Hearst Playground Funds Assembled!
Design/construction to begin October 1

As many of you know, the Hearst Playground rehabilitation was delayed for over a year by funding issues (and delayed for almost three years before that for design issues). Funding has now been been fully approved and will come from two sources: The City of DC via the City Council, and the Department of Recreation's original budget (which had a shortfall that the City restored)

Carl Kessler, ANC3f01, reports that the restored funds, $600,000, was allocated under the Budget Support Act for FY 2007, and is available now without further ado. These monies will fund the final design. Everything except the construction documents are supposed to be completed on or about October 1, 2006 (the beginning of FY 2007).

The remaining funds for this project will be coming from DPR's Capital Projects Office funds, according to Carl Kessler, with the exact accounts yet to be determined: “DPR is committed to providing the Hearst project with $516,000.00 of DPR funds for construction, bringing the total construction funds available to approx. $1.116 million($600,00 & $516,000). Any design, administrative, and processing fees for permits, etc. incurred shall be in addition to the $1.116 million.”

We still do not have a firm timetable for an actual groundbreaking, but lisa schamess will keep you posted.

The $600,000 was made possible because of keen citizen action, including the leadership of Mr. Kessler, Barbara Beelar, Martha Black, and our own Dean and Jennifer Nielsen and Denise Dawkins who spearheaded the petition drive last year, to name a few. I am sure I have left out some names of people who helped—please forgive me. It was a huge team effort.

However, the money simply would not be there if it had not been for Councilwoman Kathy Patterson, who got it through Council. Your thank-you letters to Ms. Patterson would be appreciated, I am sure. And your vote, too, for her to Chair the Council if you are so inclined (I am just saying).

Incidentally, I am forming a small Facilities Committee for Hearst E.S. to follow issues like the playground, basic maintenance, and school modernization/consolidations. If anyone would like to serve on that committee or just come to an exploratory meeting, please email me directly at lisaschamess@yahoo.com.

Subject: Additional Public Forums on Superintendent's Recommended Criteria
From: "Victor Reinoso" 

D.C. Board of Education Announces Public Forums on The Superintendent's Recommended
Criteria for Consolidating and Rightsizing School Facilities


The District of Columbia Board of Education will hold two public
forums on the Superintendent's recommended criteria for consolidating
and rightsizing school facilities on:

Tuesday, April 18, 2006
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Randle Highlands Elementary School
1650 30th Street, SE

&

Saturday, April 22, 2006
11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Bell - Lincoln Multicultural Center
3101 16th Street, NW

The forums will include opportunities for the public to testify, and
participate in focus groups to discuss what should be included in the
proposed criteria that will be used to determine which school
facilities will be recommended for consolidation or rightsizing.  The
criteria are available on the Board of Education website at
www.k12.dc.us/dcps/boe/boehome.html  entitled: Recommended Criteria
for the Consolidation and Rightsizing of DCPS Facilities.

The Board of Education invites the public to participate in the
forums.  Those who wish to participate should contact Heather Reynolds
at (202) 442-5193 by close of business April 14 for the April 18
forum, and by April 20 for the April 22 forum.  If you are unable to
participate in the forums, written statements can be submitted for the
official record to: Russell A. Smith, D.C. Board of Education, 825
North Capitol Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20002.

Audrey Williams
Public Affairs Officer
DC Board of Education
(202) 535-2647  (phone)
(202) 442-5198 (fax)
audrey.williams@k12.dc.us

Hearst Could Be Hit Hard by Proposed School Budget Cuts

The following is the text of a letter sent by Elizabeth Vandivier, LSRT Co-Chair and Hearst Librarian. Although it is not intended to represent the LSRT in an official capacity, this letter speaks volumes for us all.

Support letters from concerned parents can reference this letter.

ELIZABETH L. VANDIVIER
3711 Reno Road, NW
Washington, DC 20008
(202) 537-9001

March 7, 2006

Dr. Clifford Janey
Superintendent
D.C. Public School
Office of the Superintendent
825 North Capitol Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002

Dear Dr. Janey,

I am writing in my capacity as the co-chair of Hearst Elementary School's Local School Restructuring Team (LSRT) and as a parent of children attending Janney Elementary School and Alice Deal Junior High School and as a Library Media Specialist at Hearst. My comments reflect not only my deep commitment to public education but also my concern for the future health and well-being of DCPS and the children we serve.

Yesterday, I chaired an emergency meeting of Hearst's LSRT to review our new budget. Hearst is a high performing school that always meets and exceeds Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. Our enrollment is growing. Parents choose Hearst for our excellent early childhood program, our academics, our small size and our emphasis on the arts in education. Last year, DCPS awarded Hearst additional funds in recognition of our achievements in exceeding our targets for AYP.

When the LSRT examined our new budget, we discovered to our shock and amazement that our budget had been slashed by $300,000.

What happened? Our building is nearly at capacity, we have more students this year than last year and anticipate maintaining our numbers and probably growing based on our crowded open houses and inquiries from potential parents. How does our school lose funds if we are not losing students? Has DCPS somehow reduced the Weighted Student Formula (WSF) per pupil allotment? How is that even conceivable if each school must now use significantly higher rates to budget our teaching, staff and administrative positions. Shouldn't we increase the WSF to accommodate these raises? Raises promised by a contract with the Washington Teacher's Union that is not yet even in place.

Indeed, we all believe that teachers, staff and administrators should be paid more and raises, agreed to and ratified in contracts created through the collective bargaining process, must be honored. School budgets should be increased to meet these increases. But by drastically cutting our budget while hiking the cost of running the school, you force our LSRT to make a Hobson's Choice. We must either cut a teacher and dramatically increase class size in the critical 1st and 2nd grade years (years when our children are learning how to read), or disband our acclaimed arts program which has served as a magnet for parents who feel the arts have disappeared from the public school classroom.

Either choice is unacceptable. Who does such a painful decision ultimately hurt? It hurts our students.

Educating our children is the school system's raison d'etre, it's mission, it's entire focus. Every decision must be made with the end in mind, and that end is creating new generations of educated, informed, curious, imaginative and creative citizens. How will that end become anything but a dead one if inadequate budgets make schools choose between cutting gifted teachers who ignite our student's minds or essential programs that enrich our children's lives.

As a parent, I know that the consequences of these decisions will reinforce negative attitudes many parents already have about the ability of DCPS to ensure each child receives a quality education. Parents are tired of learning that another program or teacher is being eliminated from their child's school. They will continue the exodus away from DCPS and enroll their children in charter schools, private schools and other school systems. If the school system wants to reverse this trend, we have it within our power.

Dr. Janey, your master education plan is an excellent start. The adoption of rigorous standards for teaching and learning which seek to keep the end in mind by envisioning what a student will know and be able to do when he or she graduates is a tremendous achievement. Don't undercut your vision of a school system dedicated to bringing out the best in each student by under funding the local schools.

As I understand this year's budgeting process, Hearst is not the only school being hit with massive cuts. The pain is being borne widely, and other LSRTs are being faced with profound and difficult decisions that will affect their school communities for years to come.

I ask you to reexamine the allocation of resources that the schools are working with for next year. In particular, I question the need to use the new salary numbers in calculating our budgets in the absence of a contract with the WTU. Alternatively, I ask you to increase all local school budgets to enable them to meet the cost of these anticipated raises.

I believe that you are attempting to make historic, proactive and positive changes in DCPS that will lead to a stronger school system able to meet the needs of our children facing the 21st century's challenges. As teachers, as parents, as school leaders, we all are anxious for you to succeed. Help us to help you by giving all schools the resources they need to excel and fulfill their mission of education every child.


Sincerely,

Elizabeth L. Vandivier

CC: Hon. Kathy Patterson
Hon. Adrian Fenty
Hon. Peggy Cooper Cafritz
Hon. Victor Reynoso
Hon. Joanne Ginsburg

PTA Signs On to Ad for School Modernization Bill

The PTA has signed on to an ad that will run in Thursday's Washington Post and The Washington Examiner in support of the School Modernization Bill.

For the latest on the School Modernization Bill, click here. Also see the Washington Lawyers Project site and the DC Education blog for background on facilities needs and responses in the district.

The text of the ad is as follows:

To the members of the DC City Council:

The parents of District of Columbia public school children demand full funding for our public schools.

The City Council found the money to fund a new convention center.

The City Council found the money to renovate its own office building.

Can’t the City Council find the money to fix our schools?

We send our children to school in old buildings that are in a sad state of disrepair. Roofs leak, plaster falls from the ceilings, mold grows, bathrooms don’t work, classrooms are too cold or too hot, electrical systems can’t support new technology because they are so ancient.

Our children deserve better. It is time for you, our elected officials, to PUT OUR CHILDREN FIRST, not last, on your list of priorities.

We have waited long enough. No more excuses.

We demand full funding for DC Public Schools. Now.

Pass the School Modernization Financing Act.

The undersigned PTAs from across the city urge you to strengthen our communities by educating our children in modern, clean, and safe schools. That means passing a bill that provides a stable and predictable source of revenues to fully fund school modernizations.

This ad was paid for by the following Parent Teacher Associations: Anacostia SHS PTSA, Anne Beers ES PTA, Anthony Bowen ES PTA, Barnard ES PTA, Brent Musuem Magnet Elementary School PTA, Deal JHS PTA, Friends of Fillmore, Hearst ES PTA, Janney ES PTA, Jefferson JHS PTA , J.O. Wilson ES PTA, Key ES PTA, Maury ES PTA, Stevens ES PTA, Stoddert ES PTA, Wilson SHS PTSA and Murch ES Parents.

[photo via 27 at flickr]

Testimony Delivered 12/9/05
to DC Council Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation
Kathy Patterson, Chair

Testimony of Dean Nielsen and Lisa Schamess
Parents, Phoebe Hearst Elementary School
delivered by Lisa Schamess
At D.C. City Council Public Oversight Hearing on Department of Parks and Recreation
Re: Overdue Redevelopment of the Hearst Recreation Center Playground December 8, 2005, 2:00pmTurkey Thicket Recreation Center10th and Michigan Ave., NEWashington, DC 20017

Councilwoman Patterson and Members of the Oversight Committee, thank you for giving us the opportunity to present testimony on the progress of the redevelopment of Hearst Recreation Center’s playground in Ward 3. My name is Lisa Schamess, and I am the co-chair of Phoebe Hearst Elementary School PTA. I would like this testimony to be made part of the official record of this hearing.

We come to you today on behalf of a potential win-win project for the Department of Recreation and the city’s children: The final phase of the Hearst Recreation Center playground renovation, adjacent to Hearst Elementary School.

This project has everything DPR needs right now to demonstrate a seachange at the agency in terms of its efficiency and citizen relations:

• It’s small. It’s not even a full project, only the second and final phase of a project that was initially promised to be completed in Spring 2003.
• It’s beautiful. The grounds of the Hearst Recreation Center are a green gem in the heart of a residential area, and the approved plan by Lee & Associates, Landscape Architects, is a beautiful plan that responds to the concerns of bother community residents and families whose children attend Hearst Elementary School.
• It’s public. The community has been closely involved in reviewing plans, completing surveys, and attending meetings about this project.
• It’s practically paid for—practically. Last summer we were told that one-half of the original $1 million budget for rebuilding and re-equipping the tot lot and older-children’s lot was gone because of cost overruns during Phase I of the project—overruns for work and undoing of work that in some cases, as Martha Black of the Hearst Recreation Council will explain, not only was not requested by the community but was specifically requested not to be done.
• It’s overdue. Almost three years overdue.
• It’s crucial to the school and vital to the community.
  
  Background
  Let me take a moment to say a word about Hearst Elementary, our role in the community, and the crucial synergy we share with our neighboring Recreation Center and Playground, run for many years by the capable and compassionate Adrian O’Neal. Our school has room for 180 children and currently has a solid enrollment of165 children between pre-K and third grade. Within our student body, some 70 percent of families are out-of-bounds and represent a rich cross-section of the city’s wards, ethnicities, and incomes. The attractiveness of the school is in part due to the enticing grounds and the promise of a new playground where the current substandard one is. Once the playground is in fact renovated, we expect that more and more parents from the elementary school’s home district will enroll their children, reflecting their confidence in the school and their involvement in the community.
  
  At Hearst, we have no cafeteria. We have no gymnasium. We actually have no dedicated library, just half of a room that is admirably managed by Elizabeth Vandivier. What we do have is dedicated teachers and parents, led by a principal, Bernarda Tally, who has called Hearst “A Jewel of a School.”
  
  The playground on DPR grounds adjacent to us is crucial. But it has been substandard for many years, both in terms of its equipment and in terms of a backlog of maintenance and landscaping. The 2002 hurricane took its toll: several long-dead trees collapsed and crushed the antiquated toddler swings on the north side of the lot. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
  
  Over the past three years, each new group of Hearst School parents has been told by the PTA to expect DPR to execute the planned renovation -- the school and communities' top priority -- but in the end there has been nothing but inaction and disappointment with reasons not fully explained. Barbara Beelar and Martha Black, longtime leaders on the Hearst Recreation Council, will present additional detail about delays, cost overruns, and the general ill will associated with this project—which should have been a “win win” for the community and DPR.
  
  This past summer, we received notice from DPR that due to cost overruns during Phase I of the project, funding for the playground would be slashed by 50 percent. We were asked at that point to rank our priorities for the playground.
  
  Our priorities have not changed. We—the school, the community, and the children—want the plan by Lee and Associates that DPR and the community have thoroughly reviewed and vetted, the comprehensive design that DPR has already paid for, to be fully funded.
  
  We want a new playground, the one we were promised, and we want it to break ground this spring.
  

What Next?
There are signs that the Department is preparing to move again—we are scheduled to meet with DPR this week. However, we have had many meetings with many DPR representatives over the years. That is why we are here today: To make sure that this time, this meeting produces results.

The PTA circulated a petition in November that has been signed by some 300 adults (parents, school staff, and community members). A separate version signed by the people who matter most—our pupils—is circulating now. We are asking the DPR for "immediate action in implementing with full funding the [already agreed upon plan] to renovate the Center playground for ages 0 to 12."

We ask the oversight committee to acknowledge this determined, unwavering community voice and preference, and to exert its influence in turning this dream and promise into a reality.

Playground Update

Mad props to everyone who took the time to sign the Hearst Playground petition. The petition requests full funding for Phase II of the playground renovation, which would provide two separate age-appropriate playlots and extra amenities in keeping with the wishes of parents and community members. We have gathered more than 200 signatures to date and may be approaching 300 soon.

There has been lots of personnel change at DPR, but finally the agency has made progress on engineering evaluations for Phase II. A meeting is tentatively set for Wednesday, December 14 at 7 pm in the "Little House" (the recreation center) on the grounds of the playground. DPR will meet with the Working Group to go over the plan's progress and hopefully to resolve obstacles to completion.

If you wish to attend or observe, contact Lisa Schamess at lisaschamess@yahoo.com or Dean Nielsen at dnielsen@worldbank.org.

Scholastic Book Fair
at Hearst next week!!

Get a start on your holiday
shopping by visiting the 
book fair and picking up
great gifts for your kids,
friends and family.  The
Scholastic Book Fair has 
something for everyone--from
the latest picture books 
to books about crafting, cooking,
and how to fix stuff. 

Your kids will be visiting the book fair next week and 
making a wish list of books that they would love to add
to their bookshelves.  Teachers and the school librarian 
will also be making wish lists (and checking them twice!) 
of books that would make a great addition to their classroom
and school libraries. 

Come by early and often. Browse by yourselves or with your family.
Next week, Hearst’s Big Room will be better than Borders for family
fun and conversation.  Ms. Vandivier will be around most of the
time to make recommendations for you and your children. 

Proceeds from the fair will be used to purchase new books and other
library materials.

Check it out!

Scholastic Book Fair:
Monday through Friday December 5-9
8 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.