Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Right, just look at Hardy to see an example of how fragile these things are. |
Anonymous
|
What about the money Stuart Hobson needs for its facility? SH parents are asking for funding above their current modernization budget – and for good reason, the building needs a lot of work. If the school's capacity is 430, and it will never be a large school capable of offering programs like Deal, and it will compete with Jefferson and Eliot Hine for scarce modernization dollars, and SH is majority out of bounds, how is this situation remedied? Shut down Jefferson and tell the folks at Amidon their kids must shuffle up to Eliot Hine, and drive past Stuart Hobson in the process? Why add a deck to the SH parking lot so that it has facilities like Eliot Hine, when Eliot Hine has capacity and is close by?
Why are there two middle schools (SH & EH) in the same neighborhood a mile away from each other? Why would these two schools, whose combined enrollment is at 60% of capacity, get all these modernization funds and leave Jefferson to fight for scraps (while Ward 5 has no middle school)? (EH got phase one modernization in 2009 I think). Just asking, there is no simple answer . . . |
Anonymous
| Why don't we shut half of Deal down and simply force 400 students to attend Hardy? Moving students is like moving chess pieces, right? |
Anonymous
The families of the students currently attending Hardy might have something to say about that... |
Anonymous
| just like the parents of students currently attending Stuart-Hobson (or the feeder Watkins) might have something to say about the only option being Eliot Hine. . . . |
Anonymous
But if you attend Maury, or Tyler, or Miner, then you only have one option right now - Eliot Hine. |
Anonymous
Sounds like a facetious remark; the point being that one can't simply change feeder patterns and make it happen. |
Anonymous
| Isn't the real problem here that there are too few DCPS high-performing middle schools where parents who are serious about education can send their children with confidence? I just don't see how it's a good idea to spend a lot of time and resources messing with one of those few successful schools when there's so much work to be done improving the schools that aren't attracting students. Shutting down Stuart-Hobson will drive more families out of DCPS, and out of DC, undermining Eastern's success too. |
Anonymous
True for Payne families too. Brent families have either Jefferson or Eliot Hine - neither great otpions today. I wish Brent families would lean towards EH. Then we'd have Maury, Tyler Spanish Immersion, and Brent - three very strong programs with diverse students all fedding into EH. I'm not sure EH needs to get the Hobson kids to succeed. |
Anonymous
| If DCPS shuts down an under enrolled Jefferson, EHine would be the only way to go for Brent. Maybe a good idea. |
Anonymous
The situation is fundamentally different from the quoted hypothetical in that - as I understand the original post - DCPS is looking at a significant facilities investment into S-H for much needed renovations, while a brand-new building is sitting, quite literally, half empty just a few blocks away. I'm not saying it may be a bad idea for other reasons but that aspect of the hypothetically proposed solution I find worth thinking about, especially in the current budget crunch where facilities $$ may just be taken out of instruction. The question for me is, what would be the result were that a convenient way to provide S-H students with a brand-new building: Would it yield positive side-effects by creating a bigger and better school than either of those are? Would it's net effect be neutral? Or would upset something that's working with a net negative effect on everyone, current and future S-H parents migrating further west and E-H parents and teachers unnecessarily shaken and unhappy about yet another merger? I don't know the answer. What I do know (totally second-hand) is that S-H does not have the same rosy reputation Deal or Hardy has/had. So there is at least a chance that the proposed solution would yield a positive net effect. But I'm also weary looking at sending my child, in just a couple of years, to an E-H in turmoil and merger mode. |
Anonymous
Is the point here that everyone should have the same one option? I suspect that the person who pointed out that parents of students at Stuart-Hobson & Watkins (not to mention J.O. Wilson & Ludlow-Taylor, which also feed into Stuart-Hobson) might have a concern about their only option being Elliot-Hine meant that these families would be concerned if their good school was taken away because it was a good school, and replaced with a school that isn't working as well. Yes, parents of Maury, Tyler, and Miner students have reason to be concerned about Elliot-Hine's performance; in fact, we all should be concerned about that. I'm not sure how taking away the option of Stuart-Hobson from students at Watkins, JO Wilson & Ludlow-Taylor fixes that problem. Shouldn't we be focusing on fixing broken schools rather than breaking the schools that work? |
Anonymous
|
How objectively successful is Stuart Hobson? Within the context of DC it looks pretty good, but is it really all that and a bag of chips? For kids from Wards 7 & 8 it’s far superior to their neighborhood choices. But will an emerging cohort of strong students in Ward 6 flock to it? A school with test scores and facility like Stuart Hobson would be the bottom of the barrel in Montgomery/Arlington/Fairfax.
Stuart Hobson has a helpful dedicated feeder in Watkins/Peabody and an affluent enough catchment area to help make it the only successful elementary-middle school combo east of the park. That may change with Ludlow Taylor and JO Wilson in the mix. It seems like Deal is a tier one school, Hardy and Stuart Hobson are tier two, and all the rest are third tier and lower. Stuart Hobson benefits from being the only game in town east of the park. If Eliot Hine (or Jefferson) emerge as viable options for strong students then the whole situation changes for Stuart Hobson. In its current configuration Stuart Hobson is limited. It’s an aging building with a myriad of facility issues. It has no real gym or athletic facilities – realistically it’s a retro-fitted elementary school. Its feeder schools are struggling and its test scores are headed south. And its capacity is 430. To be sure, Stuart Hobson has done yeoman’s work – especially considering the dysfunction of DCPS. The folks who pushed hard to make Stuart Hobson a success have a special place in heaven reserved for them. It may be a stretch to say that Stuart Hobson has the ability to become another tier one school on par with Deal. Eliot Hine, on the other hand, has a strong possibility of becoming a Deal-esque school given the right conditions. If I was a future Stuart Hobson parent I would seriously consider focusing on Eliot Hine with its significant upside. Eliot Hine’s enrollment capacity, its facility, its feeders, and its proximity to Eastern’s amenities and programs all combine to make it Capitol Hill’s best middle school bet for the future. Eliot Hine’s upside is immense. Stuart Hobson’s upside is questionable at best. Is DCPS better off putting $15 million into Eliot Hine and building another Deal type school that benefits 800 students than it would be putting $15 million of modernization funds into Stuart Hobson and benefitting half that number of kids? |
Anonymous
As a Brent parent I would go where ever the best option is – as long as it was a good option. Right now, even with the Ward 6 Middle School Reform Plan in place, I don’t find any of the Ward 6 schools good options for my family. I don’t blame anyone for getting us here; it’s just the situation we find ourselves in. But I am looking for bold leadership to get us out of this quagmire. With regard to closing Jefferson, it is one way to save money. Maybe it could work to mothball Jefferson until its capacity is needed. But I have two questions about that – are we eating our seed corn and are we taking the long view? Jefferson eclipses Stuart Hobson in world class location and beautiful huge facility. Jefferson’s Southwest location seems foreign to Capitol Hill folks, but if Jefferson was as strong as Deal, you bet Capitol Hill families would clamor to get in there. Also, the population growth in Ward Six is mostly happening in Near Southeast and Southwest. When considering the future, Jefferson/Eliot Hine make better foci than Eliot Hine/Stuart Hobson, no? If Eastern is going to work, don’t we need more than the 430 of Stuart Hobson and the 800 students at Eliot Hine to make it work. I don’t know, just asking. Also, as a previous post asked, who wants to tell Brent, Amidon (and Thomson) parents they need to commute to Old City, going past Stuart Hobson, in order for their children to attend middle school? Stuart Hobson and Eliot Hine are blocks apart in the same neighborhood, Jefferson is two miles away. Most importantly, I just want a solution that works – Stuart Hobson, Eliot Hine or Jefferson, I don’t really care. Right now, I just don’t see anything that works within the timeframe we have. |
Anonymous
| Lots of people seem to think you that with enough skill one can simply set up a successful middle school. It seems to me that you need enough good students to make it happen. Show me one good middle school that takes kids from below basic in fifth grade and BOOM, by 8th grade they are mostly proficient or advanced. The typical way to create a good middle school is to start from a position of strength (perhaps 66% proficient) and create a culture and climate conducive to learning. |