Intelsat Building Proposal by CM Matt Frumin (Connecticut Ave/Van Ness)

[Anonymous]

Why not make the new K-12 a TJ of DC, or Duke Ellington of STEM and Humanities?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The idea of DC purchasing the property has merit. The idea that we should scuttle the MacArthur plan as it's being implemented, and hope that Lab School will go along with this plan, is asinine. As we've seen for years, the Lab School only cares about one thing: the Lab School and its wealthy benefactors (most of whom don't live in DC).

There's only so much DC can do with the Intelsat property if it bought it, because it has historic protection, for some stupid reason. So how about this: DC buys Intelsat and repurposes it into the new UDC.

As it stands now, the UDC campus is a hilarious misuse of that land; the area is a ghost town most of the time. By moving UDC to Intelsat, DC would get a huge parcel of land with more or less a blank slate. It could build schools, housing and retail on the property, right on top of a Metro station. It certainly would be a better use than the current UDC campus.

The Intelsat building is landmarked under historic preservation law. And the community will fight to keep the park, as will Frumin. So put aside your Smart Growth wet dream.

The park is part of the federal charter allowing the development of the rest of the parcel, so that won't change. Preservation protects the building, but a proposal of special merit can allow the city to do something different on the developable portion.

A project of "special merit" is not whatever the mayor says it is. Court decisions limit such a finding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not make the new K-12 a TJ of DC, or Duke Ellington of STEM and Humanities?

The present Duke Ellington, once Western High School, should be that again, the second WOTP general public high school And speaking of a "private" public school, that's the definition of Ellington.

[Anonymous]

But wait. Duke Ellington is a powerhouse for arts. Let it be.

We now need the 2nd K-12 that is a magnet and a shining example of what DCPS could be. And what better place than a failed private school to resurect quality public education.

[Anonymous]

Moving the new MacArthur HS to Intelsat is plainly a bad idea, but if we're all gonna speculate on what should happen if the city had unlimited money and could do whatever it wanted with the WTOP schools, how about this wild one:

-Ellington moves to Intelsat, which enables an expansion of Ellington, while making it more accessible for it's students. As a magnet school, it draws much more widely than even the OOB populations of other HSs, so putting it on a metro line would be really smart. Additionally, it's proximity to UDC could allow for a bit of facility sharing in terms of performance spaces, instructors, etc.

-MacArthur HS moves to the Ellington building. Improves transit accessibility and sites the HS near its feeder MS for facility/resource sharing.


-DC purchases the Washington International School primary school campus next to Duke Ellington (it's not for sale). Allows expansion of Duke Ellington's building footprint and additional outdoor space appropriate to a general purpose HS.

-MacArthur HS campus becomes a neighborhood ES.


-Honestly I want to put something on Hardy field in this scenario, just because the idiots opposing an ES on the edge of Hardy field are in the wrong. Taking suggestions. How about an arts center?


-My masterpiece. Deck over the Georgetown Reservoir and build like 10 athletic fields and some mixed use development on the surface (this is actually the best standalone idea and should be done to give MacArthur HS a full set of athletic fields). The GTR is huge. So huge. Like nearly as big as the whole Georgetown Campus huge. And it's just nothing. You can't access it. Just look at it. Deck it over and use an absolute ton of space that you gain. It's like a whole new neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I was shocked to see this from Frumin yesterday. I am a supporter of his but this is a terrible idea. One of his opponents in the election, Goulet who is now on the school board, basically ran on this idea and was defeated and criticized for it as presenting, among other things, a bad real estate deal. Now Frumin is promoting it? And suggesting we scuttle MacArthur school barely a month after its seemingly successful and good-start opening? Way to abandon MacArthur at a time it need support. This location is much too close to J-R to be viable as another HS without undermining J-R itself. And a complete distraction from pressing priorities. I hope he can find a way to detract this.

We’d rather see Matt Frumin spend his time to get school bus service from Ward 3 neighborhoods rezoned to MacArthur. It’s impractical to get to and from school by Metro bus now.

WMATA has proposed to add a new bus that would connect many of the in-boundary neighborhoods and two Metro stations to MacArthur HS. Guess who wrote a letter to WMATA asking them not to create the new line? Matt Frumin.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!

It's true. Under the Better Bus Visionary Network, WMATA proposed ditching the D2 bus and creating a new line that would have connected Tenleytown to Foggy Bottom via Glover Park, MacArthur, and M Street. It would have been great for the school, but D2 riders in Glover Park organized their asses off and spread all manner of disinformation to save the D2. Frumin took all of what they said at face value and then copy pasted their screeds into his letter to Randy Clarke providing feedback on the Visionary Network. We don't know if WMATA will do what Frumin is telling them to do, but if so what would have been a great bus line for both in-boundary and out-of-boundary students at MacArthur HS will never happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But wait. Duke Ellington is a powerhouse for arts. Let it be.

We now need the 2nd K-12 that is a magnet and a shining example of what DCPS could be. And what better place than a failed private school to resurect quality public education.

This is the best plan. Make Intelsat a city-wide magnet and let MacArthur HS stay where it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Buying the building is fine, but the idea of moving MacArthur HS there now is nuttier than the original decision to put the school there in the first place. This idea - and the uncertainty it will create - will completely scuttle MacArthur for the foreseeable future and therefore J-R as well. It's really dumb stuff.

No it isn't. It makes zero sense to have an essentially private public school on the furthest west, non metro accessible corner of the city. That property can become the new elementary school so Hardy Park doesn't have to be developed.

It also makes zero sense to have two public high schools within a 5 minute drive. The location is great for those in Chevy Chase and Cathedral Heights, but it'd be a disaster for almost every in-boundary family in the Hardy feeder pattern. Hardy Park was never going to be touched by the Foxhall ES plans - that the park needed "saving" was a myth propagated by scurrilous NIMBYs who didn't want a public school anywhere near them. It's a shame that you apparently bought into it.

You would change the feeder pattern for J-R and this school into a form that would make more sense.

Change it however you like and you are still left with 'neighborhood' schools a single Metro stop and five minutes drive away from one another in a low-density part of the city. MacArthur isn't a great location, but if you're going to acquire Intelsat and shutter MacArthur HS it'd make more sense to incorporate the Intelsat campus into a mega-Jackson Reed HS and reap all of the economies of scale that would entail. Either than or make Intelsat a city-wide school and retain MacArthur as the high school for the Hardy feeder. But apparently there ain't the funding for building out MacArthur and acquiring Intelsat because the mayor has other priorities.

[Anonymous]

Macarthur is staying. You lost the Safeway by being the way you are. Quit while you're ahead.

The city needs a 2nd high school, and needs a magnet school too.

[Anonymous]

Keep MacArthur just like it is. Don’t cook that goose.

Make Intelsat a Pk-5 neighborhood school, and 7-12 test-in magnet school similar to Stuyvesant in NYC

[Anonymous]

Agreed.

It will never happen. Frumin is a blowhard

[Anonymous]

They did not include bike lanes on the outside of the build. So no.

[Anonymous]

Frumin should be grateful that his leftist friends on ANC 3F fell on their faces in their pursuit of a marijuana dispensary across the street from Intelsat which would have precluded a school from operating in that location.

[Anonymous]

It should have been purchased years ago.

I liked Finley’s idea of using it as an IB or magnate school with minimal sports at UDC during the Ward 3 race. Glad to see Frumin harvesting good ideas from his former opponents. Maybe he can do Goulet next and work on the crime issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
-DC purchases the Washington International School primary school campus next to Duke Ellington (it's not for sale). Allows expansion of Duke Ellington's building footprint and additional outdoor space appropriate to a general purpose HS.
.

The Ellington Field is at 38th and R. DC wouldn't need to buy WIS.