Surplussing the old Hardy School, again

[Anonymous]

That is appalling. What are the terms of the new lease?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lab school has powerful friends in DC even though most students are from MD and VA.

DC residents or DCPS pays annual tuition over $30,000 for students to attend Lab. Compare this with the $9,000 DC charges out of state students to attend Ellington.

Students at the closest school -key- are in trailers. This decision is not being made with the needs if DC students in mind.

I'm not sure if you know this or not, but the Lab school is a school for special needs students. It costs significantly more money to educate special needs students than general education students. The reason for the cost difference is due to the fact hat many special needs students require related services that genral education students don't need like: occupational therapy, speech therapy, transition services, social-emotional services, etc.

I'm not sure if you know this or not, but the Lab school is a private school. Unlike public schools, it has selective admissions and charges tuition to cover its costs. The vast majority of the students who attend are not DC residents. No matter how noble its mission there is no reason for the taxpayers of DC to subsidize it.

Lab is paying rent to DCPS for the space. Regardless of what some people on this Board want, there is no plan to open another school in Ward 3. Better to let someone pay to use this building than to have it sit empty, like the rest of DCPS' unused facilities.

Under the terms that were floated in 2013 Lab would have ended up paying zero rent for fifty years.

There are many public uses the property could be put to. Charters would love to have it.

Are you serious?????

[Anonymous]

I'm ok with Lab getting a lease, btw, as long as it is no more tan 30 yrs, and paying market price

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 needs a new middle school. Half the ward no longer has access to Deal and few ward residents consider Hardy an option because of the significant quality gap with Deal.

Ward 3 doesn't need a new high school, middle school or elementary school for that matter.

DGS should charge the Lab School true market rate for a 20 year lease and keep it moving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 needs a new middle school. Half the ward no longer has access to Deal and few ward residents consider Hardy an option because of the significant quality gap with Deal.

I know that folks keep raising this. DC is *never* going to build a new middle school just because you don't like the perfectly good middle school that you already have. It is ridiculous to suggest it. Now overcrowding is another story. The argument for another high school is stronger. Though folks can rightfully point out that DC has lots of high schools with extra capacity, they are in parts of the city that are much farther away.

That's the issue. Most Ward 3 parents don't consider Hardy 'perfectly good" at all, as evidenced by the fact that few IB families send their kids to Hardy. They tend to view Hardy as being clearly inferior to the middle school located in the ward, which is Deal. However, most of Hardy's existing student families presumably consider Hardy to be a perfectly good alternative to the inferior middle schools in their OOB neighborhoods.

Yes, and DCPS is not going to build a school when one is available but the IB families simply won't use it. The problem is not a lack of a building.

The problem for many Ward 3 families IB for Hardy isn't lack of a building (although the lack of a real playing field iis concerning). It's that they perceive Hardy as an inferior school, both compared to Deal and to what they expect in a middle school offering. Yet Hardy also caters to a largely OOB population which values the school because it is better than what they would otherwise be stuck with. And, if by some miracle, the IB populaton at Hardy were to increase significantly, that would squeeze out those who have come to regard access to Hardy, if not as their right them at least as their best hope for a better middle school education. So the logical solution would be to start over by opening a new middle school with the curriculum and emphases that IB families want, while preserving a middle school optim that many OOB families have come to expect. Open a 'new' Hardy at the 'old' Hardy site and keep an existing middle school at the building that still is named 'Gordon' on the front.

This is not logical at all, omg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of Ellington, its current location (formerly Western High School) could be used better as a site for a new elementary, middle or eve high school to serve the expanding NW area school population. With all the money spent on renovating Ellington, it would have been smarter to build a brand-new, purpose-built arts facility that was more centrally located and Metro accessible for DE's city-wide student population.

Not this again. Your beating a dead horse.

Please say that you didn't learn English grammar at Ellington!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of Ellington, its current location (formerly Western High School) could be used better as a site for a new elementary, middle or eve high school to serve the expanding NW area school population. With all the money spent on renovating Ellington, it would have been smarter to build a brand-new, purpose-built arts facility that was more centrally located and Metro accessible for DE's city-wide student population.

Not this again. Your beating a dead horse.

Please say that you didn't learn English grammar at Ellington!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of Ellington, its current location (formerly Western High School) could be used better as a site for a new elementary, middle or eve high school to serve the expanding NW area school population. With all the money spent on renovating Ellington, it would have been smarter to build a brand-new, purpose-built arts facility that was more centrally located and Metro accessible for DE's city-wide student population.

Not this again. Your beating a dead horse.

Please say that you didn't learn English grammar at Ellington!

The grammar police strikes again. You're, are you happy now?

[Anonymous]

The best solution would be to build a Ward 3 new middle school at the old Hearst property. If there is no political will to limit OOB feeder rights to Wilson, then open a new high school at the old Western H.S. site (which Ellington has used). Ellington should be in a more central location in DC.

[Anonymous]

Correction to above: build a new middle school at the old HARDY property.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best solution would be to build a Ward 3 new middle school at the old Hearst property. If there is no political will to limit OOB feeder rights to Wilson, then open a new high school at the old Western H.S. site (which Ellington has used). Ellington should be in a more central location in DC.

What old Hearst property? Was Hearst previously somewhere else? The current building dates from the 1930s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Correction to above: build a new middle school at the old HARDY property.

Got it. I retract my question. (I thought I was about to learn something new!)

[Anonymous]

They don't have to decide what to do with the site now, the important point is that it is going to be needed. All the demographic projections are that school enrollment is going to swell as the city gains new residents. There are eight years left on the current lease and the DCPS facility plan only goes out six years anyway, so in about two years they should start incorporating it into the facilities plan. If you think about how much things have changed in the past eight years it's silly to be making too specific plans too far in advance. At the same time, if you think about how much things have changed in the past fifty years, it's insane to be putting the property out of public use for the next fifty years.

[Anonymous]

There has been enormous pressure at the Office of the Mayor level (before Bowser but it continues) to take surplus properties in economically desirable areas and put them on the market for development. Certain development interests are very active politically and mayors and their top aides like to show love to their friends. Look at how one of the first acts that Bowser did after she was inaugurated was to tear up the agreement to use the Franklin Square site as an arts incubator/gallery. Recently responses to a new RFP came in and they are all developers.

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, I see the stats show that the IB % for Hardy MS is growing. It used to be 12% a year or two ago IIRC; now it's 15% according to the DCPS website. Much more of a concern though is the Hardy MS math and reading proficiency. They are 15-20 percentage points below that of Deale.

I hear the old Hardy/Lab building is too small for a modern DCPS school, whether elementary or middle school, so perhaps it works well as an overflow building for Lab. I agree with a prior poster who wondered about the to-be-sold GDS school on MacArthur -- I'd love to see DCPS buy that space and renovate it into a new school. While I'd like to see a new middle school as an option other than Hardy MS, perhaps what NW DC needs is another high school other than Wilson (Ellington doesn't "count" as a regular NW DCPS high school due to its arts focus). If NW DC had a high school option there, I think NWDC would be more accepting of Hardy MS out of a desire for continuity -- DCPS from K-12 -- and all at DCPS schools in NW DC. Some have said DCPS wouldn't buy a school (like GDS) because they already have too much excess real estate; however, that's not the case I don't think for NW DC. And, GDS would probably be a bargain compared to the recent renovation costs the city has recently been enduring, such as for Ellington and Dunbar (not to mention Wilson and others).