- D.C. Council to Act on Anti-Bullying Bill
- DCPS Central Office Gets Low Grades for Work Environment, Job Satisfaction
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
April 12, 2012
The District and Montana are the only places in the country without an anti-bullying law on the books.
But that could change soon: The D.C. Council is preparing to act on a long-neglected bill to prevent bullying in the city's public schools, offering immunity and protection for those who report bullying.
The Youth Bullying Prevention Act of 2012 was introduced under a different name in January 2011 but never made much legislative progress. The revived bill would require all District agencies that work with youth to implement a bullying prevention policy, and to ensure that victims and witnesses who report bullying don't face retaliation. The bill also directs Mayor Vincent Gray to create a task force across agencies and review the effectiveness of anti-bullying strategies every two years.
"We have an obligation to protect all District youth from bullying and intimidation," said Council Chairman Kwame Brown.
However, the council's announcement that it would finally act on the bill -- a first markup has been scheduled for May 1 -- came one day after Gray said he was taking matters into his own hands.
On Tuesday, Gray announced he was creating a task force including D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, the directors of the health and parks department directors, and his LGBT adviser, among others. In the District of Columbia Anti-Bullying Action Plan, the mayor also called for a research report and a public forum, as well as a "model policy and standards."
Bullying has long been a problem in District schools. According to student surveys, at least 60 percent of students at every D.C. public middle school said they are "made fun of for the way they look or talk."
At Woodrow Wilson Senior High, 85 percent of students said students damaged or stole other students' property at least sometimes. At Ballou Senior High School, 73 percent said students were teased for the way they looked or acted.
"There are very few secrets in the Wilson Building," local political consultant Chuck Thies said. "I imagine the council knew the mayor was organizing a task force and because of this contest for attention, I think that's why we're finally seeing movement on this."
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
April 12, 2012
Looking for long hours, so-so pay, limited opportunities for professional growth and the chance to do good work that goes unrecognized? Then the DCPS central office could be the place for you.
Those are some of the takeaways from a survey of about 500 DCPS staff, conducted in March 2011 but circulated—at least to underlings—only a few weeks ago. It appears that 1200 1st St. N.E. is even more of a turnover machine than the schools, where teacher attrition has been historically high. Seventy percent of those surveyed said they had been there three years or less.
“I see a lot of people leaving, not just from my department, and it scares me to think about the future of our reform,” lamented one official in an appendix of selected comments.
Employees from eight DCPS offices were surveyed: Chancellor, Transformation Management, Family and Parent Engagement, Data and Accountability, Human Capital, Special Education, Chief Academic Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
Asked what they liked most about working for DCPS 136 made “Contribution to the DCPS Mission” their first response. Other first answers included “Working with the schools” (102), “Personal satisfaction from my work (73) “Colleagues” (83) and “Working with the community.” (30).
Staffers said that they believed in the DCPS mission, but felt undervalued by colleagues and supervisors, who often function in silos and don’t encourage collaboration.
“The lack of culture and interoffice camaraderie, while improving, is still upsetting to me. Few offices work together or feel invested in each other’s work,” said one.
Another described a “churn and burn” management ethos: “The organization does not care for its people in a thoughtful way; they feel expendable and my perception is that DCPS central office will take whatever it can from its employees and then ‘understand’ if they need to move on because their merit is not rewarded.”
One message that resonated in the survey was concern about lack of clear policies and focused priorities. “Having too many priorities means having no priorities,” a staffer said. “We need to know what the top 3-5 priorities are and focus on those, which means saying no to a lot of things.”
Whoever conducted the survey (the Powerpoint I saw doesn’t say and DCPS didn’t respond to question asking who did) pointed out that there is nothing wildly unusual about the findings. It placed DCPS in the middle of the pack (56th percentile) compared to job satisfaction at similar organizations, although it’s not clear exactly how that ranking was derived.
In fairness, March 2011 was probably not the most opportune moment for an assessment of morale. The organization was still reeling from Michelle Rhee’s resignation just five months earlier, and there was considerable uncertainty about new Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s willingness to sustain Rhee’s program. He had also not yet named Kaya Henderson as Rhee’s permanent successor.
There were some upbeat appraisals. Asked what was going well, one staffer said: “DCPS central office employees NEVER lose sight of the DCPS mission, despite the political situation and the budgetary [reductions] These are the smartest most motivated individuals I have ever worked with.”
DCPS spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz said the survey results, both positive and negative, were “incredibly helpful.”
“We’re appreciative of the staff who participated and we look forward to continuing to learn how best to support our staff in central office, whose jobs ultimately support our students, our teachers, our schools and our community,” she said.
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