When will Out-of-Boundary Access End - Practically, Due to Enrollments - West of Rock Creek Park?

[Anonymous]

My read on several threads here is that people want to see students not crossing Rock Creek Park westbound for elementary schools/feeding to Deal, and going to Wilson, partly due to overcrowding and partly due to desire for better options and buy-in east of Rock Creek Park.

My question for all with direct experience is whether your schools west of Rock Creek Park are so functionally full with in-boundary students that out-of-boundary access is no longer possible. And how long it will take for that access to effectively end, barring school expansion, given the inboundary dynamics at your schools.

What do you know? Or think?

[Anonymous]

It's going to be a while. Many elementary schools WOTP are still 20+ % out of boundary, and the OOB students there have rights to attend the destination middle and high schools.

The number of OOB spots decreases each year, but 10 years from now there will still be OOB students at Deal and Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Practically speaking, it is not a slam dunk now. We got into a WOTP school this year OOB. From What I have seen and heard, we were lucky, many others were shut out. I would not expect that we would have the same luck with our younger child (and because of age difference, we won't get sibling preference).

[Anonymous]

DCPS just spent millions making the WOTP schools as large as they physically could. Most have no more physical room to expand or even put trailers without completely removing play space and athletic fields. To push the schools beyond the current size would be a policy decision to move upper income families out of the District, and to strain the system at the expense of student grades and healthy child development.

Ask the schools that had a period of extreme crowding how morale, behavior, and grades were during the strained years compared to the years before and after. Ask the PTAs what happened to fund raising and big donors during those years (they left). Crowding takes a real toll on social, emotional and academic development. If DCPS is serious about social/emotional support, they will have to adopt policies to eliminate the stress of crowding.

[Anonymous]

I disagree with the OP's premise that a lot of people want to see OOB placements disappear.


That said, the MFP has school-by-school enrollment projections for five and ten years out. Here they are for the Wilson pyramid:


SY 17-18 SY 22-23 SY 27-28 5-yr 10-yr
Oyster (ES) 347 405 473 17% 36%
Adams (MS) 330 380 423 15% 28%


Eaton 476 534 600 12% 26%
Hearst 312 361 402 16% 29%
Janney 737 846 949 15% 29%
Much 573 654 734 14% 28%
Bancroft 544 620 686 14% 26%
Lafayette 816 935 1,048 15% 28%
Shepherd 364 414 460 14% 26%
Deal feeders 3,822 4,364 4,879 14% 28%
Deal 1,475 1,615 1,931 9% 31%

Eaton 476 534 600 12% 26%
Key 417 471 527 13% 26%
Hyde 320 311 344 -3% 8%
Mann 400 447 501 12% 25%
Stoddert 438 492 554 12% 26%
Hardy Feeders 2,051 2,255 2,526 10% 23%
Hardy 392 416 501 6% 28%

Wilson Feeders 2,197 2,411 2,855 10% 30%
Wilson 1,829 1,833 2,100 0% 15%

Total 10,246 11,268 12,833 10% 25%

Unless something radically changes OOB is going to become extinct in the Wilson feeders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My read on several threads here is that people want to see students not crossing Rock Creek Park westbound for elementary schools/feeding to Deal, and going to Wilson, partly due to overcrowding and partly due to desire for better options and buy-in east of Rock Creek Park.

My question for all with direct experience is whether your schools west of Rock Creek Park are so functionally full with in-boundary students that out-of-boundary access is no longer possible. And how long it will take for that access to effectively end, barring school expansion, given the inboundary dynamics at your schools.

What do you know? Or think?

I think that if people keep using their in-boundary schools, there are no seats available for out of boundary students. This is already true in lower grades at many schools. As long as those people continue to attend their neighborhood schools, the classes will continue to be full. I think it is really just a matter of time, and probably not that much time either.

[Anonymous]

Why only look at the situation West of Rock Creek? You now see major crowding further down, Ross, Brent, Maury etc. Same situation, more allies to challenge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why only look at the situation West of Rock Creek? You now see major crowding further down, Ross, Brent, Maury etc. Same situation, more allies to challenge.

Powell is expected to be overcrowded in a few years as well. We are already over capacity with a newly renovated building.

[Anonymous]

I would also prefer to see OOB access through the lottery as opposed to Principals allowing students who move to stay (beyond finishing up the school year)

[Anonymous]

I have noticed some clear rumblings in our EOTP DCPS elementary about OOB families. A few years ago, no one cared where you were from, in bounds or out. Now, I can definitely feel a tension.. people starting to act superior/more important if they are in bounds

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS just spent millions making the WOTP schools as large as they physically could. Most have no more physical room to expand or even put trailers without completely removing play space and athletic fields. To push the schools beyond the current size would be a policy decision to move upper income families out of the District, and to strain the system at the expense of student grades and healthy child development.

Ask the schools that had a period of extreme crowding how morale, behavior, and grades were during the strained years compared to the years before and after. Ask the PTAs what happened to fund raising and big donors during those years (they left). Crowding takes a real toll on social, emotional and academic development. If DCPS is serious about social/emotional support, they will have to adopt policies to eliminate the stress of crowding.

What schools in DC have had extreme crowding? I had kids at an oft referenced in demand at capacity WOTP ES both before the school was expanded and after and completely missed the toll it took on their social, emotional and academic development. In fact my kids are thriving as are all of their peers several years after leaving this supposed hell hole you reference.

Do you have any references you can cite about the stress of crowding and can you provide examples of which schools in DC meet those standards?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS just spent millions making the WOTP schools as large as they physically could. Most have no more physical room to expand or even put trailers without completely removing play space and athletic fields. To push the schools beyond the current size would be a policy decision to move upper income families out of the District, and to strain the system at the expense of student grades and healthy child development.

Ask the schools that had a period of extreme crowding how morale, behavior, and grades were during the strained years compared to the years before and after. Ask the PTAs what happened to fund raising and big donors during those years (they left). Crowding takes a real toll on social, emotional and academic development. If DCPS is serious about social/emotional support, they will have to adopt policies to eliminate the stress of crowding.

What schools in DC have had extreme crowding? I had kids at an oft referenced in demand at capacity WOTP ES both before the school was expanded and after and completely missed the toll it took on their social, emotional and academic development. In fact my kids are thriving as are all of their peers several years after leaving this supposed hell hole you reference.

Do you have any references you can cite about the stress of crowding and can you provide examples of which schools in DC meet those standards?

Looking at the enrollment projections upthread, would you say that there is a likelihood a number of schools will be over capacity in the next five to ten years? Would you say that is a good, bad or neutral situation for the students in those schools? Is it unavoidable? Is there anything that can be done over the next five to ten years to alleviate it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS just spent millions making the WOTP schools as large as they physically could. Most have no more physical room to expand or even put trailers without completely removing play space and athletic fields. To push the schools beyond the current size would be a policy decision to move upper income families out of the District, and to strain the system at the expense of student grades and healthy child development.

Ask the schools that had a period of extreme crowding how morale, behavior, and grades were during the strained years compared to the years before and after. Ask the PTAs what happened to fund raising and big donors during those years (they left). Crowding takes a real toll on social, emotional and academic development. If DCPS is serious about social/emotional support, they will have to adopt policies to eliminate the stress of crowding.

What schools in DC have had extreme crowding? I had kids at an oft referenced in demand at capacity WOTP ES both before the school was expanded and after and completely missed the toll it took on their social, emotional and academic development. In fact my kids are thriving as are all of their peers several years after leaving this supposed hell hole you reference.

Do you have any references you can cite about the stress of crowding and can you provide examples of which schools in DC meet those standards?

Looking at the enrollment projections upthread, would you say that there is a likelihood a number of schools will be over capacity in the next five to ten years? Would you say that is a good, bad or neutral situation for the students in those schools? Is it unavoidable? Is there anything that can be done over the next five to ten years to alleviate it?

The enrollment numbers at most of the WOTP ES have held pretty steady going back 5-6 years except for Lafayette which had an unexpected jump in numbers. And almost no additional single family housing is being built WOTP. And as referenced above the WOTP ES all have some OOB students.

But DCPS is a couple of years away from unsustainable overcrowding at Deal and Wilson. Deal already has a bunch of portable classrooms and no room for more without taking over the athletic field and Wilson I don't believe has any more space to add portables or expand.

But DCPS has plenty of seats for HS students it just needs the political courage to re-draw the boundaries and stick with it. Unfortunately despite years of discussion about this DCPS still has not built the necessary successful Ward 4 MS to bridge kids between ES and HS and keep them out of Deal/Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Lafayette is projected to have 940 kids next year, 2019-2020, more than the number that DCPS is projecting in 5 years. I wonder if all the estimates are too low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The enrollment numbers at most of the WOTP ES have held pretty steady going back 5-6 years except for Lafayette which had an unexpected jump in numbers. And almost no additional single family housing is being built WOTP.

You better call the DME's office then and tell them that based on your anecdotal observations their numbers are all wet. Probably should call Office of Planning too.