New school in Palisades

[Anonymous]

Mary Cheh tweeted that there is money in the budget for dcps to buy the gds lower school, down the street from Old Hardy. It's a big building, much bigger than any of the ESs in that area. I don't understand how it will relieve deal or Wilson overcrowding or make Lafayette any smaller.

[Anonymous]

I think maybe by rearranging the grades and having some or all of the elementaries go up to 6th.

[Anonymous]

Ahhh, I totally misunderstood the vague private post in the Private Schools forum.

"there's money in the budget." Does that mean "we could afford this" or "we have set the money aside right here for this and are doing it"?

The ESs in the ward are all too small and overcrowded, so that says nothing.

New High school? It would make a lot of sense, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ahhh, I totally misunderstood the vague private post in the Private Schools forum.

"there's money in the budget." Does that mean "we could afford this" or "we have set the money aside right here for this and are doing it"?

The ESs in the ward are all too small and overcrowded, so that says nothing.

New High school? It would make a lot of sense, too.

Well, I think they had that plan to make Foxhall Elementary, so instead of doing that, they'd just buy this one instead. So it's "in the budget".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think maybe by rearranging the grades and having some or all of the elementaries go up to 6th.

They will NOT do this. One of the things that Rhee did was to get all of the schools across the city on the same model. They used to have some schools feed Deal at 6th and some in 7th. It did not work.

What they need to do is....
Buy GDS lower school campus. Create a Lottery based Montessori similar to CHML that goes through 8th. Because of location, this will become a school that has most of the students from NW and reduce some of the overcrowding at the elementary and middle schools in the area. Even reducing each local elementary school by 10 students a grade would be helpful.

Also- this way they do not need to deal with any "redistricting" issues and grandfathering.

[Anonymous]

They should make it a boundaryless PK3-5 Spanish immersion school. Then it, Oyster (which would also become PK3-5), and Bancroft should be moved to MacFarland and Roosevelt.

This would:

* provide more PK3 seats WOTP
* provide more bilingual elementary seats
* not require any elementary school boundary changes
* reduce crowding at Deal (from Bancroft), Hardy (from IB families following the bilingual path), and Wilson.
* Increase enrollment and diversity at MacFarland and Roosevelt, and send them more students who enter middle and high school on grade level.

[Anonymous]

Other options: make it a PK-only campus with preferences for kids IB for any school that doesn't offer PK3. they could even pull PK4 out of the most overcrowded schools.

Or make a citywide Ellington-feeder middle school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should make it a boundaryless PK3-5 Spanish immersion school. Then it, Oyster (which would also become PK3-5), and Bancroft should be moved to MacFarland and Roosevelt.

This would:

* provide more PK3 seats WOTP
* provide more bilingual elementary seats
* not require any elementary school boundary changes
* reduce crowding at Deal (from Bancroft), Hardy (from IB families following the bilingual path), and Wilson.
* Increase enrollment and diversity at MacFarland and Roosevelt, and send them more students who enter middle and high school on grade level.

What would happen to Adams?
Optics of moving Bancroft to MacFarland are like moving Shepard to Wells. Not happening!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should make it a boundaryless PK3-5 Spanish immersion school. Then it, Oyster (which would also become PK3-5), and Bancroft should be moved to MacFarland and Roosevelt.

This would:

* provide more PK3 seats WOTP
* provide more bilingual elementary seats
* not require any elementary school boundary changes
* reduce crowding at Deal (from Bancroft), Hardy (from IB families following the bilingual path), and Wilson.
* Increase enrollment and diversity at MacFarland and Roosevelt, and send them more students who enter middle and high school on grade level.

What would happen to Adams?
Optics of moving Bancroft to MacFarland are like moving Shepard to Wells. Not happening!

Adams can be grades 3-5 with Oyster for PK-2. This increases the number of seats available, especially for PK. Let DCPS pay for a bus for them like they do in the Capitol Hill Cluster if that makes it work.
Bancroft to MacFarland is tempered by the fact that Oyster and the new school in the Palisades would be going there too, along with every other bilingual school in DCPS. If Bancroft doesn't want to follow the bilingual feeder pattern, then it shouldn't be a bilingual school and it can keep its Deal feed.

[Anonymous]

It's big enough to create two smaller schools of choice, one Montessori and one Spanish immersion. But would that pull enough people from the large elementary schools to make a difference? Lafayette, for example, would need to lose 25 kids per grade to go back to 5 sections per grade. And unless the middle and high schools that offered that programming were really strong, families IB for deal and Wilson would go there and overcrowding would stay the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ahhh, I totally misunderstood the vague private post in the Private Schools forum.

"there's money in the budget." Does that mean "we could afford this" or "we have set the money aside right here for this and are doing it"?

The ESs in the ward are all too small and overcrowded, so that says nothing.

New High school? It would make a lot of sense, too.

Well, I think they had that plan to make Foxhall Elementary, so instead of doing that, they'd just buy this one instead. So it's "in the budget".

Oh, yikes.

What would actually make sense would be to :
First, get both buildings,
Then, move Hardy MS back into Old Hardy,
And make GDS building a new magnet elementary (Montessori? multiple Language immersion tracks?)
And, Put a HS at Hardy,
Finally, extend a g*dd*mn metro line to Georgetown, because why even create a BLM plaza on 16th st and talk about systemic racism if our public infrastructure perpetuates segregation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ahhh, I totally misunderstood the vague private post in the Private Schools forum.

"there's money in the budget." Does that mean "we could afford this" or "we have set the money aside right here for this and are doing it"?

The ESs in the ward are all too small and overcrowded, so that says nothing.

New High school? It would make a lot of sense, too.

Well, I think they had that plan to make Foxhall Elementary, so instead of doing that, they'd just buy this one instead. So it's "in the budget".

Oh, yikes.

What would actually make sense would be to :
First, get both buildings,
Then, move Hardy MS back into Old Hardy,
And make GDS building a new magnet elementary (Montessori? multiple Language immersion tracks?)
And, Put a HS at Hardy,
Finally, extend a g*dd*mn metro line to Georgetown, because why even create a BLM plaza on 16th st and talk about systemic racism if our public infrastructure perpetuates segregation.

Lab has 90 kids at old Hardy. It is barely big enough for a public elementary. There's no way a middle school would fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ahhh, I totally misunderstood the vague private post in the Private Schools forum.

"there's money in the budget." Does that mean "we could afford this" or "we have set the money aside right here for this and are doing it"?

The ESs in the ward are all too small and overcrowded, so that says nothing.

New High school? It would make a lot of sense, too.

Well, I think they had that plan to make Foxhall Elementary, so instead of doing that, they'd just buy this one instead. So it's "in the budget".

Oh, yikes.

What would actually make sense would be to :
First, get both buildings,
Then, move Hardy MS back into Old Hardy,
And make GDS building a new magnet elementary (Montessori? multiple Language immersion tracks?)
And, Put a HS at Hardy,
Finally, extend a g*dd*mn metro line to Georgetown, because why even create a BLM plaza on 16th st and talk about systemic racism if our public infrastructure perpetuates segregation.

Lab has 90 kids at old Hardy. It is barely big enough for a public elementary. There's no way a middle school would fit.

Wouldn't it have room for a lot more students if it's used for a non-special needs public population? And doesn't it have a lot more room for expansion than any elementary in the area?

[Anonymous]

Mary Chen’s tweet (copied below) implies that the site will hold a new middle school. Since it’s in an area very poorly served by transit, seems like a silly location for a middle
school. What areas would this school pull from? The closest middle school is Hardy, which is far from crowded, and it’s a real haul (at least two buses) to get to the site from anywhere IB for Deal.

“Great news: With leadership of @ChmnMendelson, the Council has now identified money to acquire the former Georgetown Day School site on MacArthur Blvd—this will provide tremendous relief to the incredible overcrowding at our middle schools!”

[Anonymous]

They should create an IB program high school there for those who want to continue on with their IB education after Deal or for those who want to start an IB education and get the IB diploma. That would divert a lot of people away from Wilson.