Why is Murch accepting so many OOB students?

[Anonymous]

IF DCPS ACROSS THE CITY WERE LIKE JLKM, WE WOULDN'T BE HAVING THESE DISCUSSIONS BUT UNFORTUNATELY AND SAD THEY'RE NOT OFFERED THE SAME QUALITY OF EDUCATION. MODERN DAY SEGREGATION LOL, ,PARENTS OF COLOR WOULD ALSO LOVE A GREAT EDUCATION FOR THEIR CHILDREN EVEN IF MEANS CROWDING YOUR SCHOOLS. SORRY, EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH DOESN'T BELONG TO YOU PEOPLE. DIVERSITY IS GREAT, SINCE ALL OF OUR CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE. OUR ANCESTORS BUILT ALL THIS DAMN SCHOOLS ANYWAY WHY SHOULDN'T THEIR GENERATION BENEFIT FROM THEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if they add classes that is MORE classes

Please tell me where classes are being added. The teacher roster is already out for next year.

The PP with concepts about stressors hasn't stepped foot in Murch- or its trailers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And just how does adding more oob kids at an already overly full Murch help to solve overcrowding at Deal?
Sorry, my logical brain just does not get it.
Eaton parents, where are you?

I don't know where the vast majority of Murch OOB families are coming from. However, the majority of Eaton and Hearst families are from Crestwood, 16th Street Heights, and Mt. Pleasant, or just across the park and already zoned for Deal. People always forget to factor this in.

Right, i keep forgetting to factor that in from my in-boundary Eaton address, thanks for reminding me.
such nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Ok, then. Keep adding kids to Murch. It was a great school at 400 kids. It is a great school at 700 kids. Believe me, I've spent plenty of time in that building, more than most. My concern is not how well the teachers do what they do with limited space, resources, and modern amenities - they are amazing with what they do. It's that the school was never meant to challenge the teachers to do that in the first place. But, if the school feels that adding 60 kids is what it should do, then by all means, add them. Just don't start complaining about overcrowding.

[Anonymous]

And if people at Deal and Wilson think there is a problem with overcrowding because of the elementary schools, then they can take it up with those people who decided that adding 60 kids to an overcapacity school was clever politics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at Murch and constantly hear about how overcrowded the school is. Anyone have insight into why Murch is accepting 10 OOB per grade next year, whereas Janney/Lafayette/etc. each have 0 to 2 OOB spots for each grade? I certainly understand the impulse to increase diversity and how OOB student do (and have traditionally) enriched the student body, but how can the crumbling and full to the gills facilities accept 60 more students?

OP, where did you get this information? Is it published somewhere?

OP here. It's available on myschooldc.org. Gaming the system or not, this seems like a ridiculous result. You still have to put those extra classes somewhere (i.e., more trailers.) And there are other issues -- stresses on specials, getting into extracurricular classes, sense of community -- that a larger student body certainly impacts. Besides the fact that it really seems to undercut the constant moaning about how overcrowded our school is if we are offering 10% of our spaces each year to OOB students. I agree with other posters, if my home was in the portion of the former Murch boundary that was rezoned to Hearst, I would be livid. Not that Hearst is not a great school -- it is -- but that the impetus behind the boundary reconfiguration is a complete fallacy when this many OOB kids are added every year.

To repeat: THIS WILL NOT RESULT IN THE ADDITION OF CLASSES OR THE NEED FOR MORE TRAILERS. These kids are filling spaces in classes that already exist. If these kids didn't attend, Murch would have fewer classes at each grade level with more kids per class than they have this year.

And I've personally seen no stress on extracurriculars or specials. Or the sense of community. THe last one, at least, is purely subjective--I don't really understand how the additional kids and their families have a negative impact here, but maybe "sense of community" is code for something else, OP?

Really, you are the first Murch parent I've heard complain about this. I certainly understand the argument others are making that bringing more kids into the Deal/Wilson path creates overcrowding down the line (assuming the kids come from areas that don't feed Deal and Wilson otherwise), but in terms of impact on Murch, specifically, I don't see evidence of an actual problem.

i

Actually, as a Murch parent I have heard quite a few complaints about this from anyone who actually knows what is going on. This really was sprung on us unfairly. Too late for anyone to deal with. A lot of it came down to the fact that they counted all of our physical space including crappy trailers and trailers used for admin functions as classroom space so we had "extra room". This is part of the reason why Murch is so ridicoulously overcrowded. Instead of letting us server the in bounds population which can vary wildly from year to year due to apartment dwellers and all the embassies - they stuff all our classes to the gills. Then, when we have extra space because we have grown to five classes per grade - they stuff more in. So, they we add another class per grade. Our principal is great but DCPS still appears to have it in for us.

It would be nice if Janney and Lafayette shared our pain - esp Janney in that nicely twice renovated building!

[Anonymous]

People, DCPS cut the boundaries of Murch. Because it is overcrowded. And yet Murch adds more kids anyway. Why? If it were never overcrowded in the first place, why didn't the principal go downtown and say so? Instead we have this weird paradigm where DCPS is shrinking the boundaries, but Murch is determined to maintain the higher headcount. At what cost?

[Anonymous]

So who is stuffing Murch, then? DCPS? If that is so, this feeder right thing Rhee instituted to fill under enrolled Deal has gotten out of control

[Anonymous]

So glad I'm not zoned for Murch!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And if people at Deal and Wilson think there is a problem with overcrowding because of the elementary schools, then they can take it up with those people who decided that adding 60 kids to an overcapacity school was clever politics.

And those people are sitting in Central Office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So who is stuffing Murch, then? DCPS? If that is so, this feeder right thing Rhee instituted to fill under enrolled Deal has gotten out of control

Yes, DCPS. Who else? You think the school wants trailers? You act as if Murch has a choice. They don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, DCPS cut the boundaries of Murch. Because it is overcrowded. And yet Murch adds more kids anyway. Why? If it were never overcrowded in the first place, why didn't the principal go downtown and say so? Instead we have this weird paradigm where DCPS is shrinking the boundaries, but Murch is determined to maintain the higher headcount. At what cost?

You do understand that the boundary changes have zero impact on Murch for at least a few years right?

We are talking about seats for next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So glad I'm not zoned for Murch!

Too bad for you!

[Anonymous]

has anyone done the math to see if the current 3rd graders will even fit into Deal? i doubt the boundaries will last ten years as written. sorry bancroft and shepherd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who is stuffing Murch, then? DCPS? If that is so, this feeder right thing Rhee instituted to fill under enrolled Deal has gotten out of control

Yes, DCPS. Who else? You think the school wants trailers? You act as if Murch has a choice. They don't.

sounds like they do have a choice.