelly Gray was selected as the new permanent principal at LaSalle-Backus Education Campus, where she currently serves as an assistant principal. She replaces Interim Principal Nikeysha Jackson, who was selected as the permanent principal for West Education Campus. Ms. Gray’s appointment is effective June 24, 2019.
For some reason, DCPS principals have one-year contracts and it seems like elementary and middle schools in particular see new principals every one to two years. It is hard to see how that kind of constant leadership change is good for schools.
This latest round of musical chairs for LaSalle, which is now resulting in principal number three in two years, was prompted by an unfortunate incident at Roosevelt High School. Former LaSalle principal Justin Ralston was tapped to lead Roosevelt after that incident, even though LaSalle itself was and still is in the middle of its own transition phasing out its middle school grades. Ms. Jackson was tapped to serve as interim principal of LaSalle. In the same period, DCPS selected Megan Vroman, former principal of West, to lead the new Ida B. Wells Middle School. That selection opened an opportunity at West that will be filled by Ms. Jackson.
Hopefully this latest appointment will provide leadership stability for LaSalle for the next few years.
DC Public Library and Politics & Prose will host Jacqueline Woodson, the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and author of numerous award-winning books, including Brown Girl Dreaming, a mesmerizing memoir in verse about growing up as an African American girl in the 1960s and 1970s. Woodson’s story is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line offering a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world.
Thursday, June 20, 6 p.m.
Dunbar High School
101 N St. NW
(Metro: NOMA-Gallaudet on Redline)
This event is free and open to the public; however, to attend, an entrance ticket is required. Please register here.
In more education news, New North Middle School is hiring for full-time teaching and staff positions. The new middle school will open in fall 2019 to serve students in the LaSalle-Backus, Whittier, Takoma, and Brightwood campus boundaries. To view opportunities to be part of the founding team, click the link.
Post updated with invitation
Our neighborhood school, LaSalle-Backus Education Campus, is looking for participants for its Career Day on April 12, 2019. Spend a few hours sharing information about your career with middle school students.
Several neighbors and I participated last year, and it was a great time. I encourage neighbors to support again this year. To sign up, contact Jessica Silva at jessica.silva@dc.gov by April 5.
Next Stop...Riggs Park 