Eaton Thrown Under the Bus

[Anonymous]

I will bet that principals at Hardy have been trying to rope in Eaton for years as more of its graduates stay in DCPS. I am not certain that Hardy will ever be as popular as Deal even if the programs and scores are equivalent as Hardy is a rough commute

[Anonymous]

Where do Hardy athletics take place? They have a track and small field that's used for the Saturday flea market. I assume that sports like baseball use nearby Jelleff as their home field?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eaton does have a fair number of OOB kids - including a lot from Mt Pleasant who prefer something other than Bancroft. Getting to Hardy is harder for OOB than getting to Deal.

If they don't prefer close/inboundary and are willing to drive their kids west - so be it.

John Eaton is getting close to 50% in boundary, and I'll bet Cleveland Park families will not be thrilled about being forced to Hardy.

I think Hardy is on a huge upswing and sending Eaton there will crystalize that, and then many many IB families will go there. Hardy is not huge, so it will "flip" quickly. I think it makes sense geography-wise and was not "selected out" because they are OOB kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When Proposal B talks about Hardy switching to a "New" high school, it is not clear whether it is talking about a newly built high school or a different high school, which would be new to Hardy students. It is doubtful that DC would build a new school in Ward 3 given the underutilization of other high schools throughout the city. In that case, Hardy would leap-frog over other neighborhoods that feed into Wilson in order to go to a high school to the East.

And let's be real. The only city-owned site of any size west of Rock Creek is Duke Ellington (which has a building but no campus with fields), And the decision seems to have been made to keep Ellington where it is, despite it's non-central location and the fact that it is no where near the Metro. The Third District police station site on Idaho Ave, would work for an elementary school but not for a HS, and you'd have to evict the cops. The logical conclusion is that the "new" high school to which DCPS vaguely refers is no where near Hardy.

The old Hardy site on Foxhall Road is five and a half acres.

[Anonymous]

I'm also an Eaton parent, and I prefer not to have surprises when it comes to my child's education, because they can be unpleasant as well. Deal has become a proven school. I know several students who, even after getting into area private schools, chose to stay at Deal. I wonder if that will happen with Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do Hardy athletics take place? They have a track and small field that's used for the Saturday flea market. I assume that sports like baseball use nearby Jelleff as their home field?

It's a crime, but Hardy doesn't use Jelleff at all. The only schools that use it are private schools.

[Anonymous]

So wait, because this is all new to me: so of all the schools that currently feed to Deal, is Eaton geographically the furthest away? Are there other schools much further than Eaton, and if so, what is the excuse for cutting Eaton out of Deal instead of a school that is closer to another middle school?

And anything that says "Different high school" sounds to me absolutely like they're talking about taking Hardy away from Wilson. So I have a similar question, geographically how close are Hardy and Deal to Wilson? And what are the logical schools or school locations that could hold a high school that are close enough to Hardy to make sense?

If this proposal both cuts Eaton out of Deal and then sends Hardy students way the heck far away to go to high school, doesn't it just reek of class preference and of serving the richer people in Ward 3 to the detriment of other schools? How would that not be the logical conclusion of that decision?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will bet that principals at Hardy have been trying to rope in Eaton for years as more of its graduates stay in DCPS. I am not certain that Hardy will ever be as popular as Deal even if the programs and scores are equivalent as Hardy is a rough commute

I heard that the former, long-time Hardy principal actively fought Michelle Rhee's plan to increase west of the Park enrollment at Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do Hardy athletics take place? They have a track and small field that's used for the Saturday flea market. I assume that sports like baseball use nearby Jelleff as their home field?

It's a crime, but Hardy doesn't use Jelleff at all. The only schools that use it are private schools.

So what does Hardy use? Does it not have basically equivalent athletic facilities to Deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eaton parent here: If Principal Pride can improve Hardy in the ways she is proposing and STAYS AT HARDY, I think that prospective Hardy students and families may be pleasantly surprised. I would much rather send my child to a smaller MS than Deal anyway. All of this being said, I am far more concerned with the uncertainty of what high school my child may go to despite living just over a mile from Wilson.

This.

Of many of those in bounds Cleveland park families go to hardy after eaton, hardy will improve.

But what high school would they feed to other than wilson?? Some eaton houses are less than a mile from wilson and where is the next nearest, other than duke Ellington, which is a specialty school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eaton parent here: If Principal Pride can improve Hardy in the ways she is proposing and STAYS AT HARDY, I think that prospective Hardy students and families may be pleasantly surprised. I would much rather send my child to a smaller MS than Deal anyway. All of this being said, I am far more concerned with the uncertainty of what high school my child may go to despite living just over a mile from Wilson.

This.

Of many of those in bounds Cleveland park families go to hardy after eaton, hardy will improve.

But what high school would they feed to other than wilson?? Some eaton houses are less than a mile from wilson and where is the next nearest, other than duke Ellington, which is a specialty school?

Perhaps so. But in the short to medium term, the quality of education as compared to what they could have had at Deal will go down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eaton parent here: If Principal Pride can improve Hardy in the ways she is proposing and STAYS AT HARDY, I think that prospective Hardy students and families may be pleasantly surprised. I would much rather send my child to a smaller MS than Deal anyway. All of this being said, I am far more concerned with the uncertainty of what high school my child may go to despite living just over a mile from Wilson.

This.

Of many of those in bounds Cleveland park families go to hardy after eaton, hardy will improve.

But what high school would they feed to other than wilson?? Some eaton houses are less than a mile from wilson and where is the next nearest, other than duke Ellington, which is a specialty school?

Perhaps so. But in the short to medium term, the quality of education as compared to what they could have had at Deal will go down.

If the Eaton families join forces now with the families choosing Hardy, they can establish a lot of parental support. That's what I would do if I was in Eaton now, I would deeply engage with parents at Hardy to figure out how to improve so that in the future, it would be good for my kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[A dedicated, purpose built performing arts school that is centrally located and more accessible to all by Metro would be superior. particularly if it were located near a performing arts complex like Arena.

Whoa! so, "goodbye Jefferson Middle School and hello, new location for Ellington High?!" That. Is. Brilliant.

Jefferson is underenrolled, so flip it over to Eliott-Hine (Eliott-Hine-Jefferson!!) and build that middle school into a powerhouse to feed into Eastern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eaton parent here: If Principal Pride can improve Hardy in the ways she is proposing and STAYS AT HARDY, I think that prospective Hardy students and families may be pleasantly surprised. I would much rather send my child to a smaller MS than Deal anyway. All of this being said, I am far more concerned with the uncertainty of what high school my child may go to despite living just over a mile from Wilson.

This.

Of many of those in bounds Cleveland park families go to hardy after eaton, hardy will improve.

But what high school would they feed to other than wilson?? Some eaton houses are less than a mile from wilson and where is the next nearest, other than duke Ellington, which is a specialty school?

Perhaps so. But in the short to medium term, the quality of education as compared to what they could have had at Deal will go down.

If the Eaton families join forces now with the families choosing Hardy, they can establish a lot of parental support. That's what I would do if I was in Eaton now, I would deeply engage with parents at Hardy to figure out how to improve so that in the future, it would be good for my kid.

My guess is that if the switch from Deal goes through, a lot more IB Eaton families will apply out to private schools for 6th grade if they can swing it, so Hardy may not get quite the bump up in scores that it may anticipate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eaton parent here: If Principal Pride can improve Hardy in the ways she is proposing and STAYS AT HARDY, I think that prospective Hardy students and families may be pleasantly surprised. I would much rather send my child to a smaller MS than Deal anyway. All of this being said, I am far more concerned with the uncertainty of what high school my child may go to despite living just over a mile from Wilson.

I have a child at Eaton and Deal. I like everyone would prefer to keep the current option of being able to choose between the two, but I am not going to picket for keeping Deal. Deal is getting too large, I have seen problems over the last two years in many respect with how it can do small things, serve lunch, provide access to computers and libraries. But then I have never been someone who takes every issue as a reason to move to the burbs.