DCPS considering moving Hardy to MacArthur Blvd, current Hardy would become a HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you move the current hardy ms to the old GDS - the commute for Eaton families will be very hard. You are going to redistribute some of janney to new Hardy. There are no bus options currently in play and metro will need to add lines.

By keeping hardy where it is - and opening a new high school - give kids who are in hardy and deal the option of where they want to enroll.

The gds location is hard to get to - and the neighborhood is not ready for an influx of teens

It's 11 minutes by car from Eaton. But yeah, if you're not driving there's no easy way.

Metro does run buses specifically for kids to school. See for example the "Deal Bus" on the Metro schedule. If they ran a bus from the Cleveland Park Metro the kids at Eaton would have a straight shot, and kids coming from elsewhere on the Metro would as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s needed is to get students from Wilson into other existing high schools. DCPS has plenty of real estate, just not the programming.

Meanwhile, try to get a bus to old GDS from anywhere but McArthur Blvd. It would mean middle school students could only get there by there parent’s driving, and HS students could only get there by driving themselves.

Which is why buying the building, without thinking about how it would be used, was such a waste of money.

The D6 goes from RFK to Sibley, it runs right past the school. It's a local bus, so it's slow, but it goes past a ton of Metro stations. A lot of people take it to Foggy Bottom and get on the Metro there.

Meant to say — try getting there by bus *from anywhere in NW* but McArthur Blvd. Like many places in DC, the bus routes connect to downtown, not nearby residential areas. It would not be convenient for many people living even a couple of miles away (somewhat true, but meaningfully less so, than current Hardy MS). If the idea is that it is convenient for people coming from across the city, well that would be silly. It would make more sense to put a school across the city than bring everyone over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you move the current hardy ms to the old GDS - the commute for Eaton families will be very hard. You are going to redistribute some of janney to new Hardy. There are no bus options currently in play and metro will need to add lines.

By keeping hardy where it is - and opening a new high school - give kids who are in hardy and deal the option of where they want to enroll.

The gds location is hard to get to - and the neighborhood is not ready for an influx of teens

It's 11 minutes by car from Eaton. But yeah, if you're not driving there's no easy way.

Metro does run buses specifically for kids to school. See for example the "Deal Bus" on the Metro schedule. If they ran a bus from the Cleveland Park Metro the kids at Eaton would have a straight shot, and kids coming from elsewhere on the Metro would as well.

14 min from Cleveland Park metro to old GDS lower school late in Friday night, in winter, in a pandemic. Try it at a full weekday morning or afternoon commute time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea. In 2030 maybe.

At least DCPS is finally acknowledging reality. They and the Mayor have been gaslighting parents about overcrowding in the Wilson catchment for at least the last decade. In 2017, I was in a community meeting with Bowser and she basically said WOTP doesn’t need another high school.

The headcount projections they are looking at must be huge. There’s a massive baby wave in Burleith right now.

Acknowledging the reality? I graduated from Wilson in 1996 and it was a known issue then. Let that sink in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea. In 2030 maybe.

At least DCPS is finally acknowledging reality. They and the Mayor have been gaslighting parents about overcrowding in the Wilson catchment for at least the last decade. In 2017, I was in a community meeting with Bowser and she basically said WOTP doesn’t need another high school.

The headcount projections they are looking at must be huge. There’s a massive baby wave in Burleith right now.

Acknowledging the reality? I graduated from Wilson in 1996 and it was a known issue then. Let that sink in.

They’re going to need more middle schools too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea. In 2030 maybe.

At least DCPS is finally acknowledging reality. They and the Mayor have been gaslighting parents about overcrowding in the Wilson catchment for at least the last decade. In 2017, I was in a community meeting with Bowser and she basically said WOTP doesn’t need another high school.

The headcount projections they are looking at must be huge. There’s a massive baby wave in Burleith right now.

Acknowledging the reality? I graduated from Wilson in 1996 and it was a known issue then. Let that sink in.

They’re going to need more middle schools too.

They are already planning to open another MS at the Old Hardy/Rec Center site on Foxhall Road

[Anonymous]

You’d have to show me the local-only demographics for me to believe it.

[Anonymous]

To be clear, the powers that be will NEVER reduce the size of population. They may open up a new HS in Ward 3, but they will quickly overcrowd and add trailers to it. This exercise has nothing to do with appeasing Ward 3 families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be clear, the powers that be will NEVER reduce the size of population. They may open up a new HS in Ward 3, but they will quickly overcrowd and add trailers to it. This exercise has nothing to do with appeasing Ward 3 families.

Then why the hell do they keep coming back to this? A high school is $100 Million. When the solution is making people go to the other empty palaces instead of Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Move lafayette and shepherd out of deal/wilson. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea. In 2030 maybe.

At least DCPS is finally acknowledging reality. They and the Mayor have been gaslighting parents about overcrowding in the Wilson catchment for at least the last decade. In 2017, I was in a community meeting with Bowser and she basically said WOTP doesn’t need another high school.

The headcount projections they are looking at must be huge. There’s a massive baby wave in Burleith right now.

Acknowledging the reality? I graduated from Wilson in 1996 and it was a known issue then. Let that sink in.

They’re going to need more middle schools too.

They are already planning to open another MS at the Old Hardy/Rec Center site on Foxhall Road

There are two adjacent sites on Foxhall Road there, the Old Hardy School and Hardy Rec Center. Old Hardy School is going to the Lab School. Part of Hardy Rec Center is being used for a new Foxhall Elementary School.

[Anonymous]

The only way DCPS can "force" people to go to other high schools is by economically gerrymandering a feeder pattern that is comprised of more than 80% households at or over median income for the DMV---which, for a family of 4--- is $126,000. This could actually be done in Capitol Hill, and, perhaps in upper NW to Roosevelt.

Then ensure that there are honors classes which have prerequisites to enrollment---none of this "honors for all" or "AP for everyone" BS. Adopt discipline policies that will remove disruptive children from the classroom and put them in in-school suspension or --for kids who are violent---transferring them out to a school designed to treat children who are struggling with those behaviors.

But none of those things will happen because the "woke" progressives who run education in this city will deem it "inequitable". The city could have created a very high performing middle school on the Hill in the last boundary redraw but instead chose not to---thus the continuous outflow of Hill kids to charters.

Thus we have multi-million dollar fully renovated high schools in this city (Dunbar, Coolidge, Cardozo) at substantial under capacity, with the middle and upper middle class parents of the city clamoring to be fed to Ward 3, gaming the system to get fed to Ward 3 OOB, or else directing their energies to a few charters. And if those options don't work out, those parents decamp to other jurisdictions or go private.

The failure to understand that parents (regardless of race or income) who care about their kids education will vote with their feet has never sunk in with the DCPS bureaucracy. Nor, apparently, has it sunk in with the Council.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only way DCPS can "force" people to go to other high schools is by economically gerrymandering a feeder pattern that is comprised of more than 80% households at or over median income for the DMV---which, for a family of 4--- is $126,000. This could actually be done in Capitol Hill, and, perhaps in upper NW to Roosevelt.

Then ensure that there are honors classes which have prerequisites to enrollment---none of this "honors for all" or "AP for everyone" BS. Adopt discipline policies that will remove disruptive children from the classroom and put them in in-school suspension or --for kids who are violent---transferring them out to a school designed to treat children who are struggling with those behaviors.

But none of those things will happen because the "woke" progressives who run education in this city will deem it "inequitable". The city could have created a very high performing middle school on the Hill in the last boundary redraw but instead chose not to---thus the continuous outflow of Hill kids to charters.

Thus we have multi-million dollar fully renovated high schools in this city (Dunbar, Coolidge, Cardozo) at substantial under capacity, with the middle and upper middle class parents of the city clamoring to be fed to Ward 3, gaming the system to get fed to Ward 3 OOB, or else directing their energies to a few charters. And if those options don't work out, those parents decamp to other jurisdictions or go private.

The failure to understand that parents (regardless of race or income) who care about their kids education will vote with their feet has never sunk in with the DCPS bureaucracy. Nor, apparently, has it sunk in with the Council.

It’s not as easy and just moving kids. There are laws that protect kids with disabilities and others. But as we have seen on this board throughout the pandemic no one cares about kids with disabilities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:virtually all of upper-income DC east of Rock Creek Park either puts their kids in Wilson (but for a few private schools and charters) and that is a HUGE factor in its overcrowding. And a major reason why Wilson is overcrowded while, for example, Coolidge's enrollment is anemic and Cardozo's is situated in a hugely expensive neighborhood now and gets none of its neighbors' kids with incomes above the poverty line.

Those who want to maintain access to Wilson will always say BUT BUT BUT you have to keep access to Wilson to prevent the perpetuation of racism and segregation!!!! The underprivileged need Wilson. . . And that's the crutch that upper income families have used in, for example, Ward 4, to keep their kids in Wilson despite its overcrowding and obvious proximity to Roosevelt.

The way to let the problem resolve itself is to allow the mobility options to continue FOR THOSE WHO ARE AT-RISK, not those who simply figured out how to game the system, and DC thankfully has designated categories for whom that works.

1) Your assertion that virtually all of upper-income families EOTP put their kids in Wilson is incorrect.
2) Parts of EOTP Ward 4 are in boundary for Wilson.
3) It's not "gaming the system" to send your children to their in boundary schools.
4) All in boundary kids have the same rights to Wilson. Your kids don't have any increased rights due to living WOTP.
5) OOB kids in Deal and Wilson feeders have even more rights to Deal and Wilson than yours because they can move anywhere in DC and keep their access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only way DCPS can "force" people to go to other high schools is by economically gerrymandering a feeder pattern that is comprised of more than 80% households at or over median income for the DMV---which, for a family of 4--- is $126,000. This could actually be done in Capitol Hill, and, perhaps in upper NW to Roosevelt.

Then ensure that there are honors classes which have prerequisites to enrollment---none of this "honors for all" or "AP for everyone" BS. Adopt discipline policies that will remove disruptive children from the classroom and put them in in-school suspension or --for kids who are violent---transferring them out to a school designed to treat children who are struggling with those behaviors.

But none of those things will happen because the "woke" progressives who run education in this city will deem it "inequitable". The city could have created a very high performing middle school on the Hill in the last boundary redraw but instead chose not to---thus the continuous outflow of Hill kids to charters.

Thus we have multi-million dollar fully renovated high schools in this city (Dunbar, Coolidge, Cardozo) at substantial under capacity, with the middle and upper middle class parents of the city clamoring to be fed to Ward 3, gaming the system to get fed to Ward 3 OOB, or else directing their energies to a few charters. And if those options don't work out, those parents decamp to other jurisdictions or go private.

The failure to understand that parents (regardless of race or income) who care about their kids education will vote with their feet has never sunk in with the DCPS bureaucracy. Nor, apparently, has it sunk in with the Council.

Yikes. You did not succeed in making the term 'gerrymandering' sound sexy but you did almost succeed in disgusting all of us out of hoping for a high performing high school. Come on, education officials, there has got to be some compromise between the abject PP's ideas and what we have now?