Zoning Lafayette out of Deal/Wilson - is this real?

[Anonymous]

22% of DCPS middle school students attend Deal. That is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since everyone is just making stuff up with absolutely no grounds whatsoever (or shamelessly advancing solutions that benefit them), I figured why not. So here is how I think DCPS will "solve" overcrowding. Not what I think they should do, or even what makes sense, but what they might do.

Unlikely that Bowser will screw Ward 4. Either she is running, in which case why. Or she is not, in which case she still won't screw over her allies. Either way Shepherd and Lafayette sleep soundly.

She wouldn't screw Jack Evans either, but he is likely toast now, so what the hell. And Hyde has already been shoved off to Meyer for swing space. And who in the city will weep for Georgetown. So Hyde loses gets sent to SWWFS and Cardozo. And out of spite to the Save Old Hardy folks, she redraws the boundaries to put them in Hyde too. Old Hardy stays with Lab.

Brianne Nadeau isn't an ally of the mayor either so Bancroft goes to MacFarland and Roosevelt.

Even with Bancroft gone, Deal needs a big school to leave. One that can take 100 kids a year out. Cheh isn't exactly a supporter of the Mayor so Janney is off to Hardy. Yes Janney. Janney moms lose their minds and scream, but in the boundary review look so clueless and out of touch with the rest of the city that they undermine themselves.

OOB feeder policy doesn't get changed. But it doesn't matter because OOB has been squeezed out at the elementary level and will be at middle and high soon. Why take flack for changing the policy when demographics will do the job for you?

But none of this solves the elementary school problem. So PK is gone in Ward 3. Again not an official policy, but DCPS just lets it happen because they don't do anything. Class sizes rise to 30 kids. Gardens and bee hives get trailers on top of them. Art, music, science, and foreign languages are taught out of a cart. Parents start turning to other options (private, move). Add to this minor tweaks to the elementary school boundaries to move kids across the park. It doesn't do much, but it makes the rest of the city feel better. Again, Ward 3 and 4 parents who are affected flip out, but DCPS conducts lots of focus groups, surveys, and listening sessions, and then declares victory.

Also barely solved is overcrowding at Wilson (Bancroft and Hyde do a little but not much). For that we have expanded citywide schools. Duke Ellington, a newly-renovated Banneker (sorry Save Shaw), and maybe even McKinley Tech expand their seats. DCPS tries desperately to convince white parents to send their kids to them. They fail, and post anonymously on DCUM that it would have worked if parents weren't racist (which might very well be true in most cases).

D.C. politics can be pretty cutthroat, but it seems unrealistic to believe that the mayor's personal grudges will have far more influence in the process than basic geography.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get that these are purely political decisions.

What I don’t get is why the council doesn’t have more power in them.

Cheh + Nadeau + Silverman + Allen is a pretty large voting block and that whole group dislikes Bowser and vice versa.

Because schools don’t trump other projects for them that they need the mayor’s support and cooperation on. Traffic issues, housing, health care, parks (dogs and humans), economic development, go-go being allowed to play on the streets of Shaw. It isn’t like 50%+ of registered voters are single issue schools voters. And among voters who care about schools, no one agrees on one clear solution or path. 45% percent of public school parents are in charters and are more worried about a funding and facilities for their school than what happens at Deal or Wilson or its feeders.

This. The public school parents are a minority of their voters, and the DCPS parents are just a fraction of that. Add to this that a lot of Ward 1 parents use charters and some privates vs DCPS, and DCPS just isn't a concern for her.

Plus Nadeau has a history of blindly supporting Bowser. Despite Nadeau's attention grabbing when she became a parent, she hasn't done much to support Ward 1 schools and seems to pander to businesses over families.

[Anonymous]

Janney plus Shepherd plus Lafayette plus Colonial Village plus Bancroft plus O-A. E finito.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Janney plus Shepherd plus Lafayette plus Colonial Village plus Bancroft plus O-A. E finito.

Colonial Village is Shepherd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Janney plus Shepherd plus Lafayette plus Colonial Village plus Bancroft plus O-A. E finito.

Is this a list of schools you believe will remain in the Deal/Wilson boundary or be cut?

[Anonymous]

This entire thread is fantasy baseball.

Which is always fun, but no differentiation between predictions based on inside info, and elaborate wishful thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney plus Shepherd plus Lafayette plus Colonial Village plus Bancroft plus O-A. E finito.

Is this a list of schools you believe will remain in the Deal/Wilson boundary or be cut?

These schools will be cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This entire thread is fantasy baseball.

Which is always fun, but no differentiation between predictions based on inside info, and elaborate wishful thinking.

I suggest you talk to Crestwood parents...winter is coming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This entire thread is fantasy baseball.

Which is always fun, but no differentiation between predictions based on inside info, and elaborate wishful thinking.

I suggest you talk to Crestwood parents...winter is coming.

Also SW DC, Eaton, West ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney plus Shepherd plus Lafayette plus Colonial Village plus Bancroft plus O-A. E finito.

Is this a list of schools you believe will remain in the Deal/Wilson boundary or be cut?

These schools will be cut.

I like those cuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney plus Shepherd plus Lafayette plus Colonial Village plus Bancroft plus O-A. E finito.

Is this a list of schools you believe will remain in the Deal/Wilson boundary or be cut?

These schools will be cut.

I like those cuts.

Uh huh sure you do - so since you are kicking Janney kids out of a school they can walk to where do you propose to send them instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney plus Shepherd plus Lafayette plus Colonial Village plus Bancroft plus O-A. E finito.

Is this a list of schools you believe will remain in the Deal/Wilson boundary or be cut?

These schools will be cut.

I like those cuts.

As a a Janney and Deal parent, I like them too. We've been disappointed in Deal. Way too big.
My kids can take the bus down Wisconsin to Hardy or across town to somewhere else.
We know a dozen or more 6th graders in AU Park who currently take the city bus down to Holy Trinity, the Cathedral Schools or elsewhere.
Sure, it's nice that that my kid can currently walk. But I'd take a bus ride and a less crowded school any day of the week.
And seriously, I can't believe that people are going to the death over Deal. It's not that great!! Those of you without kids there yet. Wait and you'll see.
My kid is making as much as he/she can out of it--they're at the top of their classes and getting straight As, they're doing extracurriculars, etc.
But it's just such an uneven experience, mostly because of it's size.

[Anonymous]

I predict that by the time the review rolls around, Janney parents will be asking to get rezoned to Hardy and there will be a backlash against them for trying to separate their special snowflakes from the Deal chaos.

The Wilson feed will not change unless they build a new school or go all lottery.

[Anonymous]

You know what crazy people (and agree with the PP, this is a total fantasy thread), here's the real story:

- Our kids shouldn't be used as a social engineering experiment because they are UMC and live in stable homes. Call that elitist, privileged, whatever, but no kid should have to deal with it because some social justice warrior deems it so.

- Of course we are going to scream when you ship our kids out of our neighborhood to an unproven school with abysmal test scores. NOBODY would want that to happen.

- The schools you are talking about sending us to, while smaller, do not have the same sort of extra curriculars (sports, arts) what have you that Deal and Wilson already have.

I think if Lafayette parents are convinced that the experience would be the same wherever else than it would be at Deal and Wilson, we would be OK with it. Contrary to what this thread suggests, I don't think Chevy Chase is full of racists. It is, however, full of families who want what's best for their kids, and Wells and Cardozo are just not going to cut it now. The expectations are just higher.

And, finally, for all the Deal bashers here, it IS a great place. The team approach keeps it small, and I can say especially over the last two years DD has had uniformly amazing teachers. I don't know who you've had. I'm sorry your snowflake can't handle the size, I'm sure when you pick their classes for them in college it will be better.