Ellington Field

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*region. It is the only, thus leading, arts high school for all.

Why should the DC taxpayers be shoveling out millions (including for a cost overrun fueled renovation that cost over $100) to provide an arts education for PG and Arlington students? Let those jurisdictions fund their own schools!

Because it enhances the talent pool. Because having you to 60 more kids per grade isn’t going to cost much more to the operating cost (and is defrayed by the tuition) and doesn’t add a dime to the capital costs.

Personally I would be all for the structure of DESA to be a regional arts magnet the way that TJ is based and operated by FCPS but is jointly funded and open to students from surrounding counties.

Ha!

Can you imagine if DC opened a math and science magnet high school like TJ and admitted a number of students from Va and Md to “enhance the talent pool”? Imagine if white, Asian and south Asian students from outside DC were displacing African-American students? There would be a protest like you wouldn’t believe. The only reason why Duke Ellington gets away with it is that it is an overwhelmingly AA student population and the students from PG and other jurisdictions tend also to be AA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If it was that simple. The issue is the variance; often buses don't come for 35 min and then 3 come within 2 minutes. So it ends up being more like 45min. I take the D2 to work, so the family car is just sitting there. If the kid wants to pay for gas, they'll do so (on the condition they ferry kid 2). But hey, DC decided to put their HS halfway across down, almost in Maryland. I think Wilson has the largest catchment area of any DC school.

This kind of bus arrival variability is a sign of a poorly-run bus system that doesn’t care about staying on schedule.

If a transit agency cares about on-time bus arrivals they MUST express buses to maintain spacing. The problem is this: buses start out evenly spaced. But as soon as a gap widens a little bit, that bus starts having to pick up more and more riders, while the close bus behind it picks up few because the bus in front of it got them all.
That is a feedback loop that causes buses to cluster.

Fixing clustering is well worked out in cities with good bus systems: you express the bus with a big gap, skipping some stops to get the gaps even again.

DC does not have a bus system that cares about on-time arrivals so they don’t express.

[Anonymous]

FFS WMATA does express buses. I ride it every workday either down Georgia Ave or 16th.

[Anonymous]

I think that the blame should also fall on our DC government which has the competence and ethics of a Third World state.

[Anonymous]

Hyde has a full sized field.
Stoddert has a large field (the Stoddert soccer league was named for it)
Eaton uses a field at UDC.
Hardy can use Ellington

Do the poor waifs at the Boys and Girls club regularly use the field in November and March? I doubt It.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hyde has a full sized field.
Stoddert has a large field (the Stoddert soccer league was named for it)
Eaton uses a field at UDC.
Hardy can use Ellington

Do the poor waifs at the Boys and Girls club regularly use the field in November and March? I doubt It.

Mann has a very large playing field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hyde has a full sized field.
Stoddert has a large field (the Stoddert soccer league was named for it)
Eaton uses a field at UDC.
Hardy can use Ellington

Do the poor waifs at the Boys and Girls club regularly use the field in November and March? I doubt It.

Mann has a very large playing field.

Actually it's not large. Barely large enough for fourth graders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The takeaway from the meeting is that no one at Ellington has been asked how they use the field (they do use it for classes) or told what will be happening with its field.

ANC members and meeting attendees seemed stunned that everyone is in the dark.

DGS and DCPS are operating with zero transparency (shocking)

The takeaway is that no one asked the residents of west of the park whether they wanted another general academic high school at the Western HS/Ellington site, to relieve overcrowding at Wilson. Or whether they were fine with their taxpayer money used to cover $100 million of corrupt cost overruns to keep Ellington incongruously located in a corner of the District. There Ellington takes space that rightfully should be used for a reopened Western HS, instead of educating just 500 students, half of whom likely l live in Maryland not DC.

Oh cut the BS. Ellington now has there straight years of 100% compliance from OSSE on residency. That ship has sailed. And the city owns the building (not the school) and is responsible for the costs (not the school).

They still have a large amount of kids that live out of state on the books.

As do MANY other schools in DC that have been subject to far less scrutiny. Ellington also has the most tuition paying out of state students.

I'm fine with ellington, but it should NOT have out of state kids. Period. If there is space available at a non selective/admissions based school then out of state tuition paying kids can have at it, but if one DC kid were turned away from a selective school for an out if state kid - that is not the purpose of my DC tax dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The takeaway from the meeting is that no one at Ellington has been asked how they use the field (they do use it for classes) or told what will be happening with its field.

ANC members and meeting attendees seemed stunned that everyone is in the dark.

DGS and DCPS are operating with zero transparency (shocking)

The takeaway is that no one asked the residents of west of the park whether they wanted another general academic high school at the Western HS/Ellington site, to relieve overcrowding at Wilson. Or whether they were fine with their taxpayer money used to cover $100 million of corrupt cost overruns to keep Ellington incongruously located in a corner of the District. There Ellington takes space that rightfully should be used for a reopened Western HS, instead of educating just 500 students, half of whom likely l live in Maryland not DC.

Oh cut the BS. Ellington now has there straight years of 100% compliance from OSSE on residency. That ship has sailed. And the city owns the building (not the school) and is responsible for the costs (not the school).

They still have a large amount of kids that live out of state on the books.

As do MANY other schools in DC that have been subject to far less scrutiny. Ellington also has the most tuition paying out of state students.

I'm fine with ellington, but it should NOT have out of state kids. Period. If there is space available at a non selective/admissions based school then out of state tuition paying kids can have at it, but if one DC kid were turned away from a selective school for an out if state kid - that is not the purpose of my DC tax dollars.

There is still a mentality among DC politicians and the bureaucracy that gives PG County as special status as “Ward 9.”

[Anonymous]

Right. DCPS should transfer Ellington field to Hardy without delay. (Is Ellington even considered an official DCPS school?). In any case, Ellington doesn’t really use it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right. DCPS should transfer Ellington field to Hardy without delay. (Is Ellington even considered an official DCPS school?). In any case, Ellington doesn’t really use it.

Yes, why don't you get right on that and let us know how you plan to do that. (And before you do, you may want to exit your bubble and learn more about what an official DCPS school is.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right. DCPS should transfer Ellington field to Hardy without delay. (Is Ellington even considered an official DCPS school?). In any case, Ellington doesn’t really use it.

The city plans to transfer the Ellington field to DPR. It will be available to Ellington (whose students are officially DCPS students), Hardy and other community uses by permit.

HOWEVER, that plan is delayed because the people who live near the Ellington field do not want it to be available to any community uses (e.g. Stoddert, little league etc) because it will increase traffic and change the character of their neighborhood. I don't think they can derail the plan, but who knows. They did force underground parking to be built under the school, so who knows?

[Anonymous]

Hardy should just use Ellington field. It is good enough for Georgetown University yet somehow beneath Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hardy should just use Ellington field. It is good enough for Georgetown University yet somehow beneath Hardy.

Ellington controls Ellington field. Schools/teams can't just show up and play. Georgetown has a long standing agreement with Ellington to use the field at certain times.

From what I understand, Ellington didn't really want to manage the field. It didn't want to pick & choose among applicants, it didn't want to invest in the field's infrastructure, and it didn't want to manage scheduling. It was content to let the field sit empty, except when the DESA marching band has practice after school. Lots of different entities approached Ellington over the years to reserve the field but Ellington basically just never responded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy should just use Ellington field. It is good enough for Georgetown University yet somehow beneath Hardy.

Ellington controls Ellington field. Schools/teams can't just show up and play. Georgetown has a long standing agreement with Ellington to use the field at certain times.

From what I understand, Ellington didn't really want to manage the field. It didn't want to pick & choose among applicants, it didn't want to invest in the field's infrastructure, and it didn't want to manage scheduling. It was content to let the field sit empty, except when the DESA marching band has practice after school. Lots of different entities approached Ellington over the years to reserve the field but Ellington basically just never responded.

Because DESA has basically incompetent management. Isn’t that what the DC Auditor concluded?