|
Sonita Lewis, parent of two children at Dulles:
My son, Sean, is now in fifth. Back in first grade, I saw that he needed help. I tried talking to the counselors, the social worker, I talked to everyone I could. They said they would work with me, but it never happened. I had to call the school board letting them know my son wasn’t getting the help he needed. I even took him to Ada S. McKinley and they diagnosed him with ADHD and I brought all the documents to the school, but they acted like they didn’t care. When he was in third grade, they waited until the end of the year to say they were going to work with him. Because he didn’t get the help he needed, they held him back in third grade. My daughter, Sonitra, is the opposite, a straight A student. But the work she was doing, she was too smart for the class. She got her work done fast, and the teacher would get upset, saying, “Sonitra, you’re working too fast.” I asked them to put her in a gifted class, but they kept her in the same class.
So I transferred them out of Dulles last year. They went to a charter school that closed at the end of the year. I wasn’t going to put them back at Dulles until I found out about the turnaround. I was one of the people who was skeptical. You want to see things for yourself. When you see the staff is on top of everything, you realize, “Oh wow, this is great. They’re doing this with my kids, they’re doing that.” After the turnaround, the first day I took my kids to school, they started getting help. They help your child out in every way. They say, “What can we do, how can we help?” You walk through the door and you have smiles and greetings. The teachers listen, they answer your questions. They even give you their personal numbers so you can call if you need to. The principal keeps a smile on her face all day every day. She never stays in her office. She’s always in the classroom checking on the kids. She gets really excited because she knows the kids are learning.
Sean’s teacher, we’re always communicating. We’re doing everything we can to help him out. He’s progressing more than he did before. She started an after-school program with her class to do homework. He likes going there, where he can sit with her one on one. The social worker sees him once or twice a week, and sees me. They are on it, seriously.
There is a program where they have Saturday school. My daughter said, “Mom, can you sign this, I want to go to Saturday school.” Kids are wanting to get to school every day. They are so excited to be there. She’s in hip hop, dance class and choir. She loves it!
I am so proud of Dulles becoming a turnaround school because our children need to see there are people who believe in them, and that they can achieve and set goals in life.
|
