Why Does Van Ness Elementary School Not Have a Boundary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ You blame the Van Ness organizer parents for being turf conscious when most don't have a lot of choice if they want to stay in the city. Other big US cities--Chicago, Boston, Miami, NYC--run a variety of programs and offerings for advanced/gifted learners. Even DC charter offers better options for advanced learners, e.g. the best language immersion programs and extensive math tracking at BASIS. DCPS offers no such programs, leaving upper middle income parents with little choice but to fight to keep the schools they get involved in from becoming majority low SES. The city generally leaves it up to parent organizations to raise funds to pay for support staff to run pullout groups for advanced learners. Future Van Ness parents can't close the achievement gap in SW, but they may be able to support the opening of a viable school for their own children and a good many low SES kids, too. Give em a break.

No, I blame them for being "turf-conscious" (or, "proprietary with willful discriminatory intent") with a public good to which they have no more entitlement than the families on the other side of S. Capitol st. It's ugly rhetoric that will make for an ugly neighborhood dynamic and they most definitely have a choice over that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do blame them. Move to the burbs! A rising tide floats all boats. By 'advocating' for you kids you are trapping others in educational poverty. Was a VNPG meeting where a lower SES (James creek) parent showed up. After she left many were talking about how that's the parent type they want to keep out. That's not advocating, that's being a dick.

That is horrible, please say it's not true

[Anonymous]

I call BS on PP. On the other hand, it was not that many years ago that I witnessed IB Brent parents being called racists and worse by some OOB parents. I have to admit that the thought crossed my mind more than once that these parents were impediments to much needed progress and Brent wasn't benefitting from having them around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Can't see how poor kids in SW benefit from the Capitol Quarter/Navy Yard high SES families running off to charters, privates (Waterfront Academy bilingual Montessori opening in June anyone?) the burbs, Brent, Tyler etc.

Waterfront Academy is not going to appeal to many folks. It's a Catholic[-ish, not affiliated with a diocese or order as far as I can tell] school in a Pentacostal church where kids of pretty varying ages (6-9) are going to be in the same classroom. It also costs $15k a year plus more for before and aftercare. They were supposed to open last year and didn't. Plus, the kids will have to cross South Capitol!! We all know that is WAY too dangerous for the precious children of Capitol Quarter...

[Anonymous]

Waterfront Academy doesn't need to appeal to many folks to fill its three dozen spots in SW, far from almost every middle-class friendly charter. The organizer mom is terrific, tuition is cheap as privates go, and they're on track to get coveted AMI certification. They're going to break classes into the standard mixed-age Montessori groupings - 1.5 - 3, 3-6, and 6-9. The mom's main goal seems to be to provide her own young children with a good quality education near home. More power to her. I can't imagine that she'll be hard up for customers. Logan and LAMB don't have AMI or AMS certification past age 6. If we weren't IB for Brent, I'd sign up.

[Anonymous]

I can't help but wonder about this SW / SE divide. I have lived for 20 years in Ward 6. In NE, SE, and SW. They have all changed. Look at the multi-million $ townhomes in the old HUD parking lot (remember our old police chief lived there). All of the new condos in SW. The new Warf development. If anything, SW has more potential than SE at this point. And - don't forget all of you in the EYA townhomes - just a few short years ago your houses were located on one of the worst sections of crack dens and whorehouses in all of DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I call BS on PP. On the other hand, it was not that many years ago that I witnessed IB Brent parents being called racists and worse by some OOB parents. I have to admit that the thought crossed my mind more than once that these parents were impediments to much needed progress and Brent wasn't benefitting from having them around.

Have you meet the VNPG? If you had been to a meeting you would know this was true. Also, for all of the folks who think that DCPS will 'give' them what they want- read her open letter she released today about anniversary of Brown v. Board. No way are they getting a lilly white school. And as for PP who asked where my kids went to school- well I was pulling for Van Ness but cannot stomach that nonsense anymore. We would, mostly likely be IB for Van Ness- but its just gross to me.

[Anonymous]

^ No loss to Van Ness, silly race baiter. There are parents of color in the VanNess organizer group. Well-educated and thoughtful parents of color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BS on PP. On the other hand, it was not that many years ago that I witnessed IB Brent parents being called racists and worse by some OOB parents. I have to admit that the thought crossed my mind more than once that these parents were impediments to much needed progress and Brent wasn't benefitting from having them around.

Have you meet the VNPG? If you had been to a meeting you would know this was true. Also, for all of the folks who think that DCPS will 'give' them what they want- read her open letter she released today about anniversary of Brown v. Board. No way are they getting a lilly white school. And as for PP who asked where my kids went to school- well I was pulling for Van Ness but cannot stomach that nonsense anymore. We would, mostly likely be IB for Van Ness- but its just gross to me.

Good luck at Amidon.

[Anonymous]

Van Ness parents can think they're in charge, but DCPS has plans for this school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Van Ness parents can think they're in charge, but DCPS has plans for this school.

Im not sure DCPS has a plan for this school as it seems they don't have much of a plan for ANY of their schools (eg, dumb ideas such as choice sets, all lottery Wilson HS, destroying successful schools, forced set asides). they are grabbing at anything shiny and floating it to the city as a new well thought out idea. its almost painful to watch anymore of this BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't help but wonder about this SW / SE divide. I have lived for 20 years in Ward 6. In NE, SE, and SW. They have all changed. Look at the multi-million $ townhomes in the old HUD parking lot (remember our old police chief lived there). All of the new condos in SW. The new Warf development. If anything, SW has more potential than SE at this point. And - don't forget all of you in the EYA townhomes - just a few short years ago your houses were located on one of the worst sections of crack dens and whorehouses in all of DC.

I think both neighborhoods have a lot of potential and it doesn't make sense for anyone (on here or in the Van Ness Parents Group) to try and assert superiority or try to be exclusive. There are lots of pregnant ladies and little kids in both neighborhoods and there is certainly the potential for schools that have a pretty good economic mix (though maybe not the under 25% FARMs that a PP wished for, and I don't think that's at all essential).

With that said, I think a lot of folks in the EYA townhomes are in for rude awakening when CSX digs an open trench across the street from their million-dollar homes. There have been plans for expanding the tunnel since at least 2009, so it's hard to say nobody warned them. It may be that families from SE feel safer crossing into SW for Amidon than Capitol Hill families feel heading south to Van Ness.

[Anonymous]

The CSX tunnel project is by no means a done deal. The pols are still debating its merits.

Even Kaya Henderson can see that there's no point in re-opening Van Ness as another DCPS school withering on the vine in the face of charter competition. They've got Amidon for that locally.

As long as enough funds to renovate come through, the school culture is dominated by professional parents, good admins and teachers screened by parent hiring panels come in, support for advanced learners is built into the curriculum, and the PTA can afford to pay for inputs the school will need to keep up with others where at least two-thirds of the kids test proficient or advanced (the Waterfront developers will help there), Van Ness will serve the Navy Yard neighborhood well.

Elementary school management isn't rocket science.

[Anonymous]

As long as the boundary for Van Ness Elementary School is South Capitol Street to the West, the SE/SW Freeway to the north, and the Anacostia River to the south and east, Van Ness will be one of the top elementary schools in DC in about 4 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The CSX tunnel project is by no means a done deal. The pols are still debating its merits.

Even Kaya Henderson can see that there's no point in re-opening Van Ness as another DCPS school withering on the vine in the face of charter competition. They've got Amidon for that locally.

As long as enough funds to renovate come through, the school culture is dominated by professional parents, good admins and teachers screened by parent hiring panels come in, support for advanced learners is built into the curriculum, and the PTA can afford to pay for inputs the school will need to keep up with others where at least two-thirds of the kids test proficient or advanced (the Waterfront developers will help there), Van Ness will serve the Navy Yard neighborhood well.

Elementary school management isn't rocket science.

The pols don't get to decide too much about what CSX does.

No one wants to replicate Amidon's school performance. But one way to help Amidon is to send some of its most challenging students to Van Ness. And Henderson just might try it. If she doesn't, there's a good chance that Amidon will close eventually anyway and all the kids from there will be sent to Van Ness. Might be better to get half the low-scoring kids now (and raise some of their scores) than get all of them later.

Plus, if you draw a tiny boundary, you will likely end up with either an underpopulated school or (more likely) a school with a high out of boundary population. Families who live in the Amidon boundary or in Anacostia (two places surrounding Van Ness with bad schools) are going to fill any open spaces. And don't assume that low-income families are unwilling to transport their kids a mile or two--look at where the kids who go to Eagle Academy on NJ Ave. come from.

EYA sold all their townhouses and is out of the picture. The current developers in SE are building studios and a few 2brs. They're not too interested in attracting families with good schools...if they were, don't you think they would have spoken out about DME's plan to send the neighborhood to Eastern instead of Wilson? And the Wharf developers aren't going to help with a school that doesn't serve their neighborhood.