B4 EZ RE K THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, AUGUST 5 , 2019
Pearson said in a recent inter-
view. “And my own view is that
doing more includes adding a
preference for those kids in the
lottery.”
Washington Latin says it sup-
ports an at-risk preference, which
the D.C. Council would need to
approve.
The administration of Mayor
Muriel E. Bowser (D) has not
taken a stance on the preference.
Paul Kihn, deputy mayor for edu-
cation, said the District has not
finished studying it.
In 2018, a city-funded study
determined that an at-risk prefer-
ence would not have a significant
impact unless it supersedes sib-
ling preference in the algorithm
used by the lottery. Kihn said the
city is exploring options for how
the preference could be imple-
mented and its potential effects
on city schools.
“Before we do it, we want to
make sure the trade-off is the
right trade-off,” Kihn said. “Lot-
tery preferences always include
winners and losers.”
As part of its conditions to
open, the school agreed to update
its discipline policy to reduce
suspensions and train teachers
on how to work with students
who have faced trauma. Washing-
ton Latin said it would also con-
sider allowing children to enroll
in slots that became vacant after
ninth grade — something it does
not currently permit.
The decision to expand Latin
came less than two months after
the charter board approved the
opening of five new campuses
amid warnings from city leaders
that the District had ample empty
seats in existing schools and did
not need additional schools.
Advocates of the traditional
public school system fear that
more charter and application
schools could pull students and
resources away from neighbor-
hood schools.
“When existing schools lose
students, they see shrinking
budgets,” Suzanne Wells, the
founder of the Capitol Hill Public
Schools Parent Association, testi-
fied at a public charter meeting.
“The continual opening and clos-
ing of schools is particularly diffi-
cult for students and families.”
But Yolandra Plummer Diallo,
whose son is in middle school at
Washington Latin, said she is
impressed with the “richness of
our son’s education” and believes
more students should have access
to the quality education.
“There needs to be more equi-
table access to choice,” Diallo said
during a public charter school
meeting. “The expansion of
Washington Latin Public Charter
School will help expand this ac-
cess.”
[email protected]tion, there can be no sibling pref-
erence that first year — may give
Latin its best shot at diversifying
the student body, Anderson said.
School leaders do not know the
location of the second campus
but said they are seeking a Metro-
accessible property that would
attract at-risk students.
Anderson said the school
would continue to provide pri-
vate buses so students from dif-
ferent neighborhoods can easily
attend.
While a wide performance gap
exists between at-risk students
and their classmates at the
school, the at-risk students at
Latin perform better on stan-
dardized tests than their at-risk
peers citywide.
“With a new campus, where
there is no cross-campus sibling
preference, we can start anew,”
Anderson said.
Scott Pearson, director of the
charter school board, said he
wants the city to adopt a lottery
preference that enables schools
to give priority to at-risk students.
In 2014, Pearson said he opposed
such a preference because he did
not believe it had been rigorously
analyzed.
“If we are really serious about
equity and if we are serious about
making sure that our least advan-
taged families have the ability to
go to our high-performing
schools, we need to do more,”opened to middle-schoolers in a
church basement in upper North-
west, a largely wealthy swath of
the city. At the time, few white
families considered the city’s bur-
geoning charter sector, and the
school wanted to attract those
families to create a racially di-
verse school.
Peter Anderson, Latin’s h ead of
school, said that as its reputation
has grown, more white students
are staying on beyond middle
school, creating a student body
whose families are even more
affluent. Latin, which starts in
fifth grade and now has its cam-
pus in Brightwood Park, said the
application pool for upper grades
is more socioeconomically di-
verse.
Anderson said applications to
the school in recent years have
increased from families in Wards
7 and 8, the corner of the city with
the highest concentration of pov-
erty. But the number of white and
affluent families applying to the
school has also increased, and the
school cannot control who is ad-
mitted through the lottery.
The lottery’s sibling preference
— which gives priority to appli-
cants who have a brother or sister
at t he school — has been potent at
Latin, leaving little room for oth-
er students.
That’s why a second campus
that will open with a fifth and
sixth grade — where, by defini-language-immersion campuses
with relatively low populations of
at-risk students, also received
permission in recent years to
open second campuses.
Even the District’s school lot-
tery placement system — which is
supposed to give every student an
equal chance at enrolling in a
top-performing school — cannot
reverse this trend. Of the city’s 30
or so traditional public, charter
and application high schools,
only six have a population of
white children that exceeds 2
percent.
Though Washington Latin is
racially diverse, its student body
does not reflect the District’s pub-
lic school demographics: The stu-
dent body is 40 percent white —
far higher than the average of 6
percent in the District’s charter
schools, which are privately oper-
ated but publicly funded. At Lat-
in, 45 percent of students are
black, 9 percent are Hispanic, 3
percent are Asian, and 3 percent
identify as multiracial.
School leaders said they plan to
aggressively recruit applicants
for Latin’s new campus.
“We, too, would like a larger
population of at-risk students,”
said Diana Smith, Washington
Latin’s principal. “We didn’t get
into this to create a good public
school that looks like a private
school.”
In 2006, Washington Latinter School Board who voted
against Washington Latin’s appli-
cation and spoke at a public meet-
ing in June.
The conundrum at Washing-
ton Latin — it’s a well-regarded
school whose demographics do
not reflect the city it is serving —
mirrors the challenges that exist
on campuses across the city as
more white and affluent families
enroll their children in the Dis-
trict’s traditional public and char-
ter schools.
Those families tend to concen-
trate in a relatively small number
of schools, and those schools typi-
cally yield better test scores and
are considered high-performing.
Students of color from low-in-
come families are concentrated in
other schools, with many of those
campuses considered low-per-
forming.
Mundo Verde Bilingual Public
Charter School and Elsie Whitlow
Stokes Community Freedom Pub-
lic Charter School, two populartance, or they have been held
back more than a year in high
school.
At Washington Latin, just
7 percent of middle school stu-
dents are considered at-risk, and
16 percent of high school students
meet the definition.
At-risk students at Washington
Latin are three times as likely to
be suspended than their class-
mates are. They are also more
likely to be suspended than are
at-risk students at other city
schools, although school leaders
say that is because there are so
few students from disadvantaged
families on campus that inci-
dence percentages are easily
skewed.
“It gets exhausting to see the
highest-ranked academic schools
in the city consistently have
among the lowest at-risk popula-
tions,” said Steve Bumbaugh, a
member of the D.C. Public Char-
SCHOOL FROM B1
a businessman, had always told
her she should pursue a career
doing what she loved. Eriksdotter
never forgot his words: She still
hears his voice in her head today,
though he died of pancreatic can-
cer almost two decades ago.
When an opportunity arose to
pursue painting more seriously,
Eriksdotter snatched it. Around
2009, she and then-fiance Col-
lings had saved $20,000 for a
wedding in Italy — but they de-
cided to elope and instead use the
money to launch her art career.
For the next several years, the
couple traveled around the East
Coast exhibiting Eriksdotter’s
paintings (mostly flowers) at art
shows, though she also kept her
corporate job. In 2016, she gave
birth to her first child. In 2017,
convinced that she could be suc-
cessful as a painter and eager to
be at home with son Mason, she
left her job to focus on art. She
now spends 20 to 30 hours a week
in her studio and the rest of her
time with her children: Mason, 3,
and Elise, 3 months.
Eriksdotter’s studio and the
signature on every painting bear
her father’s name, which means
“Erik’s daughter.”
“It’s a connection full of love,”
she said. “I love signing that
name. I love thinking of the word
‘Eriksdotter’ hanging in custom-
ers’ homes around the country.”
And she loves what she does.
She loves spending hours in her
studio swivel chair, her window
open to capture birdsong in
springtime — or with a steaming
cup of Earl Grey tea in winter. She
loves the final moments of a
painting, when she uses a tiny
brush to make the animal’s hair
as fine and lifelike as possible. It
is “a joy and an honor” to paint
people’s pets, she said.
But there’s one animal Eriks-
dotter will wait to paint.
“One day, I will definitely paint
Lucas, and he will have a place in
my home on a big canvas,” she
said. “But not yet. For now, it’s
still too heartbreaking.”
[email protected]tic legacy — both her mother and
grandfather were painters — and
by her mother’s creativity around
the house. Her mother, who had
trained as a professional chef,
concocted unusual, delicious
dishes and decorated the family’s
home with special Scandinavian
flair. “Think fresh moss set in an
ancient silver bowl,” Eriksdotter
said.
Eriksdotter never took an art
class. But she would spend about
20 hours a week behind an easel
starting in her mid-20s, a habit
she maintained throughout her
years working in PR.
She knew it could be difficult to
earn a good living as a profession-
al artist. But Eriksdotter’s father,Eriksdotter said. “I really know
what it feels like to lose that
beloved pet, that animal who
sleeps with you, plays with you,
nudges you when you’re super
sad.”
In addition to easing custom-
ers’ grief, E riksdotter also sees the
pet portraits as a way to give
back: She donates about 5 per-
cent of her profits every month to
animal rescue organizations and
domestic violence shelters.
In a way, Studio Eriksdotter is a
perfect synthesis of Eriksdotter’s
three lifelong passions: her love
for Lucas, for painting and for her
father.
She began painting at an early
age, inspired by her family’s a rtis-and never left. She gained citizen-
ship a few years after she married
her American husband, Casey
Collings, in 2009.
Eriksdotter recalled that Lucas
used to wake her and her two
sisters every morning by visiting
each of their bedrooms. At the
end of the day, Eriksdotter fell
asleep with Lucas cuddled
against her. He came along on
every trip to swim practice, insist-
ing on a prime seat in her lap,
Eriksdotter said.
The family loved Lucas so
much that they bought and fed
him cake on his birthdays.
“To this day, we text in a family
group message saying ‘Happy
Birthday Lucas’ on his birthday,”the paintings, which hang togeth-
er in her living room, she thinks
about Luke and the joy he
brought to her life.
“Her work truly captures what
I think is the heart and soul of
your pet,” Brennan said. “For me,
animals are family. Her work
embodies that: The animal really
leaps off the canvas.”
Losing a pet is a painful experi-
ence that Eriksdotter knows first-
hand.
She said she is still “in mourn-
ing” f or Lucas, a Yorkshire terrier
who was her constant companion
before he died of cancer at age 11,
when she was 18. Eriksdotter
grew up in Sweden, then moved
to the United States for collegechotherapist who specializes in
grief and loss counseling. Clients
who buy paintings of their de-
ceased pets also wind up getting
several weeks of something akin
to therapy.
Eriksdotter asks customers to
provide her with photos of the
animal, often sending them on
nostalgia-filled tours through old
memories caught on camera. She
also prods them to discuss their
pet, initially by asking about ba-
sic information — things like
breed and age — that then spur
long, emotional emails filled with
tales of love and loss, Eriksdotter
said.
“It sounds to me like what she’s
doing is an effective way of help-
ing people mourn,” Corvasce said.
“She’s giving them a safe space to
be able to talk about their animal,
and by talking about it, that’s a
way of mourning, which leads to a
place of healing.”
Corvasce added that some-
times, in her own practice, she
does something similar to Eriks-
dotter, asking clients to bring in
photographs of deceased loved
ones to help them process their
feelings. Margaret Capurso, a
grief counselor at Washington
Home and Community Hospices,
said the loss of a pet can have the
same impact as the death of a
human family member.
“The loss of a pet is no different
from a human loss for many,” she
said. “What is unique about our
pet relationships versus human
ones is that our pets provide us
with unconditional love... for
some folks, they are the only
uncomplicated companionship
they have.”
Patti Brennan of Indianapolis,
who has commissioned four pet
portraits from Eriksdotter, knows
exactly what Corvasce and Capur-
so mean. Of the animals featured
in her paintings, three are still
alive, but one — a Labrador-Ger-
man shepherd mix named Luke
— is gone.
Every time Brennan walks past
PETS FROM B1
Artist is inspired by love for painting, for her childhood pet and for her father
Will second campus boost enrollment of at-risk children at Washington Latin?
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST
Erica Eriksdotter’s pet portraits, which she documents on her Instagram account, have featured only dogs and cats so far, but she’s
“holding out hope” that a client will ask her to paint a snake sometime soon, which she says would be an “interesting challenge.”202-897-4160 DC301-264-8 998 MD703-586-9092 VAVA #270 502945 6A | MHIC #4674 4 | DC # 67000 878 | NC # 77474CALL TODAY FORFREE ESTIMATE(Hurry, Valid This MonthFree Gutter Guards)SIDING SPECIAL- Siding experts for VA, DC, MD, NC
- Virtually seamless panels in scores of colors and styles
- Free In-home estimates
*with approved credit based on 1 000 square feet.
Offer valid 30 days following date of written
price quote given prior to 8/31/19.PaymentsStarting At$
159Per
Month*THOUSANDS OF HOMEOWNERS
SERVED IN THE DMVVoted Best Handyman
WASHINGTON CITYPAPER
Voted Best Handyman
BETHESDA MAGAZINE
Great Reviews Awardee
GUILD QUALITYWEGET ITDONE:WINDOWS
SIDING
DOORS
TRIM
TILE
VANITIES
FLOORING
COUNTERTOPS
ACCESSIBILITY
& MOREMD MHIC #11 76 | VA #27 01039723 | DC #22 42MD 301 .388.595 9 VA 571 .341.620 2 DC 202 .770.3131
ScheduleFRED.com A DIVISION OFVisit ScheduleFRED.com today
for a complimentary consultation.