Regarding Proposed Additional Location

4th to 7th Grade Parent Meeting

Minutes from 3/6/14

Presenting were Mme. Kona-Facia Nepay, Executive Director and Pastor Obadiah Swen, Financial Manager. Also present were Mr. Joe Nimely, Board Chair; Mr. John Enkiri, Principal; Mme. Elena Lokounia, Vice Principal; Pastor Patrick Nepay, Operations Manager; and Ms. Jean Cobb, IB Coordinator.

Minutes taken by Janice Miller, PTO President.

Mme Nepay opened the meeting by acknowledging parent frustration and expressing appreciation for the parents that have been with the school since it opened. She apologized for the lack of communication and committed the school to looking at ways to improve the process.

She began with giving facts about the history of the current location and search:

When we moved to the Frankford location a year and a half ago, the Archdiocese didn’t want to give the school to BIA because they felt that BIA was an imminent threat to their enrollment.
Three was repeated dialog, community and parent advocacy, and some media attention and the Archdiocese decided to lease to BIA only if BIA capped its student enrollment at 532.
BIA hired an attorney who helped to negotiate the cap up to 591.
Moving into the school, BIA knew that either the cap would need to be raised or the school would need to take on an additional campus. This was written into the recently approved 5 year charter. Originally, BIA was trying to move the K/1 classes to an alternate location and establish a primary school.
The natural progression of the school is to take in 100-125 students per year in the K class. BIA knew that given those numbers, we would outgrow the cap quickly and so immediately upon moving into the school began to look for a possible second location.
The Archdiocese said that they would raise the cap only if BIA agreed to buy the St. Ambrose building AND agree to stop taking K students. Since our model is built on early immersion, this would effectively kill the school.
Some of the locations looked at included:
The Goodwill building on Belair road just south of the Frankford campus. That location was taken by Planet Fitness.
St. Ambrose Catholic School building on Park Heights (west side). This site was rejected because of the distance from the current location, and the hardship for parents with children in multiple grades.
The William C March school building – a former city school that is located at Broadway and North Avenue. The city originally indicated BIA could get this site, but then at the end of January told BIA it would not be ready until 2017. Additionally, many parents did not like this location.
St. Michaels Catholic School building on Belair Road North of Northern Parkway. The Archdiocese told BIA flat out that they would not rent to us because we were competition for them.

At this point, if the campus does not split, the school can only take in about 40 K students in 2014-2015.

Proposed Site:

The proposed site is 5436 Harford Road – the old Arcade Building and Theater which current houses the Bethel church and BIA business offices.

The site is 1.5 miles from the Frankford campus.
It has 3 floors in the Arcade building and a building analysis on it shows that it is possible to build on to the current structure to provide additional space as the school grows.
The Theater building is joined to the Arcade building by an indoor walkway. The entrance to the school would be off of the drive through alley in the back of the school.
The site would be renovated to have modern classrooms. Year one plans include 12 classrooms and rooms for specials, offices, a cafeteria and multipurpose room.
Plans for year one include renting parking space from the paid lot on Hamilton to provide parents with FREE parking for school related business.
Plans for year one include renting the existing gym and room space in the Presbyterian church across Hamilton Avenue (adjacent to the upper parking lot) for the specials classes. There is the option of converting some of the parking area to green space.

Timing

BCPS is still considering the proposal and has not yet approved it. If it is approved, the intention is to move the 5th-8th grade classes into the Harford Road campus in the 2014-2015 school year and to move the 4th grade to this site in the 2015-2016 school year.

Classroom/ Layout

Some rough drawings were shown of classrooms to be built/ offices. Once approval is given, it will take 4-8 weeks to come up with the final plans for renovation.
The entrance would be on the basement level.
10-12 full size classrooms plus offices and specials classes – 6 on basement level, 6 on first floor.
In year two, the third floor would be added to provide additional space.
The Arcade Building has skylights and glass front walls that allow for natural light. The upper floors have windows.
Frankford will be the main campus location and will continue to house Before and After Care, Enrichment programming, school events, etc.
The current church sanctuary can be retrofitted with a moveable partition that will allow use as a multipurpose room/ morning assembly area.

Staffing

All of the current middle school/ 5th grade teachers will move to the Harford Road site as their sole location.
Some of the specials teachers will split their time between campuses. For example, the librarian would go to full time and spend half her time at each campus. BIA may hire additional teachers as needed.
Mr. Enkiri and Mme. Lokounia would split their time between the campuses.
Nr. Ne will go to Harford Road. Ms. Cobb will stay at Frankford.
The site would have its own maintenance and secretarial staff.

Finances

BIA has the ability to finance the renovations and sustain the school
Frankford location will help support the ongoing smaller classes in the middle school – majority of funding comes from per pupil funding and the majority of pupils are in the K-1-2 grades.

Transportation/ parking

A FREE shuttle bus will be provided to parents from the Frankford location. For parents dropping off their K-4th grader, FREE before care will be offered to middle school students waiting for the shuttle.
The shuttle will drop off students at the main entrance in the back of the Arcade Building – doors open on the alley.
The shuttle will return students to Frankford in the afternoon for aftercare/ pick up.
Parents are able to drop off students themselves at Harford – FREE parking in the lot on Hamilton and walking them over.
NO DROP OFF will occur on Harford or Hamilton Road.
A crossing guard will be provided

Benefits of the Model

The school has received approval to apply for the MYP IB program. When we receive MYP designation, we will be the only middle school program in the area that has it.
Working to improve the sports opportunities in addition to current Basketball program
Opportunity for electives and extra curricular – looking at survey responses to see what is of most interest to parents/ students.
Since the children will have a firm grasp of the language already, the school will allow for a deeper use of the language and less overall English.
The languages would get a chance to mix with each other at lunch, and the cafeteria would be set up like a café – less institutional.
For advanced learners, there would be more opportunities to more easily differentiate learning and move up and down between the classes within a language

Questions from Parents:

Q: Can’t see how 117 students will fit in that space

A: the site can hold 250 students at maximum capacity, and there is the potential to add space.

Q: We are past middle school choice – will there be an opportunity for parents who choose to leave to get consideration from BCPS to move anyway?

A: There is no definitive answer on that, but something that can be inquired about.

Q: How will the addition of late immersion students work?

A: Students who choose this type of model have an affinity and desire for learning the language and a willingness to learn. Additionally, a 5 week intensive summer institute will be held with incoming students. Students who are struggling will be advised to not integrate into the class in the fall. The new students help to break up the cohort of students who have known each other for years and are in some cases bored of each other and almost like siblings.

Q: If we don’t add a K Arabic class in 2014-2015, will there be enough space to stay at Frankford?

No. We have space for roughly 40 students before we hit the cap. In 2015-2016, we would be unable to take in any new K students. We can’t add mobile classrooms – the number of students is the issue.

Q: What is the contingency plan if the site is not approved and the cap can’t be raised?

We would have to only take 40 students and the school would slowly shrink and die.

Q: Why can’t we move the K/1 students to the new site? Wouldn’t they fit the smaller space better?

There are more regulations in a K/1 school including the need for a playground, specifications on entrance/exits that the new site would not be able to meet. Additionally, since our K class is 125 and our 1st grade class is also around 125, we wouldn’t have enough space in the new site for the cohorts.

Q: can’t we mobilize the parents to get the cap raised?

We CAN!! Some parents suggested lobbying the Archdiocese like before and involving the media. One parent suggested that we try to get the cap increased for 2014-2015 to allow the current students to stay and give us time to properly renovate. PTO will take this up at the next meeting March 11th.

Q: When will we get updates?

BIA can give updates as they happen and every couple of weeks. Mme. Nepay said that parents wishing to tour the Harford Road site can contact the business office and come by during business hours.

Several parents spoke to acknowledge that they believed in the school and wanted it to succeed. They affirmed that they stand ready to advocate the school, but expressed frustration that they didn’t have more notice/ didn’t fully understand the picture. Some parents noted that BIA was a safer school choice than other City Middle Schools. Some parents liked the new location in terms of the neighborhood and the school entrance plan. Parents very much want to see the middle school deepen and mature into a solid and enriching program for the students.