Who will go to new High School in Foxhall/Palisades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think the new high school will create momentum for Hardy to improve? I hope so!

We are in boundary for Hardy but currently not too exited about it. It may be in part due to lower (<80%) IB population and shabby school grounds. We were there a few months ago and was negatively impressed.. Does it take so much to repair basketball hoops and keep the trash collected? This after DC spends millions after millions in major school upgrades..

Trash collection and broken playground equipment is an issue at our recently modernized elementary ... 80% IB is also pretty good. Do you have any substantive concerns about Hardy?

No, since I don’t know much about the school. My kids are still at a feeder ES.

IB enrollment from inbound ESs was about 60% in 2020/2021, I believe, but improving from previous years.

We're IB and planning on using Hardy in a few years. IB numbers have gone up pretty steadily over the last decade. When we moved to the neighborhood, very few families used it. Now, most seem to use it. Really the only OOB families seem to be coming from the Hyde-Addison feeder. I'm ok with that, makes the school more diverse than my super white neighborhood.

Hyde was just renovated. Historically schools have gotten a big bump in in-boundary interest after being renovated. Hyde has always been a bit of a special case because the surrounding neighborhood isn't very family-friendly but it's worth watching.

[Anonymous]

As to the question of how the new HS will affect J-R...

According to the latest DCPS data (which is a couple years old) Deal is 77% IB and 20% economically disadvantaged. Hardy is 55% IB and 25% economically disadvantaged.

If all the Hardy kids go to the new school, and otherwise the feeder patterns remain the same, then it would seem that opening the new school would decrease the overall percentages of OOB and economically disadvantaged students at J-R, right? This is of course assuming that they don't open up lottery spots, which they shouldn't, because even with the new HS, J-R will be above capacity. What am I missing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As to the question of how the new HS will affect J-R...

According to the latest DCPS data (which is a couple years old) Deal is 77% IB and 20% economically disadvantaged. Hardy is 55% IB and 25% economically disadvantaged.

If all the Hardy kids go to the new school, and otherwise the feeder patterns remain the same, then it would seem that opening the new school would decrease the overall percentages of OOB and economically disadvantaged students at J-R, right? This is of course assuming that they don't open up lottery spots, which they shouldn't, because even with the new HS, J-R will be above capacity. What am I missing?

2021 data show that hardy is about 13% at risk and deal is about 11% at risk so not a lot of disadvantaged students at either school.

https://stossepublicdocsprod.blob.core.windows.net/public-docs/dc-school-report-card/2020-21/profiles/001-0246(Hardy%20Middle%20School).pdf

https://stossepublicdocsprod.blob.core.windows.net/public-docs/dc-school-report-card/2020-21/profiles/001-0405(Deal%20Middle%20School).pdf

[Anonymous]

Also, I’m excited about the new high school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think the new high school will create momentum for Hardy to improve? I hope so!

We are in boundary for Hardy but currently not too exited about it. It may be in part due to lower (<80%) IB population and shabby school grounds. We were there a few months ago and was negatively impressed.. Does it take so much to repair basketball hoops and keep the trash collected? This after DC spends millions after millions in major school upgrades..

Trash collection and broken playground equipment is an issue at our recently modernized elementary ... 80% IB is also pretty good. Do you have any substantive concerns about Hardy?

No, since I don’t know much about the school. My kids are still at a feeder ES.

IB enrollment from inbound ESs was about 60% in 2020/2021, I believe, but improving from previous years.

We're IB and planning on using Hardy in a few years. IB numbers have gone up pretty steadily over the last decade. When we moved to the neighborhood, very few families used it. Now, most seem to use it. Really the only OOB families seem to be coming from the Hyde-Addison feeder. I'm ok with that, makes the school more diverse than my super white neighborhood.

Hyde was just renovated. Historically schools have gotten a big bump in in-boundary interest after being renovated. Hyde has always been a bit of a special case because the surrounding neighborhood isn't very family-friendly but it's worth watching.

Glover Park isn't family friendly? I think the biggest chunk of IB students at Hardy are from Stoddert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Im thinking of leaving AU Park to move in-boundary for this school so my current Janney student doesn't have to go to J-R. The idea of a small, NW high school is super appealing. Otherwise we have to move to Bethesda.

DC is being very coy about this (since the optics don't look good). But the site location and size means that this school is meant to look demographically like a "W" school. Yes, it will be whiter than BCC if everything goes to DCPS plan. The roadmap for this school seems build off what happened to Hardy. Now that Hardy is plurality white and in-boundary; this school will mirror Hardy. (And many of the latinos at Hardy are 'white' embassy staff.) Keep in mind white students at Hardy seems to be even or out perform Deal students.

Look at where the school is. It really only works for current upper NW families. The big issue is will DC change neighborhood parking pass rules/make direct buses to Eaton/Stoddert areas. Right now many of the potentially students will qualify for zone 3 permits. So when they become juniors, they'll start parking on neighborhood streets. (My neighbors who go to J-R have their older son drive to school and use the W3 permit to part a block or two from it)

Will the feeder patterns be changed for JR with some kids directed to this school, given bus access?

[Anonymous]

Super excited for the new HS. Our kid is in ES at a feeder and we will send our kid in a decade. Really eager to see how they program and renovate the campus. There is a lot of work to be done but I think this school will be a winner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Im thinking of leaving AU Park to move in-boundary for this school so my current Janney student doesn't have to go to J-R. The idea of a small, NW high school is super appealing. Otherwise we have to move to Bethesda.

DC is being very coy about this (since the optics don't look good). But the site location and size means that this school is meant to look demographically like a "W" school. Yes, it will be whiter than BCC if everything goes to DCPS plan. The roadmap for this school seems build off what happened to Hardy. Now that Hardy is plurality white and in-boundary; this school will mirror Hardy. (And many of the latinos at Hardy are 'white' embassy staff.) Keep in mind white students at Hardy seems to be even or out perform Deal students.

Look at where the school is. It really only works for current upper NW families. The big issue is will DC change neighborhood parking pass rules/make direct buses to Eaton/Stoddert areas. Right now many of the potentially students will qualify for zone 3 permits. So when they become juniors, they'll start parking on neighborhood streets. (My neighbors who go to J-R have their older son drive to school and use the W3 permit to part a block or two from it)

Will the feeder patterns be changed for JR with some kids directed to this school, given bus access?

With the new Foxhall ES, the existing ES that feed into Deal will also be changed. To make Foxhall ES work, they will need to cannibalize portions of the Deal feeders. I expect significant tweaks to the borders of Deal feeders to reduce pressure on Deal/J-R. For example, a good chunk of the current Mann boundary gets sent to Foxhall and then portions of Janney and Hearst get re-routed to a new Mann boundary.

[Anonymous]

My DD is in 7th at Deal and we hope to lottery for this new HS.

[Anonymous]

Ugh, I can just picture the sensationalized accusations of education inequality in future wapo and city paper articles as a result of this school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, I can just picture the sensationalized accusations of education inequality in future wapo and city paper articles as a result of this school.

And the alternative is?

[Anonymous]

The equity issues have already been raised on DCUM of all places. Location probably doesn't rise to the top on need, accessibility, public school participation, density, and cynically seems to perpetuate notion that school desirability is associated with neighborhood income and whiteness.

The WAPO doesn't seem to be that interested in that issue set, frankly. Their education editorials are all stuck in Fenty-land about how charters are our friends, schools used to have no books!, Michelle Rhee generally had the right idea on everything, and an empowered School Board would ruin the DC school system (it's doing awesome under a hands-off Mayor, of course).

I think it's par for the course from this Mayor, who's happier to paint a street than spend money and push DC staff to make a difference for people instead of contractors.

I have no illusions that the Mayor would try to meet this need more equitably directly (or indirectly, e.g., through boundaries), or that she would be capable of the legwork to get buy-in.

Or that the Post would care about any of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As to the question of how the new HS will affect J-R...

According to the latest DCPS data (which is a couple years old) Deal is 77% IB and 20% economically disadvantaged. Hardy is 55% IB and 25% economically disadvantaged.

If all the Hardy kids go to the new school, and otherwise the feeder patterns remain the same, then it would seem that opening the new school would decrease the overall percentages of OOB and economically disadvantaged students at J-R, right? This is of course assuming that they don't open up lottery spots, which they shouldn't, because even with the new HS, J-R will be above capacity. What am I missing?

You are missing the fact that the new HS is not intended to placate Ward 3 families or reduce crowding at JR. The goal here is to get more disadvantaged students seats at JR and the new HS. It’s the only solution DCPS has for trying to close the achievement gap. Decades of pouring money on students and building expensive new high schools has not closed the gap one bit.