SWS - as an IB School? L-T prospects?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone actually calculated how many families who would want Sws live in that proximity zone and what percentage of the other school boundary area would be affected? It must be tiny. Also, what evidence is there that these families would actually use their underenrolled inboundary schools ( as opposed to charters or another school OOB ). There is a lot of hyperbole going on about just a few people. It won't make or break LT. And a guarantee of immediate neighborhood support for Sws would be a benefit to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that the issue isn't really one of feeling like something has been lost - whether that is a school or seats at PS or PK or K, etc. What the people from this neighborhood are saying is that they would like proximity preference going forward. Since this has never been a school before, the rules for attendance are up in the air and are, for the time being, negotiable. It doesn't really matter what happened in the past or what the school used to be or who used to have preference at it. That was all at a different location and with a different set of facts. Now that the school has found a permanent location, people are saying that they want that new location to operate like other city public schools. If if gets and IB area, great. If not, give the regular proximity preference that comes after OOB with sibling preference.

I think people are getting hung up on the history of this program because the name hasn't changed instead of realizing that it is actually something entirely new. A new school in any neighborhood is going to be something that people in the neighborhood want to go to and that they are, justifiably, going to feel like they should have a right to attend before people from farther away. I know that if a new DCPS school opened in my neighborhood I would want to have the opportunity to send my kid there, not that I necessarily would because the city offers other options. Its the same reason that people have been advocating for proximity (or neighborhood?) preference at charter schools. When there is a great school right by your house, you want to be able to send your kid there. With charters, it has been a city-wide policy choice not to give preference to neighbors at charter schools. With DCPS, there has always been a city-wide policy choice to give local preference at public schools. I can understand why these neighbors think that they should have preference at this NEW school because it is a public school and not a charter.

It's only a benefit to a few hill families who don't want to support their IB schools to give proximity preference. As previously stated, that's an undue benefit for a tiny few and an undue burden to the vast majority.

There's a very good reason DCPS and everyone else in the city is glad it's going to be a city-wide school with no neighborhood preference. You can't support the schools you have, you certainly don't need an advantage at any more.

How is it an undue burden on the vast majority of DC residents? Don't they all have IB schools to go to as well?

No. Some of them don't, because their IB schools have been closed. And since SWS is city-wide, they deserve exactly the preference that the neighbors do. In fact, perhaps they deserve more - I'd be willing to lobby for giving preference to any family whose IB school was closed.

This is not true. All students whose old DCPS IB school was closed have an IB preference at a new DCPS school. There is no student in DC without an IB preference at a current school. Everyone who chooses to send their child to SWS is choosing not to support their IB school. If a family that lives near SWS chooses to send their child there, they are doing exactly the same thing that every other family of a student at SWS is doing. I am not sure why you want to turn your nose up at this choice when it is done by someone who lives IB to L-T, but not also turn your nose up at the lady from Brookland who is sending her kid to SWS. That lady is not supporting her IB school either (not that I think she should have to, but you clearly think that there is some sort of moral superiority to going to an IB school.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone actually calculated how many families who would want Sws live in that proximity zone and what percentage of the other school boundary area would be affected? It must be tiny. Also, what evidence is there that these families would actually use their underenrolled inboundary schools ( as opposed to charters or another school OOB ). There is a lot of hyperbole going on about just a few people. It won't make or break LT. And a guarantee of immediate neighborhood support for Sws would be a benefit to the school.

Actually, "a guarantee of immediate neighborhood support" is totally and completely unnecessary. There has been a school there - for years - for students with special needs, and it goes all the way to 8th grade. If anything, the new group of students will be less potential disruption than the ones that the neighbors are already accustomed to, and there won't be any buses either. They (the neighbors) should be happy no matter what.

The denial/anger/bargaining of the Hill parents in general and the LT neighbors in particular looks very familiar. It's time to move on to the acceptance stage.

[Anonymous]

I think that attendees at closing schools actually do get preference for that first year. So that will likely come into play next year, or whenever those schools close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that the issue isn't really one of feeling like something has been lost - whether that is a school or seats at PS or PK or K, etc. What the people from this neighborhood are saying is that they would like proximity preference going forward. Since this has never been a school before, the rules for attendance are up in the air and are, for the time being, negotiable. It doesn't really matter what happened in the past or what the school used to be or who used to have preference at it. That was all at a different location and with a different set of facts. Now that the school has found a permanent location, people are saying that they want that new location to operate like other city public schools. If if gets and IB area, great. If not, give the regular proximity preference that comes after OOB with sibling preference.

I think people are getting hung up on the history of this program because the name hasn't changed instead of realizing that it is actually something entirely new. A new school in any neighborhood is going to be something that people in the neighborhood want to go to and that they are, justifiably, going to feel like they should have a right to attend before people from farther away. I know that if a new DCPS school opened in my neighborhood I would want to have the opportunity to send my kid there, not that I necessarily would because the city offers other options. Its the same reason that people have been advocating for proximity (or neighborhood?) preference at charter schools. When there is a great school right by your house, you want to be able to send your kid there. With charters, it has been a city-wide policy choice not to give preference to neighbors at charter schools. With DCPS, there has always been a city-wide policy choice to give local preference at public schools. I can understand why these neighbors think that they should have preference at this NEW school because it is a public school and not a charter.

It's only a benefit to a few hill families who don't want to support their IB schools to give proximity preference. As previously stated, that's an undue benefit for a tiny few and an undue burden to the vast majority.

There's a very good reason DCPS and everyone else in the city is glad it's going to be a city-wide school with no neighborhood preference. You can't support the schools you have, you certainly don't need an advantage at any more.

How is it an undue burden on the vast majority of DC residents? Don't they all have IB schools to go to as well?

No. Some of them don't, because their IB schools have been closed. And since SWS is city-wide, they deserve exactly the preference that the neighbors do. In fact, perhaps they deserve more - I'd be willing to lobby for giving preference to any family whose IB school was closed.

This is not true. All students whose old DCPS IB school was closed have an IB preference at a new DCPS school. There is no student in DC without an IB preference at a current school. Everyone who chooses to send their child to SWS is choosing not to support their IB school. If a family that lives near SWS chooses to send their child there, they are doing exactly the same thing that every other family of a student at SWS is doing. I am not sure why you want to turn your nose up at this choice when it is done by someone who lives IB to L-T, but not also turn your nose up at the lady from Brookland who is sending her kid to SWS. That lady is not supporting her IB school either (not that I think she should have to, but you clearly think that there is some sort of moral superiority to going to an IB school.)

Yes, realistically it is true. Look at the map of closed schools. See that big cluster of gray in the middle? There are kids who have to cross through the territories of not just their own closed school, but now an alternative closed school, and that's not even counting both Emery and Shaed which show up on the map but are ALSO closed. That means they could potentially cross through the territories of 3 or more closed schools.

As long as they're traveling anyway, they've certainly got a much better claim on the new SWS school than some LT neighborhood ninnies who have their noses bent out of shape because they actually have to attend their own IB school which never closed in the first place.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't want the traffic on my street of cars of parents from all over the city. I've also heard the staff want to keep some kind of proximity preference. But we don't live near there and my kids are at a different school.

[Anonymous]

I think giving sws proximity would not affect more than roughly sixty kids in all four inbounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't want the traffic on my street of cars of parents from all over the city. I've also heard the staff want to keep some kind of proximity preference. But we don't live near there and my kids are at a different school.

The Prospect neighbors are already used to buses from all over the city, the switch to cars will be an improvement for them.

As to whether or not a few pre-school staff members have a preference for the population of a full PS-to-5th school, makes no difference. It's the Chancellor who makes the decisions, and she's got more important concerns - taxpayers, constituents, DCPS families, and the political wishes of the Mayor and the Council.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think giving sws proximity would not affect more than roughly sixty kids in all four inbounds.

All the more reason not to make changes to the city-wide plan just to accommodate them. Of far greater and more important impact is giving some preference to the baby boom in Bloomingdale/LeDroit/Shaw who now have no neighborhood school anywhere near by. Since they'll have to travel for school anyway, now that there are no DCPS schools remotely near them, at least make it up to them by giving them preference at SWS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think giving sws proximity would not affect more than roughly sixty kids in all four inbounds.

All the more reason not to make changes to the city-wide plan just to accommodate them. Of far greater and more important impact is giving some preference to the baby boom in Bloomingdale/LeDroit/Shaw who now have no neighborhood school anywhere near by. Since they'll have to travel for school anyway, now that there are no DCPS schools remotely near them, at least make it up to them by giving them preference at SWS.

This proposal is logically inconsistent. Either it is a local school or it is city-wide, but the solution isn't to give local preference to a random neighborhood far away. That is ridiculous. If that neighborhood needs as local school, open one there. If there is really a baby boom there, it will demand its own school soon enough.

[Anonymous]

It's only a benefit to a few hill families who don't want to support their IB schools to give proximity preference. As previously stated, that's an undue benefit for a tiny few and an undue burden to the vast majority.

There's a very good reason DCPS and everyone else in the city is glad it's going to be a city-wide school with no neighborhood preference. You can't support the schools you have, you certainly don't need an advantage at any more.

What about a few Hill families who do want to support the IB schools but found the job unworkable? We toughed it out at L-T for two long years so spare us your holier than thou screed, PP. Supporting L-T is a mountain very few IB can climb because DCPS has stacked the deck against relative newcomers to the neighborhood (read most of the IB parents of 3-11 year olds). If Kaya cracked down on address cheating and installed at least semi-competent leadership at L-T, we'd have a chance of building a decent IB school, but they don't so we don't. With proximity at SWS, at least some L-T families would have an automatic out, rather than being at the mercy of the charter lotteries to stay in the neighborhood. The "advantage" you want to deny us would benefit the neighborhood and the school in a big way. How bad could it be?

[Anonymous]

+1. Seriously unfair to blame the L-T parents for their own misfortunes.

[Anonymous]

Also, don't immediately buy into the premise of the L-T booster on here. In many ways, these issues are separate. Even if L-T was one of the highest performing schools on the Hill, I would still want preference at SWS because it is significantly closer to my house. I walk by it four to five times a day as I go about my daily life. If I lived that close to J.O. Wilson but was districted into L-T, I would want preference at Wilson - because that is how the system works and that is the benefit afforded to other parents in other neighborhoods in the city. None of us controls where DCPS opens or closes schools. We all must live with the decisions of the school board. But, once they have made their decisions, we have always had the right to send our kids to the open public schools in our area. There are people who seem to think that it is unfair that this area is where the school board chose to locate this new school. Maybe that was a mistake and they should have chosen an area of the city that already had fewer schools. But, they didn't. That is not the fault of the people who live in the school's new neighborhood. Don't blame them for wanting to be treated like every other parent in DC who lives within 1500 ft of a public school building.

[Anonymous]

If there were a crackdown on Maryland residents using LT, local parents turning around the school and making it into a neighborhood school would be possible, and IB families would feel comfortable staying past PS3. As an IB LT resident I find it particularly galling that I am physically so close to very decent options that I can't get my kid into.

[Anonymous]

Until DCPS decides to clean house at LT (principal, non-DC kids) and give that school a fighting chance or just close it, I think it's perfectly reasonable for them to give IB families a potential alternative. LT has made it very clear they don't want IB families so let those families invest in another neighborhood school that actually wants them.