DCPS considering moving Hardy to MacArthur Blvd, current Hardy would become a HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move lafayette and shepherd out of deal/wilson. Problem solved.

To where? Lafayette has about 120 kids per class (at least k now). The next closest middle is ida b wells. From the numbers it looks like once all three grades are brought in from their current feeders, they have space for maybe 150 more kids total? So you are going to put 360 Lafayette and however many shepherd kids where exactly in wells?

Yup - you send Lafayette and Shepherd Park to Ida and then either Coolidge or Roosevelt though Coolidge (and the aquatic center) are right there already so you could set up a new bus route to serve both.

From Lafayette it is an 11 minute drive to Wells and a 6 minute drive to Deal. But much of the Lafayette catchment is east of the school and hence even closer to Wells and further from Deal.

Someone please find me what cohort of kids is going to be moved to this new Middle School that will be less inconvenienced than that?

And combining those two schools with the kids in the neighborhood around Wells would get you a whiter and wealthier student body than Deal has.

So you can solve the Deal/Wilson problem in a manner that improves two sets of schools and saves DCPS a bunch of money.

Or you can go down this nutty road DCPS is embarking on that will cost a lot of money and greatly inconvenience a bunch of people and will leave some EOTP schools under enrolled all while creating a traffic nightmare in an inaccessible corner of DC and there is not even a practical way to walk or bike from the current Eaton boundaries to this proposed location.

People have been traveling across the park for decades to attend school every day. There is no reason the privileged families of Chevy Chase can't do the same and be part of a sane solution to overcrowding.

But the DC Council has more money than courage so the chances that they do the logical thing here are probably close to zero.

I am the poster you are responding to. Nothing about my comment was about bus lines. Those are easy to change. The comment is that they just built a new school for Ida b Wells and there is literally no room for all the Lafayette kids...by hundreds. So yes, they *could* completely renovate the school and probably would need to double the size. But are they? Is that the right investment? To refurbish the school they JUST built? why not work on another under enrolled school instead? Oh I know why! Because we’ve decided Chevy chase is the “right kind of rich” but the much more expensive homes in mt pleasant are “integrated” and should still keep going to Deal when they are a stone’s throw from MacFarland. (I know so many Mt Pleasant families. All white. All very rich. All want that “urban feel.” Not living in that suburban-feeling NW DC! But bought there because it is a Deal feeder.)

Ok, move Lafayette, Shepherd *and* Mount Pleasant out of Deal/Wilson. Problem solved even more.

Way to not respond to the issue at hand on relieving overcrowding at Deal by overcrowding Wells. As long as we get people out of your school, right? Who cares if Wells families want their school overcrowded and kids sitting in trailers.

Oh right, I forgot that Wells is the only EOTP middle school that could be considered under such a scenario. My bad.

Yeah...no one from Lafayette is going to stand for leaving a school that many (not all) can technically walk to (Deal) for a school farther than Wells. And before you blow that racist whistle, no one working in the anti-racist space in education thinks the solution is to return to cross-town busing to integrate schools. How do I know that? I work in that space too. And yes, I agree, schools need to better integrate, but it ain't coming from getting kids to sit on buses for an hour an a half each day.

[Anonymous]

So "I work in integration" lady from Upper NW declares her opposition to busing. Yawn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move lafayette and shepherd out of deal/wilson. Problem solved.

To where? Lafayette has about 120 kids per class (at least k now). The next closest middle is ida b wells. From the numbers it looks like once all three grades are brought in from their current feeders, they have space for maybe 150 more kids total? So you are going to put 360 Lafayette and however many shepherd kids where exactly in wells?

Yup - you send Lafayette and Shepherd Park to Ida and then either Coolidge or Roosevelt though Coolidge (and the aquatic center) are right there already so you could set up a new bus route to serve both.

From Lafayette it is an 11 minute drive to Wells and a 6 minute drive to Deal. But much of the Lafayette catchment is east of the school and hence even closer to Wells and further from Deal.

Someone please find me what cohort of kids is going to be moved to this new Middle School that will be less inconvenienced than that?

And combining those two schools with the kids in the neighborhood around Wells would get you a whiter and wealthier student body than Deal has.

So you can solve the Deal/Wilson problem in a manner that improves two sets of schools and saves DCPS a bunch of money.

Or you can go down this nutty road DCPS is embarking on that will cost a lot of money and greatly inconvenience a bunch of people and will leave some EOTP schools under enrolled all while creating a traffic nightmare in an inaccessible corner of DC and there is not even a practical way to walk or bike from the current Eaton boundaries to this proposed location.

People have been traveling across the park for decades to attend school every day. There is no reason the privileged families of Chevy Chase can't do the same and be part of a sane solution to overcrowding.

But the DC Council has more money than courage so the chances that they do the logical thing here are probably close to zero.

I am the poster you are responding to. Nothing about my comment was about bus lines. Those are easy to change. The comment is that they just built a new school for Ida b Wells and there is literally no room for all the Lafayette kids...by hundreds. So yes, they *could* completely renovate the school and probably would need to double the size. But are they? Is that the right investment? To refurbish the school they JUST built? why not work on another under enrolled school instead? Oh I know why! Because we’ve decided Chevy chase is the “right kind of rich” but the much more expensive homes in mt pleasant are “integrated” and should still keep going to Deal when they are a stone’s throw from MacFarland. (I know so many Mt Pleasant families. All white. All very rich. All want that “urban feel.” Not living in that suburban-feeling NW DC! But bought there because it is a Deal feeder.)

Ok, move Lafayette, Shepherd *and* Mount Pleasant out of Deal/Wilson. Problem solved even more.

Way to not respond to the issue at hand on relieving overcrowding at Deal by overcrowding Wells. As long as we get people out of your school, right? Who cares if Wells families want their school overcrowded and kids sitting in trailers.

Oh right, I forgot that Wells is the only EOTP middle school that could be considered under such a scenario. My bad.

Yeah...no one from Lafayette is going to stand for leaving a school that many (not all) can technically walk to (Deal) for a school farther than Wells. And before you blow that racist whistle, no one working in the anti-racist space in education thinks the solution is to return to cross-town busing to integrate schools. How do I know that? I work in that space too. And yes, I agree, schools need to better integrate, but it ain't coming from getting kids to sit on buses for an hour an a half each day.

Shepherd and Lafayette to Wells and Coolidge (between the two schools there is enough space) and Bancroft and Oyster to MacFarland and Roosevelt (or let Oyster keep Adams and go right to Roosevelt, though I think it would make more sense to use Adams so Oyster could provide more PK and elementary classrooms and feed more kids to MacFarland). Wells would have test scores and diversity similar to Hardy and MacFarland would be the destination middle school for all DCPS bilingual programs. Of course families IB for Wilson won't like it. Neither did Crestwood and Southwest and Navy Yard and other neighborhoods cut out of the Wilson feeder pattern in the last reassignment. But it doesn't make any sense for like half of DC to feed to one high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move lafayette and shepherd out of deal/wilson. Problem solved.

To where? Lafayette has about 120 kids per class (at least k now). The next closest middle is ida b wells. From the numbers it looks like once all three grades are brought in from their current feeders, they have space for maybe 150 more kids total? So you are going to put 360 Lafayette and however many shepherd kids where exactly in wells?

Yup - you send Lafayette and Shepherd Park to Ida and then either Coolidge or Roosevelt though Coolidge (and the aquatic center) are right there already so you could set up a new bus route to serve both.

From Lafayette it is an 11 minute drive to Wells and a 6 minute drive to Deal. But much of the Lafayette catchment is east of the school and hence even closer to Wells and further from Deal.

Someone please find me what cohort of kids is going to be moved to this new Middle School that will be less inconvenienced than that?

And combining those two schools with the kids in the neighborhood around Wells would get you a whiter and wealthier student body than Deal has.

So you can solve the Deal/Wilson problem in a manner that improves two sets of schools and saves DCPS a bunch of money.

Or you can go down this nutty road DCPS is embarking on that will cost a lot of money and greatly inconvenience a bunch of people and will leave some EOTP schools under enrolled all while creating a traffic nightmare in an inaccessible corner of DC and there is not even a practical way to walk or bike from the current Eaton boundaries to this proposed location.

People have been traveling across the park for decades to attend school every day. There is no reason the privileged families of Chevy Chase can't do the same and be part of a sane solution to overcrowding.

But the DC Council has more money than courage so the chances that they do the logical thing here are probably close to zero.

I am the poster you are responding to. Nothing about my comment was about bus lines. Those are easy to change. The comment is that they just built a new school for Ida b Wells and there is literally no room for all the Lafayette kids...by hundreds. So yes, they *could* completely renovate the school and probably would need to double the size. But are they? Is that the right investment? To refurbish the school they JUST built? why not work on another under enrolled school instead? Oh I know why! Because we’ve decided Chevy chase is the “right kind of rich” but the much more expensive homes in mt pleasant are “integrated” and should still keep going to Deal when they are a stone’s throw from MacFarland. (I know so many Mt Pleasant families. All white. All very rich. All want that “urban feel.” Not living in that suburban-feeling NW DC! But bought there because it is a Deal feeder.)

Ok, move Lafayette, Shepherd *and* Mount Pleasant out of Deal/Wilson. Problem solved even more.

Way to not respond to the issue at hand on relieving overcrowding at Deal by overcrowding Wells. As long as we get people out of your school, right? Who cares if Wells families want their school overcrowded and kids sitting in trailers.

Oh right, I forgot that Wells is the only EOTP middle school that could be considered under such a scenario. My bad.

Yeah...no one from Lafayette is going to stand for leaving a school that many (not all) can technically walk to (Deal) for a school farther than Wells. And before you blow that racist whistle, no one working in the anti-racist space in education thinks the solution is to return to cross-town busing to integrate schools. How do I know that? I work in that space too. And yes, I agree, schools need to better integrate, but it ain't coming from getting kids to sit on buses for an hour an a half each day.

LOL - I sent 2 kids thru Deal - I'd guess 10% of the kids from Lafayette are getting to the school by a means other than being driven alone.

And an hour and a half to cross the park? You could walk from the Lafayette boundaries to either Wells or MacFarland in 90 minutes (it is 3.2 miles to Wells). Pre-covid you could get from Connecticut & Military to Georgia Avenue in 10 minutes even at rush hour and almost the entire Lafayette district is east of Connecticut Avenue and would have an even shorter trip. And again it is at least a 10 minute drive to Deal/Wilson from most of the Lafayette district.

But here is the rub when it comes to your feigned outrage about this - kids have been crossing RCP for decades to go to school. But apparently the kids from Chevy Chase are too good (or privileged) to do the same?

But you don't like the idea - so tell us then what population of kids should instead get a far worse commute to attend a new middle school in an unreachable and very congested corner of DC? Unlike Lafayette everyone from Eaton can actually walk to Hardy for their MS and none would be able to walk to this new school.

[Anonymous]

Kids from Eaton can’t walk to current Hardy MS except on nice days. It’s 1.5-2.5 hilly miles. They certainly cannot walk to old GDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids from Eaton can’t walk to current Hardy MS except on nice days. It’s 1.5-2.5 hilly miles. They certainly cannot walk to old GDS.

But — kids can cut that commute by taking a bus down Wisconsin to current Hardy. There is no bus to old GDS.

[Anonymous]

They should make a new MS or HS on the closed Marriott grounds in Woodley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids from Eaton can’t walk to current Hardy MS except on nice days. It’s 1.5-2.5 hilly miles. They certainly cannot walk to old GDS.

But — kids can cut that commute by taking a bus down Wisconsin to current Hardy. There is no bus to old GDS.

They could start one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids from Eaton can’t walk to current Hardy MS except on nice days. It’s 1.5-2.5 hilly miles. They certainly cannot walk to old GDS.

Nonsense - it is 1.6 miles from Eaton to Hardy and while the eastern parts of the Eaton catchment probably get up to 2-2.5 miles away that is still walkable in under 30 minutes and there are significant parts of the boundaries that even closer to Hardy than that including the slice north of the Cathedral that isn't even half a mile away.

And LOL kids in Cleveland Park can't walk up hills? Wilson and Janney are essentially at the highest point in the city and require climbing a hill from all 4 directions and lots of kids walk to both every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids from Eaton can’t walk to current Hardy MS except on nice days. It’s 1.5-2.5 hilly miles. They certainly cannot walk to old GDS.

But — kids can cut that commute by taking a bus down Wisconsin to current Hardy. There is no bus to old GDS.

They could start one.

They could but the traffic in that area is awful while it mostly functions pretty well on Wisconsin Avenue but Hardy is served by existing buses which run frequently all day while you'd have to add a new bus route to serve this location that would only be used by students and that is an expense likely to be in the hundreds of thousands a year to operate that doesn't currently exist.

So again this is a solution that creates a slew of new problems while easier and cheaper solutions exist to address the over-crowding at Deal & Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids from Eaton can’t walk to current Hardy MS except on nice days. It’s 1.5-2.5 hilly miles. They certainly cannot walk to old GDS.

Nonsense - it is 1.6 miles from Eaton to Hardy and while the eastern parts of the Eaton catchment probably get up to 2-2.5 miles away that is still walkable in under 30 minutes and there are significant parts of the boundaries that even closer to Hardy than that including the slice north of the Cathedral that isn't even half a mile away.

And LOL kids in Cleveland Park can't walk up hills? Wilson and Janney are essentially at the highest point in the city and require climbing a hill from all 4 directions and lots of kids walk to both every day.

Walking away from privilege is the hardest walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids from Eaton can’t walk to current Hardy MS except on nice days. It’s 1.5-2.5 hilly miles. They certainly cannot walk to old GDS.

Nonsense - it is 1.6 miles from Eaton to Hardy and while the eastern parts of the Eaton catchment probably get up to 2-2.5 miles away that is still walkable in under 30 minutes and there are significant parts of the boundaries that even closer to Hardy than that including the slice north of the Cathedral that isn't even half a mile away.

And LOL kids in Cleveland Park can't walk up hills? Wilson and Janney are essentially at the highest point in the city and require climbing a hill from all 4 directions and lots of kids walk to both every day.

Walking away from privilege is the hardest walk.

Nonsense? 2 miles is 30 minutes at a fast pace. There is a lot of trafficky roads to be crossed. And plenty of 10-11 year olds still have short legs. It’s absurd to say it’s under 30 minutes.

But that is the existing set-up.

The real issue is the inaccessibility of old GDS. What middle school in DC is 4 miles and a 25-30 minute drive — and inaccessible by public transportation for *in-boundary* students?

[Anonymous]

Is Hearst being moved to the new middle school?

[Anonymous]

You don't like GDS for valid reasons. What might be an alternative plan? In a recent communication DCPS asked.of anyone had other ideas of where to locate the new high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't like GDS for valid reasons. What might be an alternative plan? In a recent communication DCPS asked.of anyone had other ideas of where to locate the new high school.

Oh, I know!

The solution is kick Lafayette out of the Deal/Wilson feeder!!

But what about Shepherd Park, they are farther away?

Ok, kick them out too!

But I don’t want my kids to travel that far. DC has neighborhood schools!

Now, I’m going to call you racist and privileged!

REPEAT AD NAUSEAM.