Council delays Foxhall, MacArthur schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So... the school will open in 2023 with zero improvements? Because?

No idea. I can't figure out the headlong rush. It is not like this is an election issue. The place has no high school level track or anything. There are no labs or any facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So... the school will open in 2023 with zero improvements? Because?

No idea. I can't figure out the headlong rush. It is not like this is an election issue. The place has no high school level track or anything. There are no labs or any facilities.

There were pee-k kids in the GDS site so some bathrooms will need an upgrade, at a minimum-

[Anonymous]

You should have tuned in to the briefing tonight or head over to the DCPS planning website. There are phase 1 improvements already underway including a cafeteria and classroom conversion and configuration for HS programming. The folks who are scared and trying to portray this as a rushed and thoughtless exercise are not paying attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, listening to the DCPS info session. It seems that Goulet’s views are his own and not what seems well underway. MacArthur HS will open at the GDS site in 23. The budget delays that Goulet seems to be referring to are for additional improvements to the GDS site to bring it to full capacity.

Yeah, Goulet has egg on his face for over-reacting on this.

Overreacting, or using ambiguous info to court NIMBY foxhall voters by telling them what they want to hear?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should have tuned in to the briefing tonight or head over to the DCPS planning website. There are phase 1 improvements already underway including a cafeteria and classroom conversion and configuration for HS programming. The folks who are scared and trying to portray this as a rushed and thoughtless exercise are not paying attention.

I did tune in. Most of the discussion (at least from DCPS) was regarding parking and traffic. Getting to and from school takes an hour at most. The kids will be in school for 6 hours. The plans for curriculum, leadership, facilities (e.g. sports, labs etc.) are non-existent. They haven't even figured out whether it will be an AP or an IB school and what programs they plan to offer.

With a current 7th grader at Hardy, we have every right to be cautious (scared even, as you say). In a few years, the school might grow into a compelling alternative to Jackson/Reed but the first class will have it rough.

[Anonymous]

Build an addition to McKinley and make the new high school a magnet school, application school, or a high school with coveted within school programs. Build additions to current elementary schools where possible.

Without the lure of Wilson, parents might take their kids out of public school after elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So Goulet is endorsing the enormously irresponsible "Save Hardy Park" campaign, led by a guy (Bob Avery, President of the FCCA) who has gone on record as making misogynist comments to a Washington Post journalist ("You have a bunch of stay-at-home moms in Spring Valley and their poor little kids worried about two shifts in the cafeteria"), who went on record at an ANC meeting as opposing a public school in the neighborhood under almost any circumstances ("There are uses of [the Old Hardy building] which would be bad for our community. A public, a charter high school would probably not be a particularly good outcome"), and who uses his newsletter to dox people in the community who disagree with him. If this guys gets elected, the city should give the whole ward to Virginia because it has no place in a progressive city.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Even with the money, I don't think there was ever a chance the MacArthur school would actually be ready by next year. Delaying the money might not delay actual opening much.

While these are tweets from Goulet, the decision was made by Mendelson. I don't know if Goulet had anything to do with it.

Goulet’s tweets say that the plan is not just delaying but shifting by putting Foxhall ES at the GDS site and looking for some new magical unicorn site for a HS.

Those tweets are confusing. There's clearly no actual "the plan" yet, so maybe that's what he thinks will result?

It's also confusing that Goulet is literally the only person reporting on these delays. Wasn't there a DCPS meeting about the new schools last night (or tonight)?

There is a meeting tonight. But Mendelson's legislative proposal does push the funds to FY24 and FY25 (on his website). It doesn't explicitly show up in the legislative text but perhaps that is an overview.

I'm going to guess most people who attend this meeting will not be aware of the delay, so that'll go over well.

Also, I'm curious as to where he thinks they're gonna find a spot for an entirely new high school in Ward 3.

I had heard friendship heights - like the old lord and Taylor building. Am I mistaken that is an option?

So would you blow up the J-R feeder system? Because the logical thing would be to split the feeders for J-R, and have Deal feed one high school and Hardy another. J-R is geographically within the boundaries of Deal, so what makes sense is have Deal feed J-R, and Hardy feed the new high school. That means the new school needs to be within the Hardy boundaries. So it's not really a search for a high school somewhere in Ward 2 or 3, it's a more focused search for a site somewhere within the existing Hardy boundaries.

Now the logical spot would be along the major transportation hub of the area, Wisconsin Ave. If rec centers can be considered, an obvious choice would be Jelleff. Oops, that's been leased to Maret for ten years. Or Guy Mason. Oops, that's leased to Georgetown.

Maybe there are other city-owned sites inside the Hardy boundaries that I'm missing. But the likelihood of the city assembling a large parcel via purchase or even eminent domain is remote.

How about Duke-Ellington, the former DCPS Western High School?

That is what Frumin pushed for before the major renovation, but the powers that be ignored it.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, i think the High School will open and the foxhall ES will be cancelled.

I don't understand why the city doesn't just double Stoddert? The neighborhood want that (then they could offer PK3). There is enough room on the site to so and there will be minimal traffic impact since nearly everyone walks. I think they should ban driving drop-offs for all non-disabled students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, i think the High School will open and the foxhall ES will be cancelled.

I don't understand why the city doesn't just double Stoddert? The neighborhood want that (then they could offer PK3). There is enough room on the site to so and there will be minimal traffic impact since nearly everyone walks. I think they should ban driving drop-offs for all non-disabled students.

Ok, that is fine for Stoddert, but what about Key overcrowding? Should anything be done about it? It seems like Key is an afterthought to many.. and don’t Foxhall children deserve a walkable or at least closer school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, i think the High School will open and the foxhall ES will be cancelled.

I don't understand why the city doesn't just double Stoddert? The neighborhood want that (then they could offer PK3). There is enough room on the site to so and there will be minimal traffic impact since nearly everyone walks. I think they should ban driving drop-offs for all non-disabled students.

If Stoddert was expanded to offer PK3, could we make sure that they include enough room to enroll the GP parents who are crying to all-and-sundry about some nightmare they had but which doesn't exist and clamoring that they absolutely positively deserve a walkable community school (which they already have and which no one is threatening to take away from them) while maintaining that it is absolutely fine for families in Foxhall to not have a walkable community school? I don't want to get my hopes up, but it would be fantastic if Stoddert could build into the PK3 curriculum lessons about how stealing from your neighbors to pad your own nest is not the way that children in the higher grades of elementary school - let alone adults - are expected to behave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, i think the High School will open and the foxhall ES will be cancelled.

I don't understand why the city doesn't just double Stoddert? The neighborhood want that (then they could offer PK3). There is enough room on the site to so and there will be minimal traffic impact since nearly everyone walks. I think they should ban driving drop-offs for all non-disabled students.

That doesn't solve for crowding at Key or Mann, nor does it give kids in Foxhall village a walkable school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should have tuned in to the briefing tonight or head over to the DCPS planning website. There are phase 1 improvements already underway including a cafeteria and classroom conversion and configuration for HS programming. The folks who are scared and trying to portray this as a rushed and thoughtless exercise are not paying attention.

I did tune in. Most of the discussion (at least from DCPS) was regarding parking and traffic. Getting to and from school takes an hour at most. The kids will be in school for 6 hours. The plans for curriculum, leadership, facilities (e.g. sports, labs etc.) are non-existent. They haven't even figured out whether it will be an AP or an IB school and what programs they plan to offer.

With a current 7th grader at Hardy, we have every right to be cautious (scared even, as you say). In a few years, the school might grow into a compelling alternative to Jackson/Reed but the first class will have it rough.

You may be right that the first year will have it "rough", but I thought they actually did address the programming questions reasonably well. They want the school leader to have input as to whether it will be an IB or an AP school and will work with that individual and the rest of the team to build out programming based on the incoming cohort. As discussed, they may offer Algebra 2 if they know that there are enough students completing Algebra 1 and Geometry already. Makes no sense to program that this far in advance without knowing the particulars of the incoming cohort. Sure there will be fewer extracurriculars at first, but what can they do? Schools like JR weren't built overnight or even in one year. Like I said, I do feel for the families of the first cohort with all the uncertainty, but to say the plans are non-existent is disingenuous.

[Anonymous]

I was actually favorably impressed with the meeting. The DCPS team has a very well defined timeline in terms of what will happen every month, starting now. Everybody presenting seemed very competent.

But I am also an elementary school parent, so I am not worried about 2023. I understand middle school parents may feel anxious though..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was actually favorably impressed with the meeting. The DCPS team has a very well defined timeline in terms of what will happen every month, starting now. Everybody presenting seemed very competent.

But I am also an elementary school parent, so I am not worried about 2023. I understand middle school parents may feel anxious though..

Will a recording of the meeting be posted, do you know? Also, was there a Q and A?