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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, part of Rodman is in Eaton’s boundaries. Worse are the apartments down the hill on Porter.

But, agreed, it’s crazy to think a child would walk 40-50 minutes along busy streets each way to school. My kids do have other stuff to do besides computer games, unlike one PP above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, part of Rodman is in Eaton’s boundaries. Worse are the apartments down the hill on Porter.

But, agreed, it’s crazy to think a child would walk 40-50 minutes along busy streets each way to school. My kids do have other stuff to do besides computer games, unlike one PP above.

(Eaton boundaries, if you care: https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Eaton.pdf . But, again, the main point is that Hardy and MacArthur are way far from much of Eaton when compared to Deal and Wilson.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

He totally said it - think he regretted saying it! It was a big thing at the time.

[Anonymous]

Palisades families have done the reverse for years - getting from palisades to Wilson (or SWW). But honestly only about 10-15 IB Key kids go to public for HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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…

Fine. One half of one side of one block of Rodman is zoned for Eaton. What’s that, 7 houses? How many have school aged children? I’m on Quebec. The children across the street go to Hearst. Because in all its infinite wisdom DC decided boundaries are in the middle of streets rather than alleys so the children directly across from us on the same block don’t attend the same school. Brilliant. Doesn’t diminish the fact that the Hardy commute is vastly different than the Deal commodore those of us at the outer boundary and a commute to the new high school is even worse.

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.

Yes, part of Rodman is in Eaton’s boundaries. Worse are the apartments down the hill on Porter.

But, agreed, it’s crazy to think a child would walk 40-50 minutes along busy streets each way to school. My kids do have other stuff to do besides computer games, unlike one PP above.

(Eaton boundaries, if you care: https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Eaton.pdf . But, again, the main point is that Hardy and MacArthur are way far from much of Eaton when compared to Deal and Wilson.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, part of Rodman is in Eaton’s boundaries. Worse are the apartments down the hill on Porter.

But, agreed, it’s crazy to think a child would walk 40-50 minutes along busy streets each way to school. My kids do have other stuff to do besides computer games, unlike one PP above.

(Eaton boundaries, if you care: https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Eaton.pdf . But, again, the main point is that Hardy and MacArthur are way far from much of Eaton when compared to Deal and Wilson.)

Thanks to whoever posted the boundaries. We ARE the apartments at the bottom of the hill on Porter and it does seem the worst place to be for later grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Palisades families have done the reverse for years - getting from palisades to Wilson (or SWW). But honestly only about 10-15 IB Key kids go to public for HS.

Yeah, lots of kids in the city travel much further for high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, part of Rodman is in Eaton’s boundaries. Worse are the apartments down the hill on Porter.

But, agreed, it’s crazy to think a child would walk 40-50 minutes along busy streets each way to school. My kids do have other stuff to do besides computer games, unlike one PP above.

Really its not crazy. Kids can handle walking. Or biking. And crossing busy streets though there is no reason to do the entire walk along a busy street unless your kid is an idiot.

Or parents can keep coddling their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, part of Rodman is in Eaton’s boundaries. Worse are the apartments down the hill on Porter.

But, agreed, it’s crazy to think a child would walk 40-50 minutes along busy streets each way to school. My kids do have other stuff to do besides computer games, unlike one PP above.

Really its not crazy. Kids can handle walking. Or biking. And crossing busy streets though there is no reason to do the entire walk along a busy street unless your kid is an idiot.

Or parents can keep coddling their kids.

Hopefully the NIMBYs wont keep killing bike lane plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Honestly you sound like snowflakes. People in DC and everywhere else have far worse treks to school and unless you luck into a couple of local private schools your trek to those schools will be even further.

Both of my kids are highly programmed and still can get themselves to and from school and it doesn't come at the expense of their sleep.

I don't say good riddance - I say buck it up and let your kids be independent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, part of Rodman is in Eaton’s boundaries. Worse are the apartments down the hill on Porter.

But, agreed, it’s crazy to think a child would walk 40-50 minutes along busy streets each way to school. My kids do have other stuff to do besides computer games, unlike one PP above.

Really its not crazy. Kids can handle walking. Or biking. And crossing busy streets though there is no reason to do the entire walk along a busy street unless your kid is an idiot.

Or parents can keep coddling their kids.

With GPS finding a good walking route is a snap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Palisades families have done the reverse for years - getting from palisades to Wilson (or SWW). But honestly only about 10-15 IB Key kids go to public for HS.

Yeah, lots of kids in the city travel much further for high school.

That may be, but it doesn’t make it a reasonable default.

[Anonymous]

Can those of you going back and forth incessantly about walking/not walking, snowflake vs. independent, kindly knock it off. It’s grown tedious. Move on.

[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.

There will be a lot of new affordable housing in the Ward. Between private development (IZ/IZ+) and city sponsored (Tenley Library, Chevy Chase Community Center) - it will come. So actually, Frumin is right on this.

[Anonymous]

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.

I'd vote for a candidate who planned to put city money into affordable housing in Ward 3 (to get around the developer profit obstacle). But I also think it should be possible to open more access to excellent schools in D.C. without requiring people to move in-bounds for them. Frumin is right about the logistical problems with the citywide lottery plan for this MacArthur site, though; hard to think of a worse location for a citywide school from a public transit standpoint than the Palisades.

+1 - unless there is massive investment to get more Metro buses to Palisades, I don't see how this high school is going to be viable for kids from across the city.