Latin Cooper - Capitol Hill families?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear parents EOTP claim that good facilities don't matter in regard to BASIS on a regular basis. Mention BASIS' bad facilities and you're a troll, because, you know, the kids don't mind the building. The same will be said of Latin Cooper by Sept. Translation: we don't want to move from Ward 5 or 6; we're not going to move. The middle school facilities are good enough because we said so.

Let me start by observing your last sentence is one of the dumbest things I've read on DCUM in some time. School choice is exactly that, a choice. Every family makes a decision that is best for their kid/family/circumstance. Unless you you have unlimited means and political contacts there are trade-offs and choices to be made - you can't waive a magic wand or spend $1 billion to build your own school and get everything you want. So, yes, families decide on their own what is "good enough" (facilities, academics, extracurriculars, etc.), they declare it to be so and they make their own decision. Or should they be consulting you first?

With resect to Basis and its facilities, honestly you seem really bitter. I don't think anyone who sends their kid to Basis would opt for the current building and facility vs Latin's. That would be crazy. I think what you are hearing is people saying that the education that Basis offers is great enough for them to justify marginal physical space. That's a personal preference based on their own needs and wants. I don't question why someone would prioritize academics over other things (when you can't get the Basis rigor anywhere else, let alone with great facilities.) That doesn't confuse me. What confounds me is why you seem so invested in and angry about Basis's facilities and how and what other families prioritize their needs.

I am probably wasting my time here but maybe I can get you to see this by asking you to look at the exact inverse. DCPS spent $10s of millions to renovate High Schools - some of them have amazing facilities. Unfortunately they also have less than 10% of kids at grade level. I would NEVER send my kid to my IB feeder HS because the amazing facilities do not outweigh the crappy education and low performing student body. Does that decision anger you as well? Because it is the precise inverse of what angers you about Basis families deciding the education is worth the facilities trade-off.

Yes! All of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear parents EOTP claim that good facilities don't matter in regard to BASIS on a regular basis. Mention BASIS' bad facilities and you're a troll, because, you know, the kids don't mind the building. The same will be said of Latin Cooper by Sept. Translation: we don't want to move from Ward 5 or 6; we're not going to move. The middle school facilities are good enough because we said so.

Let me start by observing your last sentence is one of the dumbest things I've read on DCUM in some time. School choice is exactly that, a choice. Every family makes a decision that is best for their kid/family/circumstance. Unless you you have unlimited means and political contacts there are trade-offs and choices to be made - you can't waive a magic wand or spend $1 billion to build your own school and get everything you want. So, yes, families decide on their own what is "good enough" (facilities, academics, extracurriculars, etc.), they declare it to be so and they make their own decision. Or should they be consulting you first?

With resect to Basis and its facilities, honestly you seem really bitter. I don't think anyone who sends their kid to Basis would opt for the current building and facility vs Latin's. That would be crazy. I think what you are hearing is people saying that the education that Basis offers is great enough for them to justify marginal physical space. That's a personal preference based on their own needs and wants. I don't question why someone would prioritize academics over other things (when you can't get the Basis rigor anywhere else, let alone with great facilities.) That doesn't confuse me. What confounds me is why you seem so invested in and angry about Basis's facilities and how and what other families prioritize their needs.

I am probably wasting my time here but maybe I can get you to see this by asking you to look at the exact inverse. DCPS spent $10s of millions to renovate High Schools - some of them have amazing facilities. Unfortunately they also have less than 10% of kids at grade level. I would NEVER send my kid to my IB feeder HS because the amazing facilities do not outweigh the crappy education and low performing student body. Does that decision anger you as well? Because it is the precise inverse of what angers you about Basis families deciding the education is worth the facilities trade-off.

NP. So you've said lady, many times on DCUM. The facilities at BASIS still suck. Fair point that could move for good public school facilities and do not. Easier to rationalize your choice.

Every choice in life is a rationalization. We could all live somewhere else and there would be trade-offs. I could afford $65k/yr for Sidwell or GDS but it would set back my quality of life in retirement. I could have a job that makes me much happier but have to make less money. Spouse could have a job where they make more money but would be less happy.

The point (that you seem incapable of grasping) is that facilities are one of a number of things families consider when choosing a school. There are trade-offs betwixt and between them.

(Oh, and P.S. I don't have a kid at Basis. I just get annoyed by people without a grasp on rationality and logic.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's this conspiracy theorist idea permeating this thread that somehow "DCPS" or "DC" are conspiring to keep quality MS education away from Capitol Hill. No one who understands how decisions in government or at DCPS are made would ever allege such a thing. I know a lot of us (me too, btw) are not getting what we want. And that for many of us this is the first time in our privileged lives we can't argue for or leverage relationships to get our desired outcome. But how self centered and entitled are we therefore conclude it must be an intentional conspiracy? Plus, apparently the conspirators are doing the bidding of poor people and the underserved, because that's something that actually happens...anywhere.

Hardly a conspiracy theory: reality. DCPS could have changed the Hill ES feed arrangements during the 2013-2014 boundary review to create a high-performing pan Ward 6 MS. There was, and is, widespread support for the initiative at the grassroots across on CH, just not on the part of the ed powers that be and their parent shills in the Cluster school community. DCPS could also have introduced a full complement of not just "honors" classes, but GT programming in this new MS, and/or created at least one test-in MS program in the District. Other US cities have one or more test-in middle school programs, e.g. Boston, NYC and our near neighbors in MoCo and Fairfax. Michelle Rhee used to speak of her plans to add MS GT testing and programming. But she and Fenty went down too early for GT to launch.

Privileged lives, entitled? Speak for yourself. I grew up in a rural area, read a lot, took math classes I paid for at a community college, went to an Ivy on a Full Pell Grant.

You need to get together with the other conspiracy theorists and decide who your boogeyman is. Most of your foil hat buddies seem to think Rhee and Fenty were the masterminds behind undermining schools on the CH. Now here you come into the mix claiming they were going to fix it and it was the boundary review or 2013 that perpetuated the conspiracy. I'm so confused!

The point you seem unable to grasp is that decisions were made because people in power have to make decisions. They may have been the best decisions at the time based on available info and projections or they may have been terrible decisions. Even assuming every decision was wrong and there were no justifications for them, it does not mean it was a conspiracy. Sometimes people make decisions that don't work out. Jack Welsh wasn't trying to destroy GE. Time Warner wasn't conspiring to destroy shareholder value when it overpaid for AOL. John McCain wasn't trying to upend democracy and the Republican party when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Decisions can have bad outcomes without having been made with malintent.

[Anonymous]

No longer have a dog in this fight, but know that DC parents kid themselves that the trade-off doesn't take a toll on the kids. I say this having working at BASIS DC, lasting but a school year (although my contract was renewed). The set up just isn't a healthy arrangement for adolescents. There isn't enough light, air, space to run around. There aren't enough places to read and reflect quietly in good light. It's not uncommon for middle school kids, particularly boys, to develop mild behavioral problems in the building. The young BASIS executives who chose the space are long gone from the franchise and Arizona leaders well aware that the building is subpar (helping explain chronic high staff turnover). The worst of the facilities in the constellation of Arizona campuses are much more pleasant. I also worked for BASIS AZ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's this conspiracy theorist idea permeating this thread that somehow "DCPS" or "DC" are conspiring to keep quality MS education away from Capitol Hill. No one who understands how decisions in government or at DCPS are made would ever allege such a thing. I know a lot of us (me too, btw) are not getting what we want. And that for many of us this is the first time in our privileged lives we can't argue for or leverage relationships to get our desired outcome. But how self centered and entitled are we therefore conclude it must be an intentional conspiracy? Plus, apparently the conspirators are doing the bidding of poor people and the underserved, because that's something that actually happens...anywhere.

Hardly a conspiracy theory: reality. DCPS could have changed the Hill ES feed arrangements during the 2013-2014 boundary review to create a high-performing pan Ward 6 MS. There was, and is, widespread support for the initiative at the grassroots across on CH, just not on the part of the ed powers that be and their parent shills in the Cluster school community. DCPS could also have introduced a full complement of not just "honors" classes, but GT programming in this new MS, and/or created at least one test-in MS program in the District. Other US cities have one or more test-in middle school programs, e.g. Boston, NYC and our near neighbors in MoCo and Fairfax. Michelle Rhee used to speak of her plans to add MS GT testing and programming. But she and Fenty went down too early for GT to launch.

Privileged lives, entitled? Speak for yourself. I grew up in a rural area, read a lot, took math classes I paid for at a community college, went to an Ivy on a Full Pell Grant.

You need to get together with the other conspiracy theorists and decide who your boogeyman is. Most of your foil hat buddies seem to think Rhee and Fenty were the masterminds behind undermining schools on the CH. Now here you come into the mix claiming they were going to fix it and it was the boundary review or 2013 that perpetuated the conspiracy. I'm so confused!

The point you seem unable to grasp is that decisions were made because people in power have to make decisions. They may have been the best decisions at the time based on available info and projections or they may have been terrible decisions. Even assuming every decision was wrong and there were no justifications for them, it does not mean it was a conspiracy. Sometimes people make decisions that don't work out. Jack Welsh wasn't trying to destroy GE. Time Warner wasn't conspiring to destroy shareholder value when it overpaid for AOL. John McCain wasn't trying to upend democracy and the Republican party when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Decisions can have bad outcomes without having been made with malintent.

Not buying it, not by a long shot. We voted against Vincent Gray by a margin of 5-1 on Capitol Hill. The point you seem unable to grasp is that we've paid for our choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No longer have a dog in this fight, but know that DC parents kid themselves that the trade-off doesn't take a toll on the kids. I say this having working at BASIS DC, lasting but a school year (although my contract was renewed). The set up just isn't a healthy arrangement for adolescents. There isn't enough light, air, space to run around. There aren't enough places to read and reflect quietly in good light. It's not uncommon for middle school kids, particularly boys, to develop mild behavioral problems in the building. The young BASIS executives who chose the space are long gone from the franchise and Arizona leaders well aware that the building is subpar (helping explain chronic high staff turnover). The worst of the facilities in the constellation of Arizona campuses are much more pleasant. I also worked for BASIS AZ.

No arguing that the building is not great, but your data points confuse correlation with causation and/or seem kind of strange.

There aren't enough places to read and reflect quietly.
What type of MS experience did you have? I bet you are one of those people who think US News should continue to use library volumes as a metric for college and Law School rankings. Wanting more space in hallways and a fulsome outdoor space I get. What you argue here about "reflection" seems...strange.

It's not uncommon for middle school kids, particularly boys, to develop mild behavioral problems in the building
That's true of every MS in the US. And boys in MS always have more behavioral problems than girls. That's not specific to Basis. You are confusing correlation and causation.

(helping explain chronic high staff turnover)
Basis turnover is high...as is all turnover in public education in urban areas. I have not seen any data to support the thesis that Basis's is higher than other schools. You are confusing correlation and causation.

Arizona leaders well aware that the building is subpar
As is anyone with eyes and a brain. What's your point? NO ONE THINKS THAT BUILDING IS GREAT. No Basis parent thinks to themselves, "I'm glad we don't have more outdoor space. Or more windows. Or more room in the hallways." The issue is not whether the building is great, but rather whether the trade-off makes it a worthwhile one. It's a fair question. But the points above confusing causation with correlation don't support a conclusion one way or the other.

The worst of the facilities in the constellation of Arizona campuses are much more pleasant.
OK. And...? No one in DC who decides whether Basis DC is a good fit for them is deciding between Arizona campuses and DC, so how is that remotely relevant to the discussion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's this conspiracy theorist idea permeating this thread that somehow "DCPS" or "DC" are conspiring to keep quality MS education away from Capitol Hill. No one who understands how decisions in government or at DCPS are made would ever allege such a thing. I know a lot of us (me too, btw) are not getting what we want. And that for many of us this is the first time in our privileged lives we can't argue for or leverage relationships to get our desired outcome. But how self centered and entitled are we therefore conclude it must be an intentional conspiracy? Plus, apparently the conspirators are doing the bidding of poor people and the underserved, because that's something that actually happens...anywhere.

Hardly a conspiracy theory: reality. DCPS could have changed the Hill ES feed arrangements during the 2013-2014 boundary review to create a high-performing pan Ward 6 MS. There was, and is, widespread support for the initiative at the grassroots across on CH, just not on the part of the ed powers that be and their parent shills in the Cluster school community. DCPS could also have introduced a full complement of not just "honors" classes, but GT programming in this new MS, and/or created at least one test-in MS program in the District. Other US cities have one or more test-in middle school programs, e.g. Boston, NYC and our near neighbors in MoCo and Fairfax. Michelle Rhee used to speak of her plans to add MS GT testing and programming. But she and Fenty went down too early for GT to launch.

Privileged lives, entitled? Speak for yourself. I grew up in a rural area, read a lot, took math classes I paid for at a community college, went to an Ivy on a Full Pell Grant.

You need to get together with the other conspiracy theorists and decide who your boogeyman is. Most of your foil hat buddies seem to think Rhee and Fenty were the masterminds behind undermining schools on the CH. Now here you come into the mix claiming they were going to fix it and it was the boundary review or 2013 that perpetuated the conspiracy. I'm so confused!

The point you seem unable to grasp is that decisions were made because people in power have to make decisions. They may have been the best decisions at the time based on available info and projections or they may have been terrible decisions. Even assuming every decision was wrong and there were no justifications for them, it does not mean it was a conspiracy. Sometimes people make decisions that don't work out. Jack Welsh wasn't trying to destroy GE. Time Warner wasn't conspiring to destroy shareholder value when it overpaid for AOL. John McCain wasn't trying to upend democracy and the Republican party when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Decisions can have bad outcomes without having been made with malintent.

Not buying it, not by a long shot. We voted against Vincent Gray by a margin of 5-1 on Capitol Hill. The point you seem unable to grasp is that we've paid for our choice.

Your post makes zero sense. Even if I try and parse it so it does it seems like your response is that you voted for the other guy 15 years ago and him not winning was part of the conspiracy?

What is clear here is that you were invested in the state of CH Middle Schools and you feel like your ideas and concerns were rebuffed or ignored. You feel like things would have been better now if they had listened to you. And you are ANGRY and HURT. The problem is that this all happened in 2007-2010 or 2013 and it is now 15 years later. So maybe concentrate less on being all up in your feelings and living in the past and more on where we are and how we move forward from here.

At my place of work we have a senior leader who will throw people out of meetings if they spend time and energy rehashing things we could have done or should have done. She will give them one chance to rephrase their concern in term of what action they advocate now. If they return to what was done without reframing it she'll toss them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's this conspiracy theorist idea permeating this thread that somehow "DCPS" or "DC" are conspiring to keep quality MS education away from Capitol Hill. No one who understands how decisions in government or at DCPS are made would ever allege such a thing. I know a lot of us (me too, btw) are not getting what we want. And that for many of us this is the first time in our privileged lives we can't argue for or leverage relationships to get our desired outcome. But how self centered and entitled are we therefore conclude it must be an intentional conspiracy? Plus, apparently the conspirators are doing the bidding of poor people and the underserved, because that's something that actually happens...anywhere.

Hardly a conspiracy theory: reality. DCPS could have changed the Hill ES feed arrangements during the 2013-2014 boundary review to create a high-performing pan Ward 6 MS. There was, and is, widespread support for the initiative at the grassroots across on CH, just not on the part of the ed powers that be and their parent shills in the Cluster school community. DCPS could also have introduced a full complement of not just "honors" classes, but GT programming in this new MS, and/or created at least one test-in MS program in the District. Other US cities have one or more test-in middle school programs, e.g. Boston, NYC and our near neighbors in MoCo and Fairfax. Michelle Rhee used to speak of her plans to add MS GT testing and programming. But she and Fenty went down too early for GT to launch.

Privileged lives, entitled? Speak for yourself. I grew up in a rural area, read a lot, took math classes I paid for at a community college, went to an Ivy on a Full Pell Grant.

You need to get together with the other conspiracy theorists and decide who your boogeyman is. Most of your foil hat buddies seem to think Rhee and Fenty were the masterminds behind undermining schools on the CH. Now here you come into the mix claiming they were going to fix it and it was the boundary review or 2013 that perpetuated the conspiracy. I'm so confused!

The point you seem unable to grasp is that decisions were made because people in power have to make decisions. They may have been the best decisions at the time based on available info and projections or they may have been terrible decisions. Even assuming every decision was wrong and there were no justifications for them, it does not mean it was a conspiracy. Sometimes people make decisions that don't work out. Jack Welsh wasn't trying to destroy GE. Time Warner wasn't conspiring to destroy shareholder value when it overpaid for AOL. John McCain wasn't trying to upend democracy and the Republican party when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Decisions can have bad outcomes without having been made with malintent.

Not buying it, not by a long shot. We voted against Vincent Gray by a margin of 5-1 on Capitol Hill. The point you seem unable to grasp is that we've paid for our choice.

Your post makes zero sense. Even if I try and parse it so it does it seems like your response is that you voted for the other guy 15 years ago and him not winning was part of the conspiracy?

What is clear here is that you were invested in the state of CH Middle Schools and you feel like your ideas and concerns were rebuffed or ignored. You feel like things would have been better now if they had listened to you. And you are ANGRY and HURT. The problem is that this all happened in 2007-2010 or 2013 and it is now 15 years later. So maybe concentrate less on being all up in your feelings and living in the past and more on where we are and how we move forward from here.

At my place of work we have a senior leader who will throw people out of meetings if they spend time and energy rehashing things we could have done or should have done. She will give them one chance to rephrase their concern in term of what action they advocate now. If they return to what was done without reframing it she'll toss them.

Just as a point of fact, the last time DCPS engaged in Capitol Hill middle schools was in 2010, under Rhee. It resulted in the reorg that moved LT to Stuart Hobson. It didn’t turn out exactly like the presentation below (Brent didn’t keep two feeders, and SWS also left the cluster, maybe this also was when JO started feeding to SH?). The 2014 boundary review didn’t change much, IIRC. This was also around the time Hine closed and merged w/Elliot. If there is still a MOTH archive I’m sure it was discussed ad naseum.

People are hung up on this because those were the last two times DcPS engaged on this, and the result is where we are today. Jefferson & EH are undersubscribed, and BASIS and Latin scoop up many Hill fifth graders.

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/publication/attachments/DCPS-Ward%206-Building%20on%20Momentum%20FINAL-%207-30.pdf

https://chpspo.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/chpspo-middle-school-proposal-3-25-10.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stuart Hobson is a beautiful renovation but that has done nothing to change the fact that I can’t send my 14 year old into the close by neighborhood markets because they have had to make rules about no one under 18 allowed in without an adult rule - and have to enforce it equitably because of woke neighbors. I did not send my child to SH because of the rowdy students. I am guessing others have made the same choice.

This. I could never send my UMC black children to SH. They would be destroyed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's this conspiracy theorist idea permeating this thread that somehow "DCPS" or "DC" are conspiring to keep quality MS education away from Capitol Hill. No one who understands how decisions in government or at DCPS are made would ever allege such a thing. I know a lot of us (me too, btw) are not getting what we want. And that for many of us this is the first time in our privileged lives we can't argue for or leverage relationships to get our desired outcome. But how self centered and entitled are we therefore conclude it must be an intentional conspiracy? Plus, apparently the conspirators are doing the bidding of poor people and the underserved, because that's something that actually happens...anywhere.

Hardly a conspiracy theory: reality. DCPS could have changed the Hill ES feed arrangements during the 2013-2014 boundary review to create a high-performing pan Ward 6 MS. There was, and is, widespread support for the initiative at the grassroots across on CH, just not on the part of the ed powers that be and their parent shills in the Cluster school community. DCPS could also have introduced a full complement of not just "honors" classes, but GT programming in this new MS, and/or created at least one test-in MS program in the District. Other US cities have one or more test-in middle school programs, e.g. Boston, NYC and our near neighbors in MoCo and Fairfax. Michelle Rhee used to speak of her plans to add MS GT testing and programming. But she and Fenty went down too early for GT to launch.

Privileged lives, entitled? Speak for yourself. I grew up in a rural area, read a lot, took math classes I paid for at a community college, went to an Ivy on a Full Pell Grant.

You need to get together with the other conspiracy theorists and decide who your boogeyman is. Most of your foil hat buddies seem to think Rhee and Fenty were the masterminds behind undermining schools on the CH. Now here you come into the mix claiming they were going to fix it and it was the boundary review or 2013 that perpetuated the conspiracy. I'm so confused!

The point you seem unable to grasp is that decisions were made because people in power have to make decisions. They may have been the best decisions at the time based on available info and projections or they may have been terrible decisions. Even assuming every decision was wrong and there were no justifications for them, it does not mean it was a conspiracy. Sometimes people make decisions that don't work out. Jack Welsh wasn't trying to destroy GE. Time Warner wasn't conspiring to destroy shareholder value when it overpaid for AOL. John McCain wasn't trying to upend democracy and the Republican party when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Decisions can have bad outcomes without having been made with malintent.

Not buying it, not by a long shot. We voted against Vincent Gray by a margin of 5-1 on Capitol Hill. The point you seem unable to grasp is that we've paid for our choice.

Your post makes zero sense. Even if I try and parse it so it does it seems like your response is that you voted for the other guy 15 years ago and him not winning was part of the conspiracy?

What is clear here is that you were invested in the state of CH Middle Schools and you feel like your ideas and concerns were rebuffed or ignored. You feel like things would have been better now if they had listened to you. And you are ANGRY and HURT. The problem is that this all happened in 2007-2010 or 2013 and it is now 15 years later. So maybe concentrate less on being all up in your feelings and living in the past and more on where we are and how we move forward from here.

At my place of work we have a senior leader who will throw people out of meetings if they spend time and energy rehashing things we could have done or should have done. She will give them one chance to rephrase their concern in term of what action they advocate now. If they return to what was done without reframing it she'll toss them.

Ignore the sanctimonious armchair shrink and advocate for nothing. I send my kid to a public MS school in Arlington, where my ex lives. The school has a terrific auditorium, gym, indoor track, greenhouse/gardens, instrumental music lessons for all/bands and orchestras for each grade, tennis courts, playing fields, many sports, 6th grade algebra, instruction in 5 foreign languages plus American Sign Language, English classes with no more than 15 students. Rent out your DC house, return as an empty nester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stuart Hobson is a beautiful renovation but that has done nothing to change the fact that I can’t send my 14 year old into the close by neighborhood markets because they have had to make rules about no one under 18 allowed in without an adult rule - and have to enforce it equitably because of woke neighbors. I did not send my child to SH because of the rowdy students. I am guessing others have made the same choice.

This. I could never send my UMC black children to SH. They would be destroyed.

I've lived across the street from SH for almost 20 years. I won't send my white children because the cops occasionally race up to arrest kids brawling on the playground and the sidewalk out front. I thought the drama would end at some point, as the neighborhood gentrified steadily and intensely. It hasn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's this conspiracy theorist idea permeating this thread that somehow "DCPS" or "DC" are conspiring to keep quality MS education away from Capitol Hill. No one who understands how decisions in government or at DCPS are made would ever allege such a thing. I know a lot of us (me too, btw) are not getting what we want. And that for many of us this is the first time in our privileged lives we can't argue for or leverage relationships to get our desired outcome. But how self centered and entitled are we therefore conclude it must be an intentional conspiracy? Plus, apparently the conspirators are doing the bidding of poor people and the underserved, because that's something that actually happens...anywhere.

Hardly a conspiracy theory: reality. DCPS could have changed the Hill ES feed arrangements during the 2013-2014 boundary review to create a high-performing pan Ward 6 MS. There was, and is, widespread support for the initiative at the grassroots across on CH, just not on the part of the ed powers that be and their parent shills in the Cluster school community. DCPS could also have introduced a full complement of not just "honors" classes, but GT programming in this new MS, and/or created at least one test-in MS program in the District. Other US cities have one or more test-in middle school programs, e.g. Boston, NYC and our near neighbors in MoCo and Fairfax. Michelle Rhee used to speak of her plans to add MS GT testing and programming. But she and Fenty went down too early for GT to launch.

Privileged lives, entitled? Speak for yourself. I grew up in a rural area, read a lot, took math classes I paid for at a community college, went to an Ivy on a Full Pell Grant.

You need to get together with the other conspiracy theorists and decide who your boogeyman is. Most of your foil hat buddies seem to think Rhee and Fenty were the masterminds behind undermining schools on the CH. Now here you come into the mix claiming they were going to fix it and it was the boundary review or 2013 that perpetuated the conspiracy. I'm so confused!

The point you seem unable to grasp is that decisions were made because people in power have to make decisions. They may have been the best decisions at the time based on available info and projections or they may have been terrible decisions. Even assuming every decision was wrong and there were no justifications for them, it does not mean it was a conspiracy. Sometimes people make decisions that don't work out. Jack Welsh wasn't trying to destroy GE. Time Warner wasn't conspiring to destroy shareholder value when it overpaid for AOL. John McCain wasn't trying to upend democracy and the Republican party when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Decisions can have bad outcomes without having been made with malintent.

Not buying it, not by a long shot. We voted against Vincent Gray by a margin of 5-1 on Capitol Hill. The point you seem unable to grasp is that we've paid for our choice.

Your post makes zero sense. Even if I try and parse it so it does it seems like your response is that you voted for the other guy 15 years ago and him not winning was part of the conspiracy?

What is clear here is that you were invested in the state of CH Middle Schools and you feel like your ideas and concerns were rebuffed or ignored. You feel like things would have been better now if they had listened to you. And you are ANGRY and HURT. The problem is that this all happened in 2007-2010 or 2013 and it is now 15 years later. So maybe concentrate less on being all up in your feelings and living in the past and more on where we are and how we move forward from here.

At my place of work we have a senior leader who will throw people out of meetings if they spend time and energy rehashing things we could have done or should have done. She will give them one chance to rephrase their concern in term of what action they advocate now. If they return to what was done without reframing it she'll toss them.

Ignore the sanctimonious armchair shrink and advocate for nothing. I send my kid to a public MS school in Arlington, where my ex lives. The school has a terrific auditorium, gym, indoor track, greenhouse/gardens, instrumental music lessons for all/bands and orchestras for each grade, tennis courts, playing fields, many sports, 6th grade algebra, instruction in 5 foreign languages plus American Sign Language, English classes with no more than 15 students. Rent out your DC house, return as an empty nester.

Residency fraud?

https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title22.1/chapter14/section22.1-264.1/

[Anonymous]

Not if the parents have joint custody.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stuart Hobson is a beautiful renovation but that has done nothing to change the fact that I can’t send my 14 year old into the close by neighborhood markets because they have had to make rules about no one under 18 allowed in without an adult rule - and have to enforce it equitably because of woke neighbors. I did not send my child to SH because of the rowdy students. I am guessing others have made the same choice.

This. I could never send my UMC black children to SH. They would be destroyed.

I've lived across the street from SH for almost 20 years. I won't send my white children because the cops occasionally race up to arrest kids brawling on the playground and the sidewalk out front. I thought the drama would end at some point, as the neighborhood gentrified steadily and intensely. It hasn't.

There she is! Same post, different day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's this conspiracy theorist idea permeating this thread that somehow "DCPS" or "DC" are conspiring to keep quality MS education away from Capitol Hill. No one who understands how decisions in government or at DCPS are made would ever allege such a thing. I know a lot of us (me too, btw) are not getting what we want. And that for many of us this is the first time in our privileged lives we can't argue for or leverage relationships to get our desired outcome. But how self centered and entitled are we therefore conclude it must be an intentional conspiracy? Plus, apparently the conspirators are doing the bidding of poor people and the underserved, because that's something that actually happens...anywhere.

Hardly a conspiracy theory: reality. DCPS could have changed the Hill ES feed arrangements during the 2013-2014 boundary review to create a high-performing pan Ward 6 MS. There was, and is, widespread support for the initiative at the grassroots across on CH, just not on the part of the ed powers that be and their parent shills in the Cluster school community. DCPS could also have introduced a full complement of not just "honors" classes, but GT programming in this new MS, and/or created at least one test-in MS program in the District. Other US cities have one or more test-in middle school programs, e.g. Boston, NYC and our near neighbors in MoCo and Fairfax. Michelle Rhee used to speak of her plans to add MS GT testing and programming. But she and Fenty went down too early for GT to launch.

Privileged lives, entitled? Speak for yourself. I grew up in a rural area, read a lot, took math classes I paid for at a community college, went to an Ivy on a Full Pell Grant.

You need to get together with the other conspiracy theorists and decide who your boogeyman is. Most of your foil hat buddies seem to think Rhee and Fenty were the masterminds behind undermining schools on the CH. Now here you come into the mix claiming they were going to fix it and it was the boundary review or 2013 that perpetuated the conspiracy. I'm so confused!

The point you seem unable to grasp is that decisions were made because people in power have to make decisions. They may have been the best decisions at the time based on available info and projections or they may have been terrible decisions. Even assuming every decision was wrong and there were no justifications for them, it does not mean it was a conspiracy. Sometimes people make decisions that don't work out. Jack Welsh wasn't trying to destroy GE. Time Warner wasn't conspiring to destroy shareholder value when it overpaid for AOL. John McCain wasn't trying to upend democracy and the Republican party when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Decisions can have bad outcomes without having been made with malintent.

Not buying it, not by a long shot. We voted against Vincent Gray by a margin of 5-1 on Capitol Hill. The point you seem unable to grasp is that we've paid for our choice.

Your post makes zero sense. Even if I try and parse it so it does it seems like your response is that you voted for the other guy 15 years ago and him not winning was part of the conspiracy?

What is clear here is that you were invested in the state of CH Middle Schools and you feel like your ideas and concerns were rebuffed or ignored. You feel like things would have been better now if they had listened to you. And you are ANGRY and HURT. The problem is that this all happened in 2007-2010 or 2013 and it is now 15 years later. So maybe concentrate less on being all up in your feelings and living in the past and more on where we are and how we move forward from here.

At my place of work we have a senior leader who will throw people out of meetings if they spend time and energy rehashing things we could have done or should have done. She will give them one chance to rephrase their concern in term of what action they advocate now. If they return to what was done without reframing it she'll toss them.

Ignore the sanctimonious armchair shrink and advocate for nothing. I send my kid to a public MS school in Arlington, where my ex lives. The school has a terrific auditorium, gym, indoor track, greenhouse/gardens, instrumental music lessons for all/bands and orchestras for each grade, tennis courts, playing fields, many sports, 6th grade algebra, instruction in 5 foreign languages plus American Sign Language, English classes with no more than 15 students. Rent out your DC house, return as an empty nester.

You got DIVORCED!!! OMG. That's just terrible for your kids. I cannot believe you were so self centered as to deprioritize a stable home because you and your ex decided to choose to divorce.

(Oh, wait. I don't know you or your ex or your kids or your job or family situations and I can't possibly understand or begin to understand the choices and trade-offs you make because, presumably, you know what's best for and matters most to your children. You made a choice to divorce based on all available information.) Yes, now where we? Oh yes, you were excoriating DC school families for the choices they make in public education. By all means, please continue...