Stay at school through renovations/swing space?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former Murch parent who lived through the swing space but was not on any of the planning committees.

The swing space was SO MUCH BETTER than Murch prior to the renovations. Yes it was trailers, but that meant the classrooms had bathrooms, heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.

So my opinion, it isn't the swing space that matters.

It was astounding how much better the Murch swing space was than the formerly crumbling building.

[Anonymous]

https://sites.google.com/dc.gov/dcps-facilities/modernizations/chisholm-es

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://sites.google.com/dc.gov/dcps-facilities/modernizations/chisholm-es

https://dck12.sharepoint.com/sites/TESTdcps/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FTESTdcps%2FShared%20Documents%2FFAC%2FW6%2FShirley%20Chisholm%20ES%2FModernization%2F03%20Presentation-Engagement%2F03%20One-Pagers-Letters%2FChisholm%20FAQs.pdf&parent=%2Fsites%2FTESTdcps%2FShared%20Documents%2FFAC%2FW6%2FShirley%20Chisholm%20ES%2FModernization%2F03%20Presentation-Engagement%2F03%20One-Pagers-Letters&p=true&ga=1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the other issues? Everyone keeps saying this, but no one is clearly articulated their views/opinion. I would be curious to hear.

Im curious to learn about this as well. We just moved to Chisholm and so far haven't seen any reg flags. Kid is in K, so perhaps upper grades are different ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former Murch parent who lived through the swing space but was not on any of the planning committees.

The swing space was SO MUCH BETTER than Murch prior to the renovations. Yes it was trailers, but that meant the classrooms had bathrooms, heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.

So my opinion, it isn't the swing space that matters.

It was astounding how much better the Murch swing space was than the formerly crumbling building.

Murch, like Whittier will be the next two years, was basically in the same spot. Very different calculation. If the school is still in the community almost hard to imagine the trailers won't be better than the current school while not having to change routines. Unfortunately some of the swing spaces are so far away there is a very real difference in quality of life for those two years.

[Anonymous]

I'm not on the Hill, but I think you should take this opportunity to think big picture - the obvious one being middle school. Now is the time to think about if Jefferson is going to work for your family. If it's not (which based on your "what do we do for middle school" comment, I'm guessing it isn't) - I would definitely lottery for next year. Remember, you can always decide to stay at Chisolm after you see your lottery match.

We are in a different situation (not on the Hill, swing space fairly close to our old school) and I basically assumed, well, our commute is roughly the same (though I knew a lot of families' would be longer) so it won't make a big difference. What I didn't realize until we got to the swing space is that people WILL take this as an off-ramp from the school, and you'll also have way fewer people lotterying in during that time. There are some good things about that (class sizes usually end up smaller) but socially, it's a big hit. With a decently long commute and a not-beloved middle school feeder, lots of people who wouldn't ordinarily lottery to other schools will. Anticipate losing a LOT of your kids' friends. The other thing I didn't realize is that people who love the school and are like "yeah, I think the swing space is going to be great" - many of them are still going to lottery at least to reaches (DCB, Deal feeders, etc), some of them are going to get a match, and you won't know that until it's too late.

You get 12 lottery slots, so you can do options 2 and 3, and then once you see where you get in, you can revisit #1. Start a short list of nearby schools, schools with good feeders, and immersion schools. That should get you, what, 20-30 schools? Then start doing some thinking about your own priorities. Is immersion at a 30 min commute more valuable than a 10 minute commute? What about immersion at a 20 min commute? How does middle school factor in? If you're truly willing to move, factor that in, too. Start ranking schools, visit them at Ed Fest, get yourself a short list, do some open houses, and finalize your list of 12. Now is the time.

#1 vs. #2/#3 is a decision that can wait for May. For now, figure out what 2/3 would actually look like in terms of individual schools and tradeoffs, then go from there.