DCPS considering moving Hardy to MacArthur Blvd, current Hardy would become a HS
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Anonymous
The Crowding Working Group found that four new schools in the Wilson feeder pattern are needed -- two elementary, a middle and a high school. No matter how you slice it two schools aren't able to do the job of four schools. So it's not about whether the two new schools solve all of the problems, they won't. It's about whether they make things better. They will. |
Anonymous
Yes Yes and Yes. One small step for ending the Hunger Games of EOTP vs WOTP lotteries and angst because DCPS has only "one" viable MS citywide. One giant leap for "Alice Deal for All." Without a new MS at GDS and new HS at Hardy, any Lafayette/Shepherd shift felt pointless, a drop in the bucket that wouldn't address the bigger demographic and OOB realities, but new HS capacity confirms DCPS is taking a smart, conciliatory approach to increase accessibility rather than force people to go to Coolidge. UMC Lafayette and Shepherd DCs will thrive there no matter what, but so much community-wide value to creating another stable, desirable neighborhood MS in NWDC (not Ward 3 but still NW... which ward is CCDC in again?) Just a decade ago, no IB at Hardy, but today, many new young families and changing attitudes in GP and Burleith. COVID showed it's always easy for us keyboard warriors to yell fire at a moment's notice with "I'M GOING PRIVATE" but private/parochial seats are limited and don't grow on trees. When this works out well, we'll end up with two or maybe even three good MS instead of one or 1.5 (Hardy). Once upon a time, one could understand the horror at going EOTP, switching boundaries. NEWSFLASH - Marion Barry is no longer mayor and DC is much whiter, safer, and gentrified - one of the wealthiest "urban" cities in America. Full stop. Lots of good, some bad with the changes, but a lot of the DCUM handwringing justify the "Upper Caucasia" term. Wells is not/not Woodson or Ballou in the 80s. It's a beautiful new "urban" school, great leadership, and a rising tide. Nobody's DC is getting shot at Wells in 2021. And speaking of "urban" isn't that exactly what everyone in CCDC prides themselves on compared to "suburban" CCMD just across Western? Don't worry, Rock Creek Park ain't going nowhere and nobody's forcing DC to go to Coolidge (Push some Wilson kids to the new Hardy HS problem solved... for now.) 
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Anonymous
Yes in fact kicking Lafayette and Shepherd out of Deal/Wilson would largely solve the crowding problem at both while dramatically improving another MS and HS at relatively no cost to DCPS because DCPS has excess seats EOTP. And I don't know how dumb some of the people commenting on this thread are (an earlier post suggested Lafayette kids would spend 90 minutes each way being bussed across town) but Wells is an 11 minute drive from Lafayette so your kids are not travelling far - trust me when I tell you your Range Rover will do just fine on the 10 minute drive as compared to the 5-7 minute drive to Deal. And BTW DC does not in fact have neighborhood schools - only 20% of DCPS students attend their in-boundary school so again you are wrong. And you do also realize that the Shepherd Park kids would have a much shorter commute than they do today? But again the burden of travelling to school should only fall on people EOTP or in the case of this new school people in other WOTP neighborhoods who will be inconvenienced. I bet all of the CC snowflakes posting on here would have no trouble driving their kids an extra 5 minutes to get to a private school and would be quite happy if some of them do in the future. So yeah I am calling you a racist and not amount of whataboutism from you is going to change my opinion of you. |
Anonymous
A 15 minute mile is not a fast pace - we are .8 miles from my kids ES and can do it comfortably in 12 minutes and in 10 if we are late and need to hustle. And kids would need to cross Wisconsin Avenue which has signals at almost every intersection and even Reno has signals at almost every other intersection - you do know there are almost no non trafficky roads inside the Beltway? So no it is not absurd but what does it matter - most parents coddle their kids in Ward 3 and drive them to school whether it is 3 blocks or 2 miles which again is another mark against this absurd idea of putting a MS in a location that is already terribly congested and to which everyone will be driving greater distances. |
Anonymous
I don’t thinking routing Lafayette and Shepherd to Wells and Coolidge will create a second viable MS and HS. I think it’ll become like the Hill - a bunch of people wringing their hands over lotterying into Peabody, etc. for PK3, and then turning around five years later wondering about middle school “options” and then moving to the suburbs. You might say, good riddance. Fine. But you aren’t creating “viable” middle school and high school “options” with a bunch of parents who (1) don’t want it; and (2) can actually move. |
Anonymous
I am one of the CC snowflakes you mention. We would send our kids to Wells. There is currently no space at Wells to take Lafayette. So to flippantly say “just go there you racists!” is a weird response to me. Do you think Wells parents are like “great bring in 360 new kids! Not at all anxious about that!” So discussing the space issue seems relevant. But I am reminded that I should have known better than to discuss how to operationalize things like that on an anonymous forum, especially when using the word Lafayette! Regardless, DCPS knows they have to have a plan to physically house Lafayette if they move them from a deal feeder. So lesson learned. I will wait for them to make a move before we all start fighting again! |
Anonymous
| PP makes a reasonable point - if we want to make these changes we have to set up the logistics for them. Though I would share my fear that parents would raise these arguments as instruments for their deeper objections they would not like to surface. (PP I make no such claim about what you’re saying, just . . . none of us are naive, right?) |
Anonymous
This may be the best option with less of a public outcry. |
Anonymous
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I think you got it. Add a corollary that should serve: Only at-risk get feeder rights all the way. At risk get lottery preference that trumps (e.g., trumps sibling preference).
After that you can reset your schools based on demand. I believe based on what I've seen that you basically have a nearly full Wilson based on in-bounds feeders of inbounds-students. That isn't the same as demand to support two schools in white western DC. The demand that amounts to another school is, let's be real, a desire for a school that benefits from the sorting associated with residential segregation. That's why people from the rest of DC would accept a school west of Georgetown rather than send students to, say, Eastern or Cardozo (expensive enough neighborhoods, but not enough sorting to overcome people's fears). I for one would be happy to force people to give up on their fears and no longer allow the sorting. But I am not the Mayor or chancellor. Just be honest about what you're trying to get and how and where from the numbers sum up. Wilson and Deal have trailers because of access to these schools from out of their boundaries. People with higher education shun most of the rest of DCPS secondary schools because they aren't segregated enough for them. If DC isn't ready to change, it's not ready to change. |
Anonymous
| The problem is people self-segregate. Make the WOTP schools more integrated, then you'll go back to the early 90s when most upper middle class folks in DC either left DC or shifted to privates. People are shitty. That is just the way things work out. White flight was as much about integrated schools as it was about crime. |
Anonymous
But WOTP schools are very integrated - neither Deal nor Wilson are majority white and neither are likely to be anytime soon. I don't know if any of the Lafayette parents howling about the prospect of not going to Deal & Wilson even know this and think they are being excluded from Sidwell or something? |
Anonymous
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I’m tired of arguing over it, I just want to cut it off. Make it so as PP suggests at risk families from all the rest of DC can send their kids to your JKLM schools, Deal, and Wilson and the other means of access are foreclosed.
You are assigned to Coolidge? Eastern? You have no route to Wilson. Just let it be done. We have no political chance of a citywide lottery instead of what’s called “inboundary rights” to Deal or Wilson. The feverish attempts to get around the obvious boundary changes needed need to be done. Sticks? Not carrots? Fine. Call it what you want. Just pull off the bandaid and move on. All these DCPS secondary schools are less than ten years away from gentrification anyway due to cost of housing for low income families. I’m done with “Deal for every person who can get into its feeders.” Just end access west for the middle class. |