Hardy IB Population

[Anonymous]

Current Eaton Parent here that is leaning toward Hardy over Deal even though I have the option to send my kids to Deal because of the grandfathering provision. I wish others would take the time to visit Hardy to see the progress and changes that are happening. I am excited about the offerings, class sizes, and the leadership. Many are quick to point out the things offered at Deal that aren't offered at Hardy but it goes both ways. Visit Hardy and you will be impressed. I am sure many at Eaton will choose Deal but there are many of us also leaning towards Hardy and it isn't just those that don't have a Deal option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current Eaton Parent here that is leaning toward Hardy over Deal even though I have the option to send my kids to Deal because of the grandfathering provision. I wish others would take the time to visit Hardy to see the progress and changes that are happening. I am excited about the offerings, class sizes, and the leadership. Many are quick to point out the things offered at Deal that aren't offered at Hardy but it goes both ways. Visit Hardy and you will be impressed. I am sure many at Eaton will choose Deal but there are many of us also leaning towards Hardy and it isn't just those that don't have a Deal option.

This is great to hear - thanks PP!

[Anonymous]

I was at a rec soccer game this weekend at Deal and realized that Deal's field space is about 8x that of Hardy's little field. From my perspective academics should come first, but still the disparity in athletic facilities among Deal and Hardy is troubling. Does Hardy have any plan to address that -- maybe tear up some of the parking to put in more of a regular field?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was at a rec soccer game this weekend at Deal and realized that Deal's field space is about 8x that of Hardy's little field. From my perspective academics should come first, but still the disparity in athletic facilities among Deal and Hardy is troubling. Does Hardy have any plan to address that -- maybe tear up some of the parking to put in more of a regular field?

Back to the parking lot, and to the comparison between a school nested in an historical district, and a school in what was not many years ago a suburban area.

Yes, they plan to do so, so that teachers will have to pay parking fees in the nearby streets. We hate to retain good teachers.

Idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at a rec soccer game this weekend at Deal and realized that Deal's field space is about 8x that of Hardy's little field. From my perspective academics should come first, but still the disparity in athletic facilities among Deal and Hardy is troubling. Does Hardy have any plan to address that -- maybe tear up some of the parking to put in more of a regular field?

Back to the parking lot, and to the comparison between a school nested in an historical district, and a school in what was not many years ago a suburban area.

Yes, they plan to do so, so that teachers will have to pay parking fees in the nearby streets. We hate to retain good teachers.

Idiot.

The city owns the parking lot at the Jelleff rec center which is literally across the street. It's lightly used during the day, it could become teacher parking. Crossing the street is not an insurmountable hardship.

A more thoughtful criticism is that even with the parking lot gone there isn't a whole lot of space. If you look at the aerial photo in Google maps you can see the Hardy site next to the Jelleff site, you'd only be able to build a field about half the size of the Jelleff field on the Hardy site. The Jelleff field is actually on the small side, OK for middle school soccer, too small for football and marginal for baseball, any field you could put on the Hardy site would only be a practice field, much like the current field.

The real solution would be for Hardy to use Jelleff. For the life of me I don't get why they don't, at least during the day. Maret has the field weekdays after school during the spring and fall, but there's lots of other time Hardy could use.

[Anonymous]

I find it hilarious that so many people on here care about middle school sports. If you look at the best performing high school sports programs in the region, most in NOVA, none of them have Middle Schools with strong sports programs feeding into them. At that age the good athletes are playing on travel teams and AAU teams etc. they are not playing on a Middle School team. I would be concerned with academics the chance your son/daughter makes it past high school sports is extremely slim. I fully support athletics and think it is an important part of growing up but you don't need state of the art facilities to be active. I would not pick a school for athletics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current Eaton Parent here that is leaning toward Hardy over Deal even though I have the option to send my kids to Deal because of the grandfathering provision. I wish others would take the time to visit Hardy to see the progress and changes that are happening. I am excited about the offerings, class sizes, and the leadership. Many are quick to point out the things offered at Deal that aren't offered at Hardy but it goes both ways. Visit Hardy and you will be impressed. I am sure many at Eaton will choose Deal but there are many of us also leaning towards Hardy and it isn't just those that don't have a Deal option.

We are in same boat (one parent in deal, one in Hardy). We prefer Hardy bc it's SMALL & a tight ship. Lovely facility too. Not sure why there are so many clueless Hardy bashers on this site...?

[Anonymous]

The people obsessed with the field just kill me. Hardy is a TINY school. It also has a tiny amount of land. Deal is a ginormas (and getting bigger by the year) school. It has more land. NEXT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at a rec soccer game this weekend at Deal and realized that Deal's field space is about 8x that of Hardy's little field. From my perspective academics should come first, but still the disparity in athletic facilities among Deal and Hardy is troubling. Does Hardy have any plan to address that -- maybe tear up some of the parking to put in more of a regular field?

Back to the parking lot, and to the comparison between a school nested in an historical district, and a school in what was not many years ago a suburban area.

Yes, they plan to do so, so that teachers will have to pay parking fees in the nearby streets. We hate to retain good teachers.

Idiot.

You must head of the committee to preserve that "distinctive culture" that some Hardy folks warn about changing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The people obsessed with the field just kill me. Hardy is a TINY school. It also has a tiny amount of land. Deal is a ginormas (and getting bigger by the year) school. It has more land. NEXT.

So then what do you do if your kid is I B for Hardy and is serious about outdoor sports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at a rec soccer game this weekend at Deal and realized that Deal's field space is about 8x that of Hardy's little field. From my perspective academics should come first, but still the disparity in athletic facilities among Deal and Hardy is troubling. Does Hardy have any plan to address that -- maybe tear up some of the parking to put in more of a regular field?

Back to the parking lot, and to the comparison between a school nested in an historical district, and a school in what was not many years ago a suburban area.

Yes, they plan to do so, so that teachers will have to pay parking fees in the nearby streets. We hate to retain good teachers.

Idiot.

The city owns the parking lot at the Jelleff rec center which is literally across the street. It's lightly used during the day, it could become teacher parking. Crossing the street is not an insurmountable hardship.

A more thoughtful criticism is that even with the parking lot gone there isn't a whole lot of space. If you look at the aerial photo in Google maps you can see the Hardy site next to the Jelleff site, you'd only be able to build a field about half the size of the Jelleff field on the Hardy site. The Jelleff field is actually on the small side, OK for middle school soccer, too small for football and marginal for baseball, any field you could put on the Hardy site would only be apractice field, much like the current field.

The real solution would be for Hardy to use Jelleff. For the life of me I don't get why they don't, at least during the day. Maret has the field weekdays after school during the spring and fall, but there's lots of other time Hardy could use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at a rec soccer game this weekend at Deal and realized that Deal's field space is about 8x that of Hardy's little field. From my perspective academics should come first, but still the disparity in athletic facilities among Deal and Hardy is troubling. Does Hardy have any plan to address that -- maybe tear up some of the parking to put in more of a regular field?

Back to the parking lot, and to the comparison between a school nested in an historical district, and a school in what was not many years ago a suburban area.

Yes, they plan to do so, so that teachers will have to pay parking fees in the nearby streets. We hate to retain good teachers.

Idiot.

Should t the needs of the students come first? I don't think schools should be in the business of provding free parking to staff when student recreational and sports space is so limited. Or if parking matters so much, DCPS should put underground parking under an expanded field. That's what they paid to do at Janney.

[Anonymous]

Guess Hardy needs to up its game in terms of getting DCPS to do what it wants like Janney has been able to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at a rec soccer game this weekend at Deal and realized that Deal's field space is about 8x that of Hardy's little field. From my perspective academics should come first, but still the disparity in athletic facilities among Deal and Hardy is troubling. Does Hardy have any plan to address that -- maybe tear up some of the parking to put in more of a regular field?

Back to the parking lot, and to the comparison between a school nested in an historical district, and a school in what was not many years ago a suburban area.

Yes, they plan to do so, so that teachers will have to pay parking fees in the nearby streets. We hate to retain good teachers.

Idiot.

Um.....the location of Deal has always been within the city limits, never a "suburban area."

WTF does that even mean? If you go to Hardy you get a small school with small facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The people obsessed with the field just kill me. Hardy is a TINY school. It also has a tiny amount of land. Deal is a ginormas (and getting bigger by the year) school. It has more land. NEXT.

So then what do you do if your kid is I B for Hardy and is serious about outdoor sports?

You kindly explain to him the reasons why a tiny school within an historical district cannot have unlimited fields for him to play baseball. He will understand. If he does not, well , that's not an Hardy's failure.