New school at Van Ness bigger than Wilson?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know anything about this planned Chinese school at the old Intelsat Building? https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/private-school-with-global-ambition-to-open-in-dc-and-china-in-2019/2018/02/07/c101aaa2-0b4b-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html?utm_term=.6d343dc406e9

According to the developer, adding this boarding school for 2,500 students in Van Ness is a "done deal" to open in September 2019. This will be the biggest school int the city in an already saturated neighborhood with terrible traffic issues, so I am curious about why there has been no discussion in the ANC? Has the City Council addressed this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know anything about this planned Chinese school at the old Intelsat Building? https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/private-school-with-global-ambition-to-open-in-dc-and-china-in-2019/2018/02/07/c101aaa2-0b4b-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html?utm_term=.6d343dc406e9

According to the developer, adding this boarding school for 2,500 students in Van Ness is a "done deal" to open in September 2019. This will be the biggest school int the city in an already saturated neighborhood with terrible traffic issues, so I am curious about why there has been no discussion in the ANC? Has the City Council addressed this?

I generally have sympathy with traffic concerns, but when Intelsat and Channel 7 occupied the building there were thousands of people who worked there, most of whom drove. The location sits on a major arterial and steps from a Metro stop. The building has two driveway circles on different sides of the site for drop offs, plus the main door on Connecticut. While I wonder if this school's business model will make it successful, even at the aspirational enrollment (doubtful), the building will house fewer people than in the Intelsat days.

[Anonymous]

This is a totally no-viable concept.

[Anonymous]

The restrictions on UDC for school related traffic are strict and there was a lot of negotiating just to get Murch to swing in that location for two years, mostly due to traffic (which is why Murch has to bus kids from eight block away). The ANC, etc. look at schools very differently than an office building. It is a different kind, pattern, and volume of traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The restrictions on UDC for school related traffic are strict and there was a lot of negotiating just to get Murch to swing in that location for two years, mostly due to traffic (which is why Murch has to bus kids from eight block away). The ANC, etc. look at schools very differently than an office building. It is a different kind, pattern, and volume of traffic.

The truth is that everyone wishes that UDC would pack up and move away from the neighborhood. It's such a downer on commercial activity, etc. It would be better if UDC relocated to a more central location closer to where more of its students live. Imagine how the UDC campus could be redeveloped for housing, commercial, a school site, recreation. I've also wondered why the neighborhood doesn't get the Metro renamed "Forest Hills," which sounds so much more pleasant than "Van Ness-UDC." The latter is not a neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The truth is that everyone wishes that UDC would pack up and move away from the neighborhood. It's such a downer on commercial activity, etc. It would be better if UDC relocated to a more central location closer to where more of its students live. Imagine how the UDC campus could be redeveloped for housing, commercial, a school site, recreation. I've also wondered why the neighborhood doesn't get the Metro renamed "Forest Hills," which sounds so much more pleasant than "Van Ness-UDC." The latter is not a neighborhood.

Translation: I wish the small school that has all of the students of color would relocate to some other neighborhood so new shiny things could be in our neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The truth is that everyone wishes that UDC would pack up and move away from the neighborhood. It's such a downer on commercial activity, etc. It would be better if UDC relocated to a more central location closer to where more of its students live. Imagine how the UDC campus could be redeveloped for housing, commercial, a school site, recreation. I've also wondered why the neighborhood doesn't get the Metro renamed "Forest Hills," which sounds so much more pleasant than "Van Ness-UDC." The latter is not a neighborhood.

Translation: I wish the small school that has all of the students of color would relocate to some other neighborhood so new shiny things could be in our neighborhood.

Yeah, pretty much. And the time to do that was before UDC had the giant renovation/expansion. You’re stuck with it now, “Forest Hills”!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The restrictions on UDC for school related traffic are strict and there was a lot of negotiating just to get Murch to swing in that location for two years, mostly due to traffic (which is why Murch has to bus kids from eight block away). The ANC, etc. look at schools very differently than an office building. It is a different kind, pattern, and volume of traffic.

The truth is that everyone wishes that UDC would pack up and move away from the neighborhood. It's such a downer on commercial activity, etc. It would be better if UDC relocated to a more central location closer to where more of its students live. Imagine how the UDC campus could be redeveloped for housing, commercial, a school site, recreation. I've also wondered why the neighborhood doesn't get the Metro renamed "Forest Hills," which sounds so much more pleasant than "Van Ness-UDC." The latter is not a neighborhood.

I disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The truth is that everyone wishes that UDC would pack up and move away from the neighborhood. It's such a downer on commercial activity, etc. It would be better if UDC relocated to a more central location closer to where more of its students live. Imagine how the UDC campus could be redeveloped for housing, commercial, a school site, recreation. I've also wondered why the neighborhood doesn't get the Metro renamed "Forest Hills," which sounds so much more pleasant than "Van Ness-UDC." The latter is not a neighborhood.

Translation: I wish the small school that has all of the students of color would relocate to some other neighborhood so new shiny things could be in our neighborhood.

BINGO.

[Anonymous]

It's a boarding school. The students will presumably live there, on campus, full time. That's what makes it a boarding school!

So you'll have a couple thousand Asian kids living in close proximity.

What's going to happen? Are you afraid of a drive-by Calculus? Maybe differential equation graffiti tagging? Groups of kids smiling politely?

I can see how that sorta stuff would make a DC resident afraid to leave their house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The truth is that everyone wishes that UDC would pack up and move away from the neighborhood. It's such a downer on commercial activity, etc. It would be better if UDC relocated to a more central location closer to where more of its students live. Imagine how the UDC campus could be redeveloped for housing, commercial, a school site, recreation. I've also wondered why the neighborhood doesn't get the Metro renamed "Forest Hills," which sounds so much more pleasant than "Van Ness-UDC." The latter is not a neighborhood.

Translation: I wish the small school that has all of the students of color would relocate to some other neighborhood so new shiny things could be in our neighborhood.

One addition: Except we will fight any new shiny things too, so lose the University and just have nothing there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a boarding school. The students will presumably live there, on campus, full time. That's what makes it a boarding school!

So you'll have a couple thousand Asian kids living in close proximity.

What's going to happen? Are you afraid of a drive-by Calculus? Maybe differential equation graffiti tagging? Groups of kids smiling politely?

I can see how that sorta stuff would make a DC resident afraid to leave their house.

The article I read said partial boarding

[Anonymous]

I just don’t see how you find 2500 additional families in the DMV who have $40,000 a year to spend on private school and aren’t already enrolled elsewhere. Even if you imagine that the 500 boarding high school students (who have somehow become fluent in Chinese) could be found from other areas, that’s still 2000 new families. Sure, you could pull some from existing private school pools, but that is still a lot of additional families with serious cash they are willing to spend on private school to find.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just don’t see how you find 2500 additional families in the DMV who have $40,000 a year to spend on private school and aren’t already enrolled elsewhere. Even if you imagine that the 500 boarding high school students (who have somehow become fluent in Chinese) could be found from other areas, that’s still 2000 new families. Sure, you could pull some from existing private school pools, but that is still a lot of additional families with serious cash they are willing to spend on private school to find.

This is for wealthy kids from China.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just don’t see how you find 2500 additional families in the DMV who have $40,000 a year to spend on private school and aren’t already enrolled elsewhere. Even if you imagine that the 500 boarding high school students (who have somehow become fluent in Chinese) could be found from other areas, that’s still 2000 new families. Sure, you could pull some from existing private school pools, but that is still a lot of additional families with serious cash they are willing to spend on private school to find.

This is for wealthy kids from China.

Maybe the 500 boarding slots, but not the slots starting at three. How are they filling up the lower school?