How many kids in Crestwood are going into middle school next year? How about the year after that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All this to say, again, I'm not crying over the tiny numbers of people who are losing boundary rights they aren't using anyway.

I am a 16th st Heights parent who has lived here for fifteen years. We have a rising 8th grader at Deal, and a rising fifth grader at a charter school. Our three year old starts at the charter in the fall. Every single MS age child I know in our neighborhood attends Deal. Kids have switched OUT of HRCS options to go back to Deal. Large groups of kids wait for the bus together all up 16th st every morning. The old timers in our neighborhood also went to Deal and Wilson and sent their kids there also. So there is a long connection to those schools, and the experience of my children and their neighborhood friends will be directly affected by cutting them out of those resources.

Bottom line is that NO ONE should be cut out of their current school and zoned for a lower performing school. Period. It is not ethical. If you feel it would be unethical if it happened to your family, then it is unethical if it happens to your neighbor's also. It is the "everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten" principle!

+1 Catania has also been very clear on this -- why would anyone give up a higher performing school to go to a lower performing one.

Parents want what is best for their kids and this new version of the proposal has plenty of losers who will be forced out of better schools to go to schools where there is no plan in action to improve the quality of education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

All this to say, again, I'm not crying over the tiny numbers of people who are losing boundary rights they aren't using anyway.

I am a 16th st Heights parent who has lived here for fifteen years. We have a rising 8th grader at Deal, and a rising fifth grader at a charter school. Our three year old starts at the charter in the fall. Every single MS age child I know in our neighborhood attends Deal. Kids have switched OUT of HRCS options to go back to Deal. Large groups of kids wait for the bus together all up 16th st every morning. The old timers in our neighborhood also went to Deal and Wilson and sent their kids there also. So there is a long connection to those schools, and the experience of my children and their neighborhood friends will be directly affected by cutting them out of those resources.

Bottom line is that NO ONE should be cut out of their current school and zoned for a lower performing school. Period. It is not ethical. If you feel it would be unethical if it happened to your family, then it is unethical if it happens to your neighbor's also. It is the "everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten" principle!

+1 Catania has also been very clear on this -- why would anyone give up a higher performing school to go to a lower performing one.

Parents want what is best for their kids and this new version of the proposal has plenty of losers who will be forced out of better schools to go to schools where there is no plan in action to improve the quality of education.

This plan has a lot less losers, it just happens that one of them is you. Someone has to leave Deal/Wilson. Why someone else instead of you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Crestwood family here. God forbid these new school zones, because if that becomes the case we will clearly move and i know other families will too. We came here for Deal, Wilson and even Eaton and Hearst which we are zoned for. We will not send our children to up and coming and less performing schools. Period. This needs to be stopped. Crestwood must maintain its historical rights since it is west of 16th street in its own unique corner of NW DC.

LOL

You sound like a real estate agent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

All this to say, again, I'm not crying over the tiny numbers of people who are losing boundary rights they aren't using anyway.

I am a 16th st Heights parent who has lived here for fifteen years. We have a rising 8th grader at Deal, and a rising fifth grader at a charter school. Our three year old starts at the charter in the fall. Every single MS age child I know in our neighborhood attends Deal. Kids have switched OUT of HRCS options to go back to Deal. Large groups of kids wait for the bus together all up 16th st every morning. The old timers in our neighborhood also went to Deal and Wilson and sent their kids there also. So there is a long connection to those schools, and the experience of my children and their neighborhood friends will be directly affected by cutting them out of those resources.

Bottom line is that NO ONE should be cut out of their current school and zoned for a lower performing school. Period. It is not ethical. If you feel it would be unethical if it happened to your family, then it is unethical if it happens to your neighbor's also. It is the "everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten" principle!

+1 Catania has also been very clear on this -- why would anyone give up a higher performing school to go to a lower performing one.

Parents want what is best for their kids and this new version of the proposal has plenty of losers who will be forced out of better schools to go to schools where there is no plan in action to improve the quality of education.

I feel no love for Catania or Bowser, but reading this thread makes it clear to me that the next mayor has to throw a lot of support behind funding a new MacFarland MS.

The OP has a fool's errand quibble about the number of prospective Deal students in Crestwood. If the student is a rising third grader or higher, then they're still going to Deal. If they're younger, they can reap the benefit of a new MS and HS, but only if the effort starts right now and only if it has robust funding for robust programming.

If Catania believes no family should be forced into a lower performing school, then he should be all about abolishing the PS-8 education campuses and creating at least one strong stand-alone MS fed by all these failed experiments. I see no reason why the families zoned for those schools should be less important to the Catania campaign than families who lost their access to Deal.

Likewise, if Bowser really believes her "Deal for All" mantra, then she should be talking aloud about mirrored - and even boosted - program offerings at this new middle school.

It's time we stop talking in hypotheticals and start talking budget realities that help families envision a destination MS for elementary schools like West, Powell and Bruce Monroe that are on the cusp of success. Investment and commitment from these families wanes at 1st-3rd grades because of the weak middle school options. If the next mayor is committed to keeping thse families, then he/she has a golden opportunity at the DME's proposal for "New Middle School."