Murch moving to lafayette

[Anonymous]

I think it's natural for the direct neighbors of the Lafayette school to be upset about additional disruption for 2 years, and it may not be the right choice for some of the reasons stated.

However, the tone is shocking and exclusionary. People really need to check themselves.

[Anonymous]

As a Lafayette parent I am pissed about this because DGS is trying to pull one over on all of us- Lafayette and Murch communities. They said time and time again that this option was not on the table, despite many many questions put to them. Then, days before the holidays and only 2 days before the next meeting, they spring this idea on the Lafayette community (and apparently the Murch community as well). Sounds like they were trying to make this happen with no chance for feedback from the community.

I sympathize with the Murch community but this isn't the way you go about doing things.

In short, DGS makes flames jump out of my head.

[Anonymous]

Here's my proposal- Move PK & K to the trailers (busses or no). They have their own specials teacher and I suspect they could even use part of the Lafayette play space and gym and library etc. for 2 years. That gets 180 kids out of the Murch campus - would that be enough to help?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a Lafayette parent I am pissed about this because DGS is trying to pull one over on all of us- Lafayette and Murch communities. They said time and time again that this option was not on the table, despite many many questions put to them. Then, days before the holidays and only 2 days before the next meeting, they spring this idea on the Lafayette community (and apparently the Murch community as well). Sounds like they were trying to make this happen with no chance for feedback from the community.

I sympathize with the Murch community but this isn't the way you go about doing things.

In short, DGS makes flames jump out of my head.

Yup, Murch community agrees. Would be better to work together to fight back, though, wouldn't it? I don't want to be in the Lafayette trailers, either. How do we align for a good outcome instead of letting dcps pit us against each other? Can the Lafayette community help find a better swing space option? Offer some other assistance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Lafayette parent I am pissed about this because DGS is trying to pull one over on all of us- Lafayette and Murch communities. They said time and time again that this option was not on the table, despite many many questions put to them. Then, days before the holidays and only 2 days before the next meeting, they spring this idea on the Lafayette community (and apparently the Murch community as well). Sounds like they were trying to make this happen with no chance for feedback from the community.

I sympathize with the Murch community but this isn't the way you go about doing things.

In short, DGS makes flames jump out of my head.

Yup, Murch community agrees. Would be better to work together to fight back, though, wouldn't it? I don't want to be in the Lafayette trailers, either. How do we align for a good outcome instead of letting dcps pit us against each other? Can the Lafayette community help find a better swing space option? Offer some other assistance?

Sure - I actually posted the next post, about PK and K moving to the trailers and even sharing some of the new building. That would allow enough of the trailers to come down that the playgrounds could be recovered. PK and K are each planned to have their own little playground within the new school etc. Splitting the school would be a pita, but not an un-overcomable one. The the ECE part of Murch could become more integrated with Lafayette and I bet it would work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's my proposal- Move PK & K to the trailers (busses or no). They have their own specials teacher and I suspect they could even use part of the Lafayette play space and gym and library etc. for 2 years. That gets 180 kids out of the Murch campus - would that be enough to help?

I bet something like this is where we end up. Better would be having PK and K at forest hills, but that's prob too expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To my Chevy Chase neighbors, please tone down the rhetoric, you are making us all look nasty and selfish. That is not the neighborhood I chose to live in.

Yes it's sort of shocking to see what people would put their names too. But then again, as a long time reader of that listserv, maybe I shouldn't be.

Yes, I'm dismayed at the time of the posts on the Chevy Chase Listserve especially, and the sense of self entitlement some feel (and put their name to). This is not ideal for any community and this news has been sprung on Murch (maybe even more so than Lafayette).

And to correct a previous assertion here on this thread, the bulk of the CC listserv isolationist commentary is from Lafayette parents and just general youngish affected homeowners in "the envelope" -- not the usual six CC listserv gadflies who are retired without school- age kids.

But regardless of their age, 100% of the commenters have forgotten that their beloved "Chevy Chase community" extends past Nevada Ave. Chevy Chase continues all the way to 41st (yes) and includes hundreds of Murch families. Who are on the listserv too, and reading this shit.

Yes, this is the start of my favorite posting so far:

Hello all, we recently bought a house in Chevy Chase DC specifically for our son to attend Lafayette starting with kindergarten in Fall 2016. Tied for greatest draw with the neighborhood's old-fashioned charm and Lafayette's 'arts integration' curriculum was the Lafayette Park setting of the school. We are horrified to hear that Lafayette Park may host Murch for two years during Murch renovation. The trailers made sense for Lafayette's renovation, but not for Murch, for all the reasons detailed so well by other posters. (Thank you to the articulate members of our community!)

Or the one claiming the Murch neighbors are behind the whole thing because they don't want .. wait for it ... trailers at Murch! I fell on the floor laughing at that ridiculous rumor. Never mind that DGS hasn't told the neighbors boo about swing space yet (yes, Chevy Chase, you got to hear it first!), but Murch has 20 classrooms, half of the student body, in trailers already! And the first one was put up 40 years ago to ... host Lafayette students during a renovation! Not a peep from neighbors. So, yeah, really ignorant attempt to spread a false rumor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's my proposal- Move PK & K to the trailers (busses or no). They have their own specials teacher and I suspect they could even use part of the Lafayette play space and gym and library etc. for 2 years. That gets 180 kids out of the Murch campus - would that be enough to help?

This sounds more palatable to me. Especially if they changed the Murch pre-k/k time to 8-2:30 or 8:15-2:45, so they wouldn't need buses and would have time to pick up other Murch students in trailers at Murch.

I'm confused why a parent who has a rising K at Lafayette wouldn't also have a stake in this? It would certainly affect them too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's my proposal- Move PK & K to the trailers (busses or no). They have their own specials teacher and I suspect they could even use part of the Lafayette play space and gym and library etc. for 2 years. That gets 180 kids out of the Murch campus - would that be enough to help?

This sounds more palatable to me. Especially if they changed the Murch pre-k/k time to 8-2:30 or 8:15-2:45, so they wouldn't need buses and would have time to pick up other Murch students in trailers at Murch.

I'm confused why a parent who has a rising K at Lafayette wouldn't also have a stake in this? It would certainly affect them too.

They absolutely do. Of course they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's my proposal- Move PK & K to the trailers (busses or no). They have their own specials teacher and I suspect they could even use part of the Lafayette play space and gym and library etc. for 2 years. That gets 180 kids out of the Murch campus - would that be enough to help?

This sounds more palatable to me. Especially if they changed the Murch pre-k/k time to 8-2:30 or 8:15-2:45, so they wouldn't need buses and would have time to pick up other Murch students in trailers at Murch.

I'm confused why a parent who has a rising K at Lafayette wouldn't also have a stake in this? It would certainly affect them too.

They absolutely do. Of course they do.

I agree and stated that because the posters making fun of the CCLS poster, and doing so anonymously, said that it didn't "impact" her whatsoever. Let's just be real and acknowledge that if Murch parents were living in our houses, there would be an identical response. And while it sounds like Murch hosted Lafayette 40 years ago, the vast majority of those families have moved on. I can't imagine it was supported by 100% of the community.

[Anonymous]

I love the way that DCPS is trying to save modest amounts of money on the backs on Murch and Lafayette families when it is on track to spend nearly $200 million on a Taj Mahal for Duke Ellington -- with no governance and accountability for massive cost overruns there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love the way that DCPS is trying to save modest amounts of money on the backs on Murch and Lafayette families when it is on track to spend nearly $200 million on a Taj Mahal for Duke Ellington -- with no governance and accountability for massive cost overruns there.

I still can't understand why the Post hasn't done an expose on this. It's ripe for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a Lafayette parent who is vehemently opposed to the idea of moving the entire school to our trailers for 2 years.

HOWEVER - what if they only moved part of the school? PK-1 or whatever. They would then need less trailers at murch, would only need some of the Lafayette trailers, thus allowing the play space to be rebuilt and some of the field to be reclaimed...

Thoughts?

Agree with this. They could move families north of Murch to Lafayette and south of Murch could swing on-site or go to Chesapeake Park. Or the upper grades could stay at Murch and the lower ones go to Chesapeake. Or the north families use Lafayette trailers and the south families use the Hearst trailers. An influx of 300 students is a lot less daunting than an influx of 600.

Hearst has only one trailer ...

There are traffic jams each morning currently at Hearst for drop off. No way they could handle another 50+ drop offs. If only the southern Murch families did not oppose the boundary change to Hearst, they'd already be enjoying brand new, state of the art facilities...

This is because over 80% of the Hearst students live out of boundaries, the vast majority east of the Park and nearly all arrive by car. Some even arrive in Maryland cars (hmmm?). This is no way for DCPS to run a "neighborhood school system."

OOB is now 73%. http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Hearst+Elementary+School

and IB is even higher than that for the 2015 - 16 year.

OOB for this year's PK class at Hearst is approx 40%

Actually it is more like 25% and some of those OOB are Eaton families that are even closer to the school than the IB families. But quite frankly it doesn't really matter. The school has a fantastic community feel from both IB and OOB families.

No one disputes any notion of a "fantastic community feel." But the reality is that the locational demographics of Hearst's school population makes for a massive daily traffic headache as the overwhelming majority of students arrive by car. That was a PP's point. "Fantastic" perhaps, but "green"? No.

[Anonymous]

A reminder to all complaining about the impact of maybe having Murch students use the EXISTING trailers at Lafayette. Those of us in the proximity of Deal and Wilson put up with years of noise, dust, construction workers using all available parking spaces and more so your children could have better schools.

How hard would it really be for your neighborhood to take one for the team? We are one City maybe we should start acting like one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A reminder to all complaining about the impact of maybe having Murch students use the EXISTING trailers at Lafayette. Those of us in the proximity of Deal and Wilson put up with years of noise, dust, construction workers using all available parking spaces and more so your children could have better schools.

How hard would it really be for your neighborhood to take one for the team? We are one City maybe we should start acting like one.

This tired slogan went out with Mayor Gray. But hey, at least he wasn't indicted.