Surplussing the old Hardy School

[Anonymous]

Why doesn't Key just combine the 5th grade class to free up a classroom for the lower grades? Seems like the overcrowding is not a school-wide issue. In fact, the school is under-enrolled in the upper grades.

[Anonymous]

DC doesn't want to use the building if they don't renew Lab's lease. The building is in dire need of an overhaul, so DCPS would have to shell out money it doesn't have. Better to make money off of Lab and renew the lease.

[Anonymous]

False dichotomy.

The choices are not only (1) Renew lease with Lab for 25 more years or (2) Sink money into an immediate renovation.

However, choice (1) forecloses the possible pursuit of other options for a very long time. It seems short-sighted to the highest degree to conclude we should rinse our hands of the building because we cannot currently afford to renovate it. (Not to mention, I think the presumption that DC cannot afford to renovate is inherently flawed. Money is fungible.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:False dichotomy.

The choices are not only (1) Renew lease with Lab for 25 more years or (2) Sink money into an immediate renovation.

However, choice (1) forecloses the possible pursuit of other options for a very long time. It seems short-sighted to the highest degree to conclude we should rinse our hands of the building because we cannot currently afford to renovate it. (Not to mention, I think the presumption that DC cannot afford to renovate is inherently flawed. Money is fungible.)

I agree with everything you say, except it's a 50 year lease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:False dichotomy.

The choices are not only (1) Renew lease with Lab for 25 more years or (2) Sink money into an immediate renovation.

However, choice (1) forecloses the possible pursuit of other options for a very long time. It seems short-sighted to the highest degree to conclude we should rinse our hands of the building because we cannot currently afford to renovate it. (Not to mention, I think the presumption that DC cannot afford to renovate is inherently flawed. Money is fungible.)

Yeah, of course DC has money to renovate, and lot of it -- but the message we've been hearing for years is that Ward 3 and 4 schools have been renovated and other schools have been at the top of the list, and still are. That's not a completely unreasonable position; but it only makes sense if the boundaries are narrowed to push out OOB kids so that there's more room for in-boundary kids. And that's not going to happen, politically. So, "sit and spin" parents! The stereotype is you're richer than everyone else, so just spend your nepotism-spawned money on private school, or get out! Git!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still find it completely baffling that DCPS cannot find a way to improve Hardy sufficiently quickly to keep these students. It is just such a low-hanging fruit, relative to the other Sisyphean tasks they hope to accomplish.

+1 new management please

Sadly it's not that simple. Hardy got a new principal this fall, the fifth person to hold that title since 2011. It was Michelle Rhee who really baked the shitcake at Hardy and she's long gone too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC doesn't want to use the building if they don't renew Lab's lease. The building is in dire need of an overhaul, so DCPS would have to shell out money it doesn't have.

Actually, one of the curious things in all this is that no one at DCPS has been willing to say for the record that they don't want the building. That came up in the Council hearing on Tuesday. The closest thing is Abby Smith saying she feels the need for special ed is greater than elementary schools. Which is not the same thing as saying the building isn't needed.

Anonymous wrote:Better to make money off of Lab and renew the lease.

The terms of the lease are a giveaway. It's highly likely that DC won't collect a dime of rent for the entire 50 years.

Interestingly, two charter school leases are being considered at the same time. The private school which serves overwhelmingly MD and VA kids is getting much better terms than the taxpayer-supported public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Focusing solely on the overcrowded elementary school situation avoids any uncomfortable debate over demographics: no one disagrees that Ward 3 elementaries can't handle the number of new students from the local population. A new school where Lab currently sits would certainly help. But there's another problem: what would the new school's boundaries be? There are already several DCPS elementaries in close proximity to Lab. It would make more sense (with geography taken into account) to devote public funds to build more classroom space where those schools already exist. Though there probably isn't a budget for that, either. That's why the elementary principals are discussing adding more trailers to their campuses, and no one over at DCPS or the Council is doing anything to create a better solution because it's less headache for them.

The four closest elementary schools to the old Hardy building -- Stoddert, Mann, Key and Janney -- have all been significantly expanded in the past 10 years. All are now over capacity and have essentially stopped taking OOB kids. All faced significant neighbor issues when they were expanded. Key and Janney have on-going operational issues with their neighbors about parking and traffic because they are located on side streets that can't handle the traffic they draw. The Hardy site has frontage on two major thoroughfares, Foxhall and MacArthur, and the third side is a bus route on Q street. It abuts five acres of DC-owned land in the rec center. It is a far better location for a school.

Now think what would happen if Hardy were to become desirable as a middle school. The bleed of kids to charter and private would slow dramatically. It was mentioned upthread that Key is 100 kids at kindergarten and 30 at fifth. With a desirable middle school, it could conceivably be six years of 100 kids, plus 40 in pre-K. That's 640, or about 60% more than are there today. Where would those kids go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't Key just combine the 5th grade class to free up a classroom for the lower grades? Seems like the overcrowding is not a school-wide issue. In fact, the school is under-enrolled in the upper grades.

The two fifth grades classes are in a single trailer. The issue isn't lack of classroom space, every kid has a desk. It's that everything else in the school -- the lunchroom, gym, library, playground, teacher parking lot -- was built for about 100 fewer kids than are there now.

[Anonymous]

@12:42: what you've done here is explain why DCPS has no interest in assuring more in-boundary kids go to the current Hardy middle school: because if you do, then all of the elementary schools are going to expand dramatically in 4th and 5th grade. Plus, even more parents with kids will desire to move in-boundary. DCPS is using Hardy Middle as a stopper to prevent the need for more investment everywhere else in Wards 3 and 4.

[Anonymous]

I don't believe they're doing this (that's a political calculation dramatically above everyone's paygrade in DCPS), but the thought certainly deserves some serious exploration.

[Anonymous]

Well, the officials at the top, at least the current term's, weren't shy about using race and class as weapons during the election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, the officials at the top, at least the current term's, weren't shy about using race and class as weapons during the election.

I wasn't in DC for the last two mayoral elections (I still like Anthony Williams and his ever-present bow-tie), so fill me in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, the officials at the top, at least the current term's, weren't shy about using race and class as weapons during the election.

I wasn't in DC for the last two mayoral elections (I still like Anthony Williams and his ever-present bow-tie), so fill me in.

Google "Shadow Campaign." You'll be stuck reading for hours about indictments, burned notebooks (destroying evidence), and a fake mayoral candidate paid off by Gray's shadow staff to pile on Fenty for being some kind of Uncle Tom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Article on this in today's DuPont current. Not yet available online.

http://www.currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/DP%2012-04-2013.pdf