Reply to Question for Supporters of New WotP High School

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yeah, no matter how good a Western HS may be, too many parents in that part of the city are still going to choose private without even thinking about DCPS.

The "clientele that DME wants to buy into DCPS" are actually everywhere else.  Especially in the center-city where there's currently nothing worth buying.[/quote]

Simply not true.  Many parents in that part of the city would be happy to continue in DCPS if there were more Deal-like options, and then more Wilson-like options.  They have opted out along the way because they don't see a straight path to a decent school.  So the continued improvement of Hardy and a second HS option WOTP would go a long way to keeping them in the system.

Another option would be to open Ellington/Western to neighborhood kids, but also keep the city-wide, application-only arts and music track.  It would be a way to cooperate in achieving the common good.  It would also really diversify the core curriculum classes, which would benefit all of the students. If anyone at DCPS likes this idea, I don't see why they could add onto Western's expansion by putting in even more classrooms.[/quote]

You're not understanding.  There's a significant percentage in the western part of the city who have [i]never[/i] considered public school and never will.

Take a look at this map that shows feeder patterns by neighborhood for DCPS and DCPCS:    http://edu.codefordc.org/#!/neighborhood

Click on the cluster where Roosevelt is located - that's toward the middle of the city and labeled "Brightwood Park, Crestwood, Petworth"  Notice the number and thickness of lines emanating from this area, showing a large number of students.

Now click on the western most cluster - Spring Valley, Palisades, Western Heights, Foxhall, etc.

The number of students enrolled in DCPS or charters near Roosevelt is exponentially larger than that near a Western High School.  Which makes more sense to develop?[/quote]

What you are not understanding is that there are lots of families in the most Western part of the city that would like to send their children to public schools (hugely increasing numbers) - but have even been out of the Deal district for years -- where those schools are IB for Hardy.  For decades Hardy has not only been underperforming Deal but also the publicly outwardly stated position of the old principal was that it was for Ward 4 and 5 children to attend (this is on the record) - this is why it was controversial when he was removed and replaced with the Principal Pride.  For decades, the farthest West kids parents either move or opt for private, but many many many would like a Deal-quality public option and then feed into Wilson.

The untenable part of the proposal to convert Roosevelt to a busing option for WOTP kids - is that the kids current served by Deal-Wilson are the closest to it - but they are entrenched in that boundary pattern & won't budget.  So what you are proposing would impact the kids who are in the Western most part of the city -- ie the ones who have been closed out of Deal have basically gotten out of DCPS in the past but families who live in these areas now want to stay in the public system -- so this is the population that constitutes the big potential overflow to Wilson in the future (if Hardy improves & IB Wilson families stay in the system -- -- this would be where the major overload of kids who could be IB for Wilson but historically those families have opted out.)  In any practical terms, your proposal is about sending all of the kids from the most western part of the city across town to Roosevelt after Hardy -- many driving past Wilson which would be half way for them - commuting through and past the neighborhoods of the kids who would live closer to Roosevelt but the families have traditionally been going to Wilson.  This has been the entrenched pattern for decades (Janney, Murch, Lafayette, Eaton (got an exception to feed to Deal vs. Hardy) (and Oyster ends at 8 and feeds to Wilson currently) -- vs. Hyde-Addison, Key, Stoddert, Mann -- which go to Hardy.

The EOTP families seem to feel more entitled to having future options that the farthest WOTP families (Hardy-track) who are also want viable options for their children beyond ES.

You need a better understanding of the demographic patterns and boundaries of the city to understand why it is not tenable.

[/quote]

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