Which would lose their Deal feed first: Shepherd, Bancroft, or Lafayette?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Roosevelt will have a dual language track. That has been decided.

If that works well, it would be very attractive to many families, and take some pressure off Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except there ARE no middle schools in Ward 4. At all.

That's overdramatic. There are education campuses now, and MacFarland ramping up over the next two years. It's not like you have zero options.

Takoma EC serves grades 5-8, and it's just 1 mile away from Shepherd Elementary, a mere two blocks from the border of Shepherd Park. Brightwood EC is 2 miles due south.

According to DCPS website, there are 7 different education campuses in Ward 4 that serve middle school students. Seems Ward 4 has no lack of school options.

A PK-3 to 8 is a school but not a stand alone middle school. DCPS is moving everyone to the 6-8 model but is taking forever getting this done in Ward 4 (probably won't be done by the time today's PK3ers are in 6th). MacFarland in the southern-most part of the ward will open next year but only for students from DCPS dual language programs. And none of the upper Ward 4 schools will have rights to it.

The Education Campus model has been pretty disastrous and I wish DCPS would hurry up with its promise to close them so that there are elementary schools and there are middle schools. In the EC model the middle school kids get shafted. The bulk of the school's resources go to serving the elementary children and the decimated middle school population gets the bare minimum in terms of electives and specials. Middle school should be when children are able to branch out a little and pursue some interests and join some clubs and teams, but the EC campuses just don't offer them. So long at the EC model persists, higher SES families in neighborhoods like Petworth and Brookland and Brightwood will look for an escape.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Roosevelt will have a dual language track. That has been decided.

If that works well, it would be very attractive to many families, and take some pressure off Wilson.

I guess I'm just not enlightened enough, but dual language is not a draw for me and never has been. Is learning a second language a good thing. Of course and I'm aware of all the literature that exists supporting this idea. But I'd much rather know that my child is getting a solid education and has access to advanced classes. So yeah, it might be attractive to some families, but not mine.

[Anonymous]

Maybe one option for a school like Shepherd Elementary where the neighborhood is not supplying enough elementary students to keep the school occupied (only 34% in-bounds) is to convert it to a PK-8 school. The school infrastructure is already in place. If DCPS sends in some middle school teachers, them Shepherd could use its extra building capacity to truly serve that neighborhood's population of students all the way through high school. Could be implemented very quickly since the school and neighborhood infrastructure is already in place.

I know that's an outside-the-box idea, and people will probably hate it on principle. But what's wrong with it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe one option for a school like Shepherd Elementary where the neighborhood is not supplying enough elementary students to keep the school occupied (only 34% in-bounds) is to convert it to a PK-8 school. The school infrastructure is already in place. If DCPS sends in some middle school teachers, them Shepherd could use its extra building capacity to truly serve that neighborhood's population of students all the way through high school. Could be implemented very quickly since the school and neighborhood infrastructure is already in place.

I know that's an outside-the-box idea, and people will probably hate it on principle. But what's wrong with it?

The IB percentage at Shepherd is higher than some other schools and growing rapidly each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe one option for a school like Shepherd Elementary where the neighborhood is not supplying enough elementary students to keep the school occupied (only 34% in-bounds) is to convert it to a PK-8 school. The school infrastructure is already in place. If DCPS sends in some middle school teachers, them Shepherd could use its extra building capacity to truly serve that neighborhood's population of students all the way through high school. Could be implemented very quickly since the school and neighborhood infrastructure is already in place.

I know that's an outside-the-box idea, and people will probably hate it on principle. But what's wrong with it?

NO. Education Campus model is a failure and should go away, not be expanded. DCPS promised to close ECs.

[Anonymous]

ECs may not be ideal, but they're not a total failure. I know of several West EC grads who went / are going to application high schools like Banneker.

Some people actually prefer them for a small environment. Kind of like what private K-8s do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe one option for a school like Shepherd Elementary where the neighborhood is not supplying enough elementary students to keep the school occupied (only 34% in-bounds) is to convert it to a PK-8 school. The school infrastructure is already in place. If DCPS sends in some middle school teachers, them Shepherd could use its extra building capacity to truly serve that neighborhood's population of students all the way through high school. Could be implemented very quickly since the school and neighborhood infrastructure is already in place.

I know that's an outside-the-box idea, and people will probably hate it on principle. But what's wrong with it?

There are lots of young families moving in who are sending--or planning to send--their kids to Shepherd. The last two years, PK3 has been all IB, and IB kids have been waitlisted each year. They're adding a 2nd PK3 class next year to meet demand. Given this, the above idea probably doesn't make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ECs may not be ideal, but they're not a total failure. I know of several West EC grads who went / are going to application high schools like Banneker.

Some people actually prefer them for a small environment. Kind of like what private K-8s do.

Oyster-Adams is PK-8 also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much of a property value drop could a house expect if its school were reassigned out of Deal?

Zero. The DC market is way too hot.

This. Live in CP. Got zoned out of Deal. Property values continue to rise and houses continue to fly off the market.

And we'll be heading to Hardy in a couple years.

[Anonymous]

Those of you who want to zone various schools out of Deal, as far as I can tell you were somewhat active on DCUM during the DME process, who knows how many posters in reality, could have been a handful, could have been more.

But you were nowhere to be seen at the community meetings. I remember seeing posts like this on this forum and then going to the meetings and hearing none of these ideas expressed. And even if you sent these comments privately, DME obviously decided otherwise.

I would ask, why do you think you'd succeed this time when you failed last time, but that isn't even the correct question because there isn't even a "this time". There is no boundary review imminent.

Curious what you think you can gain now on the internet that you didn't during a recent real life political process. What has changed since 2 years ago when this issue was definitively settled for a generation or at least a decade, as a gift from an outgoing mayor to an incoming? What new information exists?

Not trying to shut down discussion on an internet forum, that's always an avenue that's open to you, clearly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe one option for a school like Shepherd Elementary where the neighborhood is not supplying enough elementary students to keep the school occupied (only 34% in-bounds) is to convert it to a PK-8 school. The school infrastructure is already in place. If DCPS sends in some middle school teachers, them Shepherd could use its extra building capacity to truly serve that neighborhood's population of students all the way through high school. Could be implemented very quickly since the school and neighborhood infrastructure is already in place.

I know that's an outside-the-box idea, and people will probably hate it on principle. But what's wrong with it?

There are lots of young families moving in who are sending--or planning to send--their kids to Shepherd. The last two years, PK3 has been all IB, and IB kids have been waitlisted each year. They're adding a 2nd PK3 class next year to meet demand. Given this, the above idea probably doesn't make sense.

I don't understand your objection. The PK3 class is tiny, so it's no big surprise the in-boundary population exceeds the 15 spots available. But when you look at PK4 or K or any older grade, the number of in-boundary students drops way off, and all available spots get filled by OOB students. Seems like the numbers would work out fine to reallocate some of those classrooms to middle school grades, and it would let the neighborhood children have a nearby option to continue their middle school experience.

Below are the current numbers in each grade. Here is the link showing lottery results, so you can see in-boundary vs OOB applications - http://dcps.dc.gov/page/my-school-dc-lottery-results

Building Capacity 342
Total Enrollment 2015-16 330
PK3 15
PK4 36
K 56
1st 41
2nd 43
3rd 42
4th 49
5th 48

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe one option for a school like Shepherd Elementary where the neighborhood is not supplying enough elementary students to keep the school occupied (only 34% in-bounds) is to convert it to a PK-8 school. The school infrastructure is already in place. If DCPS sends in some middle school teachers, them Shepherd could use its extra building capacity to truly serve that neighborhood's population of students all the way through high school. Could be implemented very quickly since the school and neighborhood infrastructure is already in place.

I know that's an outside-the-box idea, and people will probably hate it on principle. But what's wrong with it?

There are lots of young families moving in who are sending--or planning to send--their kids to Shepherd. The last two years, PK3 has been all IB, and IB kids have been waitlisted each year. They're adding a 2nd PK3 class next year to meet demand. Given this, the above idea probably doesn't make sense.

I don't understand your objection. The PK3 class is tiny, so it's no big surprise the in-boundary population exceeds the 15 spots available. But when you look at PK4 or K or any older grade, the number of in-boundary students drops way off, and all available spots get filled by OOB students. Seems like the numbers would work out fine to reallocate some of those classrooms to middle school grades, and it would let the neighborhood children have a nearby option to continue their middle school experience.

Below are the current numbers in each grade. Here is the link showing lottery results, so you can see in-boundary vs OOB applications - http://dcps.dc.gov/page/my-school-dc-lottery-results

Building Capacity 342
Total Enrollment 2015-16 330
PK3 15
PK4 36
K 56
1st 41
2nd 43
3rd 42
4th 49
5th 48

Kick Shepherd out of Deal, fine but they will NEVER turn it into a PK-8 campus. Never! It will go to Macfarland first. Horrible, horrible idea. DC will NEVER open a new EC in our lifetime. That's a fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those of you who want to zone various schools out of Deal, as far as I can tell you were somewhat active on DCUM during the DME process, who knows how many posters in reality, could have been a handful, could have been more.

But you were nowhere to be seen at the community meetings. I remember seeing posts like this on this forum and then going to the meetings and hearing none of these ideas expressed. And even if you sent these comments privately, DME obviously decided otherwise.

I would ask, why do you think you'd succeed this time when you failed last time, but that isn't even the correct question because there isn't even a "this time". There is no boundary review imminent.

Curious what you think you can gain now on the internet that you didn't during a recent real life political process. What has changed since 2 years ago when this issue was definitively settled for a generation or at least a decade, as a gift from an outgoing mayor to an incoming? What new information exists?

Not trying to shut down discussion on an internet forum, that's always an avenue that's open to you, clearly!

+1. I don't understand the conversation when nothing is going to happen in the next decade. I don't get it. Nonetheless, this thread will get to 40-50 pages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe one option for a school like Shepherd Elementary where the neighborhood is not supplying enough elementary students to keep the school occupied (only 34% in-bounds) is to convert it to a PK-8 school. The school infrastructure is already in place. If DCPS sends in some middle school teachers, them Shepherd could use its extra building capacity to truly serve that neighborhood's population of students all the way through high school. Could be implemented very quickly since the school and neighborhood infrastructure is already in place.

I know that's an outside-the-box idea, and people will probably hate it on principle. But what's wrong with it?

There are lots of young families moving in who are sending--or planning to send--their kids to Shepherd. The last two years, PK3 has been all IB, and IB kids have been waitlisted each year. They're adding a 2nd PK3 class next year to meet demand. Given this, the above idea probably doesn't make sense.

I don't understand your objection. The PK3 class is tiny, so it's no big surprise the in-boundary population exceeds the 15 spots available. But when you look at PK4 or K or any older grade, the number of in-boundary students drops way off, and all available spots get filled by OOB students. Seems like the numbers would work out fine to reallocate some of those classrooms to middle school grades, and it would let the neighborhood children have a nearby option to continue their middle school experience.

Below are the current numbers in each grade. Here is the link showing lottery results, so you can see in-boundary vs OOB applications - http://dcps.dc.gov/page/my-school-dc-lottery-results

Building Capacity 342
Total Enrollment 2015-16 330
PK3 15
PK4 36
K 56
1st 41
2nd 43
3rd 42
4th 49
5th 48

Sure, but I'm not talking about current numbers; I'm talking about future projections based on changing demographics in SP. A lot of elderly neighbors are downsizing and selling their homes to young families with babies/toddlers, who seem more likely to opt for Shepherd than families in the neighborhood with older elementary kids. Based on the much higher IB% in younger cohorts, unless there's significant attrition, as they matriculate through Shepherd, the school will become increasingly IB. It's the same pattern observed at many other schools (e.g., Hearst). And because SP is zoned for Deal/Wilson currently, those families will likely be less likely to bail in the upper grades, as has been the case with many schools with less popular middle/high school feeder options.