Bowser cuts school renovation funds - Murch, others delayed or cancelled while Ellington tops $178 M

[Anonymous]

Ellington's board is like a case study in bad, insider, non-transparent organization governance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it should become a regular high school that would be attractive to Hardy students. And relieve pressure on Wilson. If it takes oodc kids to make it work then maybe the benefit of having an arts only school are not worth it

The mission of the school, in its founding documents, is to serve students of color who have talent in the arts; white kids can attend if they have talent in order to supplement the arts purpose. It will be interesting to see what will happen if talented white kids are denied admission because too many talented white kids are applying. There will be a battle between the mission of the school, legally speaking, and the white or asian people who would like to attend. It could happen sooner than you might think.

I would think that this is blatantly illegal, because this is publicly funded school. Imagine if there were a charter school that in its founding documents said that its mission is to educate DC residents of German ancestry in German language and culture, and there was a de facto quota on students of color. Someone, or some group should challenge Ellington in court. It is particularly galling if DC residents are being denied spots at Ellington, while the taxpayers subsidize preferred students of color who don't even live in DC.

Many charter schools have statements in their founding documents about educating certain populations. That doesn't mean they get to cherry pick who applies and is admitted to the school.

[Anonymous]

Back to the q -- why spend this much on a program targeted at so few students when NW dc is in need of another general hs to take pressure off Wilson. It could have an arts program within the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it should become a regular high school that would be attractive to Hardy students. And relieve pressure on Wilson. If it takes oodc kids to make it work then maybe the benefit of having an arts only school are not worth it

The mission of the school, in its founding documents, is to serve students of color who have talent in the arts; white kids can attend if they have talent in order to supplement the arts purpose. It will be interesting to see what will happen if talented white kids are denied admission because too many talented white kids are applying. There will be a battle between the mission of the school, legally speaking, and the white or asian people who would like to attend. It could happen sooner than you might think.

I would think that this is blatantly illegal, because this is publicly funded school. Imagine if there were a charter school that in its founding documents said that its mission is to educate DC residents of German ancestry in German language and culture, and there was a de facto quota on students of color. Someone, or some group should challenge Ellington in court. It is particularly galling if DC residents are being denied spots at Ellington, while the taxpayers subsidize preferred students of color who don't even live in DC.

Which is funny actually since DCPS, by a wide margin, is of color. It is a specialty school for the majority.

[Anonymous]

But the demographics of the city are changing, so it makes sense that the demographics of the school might also start changing. I would hope that Ellington and Banneker would be welcoming to all students even if that means adapting their traditional role.

[Anonymous]

So Ellington haters - are you all in-boundary for Wilson? Your reasons for hating Ellington seem very selfish / self-serving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So Ellington haters - are you all in-boundary for Wilson? Your reasons for hating Ellington seem very selfish / self-serving.

Good government, transparency and responsible use of public assets is selfish/ self-serving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Ellington haters - are you all in-boundary for Wilson? Your reasons for hating Ellington seem very selfish / self-serving.

Good government, transparency and responsible use of public assets is selfish/ self-serving?

Scratch that. I was confusing Ellington "haters" with skeptics.

Since there haven't been any haters on this thread I don't know what PP is talking about.

[Anonymous]

Several posts have suggested that Ellington should be scrapped for a general interest high school that has Hardy as a feeder. If you are in-boundary for Wilson, yes, that is self-serving.

What, exactly, is not "transparent" about Ellington? Are you asserting that kids who should have passed admission did not?

[jsteele]

Matt Frumin dug through the budget and pulled together a lot of numbers which he has analyzed here:

http://www.matthewfrumin.com

This is the clearest explanation that I have seen of the impact of Bowser's budget. I support Duke Ellington and want it to have a world class facility. But Frumin makes clear that budget realities combined with Ellington's increasing cost are really negatively impacting other school modernization. It seems entirely reasonable to revisit the budget and reconsider whether Ellington really need all of those funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Several posts have suggested that Ellington should be scrapped for a general interest high school that has Hardy as a feeder. If you are in-boundary for Wilson, yes, that is self-serving.

How is that a "hater" though?

[Anonymous]

It seems like all of the DCPS projects have extraordinarily high price tags. It makes one wonder about the relationships between politicians and construction companies.

I agree that there are projects, like Orr, and Marie Reed, that cannot wait. I'm sure there is fat to trim in the Ellington budget. Enough to get those projects - and others I'm sure I'm not aware of - done? I don't know. There are certainly other DC budget items (streetcars leap to mind) that I'd rather see deprioritized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like all of the DCPS projects have extraordinarily high price tags. It makes one wonder about the relationships between politicians and construction companies.

I agree that there are projects, like Orr, and Marie Reed, that cannot wait. I'm sure there is fat to trim in the Ellington budget. Enough to get those projects - and others I'm sure I'm not aware of - done? I don't know. There are certainly other DC budget items (streetcars leap to mind) that I'd rather see deprioritized.

As a good faith gesture to the taxpayers DCPS and Ellington need to raise out of District tuition for next September from the currently subsidized rate to actual cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ellington is nearly done. Not sure what good it would do to not finish the job.

Maybe it was a bad decision to begin with but to not complete project seems a waste of what was already spent.

I drive by it yesterday. It is very clearly NOT "nearly done." Far from it.

[Anonymous]

I don't see why it is wrong to seek to right-size Wilson