Shaw Middle School Community Meeting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why you don’t get onboard with having a Banneker middle school. Banneker is amazing and way better than cordoza. Build on that. The city won’t touch Banneker. It is their pride and joy.

Area parent and I'm not against a Banneker Middle School attached and the original post/ANC letter is not against it either. Problem is, that is currently not what is proposed. There is no middle school on the table at all.

And there wasn't a middle school on the table before. There was a mirage of Shaw Middle that there was literally no movement toward. This was to keep the building away from charter schools, not because DCPS planned on opening it as a middle school.

Your neighborhood HAS a modernized middle school with capacity -- at Cardozo. This is their model (see New North Middle being 'built' in one end of Coolidge HS to mirror Cardozo).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent of an older child--we recently moved away from Shaw. The kids that we knew in Logan and Shaw weren't even sticking around past Kindergarten. I can definitely see why DCPS chose the path they did--avoiding another Brookland MS scenario. Building a new facility for Banneker at this site is one of the few central office decisions I have ever supported. I can only hope the mid-city neighborhoods can get over themselves and support the kids from Banneker--they are amazing.

You left. You forfeited your opinion.

Also, you personally know a bunch of Banneker kids? I don't get these "they are amazing" comments.

NP. My kids are in high school, and I do know 5 Banneker students. They are strong students, involved in their community and focused on getting to the best college they can.

This WaPo article from last year captures both the talent and some of the obstacles these kid face https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/three-black-teens-are-finalists-in-a-nasa-competition-then-hackers-spewing-racism-tried-to-ruin-their-odds/2018/05/02/a702f53e-4d72-11e8-84a0-458a1aa9ac0a_story.html?utm_term=.0270a84b2878

[Anonymous]

Co-locating a Shaw MS with Banneker on the current Shaw MS site seems infeasible. It's not a large piece of property and in the middle of busy area right off of Logan Circle. If that happens, something is going to have to give, either the skate park or the dog park. And those folks won't be happy. It may be a good idea in theory, but practically speaking, not sure how they could fit all those students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Co-locating a Shaw MS with Banneker on the current Shaw MS site seems infeasible. It's not a large piece of property and in the middle of busy area right off of Logan Circle. If that happens, something is going to have to give, either the skate park or the dog park. And those folks won't be happy. It may be a good idea in theory, but practically speaking, not sure how they could fit all those students.

Why couldn't they build a taller building though?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Co-locating a Shaw MS with Banneker on the current Shaw MS site seems infeasible. It's not a large piece of property and in the middle of busy area right off of Logan Circle. If that happens, something is going to have to give, either the skate park or the dog park. And those folks won't be happy. It may be a good idea in theory, but practically speaking, not sure how they could fit all those students.

Why couldn't they build a taller building though?

so lets see - you have the right to a dog park, skate park, bespoke middle school, and extra construction $ to build up instead of out. must be nice to live in your world.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea what bespoke middle school means. It currently says Shaw Junior High on the building. This is such a strange discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what bespoke middle school means. It currently says Shaw Junior High on the building. This is such a strange discussion.

NP. Bespoke means custom. PP is suggesting that Shaw parents think they have the right to demand exactly what they want without respect to the needs of the entire school system, and ignoring the fact that you have a school waiting for you that everyone assumes is unsatisfactory (Cardozo MS), without ever meeting a single administrator or teacher at that school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what bespoke middle school means. It currently says Shaw Junior High on the building. This is such a strange discussion.

NP. Bespoke means custom. PP is suggesting that Shaw parents think they have the right to demand exactly what they want without respect to the needs of the entire school system, and ignoring the fact that you have a school waiting for you that everyone assumes is unsatisfactory (Cardozo MS), without ever meeting a single administrator or teacher at that school.

It is the test scores. Period. At least for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what bespoke middle school means. It currently says Shaw Junior High on the building. This is such a strange discussion.

NP. Bespoke means custom. PP is suggesting that Shaw parents think they have the right to demand exactly what they want without respect to the needs of the entire school system, and ignoring the fact that you have a school waiting for you that everyone assumes is unsatisfactory (Cardozo MS), without ever meeting a single administrator or teacher at that school.

Are you trying to say that Cardozo Middle is satisfactory? Good luck. I do know people who work there, and I know that they have churned through Assistant Principals at an alarming rate. Ask yourself why so few students attend who are not in the International Academy. It isn't just DCUM who finds it unsatisfactory. It's pretty much everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what bespoke middle school means. It currently says Shaw Junior High on the building. This is such a strange discussion.

NP. Bespoke means custom. PP is suggesting that Shaw parents think they have the right to demand exactly what they want without respect to the needs of the entire school system, and ignoring the fact that you have a school waiting for you that everyone assumes is unsatisfactory (Cardozo MS), without ever meeting a single administrator or teacher at that school.

Are you trying to say that Cardozo Middle is satisfactory? Good luck. I do know people who work there, and I know that they have churned through Assistant Principals at an alarming rate. Ask yourself why so few students attend who are not in the International Academy. It isn't just DCUM who finds it unsatisfactory. It's pretty much everyone.

And if all of you went there it would almost immediately change. Schools are about the students who attend them. If your 5 yo and all their classmates go, it will be a radically different place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what bespoke middle school means. It currently says Shaw Junior High on the building. This is such a strange discussion.

It's super strange. I'm so sure that all of these "upside-down-land" comments are coming from someone outside of the neighborhood, who for some reason hates the gentrifying families in Shaw. Why? I have no clue.

I'm glad Padro posted this here in the hopes of getting more people to show up at the meeting, (though he also sent it around to all the school -- the letter showed up on our listserv, too -- so not sure how many extra people he caught. I can imagine that he posted it here and then ran back to reality to avoid the crazies. But I'm looking forward to the meeting and to hearing real voices.

[Anonymous]

Shaw parents need to look at what has happened at Hardy.

Several years ago people said it was awful, there was leadership changes and turmoil.

Now because of a number of factors, most students in its feeder pattern are going on to Hardy, and lo and behold, the test scores are up, the complaints are down and it's almost impossible for people to get in from OOB.

The school didn't really change. THere's a new principal, but the faculty is the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what bespoke middle school means. It currently says Shaw Junior High on the building. This is such a strange discussion.

It's super strange. I'm so sure that all of these "upside-down-land" comments are coming from someone outside of the neighborhood, who for some reason hates the gentrifying families in Shaw. Why? I have no clue.

I'm glad Padro posted this here in the hopes of getting more people to show up at the meeting, (though he also sent it around to all the school -- the letter showed up on our listserv, too -- so not sure how many extra people he caught. I can imagine that he posted it here and then ran back to reality to avoid the crazies. But I'm looking forward to the meeting and to hearing real voices.

So not only do you have the right to have the exact school you want delivered to you on a platter, but anyone who disagrees is a "crazy"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what bespoke middle school means. It currently says Shaw Junior High on the building. This is such a strange discussion.

NP. Bespoke means custom. PP is suggesting that Shaw parents think they have the right to demand exactly what they want without respect to the needs of the entire school system, and ignoring the fact that you have a school waiting for you that everyone assumes is unsatisfactory (Cardozo MS), without ever meeting a single administrator or teacher at that school.

Are you trying to say that Cardozo Middle is satisfactory? Good luck. I do know people who work there, and I know that they have churned through Assistant Principals at an alarming rate. Ask yourself why so few students attend who are not in the International Academy. It isn't just DCUM who finds it unsatisfactory. It's pretty much everyone.

And if all of you went there it would almost immediately change. Schools are about the students who attend them. If your 5 yo and all their classmates go, it will be a radically different place.

So what? They won't. How about DCPS deal with the actual problems? It needs a permanent leader and the academic and behavior problems of the kids need to be adequately remediated. For their own sake and not to attract gentrifiers.

Downtown evidently does not give a cr*p about Cardozo Middle. Until they do, what hope is there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what bespoke middle school means. It currently says Shaw Junior High on the building. This is such a strange discussion.

NP. Bespoke means custom. PP is suggesting that Shaw parents think they have the right to demand exactly what they want without respect to the needs of the entire school system, and ignoring the fact that you have a school waiting for you that everyone assumes is unsatisfactory (Cardozo MS), without ever meeting a single administrator or teacher at that school.

Are you trying to say that Cardozo Middle is satisfactory? Good luck. I do know people who work there, and I know that they have churned through Assistant Principals at an alarming rate. Ask yourself why so few students attend who are not in the International Academy. It isn't just DCUM who finds it unsatisfactory. It's pretty much everyone.

And if all of you went there it would almost immediately change. Schools are about the students who attend them. If your 5 yo and all their classmates go, it will be a radically different place.

So what? They won't. How about DCPS deal with the actual problems? It needs a permanent leader and the academic and behavior problems of the kids need to be adequately remediated. For their own sake and not to attract gentrifiers.

Downtown evidently does not give a cr*p about Cardozo Middle. Until they do, what hope is there?

+1. It really angers me when people.blame parents for not sending their children to a seriously underperforming school amd say it is because of avoiding minority kids. The adults who work for DCPS are the problem here. I don't want my child to be treated the way DCPS treats most of its middle school students. The end.