Ellington. $250 m for 600 students. Murch. $70 m for 700 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then put up recent ones, are they any different?

If only I could.

That isn't publicly available data - perhaps it should be. The person who shared it earlier in the week said they got it via a private communication from some elected official.

So why does a public school not have any publicly available data? So are at least half the students at grade level in English and math in high school? Even if they have talent, it'll be helpful if they can read and write and do math.

Ellington is a hybrid. They're public when they want to be --namely to suck at the public teat which funds and funds 100% their renovation cost overruns and pays 85% of Ellington's operating budget. But when it comes to transparency, they claim they're a private institution. While that's a specious claim, Ellington even fails to recognize that transparency and good governance have swept the private institutional environment in the past 10-15 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then put up recent ones, are they any different?

If only I could.

That isn't publicly available data - perhaps it should be. The person who shared it earlier in the week said they got it via a private communication from some elected official.

So why does a public school not have any publicly available data? So are at least half the students at grade level in English and math in high school? Even if they have talent, it'll be helpful if they can read and write and do math.

Ellington is a hybrid. They're public when they want to be --namely to suck at the public teat which funds and funds 100% their renovation cost overruns and pays 85% of Ellington's operating budget. But when it comes to transparency, they claim they're a private institution. While that's a specious claim, Ellington even fails to recognize that transparency and good governance have swept the private institutional environment in the past 10-15 years.

What I don't get is, why does the city enable this? As the main source of funds, they could and should demand accountability tomorrow. Or close the tap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then put up recent ones, are they any different?

If only I could.

That isn't publicly available data - perhaps it should be. The person who shared it earlier in the week said they got it via a private communication from some elected official.

So why does a public school not have any publicly available data? So are at least half the students at grade level in English and math in high school? Even if they have talent, it'll be helpful if they can read and write and do math.

Ellington is a hybrid. They're public when they want to be --namely to suck at the public teat which funds and funds 100% their renovation cost overruns and pays 85% of Ellington's operating budget. But when it comes to transparency, they claim they're a private institution. While that's a specious claim, Ellington even fails to recognize that transparency and good governance have swept the private institutional environment in the past 10-15 years.

What I don't get is, why does the city enable this? As the main source of funds, they could and should demand accountability tomorrow. Or close the tap.

Political power? It seems that those in control of Ellington have significant sway over those in charge of the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the Murch bellyaching is really tiresome. SO many elementary schools are in worse shape than Murch and not seeing a dime while some in the Murch community are complaining over $70 mil as insufficient. Try getting out of your bubble once in a while. Lots of successful schools have learned to live with less.

It's not Murch that's saying its modernization budget is insufficient, it's the incompetent (and possibly corrupt) people in charge of the building process at DGS and their third-party consultants who are saying that and reneging on all their promises. All Murch is asking for is the design that was approved last fall. This was not a design that had a lot of bells & whistles. No spas or student lounges or what have you. It was simply the best use of the site given all the constraints of being on NPS land and having a pseudo-historic building. Now DGS and DCPS are frantically chopping up that plan, rearranging the pieces and shrinking program spaces in the process because they are blind to the fact that their contractor -- and their own screwed up system -- is costing them much more than need be. If Capital City Charter -- using MCN, the same builder as Murch -- can create a 168,000-sf rehabbed building for 950 students for $24 million, surely the geniuses at DGS/DCPS can figure out how to get a that contractor to create a 105,000 sf school for 720 kids for $78m, which is where the budget now stands. What pisses off Murch people is that DGS and DCPS are trying to spin this like it's all normal and fine, and it's BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then put up recent ones, are they any different?

If only I could.

That isn't publicly available data - perhaps it should be. The person who shared it earlier in the week said they got it via a private communication from some elected official.

So why does a public school not have any publicly available data? So are at least half the students at grade level in English and math in high school? Even if they have talent, it'll be helpful if they can read and write and do math.

Ellington is a hybrid. They're public when they want to be --namely to suck at the public teat which funds and funds 100% their renovation cost overruns and pays 85% of Ellington's operating budget. But when it comes to transparency, they claim they're a private institution. While that's a specious claim, Ellington even fails to recognize that transparency and good governance have swept the private institutional environment in the past 10-15 years.

What I don't get is, why does the city enable this? As the main source of funds, they could and should demand accountability tomorrow. Or close the tap.

Political power? It seems that those in control of Ellington have significant sway over those in charge of the city.

I wonder if Ellington patron (matron?) Peggy Cooper Cafritz's famous art collection includes compromising photos of a number of DC politicians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a high school. Compare high schools, not elementary schools. Plus it's an old building that hasn't been renovated in 40 years being stripped to the walls. Add in the arts venues (theaters, studios etc).

At least Ellington has high 90% graduation rate and sends its kids to college.

When the building is done it will be an asset to the whole community, used year-round.

OK, compared to all the high schools listed -- which generally are ridiculous in their own right -- Ellington takes the cake. Almost twice as much as Wilson for barely a third of the student body?

it's a performing arts school...which means the cost to operate is quite substantial in comparison to a comprehensive. Duh rah any and all schools are available all year long at a cost...so don't think Ellington will be open free of charge. Believe me what DCPS puts in, they get back with donors and public relations....so stop looking at it as one stop shop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do people continue to complain about this on DCUM. There are countless threads on this issue. Yet everyone remains silent in venues that counts like at the budget hearings. Do you think change is going to happen via these posts?

Oh, stop making sense. Bitching is easy, showing up is hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a high school. Compare high schools, not elementary schools. Plus it's an old building that hasn't been renovated in 40 years being stripped to the walls. Add in the arts venues (theaters, studios etc).

At least Ellington has high 90% graduation rate and sends its kids to college.

When the building is done it will be an asset to the whole community, used year-round.

OK, compared to all the high schools listed -- which generally are ridiculous in their own right -- Ellington takes the cake. Almost twice as much as Wilson for barely a third of the student body?

it's a performing arts school...which means the cost to operate is quite substantial in comparison to a comprehensive. Duh rah any and all schools are available all year long at a cost...so don't think Ellington will be open free of charge. Believe me what DCPS puts in, they get back with donors and public relations....so stop looking at it as one stop shop.

This is a myopic, even disingenuous statement. Ellington is a big hairy, continuing cost overrun, with huge taxpayer funding yet no accountability even to DCPS or the mayor. DC lacks the right to appoint even a a single director to Ellington's board.

This video shows how over-the-top Ellington's modernization project is, while DCPS schools are fighting for crumbs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcd4hTLEGQg