Bill introduced to declare the Old Hardy School surplus and extend long-term lease to the Lab School

[Anonymous]

I hope the lab school keeps the property. They do good work. If lab can not have it. Sell it for condos because the site does not work for DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope the lab school keeps the property. They do good work. If lab can not have it. Sell it for condos because the site does not work for DCPS.

Instead of offering it to a public or charter school? Um, ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lab is private, needs a private deal I guess. So why don't they take over the about to be empty GDS private ES space? It's even closer to their main buildings. They could do it much more "privately."

The GDS lower school was bought a while ago by an academically selective private school rumored to be a apricey for-profit out of NYC. The other feasible school spot on MacArthur next to the Reservoir was bought by St Patrick's Episcopal Day School. It will house the middle school grades for a private, academically selective, religious school. Tuition at St. Pat's is about 3 times that of Catholic school Our Lady of Victory across the street from St. Pat's and Lab.

Lab, by contrast, is a nonprofit, non-religious, special education school that for 50 years educated students with learning disabilities who were not getting the free, public, and appropriate education of non-disabled students.

The description of Lab as one of "a series of private schools" on the keep Old Hardy website is both inaccurate and inflammatory. The Foxhall site has had only 3 uses: a DC public middle school that closed for under-enrollment, a publicly funded DC charter school that closed for financial and enrollment problems, and a nonprofit special education school designed to serve DC public school students.

Lab is not Sidwell or Whittle. It's not trying to buy the crappy old building. It's not a fly-by-night money maker. Lab actually accepts DC students that the other private schools around it do not.

As a Wilson-feeder parent, here's my question: what is the DCPS plan to serve the increasing number of kids with learning disabilities that will come with the increased population of kids in general?

Or put another way, how can DCPS better serve its most underserved public school students including the hundreds of students with disabilities currently in the Wilson feeder pattern?

Anyone?

Prior to Lab the tenant was Rock Creek International School, a private school.

Prior to that it was Hardy Middle School. It didn't close due to low enrollment, it moved to a bigger building on Wisconsin Avenue. Prior to that it was Hardy Elementary School for 40 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lab is private, needs a private deal I guess. So why don't they take over the about to be empty GDS private ES space? It's even closer to their main buildings. They could do it much more "privately."

The GDS lower school was bought a while ago by an academically selective private school rumored to be a apricey for-profit out of NYC. The other feasible school spot on MacArthur next to the Reservoir was bought by St Patrick's Episcopal Day School. It will house the middle school grades for a private, academically selective, religious school. Tuition at St. Pat's is about 3 times that of Catholic school Our Lady of Victory across the street from St. Pat's and Lab.

Lab, by contrast, is a nonprofit, non-religious, special education school that for 50 years educated students with learning disabilities who were not getting the free, public, and appropriate education of non-disabled students.

The description of Lab as one of "a series of private schools" on the keep Old Hardy website is both inaccurate and inflammatory. The Foxhall site has had only 3 uses: a DC public middle school that closed for under-enrollment, a publicly funded DC charter school that closed for financial and enrollment problems, and a nonprofit special education school designed to serve DC public school students.

Lab is not Sidwell or Whittle. It's not trying to buy the crappy old building. It's not a fly-by-night money maker. Lab actually accepts DC students that the other private schools around it do not.

As a Wilson-feeder parent, here's my question: what is the DCPS plan to serve the increasing number of kids with learning disabilities that will come with the increased population of kids in general?

Or put another way, how can DCPS better serve its most underserved public school students including the hundreds of students with disabilities currently in the Wilson feeder pattern?

Anyone?

Probably not at Lab. There are only two (2) DCPS students in the building right now.

Overall DCPS is around 15% special needs. If that building was a regular DCPS elementary school it would serve far more special needs kids than it does right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lab is private, needs a private deal I guess. So why don't they take over the about to be empty GDS private ES space? It's even closer to their main buildings. They could do it much more "privately."

The GDS lower school was bought a while ago by an academically selective private school rumored to be a apricey for-profit out of NYC. The other feasible school spot on MacArthur next to the Reservoir was bought by St Patrick's Episcopal Day School. It will house the middle school grades for a private, academically selective, religious school. Tuition at St. Pat's is about 3 times that of Catholic school Our Lady of Victory across the street from St. Pat's and Lab.

Lab, by contrast, is a nonprofit, non-religious, special education school that for 50 years educated students with learning disabilities who were not getting the free, public, and appropriate education of non-disabled students.

The description of Lab as one of "a series of private schools" on the keep Old Hardy website is both inaccurate and inflammatory. The Foxhall site has had only 3 uses: a DC public middle school that closed for under-enrollment, a publicly funded DC charter school that closed for financial and enrollment problems, and a nonprofit special education school designed to serve DC public school students.

Lab is not Sidwell or Whittle. It's not trying to buy the crappy old building. It's not a fly-by-night money maker. Lab actually accepts DC students that the other private schools around it do not.

As a Wilson-feeder parent, here's my question: what is the DCPS plan to serve the increasing number of kids with learning disabilities that will come with the increased population of kids in general?

Or put another way, how can DCPS better serve its most underserved public school students including the hundreds of students with disabilities currently in the Wilson feeder pattern?

Anyone?

The bolded is really disingenuous.

Lab is a private school. They charge tuition of over $50,000 per year. There are under 30 kids at their two campuses who are being paid for by DCPS. Those kids are getting a free education, but Lab is charging the city full-freight for those kids -- over $1.5 million dollars. But Lab isn't doing this in partnership with the city, in order for kids to get placed there their parents have to sue DCPS and win.

There's no reason why the city should be providing subsidies beyond the full-rate tuition it already pays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope the lab school keeps the property. They do good work. If lab can not have it. Sell it for condos because the site does not work for DCPS.

The site worked for DCPS for 60 years. It's a much better site than Key or Mann or Janney or Eaton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lab is private, needs a private deal I guess. So why don't they take over the about to be empty GDS private ES space? It's even closer to their main buildings. They could do it much more "privately."

The GDS lower school was bought a while ago by an academically selective private school rumored to be a apricey for-profit out of NYC. The other feasible school spot on MacArthur next to the Reservoir was bought by St Patrick's Episcopal Day School. It will house the middle school grades for a private, academically selective, religious school. Tuition at St. Pat's is about 3 times that of Catholic school Our Lady of Victory across the street from St. Pat's and Lab.

Lab, by contrast, is a nonprofit, non-religious, special education school that for 50 years educated students with learning disabilities who were not getting the free, public, and appropriate education of non-disabled students.

The description of Lab as one of "a series of private schools" on the keep Old Hardy website is both inaccurate and inflammatory. The Foxhall site has had only 3 uses: a DC public middle school that closed for under-enrollment, a publicly funded DC charter school that closed for financial and enrollment problems, and a nonprofit special education school designed to serve DC public school students.

Lab is not Sidwell or Whittle. It's not trying to buy the crappy old building. It's not a fly-by-night money maker. Lab actually accepts DC students that the other private schools around it do not.

As a Wilson-feeder parent, here's my question: what is the DCPS plan to serve the increasing number of kids with learning disabilities that will come with the increased population of kids in general?

Or put another way, how can DCPS better serve its most underserved public school students including the hundreds of students with disabilities currently in the Wilson feeder pattern?

Anyone?

Probably not at Lab. There are only two (2) DCPS students in the building right now.

Overall DCPS is around 15% special needs. If that building was a regular DCPS elementary school it would serve far more special needs kids than it does right now.

+1 The correct comparison is Lab vs other public or charter DC schools that could be using the building space. First PP is wrong to compare Lab as more inclusive than other mainstream privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lab is private, needs a private deal I guess. So why don't they take over the about to be empty GDS private ES space? It's even closer to their main buildings. They could do it much more "privately."

The GDS lower school was bought a while ago by an academically selective private school rumored to be a apricey for-profit out of NYC. The other feasible school spot on MacArthur next to the Reservoir was bought by St Patrick's Episcopal Day School. It will house the middle school grades for a private, academically selective, religious school. Tuition at St. Pat's is about 3 times that of Catholic school Our Lady of Victory across the street from St. Pat's and Lab.

Lab, by contrast, is a nonprofit, non-religious, special education school that for 50 years educated students with learning disabilities who were not getting the free, public, and appropriate education of non-disabled students.

You use the word "academically selective" twice to describe other schools, so the implication is that Lab isn't. But it is. It's a private school, unlike publics it gets to choose who it admits, which includes admitting large numbers of students from Maryland and Virginia. Unlike publics it has no obligation to the society at large, its obligation is to its own community. Who it admits -- and who it gives scholarships to -- are totally at the discretion of the school.

There's nothing wrong with that, that's the way all the privates operate. But the other privates don't go around demanding that the citizens of DC -- and the public school students -- foot the bill for their facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lab is private, needs a private deal I guess. So why don't they take over the about to be empty GDS private ES space? It's even closer to their main buildings. They could do it much more "privately."

The GDS lower school was bought a while ago by an academically selective private school rumored to be a apricey for-profit out of NYC. The other feasible school spot on MacArthur next to the Reservoir was bought by St Patrick's Episcopal Day School. It will house the middle school grades for a private, academically selective, religious school. Tuition at St. Pat's is about 3 times that of Catholic school Our Lady of Victory across the street from St. Pat's and Lab.

Lab, by contrast, is a nonprofit, non-religious, special education school that for 50 years educated students with learning disabilities who were not getting the free, public, and appropriate education of non-disabled students.

The description of Lab as one of "a series of private schools" on the keep Old Hardy website is both inaccurate and inflammatory. The Foxhall site has had only 3 uses: a DC public middle school that closed for under-enrollment, a publicly funded DC charter school that closed for financial and enrollment problems, and a nonprofit special education school designed to serve DC public school students.

Lab is not Sidwell or Whittle. It's not trying to buy the crappy old building. It's not a fly-by-night money maker. Lab actually accepts DC students that the other private schools around it do not.

As a Wilson-feeder parent, here's my question: what is the DCPS plan to serve the increasing number of kids with learning disabilities that will come with the increased population of kids in general?

Or put another way, how can DCPS better serve its most underserved public school students including the hundreds of students with disabilities currently in the Wilson feeder pattern?

Anyone?

Noun-verb-"special needs."

[Anonymous]

Who is on the board of trustees at the Lab School?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is on the board of trustees at the Lab School?

Lori Soto, wife of Ben Soto, Mayor Bowser's chief fundraiser.
https://modernluxury.com/washington-dc/scene/fab-lab/img171378

See also the list of campaign contributors:
https://efiling.ocf.dc.gov/ContributionExpenditure/Search

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lab is private, needs a private deal I guess. So why don't they take over the about to be empty GDS private ES space? It's even closer to their main buildings. They could do it much more "privately."

The GDS lower school was bought a while ago by an academically selective private school rumored to be a apricey for-profit out of NYC. The other feasible school spot on MacArthur next to the Reservoir was bought by St Patrick's Episcopal Day School. It will house the middle school grades for a private, academically selective, religious school. Tuition at St. Pat's is about 3 times that of Catholic school Our Lady of Victory across the street from St. Pat's and Lab.

Lab, by contrast, is a nonprofit, non-religious, special education school that for 50 years educated students with learning disabilities who were not getting the free, public, and appropriate education of non-disabled students.

The description of Lab as one of "a series of private schools" on the keep Old Hardy website is both inaccurate and inflammatory. The Foxhall site has had only 3 uses: a DC public middle school that closed for under-enrollment, a publicly funded DC charter school that closed for financial and enrollment problems, and a nonprofit special education school designed to serve DC public school students.

Lab is not Sidwell or Whittle. It's not trying to buy the crappy old building. It's not a fly-by-night money maker. Lab actually accepts DC students that the other private schools around it do not.

As a Wilson-feeder parent, here's my question: what is the DCPS plan to serve the increasing number of kids with learning disabilities that will come with the increased population of kids in general?

Or put another way, how can DCPS better serve its most underserved public school students including the hundreds of students with disabilities currently in the Wilson feeder pattern?

Anyone?

Noun-verb-"special needs."

The percentage of students with disabilities in DCPS is actually slowing dropping as the system grows. The number of students with disabilities in charters has been increasing, even students with the most severe disabilities who qualify for Level 4 services.

The most underserved, and fastest growing population in DC are ELLs, who are not just native Spanish speakers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is on the board of trustees at the Lab School?

Lori Soto, wife of Ben Soto, Mayor Bowser's chief fundraiser.
https://modernluxury.com/washington-dc/scene/fab-lab/img171378

See also the list of campaign contributors:
https://efiling.ocf.dc.gov/ContributionExpenditure/Search

And there we find the source of Bowser's "emergency" lease proposal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lab is private, needs a private deal I guess. So why don't they take over the about to be empty GDS private ES space? It's even closer to their main buildings. They could do it much more "privately."

The GDS lower school was bought a while ago by an academically selective private school rumored to be a apricey for-profit out of NYC. The other feasible school spot on MacArthur next to the Reservoir was bought by St Patrick's Episcopal Day School. It will house the middle school grades for a private, academically selective, religious school. Tuition at St. Pat's is about 3 times that of Catholic school Our Lady of Victory across the street from St. Pat's and Lab.

Lab, by contrast, is a nonprofit, non-religious, special education school that for 50 years educated students with learning disabilities who were not getting the free, public, and appropriate education of non-disabled students.

You use the word "academically selective" twice to describe other schools, so the implication is that Lab isn't. But it is. It's a private school, unlike publics it gets to choose who it admits, which includes admitting large numbers of students from Maryland and Virginia. Unlike publics it has no obligation to the society at large, its obligation is to its own community. Who it admits -- and who it gives scholarships to -- are totally at the discretion of the school.

There's nothing wrong with that, that's the way all the privates operate. But the other privates don't go around demanding that the citizens of DC -- and the public school students -- foot the bill for their facilities.

+1 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the lab school keeps the property. They do good work. If lab can not have it. Sell it for condos because the site does not work for DCPS.

The site worked for DCPS for 60 years. It's a much better site than Key or Mann or Janney or Eaton.

Does it comply with current ADA requirements including elevator, hall and doorway widths, etc? Separate nursing space with running water?