Reply to Has Bancroft's rapid gentrification ruined its chances to have its current feeder rights preserved?

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Reply to "Has Bancroft's rapid gentrification ruined its chances to have its current feeder rights preserved?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think there are plenty of upper middle class families who will send their kids to MacFarland if that is established as the pattern for Bancroft. I think it's true that some will avoid it, but there are already some upper middle class kids at MacFarland now, and plenty of other parents will simply do what's in front of them knowing that the system has set this up for them. Requiring that feeder pattern rather than making it optional will create a significant cohort of MacFarland families from what is becoming an extremely mixed neighborhood.

The catchment of MacFarland certainly includes large and small apartment buildings of low-income Spanish-only families. However, it contains a very large number of single family homes that cost $850K plus. I believe that while few families want to send their kid to be the "only white kid" or "only Asian" or only anything, norming MacFarland as the neighborhood middle school with the only way out onerous will make those who don't want it move, and be replaced, or decide whether they'll take risky steps like lotterying every year. And for many, the cohort that the path-of-least-resistance will create will be enough to send their kid too.

It's not magic, it's public policy.[/quote]

Yes, and this is exactly the point with feeding Shepherd and Lafayette into Ward 4. It will improve the cohorts. And Shepherd has more white students than Bancroft. Public policy should favor economically and racially diverse schools. As the Shepherd boosters point out - their school does not reflect the economic diversity of the city, but they don't want to mix with Brightwood or Whittier are Takoma -because they are lighter and brighter (in their own humble opinions). [/quote]

I thought the master facilities plan slides showed wells/coolidge at or near capacity? [/quote]

That is correct. You can check the slides from the Spring presentation. Deal was in green representing 80-95% capacity. Wells was in orange representing 95-120% capacity. JR/Coolidge were also in orange, but I don't believe it takes into account the MacArthur shift.

It's not an simple solution to just say shift Shepherd/Lafayette to Wells if Wells can't accommodate the students.

[/quote]

No, the long term projections is that declining birth rates and other factors will create declining enrollment for MS. Boundary decisions also allow for expanding school footprints - they just put together a new high school in essentially 10 minutes. If the city wants to, they can make buildings accommodate more students. They have continually said that. They can also get rid of OOB automatic feeder patterns - Coolidge is majority OOB. [/quote]

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