BASIS DC will seek to expand to include K to 4th grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

Not happening yet, there is not building, no concrete plans, and BASIS doesn't really talk about it to current families. The rumor is that thy want to find a K-12 building and move everyone over eventually (rather than have two buildings). Might be years away (I have a current BASIS students and an elementary schooler and I don't anticipate anything will change before my younger kid is in middle school).

Wow, a K-12 building is going to be hard to find. DCPS is not giving up buildings right now and any charter buildings on the market are smaller.

[Anonymous]

Years away! thought it was 2025 or 2026, and now years away lol At least I do not have to wondering if basis is too much for elementary kids now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

Not happening yet, there is not building, no concrete plans, and BASIS doesn't really talk about it to current families. The rumor is that thy want to find a K-12 building and move everyone over eventually (rather than have two buildings). Might be years away (I have a current BASIS students and an elementary schooler and I don't anticipate anything will change before my younger kid is in middle school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Years away! thought it was 2025 or 2026, and now years away lol At least I do not have to wondering if basis is too much for elementary kids now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

Not happening yet, there is not building, no concrete plans, and BASIS doesn't really talk about it to current families. The rumor is that thy want to find a K-12 building and move everyone over eventually (rather than have two buildings). Might be years away (I have a current BASIS students and an elementary schooler and I don't anticipate anything will change before my younger kid is in middle school).

My understanding is they're not willing to locate in low-income areas, so they're having a very hard time finding a building or even something to demolish.

[Anonymous]

I remember talking with the old Head of School about this. BASIS owns the building it’s in right now, and they don’t want give it up because they like that it’s centrally located. The plan was to find a suitable PK-4 building nearby, but no surprise, that didn’t happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember talking with the old Head of School about this. BASIS owns the building it’s in right now, and they don’t want give it up because they like that it’s centrally located. The plan was to find a suitable PK-4 building nearby, but no surprise, that didn’t happen.

They could have had the Hope Tolson building in Edgewood. It's not really that far and pretty close to the Brookland metro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years away! thought it was 2025 or 2026, and now years away lol At least I do not have to wondering if basis is too much for elementary kids now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

Not happening yet, there is not building, no concrete plans, and BASIS doesn't really talk about it to current families. The rumor is that thy want to find a K-12 building and move everyone over eventually (rather than have two buildings). Might be years away (I have a current BASIS students and an elementary schooler and I don't anticipate anything will change before my younger kid is in middle school).

My understanding is they're not willing to locate in low-income areas, so they're having a very hard time finding a building or even something to demolish.

Well, they want to be in a very transit-accessible, central location, like now. More than half of BASIS students commute on their own via metro or bus (including us), this is a big part of their whole deal (and makes it a school that has kids from all 8 wards). Honestly a k-12 building would solve a lot of problems. The biggest complaint from the current families by far is the building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years away! thought it was 2025 or 2026, and now years away lol At least I do not have to wondering if basis is too much for elementary kids now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

Not happening yet, there is not building, no concrete plans, and BASIS doesn't really talk about it to current families. The rumor is that thy want to find a K-12 building and move everyone over eventually (rather than have two buildings). Might be years away (I have a current BASIS students and an elementary schooler and I don't anticipate anything will change before my younger kid is in middle school).

My understanding is they're not willing to locate in low-income areas, so they're having a very hard time finding a building or even something to demolish.

Well, they want to be in a very transit-accessible, central location, like now. More than half of BASIS students commute on their own via metro or bus (including us), this is a big part of their whole deal (and makes it a school that has kids from all 8 wards). Honestly a k-12 building would solve a lot of problems. The biggest complaint from the current families by far is the building.

Add that right now, they are half a block from Archives and the green line, half a block from a bus stop that serves capitol hill, and like two blocks from Gallery place and the red line. Many, many BASIS use all of these methods to get to school, so being "close enough" to the brookland metro is not likely to be comparable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years away! thought it was 2025 or 2026, and now years away lol At least I do not have to wondering if basis is too much for elementary kids now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

Not happening yet, there is not building, no concrete plans, and BASIS doesn't really talk about it to current families. The rumor is that thy want to find a K-12 building and move everyone over eventually (rather than have two buildings). Might be years away (I have a current BASIS students and an elementary schooler and I don't anticipate anything will change before my younger kid is in middle school).

My understanding is they're not willing to locate in low-income areas, so they're having a very hard time finding a building or even something to demolish.

Well, they want to be in a very transit-accessible, central location, like now. More than half of BASIS students commute on their own via metro or bus (including us), this is a big part of their whole deal (and makes it a school that has kids from all 8 wards). Honestly a k-12 building would solve a lot of problems. The biggest complaint from the current families by far is the building.

Add that right now, they are half a block from Archives and the green line, half a block from a bus stop that serves capitol hill, and like two blocks from Gallery place and the red line. Many, many BASIS use all of these methods to get to school, so being "close enough" to the brookland metro is not likely to be comparable.

+1. The building is obviously not great, but the location is amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years away! thought it was 2025 or 2026, and now years away lol At least I do not have to wondering if basis is too much for elementary kids now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

Not happening yet, there is not building, no concrete plans, and BASIS doesn't really talk about it to current families. The rumor is that thy want to find a K-12 building and move everyone over eventually (rather than have two buildings). Might be years away (I have a current BASIS students and an elementary schooler and I don't anticipate anything will change before my younger kid is in middle school).

My understanding is they're not willing to locate in low-income areas, so they're having a very hard time finding a building or even something to demolish.

Well, they want to be in a very transit-accessible, central location, like now. More than half of BASIS students commute on their own via metro or bus (including us), this is a big part of their whole deal (and makes it a school that has kids from all 8 wards). Honestly a k-12 building would solve a lot of problems. The biggest complaint from the current families by far is the building.

Add that right now, they are half a block from Archives and the green line, half a block from a bus stop that serves capitol hill, and like two blocks from Gallery place and the red line. Many, many BASIS use all of these methods to get to school, so being "close enough" to the brookland metro is not likely to be comparable.

+1. The building is obviously not great, but the location is amazing.

+2

Also, I'm neither a BASIS booster nor a hater but I do think the building location is a HUGE plus for BASIS, and shows that while, yeah, they get what they get from the lottery, and no, it's not a demographic cross-section of DC, they do want to be accessible to kids across the city. And I see their ads everywhere around this time of year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years away! thought it was 2025 or 2026, and now years away lol At least I do not have to wondering if basis is too much for elementary kids now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

Not happening yet, there is not building, no concrete plans, and BASIS doesn't really talk about it to current families. The rumor is that thy want to find a K-12 building and move everyone over eventually (rather than have two buildings). Might be years away (I have a current BASIS students and an elementary schooler and I don't anticipate anything will change before my younger kid is in middle school).

My understanding is they're not willing to locate in low-income areas, so they're having a very hard time finding a building or even something to demolish.

Well, they want to be in a very transit-accessible, central location, like now. More than half of BASIS students commute on their own via metro or bus (including us), this is a big part of their whole deal (and makes it a school that has kids from all 8 wards). Honestly a k-12 building would solve a lot of problems. The biggest complaint from the current families by far is the building.

Well that's a lovely thing to want, but how many years are they going to wait for it to happen? At a certain point it's time to be realistic, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years away! thought it was 2025 or 2026, and now years away lol At least I do not have to wondering if basis is too much for elementary kids now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

Not happening yet, there is not building, no concrete plans, and BASIS doesn't really talk about it to current families. The rumor is that thy want to find a K-12 building and move everyone over eventually (rather than have two buildings). Might be years away (I have a current BASIS students and an elementary schooler and I don't anticipate anything will change before my younger kid is in middle school).

My understanding is they're not willing to locate in low-income areas, so they're having a very hard time finding a building or even something to demolish.

Well, they want to be in a very transit-accessible, central location, like now. More than half of BASIS students commute on their own via metro or bus (including us), this is a big part of their whole deal (and makes it a school that has kids from all 8 wards). Honestly a k-12 building would solve a lot of problems. The biggest complaint from the current families by far is the building.

Well that's a lovely thing to want, but how many years are they going to wait for it to happen? At a certain point it's time to be realistic, no?

I think they will wait until they find a K-12 building that is as transit-accessible as the current one, even if it takes years. They can sell the current building and purchase the new one. I don't think there is any urgency to open the k-4 spots if they don't have a great building that they can stay in indefinitely. Everything is working fine now, just not ideal. the building is really cramped but it is in good condition).

The real estate market downtown is going to change a lot, so maybe there is some opportunity there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

BASIS wants to add more grades at once than charter board has approved. BASIS says the financials don't work with fewer grades. Until that gets resolved, there is no expansion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years away! thought it was 2025 or 2026, and now years away lol At least I do not have to wondering if basis is too much for elementary kids now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see K-4 is listed in the lottery system. I guess this is not official yet? can anybody share the status of it. thanks

Not happening yet, there is not building, no concrete plans, and BASIS doesn't really talk about it to current families. The rumor is that thy want to find a K-12 building and move everyone over eventually (rather than have two buildings). Might be years away (I have a current BASIS students and an elementary schooler and I don't anticipate anything will change before my younger kid is in middle school).

My understanding is they're not willing to locate in low-income areas, so they're having a very hard time finding a building or even something to demolish.

Well, they want to be in a very transit-accessible, central location, like now. More than half of BASIS students commute on their own via metro or bus (including us), this is a big part of their whole deal (and makes it a school that has kids from all 8 wards). Honestly a k-12 building would solve a lot of problems. The biggest complaint from the current families by far is the building.

Well that's a lovely thing to want, but how many years are they going to wait for it to happen? At a certain point it's time to be realistic, no?

I think they will wait until they find a K-12 building that is as transit-accessible as the current one, even if it takes years. They can sell the current building and purchase the new one. I don't think there is any urgency to open the k-4 spots if they don't have a great building that they can stay in indefinitely. Everything is working fine now, just not ideal. the building is really cramped but it is in good condition).

The real estate market downtown is going to change a lot, so maybe there is some opportunity there.

I'm amazed that you could know that in advance! Are you stupendously wealthy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are they planning to offer that is in any way innovative, interesting, or different? Other than a willingness to push out low performers, of course.

They really dont push out the lowest performers - they dont help the bright kids excel and spend all of their effort dragging the kids who are behind. it would be a better place if they let more of the weaker kids go to different schools

Huh? They already "let" kids go to whatever school they want. BASIS can't stop them. It's a question of whether BASIS is going to require low performers to repeat grades, even if it's socially and developmentally inappropriate, as a way of motivating low performers to leave the school.

Why are you so confident this is some conspiracy to force kids out? Have you for even a moment considered that BASIS simply thinks that you should have to show mastery of material before you progress to the next grade/material? This is a matter of perspective. You believe that schools should cater to the bottom of the class and make all other kids suffer to show a commitment to "equity". Many parents believe that high expectations should be set and performance should meet those expectations. If that's not you then don't choose BASIS and for darn sure leave before you drown.

It is well known that charter schools do not have the same transparency. Basis in other areas have a higher than average suspension and expulsion rate. They do not kick out low performers literally but they do push them to leave.

Basis is not a highly successful school, you have simply drank the brew.

[Anonymous]

A suitable K-4 building has much different needs than the current building. You can get away with the sad building for older kids but younger kids’ parents will want outdoor space and windows.

Also I’m curious how the downtown location will work for younger families of kids who can’t commute on their own.