W MV moving will CM stay in current facility?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finding something cheaper is much easier said than done...particularly if the charter school hopes to remain in the same Ward (which is typically the goal).

Another reality -- it's my understanding that DCPS has made clear that it does not plan to make all of its unused inventory (read: empty schools) available to charts...or at least not with long term contracts. DCPS doesn't want to give up its option of re-opening currently failing neighborhood schools, so, for many of its properties, it may give a 5 year contract to a charter, but it's not giving many long term (e.g., 30 year) contracts.

I'm not sure it is (or necessarily should be) the goal to remain in the same ward. It's just not realistic for schools as they grown to be able to afford giant buildings in Ward 1. And the need for charter schools is much higher in other wards. MV is pretty much moving 15 minutes away from their current campus - and all the parents do is bitch and moan about it. None of these parents would last one day in NYC or LA where long commutes are the norm...If you want CM to stay in their current location, then the parents/admin need to get focused on fund-raising...and quick.

as a MV parent who has a fair number of contacts/friends within the school, i think this perception of all the families bitching is purely manufactured or only representative of a small percentage of the school.
and as an aside, DC isn't the urban sprawl that is LA. nor is it the size of NYC. so your parallels to those cities are unpersuasive.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a small town of about 9,000 people and had an hour bus ride to my high school - 30 minutes by car...people in dc are just so entitled...

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP who first commented on the school's interest in remaining in the same Ward.

It's not about being entitled -- indeed, I live in Ward 5 and drive 30 minutes through traffic to get my child to CMI. I understand why parents DO NOT want to have to do that to send their child to a quality public school. And it factors into other areas of your life as well -- e.g., if you don't have family in the area, then it's signficantly more difficult to figure out child care if you're going to be out of town, or any other type of assistance with dropping your child off at or picking him/her up from school, when you're asking others to fight traffic across town. Honestly, it erases the "village" that helps parents raise children (particularly working parents).

That being said, I would LOVE for the school to move to Ward 5...but I absolutely understand that if that happens, there will clearly be parents who are unwilling to move with it.

Also, at the elementary school age, we're not talking about putting your kid on a bus for 30 minutes -- we're talking about many parents fighting traffic to cross town with small children and then commuting (again) to work. I do it....lots of folks do it....but it still sucks. Would I prefer not to have to do it - absolutely.