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Anonymous
It just seemed like a dumb way to do it -- we drew another line and, rats, it didn't work. Like surely you would just try to gerrymander some upper SES families into Miner and maybe some of the lowest SES into Maury. I think that probably wouldn't do much for Miner, in that the high SES families would presumably lottery out as soon as possible, as the high SES families living in boundary already do, but it would be a more manageable way for Maury to absorb some more at-risk kids. |
Anonymous
Or they could just create an at-risk set-aside at Maury and other high SES schools. |
Anonymous
Interesting - Maury sent more (27) kids than Miner (17) to EH last year. |
Anonymous
Yes, though this sort of gets back into the Maury capacity issues. (I can never understand why they didn't just pop another level on top, but I'm maybe too free with DCPS money in my mind.) Speaking of -- I noticed the DME referred to Maury's "revised" capacity -- I think 613? The capacity numbers for Maury that I have seen in previous years were in the 590s I thought. Am I misremembering? Or is DC squeezing some extra juice out of Maury? |
Anonymous
Wouldn't neighbors have objected to having sunlight blocked, etc.? |
Anonymous
My guess is that Miner families already know what dysfunction looks like so they are cutting and running while they have the chance. |
Anonymous
Regarding adding capacity when they renovated: we are at JO Wilson which is about to undergo a reno and were surprised to learn that they did not intend to add any capacity in the renovation. JO has low IB enrollment in a neighborhood where a lot of people would love a good IB school, plus a lot of IB families attend Two Rivers which has it's own problems at the moment. In any case, I was surprised to learn that DCPS didn't view additional capacity as a priority. If JO increases it's IB enrollment with the construction of the new facility (which seems likely, it sounds like it's going to be really nice), and there is no increase in capacity, what this really means is pushing out OOB families from Wards 7 and 8 (including some people now zoned for Miner). Does this mean that in 10 years when JO is doing very well, they'll try to cluster it with Wheatley in Trinidad? The way DCPS goes about things seems so short-sighted sometimes. |
Anonymous
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Also Maury ranked at the bottom of funding per student last year. Literally last place.
And again, the “robust PTA fundraising” was cited as a reason why. Our fundraising has screwed us yet again. |
Anonymous
Most of the Maury 5th grade goes to EH and yes that includes some “top students” lol. (The lottery cannot select for “top students.”) |
Anonymous
Sure, but some "top students" self-select for the lottery. |
Anonymous
Could they shrink the boundary by a few blocks and then add the at-risk set aside if there are capacity concerns? |
Anonymous
| There are a lot of good ideas here— all of which make way more sense than just jamming two schools together. (Also: has anyone asked the administration or teachers of either school?! I imagine they’ll feel pretty strongly about this, and have a much better idea of what their students need.) |
Anonymous
Please don't be dramatic. I think the cluster is a bad idea but you sound ridiculous. Maury ranks low on per student funding because it has very low percentages of SpEd and at risk kids. That's it. The school is full of kids who are well supported at home, on or above grade level, and without a lot of learning disorders or risk factors like poverty and housing insecurity. Kids at Maury do fine with this lower per-student funding not because the PTO is making up the difference but because they do not need the things that extra funding pays for. You probably don't understand this because you have never had a child at a school in DC with a high SpEd and at-risk population, so you don't understand that a lot of the services that high per-pupil funding pays for are things you don't need anyway, like special transportation for kids coming from shelters, remedial tutoring starting in kindergarten to address delays that should have been caught and addressed years prior, etc. You can oppose the cluster without trying to make it sound like students at Maury are being deprived of precious resources within DCPS. Students at Maury want for very little and PTO funding goes to pay for things that most DCPS students don't get at all. |
Anonymous
+1. Also, the numbers are already pretty low by 5th grade. You have over 80 in a class in the earlier grades, and a ton of departures in 4th grade. So, most Maury students to do not continue onto EH. |
Anonymous
Given the placement of the two schools within their boundaries & where the wealth & poverty are concentrated in the two IBs, it would be basically impossible to draw the boundaries to make a substantial difference short of real absurdity. |