Can anyone update me on Shaw Middle and parent involvement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before anyone gets too involved in this effort, I recommend doing just a bit of research on just two issues that are indicative. First, how many times over the past 10 years has DCPS promised to renovate Garrison and what happened to each of those promises? How much parent effort was involved in each of those promises and results? Second, chart the DCPS plans for a middle school in this area over the past ten years. Until you can do both of those things, you should not be making any recommendations about what DCPS should do with its buildings.

As a minimum.

Also, anyone who meets or talks about Wards when talking about mid-city school programs has lost any an all credibility with me. The feeder patterns and cross boundary is so complicated in mid-city, it's worthless to have any Ward specific meetings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before anyone gets too involved in this effort, I recommend doing just a bit of research on just two issues that are indicative. First, how many times over the past 10 years has DCPS promised to renovate Garrison and what happened to each of those promises? How much parent effort was involved in each of those promises and results? Second, chart the DCPS plans for a middle school in this area over the past ten years. Until you can do both of those things, you should not be making any recommendations about what DCPS should do with its buildings.

Based on a 30+ year history of DCPS... DCPS should be off-loading its physical plant inventory as quickly as possible.

Why are taxpayers funding incompetence and emptiness?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:A "baby" here from Garrison (PK4 parent) who is committed and looking forward to working with other parents on our middle school. Since there are people on this thread who say they have been in the fight for a while and gave up, I'd love to hear any lessons learned from past middle school reform efforts - other than that this is a hopeless cause.

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We say it's hopeless because we tired.

Because we stayed up night after night for years working on a dream. For some of us...it worked. Some of us built middle schools that we see you "baby" parents talk shit about on DCUM like they were nothing. You don't even realize the hard work to get some of these programs up and running that you people take for granted.

You want to start a school? You want to revamp a DCPS?

Stop posting on DCUM and bitching and join a work group, set up a meeting, write a proposal, write a grant, you should be working every second of your spare time for the next 2 years until you live and breath middle schools.

Then, 10 years from now when some PK parent comes and says "What's the deal with that place? Why couldn't they get that going?" Tell me how you feel.

Um... No. Improving a school is not my job. It's DCPS's job (which they obviously perform terribly) or a DCPCS's job. Either way, we pay our taxes and expect certain services as a result: fire, police, schools, pothole repair, garbage pick-up, etc. We don't expect to be involved in the performance of these services. We expect them to be up to high standards, or else why in the hell are you telling us that our house is worth $750K and you want us to pay property taxes to that effect?

STFU.

But you live in a city with multi-generational poverty. Because of the way the schools are assigned -- and because the poors have more kids and can't send them elsewhere -- the public schools are flooded by kids who are probably starting at a deficit. And those kids (your neighbors) vastly outnumber the children of anybody paying taxes on a $750k home.

You don't get it. I don't have a $750K home. The Mayor's administration says I do, and I have to pay taxes to that effect, but it's not true.

As long as the city is going to rape my family, I'm going to speak some truth to power. Pick up the trash. It's not my job.

If you've been there any amount of time and claiming the homestead deduction, your annual increase has a pretty slow growth cap on it, so I call bullshit. Also if you've been here any amount of time, you'd have some relationships with your poorer neighbors.

Call it whatever you want lady, you don't live here and you don't know. When we moved into this house almost twenty years ago, we were threatened on the streets for our pallor, robbed, heard gunshots, smelled pot (back when that wasn't legal) right outside our front door, had people try to break in, you name it. Hell, we couldn't even get a pizza delivered. We bought into the hood. I don't owe you or anyone else an explanation for my disgust with criminals. STFU.

I've lived here has long as you and yeah, it sucked. I worked hard to change my neighborhood. Difference is, I saw it as my job to make difference. Maybe why you are so bitter is you are "not my problem" kind of person.

Making this city and our neighborhood better is everyone's problem. If you want to rely on the government, go live in socialism where the nanny state will do everything for you.

Shut up.

Seriously, shut the f*ck up.

You don't know me. You don't know my family. You don't get me at all. You think you do, but you don't know how many random children who live down the alley, I've made dinner for. I am not bitter. I'm the person who gives homemade ice cream to the garbage crew, and brownies to the people who just resurfaced my alley with new bricks.

STFU.

Dumb-ass.

Oh yes, those "random kids down the alley" thank goodness you throw them some scraps.

Poverty solved.

How many children did you feed today?

[Anonymous]

This is an actual serious issue that many of us, new and old, really care about. Can the people who keep responding to the off-point cursing sub-thread please stop?

[Anonymous]

The Shaw neighborhood used to be known as Hell's Bottom. It was the place you could go to satisfy any type of vice. Well that actually included most of Logan Circle. It's still a bit stabby. I would not send my kid to Cardozo but that's just me. 5 -10 years ago Bloomingdale was not the trendy up and coming neighborhood you see now. Despite its walkability and beautiful architecture it was too crime ridden. A place to be driven through quickly with lots of prostitution and gunfire at night. Kind of the corner of N. Capitol and Florida writ large. Now there are night spots, pizza joints, charter schools and the population is unrecognizable.
Your kid is in middle school and if you are happy at Seaton you will not have to reassess for about 7 years. Enjoy and don't fail to visit nearby schools in person that you might be thinking about. We were pleasantly surprised by our nearby school in Petworth and it made the first 5 years of school very convenient. Now we schlep across town to a WOTP school where the teachers are about as good but there is nobody screaming the N word in the parking lot at pickup.

[Anonymous]

The Shaw neighborhood used to be known as Hell's Bottom. It was the place you could go to satisfy any type of vice. Well that actually included most of Logan Circle. It's still a bit stabby. I would not send my kid to Cardozo but that's just me. 5 -10 years ago Bloomingdale was not the trendy up and coming neighborhood you see now. Despite its walkability and beautiful architecture it was too crime ridden. A place to be driven through quickly with lots of prostitution and gunfire at night. Kind of the corner of N. Capitol and Florida writ large. Now there are night spots, pizza joints, charter schools and the population is unrecognizable.
Your kid is in daycare and if you are happy with Seaton you will not have to reassess for about 7 years. Enjoy and don't fail to visit nearby schools in person that you might be thinking about. We were pleasantly surprised by our nearby school in Petworth and it made the first 5 years of school very convenient. Now we schlep across town to a WOTP school where the teachers are about as good but we aren't losing peers to charter schools every year and nobody is screaming the N word in the parking lot at pickup

[Anonymous]

Working with DCPS has burned a lot of people, but I don't think that the situation is as hopeless as some of you make it out to be.

With a lot of ground work by a lot of people, MacFarland went from nothing to having a budget and a building. It has the posibility of becoming a good middle school option. It will reopen next year (inside Roosevelt) with a small cadre of dual-language students and grow around that until the renovated building opens in 18/19. That is something that the city promised during the boundary debates and it is actually taking steps to make it a reality.

Now, is it going to be a perfect dream school that satisfies every constituency? Not likely. But the potential is there.

So, OP, to quote the great philosopher Kanye West:

“Now I can let these dream killers kill my self esteem-or use my arrogance as steam to power my dreams!!!”

Reach out to other groups. Reach out to current parents. Reach out to feeder school parents. Don't put your faith in the Central Office, but learn about the levers that make it move. It can happen.

[Anonymous]

You all are chicken shit. Becky has the balls to put herself out there like that and not hide in the shadows of anonymity like you. Instead of crapping all over her effort, why don't you add something constructive. Oh, that's right, it's because you are empty of ideas and the only thing you know how to do is bring people down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all are chicken shit. Becky has the balls to put herself out there like that and not hide in the shadows of anonymity like you. Instead of crapping all over her effort, why don't you add something constructive. Oh, that's right, it's because you are empty of ideas and the only thing you know how to do is bring people down.

It is constructive. Let the city turn the building over to a real school that you may actually want to send your child to someday! Don't be an obstructionist!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all are chicken shit. Becky has the balls to put herself out there like that and not hide in the shadows of anonymity like you. Instead of crapping all over her effort, why don't you add something constructive. Oh, that's right, it's because you are empty of ideas and the only thing you know how to do is bring people down.

It is constructive. Let the city turn the building over to a real school that you may actually want to send your child to someday! Don't be an obstructionist!

This is an example of one of the divides: many people with babies want Shaw to be a neighborhood middle school. Others with older kids have probably given up on that and want to let a charter open there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all are chicken shit. Becky has the balls to put herself out there like that and not hide in the shadows of anonymity like you. Instead of crapping all over her effort, why don't you add something constructive. Oh, that's right, it's because you are empty of ideas and the only thing you know how to do is bring people down.

It is constructive. Let the city turn the building over to a real school that you may actually want to send your child to someday! Don't be an obstructionist!

Yes because Kent Amos did such a great job. Just because it is charter doesn't mean it's good.

[Anonymous]

Kent Amos no longer has a charter. Yes, there are bad charters. But there are good charters throughout the city. There are not good DCPS schools throughout the city. Those kids are just shut out.

Just do the research before you join the cause. The cause sounds amazing. Most of us were on it. The reality is that it will not help your kids and will hurt more kids than it helps overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all are chicken shit. Becky has the balls to put herself out there like that and not hide in the shadows of anonymity like you. Instead of crapping all over her effort, why don't you add something constructive. Oh, that's right, it's because you are empty of ideas and the only thing you know how to do is bring people down.

It is constructive. Let the city turn the building over to a real school that you may actually want to send your child to someday! Don't be an obstructionist!

This is an example of one of the divides: many people with babies want Shaw to be a neighborhood middle school. Others with older kids have probably given up on that and want to let a charter open there.

The divide is between those who are new, uninformed and naïve and those of us who have been around the block a couple times. I wish that the newbies would talk to some of their neighbors with older children before they help to destroy the chances of getting another good school in the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

It's not like you can choose what kind of charter is going to end up there or what age, population it will serve. The neighborhood is in need of a middle school. A charter school for adult learners or incarcerated youth, while great things, is not what we need. And that could very well be the focus of this hypothetical charter school. No thanks. I would rather hedge my bet on a DCPS middle school that has already been contemplated in the boundary plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not like you can choose what kind of charter is going to end up there or what age, population it will serve. The neighborhood is in need of a middle school. A charter school for adult learners or incarcerated youth, while great things, is not what we need. And that could very well be the focus of this hypothetical charter school. No thanks. I would rather hedge my bet on a DCPS middle school that has already been contemplated in the boundary plan.

That is because you don't get it. You actually have more influence over this than anything in DCPS.