Reply to Are in boundary families leaving Hardy because if MacArthur?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I looked on the website and the (public) video section shows sweet, happy kids:

https://www.hardyms.org/m/video/index.jsp

It seems like there is a good majority of them. Troubling ones are a bit everywhere unfortunately, but certain posters make it sound like the situation is a disaster..

My kids are only in ES and I keep reading this board since I am nervous about middle school. Maybe I shouldn’t![/quote]

I am a parent at Hardy after being a huge Hardy proponent (from the outside) for years.

The school needs to spend a little bit of time getting back to basics. General maintenance and custodial issues send the wrong message to students and parents. Probably not unique to Hardy, but the administration has to demonstrate that they're on top of the visible stuff in order to have trust for the invisible stuff.

The budget cuts have had a profound effect on the school. Most directly, electives were cut. This sucks, but the repercussions extend from there. There are fewer teachers and staff around to provide oversight of the students. I presume this is related to the reports of fighting that I've heard/read. It also means there are few breaks from "academic" classes. Coupled with students -- all students -- being relatively feral following a disastrous lock-out from schools during the pandemic, the need for more teachers, more staff, and more electives could not be more heightened.

It is terribly unfortunate that DCPS cut Hardy's budget despite (actually, because of) an increase in enrollment during the pandemic. It has set the school back and it remains to be seen if it can recover. Atop that, installing a new principal at the same time as (a) return from pandemic and (b) budget cuts borders between negligent and hostile.

I remain optimistic for Hardy, but I'm fearful there may be some time until it gets back to where it was and where it was going. Hopefully this is a one-year blip, but I think it is too early to tell.

Separately, I am highly optimistic about Macarthur. The school is completely set-up to succeed. The main threat now is DCPS kneecapping it through some stupidity like they did with Hardy this year. [/quote]

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