School Without Walls Pk-12?

[Anonymous]

Who are you 18:26 to release what is probably not meant to be a public communication from students -- or that this was an actual missive?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A letter was sent to the Chancellor from students at Walls and it reads as follows:

"Dear Chancellor Henderson,
The Freshmen Class of School Without Walls wish to advise you of our disproval of your proposed plan to merge FS & SWW. Part of what makes our school special is that we accept only the best students from across the city. Another quality is that the students here, being generally intelligent, are given freedoms and rights that we would not have in our feeder schools. We use the city as our classroom. Many of these qualities that make our school unique and one of the best in the city will be taken away if this plan involving sending our students to Francis goes through. Our "School Without Walls" will be given "Walls", so to speak, taking away our unique outside of classroom experience. The merge would also disrupt and tarnish the well-knit sense of community established at our school. That is why, on behalf of our fellow students, We ask you to please reconsider this plan."

My HIGHSCHOOL is One of the highest performing school in DC and the country. My HIGHSCHOOL also has a 100% Graduation & College acceptance rate. I would love to keep it that way.

*fixed the fragmented sentence

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A letter was sent to the Chancellor from students at Walls and it reads as follows:

"Dear Chancellor Henderson,
The Freshmen Class of School Without Walls wish to advise you of our disproval of your proposed plan to merge FS & SWW. Part of what makes our school special is that we accept only the best students from across the city. Another quality is that the students here, being generally intelligent, are given freedoms and rights that we would not have in our feeder schools. We use the city as our classroom. Many of these qualities that make our school unique and one of the best in the city will be taken away if this plan involving sending our students to Francis goes through. Our "School Without Walls" will be given "Walls", so to speak, taking away our unique outside of classroom experience. The merge would also disrupt and tarnish the comunical bond built at our school. That is why, on behalf of our fellow students, We ask you to please reconsider this plan."

My HIGHSCHOOL is One of the highest performing school in DC and the country. My HIGHSCHOOL also has a 100% Graduation & College acceptance rate. I would love to keep it that way.

What a mess. Please tell me that tax dollars don't fund THIS as one of the supposedly best schools in the city. Is there an address for our refund checks?

[Anonymous]

Students currently enrolled at F-S will be allowed to remain through 8th grade. Students interested in attending Walls’ at the high school grades must submit an online high school application and be selected through Walls’ admissions process.

[Anonymous]

What is your source pp? Because official notices have not been that clear. What is the high school of rights for the F-S 8th graders who don't get into SWW? And is the principal of Walls now the principal of F -S. If so, will he have assistant principals and how will their duties be distributed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Students currently enrolled at F-S will be allowed to remain through 8th grade. Students interested in attending Walls’ at the high school grades must submit an online high school application and be selected through Walls’ admissions process.

Listed in the DCPS live chat for lottery.

http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/Learn+About+Schools/Step+1+-+Get+Ready/Preschool,+Pre-Kindergarten+and+Out-of-Boundary+Lottery/Live+Chat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:...uh...some private schools have pre-k thru 12 on the same campus, like Maret, British School, etc... what's the big deal with that?

Are the students in the same building?

[Anonymous]

Yes at British for sure. What are you imagining? 17 year olds cursing around 4 year olds? There may be many issues worth arguing over on this Walls-Francis thing but grades pre-k through 12 sharing a campus is non-issue. And if you want to go there, remember all Walls kids are cream of the crop, high-achievers who represent a small percentage of the finest students in the city. Younger kids would be lucky to have some engagement with such high schoolers. But I hope Walls is able to retain its talented principal without spreading his attention to other grades.

[Anonymous]

Whole decision keeps getting worse. Walls will have to send one grade to FS- 11th- most of the week while the rest of the school stays at the main campus. Only DCPS would think it's a good idea to have one high school grade located on a different campus. As for parents proposing this option, it did not come from Walls. This merger is ridiculous- not thought out at all- typical of the longstanding disfunction of DCPS. SInce there is such demand for another magnet high school, they should work on opening another- not screwing up the one that works.

[Anonymous]

I am a former student at School Without walls (Graduated two years ago) and I just want to say that I find it hard to believe that anyone involved in School Without Walls or (most likely) FS had anything to do with this merger.

To be honest, I can't really be surprised. Our freshman class sizes have been steadily growing and our building has become quite crowded, they have been talking about having some classes taught at FS or another local school almost since we moved back to the Grant School. There were many reasons for this- ranging from the need for more funding to a greater number of interested (and qualified) applicants- but the fact remains that there needed to be some expansion in physical space and would continue to worry about it until the school either cut it's enrollment or found a place for expansion.

So yeah, it does make sense to merge them. I don't like it, but I don't see it changing unless there is FS closes, which I also don't think that is a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Small schools can't survive. So, this Malcom X analogy of by any means necessary is coming to reality.

[Anonymous]

Bump. Any news on this?

[Anonymous]

It remains a huge mess. There is growing concern for the SWW community because DCPS refuses to give any information about the plans for implementing the merger or what "merger' really means. SWW had no input into the decision to merge with FS. The only information from DCPS is that it is a "done deal". But what that means, no one knows.
SWW LSAT voted to not send any students to FS. As other posters stated, there is only room for 50-75 students (half a grade or less) so it would separate those students from the rest of the HS. SWW Principal is now in charge of both schools and will be relocating to FS. SWW is pushing to have a principal on site but right now there is no answer to that request. Newspaper articles- see other DCUM postings- indicate the Principal is hiring his wife to be the Assistant Principal at FS. SWW was told it would remain an application only school, but some feel FS would eventually be a feeder. There are endless questions about this. Like I said, a real mess- created and perpetuated by DCPS.

[Anonymous]

This is horrifying/illuminating. My 6th grade DD is a top student at Deal and was just saying this AM that she would like to go to Walls... we also have a 7th grader at Deal, very good student-- we're in Tenleytown and this Francis merger, is an absolute deal breaker for me. There will be a downward spiral at Walls--I can hardly believe this happened without any sort of real uproar. We'll be going on to Wilson instead as we live less than a mile away--it is a great option to have--I believe many of my cohort will do the same.

[Anonymous]

Awesome--more space for the kids who don't have Wilson as an option...

[Anonymous]

I would rather have my child attend SSW and graduate with an associates from GW for free, than to go to Wilson. Also I don't see what the big deal is about the kids going to the same school. Private schools have been doing it since the beginning of time. As for SSW losing its great reputation, FS also has a good rep in the DC area. So it is not a total loss. I entered my girls in the lottery for SSW@FS and they were excepted. I think this will be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.