Reply to Ward 2/3 High School proposal in the NW Current

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's simple, really: many people can clearly foresee a looming overcrowding issue at Wilson. You have several choices: 
1. Remove some feeder schools
2. Build greater capacity at Wilson
3. Create a new school.

If choosing 1., which feeder schools? .... [/quote]
New poster.  I'm not sure I buy your premise that some of the current Wilson feeders need to be removed under Choice #1.  My understanding is that there are lots of OOB students at Wilson who are not coming through the Deal/Hardy/Oyster feeders.

The DME's analysis (http://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Feeder%20Pattern%20Analysis%20of%20DCPS%20High%20Schools_4.2.14.pdf) shows that of the 559 9th graders at Wilson, 73 (13%) came from non-feeders.  Another 86 (15%) have no data available, so presumably some subset of those (maybe 11-12 more?) also came from non-feeders.  11 of those (2%) came from Jefferson, which might mean they are within Wilson's current boundary, even though Jefferson is not a feeder, because Wilson's boundary covers part of the Jefferson area.  If you look at the students arriving to Wilson's feeders Deal/Hardy/Oyster (http://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Feeder%20Pattern%20Analysis%20of%20DCPS%20Middle%20or%20MS%26HS%20Education%20Campuses_4.2.14.pdf), you'll see a similar pattern suggesting lots of non-feeder, OOB students are attending these schools.

Another way to see this same issue is with maps prepared by the 21st Century Foundation for DME (http://www.21csf.org/csf-home/DocUploads/DataShop/DS_23.pdf), which show lots of OOB students attending Wilson from all over the city.  By comparing the middle school boundary map with the high school boundary map, I can see that [i]some[/i] of those OOB for Wilson are students in-bounds for the feeder middle schools (for example, parts of 16th Street Heights are in-bounds for Deal, but OOB for Wilson, but those students presumably continue on to Wilson as feeder students).  But those border students are clearly a small subset of the total OOB population shown on the 21st Century map.

I'd offer two suggestions:

1. Stop admitting non-feeder, OOB ("NF-OOB") students to overcrowded schools.  That applies not only for Wilson, but also for any other middle schools which are over-capacity.  If a school it under-capacity, it can accept NF-OOB students via lottery, but those NF-OOB students get feeder rights for the next school stage [i]only[/i] if they do not put the school over-capacity.  Based on DME's maps and charts, I predict this step alone will reduce enrollment at Wilson by about 10%, which is enough to bring Wilson back within its capacity parameters.

2. Harmonize the boundaries for elementary, middle, and high schools.  Right now, because of feeder-rights, the "true" boundary for Wilson is actually much bigger than it shows on a map.  The "true" boundary for Wilson is actually the maximum area encompassed by not only Wilson's boundary, but also the areas encompassed by the various middle and elementary.  So as one example, Wilson's "true" boundary effectively includes Colonial Heights, Shepard Park, and much of 16th Street Heights, even though those neighborhoods don't fall within Wilson's actual zone of attendance.  Wilson's boundary also includes part of Jefferson's area, even though Jefferson is not a feeder.  Wherever these overlapping and inconsistent boundaries apply, it is very difficult for DCPS to manage enrollment.  To properly manage each school's enrollment, the overlap in boundaries should be removed.  I don't know whether Wilson's boundary should be extended to match Deal's, or alternatively whether the Deal boundary should shrink to match Wilson's.  The answer depends on how over-capacity Wilson is after suggestion #1 above is implemented.[/quote]

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