Overcrowding and lack of space in Ward 3 Schools

[Anonymous]

There was a newsletter in my inbox this morning from Ruth Wattenberg. This was one of the items:

Ward3-Wilson Feeder School Education Network meetings

Wed, Feb 23,
6:45 PM
Tenley Library
with Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh.
The focus of the meeting will be to talk about the overcrowding and lack of space in the W3/Wilson Feeder schools and possible solutions.


What do you think? What are the solutions?

[Anonymous]

Solutions:

--Add additional space.
--Get rid of PK classrooms.
--Shrink boundaries
--Open a new elementary school (or one devoted just to Early Education) in Ward 3 to take off some of the pressure.
--Leave as is and suffer through knowing that the bubble will pass.

[Anonymous]

Excellent 16:04. No need for a meeting!

[Anonymous]

Reclaim Hardy, for one.

Reduce/remove feeder rights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reclaim Hardy, for one.

Reduce/remove feeder rights.

+1. Stop taking any OOB at schools that are way beyond official capacity (eg, Eaton!)

Stop feeder rights for OOB; if you want to and can go to an elementary school OOB, that should only give you a middle-school preference depending on space, not automatic entry if the MS is over-capacity. Same for MS to HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Solutions:

--Add additional space.
--Get rid of PK classrooms.
--Shrink boundaries
--Open a new elementary school (or one devoted just to Early Education) in Ward 3 to take off some of the pressure.
--Leave as is and suffer through knowing that the bubble will pass.

Office of planning doesn't think it's a bubble. They're projecting DC will exceed its all-time high population by 2030. Fifty years ago DCPS had almost 150,000 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Solutions:

--Add additional space.
--Get rid of PK classrooms.
--Shrink boundaries
--Open a new elementary school (or one devoted just to Early Education) in Ward 3 to take off some of the pressure.
--Leave as is and suffer through knowing that the bubble will pass.

Office of planning doesn't think it's a bubble. They're projecting DC will exceed its all-time high population by 2030. Fifty years ago DCPS had almost 150,000 students.

that would mean doubling the existing population of public ed students in the next 12-13 years. Don't see how tha'ts remotely possble

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Solutions:

--Add additional space.
--Get rid of PK classrooms.
--Shrink boundaries
--Open a new elementary school (or one devoted just to Early Education) in Ward 3 to take off some of the pressure.
--Leave as is and suffer through knowing that the bubble will pass.

The potential to open new elementary schools is something to discuss. Potential spaces for new elementary schools is another. And also ask Mary Cheh why she thought it was important to support an "emergency" vote to give the public school space from the ex-Hardy building to a private school at the sweetheart rate of 15K per month for the next 25 years without public comment (see the gargantuan thread) and how she knows that ex-Hardy space wouldn't be a good space for a public elementary school?
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/606702.page

[Anonymous]

Tons of space city wide. Redraw the lines before opening any new DCPS schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tons of space city wide. Redraw the lines before opening any new DCPS schools.

A boundary adjustment was just done--they're not going to redo it anytime soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tons of space city wide. Redraw the lines before opening any new DCPS schools.

A boundary adjustment was just done--they're not going to redo it anytime soon.

good idea but runs into a problem over requiring incremental adjustments which create winners and losers. The only way to make it work is sharing the pain and the most sought-after zones have zero interest in pain. They're mostly ok with the predictably highly segregated schools which result.

the other issue is the politicized Wilson feed which takes every affluent segment of upper NW plus a chunk of semi-affluent/diverse neighborhoods to the east. None of those zoned for Wilson are giving that up.

[Anonymous]

Didn't we talk about Old Hardy a few years ago? Its used by the lab now - couldn't we bring that building back?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't we talk about Old Hardy a few years ago? Its used by the lab now - couldn't we bring that building back?

Yes, there'a a huge thread about this that Jeff moved to the new Metropolitan Politics forum. Ask Cheh why she voted to give that building to Lab at practically no cost (thankfully Bowser overruled her and told her to seek public comment).
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/606702.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reclaim Hardy, for one.

Reduce/remove feeder rights.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Solutions:

--Add additional space.
--Get rid of PK classrooms.
--Shrink boundaries
--Open a new elementary school (or one devoted just to Early Education) in Ward 3 to take off some of the pressure.
--Leave as is and suffer through knowing that the bubble will pass.

Adjust boundaries slightly and reduce out of boundary enrollment. Eaton and especially Hearst are majority OOB schools. Even as inboundary enrollment has increased, DCPS has been slow to ratchet back OOB enrollment. By adjusting Janney and Murch boundaries slightly, some of the overcrowding pressure could be removed from those schools, with more local population shifted to Hearst and Eaton. By reducing OOB enrollment, this also takes some pressure off of the middle schools (Hearst feeds to Deal) and Wilson.