Where will my Shepherd Elem kid go to middle/high school?
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Anonymous
No one has ever said that's why Shepherd feeds to Deal -- although that is the only IB primary to middle years feed in DCPS. |
Anonymous
Meh. DC is no longer majority AA. It's plurality AA, but by the time her kid's in the upper elementary grades there will be a lot more demographic changes and updates. By then Shepherd will probably be majority White anyway (especially including the "White - Hispanic" category which we all know exists on our demographic forms). The optics won't be bad at all. |
Anonymous
Obviously you weren't paying attention in 2014 when the school boundary "discussions" were had. Were you stupid or are you that new? Eaton got booted away from Deal into Hardy because EVERYONE knows Deal is full. The fights over "who gets kicked out!" were legendary. Oyster lost Deal as it's all-English MS, and now has Hardy instead (for those students who don't want Adams). Yes, the IB program at Shepherd was indeed a flogging point (but we all know it was about the racial optics of kicking the blackest feeder out of the whitest middle school). Considering OP's kid is only 2.5 y.o., her cohort at Shepherd is unlikely to offer significant racial diversity in DC's traditional sense. This point will be moot within 5 years, while OP's kid is still learning her multiplication tables and how to read the most common irregular verbs. |
Anonymous
Actually Oyster-Adams has SWW @ FS, not Hardy. They did get to 'keep' Wilson. Personally I think we should still Oyster so that Oyster + MacFarland can feed to a dual-language high school. |
Anonymous
I'm not so sure about this. Shepherd Park is still attracting a lot of high SES AA families. PK4 is still majority AA by quite a bit. The biggest potential demographics change would probably come if the apartment building proposed for Georgia & Eastern gets constructed and opens up a whole bunch of spots for in-boundary renters. But I'm not sure which way that would swing the demographics, honestly. |
Anonymous
FS is a step down from Hardy, but whatever. It's like comparing anchovies to sardines - both stink. In any event, be careful about raising that "we need a dual language HS!" flag - you might fight yourselves funneled into CHEC - which, at 1.4 miles is closer to Wilson by 1.1 miles. |
Anonymous
Shepherd Park is attracting higher SES families irrespective of their racial demographic, but the fact that it's higher SES means it will trend whiter just like every other gentrifying neighborhood in DC. The idea that AA families will rent apartments in an apartment building that is still the in proposal stage and swing it towards one HS or another suggests that I need to be selling you something. Because I'd like some easy money and you'll buy anything. |
Anonymous
This should explicitly say that OYSTER is closer to CHEC than to Wilson. It is 1.4 miles to CHEC (a dual language Spanish HS right at the nexus of Columbia Heights and Mt. Pleasant, fully capturing the growing Spanish-speaking population of DC) and 2.5 miles to Wilson. (Adams MS is 1.3 miles to CHEC!) Google maps uses GPS so you can check for yourself how much further or closer Roosevelt is. Either way you'll be excited about the direct bus routes from Oyster and from Adams straight to CHEC to facilitate that dual language experience. |
Anonymous
Well, considering the original question was about something that's 8 years away, I don't think it's so crazy. I'd challenge the idea that Shepherd Park is "gentrifying." It's been a high SES neighborhood forever. It may be getting younger, which may mean whiter in the context of DC's recent migration patterns, but I don't think the SES is changing all that substantially (which is my indicator of gentrification). I also don't think the notion that the apt building is the main potential catalyst for any demographics change at the school. That's based on considering that: 1) SP is pretty small to begin with 2) It has a decent sized Orthodox population that generally goes to Jewish schools 3) Lots of houses are multi-generational, meaning that turnover is pretty limited 4) The housing stock is generally good and pricey The apt building (which btw, I'm supportive of) is really the only thing that I think could change the school demographics considerably, as it removes all of the typical high SES barriers to entry. I think you'll see higher inbound population numbers for the school as a result of the more families sticking out public schools in DC, and seeking out certainty from the lottery all the way through MS and HS. |
Anonymous
Low turnover only means aging in place. The menopausal ladies aren't sending any PreKers into Shepherd elementary. So either the white newcomers will fill up the school or else their proximal neighbors will via the OOB process. Either way the optics of eliminating Shepherd will only get easier. The non-existent apartment coalition for rights to Wilson will never matter to anybody other than realtors. |
Anonymous
Well all of my menopausal neighbors (primarily AA) have grandkids that live with them and they are still going to Shepherd. Shepherd will not change as much as some are indicating. The 12 home sales per year are not concentrated to one age of kid. What change you are seeing now is from people that have already lived in the neighborhood 3-10+ years and have decided to leave their OOB or charter school and give Shepherd a shot. Many of those (including myself) are AA. |
Anonymous
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NP. Agree with 9:48. We've already been at Shepherd for a bit with a kid in early elementary. A few of my kid's classmates live in multi-generational households in SP or Colonial Village/North Portal Estates. Also, we see grandparents walking kids to school, and at pickup.
The newcomers to the neighborhood do skew whiter but there are still AA families that have moved in recently, like ourselves, along with other groups. There are also a ton (proportionally) of interracial families,and also transracial adoptee families in the neighborhood. Agree the demographics are changing, but I don't see it becoming majority white anytime soon. Right now I'd say it's one of the most diverse neighborhoods of the Deal/Wilson feeders. |
Anonymous
The Georgia & Eastern project is currently the subject of a lawsuit. While I'm supportive of it, I'm not holding my breath that it will come to fruition anytime soon. A recent email on the SP listserv said the earliest it could begin construction was almost two years away. And that was before the ANC voted to withdraw support for the necessary alley closure for construction to begin. |
Anonymous
Forgot to mention that the neighborhood has actually always been fairly well-integrated, by design, since the sixties. Not all the elderly neighbors are AA--there are also white families who've been here for decades. Many homes change hands several times between white and black families. For example, we bought our home from another AA family of journalists who were relocating for a job opportunity; before that a rabbi owned the home, and before that a white physician was the homeowner |
Anonymous
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When the elderly grandparent homeowners die, their children will be confronted with possibility of selling off the home for more than they dreamed of. They'll be more than happy to buy a brand new house in the suburbs.
I'm not making this up, I'm reading history at you. SP is only going to get whiter and easier to kick out of Wilson. This will happen, long before OP's 2 y.o. is looking at Deal. |