DME Kicks Off DCPS Boundary Review; Changes Expected for 2015-16 School Year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS can redistrict all they want, but you cannot make parents send their kids to poor performing schools. That will be a quick ticket to charter schools.

The ones people want their kids to go to are full already. They are practically out of buildings to put new charters into. People don't want to move out. They will send their kids to poorly performing schools once they get a critical mass of their peers jumping in at the same time.

I think the difference here is generational. Those who are newer to the game are willing to jump in and grind. A lot of those who've been around for a while are skittish outside of their narrowly defined safe spaces.

I know DC used to be rough but things are better! You're more likely to get stumbled into by a drunk 20-something than mugged late on 14th NW. You can get croissants in Columbia Heights and learn Latin in Petworth! They even painted B R O O K L A N D really big in Brookland so you know where you are in case you're lost!

+ 1 million. EofP living shouldn't continue to have leper status by our WofP brethren. We've good wonderful things going on this side of the world- including improving our schools. More buy in from high SES the better. Many will stay in Crestwood though I feel their pain about lower property values. They will help to enrich our schools here. People who move typically do so anyway for privates, so it's really their loss and our gain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can't that new building be located where the 98% of the students actually live? I guess maybe DCPS doesn't own a large enough parcel further east.

If you think it could be proposed without making it sound like, "get off my lawn," let us know.

I'm the PP. The way for this to happen without the "go back to your 'hood" connotations (I believe that's what you actually meant) is to have a %@@^ jewel of a location with world-class performing arts facilities.

City Center would've been the obvious privately held address. Aren't there a couple of moth-balled DCPS sites within the city core? I have in my mind's eye a cute 1800's old school house near 14th, but maybe that's been sold off to developers already.

Another location I can picture -- but I don't know the back story on the property itself -- is VERY near all the new $$$ development going in at SW Waterfront / Arena Stage. Close to Metro, nearish to the DMV and Capitol.

Right now, it's a shitty alternative school place with literally peeling paint. But if they're going to build the next Sydney Opera House for Ellington over there in Georgetown ... why not spend that same facilities cash to build it in this ^ address?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Wow! I must have stuck a chord with you. The very idea that you have to send your child to a school with black and brown people got you in a tizzy, didn't it. I think you're in a fantasy if you think that people in large numbers can up and move. Many can, many can't. The many that can't will be going EofP and guess what- making a school better. Horrible thought, I know.

Um really?!?

OK so if you have been here long enough or know the people who have you would know that the majority of these Shepard Park, 16st Heights and Crestwood folks going to Deal are black. You would also know that in previous generations these black folks would not go to the local public schools with poorer performing black kids, they would go private. I am black and in that area and I am not afraid of black or brown folks. I and my friends are afraid of our kids not being challenged or well educated.

I'm with you PP. I live in 16th Street Heights, and am white, (West, Deal, Roosevelt) and all of my parent friends (different backgrounds/races/incomes) in the neighborhood take offense at that as well. I don't want to move. I like my park, I like my backyard, I like my neighbors, and I'll probably find a way to stay at West, once my kid is old enough to attend.

You sort of picked the wrong city to harbor this sort of hate. You knew when you moved here you might have to mingle with poors and now you have buyers remorse. Too bad for you. BTW- the bad influence you're so afraid of us your shitty attitude. Stop scapegoating EofP kids, most of which are AAs and Hispanic. Disgusting beyond words.

[Anonymous]

Franklin school at 13th and K is a gem and it's a crime that it hasn't been rehabbed into a fabulous, world class, downtown high school with all the office building surrounding it that could offer built-in interning opportunities. Instead is sits boarded up, reeking of piss.

[Anonymous]

Not touching Crestwood until this whole redistricting stuff shakes out. Anyone have any idea how property values will be affected? I had planned to move into the neighborhood and do public, but getting kicked to the curb out of Deal/Wilson is a deal breaker. Any insight?

[Anonymous]

I would guess that the majority of Crestwood kids (and there are a lot of them) go to privates or charters. It's been that way for a while and will probably continue to be that way, regardless of what happens with the Deal and Wilson boundaries.

[Anonymous]

^^ That may be the case, but many more families in Crestwood and WofP who traditionally went private are opting for public. Also, charter slots are almost dismal. Sibs take most of the slots for early childhood and for the sought after higher grades, sibs will start to take those slots too. Buying in Crestwood for me was about truly have Deal/Wilson as a choice. If that goes away, I think I'll have to move from the district. Too poor for WofP and not interested in moving my kid into a poor performing school. I know there are many parents who aren't as risk averse as I am. I just don't want to go there.

[Anonymous]

Does anybody else see white flight part 2 coming?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anybody else see white flight part 2 coming?

People are moving into DC, not out. If those who can't stomach change leave, those who welcome it will come instead.

[Anonymous]

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if Hardy isn't good enough by the time our children reach relevant age, we'll go private.

I feel like the experience of too many people has been of broadly middle class suburban schools that have high levels of success. However, I just don't think that is necessary. Hardy has proficient-testing kids, advanced-testing kids and everyone with parents who aren't clueless does fine. People have the idea that they need to segregate their kids away from any child who is not high-performing or else they will turn out dumb.

It just isn't true. Rich kids at mixed income schools don't get dragged down.

What is true is that the numbers make all the difference. There is a tipping point where the school cannot see to the needs of a wide range of students unless it is a huge school. 80% poor families and 20% middle/upper income families in a DCPS neighborhood middle school will not work very well for anyone in it. The motivated and/or middle class families need to outnumber the lower income families by quite a bit to make it viable. Mind you, I am specifically talking about DCPS with all of its budgetary and workforce constraints

[Anonymous]

Adding on that my discomfort with a low performing school is that it is . . . wait for it . . . low performing. It is not code for people of color. I am IB for Deal in an area that I think is unlikely to be redistricted, but I am still considering Latin and plan to tour this year (my oldest is in 3rd) and I think it's diversity is a positive and I like a lot of other attributes, including that it is high performing. DCPS is going to have to do something to make people WANT to send their kids there. And I am a PP that said (and mean) that I will move before I send my kids to a low performing school. Absent the zombie apocalypse, the city cannot make me and I am not alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:14:47 is dead on. School boundaries are not simply a race divide. In my experience as an E of the Park parent with kids both at a WoftheP DCPS and also a charter---middle and upper middle class AA parents are very resistant to sending their kids to poorly performing DCPS schools because of the fear of negative peer influences.

Yes, for our AA HIH the fear is negative peer influences.

Same fear for whites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adding on that my discomfort with a low performing school is that it is . . . wait for it . . . low performing. It is not code for people of color. I am IB for Deal in an area that I think is unlikely to be redistricted, but I am still considering Latin and plan to tour this year (my oldest is in 3rd) and I think it's diversity is a positive and I like a lot of other attributes, including that it is high performing. DCPS is going to have to do something to make people WANT to send their kids there. And I am a PP that said (and mean) that I will move before I send my kids to a low performing school. Absent the zombie apocalypse, the city cannot make me and I am not alone.

+1

[Anonymous]

Is it possible that current WofTP families that are east of Connecticur Ave, could get zoned into EofTP elementary schools?