Any schools Waitlist data shock you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS restricted lottery seats at Wells and Coolidge to manage overutilization...and Coolidge has 158 kids on the waiting list for 9th grade!

Wells and Coolidge is becoming more in-boundary so they need to restrict out of bounds seats more. There is talk of adding capacity. The first step is actually a cafeteria expansion that is already planned (the MS and HS is currently sharing at different times).

I'm the PP and a Wells parent. They don't actually share the cafeteria--Wells uses it and Coolidge kids eat wherever they can find a spot. The boundary study called for reducing OOB seats and then *maybe* looking at a capital expansion in the future, potentially (temporarily) using the modular swing space after Whittier is done with it. But in the meantime, the goal is to bring the enrollment back down to the built capacity (about 500 and 800, respectively), which stinks because of loss of programming.

My original point was just to observe how many kids are trying to access Coolidge, which 8 years ago had fewer than 300 students total. I love to see it!

It would be interesting to see where the kids from the Early College program are coming from. If they are mostly coming from parts of the city closer to other high schools, relocating that program would make sense and would create more room at Wells/Coolidge. The most obvious building would be Luke C. Moore's becaue it's so close to Trinity, but that would require looking at where those students live and where they could be relocated. Renovating Wells and Coolidge so there's room for Shepherd there too would make a lot of sense but I don't think DCPS has the appetite for that fight. Adding Lafayette to the Wells/Coolidge feeder pattern would reduce some challenges and create new ones so again I don't think it will happen.

Coolidge Early College is only 25 seats/grade and they are at Trinity so much that it's not a major use of space in the building. I know the students are coming from neighborhoods all over the city (or at least EOTP). Fair point about locating the program closer to Trinity but the original plan was going to include more university partners. Something to think about as it gets more established.

So much new housing is coming into the Takoma boundary area that Wells and Coolidge will have to expand in the next 10-15 years. Whittier's enrollment projections in the MFP are also really high post-modernization. I don't see Shepherd changing feeder patterns, much less Lafayette. We won't have room for them. Moving Shepherd was never even discussed in the boundary study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMI also. Short waitlist even for PK3, and offered 30 seats for 6th

This one isn't shocking, because they have been on a hard decline for years -- but the Drop from their Prek-3 peak in 2018, with a waitlist of 406 to This year being only 30 is very very telling -- They are in the same boat as TR, they were already sinking with a questionable admin before COVID and then their response to COVID sunk their battle ship.

My only question is "Where is the bottom of this spiral?"

It seems like SSMA has been spiraling down for years but never quite gets to the point of making big changes or calling it quits.

Good point. My understanding is that TR is heavily leveraged with a significant amount of debt related to expansion. So they might be in a more perilous situation.

Oh wow. Ouch. Well, at least TR is making some leadership changes. It's clear they do recognize they have a problem. The things I hear from younger-kid parents are cautiously optimistic.

I think TR may axe the 4th St campus entirely, especially if JOW starts sucking up local families post-reno.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YY's wait list is half as long as 10 years go, now that most of the families haven't stuck with Chinese through middle or high school at DCI. Realistic thinking has clearly crept in.

I think the DCI pathway is less alluring for a lot of families who have other options. YY isn’t as strong in the upper grades on math and ELA, so many families opt to leave rather than stick it out through 5th grade and then face a crapshoot again for DCI middle school which isn’t all that strong in core subjects either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS restricted lottery seats at Wells and Coolidge to manage overutilization...and Coolidge has 158 kids on the waiting list for 9th grade!

Wells and Coolidge is becoming more in-boundary so they need to restrict out of bounds seats more. There is talk of adding capacity. The first step is actually a cafeteria expansion that is already planned (the MS and HS is currently sharing at different times).

I'm the PP and a Wells parent. They don't actually share the cafeteria--Wells uses it and Coolidge kids eat wherever they can find a spot. The boundary study called for reducing OOB seats and then *maybe* looking at a capital expansion in the future, potentially (temporarily) using the modular swing space after Whittier is done with it. But in the meantime, the goal is to bring the enrollment back down to the built capacity (about 500 and 800, respectively), which stinks because of loss of programming.

My original point was just to observe how many kids are trying to access Coolidge, which 8 years ago had fewer than 300 students total. I love to see it!

It would be interesting to see where the kids from the Early College program are coming from. If they are mostly coming from parts of the city closer to other high schools, relocating that program would make sense and would create more room at Wells/Coolidge. The most obvious building would be Luke C. Moore's becaue it's so close to Trinity, but that would require looking at where those students live and where they could be relocated. Renovating Wells and Coolidge so there's room for Shepherd there too would make a lot of sense but I don't think DCPS has the appetite for that fight. Adding Lafayette to the Wells/Coolidge feeder pattern would reduce some challenges and create new ones so again I don't think it will happen.

Coolidge Early College is only 25 seats/grade and they are at Trinity so much that it's not a major use of space in the building. I know the students are coming from neighborhoods all over the city (or at least EOTP). Fair point about locating the program closer to Trinity but the original plan was going to include more university partners. Something to think about as it gets more established.

So much new housing is coming into the Takoma boundary area that Wells and Coolidge will have to expand in the next 10-15 years. Whittier's enrollment projections in the MFP are also really high post-modernization. I don't see Shepherd changing feeder patterns, much less Lafayette. We won't have room for them. Moving Shepherd was never even discussed in the boundary study.

It would make sense when expanding to make room for Shepherd too. It's just politically unfeasible at this point. If the gap between Deal and Wells shrinks, that could change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMI also. Short waitlist even for PK3, and offered 30 seats for 6th

This one isn't shocking, because they have been on a hard decline for years -- but the Drop from their Prek-3 peak in 2018, with a waitlist of 406 to This year being only 30 is very very telling -- They are in the same boat as TR, they were already sinking with a questionable admin before COVID and then their response to COVID sunk their battle ship.

My only question is "Where is the bottom of this spiral?"

It seems like SSMA has been spiraling down for years but never quite gets to the point of making big changes or calling it quits.

Good point. My understanding is that TR is heavily leveraged with a significant amount of debt related to expansion. So they might be in a more perilous situation.

Oh wow. Ouch. Well, at least TR is making some leadership changes. It's clear they do recognize they have a problem. The things I hear from younger-kid parents are cautiously optimistic.

I think TR may axe the 4th St campus entirely, especially if JOW starts sucking up local families post-reno.

Latin 3?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMI also. Short waitlist even for PK3, and offered 30 seats for 6th

This one isn't shocking, because they have been on a hard decline for years -- but the Drop from their Prek-3 peak in 2018, with a waitlist of 406 to This year being only 30 is very very telling -- They are in the same boat as TR, they were already sinking with a questionable admin before COVID and then their response to COVID sunk their battle ship.

My only question is "Where is the bottom of this spiral?"

It seems like SSMA has been spiraling down for years but never quite gets to the point of making big changes or calling it quits.

Good point. My understanding is that TR is heavily leveraged with a significant amount of debt related to expansion. So they might be in a more perilous situation.

Oh wow. Ouch. Well, at least TR is making some leadership changes. It's clear they do recognize they have a problem. The things I hear from younger-kid parents are cautiously optimistic.

I think TR may axe the 4th St campus entirely, especially if JOW starts sucking up local families post-reno.

+1, this has occurred to me as well. I actually think that has long been the plan, actually, and a major reason they expanded to Young, because the 4th street campus is pretty cramped and has a lot of issues (two buildings, the traffic on Florida, really annoying drop off/pick up, and very limited outdoor space). I remember looking at it 5 years ago and thinking it seemed less than ideal, I'm a little surprised they haven't announced an official plan to transition fully to Young by now.

I live in the neighborhood and I also feel like there is a groundswell of interest in JOW. Their lottery results confirm this. I thought there would be a lot less interest in the school for the PK grades because of the swing space (I remember this being a factor in our lottery choices for PK because CHML was busing to a swing space at the time) but the lottery numbers area actually consistent for PK and up for upper grades this year. I think people are looking down the road at the new space. I still think there will be a drop in enrollment over the next two years due to the swing, but I think it will have a trajectory similar to John Lewis, which has really started to flourish since it's renovation (done by the same firm as JOW has, I believe).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMI also. Short waitlist even for PK3, and offered 30 seats for 6th

This one isn't shocking, because they have been on a hard decline for years -- but the Drop from their Prek-3 peak in 2018, with a waitlist of 406 to This year being only 30 is very very telling -- They are in the same boat as TR, they were already sinking with a questionable admin before COVID and then their response to COVID sunk their battle ship.

My only question is "Where is the bottom of this spiral?"

It seems like SSMA has been spiraling down for years but never quite gets to the point of making big changes or calling it quits.

Good point. My understanding is that TR is heavily leveraged with a significant amount of debt related to expansion. So they might be in a more perilous situation.

Oh wow. Ouch. Well, at least TR is making some leadership changes. It's clear they do recognize they have a problem. The things I hear from younger-kid parents are cautiously optimistic.

I think TR may axe the 4th St campus entirely, especially if JOW starts sucking up local families post-reno.

Latin 3?

A Latin campus in that location would get a ton of interest, but I think only as a temp location like Cooper. It has similar issues to Cooper -- cramped, limited outdoor space. The one big advantage is it's very accessible from Wards 7 and 8 and via public transit, which I think is a huge boon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMI also. Short waitlist even for PK3, and offered 30 seats for 6th

This one isn't shocking, because they have been on a hard decline for years -- but the Drop from their Prek-3 peak in 2018, with a waitlist of 406 to This year being only 30 is very very telling -- They are in the same boat as TR, they were already sinking with a questionable admin before COVID and then their response to COVID sunk their battle ship.

My only question is "Where is the bottom of this spiral?"

It seems like SSMA has been spiraling down for years but never quite gets to the point of making big changes or calling it quits.

Good point. My understanding is that TR is heavily leveraged with a significant amount of debt related to expansion. So they might be in a more perilous situation.

Oh wow. Ouch. Well, at least TR is making some leadership changes. It's clear they do recognize they have a problem. The things I hear from younger-kid parents are cautiously optimistic.

I think TR may axe the 4th St campus entirely, especially if JOW starts sucking up local families post-reno.

Latin 3?

A Latin campus in that location would get a ton of interest, but I think only as a temp location like Cooper. It has similar issues to Cooper -- cramped, limited outdoor space. The one big advantage is it's very accessible from Wards 7 and 8 and via public transit, which I think is a huge boon.

If Latin 3 opened there with every intent to remain there, it would have a waiting list of 350 kids immediately. That location is easily walkable from the Hill.

[Anonymous]

BASIS can have it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMI also. Short waitlist even for PK3, and offered 30 seats for 6th

This one isn't shocking, because they have been on a hard decline for years -- but the Drop from their Prek-3 peak in 2018, with a waitlist of 406 to This year being only 30 is very very telling -- They are in the same boat as TR, they were already sinking with a questionable admin before COVID and then their response to COVID sunk their battle ship.

My only question is "Where is the bottom of this spiral?"

It seems like SSMA has been spiraling down for years but never quite gets to the point of making big changes or calling it quits.

Good point. My understanding is that TR is heavily leveraged with a significant amount of debt related to expansion. So they might be in a more perilous situation.

Oh wow. Ouch. Well, at least TR is making some leadership changes. It's clear they do recognize they have a problem. The things I hear from younger-kid parents are cautiously optimistic.

I think TR may axe the 4th St campus entirely, especially if JOW starts sucking up local families post-reno.

+1, this has occurred to me as well. I actually think that has long been the plan, actually, and a major reason they expanded to Young, because the 4th street campus is pretty cramped and has a lot of issues (two buildings, the traffic on Florida, really annoying drop off/pick up, and very limited outdoor space). I remember looking at it 5 years ago and thinking it seemed less than ideal, I'm a little surprised they haven't announced an official plan to transition fully to Young by now.

I live in the neighborhood and I also feel like there is a groundswell of interest in JOW. Their lottery results confirm this. I thought there would be a lot less interest in the school for the PK grades because of the swing space (I remember this being a factor in our lottery choices for PK because CHML was busing to a swing space at the time) but the lottery numbers area actually consistent for PK and up for upper grades this year. I think people are looking down the road at the new space. I still think there will be a drop in enrollment over the next two years due to the swing, but I think it will have a trajectory similar to John Lewis, which has really started to flourish since it's renovation (done by the same firm as JOW has, I believe).

How would they fit everyone into Young, though? I guess it works if you assume some people just go somewhere else, and they probably would-- Young's a bit of a schlepp if you live west of 4th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BASIS can have it

?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMI also. Short waitlist even for PK3, and offered 30 seats for 6th

This one isn't shocking, because they have been on a hard decline for years -- but the Drop from their Prek-3 peak in 2018, with a waitlist of 406 to This year being only 30 is very very telling -- They are in the same boat as TR, they were already sinking with a questionable admin before COVID and then their response to COVID sunk their battle ship.

My only question is "Where is the bottom of this spiral?"

It seems like SSMA has been spiraling down for years but never quite gets to the point of making big changes or calling it quits.

Good point. My understanding is that TR is heavily leveraged with a significant amount of debt related to expansion. So they might be in a more perilous situation.

Oh wow. Ouch. Well, at least TR is making some leadership changes. It's clear they do recognize they have a problem. The things I hear from younger-kid parents are cautiously optimistic.

I'm sorry to say this, but that is because they don't know any better. They will figure it out in a few years. It's just not a good program, despite a lot of very respectable efforts by the parent group and some passionate educators.

I agree with this sentiment re the TR model. But there’s also a complete inability on leadership’s part to acknowledge failings and weaknesses and address why the school is in free fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS can have it

?

BASIS is looking for a building in which they can start an elementary school, so this building would potentially be an option if Two Rivers wanted to sell it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMI also. Short waitlist even for PK3, and offered 30 seats for 6th

This one isn't shocking, because they have been on a hard decline for years -- but the Drop from their Prek-3 peak in 2018, with a waitlist of 406 to This year being only 30 is very very telling -- They are in the same boat as TR, they were already sinking with a questionable admin before COVID and then their response to COVID sunk their battle ship.

My only question is "Where is the bottom of this spiral?"

It seems like SSMA has been spiraling down for years but never quite gets to the point of making big changes or calling it quits.

Good point. My understanding is that TR is heavily leveraged with a significant amount of debt related to expansion. So they might be in a more perilous situation.

Oh wow. Ouch. Well, at least TR is making some leadership changes. It's clear they do recognize they have a problem. The things I hear from younger-kid parents are cautiously optimistic.

I think TR may axe the 4th St campus entirely, especially if JOW starts sucking up local families post-reno.

+1, this has occurred to me as well. I actually think that has long been the plan, actually, and a major reason they expanded to Young, because the 4th street campus is pretty cramped and has a lot of issues (two buildings, the traffic on Florida, really annoying drop off/pick up, and very limited outdoor space). I remember looking at it 5 years ago and thinking it seemed less than ideal, I'm a little surprised they haven't announced an official plan to transition fully to Young by now.

I live in the neighborhood and I also feel like there is a groundswell of interest in JOW. Their lottery results confirm this. I thought there would be a lot less interest in the school for the PK grades because of the swing space (I remember this being a factor in our lottery choices for PK because CHML was busing to a swing space at the time) but the lottery numbers area actually consistent for PK and up for upper grades this year. I think people are looking down the road at the new space. I still think there will be a drop in enrollment over the next two years due to the swing, but I think it will have a trajectory similar to John Lewis, which has really started to flourish since it's renovation (done by the same firm as JOW has, I believe).

I can imagine some families in bounds for miner, Wheatley, etc. would see the swing space as an advantage since it's closer to them than JO itself is. And if they stick with JOW they would have the option of attending Stuart Hobson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CMI also. Short waitlist even for PK3, and offered 30 seats for 6th

This one isn't shocking, because they have been on a hard decline for years -- but the Drop from their Prek-3 peak in 2018, with a waitlist of 406 to This year being only 30 is very very telling -- They are in the same boat as TR, they were already sinking with a questionable admin before COVID and then their response to COVID sunk their battle ship.

My only question is "Where is the bottom of this spiral?"

It seems like SSMA has been spiraling down for years but never quite gets to the point of making big changes or calling it quits.

Good point. My understanding is that TR is heavily leveraged with a significant amount of debt related to expansion. So they might be in a more perilous situation.

Oh wow. Ouch. Well, at least TR is making some leadership changes. It's clear they do recognize they have a problem. The things I hear from younger-kid parents are cautiously optimistic.

I'm sorry to say this, but that is because they don't know any better. They will figure it out in a few years. It's just not a good program, despite a lot of very respectable efforts by the parent group and some passionate educators.

I agree with this sentiment re the TR model. But there’s also a complete inability on leadership’s part to acknowledge failings and weaknesses and address why the school is in free fall.

The new leadership?