Boundary Focus Groups

[Anonymous]

Ward 3 parent here who thinks it's a terrible idea to make OOB families go back to their feeder schools. If a child gets in to a school for ES- like a JKLM- they should go on to Deal with their friends. Sending them back to their neighborhood school for MS or HS is not right. My kids went to ES pre- Rhee before the OOB preference was given and it caused havoc for OOB students - many who were close friends with my children.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you PP. OOB kids should not get kicked out. What a message to send to kids about their worth! Yuck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you PP. OOB kids should not get kicked out. What a message to send to kids about their worth! Yuck.

About their worth? Explain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The scariest thing I have heard is that they have floated the idea of doing away with boundaries for high school. If Wilson becomes a lottery the leaving the feeders will start earlier and earlier and we will destroy the one decent non-test in high school we have. I would really like to see tracking in MS to prepare more kids for Wilson or a tracked part of a different high school, but if they actually do this I think DCPS will be wrecked.

I am all for funneling, but believe that people can be in the same school, with a few notable exceptions. One thing NYC does very well is to funnel OUT the kids who represent serious safety threats to other students - they all go to the same school. We have to acknowledge that there are some schools where parents don't feel their kids are safe, and handle that as well.

This is pretty much the only thing that's going to improve the non-EOTR middle- and high-schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am getting sick of Ward 3 parents suggesting what will work for my Ward 4 family that feeds to Deal. Sure like another MS for Ross and Shepherd will be similar to Deal. BS. Our neighborhood has fed into Deal for generations and I take exception of you being so quick to kick us out. Also, there is already a good MS alternative that you describe, it's called Hardy. Stop trying to sacrifice other neighborhoods because you may be in the chopping block. Fwiw, I do not think any neighborhood will get felt out of Deal, but it's nice to know that you look at us as such outsiders that you graciously allow to attend your school.

Upper Ward 3 parents are so confident that they will be fine. They have already removed Ward 4 schools, except Laffeyette, from the feeder patterns -at least in my focus group.

Well it's a good thing their focus group isn't making decision. Every level I have heard states there will be no change in feeders to Deal. OOB feeder rights is another story. Funny how many of the Ward 3 parents assume that they are the only upper class families that live in DC and they have so much political power because of their income. Their are plenty of families EOTP that earn more than Ward 3, not to mention some are even brown, gasp! Assumptions are a MF.

While, yes, your statement is factually true: there are households in ward 4 that earn more than households in ward 3, it is a meaningless statement. If, instead, you are trying to say something meaningful, like Ward 4 earns almost as much as Ward 3, then you're dead wrong. Not even close.

Ward 3 average HHI: 240,000 (a gain of 17k between 2007 and 2011)
Ward 4 average HHI: 115,000 (a gain of 8k between 2007 and 2011)

Data--emphasis DATA-- from http://www.neighborhoodinfodc.org/profiles.html

I'm not trying to plant my flag atop the family income hill. I'm just trying to root out people spouting completely unsubstantiated things. Especially completely erroneous or, at best, meaningless things.

You are obviously not getting my point. Firstly, most of the million dollar income earners (that raise the average) that live in Ward 4 do not attend DCPS so they will not move away if they don't get their way (as so many Ward 3 parents threaten). Secondly, why don't you measure the incomes of AU Park (specifically the ones that attend public) and those of Colonial Village, Crestwod, Shep Park. You will find the disparity is not that wide. Ward 3 does not have any low income (or even middle income), Ward 4 does as it's geography is large, so averages aren't going to take you that far when proving your point. My point is that the threats that Ward 3 "high income earners" are making is getting tired. These neighborhoods have fed to these schools for generations and a few miles difference is not going to influence change, especially when you're threatening to cut ALL diversity. Please don't mention how many French speaking white people live in Ward 3. So please stop trying to make up this middle school on 16th that will alleviate all your troubles by taking any brown (many rich) kids out of ALL of OUR school. It's not going to happen. The entitlement some posters have is astounding. They speak as of they have been doing EOTP kids a favor by allowing them to be zoned for Deal when they reality is Deal would have closed many years ago due to under enrollment when whites were too afraid to send their kid there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The scariest thing I have heard is that they have floated the idea of doing away with boundaries for high school. If Wilson becomes a lottery the leaving the feeders will start earlier and earlier and we will destroy the one decent non-test in high school we have. I would really like to see tracking in MS to prepare more kids for Wilson or a tracked part of a different high school, but if they actually do this I think DCPS will be wrecked.

I am all for funneling, but believe that people can be in the same school, with a few notable exceptions. One thing NYC does very well is to funnel OUT the kids who represent serious safety threats to other students - they all go to the same school. We have to acknowledge that there are some schools where parents don't feel their kids are safe, and handle that as well.

This is pretty much the only thing that's going to improve the non-EOTR middle- and high-schools.

Right because there aren't any stupid well/behaving kids.

[Anonymous]

One side note is that Wilson is currently using the IB/OOB distinction precisely in order to weed out some kids who have chronic attendance or tardiness issues. The party line is that an OOB kid who can't get to school regularly should be attending their neighborhood school. That leverage gets lost if the school goes city-wide.

Signed, the parent of an OOB child who does very, very well, thank you very much

[Anonymous]

So why isn't there a better MS on 16th EOTP? Why aren't all these Ward 4 parents working to improve the school down the street?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you PP. OOB kids should not get kicked out. What a message to send to kids about their worth! Yuck.

Like one Ward 4 PP, my Ward 1 neighborhood has also come with Deal and Wilson rights for "generations". Why is my kid worth less to you than an OOB kid? We paid top dollar for our little condo and so have plenty of other educated families with school age kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So why isn't there a better MS on 16th EOTP? Why aren't all these Ward 4 parents working to improve the school down the street?

I get to Deal in almost half the time it would take me to get to Columbia Heights. I don't have a need for a quality MS down 16th as my current MS is perfect.

Thanks,
Barely EOTP Deal zoned parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you PP. OOB kids should not get kicked out. What a message to send to kids about their worth! Yuck.

Like one Ward 4 PP, my Ward 1 neighborhood has also come with Deal and Wilson rights for "generations". Why is my kid worth less to you than an OOB kid? We paid top dollar for our little condo and so have plenty of other educated families with school age kids.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 parent here who thinks it's a terrible idea to make OOB families go back to their feeder schools. If a child gets in to a school for ES- like a JKLM- they should go on to Deal with their friends. Sending them back to their neighborhood school for MS or HS is not right. My kids went to ES pre- Rhee before the OOB preference was given and it caused havoc for OOB students - many who were close friends with my children.

You do realize that Deal feeders are the only schools in the city that have that luxury, right? Less than a quarter of kids in the city attend an in-boundary school, and Deal, Wilson and their feeders make up a big chunk of them. Everywhere else in the city the norm is that kids start leaving for charters, privates and the suburbs starts as a trickle in second and third grade and becomes a gusher by fifth grade. It's very rare in DC for kids to go to sixth grade with the classmates they went to elementary school. That's true even in the parts of Ward 3 that don't feed Deal.

So forgive me if I'm not compelled by your argument.

[Anonymous]

So what about the overcrowding at Deal? What's your answer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what about the overcrowding at Deal? What's your answer?

Remove OOB feeder rights. Sending friends (IB/OOB) to same school is not an argument that can hold water. Many kids around the school don't get to go to same school with friends. OOB feeder rights is a new allowance.

[Anonymous]

I am the Ward 1, EofTP HIH poster that has previously posted to endorse the idea of creating a new working feeder pattern by clustering all the HIH neighborhoods along the 16th street corridor into one feeder---so the Ward 4 Gold Coaster who is railing against Ward 3 parents as the genesis of this idea has got it all wrong.

DC has got to create another reasonably functioning HS and the only realistic way to do it is to try to capture the higher income 16th Street corridor to do it. But they can't do it half-a$$ed. They would have to be very judicious about the amount of high FARMs areas they would zone into it---because if they reach a tipping point, it wouldn't work. They would have to present it as a completely rehauled MS---with excellent new facilities and most importantly, completely new and extremely strong faculty/administration. No rebranding of schools that the HIH East of the Park have already passed on.