Why is the Foxhall Community Citizens Association scared of public school children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to give the Bowser administration credit, they've done a masterful job of pitting people against each other. We should all be mad at the mayor, she's the one who created this mess. But instead Stoddert parents are mad at Key and Mann parents, the FCCA is mad at the PCA, park users are mad at parents, and everyone is mad at DCPS and the Lab School.

We haven't seen anything yet. Just wait till they start redrawing the boundaries for everyone next year.

+1

This is going to be a bloodbath unless they somehow figure out how to expand stoddert. I have a feeling this new school isn't going to built anytime soon due to incoming lawsuits.

How are they going to expand Stoddert? The planned renovation was going to swap trailers for permanent space and include some space to actually have art and music in the building. Expanding further would likely mean building on the DPR land there... So just shifting the fight about park land to a different park. And the DPR land at Stoddert, unlike Hardy, might actually be owned by the Feds, as most of the park land in Ward 3 is.

DPR land was always sacrosanct. Now that Bowser has broken that expect to see a lot more. DPR has a lot of lightly used space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to give the Bowser administration credit, they've done a masterful job of pitting people against each other. We should all be mad at the mayor, she's the one who created this mess. But instead Stoddert parents are mad at Key and Mann parents, the FCCA is mad at the PCA, park users are mad at parents, and everyone is mad at DCPS and the Lab School.

We haven't seen anything yet. Just wait till they start redrawing the boundaries for everyone next year.

+1

This is going to be a bloodbath unless they somehow figure out how to expand stoddert. I have a feeling this new school isn't going to built anytime soon due to incoming lawsuits.

How are they going to expand Stoddert? The planned renovation was going to swap trailers for permanent space and include some space to actually have art and music in the building. Expanding further would likely mean building on the DPR land there... So just shifting the fight about park land to a different park. And the DPR land at Stoddert, unlike Hardy, might actually be owned by the Feds, as most of the park land in Ward 3 is.

DPR land was always sacrosanct. Now that Bowser has broken that expect to see a lot more. DPR has a lot of lightly used space.

Not if the Federal government owns it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to give the Bowser administration credit, they've done a masterful job of pitting people against each other. We should all be mad at the mayor, she's the one who created this mess. But instead Stoddert parents are mad at Key and Mann parents, the FCCA is mad at the PCA, park users are mad at parents, and everyone is mad at DCPS and the Lab School.

We haven't seen anything yet. Just wait till they start redrawing the boundaries for everyone next year.

+1

This is going to be a bloodbath unless they somehow figure out how to expand stoddert. I have a feeling this new school isn't going to built anytime soon due to incoming lawsuits.

How are they going to expand Stoddert? The planned renovation was going to swap trailers for permanent space and include some space to actually have art and music in the building. Expanding further would likely mean building on the DPR land there... So just shifting the fight about park land to a different park. And the DPR land at Stoddert, unlike Hardy, might actually be owned by the Feds, as most of the park land in Ward 3 is.

DPR land was always sacrosanct. Now that Bowser has broken that expect to see a lot more. DPR has a lot of lightly used space.

Not if the Federal government owns it.

The Murch expansion was hindered a bit by the fact that some of the tract is federal land but they figured it out. It's not a dealbreaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to give the Bowser administration credit, they've done a masterful job of pitting people against each other. We should all be mad at the mayor, she's the one who created this mess. But instead Stoddert parents are mad at Key and Mann parents, the FCCA is mad at the PCA, park users are mad at parents, and everyone is mad at DCPS and the Lab School.

We haven't seen anything yet. Just wait till they start redrawing the boundaries for everyone next year.

+1

This is going to be a bloodbath unless they somehow figure out how to expand stoddert. I have a feeling this new school isn't going to built anytime soon due to incoming lawsuits.

How are they going to expand Stoddert? The planned renovation was going to swap trailers for permanent space and include some space to actually have art and music in the building. Expanding further would likely mean building on the DPR land there... So just shifting the fight about park land to a different park. And the DPR land at Stoddert, unlike Hardy, might actually be owned by the Feds, as most of the park land in Ward 3 is.

DPR land was always sacrosanct. Now that Bowser has broken that expect to see a lot more. DPR has a lot of lightly used space.

Not if the Federal government owns it.

The Murch expansion was hindered a bit by the fact that some of the tract is federal land but they figured it out. It's not a dealbreaker.

Because they didn't actually build on it or traded. They maintained playground/field space. At Stoddert they might have to build on the field after getting rid of their parking lot (or building parking underground).

[Anonymous]

DC owns the entire block bordered by Calvert, 41st, 39th, and Davis on which Stoddert sits. You can verify this on the DC Real Property GIS. The main issue with extending Stoddert would be that the city would have to hack down a bunch of trees to do so and you know how well that usually goes down . . .

[Anonymous]

We, as in Wilson-feeder in boundary families, need to face reality, grow up, and move forward for the sake of every single child in the District. Every. Single. One.

Reality Check: Privilege. Just because we can use it to our personal advantage, doesn't mean we should.

Cramped classrooms? Property values? Quantifiable "diversity"? Secret "sweetheart leases" for special ed school? Parking?

Seriously? What is the absolute WORST thing that can happen in a crowded classroom in an already high-performing school your kid can walk to without getting shot from your home that you won't get evicted from because you don't have to work an hourly job on the frontlines of a pandemic that may not be over by the time the paint is dry on the three new public school properties in spitting distance from each other.

Shame on us.

Public education will never be good enough until every kiddo has a good education.

Time for a ceasefire in the Battle for Foxhall. This is not the only problem in DC education. None of us are facing the existential crises of the "diverse" and "at risk" kids we're pretending to care about just to prove we're not racist elites.

Since nothing will physically change for at least a year, how about we -- the supposed adults in the room -- put our zoom calls and forum posts on hold for the summer. Here's a family learning project you can do instead.

-Pick any traditional high school but Wilson
-Imagine this is your only option, no lottery, no private, no moving
-Find a DCPS feeder for your youngest and research it on the internet at home (bonus points if you use only a prepaid phone or public library)
-Choose your top 5 priorities. (Or just 2 or 3)
-Translate everything into Amharic or Vietnamese

What do you do next? Whom do you tweet? Where do you post? How do you get a printed copy of PDFs and zoom transcripts to know what happened at the meetings you missed cleaning the cleaning the ER floor at Georgetown hospital.

Still with us? Good. Because an unaccompanied 15 year old girl from your hometown needs a sponsor AND to enroll in a school with ELL and trauma support.

This NOT an exaggeration. This is reality. I know from working directly with DCPS. (Can't say how. I'm not authorized.)

I've always appreciated that there were involved parents in our feeder pattern who advocate for kids like mine. But it's going too far.

Please, all I'm asking is that during pandemic crisis, we take up less space with our wants and give voice to our neighbors' children's needs.

We'll get through this. Others may not. How do you want your kids to feel about that? What will you tell them you did about it?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, a lot of parks -- Palisades, Hearst, Ft. Reno -- are owned by the feds and leased to DC so they are off-limits for other uses. One of the things about Hardy is that it is a rare park that is owned unencumbered by DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We, as in Wilson-feeder in boundary families, need to face reality, grow up, and move forward for the sake of every single child in the District. Every. Single. One.

Reality Check: Privilege. Just because we can use it to our personal advantage, doesn't mean we should.

Cramped classrooms? Property values? Quantifiable "diversity"? Secret "sweetheart leases" for special ed school? Parking?

Seriously? What is the absolute WORST thing that can happen in a crowded classroom in an already high-performing school your kid can walk to without getting shot from your home that you won't get evicted from because you don't have to work an hourly job on the frontlines of a pandemic that may not be over by the time the paint is dry on the three new public school properties in spitting distance from each other.

Shame on us.

Public education will never be good enough until every kiddo has a good education.

Time for a ceasefire in the Battle for Foxhall. This is not the only problem in DC education. None of us are facing the existential crises of the "diverse" and "at risk" kids we're pretending to care about just to prove we're not racist elites.

Since nothing will physically change for at least a year, how about we -- the supposed adults in the room -- put our zoom calls and forum posts on hold for the summer. Here's a family learning project you can do instead.

-Pick any traditional high school but Wilson
-Imagine this is your only option, no lottery, no private, no moving
-Find a DCPS feeder for your youngest and research it on the internet at home (bonus points if you use only a prepaid phone or public library)
-Choose your top 5 priorities. (Or just 2 or 3)
-Translate everything into Amharic or Vietnamese

What do you do next? Whom do you tweet? Where do you post? How do you get a printed copy of PDFs and zoom transcripts to know what happened at the meetings you missed cleaning the cleaning the ER floor at Georgetown hospital.

Still with us? Good. Because an unaccompanied 15 year old girl from your hometown needs a sponsor AND to enroll in a school with ELL and trauma support.

This NOT an exaggeration. This is reality. I know from working directly with DCPS. (Can't say how. I'm not authorized.)

I've always appreciated that there were involved parents in our feeder pattern who advocate for kids like mine. But it's going too far.

Please, all I'm asking is that during pandemic crisis, we take up less space with our wants and give voice to our neighbors' children's needs.

We'll get through this. Others may not. How do you want your kids to feel about that? What will you tell them you did about it?

The people who deliver these types of lectures are usually the worst offenders of what they're lecturing about. Guessing this is the case here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We, as in Wilson-feeder in boundary families, need to face reality, grow up, and move forward for the sake of every single child in the District. Every. Single. One.

Reality Check: Privilege. Just because we can use it to our personal advantage, doesn't mean we should.

Cramped classrooms? Property values? Quantifiable "diversity"? Secret "sweetheart leases" for special ed school? Parking?

Seriously? What is the absolute WORST thing that can happen in a crowded classroom in an already high-performing school your kid can walk to without getting shot from your home that you won't get evicted from because you don't have to work an hourly job on the frontlines of a pandemic that may not be over by the time the paint is dry on the three new public school properties in spitting distance from each other.

Shame on us.

Public education will never be good enough until every kiddo has a good education.

Time for a ceasefire in the Battle for Foxhall. This is not the only problem in DC education. None of us are facing the existential crises of the "diverse" and "at risk" kids we're pretending to care about just to prove we're not racist elites.

Since nothing will physically change for at least a year, how about we -- the supposed adults in the room -- put our zoom calls and forum posts on hold for the summer. Here's a family learning project you can do instead.

-Pick any traditional high school but Wilson
-Imagine this is your only option, no lottery, no private, no moving
-Find a DCPS feeder for your youngest and research it on the internet at home (bonus points if you use only a prepaid phone or public library)
-Choose your top 5 priorities. (Or just 2 or 3)
-Translate everything into Amharic or Vietnamese

What do you do next? Whom do you tweet? Where do you post? How do you get a printed copy of PDFs and zoom transcripts to know what happened at the meetings you missed cleaning the cleaning the ER floor at Georgetown hospital.

Still with us? Good. Because an unaccompanied 15 year old girl from your hometown needs a sponsor AND to enroll in a school with ELL and trauma support.

This NOT an exaggeration. This is reality. I know from working directly with DCPS. (Can't say how. I'm not authorized.)

I've always appreciated that there were involved parents in our feeder pattern who advocate for kids like mine. But it's going too far.

Please, all I'm asking is that during pandemic crisis, we take up less space with our wants and give voice to our neighbors' children's needs.

We'll get through this. Others may not. How do you want your kids to feel about that? What will you tell them you did about it?

I can't tell what you're advocating for. What does a "ceasefire" even mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I can't tell what you're advocating for. What does a "ceasefire" even mean?

Yep, read the whole thing twice and still don't get it. This whole mess was started when the Mayor's office a) decided to build a school at Foxhall and b) leased away Old Hardy. If anyone were to call a ceasefire it would be the Mayor's office. But see the post at the top of page 10 about the Bowser administration pitting people against each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We, as in Wilson-feeder in boundary families, need to face reality, grow up, and move forward for the sake of every single child in the District. Every. Single. One.

Reality Check: Privilege. Just because we can use it to our personal advantage, doesn't mean we should.

Cramped classrooms? Property values? Quantifiable "diversity"? Secret "sweetheart leases" for special ed school? Parking?

Seriously? What is the absolute WORST thing that can happen in a crowded classroom in an already high-performing school your kid can walk to without getting shot from your home that you won't get evicted from because you don't have to work an hourly job on the frontlines of a pandemic that may not be over by the time the paint is dry on the three new public school properties in spitting distance from each other.

Shame on us.

Public education will never be good enough until every kiddo has a good education.

Time for a ceasefire in the Battle for Foxhall. This is not the only problem in DC education. None of us are facing the existential crises of the "diverse" and "at risk" kids we're pretending to care about just to prove we're not racist elites.

Since nothing will physically change for at least a year, how about we -- the supposed adults in the room -- put our zoom calls and forum posts on hold for the summer. Here's a family learning project you can do instead.

-Pick any traditional high school but Wilson
-Imagine this is your only option, no lottery, no private, no moving
-Find a DCPS feeder for your youngest and research it on the internet at home (bonus points if you use only a prepaid phone or public library)
-Choose your top 5 priorities. (Or just 2 or 3)
-Translate everything into Amharic or Vietnamese

What do you do next? Whom do you tweet? Where do you post? How do you get a printed copy of PDFs and zoom transcripts to know what happened at the meetings you missed cleaning the cleaning the ER floor at Georgetown hospital.

Still with us? Good. Because an unaccompanied 15 year old girl from your hometown needs a sponsor AND to enroll in a school with ELL and trauma support.

This NOT an exaggeration. This is reality. I know from working directly with DCPS. (Can't say how. I'm not authorized.)

I've always appreciated that there were involved parents in our feeder pattern who advocate for kids like mine. But it's going too far.

Please, all I'm asking is that during pandemic crisis, we take up less space with our wants and give voice to our neighbors' children's needs.

We'll get through this. Others may not. How do you want your kids to feel about that? What will you tell them you did about it?

Shorter version:

The problem isn't the problem, it's people talking about the problem. The way to make the problem go away is for people to stop talking about it. So STFU.

DCPS should have that engraved above their doors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We, as in Wilson-feeder in boundary families, need to face reality, grow up, and move forward for the sake of every single child in the District. Every. Single. One.

Reality Check: Privilege. Just because we can use it to our personal advantage, doesn't mean we should.

Cramped classrooms? Property values? Quantifiable "diversity"? Secret "sweetheart leases" for special ed school? Parking?

Seriously? What is the absolute WORST thing that can happen in a crowded classroom in an already high-performing school your kid can walk to without getting shot from your home that you won't get evicted from because you don't have to work an hourly job on the frontlines of a pandemic that may not be over by the time the paint is dry on the three new public school properties in spitting distance from each other.

Shame on us.

Public education will never be good enough until every kiddo has a good education.

Time for a ceasefire in the Battle for Foxhall. This is not the only problem in DC education. None of us are facing the existential crises of the "diverse" and "at risk" kids we're pretending to care about just to prove we're not racist elites.

Since nothing will physically change for at least a year, how about we -- the supposed adults in the room -- put our zoom calls and forum posts on hold for the summer. Here's a family learning project you can do instead.

-Pick any traditional high school but Wilson
-Imagine this is your only option, no lottery, no private, no moving
-Find a DCPS feeder for your youngest and research it on the internet at home (bonus points if you use only a prepaid phone or public library)
-Choose your top 5 priorities. (Or just 2 or 3)
-Translate everything into Amharic or Vietnamese

What do you do next? Whom do you tweet? Where do you post? How do you get a printed copy of PDFs and zoom transcripts to know what happened at the meetings you missed cleaning the cleaning the ER floor at Georgetown hospital.

Still with us? Good. Because an unaccompanied 15 year old girl from your hometown needs a sponsor AND to enroll in a school with ELL and trauma support.

This NOT an exaggeration. This is reality. I know from working directly with DCPS. (Can't say how. I'm not authorized.)

I've always appreciated that there were involved parents in our feeder pattern who advocate for kids like mine. But it's going too far.

Please, all I'm asking is that during pandemic crisis, we take up less space with our wants and give voice to our neighbors' children's needs.

We'll get through this. Others may not. How do you want your kids to feel about that? What will you tell them you did about it?

Shorter version:

The problem isn't the problem, it's people talking about the problem. The way to make the problem go away is for people to stop talking about it. So STFU.

DCPS should have that engraved above their doors.

I like you.

Thank you for the translation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We, as in Wilson-feeder in boundary families, need to face reality, grow up, and move forward for the sake of every single child in the District. Every. Single. One.

Reality Check: Privilege. Just because we can use it to our personal advantage, doesn't mean we should.

Cramped classrooms? Property values? Quantifiable "diversity"? Secret "sweetheart leases" for special ed school? Parking?

Seriously? What is the absolute WORST thing that can happen in a crowded classroom in an already high-performing school your kid can walk to without getting shot from your home that you won't get evicted from because you don't have to work an hourly job on the frontlines of a pandemic that may not be over by the time the paint is dry on the three new public school properties in spitting distance from each other.

Shame on us.

Public education will never be good enough until every kiddo has a good education.

Time for a ceasefire in the Battle for Foxhall. This is not the only problem in DC education. None of us are facing the existential crises of the "diverse" and "at risk" kids we're pretending to care about just to prove we're not racist elites.

Since nothing will physically change for at least a year, how about we -- the supposed adults in the room -- put our zoom calls and forum posts on hold for the summer. Here's a family learning project you can do instead.

-Pick any traditional high school but Wilson
-Imagine this is your only option, no lottery, no private, no moving
-Find a DCPS feeder for your youngest and research it on the internet at home (bonus points if you use only a prepaid phone or public library)
-Choose your top 5 priorities. (Or just 2 or 3)
-Translate everything into Amharic or Vietnamese

What do you do next? Whom do you tweet? Where do you post? How do you get a printed copy of PDFs and zoom transcripts to know what happened at the meetings you missed cleaning the cleaning the ER floor at Georgetown hospital.

Still with us? Good. Because an unaccompanied 15 year old girl from your hometown needs a sponsor AND to enroll in a school with ELL and trauma support.

This NOT an exaggeration. This is reality. I know from working directly with DCPS. (Can't say how. I'm not authorized.)

I've always appreciated that there were involved parents in our feeder pattern who advocate for kids like mine. But it's going too far.

Please, all I'm asking is that during pandemic crisis, we take up less space with our wants and give voice to our neighbors' children's needs.

We'll get through this. Others may not. How do you want your kids to feel about that? What will you tell them you did about it?

Go to bed, Chancellor Ferebee. You're drunk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, a lot of parks -- Palisades, Hearst, Ft. Reno -- are owned by the feds and leased to DC so they are off-limits for other uses. One of the things about Hardy is that it is a rare park that is owned unencumbered by DC.

Not even close to true.

At one point in time all land in DC that was not privately owned was in fact Federal but with Home Rule most DC land was in fact handed over to DC. And every few years some odd pockets of land that were Federal (these are mostly quirky pocket parks) get deeded over to DC as part of Federal legislation.

Hardy is not the rare park the is owned unencumbered by DC - if a park is managed by DPR it is owned by DC so that includes Palisades & Hearst in your example. And DPR in fact manages some land for park functions that is Federal which is the case with parts of both Ft Reno and Fort Dupont.

Now there is an NCPC review required on all sorts of projects if there is a perceived Federal interest and in the case of Murch for some reason a portion of the Murch property in fact is still Federally owned.

And the same restrictions apply to DC owned land that apply to privately owned properties around the public "parking" which requires generous setbacks from the street and of course zoning laws also apply and as far as I know laws around re-moving trees (which in DC are very strict) also apply to publicly owned properties.

So there are a lot of restrictions on what DGS/DCPS/DPR can do with their properties but in most cases Federal ownership of land is not one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, a lot of parks -- Palisades, Hearst, Ft. Reno -- are owned by the feds and leased to DC so they are off-limits for other uses. One of the things about Hardy is that it is a rare park that is owned unencumbered by DC.

Not even close to true.

At one point in time all land in DC that was not privately owned was in fact Federal but with Home Rule most DC land was in fact handed over to DC. And every few years some odd pockets of land that were Federal (these are mostly quirky pocket parks) get deeded over to DC as part of Federal legislation.

Hardy is not the rare park the is owned unencumbered by DC - if a park is managed by DPR it is owned by DC so that includes Palisades & Hearst in your example. And DPR in fact manages some land for park functions that is Federal which is the case with parts of both Ft Reno and Fort Dupont.

Now there is an NCPC review required on all sorts of projects if there is a perceived Federal interest and in the case of Murch for some reason a portion of the Murch property in fact is still Federally owned.

And the same restrictions apply to DC owned land that apply to privately owned properties around the public "parking" which requires generous setbacks from the street and of course zoning laws also apply and as far as I know laws around re-moving trees (which in DC are very strict) also apply to publicly owned properties.

So there are a lot of restrictions on what DGS/DCPS/DPR can do with their properties but in most cases Federal ownership of land is not one of them.

You can see DC land ownership and boundaries here:
https://dcgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=3ca919beca684ea7bd7d1ced0dbbf636/

Hearst Recreation Center: Square 1905, lot 0802. Ownership: United States of America
Palisades Community Center: Square 1415S, lot 0802. Ownership: United States of America
Fort Reno Park: Square 1759, lot 0807. Ownership: United States of America

Hardy Recreation Center: Square 1363, lot 0981. Ownership: District of Columbia

Most of the rec centers were retained by the US Government when home rule was enacted, and are leased to the city.