New school in Palisades
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Anonymous
GDS didn't lose its buyer, for-profit or not. The buyer made a financial decision to sell an asset it was obligated to buy rather than keep it or suffer a financial penalty. |
Anonymous
Sure but the problem with Ward 3 schools is not Ward 3 residents. The problem with Ward 3 schools is students from all over the city still are getting into Ward 3 schools. Fix the boundaries so families from Shepherd Park and Crestwood and Mt Pleasant aren't trekking back and forth across the part every day for school and you solve the problem with Ward 3 schools. You could also eliminate all the back door ways OOB kids continue to get into the Deal/Wilson feeders though that would eliminate the rapidly diminishing diversity at Deal and soon Wilson so I'd rather the UMC families from EOTP neighborhoods get booted first. And amazingly there are recently renovated schools EOTP that are dramatically under capacity that in most cases are closer to those neighborhoods! But no the DC Council in its infinite courage wants to see if they can cram even more students into Ward 3 schools and are doing this without adding HS capacity. |
Anonymous
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That neighborhood must be having a coronary.
GDS was a traffic nightmare even with enforced carpooling. This will be a gridlock disaster on a primary commuting route. I hope I never have to return ro the office!! |
Anonymous
This is categorically false. The number of kids you're talking about is not a drop in the bucket. This is addressed in every thread, and already has been addressed in this thread. The fact that you can't help but bring it up even though it's false and has been debunked says a lot about you. None of it is good. |
Anonymous
FYI, just in case you were a little bit confused, it isn't morally superior to shit on non-rich white people. They contribute to socio-economic diversity too. |
Anonymous
What does coronavirus an dBLM have to do with overcrowded schools in Ward 3? |
Anonymous
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The problem with overcrowding is the combination of a series of things that when taken individually are not a problem - but when taken in combination add up to a problem.
1 - assume a percent of the students at Deal started at an IB elementary school and moved OOB. That these were allowed to stay to the terminal grade - but everyone knows no one checks when you enroll at Deal. 2 - assume a percent of the students are siblings of students who got in OOB. There was a real OOB slot available that an older sibling got. When it came time for the younger sibling, there was no space but the Principal has a policy to accommodate all siblings - even if the class is at an optimal headcount. 3 - Grandfathering to Crestwood 4- Somehow Eaton students are enrolling (my rising 7th grader tells me) 5- changing feeder pattern for Bancroft and Shepherd 6 - Stop allowing any OOB at Deal and Wison. This year Deal offered spots off of the waitlist. Why? Eliminate it as an option until the overcrowding is addressed. With this collection of items, you significantly reduce the overcrowding at Deal. It costs nothing to the tax payers. It requires political will. It requires Principals to have a hard conversation with families that a sibling will not be able to enroll. Now - what would be the result of these changes? Deal would be a significantly less diverse school. Wilson would be a significantly less diverse school. The Mayor probably would not be re-elected. The schools would be better equip to support the students by taking away the stress of overcrowding. |
Anonymous
You tell me. How did all of the sudden $48 mil shows up at the last minute and mostly white parents use their technology to snag premium real estate that we don't even have a plan for arguing that it will somehow save money in the long run. Meanwhile, the same budget shenanigans are cutting mental health services -- like those needed for DC children in every ward BUT ward 3 whose relatives are dying daily and who are at higher health risk due to systemic racism -- policing reform that disproportionately affects these same kids. It's a question of priorities. Watch the hearing. Elissa Silverman called it: both sides are right. But one side made a faster and louder arguments -- from the beach. Crowding is inconvenient, but it won't kill you or put you in poverty -- in fact, nicer buildings will increase property values in the richest part of the city. This "it's a great deal" mentality is exactly what Trump would say. It will do nothing to address diversity and inequality in schools. It will not address the life and death crises east of Connecticut and across the river. Be honest. Our kids will be fine. Let's not pretend this is anything but opportunity hoarding. A few examples include: Teacher "pods" private tutors appropriate technology stable housing reliable transportation work-from-home jobs full refrigerators bikes and roller skates diapers and disinfectant at our doors beach and mountain getaways accessible healthcare air conditioning no drive-bys not having to watch grandma's funeral on a phone If overcrowding is your immediate priority, lottery into an under-enrolled school and bring all of the opportunities you already have. Costs the city nothing to use the facilities we have. Black Lives Matter is about SYSTEMIC racism and inequity. Police brutality is just ONE part of the injustice. If you can't admit that, then take the BLM sign off your lawn. I'm not saying anyone should deny their children opportunity and privilege. I certainly don't. What I'm saying is we have to be honest about it with ourselves and our kids. Sometimes we are part of the problem. We can't always fix things, but we must be aware that it happens. When it comes to the GDS campus, white voices trumped Black needs. Let's add it to the list and do better the next time we're faced with prioritizing ourselves over others. |
Anonymous
Well said pp. When I got the call to advocate for this purchase, I hesitated and am glad I did. At least I didn’t contribute to the decision, and next time I hope to be more aware and do better for equity. I’m quite turned off by the crowing on the Ed list serv I’m on about this. |
Anonymous
You will not convince rich white people to travel out of ward 3 for public (non-charter) schools (until you create a very attractive magnet smack in the middle of the city), but you can welcome students from other wards into ward 3. Adding school capacity to ward 3 instead of restricting enrollment of students living in other wards is the only way to maintain diversity in these schools. |
Anonymous
| Wasn't the money just a push for the what was already in the budget for the Hardy Rec Center build to the GDS purchase? And by making the change it was cheaper? |
Anonymous
This is true and that was also a recent bait and switch by DCPS whereby money for expansions got pulled very suddenly in favor of building the new school. Since it’s looking like it will GDS will be a middle school, the overcrowded elementaries get no relief. But alas, I agree with pp. It isn’t the most pressing problem in the city although I will concede the dynamics are extremely complex The argument that ward 3 schools should keep numbers available for out of boundary (how could this be a bad thing!?!) does actually contribute to the challenges of many EOTP schools due to brain drain. I don’t know what the right answer is. |
Anonymous
Charters have more responsibility in DCPS EOTP "drain" within the city than grandfathered in pathways or OOB slots. At this point, many EOTP families would dream of simply getting a PK3 slot at the DCPS 2 blocks from their house and staying the course but instead they get used to driving to whatever charter took their 3 year old and make decisions from there. And again, carrot would work better than stick. |
Anonymous
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Ruth Wattenburg’s msg after the vote.
Just to note for those familiar with the trends in this area - stoddert is over capacity and key has 2 full grades in trailers. Clearly ward 3 is significantly more privileged than the rest of the city - but the previous plan for building a new school at hardy Rec were already due to this. The neighborhood will complain about traffic but no worse than gds being there Hi All! You’ll be very happy to know: The DC Council voted this afternoon by 10-2 (plus one recusal) in favor of funding the purchase of the GDS campus! Many, many thanks to CM Cheh and Chairman Mendelson for shepherding this project through a difficult budget process--and to the Ward 3-Wilson Feeder Education Network, which was instrumental in getting the word out quickly to parent leaders across the ward and feeder system! And, special thanks to all of you, who responded to posts on the listserves and in my newsletter, with hundreds of emails that went to Councilmembers all night and all morning! Someone called me from the beach this morning to see if there was still time to send an email (Yes, there was!). Your very vivid personal stories of why this purchase was so badly needed were, I’m sure, part of why the vote ended up so lopsided in favor of the purchase. On behalf of all of our kids, thank you, thank you, thank you! I also want to note: The schools in this area of the city are crowded, have been for a while, and relief is badly needed. This was truly a once-in-a generation-opportunity for DC to purchase a needed, turnkey building in an area where it was desperately needed, at a substantially lower cost than building from scratch. It does not solve all of our overcrowding problems, but it makes a substantial dent. For all of these reasons, the Council was absolutely right to vote to make the purchase. But, it is also true that in other wards there are many schools that have still not been fully modernized. The statistic is that across the city (as of 2018), 65% of schools’ square footage had been fully modernized; and 35% had not been. Once Eaton is completed, 0% of the unmodernized footage will be in Ward 3. In contrast, 3 out of the 5 middle schools in Wards 7 and 8 still have substandard mechanical systems (a real calamity with COVID), old science labs, and so on. I hope that next year we can all advocate for a short, urgent timeline for getting every school finished! It was really great working with everyone. Have a good night! Ruth Wattenberg, |
Anonymous
Actually, I think this is one of many of Mayor Bowser's chess moves to bring more density and se diversity to Ward 3 per her equitable city plan. First housing vouchers in many neighborhoods including Foxhall. Next Insert public school, out of nowhere. Next more dense housing with affordable units, etc. Playbook. |