Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters

[Anonymous]

It'd be pretty ridiculous if some of these highly mission-focused charters added a walkability preference. For example, if Mundo Verde added that, it would add a ton of Bloomingdale turret dwellers at the expense of Spanish-speaking DC, which is nowhere within 1/2 mile of the school.

[Anonymous]

I foresee people moving within walking distance of Latin and driving up housing prices yet again. Thanks, Mayor Bowser!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I foresee people moving within walking distance of Latin and driving up housing prices yet again. Thanks, Mayor Bowser!!!

Washington Latin is opening an elementary school?

[Anonymous]

It would make me ill if my Ward 5 charter opted in for this. It defeats the purpose of a charter being open to all . Will there be a hearing/rule making/public comment on this, because I'm ready to weigh in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would make me ill if my Ward 5 charter opted in for this. It defeats the purpose of a charter being open to all . Will there be a hearing/rule making/public comment on this, because I'm ready to weigh in.

Yes. You should!

[Anonymous]

Folks - it's not a done deal yet. Council must approve.

Grosso, per WAMU, expressing concerns.

https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/826172136041672704

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I just did a quick mapping of Ward 3 (this tool is recommended: http://obeattie.github.io/gmaps-radius/?lat=38.924386&lng=-77.058519&z=13&u=mi&r=0.5 )

Spring Valley, AU Park, Friendship Heights, Foxhall Village and Burleith are all areas that don't have a DCPS elementary school within half a mile. What do you think will happen when someone tries to put an elementary charter there with neighborhood preference?

Presumably, someone so nefarious would have a better understanding of available real estate than you seem to.

Incredibly unlikely the DCPCSB would approve a school planning to locate in Ward 3.

Why not? A new Ward 3 elementary school would help solve the current overcrowding issue.

NP here, so why hasn't a Charter school found a location in Ward 3? I recall Shinning Stars (or another charter) looking at an office building, but it fell through.

First, Ward 3 is very expensive and it would be hard for a school to make ends meet and pay that much in rent.

To get a charter approved these days, schools emphasize and discuss their commitment to serving all students, especially those who have no access to quality schools and articulate their likely location. They have to do at least a cursory market analysis and show that there is a need for a higher quality option where they want to locate.

You can't talk about your commitment to serving disadvantaged, underserved and/or at risk students in DC and at the same time indicate you will set up shop in Ward 3. It doesn't pass the laugh test.

Re Wash Latin, when it first opened, it was chartered by the now-defunct DC School Board. Times have changed since them.

Wasn't there talk about a year ago of Latin opening a satellite campus in Ward 3?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I foresee people moving within walking distance of Latin and driving up housing prices yet again. Thanks, Mayor Bowser!!!

Washington Latin is opening an elementary school?

Nope.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I just did a quick mapping of Ward 3 (this tool is recommended: http://obeattie.github.io/gmaps-radius/?lat=38.924386&lng=-77.058519&z=13&u=mi&r=0.5 )

Spring Valley, AU Park, Friendship Heights, Foxhall Village and Burleith are all areas that don't have a DCPS elementary school within half a mile. What do you think will happen when someone tries to put an elementary charter there with neighborhood preference?

Presumably, someone so nefarious would have a better understanding of available real estate than you seem to.

Incredibly unlikely the DCPCSB would approve a school planning to locate in Ward 3.

Why not? A new Ward 3 elementary school would help solve the current overcrowding issue.

NP here, so why hasn't a Charter school found a location in Ward 3? I recall Shinning Stars (or another charter) looking at an office building, but it fell through.

First, Ward 3 is very expensive and it would be hard for a school to make ends meet and pay that much in rent.

To get a charter approved these days, schools emphasize and discuss their commitment to serving all students, especially those who have no access to quality schools and articulate their likely location. They have to do at least a cursory market analysis and show that there is a need for a higher quality option where they want to locate.

You can't talk about your commitment to serving disadvantaged, underserved and/or at risk students in DC and at the same time indicate you will set up shop in Ward 3. It doesn't pass the laugh test.

Re Wash Latin, when it first opened, it was chartered by the now-defunct DC School Board. Times have changed since them.

Wasn't there talk about a year ago of Latin opening a satellite campus in Ward 3?

Wishful thinking on part of people who wanted them to move into St. Ann's.

There IS talk among Latin's board of establishing a second campus in ward 8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Folks - it's not a done deal yet. Council must approve.

Grosso, per WAMU, expressing concerns.

https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/826172136041672704

Looks like Grosso (or his staffer) is reading up on DCUM. HI!

[Anonymous]

Is YY or LAMB opening a campus with DCI at Walter Reed? If so, I would qualify (Shepherd >0.5 from us and we are under 0.5 from DCI campus). As would many people that live in upper Brightwood.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We live in Woodridge and would be affected - more than 0.75 miles to Langdon and much closer to the Friendship charter. Not an issue for us since we are already in another charter school.

Wards 5 and 8 would have the biggest swatches, it seems, with my very scientific zooming in on this map to see where there are gaps between DCPS schools: http://dcatlas.dcgis.dc.gov/scorecard/default.aspx

I live near IT and the neighbors over here will love this. There has already been some neighborhood discussion of this with the school; at that time the school said they were open to a neighborhood preference if it was allowed by the charter board. We'll see if it happens. . .

Yes, I think this will apply to a good .2 mile area around the school which might help with neighborhood relations. I wouldn't be shocked if someone moved in to that neighborhood specifically in order to take advantage of the preference.

Do you think ITS would opt in to offer the preference?

I'm sure ITS will be just as pleased to extend that preference to Edgewood Terrace residents who are also within .5 miles and more than .5 miles from Noyes.

Looks like Edgewood Terrace is < .5 miles to Noyes and thus wouldn't be affected. The primary zone impacted is the Zone to the South of the school. Or were you just being snarky? No actually constructive?

And to the south they are mostly less than 0.5 to Langley. I'm wondering if this would actually smooth things in the neighborhood or create more disruption by creating a tiny "ITS" district within it.

But the areas south of ITS are zoned for Noyes, which makes a difference. It's not based on proximity to any DCPS school but proximity to your zoned school, at least as written. I'm an ITS parent and I am not in favor of any neighborhood preference for charter schools, though I agree that there are lots of benefits of walkable schools.

Not PP but I am a founding ITS family and absolutely think ITS would opt-in for this. They have been trying very hard to recruit students from within the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would make me ill if my Ward 5 charter opted in for this. It defeats the purpose of a charter being open to all . Will there be a hearing/rule making/public comment on this, because I'm ready to weigh in.

Yes. You should!

It's only proposed that 15% of the seats are given to kids with a neighborhood priority. So no neighborhood is going to "overwhelm" any charter school (unless they do so by random lottery luck). Not to mention that there will likely only be a small group of families who qualify for the neighborhood preference anyway.

I was skeptical of this idea (neighborhood preference for charters) when I first heard about it thinking that then families with means will simply buy a house next to whatever charter they want and it will further the economic segregation in our school system. But this program is so limited, I don't think this will have much effect on a student body at large. It will just be a boon to families who live super close to a charter they like but haven't had the lottery luck to get into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would make me ill if my Ward 5 charter opted in for this. It defeats the purpose of a charter being open to all . Will there be a hearing/rule making/public comment on this, because I'm ready to weigh in.

Yes. You should!

It's only proposed that 15% of the seats are given to kids with a neighborhood priority. So no neighborhood is going to "overwhelm" any charter school (unless they do so by random lottery luck). Not to mention that there will likely only be a small group of families who qualify for the neighborhood preference anyway.

I was skeptical of this idea (neighborhood preference for charters) when I first heard about it thinking that then families with means will simply buy a house next to whatever charter they want and it will further the economic segregation in our school system. But this program is so limited, I don't think this will have much effect on a student body at large. It will just be a boon to families who live super close to a charter they like but haven't had the lottery luck to get into.

I agree. I actually commend Bowser on this one[u]. Now whether the charter schools opt in will be another story. I have a feeling the ones in old DCPS buildings will be pressured to (fine by me).

[Anonymous]

The District shouldn't allow charter schools to proliferate near existing traditional schools. That's part of the problem. Residents are told that their neighborhood school needs to close because there are not enough children the neighborhood or that the school building is in need of repair and then a charter school opens up. Charter schools are all right but neighborhood schools need to be made more desirable. Forget the high SES, race, and FARM stuff and make all traditional schools good, diverse, and competitive and that offer foreign language classes (not immersion), physical education, art, and music, too, as part of the standard curriculum.

But still, the mayor's proposal makes sense.