New DCPS school on former Georgetown Day site will be a high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thats nutty. If there are only 500 seats for inbounds this will not relieve pressure on Wilson significantly. This would only work if other new high schools were created.

This will work better if fewer elementary schools fed into Deal, and instead went to Hardy. Both Wilson and Deal are overcrowded so stopping Hardy going to Wilson only solves one part of the problem.

Deal feeders: Bancroft ES (627 kids), Janney ES (681), Lafayette ES (902), Shepherd ES (372), Hearst ES (346) and Murch ES (597) = 3525 kids in the ES feeders, but this will shrink by 500 seats to account for redistricting to Foxhall ES. So probably around 3000 kids in the ES feeders for the 1600 kids that should be at Wilson HS (currently has 1900 kids)

Hardy feeders: Eaton ES (429), Hyde/Addison ES (386), Key ES (346), Mann ES (394), and Stoddert ES (428). Plus, future Foxhall (500). So around 2500 kids in ES feeders once Foxhall is going.

Given that MacArthur HS can only hold 1000, the ES feeder pattern will be a problem potentially worse than Wilson HS's ES feeders.

But not all those kids are in high school at the same time. You’re comparing 7 grades worth of children to seats for 4 grades worth of children. I have a child in 5th grade at a Hardy feeder and our 5th grade is drastically smaller than the other grades. My child only has 17 children in the 5th grade class and the other two 5th grade sections aren’t much larger, in the very low 20s. So less than 60 kids compared to the lower grades that have 75+.

[Anonymous]

Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's enrollment around 500 kids and growing. If most of those students go to the new high school, then that is more than 600 high school students. How will that work in a new school with 1000 seats and 500 reserved for at risk students? Will the number of OOB seats decline as Hardy's needs grow? Will Hardy students have rights to some other high school if they cannot get into MacArthur?

It’s probably going to be implemented in the form of the lottery preference for at-risk. The number of seats for OOB will certainly decline as more in boundary kids attend the new HS.

But, as someone else pointed out, it’s going to be very difficult for at-risk kids in other parts of the city to attend this HS without a dedicated and direct form of transportation. It’s all for show, imho.

They carefully in the public statements talk about reserving a 'set of seats' for at risk, and have some distance between that and the 500 or however many aren't filled by Hardy kid seats.

Right, which tells me that they will have a set of seats that’s an at-risk set aside that they will try to fill before allowing general OOB lottery seats. I’m cool with that.

My guess is that this set aside will decrease over time IF in-boundary kids fully fill the new high school. But that’s a long way away. And, if that happens, it means the HS is wildly successful with nearby families. A shrinking pool of set-aside seats for at-risk kids also means that the new HS will have zero OOB seats in the general lottery. Again, because it’s so successful at drawing in-boundary families.

Unlike Wilson, the footprint of this new campus is very constrained. There really isn’t much more land to cannibalize for trailers or additional buildings. It’s surrounded on all sides by housing. So, realistically, 1000 students is a very hard cap on enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


For a school to be a successful magnet high school it has to have two things: exceptionally good teaching / academics and very good students.

Without one or the other, it doesn't act as a magnet. DC hasn't REALLY tried magnets at all of these schools. Some of them, yes. Not all.


If DC wanted a real magnet that could actually succeed & be diverse (and have a positive knock on effect on middle schools), they could make an actually selective -- but guaranteed entry for feeders -- track to the IB program at Eastern (w/ a minimum criteria so that if not enough kids meet the criteria the first year, the classes are just smaller.) Guarantee admission for every kid from every school that feeds to Eastern that meets the minimum requirement (and it has to be real -- 4s on PARCC or some equivalent) + lottery entry for anyone else. Guarantee that they'll have real IB level classes & supports for a 10 year pilot program. I would bet my house that the school would succeed with 10 years and Stuart-Hobson, Elliot-Hine and Jefferson would see massive upticks in IB buy-in.

This would be similar to what DCPS did years ago with the Wilson academies program to attract IB families into staying at Wilson instead of peeling off for private. This new WOTP high school is a bandaid on the larger problem of there not being an academically strong general ed HS (as opposed to Walls/Banneker) in the east side of the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As a parent in Burleith, I’m very happy with the decisions DC has made.

Ps - FCCA can suck *IT*

I didn’t know what FCCA was, so I googled it, and woo boy. (Foxhall Community Citizens Association for those that don’t know.)

The Post article “Northwest DC NIMBYs fight proposal over new schools” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-northwest-schools-nimby/2021/08/05/bc5f8084-cebe-11eb-9b7e-e06f6cfdece8_story.html) came up.

Get a load of this quote from the FCCA President Robert Avery: “You have a bunch of stay-at-home moms in Spring Valley and their poor little kids worried about two shifts in the cafeteria.”

He said this. To a reporter. On the record. I cannot imagine what he says privately, let alone thinks. Swell people over there.

Get this: he’s still listed as the President, 8 months later. I guess he’s not alone in this thinking on the FCCA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As a parent in Burleith, I’m very happy with the decisions DC has made.

Ps - FCCA can suck *IT*

I didn’t know what FCCA was, so I googled it, and woo boy. (Foxhall Community Citizens Association for those that don’t know.)

The Post article “Northwest DC NIMBYs fight proposal over new schools” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-northwest-schools-nimby/2021/08/05/bc5f8084-cebe-11eb-9b7e-e06f6cfdece8_story.html) came up.

Get a load of this quote from the FCCA President Robert Avery: “You have a bunch of stay-at-home moms in Spring Valley and their poor little kids worried about two shifts in the cafeteria.”

He said this. To a reporter. On the record. I cannot imagine what he says privately, let alone thinks. Swell people over there.

We could achieve so much in reducing health inequities and improving our country's life expectancy ranking in the world, if those stay-at-home moms took interest in the doing something about the 'food' served in those cafeteria shifts.

[Anonymous]

shhanrahan wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

I'm guessing because it's already a school, so they may not need to do as much? Or maybe they do it in shifts? It's already to code, has a gym, etc.

$45m is a huge budget for not doing much. The full renovation of Eaton was $67m.

[Anonymous]

A new high school might help bring a supermarket to that food desert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

shhanrahan wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

I'm guessing because it's already a school, so they may not need to do as much? Or maybe they do it in shifts? It's already to code, has a gym, etc.

$45m is a huge budget for not doing much. The full renovation of Eaton was $67m.

Well, acutally its not depending on "much." Have they released any plans at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

While they may not have to "break ground" as it were, I am a little confused as to the SY23/24 timeline quoted in the communication sent out by DC Central office. This is only a line item in the budget which needs to be approved by Council. And the new fiscal year is not until July (I'm not sure but I think that is the earliest). So bids for planning will go out in the summer and finalized late Fall. Given that the site was originally for K-8 for 600 kids (and without a cafeteria etc.) I would imagine that it will take longer than 9 months to finish up all the work, given that they need to put in labs etc. Eaton renovation took over 2 years but granted it did involve a lot of foundation work for the new section.

Then there is the question of sequencing -- if the current crop of 7th Graders at Hardy are the first to attend this school, that only makes about 120 kids for the 9th grade class. Are they planning to fill the rest by lottery + at risk preference? Are there even that many kids in the system who would want to attend? What about class offerings? If the majority are at risk in grades 10-12, will they have sufficient mass to offer AP/honors classes right off the bat? While this may sound politically incorrect, am I accurate in assuming that many of these possible 10-12th graders are coming from other schools in the system that do not currently have extensive AP offerings (or honors?)

If not, then what is the draw of this school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

While they may not have to "break ground" as it were, I am a little confused as to the SY23/24 timeline quoted in the communication sent out by DC Central office. This is only a line item in the budget which needs to be approved by Council. And the new fiscal year is not until July (I'm not sure but I think that is the earliest). So bids for planning will go out in the summer and finalized late Fall. Given that the site was originally for K-8 for 600 kids (and without a cafeteria etc.) I would imagine that it will take longer than 9 months to finish up all the work, given that they need to put in labs etc. Eaton renovation took over 2 years but granted it did involve a lot of foundation work for the new section.

Then there is the question of sequencing -- if the current crop of 7th Graders at Hardy are the first to attend this school, that only makes about 120 kids for the 9th grade class. Are they planning to fill the rest by lottery + at risk preference? Are there even that many kids in the system who would want to attend? What about class offerings? If the majority are at risk in grades 10-12, will they have sufficient mass to offer AP/honors classes right off the bat? While this may sound politically incorrect, am I accurate in assuming that many of these possible 10-12th graders are coming from other schools in the system that do not currently have extensive AP offerings (or honors?)

If not, then what is the draw of this school?

I'm wondering if they plan to add one additional class each year?

So 23-24 has only the freshman class. 24-25 has freshman and sophomore classes. Etc.

In this scenario, they do not need the entire campus finished by 22-23. They can work on renovations and expansion each year, adding more capacity for the next year's additional class. Finally, by year 26-27 the school has all four grades filled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

While they may not have to "break ground" as it were, I am a little confused as to the SY23/24 timeline quoted in the communication sent out by DC Central office. This is only a line item in the budget which needs to be approved by Council. And the new fiscal year is not until July (I'm not sure but I think that is the earliest). So bids for planning will go out in the summer and finalized late Fall. Given that the site was originally for K-8 for 600 kids (and without a cafeteria etc.) I would imagine that it will take longer than 9 months to finish up all the work, given that they need to put in labs etc. Eaton renovation took over 2 years but granted it did involve a lot of foundation work for the new section.

Then there is the question of sequencing -- if the current crop of 7th Graders at Hardy are the first to attend this school, that only makes about 120 kids for the 9th grade class. Are they planning to fill the rest by lottery + at risk preference? Are there even that many kids in the system who would want to attend? What about class offerings? If the majority are at risk in grades 10-12, will they have sufficient mass to offer AP/honors classes right off the bat? While this may sound politically incorrect, am I accurate in assuming that many of these possible 10-12th graders are coming from other schools in the system that do not currently have extensive AP offerings (or honors?)

If not, then what is the draw of this school?

I'm wondering if they plan to add one additional class each year?

So 23-24 has only the freshman class. 24-25 has freshman and sophomore classes. Etc.

In this scenario, they do not need the entire campus finished by 22-23. They can work on renovations and expansion each year, adding more capacity for the next year's additional class. Finally, by year 26-27 the school has all four grades filled.

This is how most new schools operate. It wouldn't make sense to fill all grades the same year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As a parent in Burleith, I’m very happy with the decisions DC has made.

Ps - FCCA can suck *IT*

I didn’t know what FCCA was, so I googled it, and woo boy. (Foxhall Community Citizens Association for those that don’t know.)

The Post article “Northwest DC NIMBYs fight proposal over new schools” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-northwest-schools-nimby/2021/08/05/bc5f8084-cebe-11eb-9b7e-e06f6cfdece8_story.html) came up.

Get a load of this quote from the FCCA President Robert Avery: “You have a bunch of stay-at-home moms in Spring Valley and their poor little kids worried about two shifts in the cafeteria.”

He said this. To a reporter. On the record. I cannot imagine what he says privately, let alone thinks. Swell people over there.

He sent this to the FCCA listserv this morning: "The planned opening of Foxhall will be delayed by one year until at least SY25-26, given procurement and construction timelines. MacArthur is currently planned to open in SY23-24 (as announced in September 2021). Obviously this is not just about MacArthur but Foxhall as well. Do not panic. This conveys no new information, indeed by indicating that Foxhall is delayed at least a year it suggests that they are slowly backing away from it. Enrollment data show no support for this school and I believe in the end of the day it will not be built (if nothing else it would make access to MacArthur much more difficult)."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

While they may not have to "break ground" as it were, I am a little confused as to the SY23/24 timeline quoted in the communication sent out by DC Central office. This is only a line item in the budget which needs to be approved by Council. And the new fiscal year is not until July (I'm not sure but I think that is the earliest). So bids for planning will go out in the summer and finalized late Fall. Given that the site was originally for K-8 for 600 kids (and without a cafeteria etc.) I would imagine that it will take longer than 9 months to finish up all the work, given that they need to put in labs etc. Eaton renovation took over 2 years but granted it did involve a lot of foundation work for the new section.

Then there is the question of sequencing -- if the current crop of 7th Graders at Hardy are the first to attend this school, that only makes about 120 kids for the 9th grade class. Are they planning to fill the rest by lottery + at risk preference? Are there even that many kids in the system who would want to attend? What about class offerings? If the majority are at risk in grades 10-12, will they have sufficient mass to offer AP/honors classes right off the bat? While this may sound politically incorrect, am I accurate in assuming that many of these possible 10-12th graders are coming from other schools in the system that do not currently have extensive AP offerings (or honors?)

If not, then what is the draw of this school?

I'm wondering if they plan to add one additional class each year?

So 23-24 has only the freshman class. 24-25 has freshman and sophomore classes. Etc.

In this scenario, they do not need the entire campus finished by 22-23. They can work on renovations and expansion each year, adding more capacity for the next year's additional class. Finally, by year 26-27 the school has all four grades filled.

This is how most new schools operate. It wouldn't make sense to fill all grades the same year.

Yes, but this would be really rough extracurricularly for a high school. No teams basically (or totally non-competitive ones that will get crushed); I assume you'd need to grandfather them into Wilson or something along those lines. That alone would drive lots of kids away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

While they may not have to "break ground" as it were, I am a little confused as to the SY23/24 timeline quoted in the communication sent out by DC Central office. This is only a line item in the budget which needs to be approved by Council. And the new fiscal year is not until July (I'm not sure but I think that is the earliest). So bids for planning will go out in the summer and finalized late Fall. Given that the site was originally for K-8 for 600 kids (and without a cafeteria etc.) I would imagine that it will take longer than 9 months to finish up all the work, given that they need to put in labs etc. Eaton renovation took over 2 years but granted it did involve a lot of foundation work for the new section.

Then there is the question of sequencing -- if the current crop of 7th Graders at Hardy are the first to attend this school, that only makes about 120 kids for the 9th grade class. Are they planning to fill the rest by lottery + at risk preference? Are there even that many kids in the system who would want to attend? What about class offerings? If the majority are at risk in grades 10-12, will they have sufficient mass to offer AP/honors classes right off the bat? While this may sound politically incorrect, am I accurate in assuming that many of these possible 10-12th graders are coming from other schools in the system that do not currently have extensive AP offerings (or honors?)

If not, then what is the draw of this school?

I'm wondering if they plan to add one additional class each year?

So 23-24 has only the freshman class. 24-25 has freshman and sophomore classes. Etc.

In this scenario, they do not need the entire campus finished by 22-23. They can work on renovations and expansion each year, adding more capacity for the next year's additional class. Finally, by year 26-27 the school has all four grades filled.

This is how most new schools operate. It wouldn't make sense to fill all grades the same year.

Yes, this is how DCPS opened Eastern and Wells.

But it won’t speed up construction. None of the construction people can get insurance with kids co-located on a small site.