So, what is wrong with Hardy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not think so.
More students at Hardy = more students at Wilson.

Feeder rights for Shepherd and Bancroft into Deal/Wilson have been established and confirmed for political reasons and to please their IB constituency . Bowser's Ward 4 Crestwood voters have been recently rewarded with extended rights into the over-over-crowded Deal and Wilson...

An enlarged Hardy would only benefit a relatively small number of OB students, not a well-defined constituency.

An enlarged Hardy would just worsen Wilson overcrowding (a severe problem for DCPS) without bringing political returns.

I agree. I do not see this happening.

Obviously neither of you have been paying attention to what's been going on in the past ten years at DCPS. Capacity has been increased willy-nilly in the Deal and Wilson feeders with no regard for the future consequences. Ninety percent of DCPS schools are under-enrolled, so when there's a school that people actually want to go to, DCPS crams as many kids in as possible, and then crams in some more. The sole beneficiary of these expansions have been OOB students -- the majority of kids who go to school in Ward 3 don't live in Ward 3 -- and OOB kids are an extremely important constituency in DCPS. In recent years Hardy hasn't turned anyone away in the lottery and has had trouble meeting its enrollment goals. If Hardy starts attracting students, it is going to grow, grow, and grow some more. That's the way DCPS rolls. If the demand is there Hardy could rival Deal for size -- Fillmore can move somewhere else, and they can put trailers in the parking lot.

Never in the past 10 days DCPS has experienced exponential growth like in the past 4 years for D & W . So no worth going back to 10 years ago.

Students have been moved to trailers mainly due to IB not OB demographic pressures.

[Anonymous]

That tiny-ass parking lot is not going to house any trailers. Fillmore can't go anywhere unless there is an actual, real place for DCPS to place local elementary school kids into arts and music classes, when their own elementary schools are bursting at the seams without space for arts and music, or any money to pay new arts and music teachers.

Now, if DCPS would pony up the cash to buy the old "Fillmore/GW" building next door, then we'd be on to something. But DCPS doesn't have any more cash for WOTP. So, Hardy ain't changing any time soon in terms of enrollment capacity. It's a small school anyway, it could never, ever be the size of Deal unless you attach a new building to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That tiny-ass parking lot is not going to house any trailers.

I'm sure the teachers at other schools where they took away teacher parking to put in trailers will be relieved to hear that. DC owns a huge parking lot across the street at Jelleff, teachers could park there. At other schools teachers have to find street parking.

Anonymous wrote:
Fillmore can't go anywhere unless there is an actual, real place for DCPS to place local elementary school kids into arts and music classes, when their own elementary schools are bursting at the seams without space for arts and music, or any money to pay new arts and music teachers.

How about UDC? Or Shaw JHS? Francis seems to have a lot of space now that SWW isn't moving there. That's three off the top of my head. DCPS only has about 100 under-utilized buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That tiny-ass parking lot is not going to house any trailers.

I'm sure the teachers at other schools where they took away teacher parking to put in trailers will be relieved to hear that. DC owns a huge parking lot across the street at Jelleff, teachers could park there. At other schools teachers have to find street parking.

Anonymous wrote:
Fillmore can't go anywhere unless there is an actual, real place for DCPS to place local elementary school kids into arts and music classes, when their own elementary schools are bursting at the seams without space for arts and music, or any money to pay new arts and music teachers.

How about UDC? Or Shaw JHS? Francis seems to have a lot of space now that SWW isn't moving there. That's three off the top of my head. DCPS only has about 100 under-utilized buildings.

You gonna truck kids from, say, Key, all the way over to UDC, Shaw, or F-S? Don't make me laff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That tiny-ass parking lot is not going to house any trailers.

I'm sure the teachers at other schools where they took away teacher parking to put in trailers will be relieved to hear that. DC owns a huge parking lot across the street at Jelleff, teachers could park there. At other schools teachers have to find street parking.

Anonymous wrote:
Fillmore can't go anywhere unless there is an actual, real place for DCPS to place local elementary school kids into arts and music classes, when their own elementary schools are bursting at the seams without space for arts and music, or any money to pay new arts and music teachers.

How about UDC? Or Shaw JHS? Francis seems to have a lot of space now that SWW isn't moving there. That's three off the top of my head. DCPS only has about 100 under-utilized buildings.

You gonna truck kids from, say, Key, all the way over to UDC, Shaw, or F-S? Don't make me laff.

According to Google Maps: Key-Hardy: 9 minutes. Key-UDC: 11 minutes. Key-Francis: 13 minutes. I think they can find four minutes in the schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not think so.
More students at Hardy = more students at Wilson.

Feeder rights for Shepherd and Bancroft into Deal/Wilson have been established and confirmed for political reasons and to please their IB constituency . Bowser's Ward 4 Crestwood voters have been recently rewarded with extended rights into the over-over-crowded Deal and Wilson...

An enlarged Hardy would only benefit a relatively small number of OB students, not a well-defined constituency.

An enlarged Hardy would just worsen Wilson overcrowding (a severe problem for DCPS) without bringing political returns.

I agree. I do not see this happening.

Obviously neither of you have been paying attention to what's been going on in the past ten years at DCPS. Capacity has been increased willy-nilly in the Deal and Wilson feeders with no regard for the future consequences. Ninety percent of DCPS schools are under-enrolled, so when there's a school that people actually want to go to, DCPS crams as many kids in as possible, and then crams in some more. The sole beneficiary of these expansions have been OOB students -- the majority of kids who go to school in Ward 3 don't live in Ward 3 -- and OOB kids are an extremely important constituency in DCPS. In recent years Hardy hasn't turned anyone away in the lottery and has had trouble meeting its enrollment goals. If Hardy starts attracting students, it is going to grow, grow, and grow some more. That's the way DCPS rolls. If the demand is there Hardy could rival Deal for size -- Fillmore can move somewhere else, and they can put trailers in the parking lot.

If Hardy were to increase in size by taking the same number or more OOB students even if IB enrollment increase, then Hardy will sow the seeds of its own doom because it will lose Wilson. Wilson is already overcrowded and couldn't take many more kids from an expanded Hardy. This will only increase pressure to take Hardy out of the Wilson feeder pattern. DCPS has already floated this as a trial balloon and there are many people in the Deal and Wilson communities who would dearly love to see Hardy cut from Wilson. Hardy woukd be foolish to make itself into a big fat target for just that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
If Hardy were to increase in size by taking the same number or more OOB students even if IB enrollment increase, then Hardy will sow the seeds of its own doom because it will lose Wilson. Wilson is already overcrowded and couldn't take many more kids from an expanded Hardy. This will only increase pressure to take Hardy out of the Wilson feeder pattern. DCPS has already floated this as a trial balloon and there are many people in the Deal and Wilson communities who would dearly love to see Hardy cut from Wilson. Hardy woukd be foolish to make itself into a big fat target for just that.

DCPS principals are generally powerless to control the size of their school. They get an enrollment number, and if they don't hit it their budget suffers which causes all kinds of unpleasantness. In recent years, if DCPS senses that a school is in-demand the enrollment number grows and grows and grows some more. The long-term feeder implications don't matter, nor does the physical capacity of the school.

[Anonymous]

This is the dumbest tangent of the thread: Hardy's biggest asset is it's small size. Why on earth would anyone want to ruin that?

I have the option of Deal or Hardy and am leaning Hardy because I'm uncomfortable with my DC at a giant middle school (for my demographic, Hardy scores same as Deal . . .)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the dumbest tangent of the thread: Hardy's biggest asset is it's small size. Why on earth would anyone want to ruin that?

I have the option of Deal or Hardy and am leaning Hardy because I'm uncomfortable with my DC at a giant middle school (for my demographic, Hardy scores same as Deal . . .)

In dcps the needs of the many outweigh the. needs of the few. That's how Deal got to 1200.

[Anonymous]

Is it true Hardy turns no one down in the lottery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it true Hardy turns no one down in the lottery?

Not sure about this year. Last year there was a waitlist but everyone on it got called eventually and they didn't quite fill the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the dumbest tangent of the thread: Hardy's biggest asset is it's small size. Why on earth would anyone want to ruin that?

I have the option of Deal or Hardy and am leaning Hardy because I'm uncomfortable with my DC at a giant middle school (for my demographic, Hardy scores same as Deal . . .)

In dcps the needs of the many outweigh the. needs of the few. That's how Deal got to 1200.

Why do people have such a hard time understanding this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That tiny-ass parking lot is not going to house any trailers. Fillmore can't go anywhere unless there is an actual, real place for DCPS to place local elementary school kids into arts and music classes, when their own elementary schools are bursting at the seams without space for arts and music, or any money to pay new arts and music teachers.

Now, if DCPS would pony up the cash to buy the old "Fillmore/GW" building next door, then we'd be on to something. But DCPS doesn't have any more cash for WOTP. So, Hardy ain't changing any time soon in terms of enrollment capacity. It's a small school anyway, it could never, ever be the size of Deal unless you attach a new building to it.

That's not an entirely bad thing. Most people who care about their children's emotional development in the sensitive middle school years, don't want them to attend Lord-of-the-Flies which is the size of a small town.

[Anonymous]

So, if ALL OOB applicants are accepted at Hardy, then the ENTIRE city already has it as another option.

For all those saying, "I'm zoned for Deal but would go to Hardy." There you are! It is open and ready for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, if ALL OOB applicants are accepted at Hardy, then the ENTIRE city already has it as another option.

For all those saying, "I'm zoned for Deal but would go to Hardy." There you are! It is open and ready for you.

And if you look at the map of where Hardy kids come from:
http://edu.codefordc.org/#!/school/246

You'll see that very close to zero of them come from within the Deal boundaries. Maybe a handful from Shepherd Park, the map is imprecise. But it's fewer than ten.

Now, there may be some kids who are OOB for Deal but have the right to attend -- Deal is over a third OOB after all -- who opt for Hardy, they wouldn't show on the map. And it may be that last year was a fluke, that people didn't apply for Hardy because they thought it was hard to get into.