does anyone else find the social scene at Janney hard to take?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I took the liberty of googling every parent in the Janney system, finding their linkedin, looking up average salary on glass door (or actual salary if a fed) and putting it all in excel. Took forever but it was interesting.

[Anonymous]

Janney is a lot more like Montgomery County schools than other city schools -- full of strivers -- but with a pitiful level of diversity. I think that's the hardest thing to take about Janney and why I sent my children to private even though I was IB there. The school is HUGE by DC standards and the vast majority of the kids are white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Janney is a lot more like Montgomery County schools than other city schools -- full of strivers -- but with a pitiful level of diversity. I think that's the hardest thing to take about Janney and why I sent my children to private even though I was IB there. The school is HUGE by DC standards and the vast majority of the kids are white.

While diversity has some value, if I had to choose, I would take academic excellence rigor over diversity. Schools that worship diversity above all else will never be great schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Janney is a lot more like Montgomery County schools than other city schools -- full of strivers -- but with a pitiful level of diversity. I think that's the hardest thing to take about Janney and why I sent my children to private even though I was IB there. The school is HUGE by DC standards and the vast majority of the kids are white.

Don't kid yourself about the diversity in the specific MoCo schools that most closely resemble Janney. It's every bit as "pitiful" 1-3 miles to the northwest in Maryland.

Somerset, wood acres, chevy chase es, Westbrook, north chevy chase, seven locks, carderock springs, Bradley hills, bannockburn and burning tree are exclusively upper middle class and white, white, white, with a smattering of Indian doctors, a few East Asian diplomats, and a few Hispanic professionals from your Argentinas and the like. World Bank Spaniards, etc. As white and middle/UMC as au park is, it stands firmly together with all of western MoCo in having no immigrant kids from Honduras and no black kids born to black single teen moms living in poverty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney is a lot more like Montgomery County schools than other city schools -- full of strivers -- but with a pitiful level of diversity. I think that's the hardest thing to take about Janney and why I sent my children to private even though I was IB there. The school is HUGE by DC standards and the vast majority of the kids are white.

Don't kid yourself about the diversity in the specific MoCo schools that most closely resemble Janney. It's every bit as "pitiful" 1-3 miles to the northwest in Maryland.

Somerset, wood acres, chevy chase es, Westbrook, north chevy chase, seven locks, carderock springs, Bradley hills, bannockburn and burning tree are exclusively upper middle class and white, white, white, with a smattering of Indian doctors, a few East Asian diplomats, and a few Hispanic professionals from your Argentinas and the like. World Bank Spaniards, etc. As white and middle/UMC as au park is, it stands firmly together with all of western MoCo in having no immigrant kids from Honduras and no black kids born to black single teen moms living in poverty.

But in the near future Janney will be more diverse because of the OOB/lower SES set aside of seats. That may necessarily mean that Janney's IB borders are trimmed a bit to make room for the 10% or 15% set aside, whatever it turns out to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
While I certainly appreciate and agree with the sentiment that proximity should be a highly prioritized factor in school boundaries, the reality of the current situation in upper northwest is we have 3 public elementary schools which are very, very close to each other. We already have a situation where some families live closer to one school but are zoned for another but the difference in distances we're talking about for a number of homes (not all certainly) are really quite marginal.

But back to the issue of 3 very closely positioned schools - Two of those schools - Janney, Murch - have geographically large boundaries and a high participation rate by neighborhood students. One - Hearst - has a relatively very small geographic boundary and low participation rate by neighborhood students. It simply seems illogical to me NOT to adjust the boundaries to more evenly distribute neighborhood kids among the 3 schools in the neighborhood. I truly don't understand how anyone can provide a rational argument not to support greater neighborhood participation at Hearst when you consider the neighborhood/system as a whole and not just on a school by school basis.

I could NEVER support a proposal for DCPS to spend another cent on a new school building in upper NW DC until all existing schools in upper NW DC including Hearst see equivalent neighborhood participation.

As a note in response to the PP comment about 'how at-risk kids will get to WOTP schools', I'd offer in general "where there's a will there's a way', and more specifically that Janney in particular is about 100 yards from a public bus stop and perhaps more relevantly the metro. Of all Ward 3 schools it is arguably the best logistically suited for OOB at risk students to get to given WMATA's provision for kids to ride free to school.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
While I certainly appreciate and agree with the sentiment that proximity should be a highly prioritized factor in school boundaries, the reality of the current situation in upper northwest is we have 3 public elementary schools which are very, very close to each other. We already have a situation where some families live closer to one school but are zoned for another but the difference in distances we're talking about for a number of homes (not all certainly) are really quite marginal.

But back to the issue of 3 very closely positioned schools - Two of those schools - Janney, Murch - have geographically large boundaries and a high participation rate by neighborhood students. One - Hearst - has a relatively very small geographic boundary and low participation rate by neighborhood students. It simply seems illogical to me NOT to adjust the boundaries to more evenly distribute neighborhood kids among the 3 schools in the neighborhood. I truly don't understand how anyone can provide a rational argument not to support greater neighborhood participation at Hearst when you consider the neighborhood/system as a whole and not just on a school by school basis.

I could NEVER support a proposal for DCPS to spend another cent on a new school building in upper NW DC until all existing schools in upper NW DC including Hearst see equivalent neighborhood participation.

As a note in response to the PP comment about 'how at-risk kids will get to WOTP schools', I'd offer in general "where there's a will there's a way', and more specifically that Janney in particular is about 100 yards from a public bus stop and perhaps more relevantly the metro. Of all Ward 3 schools it is arguably the best logistically suited for OOB at risk students to get to given WMATA's provision for kids to ride free to school.

The Hearst zone includes many of the best private schools in the city and people live in the neighborhood to be close to their preferred private schools. The latest version of the proposal actually decreases a part of the Hearst boundary to have it go to Murch (surprisingly it is the portion of the neighborhood farther away from Murch). The proposal is strange and likely politically motivated, someone in the current Hearst boundary wants out fast. There are a handful of Hearst parents who want to force current Murch families into the school, but the reality is that would be really happy to get low-income kids out. Schools have reputations. Hearst is not JKLMM it is an alternative for OOB kids, EOTP, and apartment dwellers in Hearst. There is just too much neighborhood competition from JKLMM, privates and now increasingly charters. Yu Ying and others run tranport service from Tenleytown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
While I certainly appreciate and agree with the sentiment that proximity should be a highly prioritized factor in school boundaries, the reality of the current situation in upper northwest is we have 3 public elementary schools which are very, very close to each other. We already have a situation where some families live closer to one school but are zoned for another but the difference in distances we're talking about for a number of homes (not all certainly) are really quite marginal.

But back to the issue of 3 very closely positioned schools - Two of those schools - Janney, Murch - have geographically large boundaries and a high participation rate by neighborhood students. One - Hearst - has a relatively very small geographic boundary and low participation rate by neighborhood students. It simply seems illogical to me NOT to adjust the boundaries to more evenly distribute neighborhood kids among the 3 schools in the neighborhood. I truly don't understand how anyone can provide a rational argument not to support greater neighborhood participation at Hearst when you consider the neighborhood/system as a whole and not just on a school by school basis.

I could NEVER support a proposal for DCPS to spend another cent on a new school building in upper NW DC until all existing schools in upper NW DC including Hearst see equivalent neighborhood participation.

As a note in response to the PP comment about 'how at-risk kids will get to WOTP schools', I'd offer in general "where there's a will there's a way', and more specifically that Janney in particular is about 100 yards from a public bus stop and perhaps more relevantly the metro. Of all Ward 3 schools it is arguably the best logistically suited for OOB at risk students to get to given WMATA's provision for kids to ride free to school.

+1000

The PP makes an interesting point. Because of Janney's proximity to Metro and other public transportation, it is perhaps uniquely positioned among WOTP schools to be a hub for educating at-risk OOB kids from other parts of the city. This is especially true when the new renovation will expand the school's capacity further.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney is a lot more like Montgomery County schools than other city schools -- full of strivers -- but with a pitiful level of diversity. I think that's the hardest thing to take about Janney and why I sent my children to private even though I was IB there. The school is HUGE by DC standards and the vast majority of the kids are white.

Don't kid yourself about the diversity in the specific MoCo schools that most closely resemble Janney. It's every bit as "pitiful" 1-3 miles to the northwest in Maryland.

Somerset, wood acres, chevy chase es, Westbrook, north chevy chase, seven locks, carderock springs, Bradley hills, bannockburn and burning tree are exclusively upper middle class and white, white, white, with a smattering of Indian doctors, a few East Asian diplomats, and a few Hispanic professionals from your Argentinas and the like. World Bank Spaniards, etc. As white and middle/UMC as au park is, it stands firmly together with all of western MoCo in having no immigrant kids from Honduras and no black kids born to black single teen moms living in poverty.

But in the near future Janney will be more diverse because of the OOB/lower SES set aside of seats. That may necessarily mean that Janney's IB borders are trimmed a bit to make room for the 10% or 15% set aside, whatever it turns out to be.

I'd bet anything that the Janney boundaries are never changed. There is way too much political clout at the school. The initial proposal included proposed changes that would have changed the school for about 10 families and the school rallied behind those families and organized such a well-run fight. I bet that the "set asides" simply don't happen or are the numbers are fudged.
--Janney parent who wishes that we had more economic diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney is a lot more like Montgomery County schools than other city schools -- full of strivers -- but with a pitiful level of diversity. I think that's the hardest thing to take about Janney and why I sent my children to private even though I was IB there. The school is HUGE by DC standards and the vast majority of the kids are white.

Don't kid yourself about the diversity in the specific MoCo schools that most closely resemble Janney. It's every bit as "pitiful" 1-3 miles to the northwest in Maryland.

Somerset, wood acres, chevy chase es, Westbrook, north chevy chase, seven locks, carderock springs, Bradley hills, bannockburn and burning tree are exclusively upper middle class and white, white, white, with a smattering of Indian doctors, a few East Asian diplomats, and a few Hispanic professionals from your Argentinas and the like. World Bank Spaniards, etc. As white and middle/UMC as au park is, it stands firmly together with all of western MoCo in having no immigrant kids from Honduras and no black kids born to black single teen moms living in poverty.

But in the near future Janney will be more diverse because of the OOB/lower SES set aside of seats. That may necessarily mean that Janney's IB borders are trimmed a bit to make room for the 10% or 15% set aside, whatever it turns out to be.

I'd bet anything that the Janney boundaries are never changed. There is way too much political clout at the school. The initial proposal included proposed changes that would have changed the school for about 10 families and the school rallied behind those families and organized such a well-run fight. I bet that the "set asides" simply don't happen or are the numbers are fudged.
--Janney parent who wishes that we had more economic diversity.

I wouldn't be so sure. Families are going to keep moving into these districts in search of good schools, which will likely continue to increase the size of the school. At some point in time it will be too much. Murch has pretty well already reached that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney is a lot more like Montgomery County schools than other city schools -- full of strivers -- but with a pitiful level of diversity. I think that's the hardest thing to take about Janney and why I sent my children to private even though I was IB there. The school is HUGE by DC standards and the vast majority of the kids are white.

Don't kid yourself about the diversity in the specific MoCo schools that most closely resemble Janney. It's every bit as "pitiful" 1-3 miles to the northwest in Maryland.

Somerset, wood acres, chevy chase es, Westbrook, north chevy chase, seven locks, carderock springs, Bradley hills, bannockburn and burning tree are exclusively upper middle class and white, white, white, with a smattering of Indian doctors, a few East Asian diplomats, and a few Hispanic professionals from your Argentinas and the like. World Bank Spaniards, etc. As white and middle/UMC as au park is, it stands firmly together with all of western MoCo in having no immigrant kids from Honduras and no black kids born to black single teen moms living in poverty.

But in the near future Janney will be more diverse because of the OOB/lower SES set aside of seats. That may necessarily mean that Janney's IB borders are trimmed a bit to make room for the 10% or 15% set aside, whatever it turns out to be.

I'd bet anything that the Janney boundaries are never changed. There is way too much political clout at the school. The initial proposal included proposed changes that would have changed the school for about 10 families and the school rallied behind those families and organized such a well-run fight. I bet that the "set asides" simply don't happen or are the numbers are fudged.
--Janney parent who wishes that we had more economic diversity.

Moving so few families (i.e., such a small area) would have no significant impact on enrollment numbers, so perhaps they decided the trouble wasn't worth the benefit.

[Anonymous]

The Janney boundaries will not change, or any Ward 3 boundaries for that matter. I think that it would be extraordinarily difficult for at-risk students OOB to attend Janney or several of the Ward 3 schools.

I live in the area and have found that the boundary discussions have brought out the worst in some of my closest neighbors. I actually think that the privates are more accepting of socio-economic diversity because they are less threatened by it.

If there is an interest in kicking out parts of the neighborhood it is because families want a significantly smaller school, not because they want to make room for low-income students.

[Anonymous]

Janney is apparently already at 8% oob.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Janney is apparently already at 8% oob.

Remember that the 10-15% set aside is for at risk OOB, not higher SES OOB.

[Anonymous]

If and only if the proposal goes through which is highly unlikely. Unfortunately I don't think that many schools are prepared to receive homeless and foster kids. I would think that these at-risk kids would be such outliers in a school like Janney that they may opt to change schools before graduation.