Lottery for all middle and high schools -- what are people really proposing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP you have some serious issues. If you're jealous of the lifestyle of others then make some changes.

We are not jealous. We are mocking your pretentiousness.

[Anonymous]

I think the whole point of changing school boundaries and feeder patterns is that some "social contracts" are broken. It's just true.

[Anonymous]

So if I am reading this thread correctly, the posters who are inboundary for overcrowded west of the park schools are chiding and belittling people who live in the rest of the city for not buying small apartments in those school neighborhoods.

You do realize that if all of us pretentious and poor planning people bought in your neighborhood your schools would be much more overcrowded?

I just don't get your game.

[Anonymous]

NP here, I don't think it's a game. It's just that there needs to be long term planning for the school system instead of patchwork, piecemeal, fix this issue overs here type of mentality that has prevailed. this whole business about hipsters on this thread is unfortunate and if you have been in DC long enough you have likely lived in several different neighborhoods. Just don't pretend that living on one side of the park or anther means you are a snob or a hipster, both are purely caricatures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here, I don't think it's a game. It's just that there needs to be long term planning for the school system instead of patchwork, piecemeal, fix this issue overs here type of mentality that has prevailed.

+1

[Anonymous]

Let's be serious -- NONE, including stuffed-to-bursting Deal, of the middle schools in this city are ideal and the high schools are horrid, with a few exceptions. The whole system could be fixed if we would just go with universal testing for placement with the addition of more voc-ed options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In that process those families were clearly told that th

Anonymous wrote:And let's not conveniently forget that those OOB students won their spots NOT because a school or school community is particularly generous or kind but because those schools and their principals wanted to maximize their budgets and fill every open enrollment seat. Period.

So what's your point?

My point is that those WotP schools accepted OOB students via an officially sanctioned policy which enabled (enables) those schools to maximize their budgets and resources, resources which IB students at those schools benefit from too. You simply cannot tell those OOB families who have invested in those school communities and where friendships, teacher relationships and education paths have been established to get out, particularly when you've (meaning DCPS) already assured those families that they allowed to stay as a matter of policy. Those OOB families made a commitment to DCPS and the Chancellor and Mayor will have to honor that. In the meantime they need to seriously work on improving schools so that the next crop if children might stick with DCPS rather than abandon the system for charters.

[Anonymous]

Look, if they redraw boundaries, some people don't get what they were promised and it might include some people who were IB when they bought their house and it might include some people who thought they had something secure based on the 2009 policy.

Why is it okay to move where a home is assigned to to a new school boundary, but not make changes to some previous policy on OOB?

Neither of these things will affect me, but I'm not understanding why either category should feel they are unasailable. They should be both, perhaps in some combination, be on the table.

[Anonymous]

You can absolutely make boundary changes (which obviously needs to happen) and alter or ultimately eliminate the OOB process. But for it to be palatable (both politically and personally to families) it will require grandfathering of current families. Without grandfathering nothing is going to happen.

[Anonymous]

10:54 so, just keep deal overcrowded until all the grandfathering is done? Okay, I guess that is what will likely happen. I see your point.

[Anonymous]

The plan is for the report to come out next year and then not be put into place until the following school year (2015-16, right?), but even with grandfathering I think they'll have to give more than one year of lead time. Two years allows affected IB families more time to figure out what they want to do (move, go private, give their new school a try).

[Anonymous]

When you bought wotp you put a bet on the status quo, when I bought in Petworth I put a bet on change. We both took risks. Neither of us have rights to a particular set of boundaries. They are politically defined and thus subject to change.

[Anonymous]

"When you bought wotp you put a bet on the status quo, when I bought in Petworth I put a bet on change. We both took risks. Neither of us have rights to a particular set of boundaries. They are politically defined and thus subject to change."

+1

[Anonymous]

While I'm not saying I agree with this I think a reasonably compelling legal argument could be made that OOB families have even strongly rights in continuing to attend their OOB school than do IB students. An OOB family can move anywhere in the city and continue to attend that OOB school. If an IB family moves out of boundary they are not entitled to continue attending that school. It's up to the principal...in some cases you might be able to continue, but as policy stands families are supposed to be told to leave and enter the OOB lottery if they want a continue attending that school.

[Anonymous]

I think the unified lottery may begin to diminish all this IB/OOB angst. Families will no longer be able to thoughtlessly enter into the lottery for all the desirable WotP schools. Now families will have to divvy up their limited lottery picks between DCPS and charters (yes, I realize all charters will not be participating in the lottery this year, but we're headed there). I doubt families will risk all their lottery picks on WotP schools that list "zero" available lottery spots across the board. Also the fact that WotP schools are pretty much the only schools that don't have PS3 has an effect. Most families that get a good PS3 spot are usually more willing to give that school another try for PK rather than leave.