Garrison Renovation - when will it start?

[Anonymous]

Just to clarify, the middle school was supposed to serve Mid-City as a whole and would include many other elementary schools to feed into that middle school

[Anonymous]

Why would the neighborhood sue? Wouldn't the kids go to better, neighboring schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would the neighborhood sue? Wouldn't the kids go to better, neighboring schools?

What schools? My "better" neighborhood school is Walker Jones. Mid-city has been left to fend for itself by Kaya, Charles and Jack. We go to charters because we don't have a choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This school should have been closed. Charters will never allow these neighbors to have neighborhood schools, that much is clear.

This is an idiotic comment. I'm not sure what "these neighborhoods" mean, but the townhomes in the Garrison district are between $1 and $2 million (typically in the high $1s). And look at Ross next door -- a thriving school.

Here's some logic:

Most parents and guardians in Ward 1 send their children to charters. It's true if you look at enrollment percentages.

Ward 1 neighbors Ward 2. A map reveals this to also be true.

Most of the parents and guardians in Ward 1 share adjacent blame for the struggling Ward 2 Garrison. A leap, I know.

Ward 2 has one charter (BASIS DC) and might be even more to blame, given its presence in Ward 2 (the very same ward as Garrison's and on the very same yellow and green lines).

Ward 5 and 6 must also take some blame since they are nearby Garrison too.

And? You make no point at all.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would the neighborhood sue? Wouldn't the kids go to better, neighboring schools?

LOL. Where? Tiny Cleveland or Ross? Thomson? Seaton? They're all far too small to absorb the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charters are not killing Garrison. DCPS is. DCPS wanted (I would argue WANTS) to close the school. The neighborhood rallied to try to stop the closure and DCPS made a whole slew of promises re: academic programming, modernization, construction, etc. to improve the facilities and academics at Garrison. This was about 5 years ago.

Not only has DCPS not followed through, but it looks to me (yes, a charter parent) like DCPS is doing everything they can to bleed the well of neighborhood goodwill toward Garrison dry so that they can do something big with the land. Garrison parents and administration are doing great things with the resources they have, but it's not enough.

Garrison has a high special needs population. It has been the receiving school for students from elsewhere in the city whose schools have closed. I hope to be proven wrong, but at this point, I firmly believe that DCPS does not want Garrison to succeed or to become a neighborhood school.

I live in the neighborhood and totally agree. It's hard for neighbors to get behind a school when the city seems to to undercut it at every turn. The only thing the city has done to help the school is to give it a good principal but I am always nervous he will leave. I really hope I am wrong and the city invests in and renovates Garrison, even though my kids are at a charter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charters are not killing Garrison. DCPS is. DCPS wanted (I would argue WANTS) to close the school. The neighborhood rallied to try to stop the closure and DCPS made a whole slew of promises re: academic programming, modernization, construction, etc. to improve the facilities and academics at Garrison. This was about 5 years ago.

Not only has DCPS not followed through, but it looks to me (yes, a charter parent) like DCPS is doing everything they can to bleed the well of neighborhood goodwill toward Garrison dry so that they can do something big with the land. Garrison parents and administration are doing great things with the resources they have, but it's not enough.

Garrison has a high special needs population. It has been the receiving school for students from elsewhere in the city whose schools have closed. I hope to be proven wrong, but at this point, I firmly believe that DCPS does not want Garrison to succeed or to become a neighborhood school.

I live in the neighborhood and totally agree. It's hard for neighbors to get behind a school when the city seems to to undercut it at every turn. The only thing the city has done to help the school is to give it a good principal but I am always nervous he will leave. I really hope I am wrong and the city invests in and renovates Garrison, even though my kids are at a charter.

Exactly. We are zoned for Garrison but go to a charter and remember the promises about renovation, etc from 5 yrs ago when my kid started prek4. So happy we chose a charter instead of believing DCPS and taking s chance on Garrison - everything DCPS promised never happened. Garrison looks worse than ever.

DCPS wants to board it up and probably sell the land to a developer for more condos in all likelihood.

[Anonymous]

As another mid-city family, I have similar concerns.

One major sticking point hs been that many of the areas of "mid-city" are spread over Wards 1, 2, 5 and 6 and that no one works together to come up with a plan that helps these neighborhoods. You may be inbounds for Garrison, but be in Ward 1, 2 and 5. Same with Walker Jones (and be in Wards 2, 5 and 6). So on and so on.

Trying to get the SBoE members and Counsel to talk to each other is frustrating - and basically, DCPS ignores us. If you want to know why many (ok, most) of us go charter - it's because it's gotten to the point where no one really cares where mid-city families go.

[Anonymous]

Let's be honest. Garrison needs a modernization. So do lots of other schools and several of them have far more serious needs than Garrison. It shouldn't be this bad, but it is.

Far from being ignored, Garrison and its community have pulled together, represented themselves incredibly well, and received more political and media attention than possibly any other school in the city on this issue. Some schools with incredible needs were delayed because Garrison was moved up in the modernization queue and promised a full modernization several years ago.

Meanwhile, families all over the city feel like DCPS doesn't care where they send their children to school, but somehow Garrison keeps being portrayed as a martyr. DC schools are not as strong as they should be and many are not in the condition they should be. The Garrison community should continue pushing for what they need, but should stop acting as if they are the only school not getting what it needs. It makes them sound a little tone deaf.

[Anonymous]

They're not tone deaf, they are showing concern for the school their kids do or will attend. So would you. They advocate for themselves and that's admirable. It would be great if all parents across the city had the time and inclination to do so. I toured Raymond recently and was pretty surprised at how far gone it is. Now there is a school that could use some parent advocates. And they don't even have a PTA. This isn't s race or competition, though. We should all be together in insisting our kids are educated well in a safe space.

[Anonymous]

If you all really mean it, then please advocate for additional capital funding toward school renovation. Otherwise, it's pitting one of our desperate needs against another.

We as a city can find ways to finance the renovations, even if it means raising the debt cap. I am fairly fiscally conservative, but I think that getting these schools in shape is such a basic requirement that it's worth it. Shame on us for our neglect over the past 30 years, but it's a problem we need to face head on now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's be honest. Garrison needs a modernization. So do lots of other schools and several of them have far more serious needs than Garrison. It shouldn't be this bad, but it is.

Far from being ignored, Garrison and its community have pulled together, represented themselves incredibly well, and received more political and media attention than possibly any other school in the city on this issue. Some schools with incredible needs were delayed because Garrison was moved up in the modernization queue and promised a full modernization several years ago.

Meanwhile, families all over the city feel like DCPS doesn't care where they send their children to school, but somehow Garrison keeps being portrayed as a martyr. DC schools are not as strong as they should be and many are not in the condition they should be. The Garrison community should continue pushing for what they need, but should stop acting as if they are the only school not getting what it needs. It makes them sound a little tone deaf.

This^^^

I posted the following in the other thread, but it belongs here. I am sorry to be argumentative, but I consistently see Garrison boosters ignoring the very low enrollment in these threads. Many other DCPS schools have facilities as poor as Garrison yet at capacity or over-capacity. There were good reasons for closing Garrison, and the weak enrollment since the reversal of that decision has vindicated those reasons, hasn't it? I think the city is probably waiting for everyone to attend, after they pushed so hard to keep the school open. Here is my post from the other thread:

New poster here. If you search the threads you can read about the history. The area around Garrison gentrified incredibly and is one of the least affordable areas of the city. Few families can afford to live IB and those that do, tend to be the kind that will exercise their "school choice". Only a few years ago Garrison was (less than?) half full and the city moved to close it. A group of neighbors rallied and the city kept it open. Now the neighbors want the school fully modernized even though IB attendance is low, OOB interest is weak, and the school is around 2/3 of capacity now.

Meanwhile, there are a number of ESs in the city with old facilities and rapidly growing enrollment, long wait lists, bursting at the seams.

I wish the best for actual Garrison families, sincerely. As for the "make it better, and we will attend" lobby, I empathize with you, but that's rarely how it works in DC. Maybe for some high schools that the city sees as strategic for whatever reason, but not for an elementary school that they wanted to close due to low attendance just a few years ago. You might have to make the first move and attend, especially because you convinced DC to keep the school open.

Just my two cents.

[Anonymous]

This is why we need a modernization policy, not just the loudest and most obnoxious gets their way. Sadly, DCPS doesn't really care.

[Anonymous]

Garrison may have been loud but we have gotten NoThIng, so believe me no one else was bumped to take care of Garrison. There has been zero done.

[Anonymous]

I live in the neighborhood and truly believe that more local parents (there are MANY with babies and toddlers) would send their children to Garrison if it was modernized. Remember the old Watha T. Daniel Library - just a few blocks away - before it was redone? It looked like a prison, was not an inviting place and didn't get a lot of traffic from people with children. Once it was redone local parents flocked to the library and actually chose to use this beautiful modern facility. Garrison is so depressing looking that some folks just can't get past the exterior appearance. When you see broken playground equipment, windows with bars, overgrown shrubs, old a/c units and a dumpster outside of the front of the school, it doesn't send a great message. The school is actually much nicer on the interior than one would expect, but unfortunately, folks judge it from its exterior, run down playing fields and chain link fences in need of repair.