Hardy for 6th & Deal for 7th & 8th? DCPS Survey on Changing Feeder Pattern

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate the idea. My kid doesn't transition well and with that plan he'd have to go to three different schools in three years and then another new school two years later. No way. Plus, they walk to school now and getting to Hardy will be a PITA and major change in our lifestyle. Avoiding that is why we live here.

A 6-12 school would be a much better plan.

You are greatly missing the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the idea. My kid doesn't transition well and with that plan he'd have to go to three different schools in three years and then another new school two years later. No way. Plus, they walk to school now and getting to Hardy will be a PITA and major change in our lifestyle. Avoiding that is why we live here.

A 6-12 school would be a much better plan.

You are greatly missing the point.

Then explain. As I read it, they are proposing that you go from your 5th grade school to Hardy for 6th then back up to Deal for 7th and 8th then on to Wilson for 9th. That's 4 schools in 5 years, and that is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the idea. My kid doesn't transition well and with that plan he'd have to go to three different schools in three years and then another new school two years later. No way. Plus, they walk to school now and getting to Hardy will be a PITA and major change in our lifestyle. Avoiding that is why we live here.

A 6-12 school would be a much better plan.

You are greatly missing the point.

Then explain. As I read it, they are proposing that you go from your 5th grade school to Hardy for 6th then back up to Deal for 7th and 8th then on to Wilson for 9th. That's 4 schools in 5 years, and that is nuts.

You are conflating the, frankly, snowflake-y needs of your kid with the crushing, overwhelming wave of kids Tee'd up for deal and wilson in the next few years. It's like complaining about the quality of the sand in the sandbags used to stop the flood.

And btw, it's not crazy at all. Many school systems have elementary, middle, junior high and high schools as their feeder pattern. Or early elementary, middle elementary, middle and high school-- as they do in many parts of MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the idea. My kid doesn't transition well and with that plan he'd have to go to three different schools in three years and then another new school two years later. No way. Plus, they walk to school now and getting to Hardy will be a PITA and major change in our lifestyle. Avoiding that is why we live here.

A 6-12 school would be a much better plan.

You are greatly missing the point.

Then explain. As I read it, they are proposing that you go from your 5th grade school to Hardy for 6th then back up to Deal for 7th and 8th then on to Wilson for 9th. That's 4 schools in 5 years, and that is nuts.

You are conflating the, frankly, snowflake-y needs of your kid with the crushing, overwhelming wave of kids Tee'd up for deal and wilson in the next few years. It's like complaining about the quality of the sand in the sandbags used to stop the flood.

And btw, it's not crazy at all. Many school systems have elementary, middle, junior high and high schools as their feeder pattern. Or early elementary, middle elementary, middle and high school-- as they do in many parts of MoCo.

Where I grew up, the school system has grown so much that now they house all K in one building, 1-2 in another, 3-4 in another, 5-6 in yet another, 7-8 in another and 9-12 in the high school. When I attended, it was k-2 in one, 3-5 in another, then 6-8 and 9-12.

We are IB for Eaton, so just recently rezoned to Hardy, but live directly on the border of the Hearst boundary. Hardy is super inconvenient for us too and spending just a year there instead of 3 would be so much better.

[Anonymous]

Would Hardy keep its school uniforms and other treasured aspects of its unique urban culture?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:do you have the link to the survey?

Is this the Wilson Feeder overcrowding one?

There some folks on that committee who have been floating this idea.

I originally thought no one currently at Deal would be willing to go to another campus for a year - but there seems to be a growing number of interested folks to alleviate the over-crowding and big class size issues.

[[ The Hardy 6-12 small school idea would not be feasible b/s DCPS is not going to invest in building HS capacity for such a small number. ]]

That just doesn't ring true. It would be the same size ad tons of other DCPS schools.

The city is trying to move away from education campuses. Not towards them. I think the idea of splitting Hardy and Deal into 6 and 7/8 is a good one given the circumstances. Also, if it convinces a lot of parents in the elementaries that now feed into Hardy to attend public school, while it would contribute to overcrowding, it would be desirable outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would Hardy keep its school uniforms and other treasured aspects of its unique urban culture?!

Please go away. We get it: your kids didn't go to Hardy because you don't like the uniforms, think the field is too small, and think that its so-called "urban culture" is toxic. You're also obsessed with someone who taught there 5 years ago. We all know!

Anyway, the adults would like to discuss the merits of the proposition here, so you can go have a Shirley Temple on the porch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the idea. My kid doesn't transition well and with that plan he'd have to go to three different schools in three years and then another new school two years later. No way. Plus, they walk to school now and getting to Hardy will be a PITA and major change in our lifestyle. Avoiding that is why we live here.

A 6-12 school would be a much better plan.

You are greatly missing the point.

Then explain. As I read it, they are proposing that you go from your 5th grade school to Hardy for 6th then back up to Deal for 7th and 8th then on to Wilson for 9th. That's 4 schools in 5 years, and that is nuts.

You are conflating the, frankly, snowflake-y needs of your kid with the crushing, overwhelming wave of kids Tee'd up for deal and wilson in the next few years. It's like complaining about the quality of the sand in the sandbags used to stop the flood.

And btw, it's not crazy at all. Many school systems have elementary, middle, junior high and high schools as their feeder pattern. Or early elementary, middle elementary, middle and high school-- as they do in many parts of MoCo.

Careful about calling kids you know nothing about snowflakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the idea. My kid doesn't transition well and with that plan he'd have to go to three different schools in three years and then another new school two years later. No way. Plus, they walk to school now and getting to Hardy will be a PITA and major change in our lifestyle. Avoiding that is why we live here.

A 6-12 school would be a much better plan.

You are greatly missing the point.

Then explain. As I read it, they are proposing that you go from your 5th grade school to Hardy for 6th then back up to Deal for 7th and 8th then on to Wilson for 9th. That's 4 schools in 5 years, and that is nuts.

My home town does this exact plan now. Elementary K-5, one school for all 6th graders, another school for 7 & 8, one big 9-12 high school. High school is just about the size of Wilson, maybe slightly bigger-big suburban hs.
Works just fine.

[Anonymous]

Stop feeding one of those middle schools to Wilson. End of story.

Build a new Middle School with the kids from Hardy and some other elementary feeders that are doing ok, that way parents don't flip out, or move n bounds to Wilson, and problem solved.

Not sure on the details, but this is a long term solution.

[Anonymous]

If they are considering that for Hardy and Deal, why not for Stuart Hobson and Eliot Hine? Would be interesting to see what would happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the idea. My kid doesn't transition well and with that plan he'd have to go to three different schools in three years and then another new school two years later. No way. Plus, they walk to school now and getting to Hardy will be a PITA and major change in our lifestyle. Avoiding that is why we live here.

A 6-12 school would be a much better plan.

You are greatly missing the point.

Then explain. As I read it, they are proposing that you go from your 5th grade school to Hardy for 6th then back up to Deal for 7th and 8th then on to Wilson for 9th. That's 4 schools in 5 years, and that is nuts.

You are conflating the, frankly, snowflake-y needs of your kid with the crushing, overwhelming wave of kids Tee'd up for deal and wilson in the next few years. It's like complaining about the quality of the sand in the sandbags used to stop the flood.

And btw, it's not crazy at all. Many school systems have elementary, middle, junior high and high schools as their feeder pattern. Or early elementary, middle elementary, middle and high school-- as they do in many parts of MoCo.

Careful about calling kids you know nothing about snowflakes.

NP but not wanting to consider an idea because your kid does not transition well is the very definition of a snowflake.

[Anonymous]

IB Deal parent here and we like the idea. Don't mind the changing of campuses for a year, only care that kid stays with cohort. OOB at Hardy will be severely reduced but still it cutoff completely as the set asides will still be in place. Will still reduce capacity significantly as Deal now is 1/3 OOB. It is de facto reducing OOB feeder rights (with exception of set asides) as Hardy, Deal, Wilson would be 90% IB. Still keep diversity. Win-win all the way around. Only downside is commuting from Deal to Hardy for one year. This is no big deal IMO compared to downsides with other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they are considering that for Hardy and Deal, why not for Stuart Hobson and Eliot Hine? Would be interesting to see what would happen.

BC neither SH and EH (and Eastern) are overcrowded the way Deal and Wilson are.

[Anonymous]

Going to a school for just nine months seems highly undesirable. My child really enjoys the sense of routine and to have to go through the psychological effort of going to a new school for less than a year just doesn't seem worth it.

I briefly worked with an after school program for junior high students and it was so difficult. Developmentally they are all over the place physically and emotionally. Junior high is already too short. At a minimum students should be 2 years in a school to justify a transition. Maybe Wilson could then become just 10-12?

Are both schools IB programs?

Planners would also need to consider the additional traffic in both directions and add buses accordingly, and reconsider emissions. Seems like a segment of Deal kids walk to school.