Surplussing the old Hardy School, again

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 needs a new middle school. Half the ward no longer has access to Deal and few ward residents consider Hardy an option because of the significant quality gap with Deal.

Ward 3 doesn't need a new high school, middle school or elementary school for that matter.

DGS should charge the Lab School true market rate for a 20 year lease and keep it moving.

This, exactly.

I disagree. DC should find a public purpose for public land. Not necessarily a school, but keep it under public control. Think of how much the education landscape in DC has changed in the past 10, 15 and 20 years. Think of how much the city overall has changed. All projections are that the city population is going to surge in the next decade. Public land is going to be at a premium.

How about a STEM school for at-risk youth.

Only if transportation is provided. This location is served by a single bus line and is not convenient to Metro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 needs a new middle school. Half the ward no longer has access to Deal and few ward residents consider Hardy an option because of the significant quality gap with Deal.

Ward 3 doesn't need a new high school, middle school or elementary school for that matter.

DGS should charge the Lab School true market rate for a 20 year lease and keep it moving.

This, exactly.

I disagree. DC should find a public purpose for public land. Not necessarily a school, but keep it under public control. Think of how much the education landscape in DC has changed in the past 10, 15 and 20 years. Think of how much the city overall has changed. All projections are that the city population is going to surge in the next decade. Public land is going to be at a premium.

How about a STEM school for at-risk youth.

Only if transportation is provided. This location is served by a single bus line and is not convenient to Metro.

The nice thing about bus lines is they can be added simply by re-routing buses. For example, Metro has four lines -- the D31, D32, D33 and D34 -- that are collectively known as the "Deal Junior High School Line" (http://www.wmata.com/bus/timetables/dc/d31-34.pdf). They run only on days DCPS is open. They arrive once a day at Deal between 8:20 and 8:25, and depart once a day from Deal at 3:30.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For what it's worth, I see the stats show that the IB % for Hardy MS is growing. It used to be 12% a year or two ago IIRC; now it's 15% according to the DCPS website. Much more of a concern though is the Hardy MS math and reading proficiency. They are 15-20 percentage points below that of Deale.

I hear the old Hardy/Lab building is too small for a modern DCPS school, whether elementary or middle school, so perhaps it works well as an overflow building for Lab. I agree with a prior poster who wondered about the to-be-sold GDS school on MacArthur -- I'd love to see DCPS buy that space and renovate it into a new school. While I'd like to see a new middle school as an option other than Hardy MS, perhaps what NW DC needs is another high school other than Wilson (Ellington doesn't "count" as a regular NW DCPS high school due to its arts focus). If NW DC had a high school option there, I think NWDC would be more accepting of Hardy MS out of a desire for continuity -- DCPS from K-12 -- and all at DCPS schools in NW DC. Some have said DCPS wouldn't buy a school (like GDS) because they already have too much excess real estate; however, that's not the case I don't think for NW DC. And, GDS would probably be a bargain compared to the recent renovation costs the city has recently been enduring, such as for Ellington and Dunbar (not to mention Wilson and others).

There aren't enough students that live in Ward 3/2 to justify any new schools. The enrollment pressure comes from oob students. Fix that issue (by making those student's home schools more attractive) and stop wishing that some magic enclave is going to fix this issue.

Absolutely agree. They definitely need to fix Hardy, to attract more IB students to what could be their "home" school, but it will no doubt require some very significant changes.

[Anonymous]

Why don't they make Hardy a test in school? Is that a dumb/ naive question??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they make Hardy a test in school? Is that a dumb/ naive question??

Test in schools before high school have been suggested and rejected for years (at least 20-25). Most believe it is a politicalnonstarter to focus on high achieving students until achievement gap has narrowed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they make Hardy a test in school? Is that a dumb/ naive question??

There are people who feel it is just fine the way it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they make Hardy a test in school? Is that a dumb/ naive question??

Test in schools before high school have been suggested and rejected for years (at least 20-25). Most believe it is a politicalnonstarter to focus on high achieving students until achievement gap has narrowed.

The achievement gap that is only getting wider...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they make Hardy a test in school? Is that a dumb/ naive question??

There are people who feel it is just fine the way it is.

They even love the uniforms, which are so urban 1980s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they make Hardy a test in school? Is that a dumb/ naive question??

There are people who feel it is just fine the way it is.

They overwhelmingly don't live in Ward 3, however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they make Hardy a test in school? Is that a dumb/ naive question??

There are people who feel it is just fine the way it is.

They even love the uniforms, which are so urban 1980s.

Except there is supposedly a contingent of Hardy IB students who head to Latin ... where they wear virtually the same uniform in a different color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they make Hardy a test in school? Is that a dumb/ naive question??

There are people who feel it is just fine the way it is.

They even love the uniforms, which are so urban 1980s.

Except there is supposedly a contingent of Hardy IB students who head to Latin ... where they wear virtually the same uniform in a different color.

For IB parents, the Hardy uniforms connote the 80s/90s "tough love" school reform era, in which uniform requirements were a gimmick used in n attempt to instill discipline in otherwise ungovernable urban public schools. They wonder why Hardy believes that the uniforms are still necessary. As a result, the Hardy uniforms are a turn off for Ward 3 parents (and their kids).

The Latin uniforms have a slightly different history, because the founder was consciously modeling it on Boston Latin and other private schools where uniforms were traditional. St. Albans has uniforms, too, but no one is going to confuse it with Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they make Hardy a test in school? Is that a dumb/ naive question??

There are people who feel it is just fine the way it is.

They overwhelmingly don't live in Ward 3, however.

Ward 3 families are free to attend. There is absolutely no one that is preventing them from enrolling in their neighborhood schools and trying to make change within. It's easy to sit-back on the sidelines and complain, whine, and bitch about something that you really have little or no interest. If you really cared, why don't you try to become a part of the change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they make Hardy a test in school? Is that a dumb/ naive question??

There are people who feel it is just fine the way it is.

They even love the uniforms, which are so urban 1980s.

Except there is supposedly a contingent of Hardy IB students who head to Latin ... where they wear virtually the same uniform in a different color.

For IB parents, the Hardy uniforms connote the 80s/90s "tough love" school reform era, in which uniform requirements were a gimmick used in n attempt to instill discipline in otherwise ungovernable urban public schools. They wonder why Hardy believes that the uniforms are still necessary. As a result, the Hardy uniforms are a turn off for Ward 3 parents (and their kids).

The Latin uniforms have a slightly different history, because the founder was consciously modeling it on Boston Latin and other private schools where uniforms were traditional. St. Albans has uniforms, too, but no one is going to confuse it with Hardy.

It's the same uniform with a different color. You can spin it all you want, but the bottom line is that it is the same uniform. Also, please cite your references that Hardy was attempting to promote "tough love". For all you know, newcomer, Hardy was modeling the same principle as Latin.

[Anonymous]

No connection to Hardy, just speaking as a bystander from another school. Per a recent conversation with administration, my DCPS school apparently instituted uniforms at the request of parents many years ago. So I'd also like to see any evidence that Hardy's uniforms were instituted as part of any "tough-love" approach to instill order in "ungovernable" schools. I've seen this repeated often, and even studies cited, but no evidence presented specific to Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For what it's worth, I see the stats show that the IB % for Hardy MS is growing. It used to be 12% a year or two ago IIRC; now it's 15% according to the DCPS website. Much more of a concern though is the Hardy MS math and reading proficiency. They are 15-20 percentage points below that of Deale.

I hear the old Hardy/Lab building is too small for a modern DCPS school, whether elementary or middle school, so perhaps it works well as an overflow building for Lab. I agree with a prior poster who wondered about the to-be-sold GDS school on MacArthur -- I'd love to see DCPS buy that space and renovate it into a new school. While I'd like to see a new middle school as an option other than Hardy MS, perhaps what NW DC needs is another high school other than Wilson (Ellington doesn't "count" as a regular NW DCPS high school due to its arts focus). If NW DC had a high school option there, I think NWDC would be more accepting of Hardy MS out of a desire for continuity -- DCPS from K-12 -- and all at DCPS schools in NW DC. Some have said DCPS wouldn't buy a school (like GDS) because they already have too much excess real estate; however, that's not the case I don't think for NW DC. And, GDS would probably be a bargain compared to the recent renovation costs the city has recently been enduring, such as for Ellington and Dunbar (not to mention Wilson and others).

There aren't enough students that live in Ward 3/2 to justify any new schools. The enrollment pressure comes from oob students. Fix that issue (by making those student's home schools more attractive) and stop wishing that some magic enclave is going to fix this issue.

Wrong. Our W3 school is over capacity by 50 and there are a handful of OOB.

Your school boundaries should have been redistributed to Hearst and Eaton. This would instantly fix the overcrowding at Deal and Wilson by removing entry points by reducing OOB spots.