New DCPS school on former Georgetown Day site will be a high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 candidates are starting to come out with positions on this. What are people's takes?

Here's Frumin on Foxhall and MacArthur:

https://fruminforward3.com/food-for-thought-new-schools/

He thinks we should pause planning for the Foxhall ES to see if that money might be better spent elsewhere in Ward 3 DCPS and says the idea of a 50/50 boundary/lottery HS for 1,000 kids on MacArthur is idealistically sound but logistically unsound because a.) the school is not in a central location, making it difficult to reach for many; and b.) building a new half-lottery school in Ward 3 will only draw kids away from already-underutilized high schools elsewhere in the city. He envisions a high school on the MacArthur site for 700, but doesn't say where those 700 should come from (Hardy plus kids moved from Wilson? Redrawn W3 boundaries? Hardy plus fewer lottery seats?)

He also says "the way to increase access to Ward 3 schools is to build more affordable housing in the area, a project to which I am deeply committed."

Well, good luck with that. Ward 3 is definitely getting more housing, but almost none of it will be affordable because developers can't make money off such housing.

Affordable housing is just a pretext for the Uber-dense, market rate shiny development that Ward 3 Vision, Bob Ward's Smart Growth "group", etc. lobby for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Putting the high school in the Hardy building and moving Hardy to the GDS McArthur building would have made so much more sense. The Hardy building is a lot more accessible to the rest of the city.

Agreed. The Georgetown ANC was adamant that Hardy remain a middle school. Apparently Ellington was also opposed to a high school nearby.

If only they could move Ellington...

Ellington should have been moved to Shaw or other central location, with the remaining building being recommissioned as a high school.

The hundreds of millions wasted on poor planning will result in a new high school tucked away in a transit inhospitable location meant mostly for white kids from affluent neighborhoods. I am sure the people of Palisades are thrilled to have their own high school that will be akin to Mann Elementary. But for the rest of the city, this is a raw deal.

I am SO sick of Ellington. They act so entitled, DC taxpayers fund the school's operating budget and paid for the hugely expensive renovations, yet there is no accountability. They mayor and DCPS don't even have a designated board seat on the Ellington board. And then Ellington is deferred to because they don't want another high school nearby?! Here's how to solve Ellington's problem. Evict Ellington from its current location which was once the Western High School. And Ellington can move to central DC (although maybe Maryland would be ok because so many Ellington students live in MD rather than DC).

[Anonymous]

Evicting Ellington doesn't solve the problem. It would need to be renovated AGAIN to turn it into a traditional high school. And then the city would need to build a new performing arts HS somewhere else in the central part of the city for big $$$.

From a practical standpoint, that would be a massive waste of money. Ellington is done, it's not going anywhere. Saying "recreate Western HS!" makes you sound like a foolish Don Quixote trying to go back to some sort of idealistic past that never existed.

[Anonymous]

We are a one-car family in Ward 3 and it's not clear how we'll be served by public transit as our kids progress in DCPS. We currently drive to Eaton when it's raining, as the closest we can get by metrobus is many blocks away. Hardy is even less accessible to our apartment and it sounds like the new high school would be worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 candidates are starting to come out with positions on this. What are people's takes?

Here's Frumin on Foxhall and MacArthur:

https://fruminforward3.com/food-for-thought-new-schools/

He thinks we should pause planning for the Foxhall ES to see if that money might be better spent elsewhere in Ward 3 DCPS and says the idea of a 50/50 boundary/lottery HS for 1,000 kids on MacArthur is idealistically sound but logistically unsound because a.) the school is not in a central location, making it difficult to reach for many; and b.) building a new half-lottery school in Ward 3 will only draw kids away from already-underutilized high schools elsewhere in the city. He envisions a high school on the MacArthur site for 700, but doesn't say where those 700 should come from (Hardy plus kids moved from Wilson? Redrawn W3 boundaries? Hardy plus fewer lottery seats?)

He also says "the way to increase access to Ward 3 schools is to build more affordable housing in the area, a project to which I am deeply committed."

Well, good luck with that. Ward 3 is definitely getting more housing, but almost none of it will be affordable because developers can't make money off such housing.

Having read his page and being very familiar with this issue, the alternative options, and the arguments for and against the new schools, his position seems more nuanced than you are giving him credit for. But it is also a classic example of a candidate carefully crafting a position to be all things to all people (with special attention to the vocal NIMBYs in Foxhall) while putting forth ideas that are superficially appealing but completely unrealistic (buying back LAB's lease; asking them to move to the River School campus). It's taken so long to get movement on the school overcrowding problem in Ward 3 and finally we have traction. Any candidate who can say with a straight-face that they support public education and yet want to put a "pause" on that movement should be viewed with some suspicion.

On the plus side, he's also talking himself out of the Mary Cheh endorsement that will probably be decisive.

Mary Cher’s endorsement won’t make a difference. The Washington Post endorsement is the only one that matters.

She’s already endorsed another candidate… for what it’s worth … Duncan.

Frumin wasn’t so impressive when he jumped in trying to be a change agent on the last school boundary efforts

John Eaton families, now former Eaton families, are still smarting from when he called Eaton necessary "collateral damage" because one Ward 3 school had to be the sacrificial cut from Deal.

Poor choice of words but he wasn’t wrong. Time to move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a one-car family in Ward 3 and it's not clear how we'll be served by public transit as our kids progress in DCPS. We currently drive to Eaton when it's raining, as the closest we can get by metrobus is many blocks away. Hardy is even less accessible to our apartment and it sounds like the new high school would be worse.

Hardy at its current location is pretty accessible on public transit and frankly if you live within Eaton's boundaries there is really no part of the catchment area that is not comfortably walking distance to Hardy and not sure why people can't walk to school in the rain - our kids have rain coats and walk to school in the rain.

As for the new Palisades HS that is not going to be easy to reach at all. Presumably a new WMATA bus route will be created but given the limited ways to get there and all of the congestion it will not be an easy place to reach by any means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 candidates are starting to come out with positions on this. What are people's takes?

Here's Frumin on Foxhall and MacArthur:

https://fruminforward3.com/food-for-thought-new-schools/

He thinks we should pause planning for the Foxhall ES to see if that money might be better spent elsewhere in Ward 3 DCPS and says the idea of a 50/50 boundary/lottery HS for 1,000 kids on MacArthur is idealistically sound but logistically unsound because a.) the school is not in a central location, making it difficult to reach for many; and b.) building a new half-lottery school in Ward 3 will only draw kids away from already-underutilized high schools elsewhere in the city. He envisions a high school on the MacArthur site for 700, but doesn't say where those 700 should come from (Hardy plus kids moved from Wilson? Redrawn W3 boundaries? Hardy plus fewer lottery seats?)

He also says "the way to increase access to Ward 3 schools is to build more affordable housing in the area, a project to which I am deeply committed."

Well, good luck with that. Ward 3 is definitely getting more housing, but almost none of it will be affordable because developers can't make money off such housing.

Having read his page and being very familiar with this issue, the alternative options, and the arguments for and against the new schools, his position seems more nuanced than you are giving him credit for. But it is also a classic example of a candidate carefully crafting a position to be all things to all people (with special attention to the vocal NIMBYs in Foxhall) while putting forth ideas that are superficially appealing but completely unrealistic (buying back LAB's lease; asking them to move to the River School campus). It's taken so long to get movement on the school overcrowding problem in Ward 3 and finally we have traction. Any candidate who can say with a straight-face that they support public education and yet want to put a "pause" on that movement should be viewed with some suspicion.

On the plus side, he's also talking himself out of the Mary Cheh endorsement that will probably be decisive.

Mary Cher’s endorsement won’t make a difference. The Washington Post endorsement is the only one that matters.

She’s already endorsed another candidate… for what it’s worth … Duncan.

Frumin wasn’t so impressive when he jumped in trying to be a change agent on the last school boundary efforts

John Eaton families, now former Eaton families, are still smarting from when he called Eaton necessary "collateral damage" because one Ward 3 school had to be the sacrificial cut from Deal.

Poor choice of words but he wasn’t wrong. Time to move on.

I'm skeptical he said that in part because by referring to it as "collateral damage" he would have been pandering to the ridiculous whining from the Eaton/CP crowd about the move which has really turned out to not be a big deal at all. Or maybe that is proof that he did say it and was pandering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a one-car family in Ward 3 and it's not clear how we'll be served by public transit as our kids progress in DCPS. We currently drive to Eaton when it's raining, as the closest we can get by metrobus is many blocks away. Hardy is even less accessible to our apartment and it sounds like the new high school would be worse.

Hardy at its current location is pretty accessible on public transit and frankly if you live within Eaton's boundaries there is really no part of the catchment area that is not comfortably walking distance to Hardy and not sure why people can't walk to school in the rain - our kids have rain coats and walk to school in the rain.

As for the new Palisades HS that is not going to be easy to reach at all. Presumably a new WMATA bus route will be created but given the limited ways to get there and all of the congestion it will not be an easy place to reach by any means.

LOL. 50 minutes walking for a 6th grader is “comfortable”? And what about in the uphill direction?

No doubt you walked 15 miles barefoot in snow to school…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a one-car family in Ward 3 and it's not clear how we'll be served by public transit as our kids progress in DCPS. We currently drive to Eaton when it's raining, as the closest we can get by metrobus is many blocks away. Hardy is even less accessible to our apartment and it sounds like the new high school would be worse.

Hardy at its current location is pretty accessible on public transit and frankly if you live within Eaton's boundaries there is really no part of the catchment area that is not comfortably walking distance to Hardy and not sure why people can't walk to school in the rain - our kids have rain coats and walk to school in the rain.

As for the new Palisades HS that is not going to be easy to reach at all. Presumably a new WMATA bus route will be created but given the limited ways to get there and all of the congestion it will not be an easy place to reach by any means.

LOL. 50 minutes walking for a 6th grader is “comfortable”? And what about in the uphill direction?

No doubt you walked 15 miles barefoot in snow to school…

Umm I do think a 6th grader can walk for 50 minutes and can handle walking up a hill (really??) - the only snow here is the apparently snowflake of a kid here though it is usually the parents who shrink from anything hard and not our kids.

In any case I'm pretty familiar with the neighborhood and would be surprised if the slowest of kids would talk 50 minutes to get to Eaton - there is no part of Eaton's boundaries that are more than 2 miles from the school so at worst it is a 30 minute walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a one-car family in Ward 3 and it's not clear how we'll be served by public transit as our kids progress in DCPS. We currently drive to Eaton when it's raining, as the closest we can get by metrobus is many blocks away. Hardy is even less accessible to our apartment and it sounds like the new high school would be worse.

Hardy at its current location is pretty accessible on public transit and frankly if you live within Eaton's boundaries there is really no part of the catchment area that is not comfortably walking distance to Hardy and not sure why people can't walk to school in the rain - our kids have rain coats and walk to school in the rain.

As for the new Palisades HS that is not going to be easy to reach at all. Presumably a new WMATA bus route will be created but given the limited ways to get there and all of the congestion it will not be an easy place to reach by any means.

LOL. 50 minutes walking for a 6th grader is “comfortable”? And what about in the uphill direction?

No doubt you walked 15 miles barefoot in snow to school…

Umm I do think a 6th grader can walk for 50 minutes and can handle walking up a hill (really??) - the only snow here is the apparently snowflake of a kid here though it is usually the parents who shrink from anything hard and not our kids.

In any case I'm pretty familiar with the neighborhood and would be surprised if the slowest of kids would talk 50 minutes to get to Eaton - there is no part of Eaton's boundaries that are more than 2 miles from the school so at worst it is a 30 minute walk.

Of course a 6th grader can walk for 50 minutes; that doesn’t make it a practical commute twice a day.

Stick the corner of Rodman and Connecticut in a mapping app and see what you get. You know not of what you speak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a one-car family in Ward 3 and it's not clear how we'll be served by public transit as our kids progress in DCPS. We currently drive to Eaton when it's raining, as the closest we can get by metrobus is many blocks away. Hardy is even less accessible to our apartment and it sounds like the new high school would be worse.

Hardy at its current location is pretty accessible on public transit and frankly if you live within Eaton's boundaries there is really no part of the catchment area that is not comfortably walking distance to Hardy and not sure why people can't walk to school in the rain - our kids have rain coats and walk to school in the rain.

As for the new Palisades HS that is not going to be easy to reach at all. Presumably a new WMATA bus route will be created but given the limited ways to get there and all of the congestion it will not be an easy place to reach by any means.

LOL. 50 minutes walking for a 6th grader is “comfortable”? And what about in the uphill direction?

No doubt you walked 15 miles barefoot in snow to school…

Umm I do think a 6th grader can walk for 50 minutes and can handle walking up a hill (really??) - the only snow here is the apparently snowflake of a kid here though it is usually the parents who shrink from anything hard and not our kids.

In any case I'm pretty familiar with the neighborhood and would be surprised if the slowest of kids would talk 50 minutes to get to Eaton - there is no part of Eaton's boundaries that are more than 2 miles from the school so at worst it is a 30 minute walk.

Of course a 6th grader can walk for 50 minutes; that doesn’t make it a practical commute twice a day.

Stick the corner of Rodman and Connecticut in a mapping app and see what you get. You know not of what you speak.

(And note — we’re not talking about getting to Eaton. It’s getting to *Hardy* from parts of Eaton’s boundaries.)

(But all this is off-topic; yes, Eaton is mostly closer to Deal, but that ship has sailed. And, yes, GDS MacArthur is terribly inaccessible even to many who live relatively close by.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a one-car family in Ward 3 and it's not clear how we'll be served by public transit as our kids progress in DCPS. We currently drive to Eaton when it's raining, as the closest we can get by metrobus is many blocks away. Hardy is even less accessible to our apartment and it sounds like the new high school would be worse.

Hardy at its current location is pretty accessible on public transit and frankly if you live within Eaton's boundaries there is really no part of the catchment area that is not comfortably walking distance to Hardy and not sure why people can't walk to school in the rain - our kids have rain coats and walk to school in the rain.

As for the new Palisades HS that is not going to be easy to reach at all. Presumably a new WMATA bus route will be created but given the limited ways to get there and all of the congestion it will not be an easy place to reach by any means.

LOL. 50 minutes walking for a 6th grader is “comfortable”? And what about in the uphill direction?

No doubt you walked 15 miles barefoot in snow to school…

Umm I do think a 6th grader can walk for 50 minutes and can handle walking up a hill (really??) - the only snow here is the apparently snowflake of a kid here though it is usually the parents who shrink from anything hard and not our kids.

In any case I'm pretty familiar with the neighborhood and would be surprised if the slowest of kids would talk 50 minutes to get to Eaton - there is no part of Eaton's boundaries that are more than 2 miles from the school so at worst it is a 30 minute walk.

Of course a 6th grader can walk for 50 minutes; that doesn’t make it a practical commute twice a day.

Stick the corner of Rodman and Connecticut in a mapping app and see what you get. You know not of what you speak.

Just checked - it is .9 miles from CT & Rodman to Eaton and 2.2 miles to Hardy. So the former should be a 15-20 minute walk and the latter about 45 minutes on foot and both can be done in one-third the time on a bike.

Both seem pretty practical or would be for my kids who mostly want to spend their free time staring at a screen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again reflecting DC's racial fears. The high schools are highly segregated, so the place for a new high school in DC is of course placed at the least accessible furthest corner of Georgetown.

Google Maps tells me if you get to the Anacostia Metro at 7:30 am, catch the Green Line then the D6, you can get to that location just before 9am.

Just the bus from Dupont Circle takes 36 minutes.

Who says all OOB kids come from EotR? You’d have to move heaven and earth to cut Janney out of Deal, but families who live IB for Janney will lottery for this school in droves. And that, plus the end of the Hardy-to-Wilson feed, will open up OOB seats at Wilson. Which is right on top of the train, a 30-minute ride from the Anacostia station. It’s a dynamic system.

Agree with this. In a few years Wilson will likely become a majority OOB school and all the JKLMM families that do not go the private school route will end up in the Palisades. I think DC should have spent all those millions to build/buy a new high school outside of Ward 3 that would have relieved overcrowding at Wilson and keep kids from having to travel across the city to get to a decent school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again reflecting DC's racial fears. The high schools are highly segregated, so the place for a new high school in DC is of course placed at the least accessible furthest corner of Georgetown.

Google Maps tells me if you get to the Anacostia Metro at 7:30 am, catch the Green Line then the D6, you can get to that location just before 9am.

Just the bus from Dupont Circle takes 36 minutes.

Who says all OOB kids come from EotR? You’d have to move heaven and earth to cut Janney out of Deal, but families who live IB for Janney will lottery for this school in droves. And that, plus the end of the Hardy-to-Wilson feed, will open up OOB seats at Wilson. Which is right on top of the train, a 30-minute ride from the Anacostia station. It’s a dynamic system.

Agree with this. In a few years Wilson will likely become a majority OOB school and all the JKLMM families that do not go the private school route will end up in the Palisades. I think DC should have spent all those millions to build/buy a new high school outside of Ward 3 that would have relieved overcrowding at Wilson and keep kids from having to travel across the city to get to a decent school.

They already have build/renovated those schools and the neighborhood families don’t want to go to them. DCPS has to either improve programming dramatically at these schools or force people to go there by eliminating OOB or both. But we all know neither will happen so every morning, kids trek west for an hour rather than down the street a few blocks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a one-car family in Ward 3 and it's not clear how we'll be served by public transit as our kids progress in DCPS. We currently drive to Eaton when it's raining, as the closest we can get by metrobus is many blocks away. Hardy is even less accessible to our apartment and it sounds like the new high school would be worse.

Hardy at its current location is pretty accessible on public transit and frankly if you live within Eaton's boundaries there is really no part of the catchment area that is not comfortably walking distance to Hardy and not sure why people can't walk to school in the rain - our kids have rain coats and walk to school in the rain.

As for the new Palisades HS that is not going to be easy to reach at all. Presumably a new WMATA bus route will be created but given the limited ways to get there and all of the congestion it will not be an easy place to reach by any means.

LOL. 50 minutes walking for a 6th grader is “comfortable”? And what about in the uphill direction?

No doubt you walked 15 miles barefoot in snow to school…

Umm I do think a 6th grader can walk for 50 minutes and can handle walking up a hill (really??) - the only snow here is the apparently snowflake of a kid here though it is usually the parents who shrink from anything hard and not our kids.

In any case I'm pretty familiar with the neighborhood and would be surprised if the slowest of kids would talk 50 minutes to get to Eaton - there is no part of Eaton's boundaries that are more than 2 miles from the school so at worst it is a 30 minute walk.

Of course a 6th grader can walk for 50 minutes; that doesn’t make it a practical commute twice a day.

Stick the corner of Rodman and Connecticut in a mapping app and see what you get. You know not of what you speak.

Just checked - it is .9 miles from CT & Rodman to Eaton and 2.2 miles to Hardy. So the former should be a 15-20 minute walk and the latter about 45 minutes on foot and both can be done in one-third the time on a bike.

Both seem pretty practical or would be for my kids who mostly want to spend their free time staring at a screen.

Rodman is not in Hardy’s boundary. My house is at the furthest northern street that is IB for Eaton and thus hardy. It is a hair shy of 2 miles. My kid is not walking that down and up Wisconsin twice a day. It’s a 40 minute+ walk each way. In the dark coming home much of the year if they stay for any after school activities. How would the child ever have time to do homework if they had to devote nearly 2 hours to commuting daily? My 12 year old still needs to sleep at some point. We’ve enjoyed a great 8 years at DCPS, but switching us to Hardy was a difficult pill to swallow. Moving us to the new TBD high school one grade at a time is it for us. We’re applying out to privates and if that doesn’t work we’re going to move. I know you’ll say good riddance, but we are highly involved in the school and surrounding community organizations so this is not a flippant decision for us.