Deal is tremendously overcrowded - something is to give

[Anonymous]

The logical border should be Mass and Idaho but hey, who cares about logic. The far and away richest part of town should be able to find its own MS/HS but they probably wouldn't like that anymore than they liked having a metro stop.

[Anonymous]

The story about Georgetown rejecting a metro stop is an urban legend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just like shipping WOTP kids to a half-empty school EOTP is a non-starter, so is excluding Bancroft (majority Hispanic) and Shepherd (majority AA) from their historic feeder pattern. One solution from another thread was to pull Ward 4 schools -- Lafayette and Shepherd -- into another middle school together as a compromise where families both east and west of the park feel the "pain" of a new feeder system. A solution like that where no "side" wins is the only thing that's politically viable. The people who bitch about EOTP hipsters or middle-class black families using YOUR schools are sadly bitter and
obviously new to how DC works.

Hahaha, of course. The agenda has been revealed. This is as absurd as the idea floated by Much parents that since Lafyette had trailers in place they should just move Murch there rather than sully the neighborhood during construction.

Nevertheless, I must obligatorily point out that Lafayette has been part of Deal/Wilson for over 50 years, it's physical location is far closer to those schools than any other option, the road and transportation networks are aligned in that direction, and it's only a part of ward 4 for political gerrymandering reasons.

And I am obliged to point out that the idea to move the Murch community to Lafayette was as much of a surprise (and even more unwelcome) to Murch families as it was to Lafayette families. Good to know Lafayette is still bitter but you do seem to complain a lot so perhaps it’s to be expected.

So to focus on the actual issue at hand, what’s your solution?

[Anonymous]

A likely story, but sure blame the victims of the attempted railroading (while trying to do it again)!

There is no easy answer, but Georgetown, Glover Park, Palisades, Foggy Bottom, West End and Cathedral Heights need their own school. The distance between those places and Tenleytown are the most egregious. They also have the least diversity (school age children only) of all the feeder areas. This is especially important considering the amount of development happening there now and failure to include schools in those development plans is a chicken that will come home to roost.

Options could include turning Stoddert (underused by the neighborhood) into a HS, turning School Without Walls into a neighborhood school, turning Francis-Stevens (lots of DC owned land it can expand into - also underused by the neighborhood) into a HS, or making the Intelsat building a new HS (that'd actually be a great location for SWW and could leverage UDC) would all be workable solutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A likely story, but sure blame the victims of the attempted railroading (while trying to do it again)!

There is no easy answer, but Georgetown, Glover Park, Palisades, Foggy Bottom, West End and Cathedral Heights need their own school. The distance between those places and Tenleytown are the most egregious. They also have the least diversity (school age children only) of all the feeder areas. This is especially important considering the amount of development happening there now and failure to include schools in those development plans is a chicken that will come home to roost.

Options could include turning Stoddert (underused by the neighborhood) into a HS, turning School Without Walls into a neighborhood school, turning Francis-Stevens (lots of DC owned land it can expand into - also underused by the neighborhood) into a HS, or making the Intelsat building a new HS (that'd actually be a great location for SWW and could leverage UDC) would all be workable solutions.

The Intelsat building is going to be a school - a private one. https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/news/office/intelsat-building-in-van-ness-to-be-converted-to-2500-student-private-school-84870

[Anonymous]

Banneker's building will be available once they finish their new building at the old Shaw middle school site.

[Anonymous]

All those neighborhoods have had development say on major land use projects in the last ten years. All of them are no where near Wilson geography wise. Combined they are the biggest NIMBYs (regarding public goods) in the city. Combined they have far and away the highest income and property values in the city (a small supplemental tax - similar to what was done for the stadiums - could raise money for the building and be survivable). Combined they are the least likely to use the public school system. Culturally they are a distinct and different area of town (Shepherd Park has more in common - and is closer - with the other Wilson schools than Georgetown). They stopped using the system and now want back in. Adding them into the Wilson grouping is a luxury that no longer works. Too many schools were closed and buildings divested. Let them figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to divide the school into two by moving half to another campus. Maintaining the diversity but splitting it into two groups.

+1000

+5000. It does seem like such an obvious and simple solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Banneker's building will be available once they finish their new building at the old Shaw middle school site.

Then the answer is simple! Move SWW there (leveraging Howard) and use SWW as a neighborhood school. It's cost effective, no busing is needed, it provides the most flexibility for future boundary issues, it has the most potential for growth/success, it provides the least disruption/transportation problems, and it likely (because of the neighborhood alone) creates another desirable HS. Between it and Wilson there would be more cumulative OOB spots.

It doesn't solve the upper EOTP problem, which desperately needs a solution if we want that part of the city to continue to thrive but it'd be a win for everybody.

Wilson might start losing some baseball games though...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Banneker's building will be available once they finish their new building at the old Shaw middle school site.

Then the answer is simple! Move SWW there (leveraging Howard) and use SWW as a neighborhood school. It's cost effective, no busing is needed, it provides the most flexibility for future boundary issues, it has the most potential for growth/success, it provides the least disruption/transportation problems, and it likely (because of the neighborhood alone) creates another desirable HS. Between it and Wilson there would be more cumulative OOB spots.

It doesn't solve the upper EOTP problem, which desperately needs a solution if we want that part of the city to continue to thrive but it'd be a win for everybody.

Wilson might start losing some baseball games though...

SWW won’t work as a neighborhood school. No outdoor spsce, no gym and SWW is partnered with GWU. You cant just switch it to another college FFS.

Move your elementary kids to Banneker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Banneker's building will be available once they finish their new building at the old Shaw middle school site.

Then the answer is simple! Move SWW there (leveraging Howard) and use SWW as a neighborhood school. It's cost effective, no busing is needed, it provides the most flexibility for future boundary issues, it has the most potential for growth/success, it provides the least disruption/transportation problems, and it likely (because of the neighborhood alone) creates another desirable HS. Between it and Wilson there would be more cumulative OOB spots.

It doesn't solve the upper EOTP problem, which desperately needs a solution if we want that part of the city to continue to thrive but it'd be a win for everybody.

Wilson might start losing some baseball games though...

SWW won’t work as a neighborhood school. No outdoor spsce, no gym and SWW is partnered with GWU. You cant just switch it to another college FFS.

Move your elementary kids to Banneker.

Fine with me. Based on geography and population growth alone two extra HS are needed, one on 16th St and one in southwest NW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The logical border should be Mass and Idaho but hey, who cares about logic. The far and away richest part of town should be able to find its own MS/HS but they probably wouldn't like that anymore than they liked having a metro stop.

You’re exactly right. Georgetown and Palisades need to have Western High School reopened. We just have to evict Ellington from the Taj Mahal in which it is squatting. Why they didn’t put Ellington is a central location to serve its citywide population is puzzling. We need a second WOTP high school now.

[Anonymous]

If the goal is to increase diversity at Deal, the only way that is going to happen is via zoning. We need housing policy changes to add cheaper housing and make it possible for non-wealthy people to live there.
In particular we need to upzone the area, remove the single family housing restriction, and allow apartment buildings and other sorts of dense market rate housing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the goal is to increase diversity at Deal, the only way that is going to happen is via zoning. We need housing policy changes to add cheaper housing and make it possible for non-wealthy people to live there.
In particular we need to upzone the area, remove the single family housing restriction, and allow apartment buildings and other sorts of dense market rate housing.

The goal is to reduce overcrowding while maintaining diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the goal is to increase diversity at Deal, the only way that is going to happen is via zoning. We need housing policy changes to add cheaper housing and make it possible for non-wealthy people to live there.
In particular we need to upzone the area, remove the single family housing restriction, and allow apartment buildings and other sorts of dense market rate housing.

I love how the GGW crowd conveniently ignores all the apartment buildings, some of them downright massive, that either already exist in the Deal boundary -- basically all of Connecticut Avenue except for the retail areas and a good amount on Wisconsin -- or are going to be built: The 687 units that will come online in the Fannie Mae redevelopment and the 716 units in the project right next to it at 4000 Wisconsin, to name just a few. If the families who move into those complexes want to send their kids to their local DCPS, it'll be Deal.

Left completely unanswered by the "Ward 3 is the Boogeyman" crowd: How are already-overcrowded schools like Deal going to handle the influx when this urbanist utopia comes to fruition?