DME Meeting at SWS June 5th

[Anonymous]

No, Maury hasn't taken any OOB for prek yet - watch, they will be count day. They've already offered a a few OOB spots for K, and good many for 1st to 3rd. Principal won't take new kids for 4th and 5th. Spots still open up at these schools very late in the game. Parents who are willing and able to jump on fall spots still get them on occasion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes -- there are some BITTER Ludlow-Taylor folks!

That was my feeling too. Seems like the sent the three wicked witches of the West. Too bad it was acoustically difficult to understand what they were rambling on about, but one even dropped the word "gerrymandering" somehow into her tirade. Maybe somebody else can elaborate how that fit into the discussion.

I understand their frustration somehow. They worked hard to make LT better and they are succeeding. But their success shouldn't be based on SWS not giving proximity preference to the neighbors. I think their success should come from parents wanting to have their kids go to LT for the long-haul because it is on par with some of the best schools in the city. Their goal should be to be the #1 choice for parents in the neighborhood and have a clear strategy/timeline how to get their. Getting rid of the competition has never really helped anyone to improve.

In this case, a neighborhood preference for a city-wide school looks like the very definition of gerrymandering. That's actually a generous way to define it.

You can't be a neighbor of SWS without being a neighbor to LT, so why do you need a preference to one but not the other? The reason all those school buildings exist right on top of each other in the Old City areas is because of pre-Brown segregation. Alright, you want special program that is going to serve the whole city? Fine. But now you want to rig the game to basically reinstate that segregation? Not likely.

Yes, this. Re-segregation is not be the intent of proximity preference, but it will definitely be the result. I think the DME should be sensitive to that.

Except that the neighborhood is fairly integrated and diverse. The ANC said her district was 50% black. Boundaries and neighborhood preferences work against diversity in some areas, but not here.

Shades of SWS inside of Peabody... started out less diverse than the Peabody program, and got less, and less, and less diverse as time went on.

Peabody has only recently flipped to majority white in the last couple of years as the new wave of IB homeowners and new parents aged into a now acceptable program.

[Anonymous]

Maury took a few OOB for PK4 for the 2013-14 school year. From what I understand, Maury has historically been able to take some OOB PK4 because it had always been able to get all its IB families in at PK3, and because the PK4 classes are bigger, they would always have a few spots they could give to OOB the following year. About 25 IB families never made it off the waitlist for PK3 for 2013-14. This was the first time any IB families were excluded from PK3. Given that, I would be very surprised if any OOB families were admitted for PK4 this year. Potentially OOB with sibling, but OOB without sibling would be very doubtful.

[Anonymous]

What a misery the SWS proximity fight has become. Of course the underlying problem is that DCPS offers but four matter-of-right elementary programs most in-boundary residents are happy with (Peabody, Brent, Maury and Tyler Spanish Immersion), of 10 total (with Payne, L-T, Watkins, Miner, JO Wilson, Tyler Traditional), and no middle school or high school programs. The bickering won't stop, and neither will the exodus of Hill families with school-age children, on as long as demand for high SES friendly programs outstrips supply by a wide margin. Ech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As I said, we're not interested in SWS for our own children, although they are young and we live a couple blocks away. What I take from these SWS threads and tense community meetings is that both the pro and anti proximity preference camps are digging in, waiting for a new mayor to lobby, and there are compelling arguments both ways. OK, so the city could hire a professional mediator to help stakeholders iron out a compromise. This is done to solve a great variety of disputes the world over. George Washington Univ here in DC gives PhDs in conflict resolution/mediation - they've got people who spend their careers mediating conflict, including for school communities.

Really? that's what you get? I get that this is a microscopic issue for DME and DCPS and it barely registers as a community issues, let alone anything considered majorly important at higher levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the school you go to because you don't want to go to your IB school. Not because you're invested in the model. You could care less about RE, but you know you'll move before you put up with that damn Cobbs.

+1,000

signed "Angry" + "Sockpuppet/Dittohead with little to no knowledge about SWS or its community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the school you go to because you don't want to go to your IB school. Not because you're invested in the model. You could care less about RE, but you know you'll move before you put up with that damn Cobbs.

+1,000

signed "Angry" + "Sockpuppet/Dittohead with little to no knowledge about SWS or its community.

No, I know a lot about SWS. I know even more about the parents who are agitating for proximity, and this describes them to a T.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the school you go to because you don't want to go to your IB school. Not because you're invested in the model. You could care less about RE, but you know you'll move before you put up with that damn Cobbs.

+1,000

signed "Angry" + "Sockpuppet/Dittohead with little to no knowledge about SWS or its community.

No, I know a lot about SWS. I know even more about the parents who are agitating for proximity, and this describes them to a T.

the core of SWS community is not derived from the LT catchment, so your premise that it's an oasis for LT haters is flatly wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the school you go to because you don't want to go to your IB school. Not because you're invested in the model. You could care less about RE, but you know you'll move before you put up with that damn Cobbs.

+1,000

signed "Angry" + "Sockpuppet/Dittohead with little to no knowledge about SWS or its community.

No, I know a lot about SWS. I know even more about the parents who are agitating for proximity, and this describes them to a T.

the core of SWS community is not derived from the LT catchment, so your premise that it's an oasis for LT haters is flatly wrong.

Nobody said that! The original post was about the proximity families. I know a lot of SWS families and they are terrific.

[Anonymous]

I don't have a dog in this fight but there are a lot of current SWS families in or near the LT catchment. Living so close I get it - I have neighbor friends advocating for a preference and others advocating against it. I also have cluster boundary friends upset that they no longer have a preference to get in the school. Terrible and just speaks volumes about how limited the options are for parents in this city. The result of education planning by lottery I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a misery the SWS proximity fight has become. Of course the underlying problem is that DCPS offers but four matter-of-right elementary programs most in-boundary residents are happy with (Peabody, Brent, Maury and Tyler Spanish Immersion), of 10 total (with Payne, L-T, Watkins, Miner, JO Wilson, Tyler Traditional), and no middle school or high school programs. The bickering won't stop, and neither will the exodus of Hill families with school-age children, on as long as demand for high SES friendly programs outstrips supply by a wide margin. Ech.

In all seriousness, where is this exodus of school-age children happening? After four years in the school system, we know a number of families who have opted out of DCPS, but I can only think of two who left specifically because of schools. Obviously there are more, but the idea that people are fleeing the Hill doesn't seem to hold water anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a misery the SWS proximity fight has become. Of course the underlying problem is that DCPS offers but four matter-of-right elementary programs most in-boundary residents are happy with (Peabody, Brent, Maury and Tyler Spanish Immersion), of 10 total (with Payne, L-T, Watkins, Miner, JO Wilson, Tyler Traditional), and no middle school or high school programs. The bickering won't stop, and neither will the exodus of Hill families with school-age children, on as long as demand for high SES friendly programs outstrips supply by a wide margin. Ech.

Did I miss the memo? You said "there are four out of ten programs in-boundary residents are happy with (Peabody, Brent, Maury, and Tyler Spanish Immersion)"? Ummm... must I say it? I think there are plenty of residents that would disagree with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a misery the SWS proximity fight has become. Of course the underlying problem is that DCPS offers but four matter-of-right elementary programs most in-boundary residents are happy with (Peabody, Brent, Maury and Tyler Spanish Immersion), of 10 total (with Payne, L-T, Watkins, Miner, JO Wilson, Tyler Traditional), and no middle school or high school programs. The bickering won't stop, and neither will the exodus of Hill families with school-age children, on as long as demand for high SES friendly programs outstrips supply by a wide margin. Ech.

Did I miss the memo? You said "there are four out of ten programs in-boundary residents are happy with (Peabody, Brent, Maury, and Tyler Spanish Immersion)"? Ummm... must I say it? I think there are plenty of residents that would disagree with you.

I won't define what "high SES friendly programs" mean because I'm all sure we know what that means. I just wanted to point out that there are folks that don't agree with your assessment.

[Anonymous]

To the question of why people with kids are still leaving the Hill. Here's my take. We are in PS3 at a public school on the Hill and people seem pretty happy there. A number of our classmates' parents have expressed to me they plan to move in a few years. But they don't mention the school as a reason, it's more of a "we'd like more space," or we want to move closer to family, type of thing. We have a lot of classmates whose parents have lived in their rowhouses since they were first married, or before. Maybe you can stick it out in that little house, and save some money until your first child is in K or 1st. Then you want to upgrade. You may love the Hill and love your school but at that point, it doesn't make sense to buy another house on the HIll without more certainty about MS. If you are entertaining ideas of leaving DC at some point anyhow (and most of us do, right?), not having a great MS/HS option is just one more factor leading you to make the choice to move off the Hill. So while I don't think people are necessarily leaving the HIll in droves exclusively because of schools, the MS/HS situation certainly doesn't help matters, and I still think we are in a situation where only the truly committed stay. And since DC folks are more transient than most of our countryfolk by nature, it's easier for us to make a move. I do feel like if we had a good MS/HS option, inertia would kick in and more people would decide to stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maury took a few OOB for PK4 for the 2013-14 school year. From what I understand, Maury has historically been able to take some OOB PK4 because it had always been able to get all its IB families in at PK3, and because the PK4 classes are bigger, they would always have a few spots they could give to OOB the following year. About 25 IB families never made it off the waitlist for PK3 for 2013-14. This was the first time any IB families were excluded from PK3. Given that, I would be very surprised if any OOB families were admitted for PK4 this year. Potentially OOB with sibling, but OOB without sibling would be very doubtful.

I know at least 2 IB families that are still on the wait list for PK4. I would be very surprised if any OOB families got in.