Letter to Mayor Bowser Asking to Restore Teacher Positions in FY25 Budget

The School Without Walls Home and School Association

February 28, 2024

RE: Budget relief for The School Without Walls High School for School Year (SY) 2024-25

Dear Mayor Bowser and Chancellor Ferebee, 

On behalf of our community of nearly 600 students and their families—who come from every ward across the city—parent representatives of the School Without Walls High School (SWWHS) Local School Advisory Team (LSAT), with support from the Home & School Association (HSA), requests that you provide budget relief in the amount of $235,210 in our SY 2024-25 budget to ensure our school operations are fully funded. 

Our enrollment is currently at 597 and projected to increase to 609 next year, and yet we are facing a budget shortfall amounting to two full-time positions and other expenses. While DCPS claims to be raising average school budgets by 12.4%, the latest SWWHS budget proposal is effectively down by 22%. If you do not restore the requested funds, SWWHS will need to eliminate two faculty full-time equivalents (FTEs). Based on the budget submitted to DCPS on February 23, this means cutting a world language and sacrificing classes and programs in the performing arts. This is devastating on many levels.  

Over the past three years, our school has worked hard to recover from the pandemic and from past budget instability. Our focus has been on providing programs and services that not only support our students academically but that help them feel connected to the school and community. Losing staff and programming will set us back—class sizes will be larger and it will be impossible to fully schedule all students. Moreover, students will lose out on opportunities to engage globally and in the arts. This also sends a message to students that they are not important and that their teachers are expendable. The budget impacts will also undermine the adopted SWWHS Comprehensive School Plan and a school culture that has led to decades of successful student outcomes.

We are not seeking new resources beyond what is required to maintain our operations and deliver the same level of service as this year, to a projected greater number of students, which amounts to $2.17 per student, per school day. 

SWWHS parents and students will participate in upcoming hearings and seize other opportunities to reiterate our request. However, if this issue cannot be favorably resolved, the LSAT and HSA expect City and DCPS leadership to explain its rationale to our school community at our next LSAT meeting on March 6.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

cc: Deputy Mayor for Education

      Deputy Chancellor