Why is Murch accepting so many OOB students?
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Anonymous
| 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? |
Anonymous
| 10 OOB per grade seems like an odd set up, were there even numbers of slots available across grades? |
Anonymous
DC politics, my friend. |
Anonymous
| If true, they want to get to a certain size for an increase in budget. |
Anonymous
| I would not like this as a parent. They should fund the school at capacity and not fill it to the gills. |
Anonymous
| DCPS is forcing it. |
Anonymous
A strong principal would push back. |
Anonymous
A strong principal knows what to push for. Pushing against this isn't something to push against.-- playing nicely with downtown many times gets you farther in the long run. Murch budgeted for more students last year and didn't hit that enrollment. The school was already planning on more students and has the staff to teach the students (teach them very well too). Many grades already have 5 sections so you are talking about about 2 kids per class. Not a massive impact in the classroom. The school has been operating for years hundreds of kid over capacity. 60 more won't make a difference. |
Anonymous
| Maybe, but it's not just 60 more one year. They take on extra kids every year. That's great if you have the room. Not so great if the only reason you are doing it is because you are worried Downtown won't like you. I don't see how 60 OOB kids is going to suddenly make Murch Kaya's darling. |
Anonymous
| Do the parents not speak up about this? I can't believe they would take a school brimming full and add 60 students. Is there no capacity limit or do they just add trailers? Where do they all eat lunch? |
Anonymous
^^^this - they needs multiple teachers per grade and can't have teacher to student ratios that are too low. If the numbers require more FTEs they need enough students for each classroom to be filled This isn't a large number. I haven't looked at all the lottery data but I do know that 5th only took an additional 5 students OOB |
Anonymous
A strong principal would recognize that accepting just enough OOB students gets him an extra teacher per grade, which decreases class size. Murch has better-than-average class size despite extreme overcrowding. So, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt here and assume he is playing his hand correctly. |
Anonymous
| I wish DCPS would take a longer view when making decisions like these. Even if 60 more kids at Murch is manageable (which is arguable in itself), those 60 additional kids will end up at already-overcrowded Deal and Wilson. |
Anonymous
| The OOB system seems broken. |
Anonymous
Don't necessarily agree - but wonder how things may change once the at-risk set aside places are fully implemented. |