MacArthur High School
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Anonymous
The original Better Bus plan would have axed the D2 that runs from GP to Dupont in favor of a new route that connected Chevy Chase to Foggy Bottom via MacArthur HS. ANC3B fought the loss of the D2 bitterly and Frumin essentially copy pasted their arguments into his letter to WMATA. Of course, one could split hairs by claiming that ANC3B were not arguing against the new route but rather in preservation of the D2, but those making those arguments knew full well that WMATA doesn’t have the resources to be running both routes all day in a part of the city where few people ride the bus. So what WMATA did based on Frumin’s reaction - and again, he just simply passed on ANC3B’s complaints - was that the D2 was preserved by WMATA as the “D96” and the route between Chevy Chase and Foggy Bottom - the “C85” - became a “rush hour only” service that runs northward from 7 to 8am in the morning and southward from 2:30 to 5pm in the evening. Anyone who has been paying attention to this process can draw a straight line from ANC3B’s advocacy - and Frumin’s willingness to parrot their talking points - to the lack of a bus connecting Glover Park and neighborhoods north to MacArthur HS. |
Anonymous
See pages 59 and 60 on the C85 route here: https://www.wmata.com/initiatives/plans/Better-Bus/upload/Resource_2025-Route-Profiles_District-of-Columbia.pdf Chevy Chase bound trips run from 7 to 8am and Foggy Bottom bound trips run from 2:30 to 5pm. So as PP notes, there is not going to be any bus that kids who live in Glover Park, Wesley Heights, AU Park and so on can use to get to MacArthur HS. The original Better Bus proposal would have made that connection as the C85 was going to be full service, but at the expense of cutting the D2. The D2 was preserved as the D96, but the C85 was cut back to rush hour only to make room for that. |
Anonymous
Nothing is going on with the Trolley Trail. For that you can thank certain past and present residents of Sherier Pl in the Palisades and Prospect St in Georgetown. |
Anonymous
Plus 1. The neighborhood families I know at MacArthur love it too. |
Anonymous
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I would love to hear more from MacArthur High School parents. We're considering a condo in Glover Park and our kid will be in 9th this Fall.
Kid is quiet, into music, a bit sporty but not super competitive. Thoughts on music program? Are all sports cut or are there some sports -- or even sport clubs -- where all kids can participate? I see so many mixed reviews -- disorganized, student behavior issues, poor teachers, etc. But then people here say, "Well, my friend's kid likes it." Which is it?!! 
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Anonymous
Call or visit the school. |
Anonymous
My son is a Sophomore there. It is great. I am sure there are some behavior issues, but I have been there during the school day and it is better than any school I ever went to. He gets all the AP classes he wants and the teachers are all good and he comes home with things to discuss. transport is an issue, but not unsolvable. Music is improving each year, but I can't speak much to that. My son plays sports and it is good on that front. |
Anonymous
why would the students need non-rush hour service? |
Anonymous
Sports are much easier to get into than at JR. The neighbors at Macarthur noted how much more organized and how many fewer issues it had than JR. This website doesn't seem to reflect anything I've heard from an actual person with kids there. |
Anonymous
They don’t and there would be no problem if the C85 was a rush hour bus running in both directions. But, like many rush hour buses, it will only go in one direction. You will be able to take the C85 from Foggy Bottom to Chevy Chase in the morning and from Chevy Chase to Foggy Bottom in the afternoon. But you will not be able to take it from Chevy Chase to Foggy Bottom in the morning or from Foggy Bottom to Chevy Chase in the afternoon. The ONLY purpose the C85 will serve is to connect the Orange / Blue / Silver lines to MacArthur HS (and, strangely, the neighborhoods in the MacArthur HS boundary to J-R). It will be useless for all families that are IB for MacArthur HS. |
Anonymous
That seems totally backwards. If they ran this bus south in the morning and north in the evening, like every other one-way commuter bus in NWDC, it would take the Lafayette kids to Deal/JR, the Hearst/Eaton/Stoddert kids to MacArthur, and a slew of adults downtown to their office jobs, then take everyone home again in the evening. Instead this bus runs backwards from all other commuter buses, carries no one anywhere, and leaves three important groups of commuters stranded. Are they doing this on purpose? Is it just a typo? |
Anonymous
I completely agree that this makes no sense. It could be a typo, but I doubt it. There have been multiple revisions to the new bus routes and this schedule has remained the same throughout. This ridiculous C85 bus route is the result of WMATA twisting themselves in knots trying to keep their elected officials happy. On the one hand, DCPS and the mayor’s office want to make MacArthur HS more accessible to families outside Ward 3. The connection to the Foggy Bottom metro achieves that. On the other hand, you have Frumin and Glover Park insisting that the D2 not be cut (as it was in the original proposal, which the C85 running a regular schedule). WMATA doesn’t have the buses to run both the D2 and the C85, but has to keep the D2 and improve connectivity to MacArthur. Thus it was essentially forced to create this ridiculous reverse rush hour bus. Folks in Glover Park may not like it that others are pointing fingers at their ANC for engineering this outcome, but it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the C85 would be running in both directions were it not for their insistence that the D2 not be cut (and Frumin’s eagerness to parrot their talking points). It’s a shame that special interests won out here. The D2 has low ridership and that’s why WMATA wanted to cut it in the first place. A C85 running in both directions on a regular schedule would have had a much higher ridership. MacArthur, its students and parents, and hundreds of commuters from across Ward 3 will suffer as a result of the few dozen people who wanted to keep the D2. |
Anonymous
| I hope they make the new route for the students in the neighborhood. After school it's chaos, they have to wait a long time for the bus and the neighbors are tired of the students' bad behavior. |
Anonymous
What "bad behavior" beyond kids just horsing around and - you know - being kids? |
Anonymous
So there are old neighbors - met some this week - who oppose the school and always will because...they just don't want it there. Most of us with kids at Hardy (feeding to MHS) and those with kids at MHS are happy and hear from families with kids there (lots of hardy kids with older sibs) that it is well-run, excellent teachers, small and everyone knows you. Sounds good to me. In a couple years if it draws 50% or more of the graduating Hardy 8th grade class which is on track to be majority neighborhood inboundary kids, it will be a neighborhood high school that of course welcomes and supports kids from all over. |