DC Begins School Boundary Study

[Anonymous]

https://www.hillrag.com/2023/03/21/dc-begins-school-boundary-study/

Well this is exciting! I actually just recycled all my papers from the last boundary study where they proposed small geographic clusters with both DCPS and charters in them and replacing by-rights high schools with an all city lottery... Lots of grand plans for sweeping changes that resulted in ... a few boundary tweaks. School boundaries are quite the third rail in this city.

[Anonymous]

Wow creating an all-city high school lottery would be a big deal. But TR families will never allow it.

I actually have a tweak to suggest in our neighborhood though -- thanks for flagging this OP so I can reach out to suggest my idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.hillrag.com/2023/03/21/dc-begins-school-boundary-study/

Well this is exciting! I actually just recycled all my papers from the last boundary study where they proposed small geographic clusters with both DCPS and charters in them and replacing by-rights high schools with an all city lottery... Lots of grand plans for sweeping changes that resulted in ... a few boundary tweaks. School boundaries are quite the third rail in this city.

all-lottery HS is a horrid idea. Elementary clusters is better, but still doesn’t make a ton of sense. What we all know should happen on the Hill will never happen: an all-Hill MS.

[Anonymous]

What do we actually expect to happen here?

Specific boundaries for Foxhall and MacArthur
A boundary for Shaw Middle School at Euclid
Various tweaks to alleviate overcrowding in the short and long term

Anything else?

[Anonymous]

We are in the Watkins zone. Can someone please explain why the Hill zones are so weirdly shaped and if someone will address this in the new boundary study? We are at Peabody now and live closer to Ludlow Taylor, JO Wilson AND Maury than we do Watkins. It’s bizarre.

[Anonymous]

The Cluster zone on the Hill looks dramatically gerrymandered for a simple reason: it encompassed the residents of amalgamations of parents who joined hands in the early 80s to lobby for the creation of the three-school group.

I highly doubt that DCPS will so much as tweak Hill elementary school boundaries in the forthcoming review, or any boundaries for that matter. Some of got burned in organizing to lobby for common sense CH boundary changes back in 2013.

[Anonymous]

Word is that Bancroft admin are preparing to be zoned out of the JR feed. Would take years to fully implement likely, but we’ll see if it really happens.

[Anonymous]

We need a single consolidated middle school on the Hill. There are many families who want to stay on the Hill. That would also help improve the feeder patterns into Eastern High.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Word is that Bancroft admin are preparing to be zoned out of the JR feed. Would take years to fully implement likely, but we’ll see if it really happens.

It wouldn't shock me. It's certainly not surprising that they would try this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Cluster zone on the Hill looks dramatically gerrymandered for a simple reason: it encompassed the residents of amalgamations of parents who joined hands in the early 80s to lobby for the creation of the three-school group.

I highly doubt that DCPS will so much as tweak Hill elementary school boundaries in the forthcoming review, or any boundaries for that matter. Some of got burned in organizing to lobby for common sense CH boundary changes back in 2013.

I'm the Watkins poster who asked about this - how do you know that? was there local media coverage of this in the 80s? Anyone on the board who had parents part of that group? Would love to hear more about why people wanted that three school group.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't be surprised if the strange Watkins/Peabody boundary gets revisited. As it is, parents across the street from Payne's baseball field, and up by the cemetery are zoned for Peabody, and many choose to enroll with proximity preference for Payne, especially for ECE since Peabody is so far away. Also, with Tyler transitioning to full immersion and Payne being their 'sister school' for students who don't want Spanish, I am curious if those boundaries will shift. As is, Tyler has a pretty small zone, but with some denser apartment units with more housing. And south of the highway there is just Van Ness and Amidon, not even many charters -- if families decide to move into/stay in some of the many many new units that have been built there in the past decade, that could crowd those schools. Lastly, in the next decade there is a lot of proposed housing east of 19th street on Reservation 13 and the RFK land, so I am curious if/how that will factor into school feeder patterns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cluster zone on the Hill looks dramatically gerrymandered for a simple reason: it encompassed the residents of amalgamations of parents who joined hands in the early 80s to lobby for the creation of the three-school group.

I highly doubt that DCPS will so much as tweak Hill elementary school boundaries in the forthcoming review, or any boundaries for that matter. Some of got burned in organizing to lobby for common sense CH boundary changes back in 2013.

I'm the Watkins poster who asked about this - how do you know that? was there local media coverage of this in the 80s? Anyone on the board who had parents part of that group? Would love to hear more about why people wanted that three school group.

Because, at the time, that was the most gentrified school/area on CH. The weird structure was intended to preserve control over SH as well; Watkins parents fought to keep other schools from feeding in (so ridiculously short sighted looking back that they thought LT would decrease the gentrification of the school). Really they should break up the Cluster (which they already kind of have with respect to SH, which now has two other feeders) and then rezone sensibly. Send some of the area around Peabody to LT, some to Brent, some to Tyler, etc. Turn Peabody into a citywide PK lottery. Right size Watkins and have it be a full PK3-5.

[Anonymous]

The funny thing is that a decade after fighting tooth and nail to preserve Peabody (and then 50% of those families don’t stay on for Watkins, so they don’t care what happens there), I bet families zoned for Peabody/Watkins would now happily allow themselves to be split between LT, Brent & Tyler soon to be full immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cluster zone on the Hill looks dramatically gerrymandered for a simple reason: it encompassed the residents of amalgamations of parents who joined hands in the early 80s to lobby for the creation of the three-school group.

I highly doubt that DCPS will so much as tweak Hill elementary school boundaries in the forthcoming review, or any boundaries for that matter. Some of got burned in organizing to lobby for common sense CH boundary changes back in 2013.

I'm the Watkins poster who asked about this - how do you know that? was there local media coverage of this in the 80s? Anyone on the board who had parents part of that group? Would love to hear more about why people wanted that three school group.

Because, at the time, that was the most gentrified school/area on CH. The weird structure was intended to preserve control over SH as well; Watkins parents fought to keep other schools from feeding in (so ridiculously short sighted looking back that they thought LT would decrease the gentrification of the school). Really they should break up the Cluster (which they already kind of have with respect to SH, which now has two other feeders) and then rezone sensibly. Send some of the area around Peabody to LT, some to Brent, some to Tyler, etc. Turn Peabody into a citywide PK lottery. Right size Watkins and have it be a full PK3-5.

Super interesting. I would love someone to write a book about the history here...or maybe a podcast? Any takers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The funny thing is that a decade after fighting tooth and nail to preserve Peabody (and then 50% of those families don’t stay on for Watkins, so they don’t care what happens there), I bet families zoned for Peabody/Watkins would now happily allow themselves to be split between LT, Brent & Tyler soon to be full immersion.

yes, and to have actually walkable schools!

the time has come for the end of “the cluster.”