New school in Palisades

[Anonymous]

Will they seek community input or is thus a DCPS decision?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will they seek community input or is thus a DCPS decision?

They have been. This week they met with the parents at at least a couple of the elementary schools involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will they seek community input or is thus a DCPS decision?

They will pretend to seek community input but they probably have already decided what to do. That is how DCPS operates. I have worked closely with some of the leadership in central office. They like to make the decisions and they don’t generally care what parents, teachers or even principals think

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will they seek community input or is thus a DCPS decision?

They will pretend to seek community input but they probably have already decided what to do. That is how DCPS operates. I have worked closely with some of the leadership in central office. They like to make the decisions and they don’t generally care what parents, teachers or even principals think

Agree. And layer on top of that, the Mayor's office likes to intervene in facilities decisions for reasons that have nothing to do with education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its going to very hard to drum up sympathy for this anti-River push, and it frankly seems like nothing more than NIMBY attitudes coming from people who have chosen to live within blocks of some of the busiest commercial thoroughfares in NW. I, too, live near one of these busy commercial areas, and while my children riding their bikes around worries me, it is the price of doing business for having a beautiful, leafy neighborhood in a major city. There are plenty of examples of large historic homes that are transformed into commercial/nonprofit/educational spaces. If they turned an old Ambassadors residence in Spring Valley into a small elementary school, I would be fine with that. If they built a new school at Hardy Park that could alleviate crowding at our schools but would add more cars to an already busy thoroughfare...I would be fine with that too! Consider it like NCRC in Cleveland Park. Its just not a big deal, and I think these anti-River organizers (are going to have a hard time painting this little school as some sort of nefarious actor that's going to turn 42nd St into the Indy500.

I would argue that a new school at Hardy Park leads to a net reduction in traffic. The school is being built to address increased demand in the immediate neighborhood. The kids are going to go to school somewhere if not there, and that other school is going to be further away from where they live. People traveling shorter distances means less traffic.

The traffic is increasing because the population is increasing. A new school isn't a cause, it's an effect.

You cry out NIMBY because some people care about the community and not wanting to get run over when walking to school? You've missed the mark on that one. Doing a lot of finger pointing here which sounds like you are very much vested in this. When I walk my daughters to school their safety concerns me. When my son walks to Wilson, that concerns me maybe even more (teenagers!).

This sounds like a big deal to me by the way you a defending all the issues? It is in no way a "little school". Your family either goes there or you have not read their BZA. Maybe both? Going to school there is great! Not knowing what you are talking about because you didn't read the information is not. The amount of children and staff they want to bring without adequate space is worrisome.

If the feeder pattern gets changed and the families who would WALK to their school gets changed - how are they going to get to the Hardy location??????? They are going to have to drive which will cause even more issues, not a reduction. What about the families that lived in the area to be close to their public school and do not have a car? Families that bike to school? That Hardy area is not metro accessible which is why the River School is "trying to move" from their original location is it not? Biking with small children for the 3 or so miles during rush hour? Thank you google maps and the 1 hr walk in the morning (for a grown adult).

"People traveling shorter distances means less traffic". What in the world?

PP here. I live in AU Park. I am a Janney parent. I feel compelled to post because -- as a neighbor, not some River plant -- your signs feel manipulative, and they annoy me. I am the constituency you are trying to scare into opposing the River School project by insisting that if we let it go through, our children are automatic roadkill, as if River parents somehow also used their malevolent wealth and connections to obtain some sort of black market driver's license, despite being serial child smushers. And I am telling you, I simply don't care. I suspect others don't care.

If it make you feel any better, I used to live in the Palisades, and I can happily report to the community with first hand experience that while the queuing of River cars on MacArthur was mildly annoying, I learned to use my blinker and shift lanes around the G-Wagons. 5-7 seconds added to my morning routine, no dead children.

Now FEEDER PATTERNS, I care about!

Friend, I don't think you're the kind of parent that group is trying to talk to. As a former Janney parent, now Deal and Wilson parent, it sounds like you're EXACTLY the kind of parent that carries on and on about what they "care" about, and not interested in the broader community. I'm sure you were part of the group that drove the poor Janney Principal nuts with all your "caring" and now that school will be without someone who knows what's up as the kids go back (hopefully) full time in the Fall. Guess what? Others in the community might care, like myself, or might not even know about it. Did you ever think about that?

You sense of humor is sickening too. Shame on you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will they seek community input or is thus a DCPS decision?

They will pretend to seek community input but they probably have already decided what to do. That is how DCPS operates. I have worked closely with some of the leadership in central office. They like to make the decisions and they don’t generally care what parents, teachers or even principals think

Agree. And layer on top of that, the Mayor's office likes to intervene in facilities decisions for reasons that have nothing to do with education.

Maybe they have already made a decision (of course them having a secret plan would suggest more planning than they have shown in the past...). But if we don't fill out the survey and it shows one of the less pleasant options as the most popular, then we only have ourselves to blame. Here is the survey link: bit.ly/FoxhallMacArthurSurvey. It closes on May 19.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will they seek community input or is thus a DCPS decision?

They will pretend to seek community input but they probably have already decided what to do. That is how DCPS operates. I have worked closely with some of the leadership in central office. They like to make the decisions and they don’t generally care what parents, teachers or even principals think

Agree. And layer on top of that, the Mayor's office likes to intervene in facilities decisions for reasons that have nothing to do with education.

Maybe they have already made a decision (of course them having a secret plan would suggest more planning than they have shown in the past...). But if we don't fill out the survey and it shows one of the less pleasant options as the most popular, then we only have ourselves to blame. Here is the survey link: bit.ly/FoxhallMacArthurSurvey. It closes on May 19.

Thank you for the survey!

[Anonymous]

Has the network of parents supporting ward 3 schools publicly voiced an opinion on these decisions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has the network of parents supporting ward 3 schools publicly voiced an opinion on these decisions?

I do not believe there is a coherent organizing voice.

The fact of the matter is that WOTP DC needs a new by-right HS. First and foremost. That alone will take pressure off of Deal and Wilson.

We live right by Hardy MS and our baby will attend there 10 years from now. My hope is that MacArthur becomes a new HS.

The problem I see is that Wilson is a crown jewel in DCPS. The Mayor has made a "keeping access to Wilson" a big priority when speaking to her base in Wards 5-8 on the topic of education. Further, Hardy MS is the biggest by-right OOB feeder to Wilson. Hardy hoovers up the large OOB contingents at Hyde and Eaton and guarantees them a pathway to Wilson.

My guess is that Hardy MS becomes a 9th grade satellite campus for Wilson and the MacArthur location becomes a new MS that feeds to Wilson. The Mayor is cramming in all of these changes right before her 2022 re-election bid. It's pretty easy to read the tea leaves and figure out her messaging - "Mayor opens up more seats for OOB students in the city's wealthiest neighborhoods!"

Of course, they are just kicking the can down the road when it comes to Wilson overcrowding. But the Mayor isn't thinking much past her re-election bid and appealing to the base.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has the network of parents supporting ward 3 schools publicly voiced an opinion on these decisions?

I do not believe there is a coherent organizing voice.

The fact of the matter is that WOTP DC needs a new by-right HS. First and foremost. That alone will take pressure off of Deal and Wilson.

We live right by Hardy MS and our baby will attend there 10 years from now. My hope is that MacArthur becomes a new HS.

The problem I see is that Wilson is a crown jewel in DCPS. The Mayor has made a "keeping access to Wilson" a big priority when speaking to her base in Wards 5-8 on the topic of education. Further, Hardy MS is the biggest by-right OOB feeder to Wilson. Hardy hoovers up the large OOB contingents at Hyde and Eaton and guarantees them a pathway to Wilson.

My guess is that Hardy MS becomes a 9th grade satellite campus for Wilson and the MacArthur location becomes a new MS that feeds to Wilson. The Mayor is cramming in all of these changes right before her 2022 re-election bid. It's pretty easy to read the tea leaves and figure out her messaging - "Mayor opens up more seats for OOB students in the city's wealthiest neighborhoods!"

Of course, they are just kicking the can down the road when it comes to Wilson overcrowding. But the Mayor isn't thinking much past her re-election bid and appealing to the base.

Yeah; as another family in the Hardy/Wilson area; it is clear that not much thought has gone into the actual logistics of anything other than checking boxes. For example, breaking up Stoddert to send kids a couple miles away, when it'd be both cheaper and better to just expand the school (which was the original plan).

Nobody disagrees there needs to be a new high school. But DCPS/Bowser haven't really thought through many of the implication. (I'm also in the camp that we need use the Foxhall site for Western HS)

[Anonymous]

Having attended one of the community listening sessions, I’m pretty convinced they are going to go with the 9th grade academy idea, despite widespread opposition. It’s the easiest for DCPS to implement.

I agree that a new HS is the right answer. The problem is transportation. Wilson is on top of a metro station and served by a bunch of nearby bus lines. Most kids within the Wilson boundary can get there pretty easily, and those outside the boundary at least have a public transportation path. The Foxhall and (to a lesser extent) Hardy sites are far less accessible by public transportation, and DCPS has said clearly that they are not going to provide transportation. Considering how many students at the new HS would be out of boundary, how will DCPS make this work?

The 9th grade academy will also be a transportation shitshow, but they can say, “well, it’s just for one year,” and Hardy is a little more accessible than Foxhall. And it’s the solution that their data says helps most with crowding at Wilson. And that will be that.

I have a kid who will be a freshman at Wilson in the 2022-23 school year, so I am really bummed; that year will be such a mess as they figure out how to manage the school across two campuses...but my older kid made it through freshman year at Wilson fully remote, so I guess it could be worse.

[Anonymous]

Transportation is the attribute of a site that is hardest to fix. It's really what they should be looking at.

The 9th grade academy is a transportation nightmare. It's the exact opposite of what DCPS should be trying to do, which is put kids closer to their schools and schools closer to their kids.

The MacArthur site is pretty close to the center of the Hardy territory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has the network of parents supporting ward 3 schools publicly voiced an opinion on these decisions?

I do not believe there is a coherent organizing voice.

The fact of the matter is that WOTP DC needs a new by-right HS. First and foremost. That alone will take pressure off of Deal and Wilson.

We live right by Hardy MS and our baby will attend there 10 years from now. My hope is that MacArthur becomes a new HS.

The problem I see is that Wilson is a crown jewel in DCPS. The Mayor has made a "keeping access to Wilson" a big priority when speaking to her base in Wards 5-8 on the topic of education. Further, Hardy MS is the biggest by-right OOB feeder to Wilson. Hardy hoovers up the large OOB contingents at Hyde and Eaton and guarantees them a pathway to Wilson.

My guess is that Hardy MS becomes a 9th grade satellite campus for Wilson and the MacArthur location becomes a new MS that feeds to Wilson. The Mayor is cramming in all of these changes right before her 2022 re-election bid. It's pretty easy to read the tea leaves and figure out her messaging - "Mayor opens up more seats for OOB students in the city's wealthiest neighborhoods!"

Of course, they are just kicking the can down the road when it comes to Wilson overcrowding. But the Mayor isn't thinking much past her re-election bid and appealing to the base.

Yeah; as another family in the Hardy/Wilson area; it is clear that not much thought has gone into the actual logistics of anything other than checking boxes. For example, breaking up Stoddert to send kids a couple miles away, when it'd be both cheaper and better to just expand the school (which was the original plan).

Nobody disagrees there needs to be a new high school. But DCPS/Bowser haven't really thought through many of the implication. (I'm also in the camp that we need use the Foxhall site for Western HS)

The money for Stoddert renovation was always an illusion. The mayor stuck it in the budget to try and quiet people down about Old Hardy, when that didn't work she moved it somewhere else. That addition was never going to get built.

What would make sense for Stoddert would be to shift some if its students to Mann, then have Mann and Key move students to Foxhall. Much less disruptive. There are some big apartment buildings along the Mann-Stoddert border, moving them would probably be all that it takes.