Middle Schools

[Anonymous]

Ummm...I believe the issue was more about families of some means who use addresses, even affording to rent non-used apartments, and taking the spots that really should be saved for children of lesser means via legitimate OOB lottery. At least that's this parents' concern. As for out-of-state residents these folks are cheaters and should be paying full on tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ummm...I believe the issue was more about families of some means who use addresses, even affording to rent non-used apartments, and taking the spots that really should be saved for children of lesser means via legitimate OOB lottery. At least that's this parents' concern. As for out-of-state residents these folks are cheaters and should be paying full on tuition.

Different poster here. This may be the intent of the discussion (wealthier DC residents using fake addresses) but it becomes a witch hunt against those of lesser means, and creates a climate of suspicion that's not cool. I also have difficulty getting worked up about address cheating, but get more upset about the out-of-state cheating which impacts other city services, not just schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:24 -- as to "auditors and cameras"...the primary concern would be out-of-state families who don't even pay DC taxes, but there's a new wave of fakers, DC residents who use in-boundary addresses for, say, Deal. Much more difficult to call, yet will continue to swallow ever-more valuable OOB spots. Lotto waitlist barely, if at all, budged there last summer. Did anyone get in Deal off the waitlist this year?

As a DC taxpayer, I find it significantly harder to get worked up over this. Sorry, I really don't care if little Thurston Howell IV has to make room at the lunch table for LaShonda because her mommy dropped her off at Lafayette on the way to cleaning the houses of 4 different inboundary residences for Lafayette. I know you WANT me to keep the poor, dirty, little peasant girl out of your public school, but when you try to go about it I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you get a big fat black eye.

One city.

You are funny! And your casual racism (LaShonda is what race?) is no less offensive just because you think you are helping out the "po, little folks" who clean your floors. And your attitude may change once LaShonda and Thurston are in the upper grades of Deal where the stakes are much higher.

Overcrowded classrooms detract from everyone's ability to learn. No one should be allowed to thwart in-boundary rules.
Scofflaws should and will be reported.

[Anonymous]

What people should be "worked up" about (besides out of staters who don't pay tuition) is the fact there is such wildly inequitable facilities, programs and standards between Deal and ALL of the others. I agree with the poster who suggested neighboring schools to Hardy should be rallying around that school, because it is very good and poised to be great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What people should be "worked up" about (besides out of staters who don't pay tuition) is the fact there is such wildly inequitable facilities, programs and standards between Deal and ALL of the others. I agree with the poster who suggested neighboring schools to Hardy should be rallying around that school, because it is very good and poised to be great.

Agree that people should be worked up about the disparity. But the focus of that ire should be making other schools strong, and not an anger that Deal is good. Let's not be crabs in a barrel.

[Anonymous]

Yes, focus should be on why the school leaders at the other middle schools are not making a school that is as good as Deal if not better. They get more money per student than Deal does (in some cases double the amount) so they should be held to the same standard of programming. I hate to make more work for her, but Dr. Kim should be asked to coach other principals in DC.

[Anonymous]

The answer to this is to find more principal candidates like Melissa Kim for the other middle schools around the city. The hard work she and her faculty and staff have quietly put in over the last five or so is starting to now quite visibly come to the notice of the rest of the city. Yes, the facility is gorgeous, but Deal was absolutely dismal before that and had been on the books for this renovation for a long time. Point is, this happened over time and took a lot of hard work by the stakeholders. For those not in bounds for Deal, it can happen for your school to. Put your efforts into getting good leadership for your schools, not crying "inequity".

[Anonymous]

Keep an eye out for Jefferson Academy - a new DCPS middle school - in the planning stages right now. It will be wholly separate from, and co-located with the current Jefferson middle school program. It’ll have IB with Chinese language, and it will partner with the Smithsonian (3 blocks away) and Arena Stage (2 blocks away). It’ll be high-tech with expeditionary learning and a summer bridge program. It’s part of the Ward 6 Middle School Reform Plan. Its feeder schools are Amidon-Bowen, Brent and Thomson, plus OOB. A massive $2 billion redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront is underway across the street from Jefferson – and the developer committed to significant support for the school. Jefferson used to be a high flying school and hopefully it will soar again. Just putting it out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, focus should be on why the school leaders at the other middle schools are not making a school that is as good as Deal if not better. They get more money per student than Deal does (in some cases double the amount) so they should be held to the same standard of programming. I hate to make more work for her, but Dr. Kim should be asked to coach other principals in DC.

It is quite difficult for the parents of Ward 5 to make our neighborhood middle school great. Why Mr. Fenty and Ms Rhee in the idiotic wisdom decided to close all the Ward 5 middle schools. So when the time comes for my baby to enter middle school, he will be one of those children using auntie's address that is zoned for both Laffayette and Deal.

As for the poster who continues to post about the crab in the barrel mentality, just stop. It is not fair that there is only one incredibly great middle school in this vast city, and that school happens to be zoned for families who can otherwise afford to send their offspring to a private institution offering the same advantages. Crab poster, I bet your child is zoned for Deal and that is why you are not ruffled by the inequity.

[Anonymous]

You have no middle schools in Ward 5 because the rest of the city had no desire to pay for an entire school for 36 kids just so you could say we have a middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have no middle schools in Ward 5 because the rest of the city had no desire to pay for an entire school for 36 kids just so you could say we have a middle school.

I have $10,000 that says there are more than 36 middle-school aged kids in Ward 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: It is not fair that there is only one incredibly great middle school in this vast city, and that school happens to be zoned for families who can otherwise afford to send their offspring to a private institution offering the same advantages.

Not true. There are more probably more families in the Deal boundary area that can afford private school than in other areas of the city but not everyone can. We absolutely cannot and the majority of families that we know at Deal cannot. Also, not everyone in Deal boundary wants to go to private and certainly they have as much right to a good public education as anyone else. Your worry about your child's education is totally understandable, but claiming "not fair" is way off the mark. This did not happen overnight, there has been great leadership at Deal, a renovation, community support and an economic downturn (spurring more people to stay in public). Many things contributed to what now looks like a great middle school by any standards, not just DCPS standards. Please commit your time and energy to develop a middle school model in Ward 5 that you would be proud of. It will help your children and many others. It will also help keep Deal from becoming overcrowded with children who are attending under less than honest circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, focus should be on why the school leaders at the other middle schools are not making a school that is as good as Deal if not better. They get more money per student than Deal does (in some cases double the amount) so they should be held to the same standard of programming. I hate to make more work for her, but Dr. Kim should be asked to coach other principals in DC.

It is quite difficult for the parents of Ward 5 to make our neighborhood middle school great. Why Mr. Fenty and Ms Rhee in the idiotic wisdom decided to close all the Ward 5 middle schools. So when the time comes for my baby to enter middle school, he will be one of those children using auntie's address that is zoned for both Laffayette and Deal.

As for the poster who continues to post about the crab in the barrel mentality, just stop. It is not fair that there is only one incredibly great middle school in this vast city, and that school happens to be zoned for families who can otherwise afford to send their offspring to a private institution offering the same advantages. Crab poster, I bet your child is zoned for Deal and that is why you are not ruffled by the inequity.

Indeed. Another Ward 5 resident here (and I don't have any aunties that are in-bound for Deal). Bacchus was a crummy middle school and underutilitized. But we'll never be able to get it back because now it belongs to UDC. There are a lot of middle school-aged students in Ward 5 now and there were even before Bernie Bacchus closed. They just didn't go there, because it was crummy. Get it? And, there is a huge baby boom in Ward 5 now -- largely in the 5 and under set -- so we'll be screaming in 5-8 years when all those kids are ready for middle school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is quite difficult for the parents of Ward 5 to make our neighborhood middle school great. Why Mr. Fenty and Ms Rhee in the idiotic wisdom decided to close all the Ward 5 middle schools. So when the time comes for my baby to enter middle school, he will be one of those children using auntie's address that is zoned for both Laffayette and Deal.

As for the poster who continues to post about the crab in the barrel mentality, just stop. It is not fair that there is only one incredibly great middle school in this vast city, and that school happens to be zoned for families who can otherwise afford to send their offspring to a private institution offering the same advantages. Crab poster, I bet your child is zoned for Deal and that is why you are not ruffled by the inequity.

Crab person here. Ward five has a number of ES that go through 8th grade. My children, on the other hand, attend an ES that ends in 5th grade and currently has no good options for MS. And because we don't have a strong MS option, our ES loses students in 3rd grade, and the lack of a MS option has ripple effects. Even though we are hosed, we are working to create a MS that will be a strong option.

I doubt there would be any hope for a viable middle school -- especially in a short time-frame -- if Deal wasn’t successful. It is frustrating and even scary when one looks at the landscape of MS in the District - I am right there with you. I’m just saying that people should invest their energy in making options that work instead of tearing down one of the few things that is working. Of course this is with the proviso there are no inequities with Deal’s funding. I have yet to see data that demonstrates Deal or Hardy or Stuart Hobson receives more than their fair share. I would rather DC had 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 successful middle schools (out of the approx 14) than having none at all – even if I am boxed out for whatever reason.

What middle school options do Ward 5 students have? What’s being done to improve those options? Why is it difficult to improve the MS options for Ward 5? I am not saying it isn’t difficult, I really don’t know about the situation. It is a travesty that one’s zip code drastically affects their schooling. If you didn’t like Fenty, then organize the neighborhood and engage with Gray to make it happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:24 -- as to "auditors and cameras"...the primary concern would be out-of-state families who don't even pay DC taxes, but there's a new wave of fakers, DC residents who use in-boundary addresses for, say, Deal. Much more difficult to call, yet will continue to swallow ever-more valuable OOB spots. Lotto waitlist barely, if at all, budged there last summer. Did anyone get in Deal off the waitlist this year?

As a DC taxpayer, I find it significantly harder to get worked up over this. Sorry, I really don't care if little Thurston Howell IV has to make room at the lunch table for LaShonda because her mommy dropped her off at Lafayette on the way to cleaning the houses of 4 different inboundary residences for Lafayette. I know you WANT me to keep the poor, dirty, little peasant girl out of your public school, but when you try to go about it I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you get a big fat black eye.

One city.

You are funny! And your casual racism (LaShonda is what race?) is no less offensive just because you think you are helping out the "po, little folks" who clean your floors. And your attitude may change once LaShonda and Thurston are in the upper grades of Deal where the stakes are much higher.

Overcrowded classrooms detract from everyone's ability to learn. No one should be allowed to thwart in-boundary rules.
Scofflaws should and [b]will be reported.[/b]

Now that's funny.

Tattle all you want. You don't have an enforcement mechanism. And, those who do, have neither the interest nor the political will to use it.