Wells’ Staff Responds To City Desk Joke
Yesterday, I joked that Councilmember Tommy Wells appeared to celebrate the death of an elementary school. It was a reference to an item posted on the Ward 6 councilmember’s website.
The Wells’ item detailed the closing of Anthony Bowen Elementary School and the efforts of the school and the community in easing their transition to Amidon Elementary School and Jefferson Junior High. In other words, one school is now being closed and its students are being forced to split into two different schools.
Last Friday, Bowen students and tons of other interested parties marched from their old school to Amidon. The Wells’ item describes the scene this way:
“A crowd of nearly 400 people marched from Bowen to Amidon, with children and adults wearing matching blue and white tee shirts identifying the occasion and major sponsors. Most waved small American flags. Leading the parade, wearing their traditional red and white uniforms and plummed white headdresses was the 12 member 3rd U.S. Army Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) ‘Fife and Drum Corps.’ based at nearby Fort McNair military base. Officers from the First District MPD escorted the group and provided a safe walking route with traffic controls. While drivers waiting to cross could have been annoyed by the long wait, many drivers were seen smiling at the sight.”
Wells’ office was not happy with my jab and called me to let me know. They saw this scene as an impressive show by a community trying to make the best of a tough deal. The change in schools is going to be difficult but at least everyone seems to be engaged in easing the transition.
But. No parade and free T-shirt is going to answer many of the questions parents may have about their kids’ new school.
The combined school will be called Amidon-Bowen. Wells’ Chief of Staff Charles Allen says it will become a “technology school” which is a fancy way of saying kids are getting new computers and teachers are getting to jazz up their lectures on multiplication tables with PowerPoint.
Allen isn’t sure about the specifics of what a tech school actually means. Nor does he know yet if the school will be augmenting their increased student body with more teachers and resources. Nor could he answer questions about class sizes.
“It is pretty clear that not every single teacher from Bowen is moving to Amidon,” Allen says.
But Allen smartly notes that there are still questions about resources and training for teachers, students, and parents. Marching is one thing. But learning how to navigate a smart screen is another. Training is going to have to be done.
We will be following this issue. Stay tuned!
2 Responses to “Wells’ Staff Responds To City Desk Joke”
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June 18th, 2008 at 11:22 am
It is ignorant to say that the “technology school” will be “jazzed up” with powerpoints. That’s sloppy reporting from someone who has already been chastised for sloppy reporting. There is this thing, it’s called self-standards, and it’s as much in short supply in government-run institutions as it is in failed free press experiments. Want that raise? Sorry, Craiglist ate your raise and ate your buddy’s job too, he gets laid off.
My son’s Pre-K class in DCPS utilized the web, web-based videos and learning software, and every class has one or two computers in it. Being a technology school does not mean the teachers will use powerpoints, ferchrissakes, EVERYONE’s been using powerpoints for the last 10 years, how can you present without them in this day and age?
The specialty elementary schools are NOT being assigned from the top down by the Chancellor, the decisions of what the technology school means will be decided upon by the principal and the teachers and negotiated or approved with the Chancellor. If all the principal can come up with is powerpoint, which is already in-use in the pre-K environment at other schools, then the principal should rightly be fired. My guess is that no one but the author of this article, who will probably go in Creative Loafing’s next round of layoffs, thinks that’s true.
June 18th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Kudos, Don. Your anger is a thing of wonder. It is awe inspiring! That being said, not EVERYONE has been using PowerPoint for a decade. It may be difficult for you to understand being a parent of a pre-K kid (let’s hope he doesn’t make any PowerPoint jokes at the dinner table!), but a lot of schools either don’t have the technology that you speak of or are only now coming online.
A lot of schools still struggle with adequate air conditioning and trash pickup. Having been to several schools over the course of this year, I saw very few if any classrooms equipped for web-video tutorials. At Hart Middle School, I believe the principal barely had a working desktop computer.
So your ‘lil Bill Gates might be able to one day make some awesome viral videos with talking unicorns or odes to Christopher Cross but a lot of students are going without such technology.
That being said, my PowerPoint line was meant as sarcasm. A throwaway line. The greater issue is student-teacher ratios and whether or not these new hyphenated schools will be ready come September.And whether the vacant schools will turn into nuisance properties or something useful for their communities.
Yr graph about the chancellor not directing which schools are specialty schools is either incredibly naive or just fuzzy headed. You do say that the Chancellor has to approve them. Do you really think Rhee and her staff aren’t involved in this process?
But thanks again for your angry rant. You’re like the Bill O’Reilly of the City Desk comments section! Keep up the good work.