DC Begins School Boundary Study

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are my ideas:

If you move OOB you only get to stay in your school until the end of the year (exceptions for foster care, homelessness, or legally-required reasons, but centralize that exemption process rather than leaving it with principals and registrars).

If you get into a school OOB, you have rights to it until the terminal year, but no rights to the destination school. This ends the shuffle of people leaving elementaries they like in hopes of a better feeder pattern, reduces overcrowding at in-demand middle and high schools, and creates more equity for people who didn't live in DC when their kids were little or couldn't get little kids across town, but can enter the lottery for older kids. Create a feeder pattern preference in the lottery if necessary for a compromise.

All bilingual elementary schools (and bilingual programs at schools like Marie Reed and Tyler that have bilingual tracks) have programmatic feeder into MacFarland and Roosevelt (that’s right, Oyster and Bancroft lose their Deal/JR feeds). Oyster becomes a PK3-5 school, with younger grades at Oyster and older grades at Adams.

Lafayette and Shepherd to Wells and Coolidge. For folks who say it won’t fit, there is room at Coolidge. Make an 8th grade academy in the Coolidge building and use Wells for just 6th and 7th. If necessary, move Coolidge Early College to Cardozo, which is more centrally located and will have extra space because of the item below.

Francis-Stevens drops the SWW name, gets its own principal, and becomes a PK3-5 school. Schools that feed there for middle go to the new Shaw Middle School along with the schools that already feed into Cardozo. Expect David Alpert, who is on the advisory committee from Ross, to freak out about this, but a 6-school feeder would have the resources to differentiate and offer some good programming.

CHML becomes PK3-5. This creates more PK spots on Capitol Hill, though open to everyone. DCPS offers Montessori middle school program at Brookland middle (closer to Montessori charters, uses underutilized space, and centrally located with CHML, Langdon, and Nalle, all of which would have programmatic feeder rights to the BMS program). The BMS Montessori middle would also take kids at 6th grade if extra space is available.

Make Browne, Walker-Jones, and Wheatley ECs PK3-5 only. Walker-Jones would go to McKinley MS (adding a 3rd feeder to it...right now it's just Langston and Langley) and Dunbar. Browne currently feeds to Eastern and Wheatley to Dunbar, but they'd both go to Eastern (which is closer) and join the middle school options below.

Re-draw Capitol Hill elementary boundaries to be more geographically compact.

Eliot-Hine becomes an arts-focused citywide magnet middle school, providing instruction in the same fields Ellington offers. Possibly run by the folks who run Ellington if they're willing; if not, by DCPS. At-risk preference and then a preference for kids at schools that currently feed to E-H plus Browne and Wheatley. No minimum grade cut-off or focus on pre-existing arts talent/lessons, but some behavior requirements (like no suspensions in the past year, teacher recommendation, etc.) and an essay about why you want to attend or something minimal. Feeds to Eastern. Then, either divide the schools that currently feed Jefferson, Stuart-Hobson, and Eliot-Hine (plus Browne and Wheatley) into JA and SH, or make Jefferson an amazing 6th grade academy for everyone with 7th and 8th at Stuart-Hobson. With Jefferson so close to the Wharf and the Mall, it would be possible to do some really cool partnerships and help the kids build skills and make new friends. A model for this would be Grand Rapids, which has 6th grade-only programs like Zoo School, a nature program, and more.

Fire away, folks!

There are all really great and well thought out options! I live in bounds for Lafayette... and while I'm not against a move to Coolidge from an education standpoint -- my house is exactly 4 miles from Coolidge, in the complete wrong direction from where most of us are commute to work (downtown) and has a national park in between. JR however is only 1.2 Miles. DCPS would really need to implement a busing system, outside of wmata, that is dedicated to getting kids to school. There is no way otherwise... it's just way too far and kids could never walk.

[Anonymous]

Does the new MacArthur school not reduce overcrowding at J/R enough? Elementary schools will still need to be rezoned? Or do we not know yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the new MacArthur school not reduce overcrowding at J/R enough? Elementary schools will still need to be rezoned? Or do we not know yet?

Foxhall? It will need to have its boundary defined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Word is that Bancroft admin are preparing to be zoned out of the JR feed. Would take years to fully implement likely, but we’ll see if it really happens.

where would they go, MacFarland and Roosevelt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one wants a Montessori middle school.

- current Montessori parent

there already is one, Sojourner. but no feeder rights from teh montessori elem charters. So how functional can it be if its all lottery and most kids have not montessori background...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are my ideas:

If you move OOB you only get to stay in your school until the end of the year (exceptions for foster care, homelessness, or legally-required reasons, but centralize that exemption process rather than leaving it with principals and registrars).

If you get into a school OOB, you have rights to it until the terminal year, but no rights to the destination school. This ends the shuffle of people leaving elementaries they like in hopes of a better feeder pattern, reduces overcrowding at in-demand middle and high schools, and creates more equity for people who didn't live in DC when their kids were little or couldn't get little kids across town, but can enter the lottery for older kids. Create a feeder pattern preference in the lottery if necessary for a compromise.

All bilingual elementary schools (and bilingual programs at schools like Marie Reed and Tyler that have bilingual tracks) have programmatic feeder into MacFarland and Roosevelt (that’s right, Oyster and Bancroft lose their Deal/JR feeds). Oyster becomes a PK3-5 school, with younger grades at Oyster and older grades at Adams.

Lafayette and Shepherd to Wells and Coolidge. For folks who say it won’t fit, there is room at Coolidge. Make an 8th grade academy in the Coolidge building and use Wells for just 6th and 7th. If necessary, move Coolidge Early College to Cardozo, which is more centrally located and will have extra space because of the item below.

Francis-Stevens drops the SWW name, gets its own principal, and becomes a PK3-5 school. Schools that feed there for middle go to the new Shaw Middle School along with the schools that already feed into Cardozo. Expect David Alpert, who is on the advisory committee from Ross, to freak out about this, but a 6-school feeder would have the resources to differentiate and offer some good programming.

CHML becomes PK3-5. This creates more PK spots on Capitol Hill, though open to everyone. DCPS offers Montessori middle school program at Brookland middle (closer to Montessori charters, uses underutilized space, and centrally located with CHML, Langdon, and Nalle, all of which would have programmatic feeder rights to the BMS program). The BMS Montessori middle would also take kids at 6th grade if extra space is available.

Make Browne, Walker-Jones, and Wheatley ECs PK3-5 only. Walker-Jones would go to McKinley MS (adding a 3rd feeder to it...right now it's just Langston and Langley) and Dunbar. Browne currently feeds to Eastern and Wheatley to Dunbar, but they'd both go to Eastern (which is closer) and join the middle school options below.

Re-draw Capitol Hill elementary boundaries to be more geographically compact.

Eliot-Hine becomes an arts-focused citywide magnet middle school, providing instruction in the same fields Ellington offers. Possibly run by the folks who run Ellington if they're willing; if not, by DCPS. At-risk preference and then a preference for kids at schools that currently feed to E-H plus Browne and Wheatley. No minimum grade cut-off or focus on pre-existing arts talent/lessons, but some behavior requirements (like no suspensions in the past year, teacher recommendation, etc.) and an essay about why you want to attend or something minimal. Feeds to Eastern. Then, either divide the schools that currently feed Jefferson, Stuart-Hobson, and Eliot-Hine (plus Browne and Wheatley) into JA and SH, or make Jefferson an amazing 6th grade academy for everyone with 7th and 8th at Stuart-Hobson. With Jefferson so close to the Wharf and the Mall, it would be possible to do some really cool partnerships and help the kids build skills and make new friends. A model for this would be Grand Rapids, which has 6th grade-only programs like Zoo School, a nature program, and more.

Fire away, folks!

There are all really great and well thought out options! I live in bounds for Lafayette... and while I'm not against a move to Coolidge from an education standpoint -- my house is exactly 4 miles from Coolidge, in the complete wrong direction from where most of us are commute to work (downtown) and has a national park in between. JR however is only 1.2 Miles. DCPS would really need to implement a busing system, outside of wmata, that is dedicated to getting kids to school. There is no way otherwise... it's just way too far and kids could never walk.

Unless DCPS makes an application only academy within Coolidge, I seriously doubt any family that is currently IB for Layfayett would ever consider Coolidge

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Leaving Lafayette in its current feeder pattern and just moving Shepherd makes sense in that it would give Deal and Wells equal number of feeder schools, and not require Lafayette kids to cross the park. But I think it's politically infeasible to remove only Bancroft and Shepherd from the Deal/JR feeder patterns because those schools have the highest populations of Black and Hispanic students.

Two things that would make the boundary reassignments more palatable would be a commitment to working with DDOT and WMATA on the buses required to get kids where they need to go, and a promise to offer honors English and math...the 6th grade classes would be for kids who score 4s and 5s on the 5th grade PARCC, and 7th and 8th would be based on the previous year's performance and teacher recommendations.

putting bancroft and marie reed into the Macfarland feeder makes sense. Mac Farland is the DCPS bilingual middle school for the other DCPS bilingual schools like Bruce Monroe and Powell. Adding bancrfot and marie reed might help Bancroft get better in the long run

[Anonymous]

Why would dcps want to keep upper middle class students?

[Anonymous]

"Re-draw Capitol Hill elementary boundaries to be more geographically compact.

Eliot-Hine becomes an arts-focused citywide magnet middle school, providing instruction in the same fields Ellington offers. Possibly run by the folks who run Ellington if they're willing; if not, by DCPS. At-risk preference and then a preference for kids at schools that currently feed to E-H plus Browne and Wheatley. No minimum grade cut-off or focus on pre-existing arts talent/lessons, but some behavior requirements (like no suspensions in the past year, teacher recommendation, etc.) and an essay about why you want to attend or something minimal. Feeds to Eastern. Then, either divide the schools that currently feed Jefferson, Stuart-Hobson, and Eliot-Hine (plus Browne and Wheatley) into JA and SH, or make Jefferson an amazing 6th grade academy for everyone with 7th and 8th at Stuart-Hobson. With Jefferson so close to the Wharf and the Mall, it would be possible to do some really cool partnerships and help the kids build skills and make new friends. A model for this would be Grand Rapids, which has 6th grade-only programs like Zoo School, a nature program, and more."

How about changing Stuart Hobson to being an arts-focused MS? They have a great drama department and have a good track record of sending students to DE. Plus it's small, so easy to cap numbers.

Make Elliot Hine the all-Hill middle school, with the added benefit of being across the street from Eastern, which may make Eastern more palatable to the EH families. It has good outdoor facilities for sports too.

[Anonymous]

All of this thread is very interesting, but the city isn't doing any of it. It will do the things it has to and no more. Even small changes are absolutely toxic politically. It is cute that anyone thinks that they will do big things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m always amused by y’all trying to kick Shepherd out in the name of overcrowding. Shepherd is such a tiny school.

Shepherd + 1/2 Lafayette would create a stronger cohort at Wells/Coolidge. I am always amused by the entitled Chevy Chase and Shepherd Park families who think it's too challenging to take Military/Piney Branch in the morning, and then want to restrict equity access at OOB at Deal/J-R. We see you.

UMC Takoma Elem family here. I support Shepard being zoned to Wells because I thing it makes sense geographically but I hate the narrative that we need students from other schools to come to Well’s to save us. I have been paying close attention to Wells and am looking forward to send my kid there without any new boundaries needed. I’m far more curious to see how many kids wind up in the new Walter reed developments and where they wind up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leaving Lafayette in its current feeder pattern and just moving Shepherd makes sense in that it would give Deal and Wells equal number of feeder schools, and not require Lafayette kids to cross the park. But I think it's politically infeasible to remove only Bancroft and Shepherd from the Deal/JR feeder patterns because those schools have the highest populations of Black and Hispanic students.

Two things that would make the boundary reassignments more palatable would be a commitment to working with DDOT and WMATA on the buses required to get kids where they need to go, and a promise to offer honors English and math...the 6th grade classes would be for kids who score 4s and 5s on the 5th grade PARCC, and 7th and 8th would be based on the previous year's performance and teacher recommendations.

putting bancroft and marie reed into the Macfarland feeder makes sense. Mac Farland is the DCPS bilingual middle school for the other DCPS bilingual schools like Bruce Monroe and Powell. Adding bancrfot and marie reed might help Bancroft get better in the long run

Marie Reed already feeds to MacFarland for dual language. Rather than Adams which is block away.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are my ideas:

If you move OOB you only get to stay in your school until the end of the year (exceptions for foster care, homelessness, or legally-required reasons, but centralize that exemption process rather than leaving it with principals and registrars).

If you get into a school OOB, you have rights to it until the terminal year, but no rights to the destination school. This ends the shuffle of people leaving elementaries they like in hopes of a better feeder pattern, reduces overcrowding at in-demand middle and high schools, and creates more equity for people who didn't live in DC when their kids were little or couldn't get little kids across town, but can enter the lottery for older kids. Create a feeder pattern preference in the lottery if necessary for a compromise.

All bilingual elementary schools (and bilingual programs at schools like Marie Reed and Tyler that have bilingual tracks) have programmatic feeder into MacFarland and Roosevelt (that’s right, Oyster and Bancroft lose their Deal/JR feeds). Oyster becomes a PK3-5 school, with younger grades at Oyster and older grades at Adams.

Lafayette and Shepherd to Wells and Coolidge. For folks who say it won’t fit, there is room at Coolidge. Make an 8th grade academy in the Coolidge building and use Wells for just 6th and 7th. If necessary, move Coolidge Early College to Cardozo, which is more centrally located and will have extra space because of the item below.

Francis-Stevens drops the SWW name, gets its own principal, and becomes a PK3-5 school. Schools that feed there for middle go to the new Shaw Middle School along with the schools that already feed into Cardozo. Expect David Alpert, who is on the advisory committee from Ross, to freak out about this, but a 6-school feeder would have the resources to differentiate and offer some good programming.

CHML becomes PK3-5. This creates more PK spots on Capitol Hill, though open to everyone. DCPS offers Montessori middle school program at Brookland middle (closer to Montessori charters, uses underutilized space, and centrally located with CHML, Langdon, and Nalle, all of which would have programmatic feeder rights to the BMS program). The BMS Montessori middle would also take kids at 6th grade if extra space is available.

Make Browne, Walker-Jones, and Wheatley ECs PK3-5 only. Walker-Jones would go to McKinley MS (adding a 3rd feeder to it...right now it's just Langston and Langley) and Dunbar. Browne currently feeds to Eastern and Wheatley to Dunbar, but they'd both go to Eastern (which is closer) and join the middle school options below.

Re-draw Capitol Hill elementary boundaries to be more geographically compact.

Eliot-Hine becomes an arts-focused citywide magnet middle school, providing instruction in the same fields Ellington offers. Possibly run by the folks who run Ellington if they're willing; if not, by DCPS. At-risk preference and then a preference for kids at schools that currently feed to E-H plus Browne and Wheatley. No minimum grade cut-off or focus on pre-existing arts talent/lessons, but some behavior requirements (like no suspensions in the past year, teacher recommendation, etc.) and an essay about why you want to attend or something minimal. Feeds to Eastern. Then, either divide the schools that currently feed Jefferson, Stuart-Hobson, and Eliot-Hine (plus Browne and Wheatley) into JA and SH, or make Jefferson an amazing 6th grade academy for everyone with 7th and 8th at Stuart-Hobson. With Jefferson so close to the Wharf and the Mall, it would be possible to do some really cool partnerships and help the kids build skills and make new friends. A model for this would be Grand Rapids, which has 6th grade-only programs like Zoo School, a nature program, and more.

Fire away, folks!

There are all really great and well thought out options! I live in bounds for Lafayette... and while I'm not against a move to Coolidge from an education standpoint -- my house is exactly 4 miles from Coolidge, in the complete wrong direction from where most of us are commute to work (downtown) and has a national park in between. JR however is only 1.2 Miles. DCPS would really need to implement a busing system, outside of wmata, that is dedicated to getting kids to school. There is no way otherwise... it's just way too far and kids could never walk.

Unless DCPS makes an application only academy within Coolidge, I seriously doubt any family that is currently IB for Layfayett would ever consider Coolidge

There already is one, a citywide application Early College Academy.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure CM Frumin is up for this fight. If I were a young Ward 3 family I’d be on high alert early in this process.

[Anonymous]

Is there any guidance on what can actually happen after boundaries are re-drawn? We bought our house on the Hill partly because we really like the local elementary but we are on the edge of the boundary. The other options we could be redrawn to are not something we would be interested in past ECE. We are awaiting PK3 results right now but were not sure we would enroll this year as we get a sibling preference at a hard to get into daycare for our second. Since we are guaranteed our great local for K, we were considering not enrolling (if we even get in) and waiting to try again for PK4 or even wait until K. Now I am a bit panicked because if we don't enroll for PK3 we could get rezoned. Or could it be even worse and even if we start in PK3 could we get kicked out? Would love to know if there is anything practical or if we are just going to have to wait and find out.