Question for EOTP Wilson feeders

[Anonymous]

My husband and I are looking for a home IB for deal/Wilson and really can only afford around 16th st and shepherds park. Knowing the history of extending the boundaries of Wilson to pick them up to integrate that system. Seeing my kids are young and the school is slated for rezoning before they make it to HS, what are the chance they move the border back to west of the park?

I only ask as with much of the city as it improves it is getting much whiter and as that area loses its blackness does it then lose the justification to keep it Wilson? That far north isn't horribly convenient to our jobs and if we pay a premium to be inbound for Wilson and then lose that, it would be troubling not to mention crushing to our resale value. Has any public official ever hinted at which way the winds are blowing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I are looking for a home IB for deal/Wilson and really can only afford around 16th st and shepherds park. Knowing the history of extending the boundaries of Wilson to pick them up to integrate that system. Seeing my kids are young and the school is slated for rezoning before they make it to HS, what are the chance they move the border back to west of the park?

I only ask as with much of the city as it improves it is getting much whiter and as that area loses its blackness does it then lose the justification to keep it Wilson? That far north isn't horribly convenient to our jobs and if we pay a premium to be inbound for Wilson and then lose that, it would be troubling not to mention crushing to our resale value. Has any public official ever hinted at which way the winds are blowing?

Ruh, roh!

[Anonymous]

There is absolutely no way to know. Good luck. I personally would rent for a while in order to see how I did in the lottery for a few years.

[Anonymous]

No way to say what will happen - but you are smart to think about this as a possibility. Muriel Bowser has been the protector of this area's Wilson feeder rights - but she won't be around forever.

[Anonymous]

It could easily happen. You can only squeeze so many kids in a building and it is overcrowded now. I wouldn't do it.

[Anonymous]

No one knows, and anyone who says they do is lying.

Shepherd ES is a really good school in a great community. You can enjoy that for what is for a good long while. If DCPS follows precedent, you may only have to make it to third grade or so before your kids get grandfathered into Deal/Wilson anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way to say what will happen - but you are smart to think about this as a possibility. Muriel Bowser has been the protector of this area's Wilson feeder rights - but she won't be around forever.

It has less to do with Bowser than the fact the 402 is traditionally one of, if not the highest voting precinct in the city. You should see the mail we get during campaign season...I could heat my house with it. Before Bowser it was Fenty and Jarvis, etc, etc.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't say that it's so much the high voter turnout as that the area is like a swing state in national politics -- it sits astride a lot of the fault lines in DC politics, as goes Shepherd Park so goes the city.

But the writing is on the wall. If you look at the demographic projections from the Office of Planning there's no way DCPS can keep ignoring the crowding. The only way that EOTP stays in Wilson is if a new high school opens in the southern part of WOTP -- which probably means either Ellington moves and their building is made back into Western HS, or the old Hardy School on Foxhall Road is made into a high school. Either of those ideas faces considerable political opposition. Pick your poison.

[Anonymous]

OP here driving through the area you see many DC gov tags which makes get explain the reluctance to rezone. That said it is unlikely bowser will be here when they rezone and the area will be considerably whiter, I am personally afraid it might not be worth the political capital to keep it Wilson.

I am interested in the grandfathering precedents that previous schools had when re zoned.

[Anonymous]

MacFarland is really sounding exciting and I have every confidence hat Roosevelt will be a good high school by the time your 2 year old get to high school. I do agree that Shepherd Park is probably the most political neighborhood in the city. Many judges, former president of NAACP etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say that it's so much the high voter turnout as that the area is like a swing state in national politics -- it sits astride a lot of the fault lines in DC politics, as goes Shepherd Park so goes the city.

But the writing is on the wall. If you look at the demographic projections from the Office of Planning there's no way DCPS can keep ignoring the crowding. The only way that EOTP stays in Wilson is if a new high school opens in the southern part of WOTP -- which probably means either Ellington moves and their building is made back into Western HS, or the old Hardy School on Foxhall Road is made into a high school. Either of those ideas faces considerable political opposition. Pick your poison.

That's not the only way. Roosevelt and MacFarland are the key. If DCPS can get them to within striking distance of acceptable within ten years, that would greatly reduced the pressure on Wilson and Deal. Slow down the East-to-West "morning diaspora", as Catania put it, and future change might not have to be so drastic.

[Anonymous]

OP, if you don't want to live there anyway, seems like a gamble not worth taking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you don't want to live there anyway, seems like a gamble not worth taking.

Yes, I love Shepherd Park because I love the neighborhood, access to Rock Creek trails, metro, and the families. Shepherd is a great elementary and I'm pretty sure if they ever got zoned out of Deal, it will be for a decent option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MacFarland is really sounding exciting and I have every confidence hat Roosevelt will be a good high school by the time your 2 year old get to high school. I do agree that Shepherd Park is probably the most political neighborhood in the city. Many judges, former president of NAACP etc.

Roosevelt is going to take probably another 20 years to be a viable option for high SES or white families. At least. Look the hill? they have been using hard for over a decade and their middle school options are still pretty bad which is why the brain drain/monied kids are out of the elms by 4t grade for Basis etc. And eastern high school is a absoltely not an option as it has no diversity what so ever. I hope McFarland is successful but gentrifiers Eotp parents may be flocking to the Ps/PK and K they are still leaving in droves by 2nd grade for charters or moving. It really does take 10-20 years minimum to truly turn a school around through 5 th grade and only then will the middle schools reflect the improvements.

[Anonymous]

That is the problem with areas like CH and SP, even if they are nice and getting better they are surrounded by really bad areas that aren't changing fast enough. As long as the kids mix in middle and high school there will be problems.

I personally don't see Wilson staying east of the park, once it turns white what would be the point anyway. Why igo to all the trouble to continue to ntegrate Wilson but this time with slightly less wealthy white kids? If you can't afford Proper NW move to the best part of Arlington or MoCo you can.