School Boundary Issue - How will NW elementary schools be affected?

[Anonymous]

OP-- I would just try to stay away from the normative poster. You know what kind of neighbor he/she will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP-- I would just try to stay away from the normative poster. You know what kind of neighbor he/she will be.

OP, we can all assure you, that the rest of the people in NW are not like this meanie pants and you should not take her as representative. (I hope I don't get scolded!)

[Anonymous]

Projections are not always completely accurate but according to the most recent school profiles posted by DCPS, Murch is expected to add more students than any other ES in the city in the coming school year. The population may have to be reduced by more than 50-60 students.

[Anonymous]

hopefully they look at projections! they are at least a sign of a trend!! eventually there will have to be another elementary in NW.

[Anonymous]

"Really? I wouldn't want to go to one of those schools. If I did - I would live somewhere like, Fairfax county. Where, you might as well live if you live in Ward 3."

I bet your children will forever be grateful that you decided that they don't have to attend D.C.'s highest functioning schools where the children are happy and well-adjusted. What a relief it must be to them to avoid that fate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP-- I would just try to stay away from the normative poster. You know what kind of neighbor he/she will be.

OP, we can all assure you, that the rest of the people in NW are not like this meanie pants and you should not take her as representative. (I hope I don't get scolded!)

It is true that I've clearly lost this argument. That said, I haven't seen people respond to your initial inquiry with substantive comments backing up their "you'll be fine" or "wait" proclamations. Instead, I've just seen people talk about how their little Johnny needs to cross a major street all the time, so we shouldn't pay attention to major streets when thinking through boundary reform. I think this is foolish and misguided.

I think you'll be fine, and I've tried to say why. I believe, the only places in NWNW where your "current" ES may not be your "future" ES are those mentioned earlier. I don't think the drop-off from "current" to "future" would be significant in these places, save (perhaps) for the move from Janney to Hearst. (Don't flame me; I'm just stating my opinion.)

Signed,
resident meanie-pants and bad neighbor/person

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Nothing is absolute, but there's very (very) little than can (let alone should) be done about the schools in upper NW. Especially the JKLM(ann) schools; there's simply no other options.

What do you mean there's simply no other options?

They can and should adjust the boundaries of the overcrowded schools (Janney and Murch) to the less overcrowded ones (Hearst and Eaton).

This is one option. However, let's be clear: both Heast and Murch are at capacity if not a little over. It's just that that capacity is mostly taken up by students who do not live within the neighborhood boundaries. If you shift more students from an adjacent area into these school areas, the number of OOB students from farther-flung parts of the city will necessarily go down. It's like squeezing a balloon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Nothing is absolute, but there's very (very) little than can (let alone should) be done about the schools in upper NW. Especially the JKLM(ann) schools; there's simply no other options.

What do you mean there's simply no other options?

They can and should adjust the boundaries of the overcrowded schools (Janney and Murch) to the less overcrowded ones (Hearst and Eaton).

This is one option. However, let's be clear: both Heast and Murch are at capacity if not a little over. It's just that that capacity is mostly taken up by students who do not live within the neighborhood boundaries. If you shift more students from an adjacent area into these school areas, the number of OOB students from farther-flung parts of the city will necessarily go down. It's like squeezing a balloon.

And you take less OOB, not difficult! And then other schools get better when those kids go there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Nothing is absolute, but there's very (very) little than can (let alone should) be done about the schools in upper NW. Especially the JKLM(ann) schools; there's simply no other options.

What do you mean there's simply no other options?

They can and should adjust the boundaries of the overcrowded schools (Janney and Murch) to the less overcrowded ones (Hearst and Eaton).

This is one option. However, let's be clear: both Heast and Murch are at capacity if not a little over. It's just that that capacity is mostly taken up by students who do not live within the neighborhood boundaries. If you shift more students from an adjacent area into these school areas, the number of OOB students from farther-flung parts of the city will necessarily go down. It's like squeezing a balloon.

And you take less OOB, not difficult! And then other schools get better when those kids go there!

Meanie-pants, is that you?

[Anonymous]

A DC council staffer gave me her assessment of how things may turn out. I don't know whether she has inside info or if it's just her perspective. She says that politically the exsting system can't survive. The lottery is no longer providing enough spots in "acceptable" schools for parents who want options other than the less-desirable local schools where they live. The critics are not just "old DC" families in poorer neighborhoods who long have resented the status of schools west of the Park, it now includes the "new DC" gentriifyers, too. They moved in to transitional neighborhoods in search of good real estate values or "happening" areas, without much thought to the schools. Now they have kids, and they either don't want to, or can't, move to higher priced areas with better schools, and they're frustrated. Together, parents in these groups are being heard downtown. What she thinks will happen is that DCPS will cite the threat of civil rights lawsuits (I'm skeptical of this in a majority minority city, but this is what she says). Pretext or not, DCPS will say they have no choice but to move to a complete lottery/random assignment system at least for middle and high school. They know that this may put pressure on the private school route for some families, and may drive some families out of DC altogether. At the same time, they feel that the DC real estate market is quite strong and that more singles, childless couples and empty nesters will pick up the slack as families may leave (and they don't use school services anyway).

[Anonymous]

There's more than that. The boundary line for Janney is 41st st, not Wisconsin Ave. There's an entire swath of Janney that lives east of Wisconsin Ave from Livingston St all the way down to Chesapeake St.


I also think that area should be on the chopping block. (There are few children in these blocks, though, so perhaps not worth having the discussion derailed on this tangent.) If it were me (it's not), I would place great emphasis on boundaries that produce compact, convex sets (basically those that look like circles).

I'm so sorry to tell you that you're wrong about this.

[Anonymous]

Great. Push out families. Super plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There's more than that. The boundary line for Janney is 41st st, not Wisconsin Ave. There's an entire swath of Janney that lives east of Wisconsin Ave from Livingston St all the way down to Chesapeake St.


I also think that area should be on the chopping block. (There are few children in these blocks, though, so perhaps not worth having the discussion derailed on this tangent.) If it were me (it's not), I would place great emphasis on boundaries that produce compact, convex sets (basically those that look like circles).

I'm so sorry to tell you that you're wrong about this.

Are you really sorry, or is that just a figure-of-speech employed in a passive-agressive manner?

I don't believe that dozen or two kids your know in this carve-out are numerous when compared to the 600 other kids in Janney.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A DC council staffer gave me her assessment of how things may turn out. I don't know whether she has inside info or if it's just her perspective. She says that politically the exsting system can't survive. The lottery is no longer providing enough spots in "acceptable" schools for parents who want options other than the less-desirable local schools where they live. The critics are not just "old DC" families in poorer neighborhoods who long have resented the status of schools west of the Park, it now includes the "new DC" gentriifyers, too. They moved in to transitional neighborhoods in search of good real estate values or "happening" areas, without much thought to the schools. Now they have kids, and they either don't want to, or can't, move to higher priced areas with better schools, and they're frustrated. Together, parents in these groups are being heard downtown. What she thinks will happen is that DCPS will cite the threat of civil rights lawsuits (I'm skeptical of this in a majority minority city, but this is what she says). Pretext or not, DCPS will say they have no choice but to move to a complete lottery/random assignment system at least for middle and high school. They know that this may put pressure on the private school route for some families, and may drive some families out of DC altogether. At the same time, they feel that the DC real estate market is quite strong and that more singles, childless couples and empty nesters will pick up the slack as families may leave (and they don't use school services anyway).

Wow, that would be a disaster. There's probably not much anyone could do to stop it, but...really lack of an ability to follow the dominoes kind of thinking. Would be interested which Council members would be receptive to that kind of foolishness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't many, many Oyster students cross Conn? God forbid I think some even cross the Calvert St bridge!

JIn-boundary ohn Eaton students cross Wisconsin and Connecticut Avenue and of course have high-speed 34th/Reno running right next to the school. And only the latter arterial has a crossing guard (some of the time)!