Ward 3 - Wilson feeders meeting last night: did anyone attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plus when you throw in grandfathering, any half assed solution created in 2022 won't really become effective until 2027. This all smells like a shell game.

It's pretty clear that DCPS feels that it's easier to not fix the problem than to fix it. Just cram kids into the schools until some stop coming, that'll solve it.

Jokes aside, That will solve it now won't it?

I wasn't joking.

But I really don't think it will solve it because the private schools are too expensive and there aren't enough private spots to take up the amount of overcrowding in Deal and Wilson. And moving is expensive too.

[Anonymous]

DP. The "do nothing" approach does solve the problem, at least from DCPS's perspective. Families with enough money will go private, other families will move to MoCo, and others will choose to try out less well regarded EOTP schools to escape the crowding. Those that remain at Deal will be the ones who prefer overcrowding to one of the other options.

For parents, it stinks because DCPS is giving a choice among poor options. But for DCPS, it limits criticism to only the small number of families with school age children who live in NWDC, and who presently lack the political power to frighten DCPS.

If people want to move DCPS, then you need to flex political muscle. For example, you might try to get all those school age families to write to Bowser to make clear that in the next election, you are single issue voters: Either she solves this problem, or you donate and vote for her opponent. If enough people issue that ultimatum, she might choose a "do something" path. Bowser won the last primary by 11,000 votes, so you'd want at least 5,000 parents to contact her. Are there 2,500 two parent families who are immediately harmed by the overcrowding who will contact Bowser?

Alternatively, I guess you could to sue, claiming that Bowser is violating some education law by overcrowding the schools.

[Anonymous]

You can always just feel racism/classism when a DCUM poster refers to "families."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP. The "do nothing" approach does solve the problem, at least from DCPS's perspective. Families with enough money will go private, other families will move to MoCo, and others will choose to try out less well regarded EOTP schools to escape the crowding. Those that remain at Deal will be the ones who prefer overcrowding to one of the other options.

For parents, it stinks because DCPS is giving a choice among poor options. But for DCPS, it limits criticism to only the small number of families with school age children who live in NWDC, and who presently lack the political power to frighten DCPS.

If people want to move DCPS, then you need to flex political muscle. For example, you might try to get all those school age families to write to Bowser to make clear that in the next election, you are single issue voters: Either she solves this problem, or you donate and vote for her opponent. If enough people issue that ultimatum, she might choose a "do something" path. Bowser won the last primary by 11,000 votes, so you'd want at least 5,000 parents to contact her. Are there 2,500 two parent families who are immediately harmed by the overcrowding who will contact Bowser?

Alternatively, I guess you could to sue, claiming that Bowser is violating some education law by overcrowding the schools.

+1000. This is exactly what the Ward 3 - Wilson Feeder Education Network should be doing. These listening sessions and working groups are a complete waste of time. Every few months DCPS will force an official to attend these meetings and take notes so the annoying folks in Ward 3 can vent, but nothing will get changed in our children's school careers. Wake up folks, y'all are getting played. Enough talk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP. The "do nothing" approach does solve the problem, at least from DCPS's perspective. Families with enough money will go private, other families will move to MoCo, and others will choose to try out less well regarded EOTP schools to escape the crowding. Those that remain at Deal will be the ones who prefer overcrowding to one of the other options.

For parents, it stinks because DCPS is giving a choice among poor options. But for DCPS, it limits criticism to only the small number of families with school age children who live in NWDC, and who presently lack the political power to frighten DCPS.

If people want to move DCPS, then you need to flex political muscle. For example, you might try to get all those school age families to write to Bowser to make clear that in the next election, you are single issue voters: Either she solves this problem, or you donate and vote for her opponent. If enough people issue that ultimatum, she might choose a "do something" path. Bowser won the last primary by 11,000 votes, so you'd want at least 5,000 parents to contact her. Are there 2,500 two parent families who are immediately harmed by the overcrowding who will contact Bowser?

Alternatively, I guess you could to sue, claiming that Bowser is violating some education law by overcrowding the schools.

+1000. This is exactly what the Ward 3 - Wilson Feeder Education Network should be doing. These listening sessions and working groups are a complete waste of time. Every few months DCPS will force an official to attend these meetings and take notes so the annoying folks in Ward 3 can vent, but nothing will get changed in our children's school careers. Wake up folks, y'all are getting played. Enough talk.

There aren't enough voters / potential voters in Ward 3 to swing a mayoral election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can always just feel racism/classism when a DCUM poster refers to "families."

Huh? I use "families" as a convenient catchall rather than students and parents. It's students attending the schools but the parent making the decisions and doing any moving. So collectively they're a "family."

What sort of racism / classism do you perceive? I can't even figure out whether you think "families" is a positive or negative term, much less why. Let's hear your explanation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can always just feel racism/classism when a DCUM poster refers to "families."

So you're saying that Daniel Patrick Moynihan was correct on the breakdown and dysfunction of inner city black families?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always just feel racism/classism when a DCUM poster refers to "families."

So you're saying that Daniel Patrick Moynihan was correct on the breakdown and dysfunction of inner city black families?

The opposite, genius. The modern-day Moynihans use the term family on DCUM to not say what they really mean.

[Anonymous]

I'm 7:54. Tell me what I really mean when I use the word "families."

[Anonymous]

This week's article from the Current newspaper about Wilson overcrowding - https://currentnewspapers.com/efforts-to-fight-overcrowding-in-ward-3-schools-inch-forward/

Contains some interesting tidbits of info. I couldn't resist inserting a few comments.

By this fall, projected enrollment will exceed building capacity in all of the ward’s public elementary, middle and high schools except for Hearst Elementary, which will be overfilled by fall 2020 at the latest. Class sizes have ballooned, and parents report that some Ward 3 schools have resorted to using stairwells as classroom space and closets as offices. ...

Council member Mary Cheh, who included $550,000 in the city’s fiscal year 2018 budget that will allow the D.C. auditor to study the city’s process for making enrollment projections. ... [Do we really need to "study the process" any more? How long must we admire the problem before we can start fixing it?]

Deputy Mayor for Education Jennie Niles: “It seems like it hasn’t been fast enough by a long shot. But we’re really mobilized now,” Niles said. “I can’t quite speak to everything that’s happened in the past. We are looking at this with priority, with certainty. We’re committed to figuring this out. And we know that we have to figure it out.” Although Niles made no specific promises at the meeting, she said the school system’s new master facilities plan, planned for release next spring, will provide more concrete guidance on these issues. [I like Niles, but this smells like politician pablum for "We have no idea what to do" or perhaps "I haven't been been read into that program yet."] ... Niles acknowledged that officials need to explore a range of ideas, including commissioning existing buildings as public school space or even constructing new schools. But she said it would be irresponsible to promise action on any of those solutions at this point. “There’s still more data that I need to be able to have the city leaders look at for us to say that we’re definitely building new schools,” Niles said. [How does this square with saying you're "really mobilized now"?]

Mayor Muriel Bowser mentioned a goal to reduce the student population at Wilson High in Tenleytown by 40 students total over the next few years. [Not really JFK calling for a moonshot, are you Muriel?]

... budget cuts have cost the high school 30 staff members over the last few years ...

Wilson is projected to be 45 students over capacity this fall despite a $105 million renovation and expansion that opened in 2011. ...

“Nobody at Wilson was aware that there’s a plan to shrink it. That is not a great job on community engagement.”

In an interview, Council member Cheh floated the possibility of using the trailer network constructed for the Lafayette Elementary modernization — later re-used during Murch’s renovation and installed on the university’s campus — as permanent school space.

Also, here is the link for the community survey on Wilson feeder issues, in case you'd like to tell DCPS what parents from the Wilson feeders think about this process and some of the proposed solutions - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ipTNuOvk5_t4UrFuY...8/viewform?edit_requested=true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always just feel racism/classism when a DCUM poster refers to "families."

So you're saying that Daniel Patrick Moynihan was correct on the breakdown and dysfunction of inner city black families?

Moynihan was spot on, but the PC crowd gave him a lot of grief for it. The thing is, the pathological behaviors that he identified in the urban 'hood in the Sixties have now spread to a great extent to working class whites in rural areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Okay, I don't think I can try to respond to everything, but let me say the following:

-- You have the slides, and not wishing to put words in DCPS' mouth, they did not provide an elaborate explanation of why these options are off the table. They consulted with folks both in DC government and without, and decided to not pursue them. Boundaries will be reviewed in 2022. Sorry to not say more.
-- But my impression is that not removing OOB feeder rights (at least as I understand it) means not removing the feeder rights of student currently at schools. Whether future OOB students have access to schools will depend on the lottery, etc., and whatever DCPS does to address overcrowding.
-- I do think people should brainstorm (and as an economist I at least admire the audacity of the "pay people to go to other schools" idea). Again, DCPS will do a survey -- the community working group has seen a rough first draft -- and I personally welcome any ideas folks want to send me at [e-mail] (no one has yet!).
-- We have another Ward 3 - Wilson Feeder Education Network meeting on Monday, June 5th at 7pm at the Tenley-Friendship library. All are welcome.

Sincerely,

Brian
W3EdNet

Hey Brian. I see W3EdNet is having a meeting in late July. Will the results of DCPS's survey be presented then? Do you have any feedback from DCPS on the survey results?

https://twitter.com/W3EdNet/status/872032029440978944

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can always just feel racism/classism when a DCUM poster refers to "families."

So you're saying that Daniel Patrick Moynihan was correct on the breakdown and dysfunction of inner city black families?

Moynihan was spot on, but the PC crowd gave him a lot of grief for it. The thing is, the pathological behaviors that he identified in the urban 'hood in the Sixties have now spread to a great extent to working class whites in rural areas.

That may be true, but working class whites in rural areas aren't overcrowding Wilson HS in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Okay, I don't think I can try to respond to everything, but let me say the following:

-- You have the slides, and not wishing to put words in DCPS' mouth, they did not provide an elaborate explanation of why these options are off the table. They consulted with folks both in DC government and without, and decided to not pursue them. Boundaries will be reviewed in 2022. Sorry to not say more.
-- But my impression is that not removing OOB feeder rights (at least as I understand it) means not removing the feeder rights of student currently at schools. Whether future OOB students have access to schools will depend on the lottery, etc., and whatever DCPS does to address overcrowding.
-- I do think people should brainstorm (and as an economist I at least admire the audacity of the "pay people to go to other schools" idea). Again, DCPS will do a survey -- the community working group has seen a rough first draft -- and I personally welcome any ideas folks want to send me at [e-mail] (no one has yet!).
-- We have another Ward 3 - Wilson Feeder Education Network meeting on Monday, June 5th at 7pm at the Tenley-Friendship library. All are welcome.

Sincerely,

Brian
W3EdNet

Hey Brian. I see W3EdNet is having a meeting in late July. Will the results of DCPS's survey be presented then? Do you have any feedback from DCPS on the survey results?

https://twitter.com/W3EdNet/status/872032029440978944

We received some early feedback at the last Community Working Group (CWG) meeting on overcrowding, but it was mostly "Not many people have filled out the survey yet," here is some breakdown of where folks have, and *very* broad impressions of initial feedback. We have another CWG meeting next week, though I am not sure we will know more. They (and we) are planning to advertise the survey again went school starts back up again, and I assume they will close the survey in September.

Yes, we have another W3EdNet meeting on July 24th. I will talk a little about how things are going in the CWG then. But the meeting is a little more social that other meetings (indeed I am hosting it at my house), intended to let folks, especially new PTA and LSAT members, get to know one another. If you want to come, please email me at [e-mail].

Brian
W3EdNet

[Anonymous]

The survey is pointless without the most obvious and effective solution -- ending OOB feeder rights -- not included.