Middle Schools
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Anonymous
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Indeed. Another Ward 5 resident here (and I don't have any aunties that are in-bound for Deal). Bacchus was a crummy middle school and underutilitized. But we'll never be able to get it back because now it belongs to UDC. There are a lot of middle school-aged students in Ward 5 now and there were even before Bernie Bacchus closed. They just didn't go there, because it was crummy. Get it? And, there is a huge baby boom in Ward 5 now -- largely in the 5 and under set -- so we'll be screaming in 5-8 years when all those kids are ready for middle school!
Reading the posts from those that are inbound for Deal, Deal was also a crummy school and many parents did not send their children to Deal. The city invested in Deal by providing a great leader for the school and dollars for a state of the art facility. Parents inbound for Deal became interested. That option was never afforded to parents of Ward 5. Instead, one night we were told to go frack ourselves. Many elementary schools were closed. Taft Jr High was given to a charter, Brown Jr. High was closed, Bacchus was closed and a fourth (name escapes me now) closed. The remainding elementary schools were renamed education campuses and changed to PS to 8. This was all done without proper redistricting. It was done without providing foreign languages or science labs in old elementary school facilities. Many of the schools did not offer middle school math classes, for they did not have the proper personnel. How does a child without algebra ! or who has never dissected a frog, basic things, compete for a slot at Banneker or Walls. It's a joke and that is why the vast majority of ward 5 children are in charter schools or parochial schools. There was an effort by Ward 5 residents to ge tthe mayor and his chancellor to convert one of the larger closed ES in Ward 5 into a middle school. The effort went no where. Probably because that particular school is located right next to a metro station in was slated for developers. The effort will be revised under the mayor-elect. We shall see if the person makes a difference. |
Anonymous
Reading the posts from those that are inbound for Deal, Deal was also a crummy school and many parents did not send their children to Deal. The city invested in Deal by providing a great leader for the school and dollars for a state of the art facility. Parents inbound for Deal became interested. That option was never afforded to parents of Ward 5. Instead, one night we were told to go frack ourselves. Many elementary schools were closed. Taft Jr High was given to a charter, Brown Jr. High was closed, Bacchus was closed and a fourth (name escapes me now) closed. The remainding elementary schools were renamed education campuses and changed to PS to 8. This was all done without proper redistricting. It was done without providing foreign languages or science labs in old elementary school facilities. Many of the schools did not offer middle school math classes, for they did not have the proper personnel. How does a child without algebra ! or who has never dissected a frog, basic things, compete for a slot at Banneker or Walls. It's a joke and that is why the vast majority of ward 5 children are in charter schools or parochial schools. There was an effort by Ward 5 residents to ge tthe mayor and his chancellor to convert one of the larger closed ES in Ward 5 into a middle school. The effort went no where. Probably because that particular school is located right next to a metro station in was slated for developers. The effort will be revised under the mayor-elect. We shall see if the person makes a difference. DC native here. The middle school was Bertie Backus not Bernie Bacchus! |
Anonymous
NP here. The misspelling of Backus hardly invalidates the PP's point. Anyone whose read Roman mythology could easily make the same trivial mistake. The larger one is to assume that somehow the parents of Ward 3 organized themselves a great middle school. The PP is right: Deal was crappy just like all the other DC MS options and it got desperately needed renovations (which no-one else except Hardy got) and a good principal. It actually remains to be seen what the ultimately quality of the school really is. It manages to get outperformed by some charters despite all its wealth, which is pretty sad. But the inequity is quite clear: no other middle schools got what Deal got. So if someone from Ward 5 or 6 or 7 or anything else as long as its in DC "sneaks" their way into Deal I will not care. And I'll call you out for being an asshole if you do. |
Anonymous
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"The PP is right: Deal was crappy just like all the other DC MS options and it got desperately needed renovations (which no-one else except Hardy got) and a good principal."
That's really not true. I live in the neighborhood, and my neighbors who sent their kids to Deal before the renovations/new principal were happy with it. It might be attracting a larger number of in-bounds kids now because of the IB program and new principal, but it was never considered "crappy" or out of consideration by the local families. |
Anonymous
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Call me an asshole, then. With the high demand for OOB slots at Deal the only fair way to distribute them is through a transparent lottery and wait list. Sneaks who use false addresses, even if they live in dc, are taking OOB slots from people who played by the rules.
Also, Deal benefits greatly from feeder schools that are largely successfully educating their students. Inspiring leadership at a middle school and nice facilities seem to be part of the answer, but having a guaranteed pipeline of 6th graders ready to go seems also to be important. |
Anonymous
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For the previous poster - - Sousa and Kelly Miller were all beautifully modernized. So please, stop the moaning of how Ward 3 got special treatment.
Deal was just as crappy as most DCPS buildings. |
Anonymous
I don’t think a case can be made that Ward 3got something other wards didn’t. Recently wards 1 & 7 got new schools. Wards 2, 3, 7 & 8 got modernizations. Wards 1, 4, 6 & 7 got blitzes. Going down the list it looks evenly spread out. Ward 1 DONE - Lincoln (new construction), Shaw at Garnet?Patterson (blitz) PLANNED – Shaw (new construction?) Ward 2 DONE – Hardy (modernization) Ward 3 DONE – Deal (modernization) Ward 4 DONE – MacFarland (blitz) PLANNED – MacFarland (modernization 2013) Ward 5 Ward 6 DONE - Eliot Hine (blitz) PLANNED – Jefferson (modernization 2013), Stuart Hobson (modernization 2012) Ward 7 DONE - Kelly Miller (new construction), Ron Brown (blitz), Sousa (modernization) PLANNED – Ron Brown (modernization 2012) Ward 8 DONE – Johnson (modernization) PLANNED – Hart (2011 modernization), Kramer (modernization 2014) |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| Uh...check out the $$ spent per sq ft on all of those schools and see how Deal stacks up...where to get it, contact the 21st Century School Fund, they were there 20 years ago and they are there now fighting for equity. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Data from 21 Century Per pupil budgeting from lowest to highest: Ward – Budget/pupil - School 6 – $5,870 - Stuart-Hobson 2 – $6,497 - Hardy 3 – $6,602 - Deal 6 – $6,756 - Jefferson 8 – $6,798 - Hart 6 – $6,833 - Eliot-Hine 7 – $6,977 - Kelly Miller $7025 - AVERAGE 2 – $7,048 - Shaw-Garnett-Patterson 8 – $7,416 - Kramer 4 – $7,661 - MacFarland 7 – $7,828 - Ron Brown-Merritt 7 – $7,945 - Sousa 8 – $8,339 – Johnson Thus, Deal gets less per pupil than other schools, and it should be like this - at-risk kids need services. Square footage per pupil data shows Ward 3 students do not have more space. Ward – Square feet per pupil 3 - 143ft 2 - 271 ft 6 - 273 ft 4 - 275 ft 7 - 284 ft 8 - 289 ft 1 - 309 ft 5 - 373 ft Capital spending data for 2007-2009 shows Ward 3 falls in the middle. Ward – Capital spending/pupil 4 – 9,931 7 – 12,921 1 – 15,151 8 – 15,970 3 – 18,364 6 – 18,787 5 – 29,267 2 – 35,938 Ward 5 received more school construction funds -- $152 million -- than any other ward in 2008 and 2009. Ward 8 was second at $117 million. See this link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/05/AR2010060503976.html I am willing to entertain the idea that Deal got/gets more resources than other middle schools, but I have yet to see data, or a cogent argument that proves it. |
Anonymous
| Where's the SQ FT # for Modernization in the Rhee/Fenty time? No one asked how many sq ft the students get, nor was the capital spending per pupil the query. It was and is, break down the modernization/facilities upgrades of Deal vs. everywhere else. |
Anonymous
Yes, as a Hardy parent during the renovation I was worried that Hardy was getting put ahead of other schools because it was in Georgetown but I found out that it was not first on the list by any means. It's possible that Hardy and Deal did get better treatment than schools in other wards but they were not first in line. |
Anonymous
PP, thanks, this was the misleading Post article that I remembered but couldn't find. Here is what the story says on Ward 5: In Ward 5, school construction spending has been overshadowed by the city's decision to close six schools as part of a consolidation plan. Most of the money paid for the $62 million renovation of Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School, which was closed in 2002 but reopened in 2008 as a model of a new vocational education. No schools were closed in Ward 3, and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has said closings were based on several factors, including utilization and academic performance. But Jacqueline Manning, a Ward 5 Advisory Neighborhood Commission member, said the city does not appear to have a plan for the ward, which added the vacant school buildings to its long list of abandoned industrial plants -- a reminder of the lack of development that critics say has been delivered faster to other parts of the city. "You should leave one ward, go to another and it should look the same," said Manning, who added that each ward deserves similar access to amenities, schools and other facilities. Like I said upthread most of the school money spent in Ward 5 was for two city-wide magnet schools, not neighborhood schools. That money will not benefit my kid at all at the elementary level -- and not at the high school level unless he wants that kind of school. We got the shaft -- the article is extremely misleading. |
Anonymous
| Excuse me, I guess it was just one -- Phelps. Sorry, posting while talking to my kid. |