SWS - as an IB School? L-T prospects?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People need to stop opining on things they know nothing about. Specifically, by my count, there are currently less than 20 children in the newborn-7 year old age range in the proximity preference area and some of them are already happy in other schools (might not switch anyways).

Secondly, in talking with the immediate neighbors (those of us who are awakened by the sound of busses in the am at Prospect), we would much rather have 10 small busses at drop off than the unknown amount of cars a citywide school will create, particularly on rainy days,

Immaterial. 1st of all, if there's proximity preference, then more families will be drawn to that area for the preference effectively creating an IB school. It's insufficient to think about what and who is there right now, strategic planning requires thinking through the ramifications, and the ramifications would create an IB school where the system and city benefit from a city-wide one.

Regarding the buses, that's doubtful. They linger longer, are louder, and smell worse, but it doesn't matter because you'll make up any excuse to try to shove your way to the front of the line. Your credibility is low.

So what if people move in to take advantage of the proximity preference? Who does that hurt? It's good for sws to have immediate neighbors invested in the school ( community connections good ), these are not people who would have gone to L-T or the other immediately adjacent schools in all likelihood. So you are drawing more people to the neighborhood who otherwise would be crowding other elementary schools or giving. Hard to believe the entire school would be filled by people living in proximity, so there would be plenty of spots for the city-wide draw. Seems like an absolutely reasonable compromise. I swear this town is allergic to success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To 13:38 -- i was reponding to the pp who said that there were 60 children in proximity of Prospect, which is not a credible number. And the busses used to linger, but stopped idling and lingering about 3 years ago when some of us spoke to the school about it. The busses are better than the chaos of a dropoff ith small children when the parents have to park to bring them into the school.

I agree with 14:27 -- you are fishy.

Current parents will also drop their kids in cars, whether they're citywide kids or the Peabody families. It's going to have an impact on the neighborhood for sure. If you don't like people dropping kids off at school, you shouldn't have bought a house across the street from one.

Some of us bought when Prospect was shuttered and wasn't even guaranteed to reopen as anything. Does anyone remember the bad days of DC? Again, stop opining on things you don't understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To 13:38 -- i was reponding to the pp who said that there were 60 children in proximity of Prospect, which is not a credible number. And the busses used to linger, but stopped idling and lingering about 3 years ago when some of us spoke to the school about it. The busses are better than the chaos of a dropoff ith small children when the parents have to park to bring them into the school.

I agree with 14:27 -- you are fishy.

Current parents will also drop their kids in cars, whether they're citywide kids or the Peabody families. It's going to have an impact on the neighborhood for sure. If you don't like people dropping kids off at school, you shouldn't have bought a house across the street from one.

Some of us bought when Prospect was shuttered and wasn't even guaranteed to reopen as anything. Does anyone remember the bad days of DC? Again, stop opining on things you don't understand.

I do understand, because I am also a neighbor who has been in the neighborhood for a long time. It is virtually guaranteed that all DCPS properties will eventually be reopened in some form or another. It is stupid to presume or even to wish that a building like that will stay vacant.

[Anonymous]

Oh, man. Can you imagine if DCPS leased the Prospect property to a charter like KIPP or Friendship that the neighborhood would totally eshew? It could always be worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't disagree with all of the arguments proffered here that the families in proximity don't deserve preference at SWS, nor that the city-at-large should have to give up their rights to at least a chance at those seats. I also agree that proximity really = in bounds. That stated, I think it is in the best interest of the school and the future student body to have the immediate community invested in the success of this entire enterprise.

The community involvement truly does have a big part to play in the Reggio model, and SWS has that today, which I believe has lead to its historical success. That's not to say they can't and won't develop a sense of community with a citywide population, but there is a difference. One must admit there's an inherent value to having the people that live across the street personally invested in the success of any endeavor/program. I'm hard pressed to think of anyone else who may be more motivated in the success of this program than those families that live across the street - as long as their kids get to attend. It changes the discourse about many things, from traffic patterns to rec center use, and I think would have a big effect on how the school fits and how the attendees feel in this community.

Are there arguments against that?

There are many examples of schools with a strong sense of community that don't live within walking distance. All of the local private schools have very strong communities and some of them include families that don't even live in the District. Some charter schools (LAMB comes to mind) have very strong communities as well. It's simply not necessary to have buy-in from the immediate neighbors. It's not worth it in the price it extracts from students elsewhere in DC.

I agree it's not necessary to have the community involvement, but it would be nice, no? Can you not even allow there are some values to that? This is where you lose me, and we might be walking in circles at this point, but aren't we talking about 8 non-sibling seats here (which will be even less next year) - proximity still allows the school to cap the class size, but it also doesn't alienate the community.

The price it extracts from the rest of the district is the "fairest" one for the existing student body in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

I think my views on whether SWS should be citywide and whether there should have proximity preference depends on the longterm strategy for elementary schools in DCPS. If SWS and Logan are the first of many specialized elementary schools in many parts of the Districts that are citywide, including in upper NW, then I say fine. Seems like a reasonable strategy to me. But it makes no sense for Ward 6, and really a small section of Capitol Hill, to be the only part of the city with these types of public schools (not charter, not private, but DCPS) with no proximity preference.

[Anonymous]

^ ha - yeah it would be lovely to think DCPS actually has a long term strategy, or even a short term plan...

[Anonymous]

Taking this off the Brent thread as instructed. Was there a petition of some sort? I'm in favor of the proximity pref and haven't seen anything organized in terms of lobbying DCPS. Are you involving the school?

[Anonymous]

There is a petition organized by a family who would benefit from proximity preference. I'm sure he is actively following this thread and will be glad to post it for you. I'm guessing that you might actually be him, frankly.

We are a proximity family and have written Wells and DCPS to support the citywide draw. Proximity will benefit a tiny slice of the city at the expense of the rest of the Ludlow Taylor catchment.

[Anonymous]

Are you already at the school? (And I'm not him... Promise.)

[Anonymous]

Nope.

[Anonymous]

http://signon.org/sign/restore-school-within

[Anonymous]

and while you're in a petition signing mood

http://signon.org/sign/restore-swss-school-renovati

[Anonymous]

That was quick for someone wondering whether there was a petition or not!

[Anonymous]

I provided the link and I'm not the previous poster. I was just aware of its existence (and I've only signed one of the two I've provided links fo)