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

[Anonymous]

The Murch soccer field and basketball courts are open to all during non-school hours. Surely other schools are like this too!

[Anonymous]

Makes Dunbar's 123 million for 600+ students look like a bargain.

[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?

And it's not just that Ellingron has been so costly, it's that it was budgeted to cost $70 million, and it closing in on $200 million at this point. How the fuck does that happen? Theft and corruption, that's how. NOW they want to run a tight fiscal ship. Precious.

[Anonymous]

We all know these construction projects are to provide jobs for the building trades.

[Anonymous]

IMO, as an Ellington grad, it deserves more money. It is 1 of the only truly functional, successful DCPS high schools. I graduated some years back with a class of 92. 90 of us went on to at least community college if not a 4-year-college. I am friends with many Ellington grads and we all have good jobs, often still in our majors or close to them. Several are teaching in DCPS or otherwise involved with city kids. It's an amazing place that could be grown into a real draw for DCPS as a whole with a renovated building.

When I was there the theater was regularly rented out to professional theater companies. We students were hired to help out behind stage.

From the backgrounds of a lot of kids I was there with, I would say that most of them would not have ended up at college or even in a career if they had not attended Ellington. We should all be celebrating the energy of the kids who attend school for nearly 2 more hours than the rest of DCPS and are often there late into the evening rehearsing and otherwise using the facility. Ellington's building was absolutely my second home the entire time I was there and I was one of the few students for whom my first home was a middle class one with relatively functional parents and food on the table.

I'm the proud parent of a future Ellington student and I am absolutely thrilled about the renovation. We are truly a family and whenever you meet an Ellington student, grad, or teacher anywhere around you are instant friends. Let's be glad that the city is investing in a school that produces graduates of whom DCPS can be proud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO, as an Ellington grad, it deserves more money. It is 1 of the only truly functional, successful DCPS high schools. I graduated some years back with a class of 92. 90 of us went on to at least community college if not a 4-year-college. I am friends with many Ellington grads and we all have good jobs, often still in our majors or close to them. Several are teaching in DCPS or otherwise involved with city kids. It's an amazing place that could be grown into a real draw for DCPS as a whole with a renovated building.

When I was there the theater was regularly rented out to professional theater companies. We students were hired to help out behind stage.

From the backgrounds of a lot of kids I was there with, I would say that most of them would not have ended up at college or even in a career if they had not attended Ellington. We should all be celebrating the energy of the kids who attend school for nearly 2 more hours than the rest of DCPS and are often there late into the evening rehearsing and otherwise using the facility. Ellington's building was absolutely my second home the entire time I was there and I was one of the few students for whom my first home was a middle class one with relatively functional parents and food on the table.

I'm the proud parent of a future Ellington student and I am absolutely thrilled about the renovation. We are truly a family and whenever you meet an Ellington student, grad, or teacher anywhere around you are instant friends. Let's be glad that the city is investing in a school that produces graduates of whom DCPS can be proud.

Yeah, F those poor kids who are at schools with lower graduation rates. They don't deserve to have a nice facility. Let's just shit on them or send them to jail.

Nice compassion you learned there...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO, as an Ellington grad, it deserves more money. It is 1 of the only truly functional, successful DCPS high schools. I graduated some years back with a class of 92. 90 of us went on to at least community college if not a 4-year-college. I am friends with many Ellington grads and we all have good jobs, often still in our majors or close to them. Several are teaching in DCPS or otherwise involved with city kids. It's an amazing place that could be grown into a real draw for DCPS as a whole with a renovated building.

When I was there the theater was regularly rented out to professional theater companies. We students were hired to help out behind stage.

From the backgrounds of a lot of kids I was there with, I would say that most of them would not have ended up at college or even in a career if they had not attended Ellington. We should all be celebrating the energy of the kids who attend school for nearly 2 more hours than the rest of DCPS and are often there late into the evening rehearsing and otherwise using the facility. Ellington's building was absolutely my second home the entire time I was there and I was one of the few students for whom my first home was a middle class one with relatively functional parents and food on the table.

I'm the proud parent of a future Ellington student and I am absolutely thrilled about the renovation. We are truly a family and whenever you meet an Ellington student, grad, or teacher anywhere around you are instant friends. Let's be glad that the city is investing in a school that produces graduates of whom DCPS can be proud.

Glad high school was fun for you. But your post makes no financial sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO, as an Ellington grad, it deserves more money. It is 1 of the only truly functional, successful DCPS high schools. I graduated some years back with a class of 92. 90 of us went on to at least community college if not a 4-year-college. I am friends with many Ellington grads and we all have good jobs, often still in our majors or close to them. Several are teaching in DCPS or otherwise involved with city kids. It's an amazing place that could be grown into a real draw for DCPS as a whole with a renovated building.

When I was there the theater was regularly rented out to professional theater companies. We students were hired to help out behind stage.

From the backgrounds of a lot of kids I was there with, I would say that most of them would not have ended up at college or even in a career if they had not attended Ellington. We should all be celebrating the energy of the kids who attend school for nearly 2 more hours than the rest of DCPS and are often there late into the evening rehearsing and otherwise using the facility. Ellington's building was absolutely my second home the entire time I was there and I was one of the few students for whom my first home was a middle class one with relatively functional parents and food on the table.

I'm the proud parent of a future Ellington student and I am absolutely thrilled about the renovation. We are truly a family and whenever you meet an Ellington student, grad, or teacher anywhere around you are instant friends. Let's be glad that the city is investing in a school that produces graduates of whom DCPS can be proud.

Glad high school was fun for you. But your post makes no financial sense.

Well I don't know. Is the point to bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator? Crabs in a bucket, drag everyone down to the bottom? At least there are a couple high performing DCPS high schools - let's support them and not try to bring them down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO, as an Ellington grad, it deserves more money. It is 1 of the only truly functional, successful DCPS high schools. I graduated some years back with a class of 92. 90 of us went on to at least community college if not a 4-year-college. I am friends with many Ellington grads and we all have good jobs, often still in our majors or close to them. Several are teaching in DCPS or otherwise involved with city kids. It's an amazing place that could be grown into a real draw for DCPS as a whole with a renovated building.

When I was there the theater was regularly rented out to professional theater companies. We students were hired to help out behind stage.

From the backgrounds of a lot of kids I was there with, I would say that most of them would not have ended up at college or even in a career if they had not attended Ellington. We should all be celebrating the energy of the kids who attend school for nearly 2 more hours than the rest of DCPS and are often there late into the evening rehearsing and otherwise using the facility. Ellington's building was absolutely my second home the entire time I was there and I was one of the few students for whom my first home was a middle class one with relatively functional parents and food on the table.

I'm the proud parent of a future Ellington student and I am absolutely thrilled about the renovation. We are truly a family and whenever you meet an Ellington student, grad, or teacher anywhere around you are instant friends. Let's be glad that the city is investing in a school that produces graduates of whom DCPS can be proud.

Even accepting your premise that good schools deserve more resources -- which I don't -- there has to be a limit. The original budget for Ellington, $70 million, was $116,000 per student. By contrast, Wilson was $100 million for 1900 students, or $52,600. OK, let's accept that Ellington "deserves" more than twice as much per student as Wilson. But now they've almost tripled their budget, with no end in site. Six times as much per student? No way. Even the poshest private schools aren't spending that kind of coin.

What lot of people think is that the emotional attachment that Ellington has led to people shutting off the rational part of their brains. The contractors know the city will never say no, because, Ellington. So they're robbing us blind.

Where does it end?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO, as an Ellington grad, it deserves more money. It is 1 of the only truly functional, successful DCPS high schools. I graduated some years back with a class of 92. 90 of us went on to at least community college if not a 4-year-college. I am friends with many Ellington grads and we all have good jobs, often still in our majors or close to them. Several are teaching in DCPS or otherwise involved with city kids. It's an amazing place that could be grown into a real draw for DCPS as a whole with a renovated building.

When I was there the theater was regularly rented out to professional theater companies. We students were hired to help out behind stage.

From the backgrounds of a lot of kids I was there with, I would say that most of them would not have ended up at college or even in a career if they had not attended Ellington. We should all be celebrating the energy of the kids who attend school for nearly 2 more hours than the rest of DCPS and are often there late into the evening rehearsing and otherwise using the facility. Ellington's building was absolutely my second home the entire time I was there and I was one of the few students for whom my first home was a middle class one with relatively functional parents and food on the table.

I'm the proud parent of a future Ellington student and I am absolutely thrilled about the renovation. We are truly a family and whenever you meet an Ellington student, grad, or teacher anywhere around you are instant friends. Let's be glad that the city is investing in a school that produces graduates of whom DCPS can be proud.

Glad high school was fun for you. But your post makes no financial sense.

Well I don't know. Is the point to bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator? Crabs in a bucket, drag everyone down to the bottom? At least there are a couple high performing DCPS high schools - let's support them and not try to bring them down.

Yeah, let's take even more money from underperforming schools. That's the answer.

You're a real peach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO, as an Ellington grad, it deserves more money. It is 1 of the only truly functional, successful DCPS high schools. I graduated some years back with a class of 92. 90 of us went on to at least community college if not a 4-year-college. I am friends with many Ellington grads and we all have good jobs, often still in our majors or close to them. Several are teaching in DCPS or otherwise involved with city kids. It's an amazing place that could be grown into a real draw for DCPS as a whole with a renovated building.

When I was there the theater was regularly rented out to professional theater companies. We students were hired to help out behind stage.

From the backgrounds of a lot of kids I was there with, I would say that most of them would not have ended up at college or even in a career if they had not attended Ellington. We should all be celebrating the energy of the kids who attend school for nearly 2 more hours than the rest of DCPS and are often there late into the evening rehearsing and otherwise using the facility. Ellington's building was absolutely my second home the entire time I was there and I was one of the few students for whom my first home was a middle class one with relatively functional parents and food on the table.

I'm the proud parent of a future Ellington student and I am absolutely thrilled about the renovation. We are truly a family and whenever you meet an Ellington student, grad, or teacher anywhere around you are instant friends. Let's be glad that the city is investing in a school that produces graduates of whom DCPS can be proud.

Glad high school was fun for you. But your post makes no financial sense.

Well I don't know. Is the point to bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator? Crabs in a bucket, drag everyone down to the bottom? At least there are a couple high performing DCPS high schools - let's support them and not try to bring them down.

Ellington's renovation has gone far beyond "support." It's got to be the project of a lifetime for a whole generation of contractors. And it's really unclear how much the kids are going to benefit from all of the extra money.

I was talking to a neighbor who's in the construction business and he was kicking himself that he hadn't gotten in on Ellington.

[Anonymous]

This "crabs in a bucket" poster shows up on every thread whenever someone dares to point out the truths about renovation costs of recent DC school projects. It's totally relevant to point out the outrageous cost overruns at Ellington when Murch continues to be screwed with and Fillmore schools are told that their program is going to be closed.

[Anonymous]

This is exhausting. Parents are to blame because they wrongly believe that anything new and shiny means the school is better. So they bitch non stop for new facilities and wow, the test scores still suck. You can renovate Cardozo, rebuild Dunbar and build a new brook land middle...guess what the test scores are abysmal, high SES parents won't send their kids there but yet everyone whines to spend more money or more new buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is exhausting. Parents are to blame because they wrongly believe that anything new and shiny means the school is better. So they bitch non stop for new facilities and wow, the test scores still suck. You can renovate Cardozo, rebuild Dunbar and build a new brook land middle...guess what the test scores are abysmal, high SES parents won't send their kids there but yet everyone whines to spend more money or more new buildings.

Ha! Like DCPS gives a #%^* about high SES parents or their kids.

[Anonymous]

Murch, a high performing school has been shafted on their renovation for DECADES. Now that's a cause for exhaustion.