Intelsat Building Proposal by CM Matt Frumin (Connecticut Ave/Van Ness)

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t DCPS actually have excess school capacity? It’s just not in Ward 3.

Yes. Frumin is trumpeting the Intelsat because it is metro accessible. But that's not exactly a plus when no one in the boundary (Hardy MS) that the school serves lives on a metro line. MacArthur is not a great location, but it's much better than Intelsat for that boundary.

His goal ostensibly would be to make it a city-wide school in Ward 3, primarily for OOB students, so that Palisades kids can go back to J-R because DCPS is starting a new boundary study. However, I don’t think that’s his real goal because this proposal is so sloppy and ill thought through that it is fundamentally unserious. So his main goal is probably to placate Palisades families to make it look like he’s fighting for them by throwing out this pathetic Hail Mary that lacks conviction. I’m sure Trish Duncan has been chatting with him.

I don't think his plan helps anyone except the Foxhall NIMBYs (who have fought tooth-and-nail to keep public school kids out of their neighborhood) and the LAB School (who would get to unify their campus). It certainly doesn't help public school families in the Palisades - or almost anywhere else in the Hardy feeder pattern - as the Intelsat location is in a very different part of the city. The plan makes so little sense that most people assume that there is an ulterior motive driving this.

There would be a public elementary school on the former Hardy site, and families from Palisades could likely choose from J-R, the new high school, Ellington or one of the downtown schools.

Exactly. Moving MacArthur to Van Ness is unambiguously positive for everyone in Palisades.

You either don’t know where J-R and Intelsat are or are bad at sarcasm.

Quick question, do Palisades families prefer to send their kids to MacArthur as an in boundary school or would they prefer to send their kids to J-R as the in boundary school?

If the latter, does moving the HS out of their neighborhood help or hurt their goal?

Quick Question, does it make sense to have a public school that ONLY the kids who live there can attend because it is mostly impossible for others to travel there via public transport?

Yes. The concept of neighborhood schools is to place schools within neighborhoods regardless of whether they are difficult for others to reach. This really isn’t hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t DCPS actually have excess school capacity? It’s just not in Ward 3.

Yes. Frumin is trumpeting the Intelsat because it is metro accessible. But that's not exactly a plus when no one in the boundary (Hardy MS) that the school serves lives on a metro line. MacArthur is not a great location, but it's much better than Intelsat for that boundary.

His goal ostensibly would be to make it a city-wide school in Ward 3, primarily for OOB students, so that Palisades kids can go back to J-R because DCPS is starting a new boundary study. However, I don’t think that’s his real goal because this proposal is so sloppy and ill thought through that it is fundamentally unserious. So his main goal is probably to placate Palisades families to make it look like he’s fighting for them by throwing out this pathetic Hail Mary that lacks conviction. I’m sure Trish Duncan has been chatting with him.

I don't think his plan helps anyone except the Foxhall NIMBYs (who have fought tooth-and-nail to keep public school kids out of their neighborhood) and the LAB School (who would get to unify their campus). It certainly doesn't help public school families in the Palisades - or almost anywhere else in the Hardy feeder pattern - as the Intelsat location is in a very different part of the city. The plan makes so little sense that most people assume that there is an ulterior motive driving this.

There would be a public elementary school on the former Hardy site, and families from Palisades could likely choose from J-R, the new high school, Ellington or one of the downtown schools.

Exactly. Moving MacArthur to Van Ness is unambiguously positive for everyone in Palisades.

You either don’t know where J-R and Intelsat are or are bad at sarcasm.

Quick question, do Palisades families prefer to send their kids to MacArthur as an in boundary school or would they prefer to send their kids to J-R as the in boundary school?

If the latter, does moving the HS out of their neighborhood help or hurt their goal?

Quick Question, does it make sense to have a public school that ONLY the kids who live there can attend because it is mostly impossible for others to travel there via public transport?

Yes. The concept of neighborhood schools is to place schools within neighborhoods regardless of whether they are difficult for others to reach. This really isn’t hard.

If there are enough kids in the neighborhood to fill it, it makes total sense. there are lots of schools like this. DC is not a city that provides school buses--I know we give free public transport, but not sure when we decided we were a busing city overall

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Van Ness commercial district is in desperate need of private sector investment and the dollars they bring with them. The Intelsat building should be filled with potential employers of UDC students . Why can’t our elected leaders develop a package of incentives to make this happen? They always come up with the worst ideas.

Another great idea. Let's give businesses a tax break when DC needs tax revenue.

You will need a hefty incentive to get a private company interested in redeveloping property covered by historic preservation. It's simply not worth the headache.

So instead of attracting an employer who will pay some tax and create jobs to hire UDC grads who will also pay income taxes your solution is to permanently take the property off the tax rolls by turning it into a DCPS school? This is progressive logic at its finest. Sadly, our Council which is made up of “community activists” will probably love your idea. The Ward could have elected someone with actual commercial real estate experience in the last election. But, now we re stuck with someone who nobody is quite sure what his professional background is.

The owner doesn’t pay real estate tax, the property is exempt as a US government owned property. The improvements are on a land lease. I’ve been in the building and it’s horribly dysfunctional and far too large for a private school and has no field space for a public school. It’s too bad UDC can’t use it.

[Anonymous]

The owner doesn’t pay real estate tax, the property is exempt as a US government owned property. The improvements are on a land lease. I’ve been in the building and it’s horribly dysfunctional and far too large for a private school and has no field space for a public school. It’s too bad UDC can’t use it.

This part is not true. The current owner of the building is not tax-exempt. The land is owned by the US government and leased to that private owner. Agree that it is a dysfunctional building. Whittle spent a fortune on its buildout and those pods are still cavernous and do not really feel like a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:His goal ostensibly would be to make it a city-wide school in Ward 3, primarily for OOB students, so that Palisades kids can go back to J-R because DCPS is starting a new boundary study.

There's plenty of room at J-R for in-boundary Hardy kids. The problem is that DCPS prioritizes having hundreds of OOB kids (over 700 at the moment) at J-R over the in-bound kids, so they kicked out all of the Hardy students to make sure the massive number of OOB seats at J-R didn't need to be curtailed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Van Ness commercial district is in desperate need of private sector investment and the dollars they bring with them. The Intelsat building should be filled with potential employers of UDC students . Why can’t our elected leaders develop a package of incentives to make this happen? They always come up with the worst ideas.

Another great idea. Let's give businesses a tax break when DC needs tax revenue.

You will need a hefty incentive to get a private company interested in redeveloping property covered by historic preservation. It's simply not worth the headache.

It doesn't need redevelopment for office space, that's what it is designed for. It is not designed to code for a school, which is significantly different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:His goal ostensibly would be to make it a city-wide school in Ward 3, primarily for OOB students, so that Palisades kids can go back to J-R because DCPS is starting a new boundary study.

There's plenty of room at J-R for in-boundary Hardy kids. The problem is that DCPS prioritizes having hundreds of OOB kids (over 700 at the moment) at J-R over the in-bound kids, so they kicked out all of the Hardy students to make sure the massive number of OOB seats at J-R didn't need to be curtailed.

DC racial politics, pure and simple. Get over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, I'm not sure DC will need more school capacity until they get the crime problem under control. We're losing residents now.

The DC population situation is someone teeter tottering. But DCPS HS enrollment was up considerably last school year.
https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-glance-enrollment

Something like 10 percent of the students at JacksonReedWilson in fact reside in Maryland,

Gonna need to show your work here.

Ask the kids who they know who lives in "Ward 9."

If this is true, it would really tick me off that an overstretched school is hosting Marylanders.

It’s not

It is true. And it’s still true at Duke Ellington. DC doesn’t have a lot of incentive to ferret out the residency cheats because some DC government “workers” who reside in Maryland are among the offenders who send their kids to DC schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, I'm not sure DC will need more school capacity until they get the crime problem under control. We're losing residents now.

The DC population situation is someone teeter tottering. But DCPS HS enrollment was up considerably last school year.
https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-glance-enrollment

Something like 10 percent of the students at JacksonReedWilson in fact reside in Maryland,

Gonna need to show your work here.

Ask the kids who they know who lives in "Ward 9."

If this is true, it would really tick me off that an overstretched school is hosting Marylanders.

It’s not

It is true. And it’s still true at Duke Ellington. DC doesn’t have a lot of incentive to ferret out the residency cheats because some DC government “workers” who reside in Maryland are among the offenders who send their kids to DC schools.

It is funny that you think J-R is so incredible that people would go through all of that trouble to go there from Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, I'm not sure DC will need more school capacity until they get the crime problem under control. We're losing residents now.

The DC population situation is someone teeter tottering. But DCPS HS enrollment was up considerably last school year.
https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-glance-enrollment

Something like 10 percent of the students at JacksonReedWilson in fact reside in Maryland,

Gonna need to show your work here.

Ask the kids who they know who lives in "Ward 9."

So hundreds of kids from PG County are traveling 90 minutes each way to attend a school that is (to hear the idiots who post here) mediocre?

Try harder, troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, I'm not sure DC will need more school capacity until they get the crime problem under control. We're losing residents now.

The DC population situation is someone teeter tottering. But DCPS HS enrollment was up considerably last school year.
https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-glance-enrollment

Something like 10 percent of the students at JacksonReedWilson in fact reside in Maryland,

Gonna need to show your work here.

Ask the kids who they know who lives in "Ward 9."

So hundreds of kids from PG County are traveling 90 minutes each way to attend a school that is (to hear the idiots who post here) mediocre?

Try harder, troll.

Not the PP, but this plays out all over DC and is the source of countless scandals. Often, parents who work in the city drop them off and pick them up. I have no idea if that is the case for JR. It's usually for elementary and speciality schools like Ellington. But who really knows?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, I'm not sure DC will need more school capacity until they get the crime problem under control. We're losing residents now.

The DC population situation is someone teeter tottering. But DCPS HS enrollment was up considerably last school year.
https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-glance-enrollment

Something like 10 percent of the students at JacksonReedWilson in fact reside in Maryland,

Gonna need to show your work here.

Ask the kids who they know who lives in "Ward 9."

If this is true, it would really tick me off that an overstretched school is hosting Marylanders.

It’s not

It is true. And it’s still true at Duke Ellington. DC doesn’t have a lot of incentive to ferret out the residency cheats because some DC government “workers” who reside in Maryland are among the offenders who send their kids to DC schools.

It is funny that you think J-R is so incredible that people would go through all of that trouble to go there from Maryland.

Students aren’t sneaking in from the Whitman and BCC districts. JRW is a mediocre school but still better than most public secondary schools in DC and PG county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, I'm not sure DC will need more school capacity until they get the crime problem under control. We're losing residents now.

The DC population situation is someone teeter tottering. But DCPS HS enrollment was up considerably last school year.
https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-glance-enrollment

Something like 10 percent of the students at JacksonReedWilson in fact reside in Maryland,

Gonna need to show your work here.

Ask the kids who they know who lives in "Ward 9."

So hundreds of kids from PG County are traveling 90 minutes each way to attend a school that is (to hear the idiots who post here) mediocre?

Try harder, troll.

Not the PP, but this plays out all over DC and is the source of countless scandals. Often, parents who work in the city drop them off and pick them up. I have no idea if that is the case for JR. It's usually for elementary and speciality schools like Ellington. But who really knows?

A few years ago several Wilson football team members were found to be Maryland residents .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, I'm not sure DC will need more school capacity until they get the crime problem under control. We're losing residents now.

The DC population situation is someone teeter tottering. But DCPS HS enrollment was up considerably last school year.
https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-glance-enrollment

Something like 10 percent of the students at JacksonReedWilson in fact reside in Maryland,

Gonna need to show your work here.

Ask the kids who they know who lives in "Ward 9."

So hundreds of kids from PG County are traveling 90 minutes each way to attend a school that is (to hear the idiots who post here) mediocre?

Try harder, troll.

Not the PP, but this plays out all over DC and is the source of countless scandals. Often, parents who work in the city drop them off and pick them up. I have no idea if that is the case for JR. It's usually for elementary and speciality schools like Ellington. But who really knows?

It’s the source of countless urban legends by DCUM busybodies.

No one is doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t DCPS actually have excess school capacity? It’s just not in Ward 3.

Yes. Frumin is trumpeting the Intelsat because it is metro accessible. But that's not exactly a plus when no one in the boundary (Hardy MS) that the school serves lives on a metro line. MacArthur is not a great location, but it's much better than Intelsat for that boundary.

His goal ostensibly would be to make it a city-wide school in Ward 3, primarily for OOB students, so that Palisades kids can go back to J-R because DCPS is starting a new boundary study. However, I don’t think that’s his real goal because this proposal is so sloppy and ill thought through that it is fundamentally unserious. So his main goal is probably to placate Palisades families to make it look like he’s fighting for them by throwing out this pathetic Hail Mary that lacks conviction. I’m sure Trish Duncan has been chatting with him.

It's not exactly low carbon and green to keep building new school capacity in Ward 3 with the intention that thousands of OOB students will get across town to go to them (many by private car). Shouldn't DC try to improve schools closer to where students actually live. All wards deserve higher quality elementary and secondary schools.

If you know how to achieve this, I’m sure they will be happy to hear from you.