Murch- Getting screwed again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This reeks of a manufactured crisis that will allow the mayor to swoop in and save the day. Thus endearing herself to a neighborhood population where she did poorly in the general election. And potentially insulating herself from a challenge by the former mayor in two years. Stay tuned....

Conspiracy theorists give these bungling bureaucrats way too much credit. The system is corrupt and broken. The Mayor has actually been supportive of Murch, so this brouhaha has to be embarrassing for her. But she's also under pressure to show she's a good fiscal steward after an audit found the last two administrations violated the law with the way school modernizations were handled. That's why DCPS took over from DGS on the Murch project last fall and will be in charge of all school modernizations going forward. With Murch, the DCPS bean counters are trying to make a big show of how they're the new sheriff in town. Of course, DCPS has even less construction-management expertise than it does educational expertise. At this point, the Mayor does need to swoop in and save the day. It's called leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be a little more sympathetic if the request were for equity for ALL schools getting the shaft by DCPS / DGS renovations. There are other schools similarly (or more) deserving than Murch that aren't getting renovated for years. And the more funding that gets diverted to Murch, the less will be there for our schools.
I'd be happy to support a pledge for increasing renovation funding overall so that we don't have to make dumb decisions with the Murch renovation and other high priority schools can be moved up (and done correctly).

Oh come on, that's really unfair. Have you seen Murch? It probably should have been one of the first schools to be renovated, and I'm not a Murch parent. It bodes unwell for the entire system. Now that DGS/DCPS has been doing renovations for the past 10 years, they should know the drill.

I will be sending something out to Bowser et al. on behalf of the community tomorrow.

Have you compared it to all the other schools in need of renovation? When the council did that last year, Murch was ranked 19th. Yet I don't see you clamoring to support renovation of 1-18 first.

I don't think we benefit from fighting among school communities, but don't expect support if you're not going to push a broader message.

For example, we could push the Mayor and council to raise the debt ceiling to allow for more money for school renovation (AND also step up better oversight of the money). Schools like ours shouldn't be forced to make stupid choices while others get extravagant and wasteful renovations.

I'm not the quoted PP, but I don't know what more you want from the Murch community. They have been doing exactly what you are asking for a very long time: calling for renovating all schools, trying to make sure funding for all these projects is more available, trying to bring attention to the flaws in the process, and demanding changes in the process.

You clearly have read the materials from the Education Committee's work last spring. I applaud that work, and helped with it. Have you studied and visited schools, including Murch? The Committee's analysis was based on the data DCPS and DGS provided, and it was acknowledged that was a big part of the problem. How you measure things can manipulate the results. Murch has pushed to have more accurate, honest assessments, not just because it would benefit Murch. No one at DGS could explain their facility assessment process. And the DCPS figures calculated capacity numbers to include all trailers, so they showed Murch as undercapacity. Anyone who has been to Murch knows that is a joke.

We can all continue to work on these issues citywide (and the problems are massive from facilities assessment to contracting to community engagement), but don't ask Murch to deny or sacrifice the needs of their own school in the process. Murch did that decades ago when they helped file the lawsuit to get DC to renovate and then sat waiting for their turn. They did that when they received a grant to figure out how to handle the historic preservation of Murch and turned it over to allow a citywide analysis of the issue. Now it is time to get Murch done and use its issues to inform city leaders of the massive flaws in the entire process. If you can't see and accept that, then I think the person that isn't willing to look at the issue citywide may be you.

Well said. Having listened to DGS explain how it was going to "evaluate" the various swing space options for Murch, it's clear that methodology is not their strong suit. I believe that a different analysis a few years earlier put Murch #2 in the city in need of renovation.

But as many have rightly pointed out, this isn't about who's more deserving. It's about facts: Murch's building is 86 years old, designed for half of its current population, and has never been renovated. Now the city is literally refusing to pay the price for ignoring the school for so long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This reeks of a manufactured crisis that will allow the mayor to swoop in and save the day. Thus endearing herself to a neighborhood population where she did poorly in the general election. And potentially insulating herself from a challenge by the former mayor in two years. Stay tuned....

Conspiracy theorists give these bungling bureaucrats way too much credit. The system is corrupt and broken. The Mayor has actually been supportive of Murch, so this brouhaha has to be embarrassing for her. But she's also under pressure to show she's a good fiscal steward after an audit found the last two administrations violated the law with the way school modernizations were handled. That's why DCPS took over from DGS on the Murch project last fall and will be in charge of all school modernizations going forward. With Murch, the DCPS bean counters are trying to make a big show of how they're the new sheriff in town. Of course, DCPS has even less construction-management expertise than it does educational expertise. At this point, the Mayor does need to swoop in and save the day. It's called leadership.

Yup. This is why they swooped in with the "must consider Lafayette swing space" thing in December. They forced DGS to consider it, even though it was a total non-starter...and wouldn't even save money. But, boy, they sure showed who's boss!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This reeks of a manufactured crisis that will allow the mayor to swoop in and save the day. Thus endearing herself to a neighborhood population where she did poorly in the general election. And potentially insulating herself from a challenge by the former mayor in two years. Stay tuned....

Conspiracy theorists give these bungling bureaucrats way too much credit. The system is corrupt and broken. The Mayor has actually been supportive of Murch, so this brouhaha has to be embarrassing for her. But she's also under pressure to show she's a good fiscal steward after an audit found the last two administrations violated the law with the way school modernizations were handled. That's why DCPS took over from DGS on the Murch project last fall and will be in charge of all school modernizations going forward. With Murch, the DCPS bean counters are trying to make a big show of how they're the new sheriff in town. Of course, DCPS has even less construction-management expertise than it does educational expertise. At this point, the Mayor does need to swoop in and save the day. It's called leadership.

Yup. This is why they swooped in with the "must consider Lafayette swing space" thing in December. They forced DGS to consider it, even though it was a total non-starter...and wouldn't even save money. But, boy, they sure showed who's boss!

Let's see. DCPS is the bureaucracy that, at least until Rhee, couldn't put textbooks in the classroom or even stock school bathrooms with toilet paper. I get that things have improved a bit since then, but it's somewhere between fanciful and sheer malpractice to put DCPS in charge of major construction projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be a little more sympathetic if the request were for equity for ALL schools getting the shaft by DCPS / DGS renovations. There are other schools similarly (or more) deserving than Murch that aren't getting renovated for years. And the more funding that gets diverted to Murch, the less will be there for our schools.
I'd be happy to support a pledge for increasing renovation funding overall so that we don't have to make dumb decisions with the Murch renovation and other high priority schools can be moved up (and done correctly).

Oh come on, that's really unfair. Have you seen Murch? It probably should have been one of the first schools to be renovated, and I'm not a Murch parent. It bodes unwell for the entire system. Now that DGS/DCPS has been doing renovations for the past 10 years, they should know the drill.

I will be sending something out to Bowser et al. on behalf of the community tomorrow.

Have you compared it to all the other schools in need of renovation? When the council did that last year, Murch was ranked 19th. Yet I don't see you clamoring to support renovation of 1-18 first.

I don't think we benefit from fighting among school communities, but don't expect support if you're not going to push a broader message.

For example, we could push the Mayor and council to raise the debt ceiling to allow for more money for school renovation (AND also step up better oversight of the money). Schools like ours shouldn't be forced to make stupid choices while others get extravagant and wasteful renovations.

I'm not the quoted PP, but I don't know what more you want from the Murch community. They have been doing exactly what you are asking for a very long time: calling for renovating all schools, trying to make sure funding for all these projects is more available, trying to bring attention to the flaws in the process, and demanding changes in the process.

You clearly have read the materials from the Education Committee's work last spring. I applaud that work, and helped with it. Have you studied and visited schools, including Murch? The Committee's analysis was based on the data DCPS and DGS provided, and it was acknowledged that was a big part of the problem. How you measure things can manipulate the results. Murch has pushed to have more accurate, honest assessments, not just because it would benefit Murch. No one at DGS could explain their facility assessment process. And the DCPS figures calculated capacity numbers to include all trailers, so they showed Murch as undercapacity. Anyone who has been to Murch knows that is a joke.

We can all continue to work on these issues citywide (and the problems are massive from facilities assessment to contracting to community engagement), but don't ask Murch to deny or sacrifice the needs of their own school in the process. Murch did that decades ago when they helped file the lawsuit to get DC to renovate and then sat waiting for their turn. They did that when they received a grant to figure out how to handle the historic preservation of Murch and turned it over to allow a citywide analysis of the issue. Now it is time to get Murch done and use its issues to inform city leaders of the massive flaws in the entire process. If you can't see and accept that, then I think the person that isn't willing to look at the issue citywide may be you.

Well said. Having listened to DGS explain how it was going to "evaluate" the various swing space options for Murch, it's clear that methodology is not their strong suit. I believe that a different analysis a few years earlier put Murch #2 in the city in need of renovation.

But as many have rightly pointed out, this isn't about who's more deserving. It's about facts: Murch's building is 86 years old, designed for half of its current population, and has never been renovated. Now the city is literally refusing to pay the price for ignoring the school for so long.

Like when they said they'd do a traffic study at Lafayette OVER CHRISTMAS BREAK? Am I remembering that correctly? Talk about a waste of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mary Cheh earmarked $9.5 million in the capital budget to build a new rec center building at Palisades that the neighbors don't want. Start there.

Saying neighbors don't want it is false. Don't perpetuate your blind beliefs as if they apply to others.

I'm on the SIT: I know the sentiment of the community. (And, for the record, I am an outsider to the project unaligned with the Palisade Citizens' Association -- or whatever it's called.)

[Anonymous]

Murch should look to Mann for guidance. Mann doesn't have a separate gym and cafeteria; it is one small space. Mann's parking lot is also very, very small. They ask neighbors -- annually -- to donate parking spaces. It works quite well.

I know Murch is more than twice the size of Mann. I know this. I'm just saying that instead of playing the reactionary Chicken Little, think seriously about how to navigate around DC's roadblocks. Everything is constrained optimization; this is no different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be a little more sympathetic if the request were for equity for ALL schools getting the shaft by DCPS / DGS renovations. There are other schools similarly (or more) deserving than Murch that aren't getting renovated for years. And the more funding that gets diverted to Murch, the less will be there for our schools.
I'd be happy to support a pledge for increasing renovation funding overall so that we don't have to make dumb decisions with the Murch renovation and other high priority schools can be moved up (and done correctly).

Oh come on, that's really unfair. Have you seen Murch? It probably should have been one of the first schools to be renovated, and I'm not a Murch parent. It bodes unwell for the entire system. Now that DGS/DCPS has been doing renovations for the past 10 years, they should know the drill.

I will be sending something out to Bowser et al. on behalf of the community tomorrow.

Have you compared it to all the other schools in need of renovation? When the council did that last year, Murch was ranked 19th. Yet I don't see you clamoring to support renovation of 1-18 first.

I don't think we benefit from fighting among school communities, but don't expect support if you're not going to push a broader message.

For example, we could push the Mayor and council to raise the debt ceiling to allow for more money for school renovation (AND also step up better oversight of the money). Schools like ours shouldn't be forced to make stupid choices while others get extravagant and wasteful renovations.

I'm not the quoted PP, but I don't know what more you want from the Murch community. They have been doing exactly what you are asking for a very long time: calling for renovating all schools, trying to make sure funding for all these projects is more available, trying to bring attention to the flaws in the process, and demanding changes in the process.

You clearly have read the materials from the Education Committee's work last spring. I applaud that work, and helped with it. Have you studied and visited schools, including Murch? The Committee's analysis was based on the data DCPS and DGS provided, and it was acknowledged that was a big part of the problem. How you measure things can manipulate the results. Murch has pushed to have more accurate, honest assessments, not just because it would benefit Murch. No one at DGS could explain their facility assessment process. And the DCPS figures calculated capacity numbers to include all trailers, so they showed Murch as undercapacity. Anyone who has been to Murch knows that is a joke.

We can all continue to work on these issues citywide (and the problems are massive from facilities assessment to contracting to community engagement), but don't ask Murch to deny or sacrifice the needs of their own school in the process. Murch did that decades ago when they helped file the lawsuit to get DC to renovate and then sat waiting for their turn. They did that when they received a grant to figure out how to handle the historic preservation of Murch and turned it over to allow a citywide analysis of the issue. Now it is time to get Murch done and use its issues to inform city leaders of the massive flaws in the entire process. If you can't see and accept that, then I think the person that isn't willing to look at the issue citywide may be you.

Well said. Having listened to DGS explain how it was going to "evaluate" the various swing space options for Murch, it's clear that methodology is not their strong suit. I believe that a different analysis a few years earlier put Murch #2 in the city in need of renovation.

But as many have rightly pointed out, this isn't about who's more deserving. It's about facts: Murch's building is 86 years old, designed for half of its current population, and has never been renovated. Now the city is literally refusing to pay the price for ignoring the school for so long.

Like when they said they'd do a traffic study at Lafayette OVER CHRISTMAS BREAK? Am I remembering that correctly? Talk about a waste of money.

In fact, this is a modest sign of intelligence on their part. Every project sponsor -- developers or DCPS in this case -- does traffic studies in the summer or on breaks when schools are not in session. Where their smarts break down is that they think the community is too dumb to notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Murch should look to Mann for guidance. Mann doesn't have a separate gym and cafeteria; it is one small space. Mann's parking lot is also very, very small. They ask neighbors -- annually -- to donate parking spaces. It works quite well.

I know Murch is more than twice the size of Mann. I know this. I'm just saying that instead of playing the reactionary Chicken Little, think seriously about how to navigate around DC's roadblocks. Everything is constrained optimization; this is no different.

But that's a big difference. Murch has, I believe, 5 classes per grade. Mann has only 2. So that's way more PE classes and way more lunch periods. It's much easier to fit 14 gym classes plus lunch in one room than 35 gym classes plus multiple lunches.

Ditto with the parking spaces -- how many more teachers/staff does Murch have?

[Anonymous]

Besides writing in, can anyone let us know if the Murch SIT team or other group is taking any other actions? If so, please let those of us help you where we can!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Murch should look to Mann for guidance. Mann doesn't have a separate gym and cafeteria; it is one small space. Mann's parking lot is also very, very small. They ask neighbors -- annually -- to donate parking spaces. It works quite well.

I know Murch is more than twice the size of Mann. I know this. I'm just saying that instead of playing the reactionary Chicken Little, think seriously about how to navigate around DC's roadblocks. Everything is constrained optimization; this is no different.

But that's a big difference. Murch has, I believe, 5 classes per grade. Mann has only 2. So that's way more PE classes and way more lunch periods. It's much easier to fit 14 gym classes plus lunch in one room than 35 gym classes plus multiple lunches.

Ditto with the parking spaces -- how many more teachers/staff does Murch have?

Exactly - 3 classes per pre-K but mostly 5 classes per grade. Right now 4th and 5th grade are only four classes but as they age out - we will be at five classes for every grade except pre-K. And Murch parents do donate parking spaces but that still doesn't fit the "requirement" that there be some on-site parking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Besides writing in, can anyone let us know if the Murch SIT team or other group is taking any other actions? If so, please let those of us help you where we can!

Keep an ear out for announcements, but it is safe to say that you will hear more. And thank you for the offer of support.

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to determine how many seats are available per grade for OOB kids in the upcoming lottery? Can't seem to find it on My School DC. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the need to right size the number of kids at the school for the space has to be revisited. It would mean tough choices for boundaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the need to right size the number of kids at the school for the space has to be revisited. It would mean tough choices for boundaries.

They won't reopen the boundary discussion for several more years...it's a once-a-decade event now (after not dealing with it for 30 years). Sadly, I genuinely believe that a lawsuit is the only thing that will get traction on all this dysfunction.