Less than One Week Till DC Schools Open

DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and School Chancellor Michelle Rhee have given us an update on where the administration stands at getting the city schools open on Monday August 27Th.. The theme appears to be... they're working overtime, still uncovering problems from past administrations, but not yet there at getting all the books and supplies in the proper schools, and important repairs (like air conditioning) will still be underway when the children show up for classes at the end of the summer break.

I've included the entire press release. What grade would you give the new administration?

"Chancellor Rhee and her team have worked tirelessly to make sure that we are prepared for this new era of public education in the District of Columbia," said Mayor Fenty. "We believe that we have the resources and-most importantly-the energy and determination required to be successful."

School registration continues to be underway and parents of DCPS students are encouraged to register prior to the first day of school, which falls the week before the Labor Day holiday this year. Pre-registration further ensures that schools are prepared for the first day by having a more accurate expectation of student enrollment. This helps identify appropriate amounts of supplies, materials and resources needed for a successful school year.

Textbooks

During the period of July 15 - August 16, the DCPS central warehouse received orders for 69,000 textbooks, with 42,000 (61 %) books delivered and 27,000 books awaiting distribution by the first day of school. Thousands of books are being shipped each day to schools around the city to complete orders and the DCPS teams will return to schools this week to do a second round of verification visits to check progress as schools prepare to open their doors. Since identifying issues surrounding textbook delivery and a dysfunctional inventory system for the DCPS warehouse, school officials have worked to create a system to get textbooks in the hands of students as well as a short-term textbook inventory program for the warehouse.

Warehouse inventory

On August 17, the central warehouse organized orders for nearly 20 schools, with more than 6,000 books to be shipped today. Since Chancellor Rhee's first visit to the central warehouse several weeks ago, she created a task force that improved the textbook request tracking system and a warehouse inventory system identifying 191,000 textbooks items on hand, with at least 500,000 textbooks inventoried within the entire school system.

Supplies

Following a volunteer effort at the central warehouse to organize and identify supplies being held in the facility, bulk supplies will be shipped to schools this week. Those supplies include:
600 boxes of binders
133 boxes of desk trays
94 boxes of scotch tape
9,690 boxes of file dividers
21 boxes of envelopes
3 pallets of construction paper
38 boxes of highlighters
102 boxes of construction boards
138 boxes of school supplies consisting of pens, pencils, glue, notebooks, filler paper, highlighters, scissors, and book bags

THE WEEK AHEAD

August 22: Facilities Readiness Update
A full facilities update will be provided on August 22 by Allen Lew, executive director of the DCPS Office of School Modernization. Lew will provide an update on both the status of school air conditioning as well as cold weather preparation related to boiler functioning.

August 23-24: Preparing Teachers to Succeed
In collaboration with the Washington Teachers Union, DCPS will host a "Welcome Back" event for DC Educators at the Convention Center on August 23-24. Teachers will have the opportunity to prepare for the year ahead, talk about the changes planned for the public schools and continue a dialog to involve the entire school system in the continual effort to create improvements. The event will serve as an opportunity for instructional personnel to come together under the new leadership of DCPS.

The general sessions will serve to motivate, inspire and send a clear message about the need for personal accountability for student success. Break-out sessions presented by master teachers from around the country will offer research-based, proven classroom strategies using hands-on, interactive methods in a variety of content areas.

August 24: Success Through Example
To highlight the work to be done by volunteers across the city on Beautification Day on August 25, Mayor Fenty and members of his cabinet will participate in a school clean-up at Drew Elementary School, 5600 Eads St., NE from 10 am - 1 pm. Fenty has asked his top executives to roll up their sleeves to help illustrate the government's full commitment to the transformation of the city's schools.

August 25: Beautification Day
This Saturday, volunteers from around the District will participate in the 3rd Annual DCPS Beautification Day in preparation for the first day of school. Community members will beautify the exterior and front grounds of school buildings-including painting, clean-up and landscaping.

The event will take place at DCPS schools across the city on Saturday, August 25, 2007, from 8am to 1pm. Approximately 1,200 volunteers have registered and 142 schools are participating. To learn more about Beautification Day or to register, call (202) 727-0488, email us at mailto:volunteer4schools@k12.dc.us