Reply to Murch- Getting screwed again?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Murch- Getting screwed again?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'd be a little more sympathetic if the request were for equity for ALL schools getting the shaft by DCPS / DGS renovations.  There are other schools similarly (or more) deserving than Murch that aren't getting renovated for years.  And the more funding that gets diverted to Murch, the less will be there for our schools.
I'd be happy to support a pledge for increasing renovation funding [b]overall[/b] so that we don't have to make dumb decisions with the Murch renovation and other high priority schools can be moved up (and done correctly).[/quote]

Oh come on, that's really unfair. Have you seen Murch? It probably should have been one of the first schools to be renovated, and I'm not a Murch parent. It bodes unwell for the entire system. Now that DGS/DCPS has been doing renovations for the past 10 years, they should know the drill.

I will be sending something out to Bowser et al. on behalf of the community tomorrow. [/quote]
Have you compared it to all the other schools in need of renovation?  When the council did that last year, Murch was ranked 19th. Yet I don't see you clamoring to support renovation of 1-18 first.

I don't think we benefit from fighting among school communities, but don't expect support if you're not going to push a broader message.

For example, we could push the Mayor and council to raise the debt ceiling to allow for more money for school renovation (AND also step up better oversight of the money). Schools like ours shouldn't be forced to make stupid choices while others get extravagant and wasteful renovations.[/quote]

I'm not the quoted PP, but I don't know what more you want from the Murch community. They have been doing exactly what you are asking for a very long time: calling for renovating all schools, trying to make sure funding for all these projects is more available, trying to bring attention to the flaws in the process, and demanding changes in the process.

You clearly have read the materials from the Education Committee's work last spring. I applaud that work, and helped with it. Have you studied and visited schools, including Murch? [b]The Committee's analysis was based on the data DCPS and DGS provided, and it was acknowledged that was a big part of the problem. How you measure things can manipulate the results. Murch has pushed to have more accurate, honest assessments, not just because it would benefit Murch. No one at DGS could explain their facility assessment process. And the DCPS figures calculated capacity numbers to include all trailers, so they showed Murch as undercapacity. Anyone who has been to Murch knows that is a joke.[/b]

We can all continue to work on these issues citywide (and the problems are massive from facilities assessment to contracting to community engagement), but don't ask Murch to deny or sacrifice the needs of their own school in the process. Murch did that decades ago when they helped file the lawsuit to get DC to renovate and then sat waiting for their turn. They did that when they received a grant to figure out how to handle the historic preservation of Murch and turned it over to allow a citywide analysis of the issue. Now it is time to get Murch done and use its issues to inform city leaders of the massive flaws in the entire process. If you can't see and accept that, then I think the person that isn't willing to look at the issue citywide may be you.[/quote]

Well said. Having listened to DGS explain how it was going to "evaluate" the various swing space options for Murch, it's clear that methodology is not their strong suit. I believe that a different analysis a few years earlier put Murch #2 in the city in need of renovation.

But as many have rightly pointed out, this isn't about who's more deserving. It's about facts: Murch's building is 86 years old, designed for half of its current population, and has never been renovated. Now the city is literally refusing to pay the price for ignoring the school for so long. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics