ANC3D Discussion on Foxhall Elementary / Old Hardy

[Anonymous]

I think we should put public housing there. It’s only fair to make up for the history of racism in fox hall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Metro is pushing to end the only bus line to that area.

Traffic will be epic

The closure of that bus line - which serves two hospitals and countless schools - is never going to happen. But it's a smart move by WMATA to propose closing it will result in a lot of letters being sent and calls made on their behalf to the funding agencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are slides here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17d7ZYwYlkVre4sc4EiH3SWpU-FL5zvj_

Of most interest to me is the 50 percent out of boundary enrollment on slide 8.

I'm not prepared to map inboundary enrollments to capacities because of the tediousness of the work, but I expect, as usual, that out-of-boundary attendance is at the core of overcrowding at all but a few specific schools.

Not for the ESs. These are all heavily IB and trending more in that direction. Hardy MS has historically been mainly OOB but that is changing fast. I imagine that Bowser’s calculus is that, without these two new schools, the rest of the city will be all but shut out of the Wilson feeder pattern.

Thank you PP for sharing the materials - fascinating discussions on FCCA / PCA foibles, but did anyone draw any conclusions from this?

87 pages later, kicking self for naively hoping the primary driver was DCPS out-of-the-box thinking to use GDS MacArthur to reduce Deal/Wilson overcrowding, or maybe even getting high SES WOTP kids into empty seats EOTP, instead of the decades-old status quo of cramming Deal/Wilson with OOB until it explodes (2028 according to the slides?

It's late at night, maybe I'm imagining things but it seems like a driving motivation for the new MS and/or HS is to encourage OOB seats/enrollment and the current racial balance proportions? Isn't that called gerrymandering or racial quotas/redlining? Even for an admirable aspiration? What about the children? Sigh. DC.

The Crowding Working Group a couple of years ago found that DCPS is going to need four new schools west of Rock Creek -- two elementary, one middle and one high. There are sites for two schools in play here, no matter how you cut it you can't get four schools out of two sites. It's looking like they're coalescing around one elementary and one high school. The high school will help crowding at Wilson. Neither site is really geographically capable of helping Deal. The new elementary will help with crowding in the southern part of Ward 3 but not the northern part. The solution for crowding at Deal is to build another middle school somewhere within Deal's boundaries. The solution for crowding in the northern part of the ward is to build another elementary somewhere in the northern part of the ward.

DC missed a huge opportunity by not putting a new school on the site of the Chevy Chase Community Center, which is being replaced. That site could have been completely reimagined to include a school while also keeping the library and community center. Instead we're just getting the community center to placate the few geriatrics who actually use it. Massive missed opportunity. That site should be either a school (there was one on that site long ago) or housing.

What? Speak for your own geriatrics. Doesn't that community center have programming for children? DPR offers the only programming for children that isn't $25/class for-profit. That center needs to be rehabbed, and I'm glad to hear it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we should put public housing there. It’s only fair to make up for the history of racism in fox hall.

You may yet have your wish: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hwmc2dlfcq3156b/Housing%20Sign.jpg?dl=0

. . . or maybe not: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uzyd867g89crwrg/OAG_OHR%20Letter%20-%20Final.pdf?dl=0

[Anonymous]

Paul Kihn just told a Ward 3 EdNet meeting that the Lab School lease has been extended through 2038.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Paul Kihn just told a Ward 3 EdNet meeting that the Lab School lease has been extended through 2038.

Council know about this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Paul Kihn just told a Ward 3 EdNet meeting that the Lab School lease has been extended through 2038.

And I hope the Ward 3 EdNet meeting told him what generally happens to public officials who gift public resources to wealthy private interests without any shred of process or transparency . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paul Kihn just told a Ward 3 EdNet meeting that the Lab School lease has been extended through 2038.

And I hope the Ward 3 EdNet meeting told him what generally happens to public officials who gift public resources to wealthy private interests without any shred of process or transparency . . .

They get lucrative private sector jobs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paul Kihn just told a Ward 3 EdNet meeting that the Lab School lease has been extended through 2038.

And I hope the Ward 3 EdNet meeting told him what generally happens to public officials who gift public resources to wealthy private interests without any shred of process or transparency . . .

They get lucrative private sector jobs?

Bingo! After which, they enjoy a pleasant and well-funded retirement in which they may pursue their true passions free of the hassles that befall the working classes. And then they die and are condemned to the fiery misery that is the eternal damnation they are due for their mendacious thieving behavior during the years they spent in public office!!!

[Anonymous]

I would like to set the record straight on the current mood in the Palisades and the ANC3D. The leadership from the 90s and 00s has changed dramatically. The PCA now has a mindset of "safe and accessible trails for all" meaning they are pro-sidewalk, pro-bike lanes, pro- safe and accessible trails. The ANC has completely transformed in 10 years from the NIMBY attitude it once had.

The PCA stands for Palisades Community Association. They dropped the "citizens" a year ago.

The Safeway debacle really woke people up to get more involved.

There is affordable housing and housing voucher recipients living in the Palisades. The FCCA on the other hand managed to get the entire Foxhall Village and the Old Hardy Building registered with the Historic Preservation Board making changes to the area difficult. This is exactly what they want.

The ANC3D approved the improvements to the Old Trolley Trail. For some reason the City isn't funding it so not sure what is going on. I suspect the PCA will renew the cause by having a community vote and getting the trail and Arizona Ave bridge renovated.

There is still a lot of work to be done in the neighborhood to bring people along who will resist change at all costs but there are forward thinking people who are very involved. It's probably why there is so much tension with the FCCA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paul Kihn just told a Ward 3 EdNet meeting that the Lab School lease has been extended through 2038.

Council know about this?

CM Cheh's office says they received a letter just before the Ward 3Ed Net meeting last night letting them know a lease has been signed. Not sure if they knew, but it sure takes the pressure of the Council to cast an unpopular vote.

[Anonymous]

What a scam.

[Anonymous]

It’s absolutely scandalous that the mayor can take a unilateral decision - influenced heavily no doubt by the best lobbying and campaign contributions that $50k / year private school money can buy - devoid of any transparency or even justification to tie up a very scarce public school building for an entire generation. But there again that was exactly what happened with the Jelleff playing fields as well. She and her minions don’t even stoop to provide us peons with an articulable rationale for these decisions, let alone anything approaching a cost benefit analysis. But without any serious local media or political opposition to bring attention to the public that they are being royally ripped off, she is answerable to no one

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would like to set the record straight on the current mood in the Palisades and the ANC3D. The leadership from the 90s and 00s has changed dramatically. The PCA now has a mindset of "safe and accessible trails for all" meaning they are pro-sidewalk, pro-bike lanes, pro- safe and accessible trails. The ANC has completely transformed in 10 years from the NIMBY attitude it once had.

The PCA stands for Palisades Community Association. They dropped the "citizens" a year ago.

The Safeway debacle really woke people up to get more involved.

There is affordable housing and housing voucher recipients living in the Palisades. The FCCA on the other hand managed to get the entire Foxhall Village and the Old Hardy Building registered with the Historic Preservation Board making changes to the area difficult. This is exactly what they want.

The ANC3D approved the improvements to the Old Trolley Trail. For some reason the City isn't funding it so not sure what is going on. I suspect the PCA will renew the cause by having a community vote and getting the trail and Arizona Ave bridge renovated.

There is still a lot of work to be done in the neighborhood to bring people along who will resist change at all costs but there are forward thinking people who are very involved. It's probably why there is so much tension with the FCCA.

As progressive as the PCA is, it’s influence pales in comparison to those in the community who have invested in influence with the city’s politicians and are very happy to do an end-run around the local representative bodies to stop anything they don’t like and get what they do. That nothing is happening with the Trail probably has much to do with the direct line that certain folk along that trail have into the EOM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would like to set the record straight on the current mood in the Palisades and the ANC3D. The leadership from the 90s and 00s has changed dramatically. The PCA now has a mindset of "safe and accessible trails for all" meaning they are pro-sidewalk, pro-bike lanes, pro- safe and accessible trails. The ANC has completely transformed in 10 years from the NIMBY attitude it once had.

The PCA stands for Palisades Community Association. They dropped the "citizens" a year ago.

The Safeway debacle really woke people up to get more involved.

There is affordable housing and housing voucher recipients living in the Palisades. The FCCA on the other hand managed to get the entire Foxhall Village and the Old Hardy Building registered with the Historic Preservation Board making changes to the area difficult. This is exactly what they want.

The ANC3D approved the improvements to the Old Trolley Trail. For some reason the City isn't funding it so not sure what is going on. I suspect the PCA will renew the cause by having a community vote and getting the trail and Arizona Ave bridge renovated.

There is still a lot of work to be done in the neighborhood to bring people along who will resist change at all costs but there are forward thinking people who are very involved. It's probably why there is so much tension with the FCCA.

As progressive as the PCA is, it’s influence pales in comparison to those in the community who have invested in influence with the city’s politicians and are very happy to do an end-run around the local representative bodies to stop anything they don’t like and get what they do. That nothing is happening with the Trail probably has much to do with the direct line that certain folk along that trail have into the EOM.

Another Palisades resident ... the PCA and ANCs have no power or clout on anything. They have been completely rolled in the new nursing home (former Safeway) community discussions. And the “what no funding to pave the trail” is just painfully naive - the pass and do nothing is another way to roll so-called “activists”. And all the success they’ve had around the lab school
Lease for the old Hardy school... oh yea, none at all. It’s just a bunch of privileged people who like to drink wine and whine together