DC Begins School Boundary Study

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ward 3 doesn't have PK because the families there were unwilling to accept boundary changes that would have created space for PK. They would rather have K-12 WOTP than have PK classrooms in WOTP schools. They made that very clear during the last boundary revision process. If that has changed, people are going to have to make that clear.

This is incomplete at best, though I would simply say wrong. There were no close-to-reasonable changes to boundaries that would (now) allow any pre-K in Ward 3 elementary schools. The boundary changes would mean different students in the buildings, not free space. Look at JR.

Ward 3 doesn't have pre-K because, for a multitude of reasons, ward 3 schools are crowded with post-pre-K students. The city was able to implement 'universal' pre-K relatively cheaply because schools in most of the city (due again to a multitude of reasons, but charter competition very clearly) are fairly empty. Hence there was open space for a pre-K, without the need for new buildings or expansions. The city has chosen not to expand Ward 3 schools sufficiently to allow (public) pre-K.

I would be for a subsidized pre-K program for low income families, or at least would be less annoyed if city politicians stopped calling it 'universal'.

It is universal. You can get a spot somewhere relatively (20 min) nearby. CBOs, Military road, and there are several ward 1 charters and dcps that have no or short waitlists (appletree).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should absolutely get rid of OOB feeder rights. There's no reason lottering into a school in K should give you an automatic path to that school's feeders till 12th.

I actually posed this idea to the current Chancellor when he first came onboard. He really didn’t understand what I was trying to convey but hopefully he does now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should absolutely get rid of OOB feeder rights. There's no reason lottering into a school in K should give you an automatic path to that school's feeders till 12th.

I actually posed this idea to the current Chancellor when he first came onboard. He really didn’t understand what I was trying to convey but hopefully he does now.

Because the concept is so complicated? Merits aside, are you so self centered and involved that you think the only reason one might not make that change (let alone week one on the job) is because he "didn't understand"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should absolutely get rid of OOB feeder rights. There's no reason lottering into a school in K should give you an automatic path to that school's feeders till 12th.

I actually posed this idea to the current Chancellor when he first came onboard. He really didn’t understand what I was trying to convey but hopefully he does now.

Because the concept is so complicated? Merits aside, are you so self centered and involved that you think the only reason one might not make that change (let alone week one on the job) is because he "didn't understand"?

I’m not even sure why it makes sense. Feeder rights shouldn’t be abolished. But schools should only admit the number of OOB students that the system can handle all the way through the pattern. And if the MS is overcrowded they need to expand it, or build a new one. But yeah admitting OOB in great numbers to elementary then wondering why Deal is overcrowded seems a bit dense.

[Anonymous]

Ward 3 does have PK. https://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/# What a goody thing to lie about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i think it would be a huge long-term mistake not to zone the deal feeders that are closer to the new wells middle school to wells

Isn’t Shepherd the only one?

Lafayette is 10 minutes.

Dude, they’re not moving Lafayette.

They have talked about rerouting a percentage of Lafayette. Which, dude, is a sound idea.

People forget…Lafayette is the largest elementary in DC. Wherever you move it, you are taking in a huge amount of kids. At over 120 kids per grade, it could almost fill its own middle school.

Wells is not prepared to absorb Lafayette as a feeder. I can see taking in Shepard. I assume the new housing in Walter Reed that is just coming online now will feed Wells via Takoma Elem.

They can absorb Shepherd and 1/2 Lafayette.

The problem is that for some reason DCPS did not invest in a big enough building when they opened Wells. If all the 6th graders from Wells’ current four feeders matriculated to Wells, it would not have enough space. Those school populations are growing and so Wells will soon be overcrowded. So I don’t think they will be able to absorb additional feeders. (I live in the neighborhood and my children attend one of the feeders.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.hillrag.com/2023/03/21/dc-begins-school-boundary-study/

Well this is exciting! I actually just recycled all my papers from the last boundary study where they proposed small geographic clusters with both DCPS and charters in them and replacing by-rights high schools with an all city lottery... Lots of grand plans for sweeping changes that resulted in ... a few boundary tweaks. School boundaries are quite the third rail in this city.

all-lottery HS is a horrid idea. Elementary clusters is better, but still doesn’t make a ton of sense. What we all know should happen on the Hill will never happen: an all-Hill MS.

I'd support an all-city lottery if it was for a school like High Tech High in San Diego, which is also all-city lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 does have PK. https://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/# What a goody thing to lie about.

Yikes. No, reading is fundamental. They do not currently. What the DCPS website does is suggest to you the closest programs in other wards. The first Ward 3 PK3 opens for the upcoming school year: https://thewash.org/2022/10/25/first-public-charter-pre-k-school-in-ward-3-slated-to-open-next-august/.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 does have PK. https://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/# What a goody thing to lie about.

An easy mistake to make if you are relying on that for all your info. Go to myschooldc and let us know where you find a W3 ES with PK3, which is what we are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 does have PK. https://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/# What a goody thing to lie about.

An easy mistake to make if you are relying on that for all your info. Go to myschooldc and let us know where you find a W3 ES with PK3, which is what we are talking about.

Classic DCUM to be wrong and accuse someone else of lying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 does have PK. https://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/# What a goody thing to lie about.

Yikes. No, reading is fundamental. They do not currently. What the DCPS website does is suggest to you the closest programs in other wards. The first Ward 3 PK3 opens for the upcoming school year: https://thewash.org/2022/10/25/first-public-charter-pre-k-school-in-ward-3-slated-to-open-next-august/.

Communikids is in Ward 3, no?

Also, on the DCPS site, I choose "PK3" and "Ward 3" and get a list of 8 schools. How is that not PK3 in Ward 3? Do the 8 schools listed as having PK3 not have PK3?

[Anonymous]

Wasn't the issue about the lack of PK in all wards about equity, though?

Yes, this was the quote: "PK is a luxury not a privilege. It's not a mandatory grade. There are wards in the city without PK programs at all. Buying a house based on a feeder pattern is not a particularly smart idea. Boundaries change. Schools close or going into an inconvenient swing space. Your kid might enter a lottery in an easier year because of a baby boom. Racial profiling is extremely unfair. Women not being able to control their reproductive healthcare is extremely unfair. Esme Blythe or Jagger Alix having to go to Key instead of Hearst is life in a major city."

So the issue is that Ward 3 is suffering some sort of shortcoming because it doesn't have PK3? It isn't equitable?

Longsuffering Ward 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:DD will be starting PreK 3 this fall and starting Kindergarten in Fall of 2025, which is when the new boundaries are expected to be implemented (assuming no delays in the process). If we are impacted by boundary changes, my understanding is that we will not be grandfathered into our former inbounds school. That aspect to the rule seems unfair because I completed my lottery rankings knowing that I was guaranteed entry into my inbounds school for Kindergarten. I would have thought through and ranked my list completely differently if I was in a different inbounds school district. For reference, I ranked my inbounds school first on my list, but it is near impossible to get into it w/out a sibling.

Anyone else in this boat? Not sure there is much I can do about it, but just feels extremely unfair given Prek3 is the best opportunity to get into schools outside of your "by right" school. I guess I'm hoping they will reconsider the policy on grandfathering to account for Prek3 families who didn't have the opportunity to participate in the lottery with knowledge of a different inbounds school.

Doesn't seem "extremely unfair" to me. PK is a luxury not a privilege. It's not a mandatory grade. There are wards in the city without PK programs at all. Buying a house based on a feeder pattern is not a particularly smart idea. Boundaries change. Schools close or going into an inconvenient swing space. Your kid might enter a lottery in an easier year because of a baby boom. Racial profiling is extremely unfair. Women not being able to control their reproductive healthcare is extremely unfair. Esme Blythe or Jagger Alix having to go to Key instead of Hearst is life in a major city.

Which wards would those be? I suspect that claim is not true.

It’s okay that it wasn’t true. The important thing was that we lectured internet strangers!

The first public pk3 program in ward 3 doesn’t open until August 2023. Ward 3 has never had one before.

But there are still PK4 programs in Ward 3, so it's not true that it's a ward without PK at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.hillrag.com/2023/03/21/dc-begins-school-boundary-study/

Well this is exciting! I actually just recycled all my papers from the last boundary study where they proposed small geographic clusters with both DCPS and charters in them and replacing by-rights high schools with an all city lottery... Lots of grand plans for sweeping changes that resulted in ... a few boundary tweaks. School boundaries are quite the third rail in this city.

all-lottery HS is a horrid idea. Elementary clusters is better, but still doesn’t make a ton of sense. What we all know should happen on the Hill will never happen: an all-Hill MS.

I'd support an all-city lottery if it was for a school like High Tech High in San Diego, which is also all-city lottery.

That's what Ellington, Walls, Banneker, etc. are. DCPS has like a dozen of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD will be starting PreK 3 this fall and starting Kindergarten in Fall of 2025, which is when the new boundaries are expected to be implemented (assuming no delays in the process). If we are impacted by boundary changes, my understanding is that we will not be grandfathered into our former inbounds school. That aspect to the rule seems unfair because I completed my lottery rankings knowing that I was guaranteed entry into my inbounds school for Kindergarten. I would have thought through and ranked my list completely differently if I was in a different inbounds school district. For reference, I ranked my inbounds school first on my list, but it is near impossible to get into it w/out a sibling.

Anyone else in this boat? Not sure there is much I can do about it, but just feels extremely unfair given Prek3 is the best opportunity to get into schools outside of your "by right" school. I guess I'm hoping they will reconsider the policy on grandfathering to account for Prek3 families who didn't have the opportunity to participate in the lottery with knowledge of a different inbounds school.

Doesn't seem "extremely unfair" to me. PK is a luxury not a privilege. It's not a mandatory grade. There are wards in the city without PK programs at all. Buying a house based on a feeder pattern is not a particularly smart idea. Boundaries change. Schools close or going into an inconvenient swing space. Your kid might enter a lottery in an easier year because of a baby boom. Racial profiling is extremely unfair. Women not being able to control their reproductive healthcare is extremely unfair. Esme Blythe or Jagger Alix having to go to Key instead of Hearst is life in a major city.

Which wards would those be? I suspect that claim is not true.

It’s okay that it wasn’t true. The important thing was that we lectured internet strangers!

The first public pk3 program in ward 3 doesn’t open until August 2023. Ward 3 has never had one before.

But there are still PK4 programs in Ward 3, so it's not true that it's a ward without PK at all.

If you follow the conversation, you would see it was specifically about pk3, the grade OP is writing about. No one is saying there is no pk4 in W3.

The school profiles do indicate pk3 in those 8 schools. The profiles are wrong. Go to myschooldc.
Whether W3 is suffering or not, there is no pk3 in any DCPS W3 school now.