Bowser cuts school renovation funds - Murch, others delayed or cancelled while Ellington tops $178 M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ellington is slated to receive $6.2MM allocation for 527 students next year.

That's $11,764 of our DC taxpayer money allocated for each student at Ellington. So, $9,000 for out-of-townies seems like a really low tuition for them, a partial gift, even. I would argue that non-taxpayers should even pay more, as a contribution to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leaving aside whether you think Ellington's students are entitled to modernization funds, that ship has sailed.

But Coolidge renovations have yet to begin...

You think that ship has sailed? I think you should pay attention to what Grosso has been saying. You're ship is in the crosshairs.

Maybe it's time for the Dzc taxpayers to take the ship back and make Peggy Cooper Cafritz and her cronies walk the plank!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ellington is slated to receive $6.2MM allocation for 527 students next year.

That's $11,764 of our DC taxpayer money allocated for each student at Ellington. So, $9,000 for out-of-townies seems like a really low tuition for them, a partial gift, even. I would argue that non-taxpayers should even pay more, as a contribution to the school.

That's just the operating budget. The capital budget -- take that $178 million and amortize it over the life of the improvements -- is about an equivalent amount. So VA and MD kids are paying about half of the direct costs of having them in our schools. If you add in administrative overhead it's probably a third.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Leaving aside whether you think Ellington's students are entitled to modernization funds, that ship has sailed.

But Coolidge renovations have yet to begin...

The question isn't whether Ellington's students are entitled to modernization funds. It's a) how much and b) whether all of them are entitled, or just the DC ones.

Bowser has been pulling the plug on projects all over town. Just because the cranes have started moving doesn't mean it's too late to stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think "baseless" means what you think it does.

It is easily established that there are a lot of non-DC kids at Ellington.

There are ten neighborhood high schools in DC. Every address in DC is in-boundary for one of those ten schools. On the DME website there is a document that shows where the kids who are in-boundary for each school actually go. That document is at: http://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Appendix%20B_Boundary%20Participation%20Data%20Tables_DRAFT_Policy%20Brief_3.pdf


Here are the in-boundary high schools that the Ellington kids come from:
Anacostia 77
Ballou 53
Cardozo 45
Coolidge 37
Dunbar 36
Eastern 31
Roosevelt 69
Springarn 42
Wilson 66
Woodson 17

Total 473

According to the DCPS website ( http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/ ) the enrollment of Ellington is 541. That means there are 68 kids, or 13%, at Ellington who are not in-boundary for any DCPS school. They live in Maryland and Virginia, mostly Maryland.

My cousins used to live in Iowa, visited them once, no desire to return.

Points for being both funny and snarky. Well played, sir/madam!

Thank you, I'm here all week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ellington is slated to receive $6.2MM allocation for 527 students next year.

That's $11,764 of our DC taxpayer money allocated for each student at Ellington. So, $9,000 for out-of-townies seems like a really low tuition for them, a partial gift, even. I would argue that non-taxpayers should even pay more, as a contribution to the school.

That's just the operating budget. The capital budget -- take that $178 million and amortize it over the life of the improvements -- is about an equivalent amount. So VA and MD kids are paying about half of the direct costs of having them in our schools. If you add in administrative overhead it's probably a third.

This is pretty outrageous. There's really no other way to look at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ellington is slated to receive $6.2MM allocation for 527 students next year.

That's $11,764 of our DC taxpayer money allocated for each student at Ellington. So, $9,000 for out-of-townies seems like a really low tuition for them, a partial gift, even. I would argue that non-taxpayers should even pay more, as a contribution to the school.

That's just the operating budget. The capital budget -- take that $178 million and amortize it over the life of the improvements -- is about an equivalent amount. So VA and MD kids are paying about half of the direct costs of having them in our schools. If you add in administrative overhead it's probably a third.

This is pretty outrageous. There's really no other way to look at it.

You have to put it in historical perspective. Schools have high fixed costs. For four decades DCPS suffered declining enrollment. In that environment, if you can get additional kids who pay your marginal cost -- the operating budget per-pupil -- it allows you to spread your fixed costs further and keep open schools that might otherwise close (assuming the kids actually pay).

However, when you're talking about building new facilities it makes zero sense to accommodate outside kids unless they're paying the full cost.

[Anonymous]

Ellington is nearly done. Not sure what good it would do to not finish the job.

Maybe it was a bad decision to begin with but to not complete project seems a waste of what was already spent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ellington is nearly done. Not sure what good it would do to not finish the job.

Maybe it was a bad decision to begin with but to not complete project seems a waste of what was already spent.

If it's nearly done, then it should be easy to cut the extra $30 million in construction funding that Ellington wants (and to which Bowser has agreed), no? Pay the contractor to finish the jnearly complete ob within the original budget and move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wha??? It says nothing about this on the Murch renovation website.

Wow, untimely and misleading post and article. Page 94 of the Mayor's proposed budget funds the Murch renovation -- they've already started drilling pilot holes on school grounds.

http://cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ocfo/publication/attachments/2016_DCBudget_V6_Opt_2%20--%20Part%202r_0.pdf

There is no link in the article to anything newer than the actual proposed budget. The reference to Murch is embedded in an older article referencing the mid-year reprogramming of the 5 mil that was not spent due the last delay. Old news.

The Murch modernization was fully funded for the first time in Mayor Bowser's budget proposal, for which the community is very grateful. Design is underway and construction should start next year as outlined on the Murch website. The original article was incorrect and has been corrected:

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/26689/many-schools-that-need-renovations-may-not-be-getting-them/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ellington is nearly done. Not sure what good it would do to not finish the job.

Maybe it was a bad decision to begin with but to not complete project seems a waste of what was already spent.

What? Nearly done? Have you seen the building? Work has barely started!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ellington is nearly done. Not sure what good it would do to not finish the job.

Maybe it was a bad decision to begin with but to not complete project seems a waste of what was already spent.

What? Nearly done? Have you seen the building? Work has barely started!

Just because it looks bad on the outside doesn't mean they haven't done a ton of work inside. No way are they pulling the plug on projects already underway. *Maybe* they'll reduce funds.

I have no axe to grind with Ellington. It's one of the few high schools in DC where I can imagine someday sending my children. All the high schools have cost $100million-plus to renovate, if I'm not mistaken.

If you're upset about tuition, then by all means lobby to have tuition for out-of-staters increased.

[Anonymous]

What's discouraging is that the whole point of having a long term plan, a schedule and a list was to de-politicize the process -- make the decision once and stick to it. It seems we've gone right back to revisiting every school every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ellington is slated to receive $6.2MM allocation for 527 students next year.

That's $11,764 of our DC taxpayer money allocated for each student at Ellington. So, $9,000 for out-of-townies seems like a really low tuition for them, a partial gift, even. I would argue that non-taxpayers should even pay more, as a contribution to the school.

That's just the operating budget. The capital budget -- take that $178 million and amortize it over the life of the improvements -- is about an equivalent amount. So VA and MD kids are paying about half of the direct costs of having them in our schools. If you add in administrative overhead it's probably a third.

This is pretty outrageous. There's really no other way to look at it.

You have to put it in historical perspective. Schools have high fixed costs. For four decades DCPS suffered declining enrollment. In that environment, if you can get additional kids who pay your marginal cost -- the operating budget per-pupil -- it allows you to spread your fixed costs further and keep open schools that might otherwise close (assuming the kids actually pay).

However, when you're talking about building new facilities it makes zero sense to accommodate outside kids unless they're paying the full cost.

Well, on the bright side, this new Ellington building - or maybe we should call it a campus - is going to be pretty darn impressive, providing skills training that no high school kid is capable of getting almost anywhere. Unless Ellington has a policy of setting aside seats for VA and MD students, there is going to be a waiting list of D.C. applicants. Real soon.

[Anonymous]

Do D.C residents get priority? It isn't clear from the website? Does anybody know the % of non-residents that attend for the bargain price of 12,000/yr?