Reply to Which would lose their Deal feed first: Shepherd, Bancroft, or Lafayette?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Which would lose their Deal feed first: Shepherd, Bancroft, or Lafayette?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Maybe one option for a school like Shepherd Elementary where the neighborhood is not supplying enough elementary students to keep the school occupied (only 34% in-bounds) is to convert it to a PK-8 school.  The school infrastructure is already in place.  If DCPS sends in some middle school teachers, them Shepherd could use its extra building capacity to truly serve that neighborhood's population of students all the way through high school.  Could be implemented very quickly since the school and neighborhood infrastructure is already in place.

I know that's an outside-the-box idea, and people will probably hate it on principle.  But what's wrong with it?[/quote]

There are lots of young families moving in who are sending--or planning to send--their kids to Shepherd.  The last two years, PK3 has been all IB, and IB kids have been waitlisted each year.  They're adding a 2nd PK3 class next year to meet demand.  Given this, the above idea probably doesn't make sense.[/quote]

I don't understand your objection.  The PK3 class is tiny, so it's no big surprise the in-boundary population exceeds the 15 spots available.  But when you look at PK4 or K or any older grade, the number of in-boundary students drops way off, and all available spots get filled by OOB students.  Seems like the numbers would work out fine to reallocate some of those classrooms to middle school grades, and it would let the neighborhood children have a nearby option to continue their middle school experience.

Below are the current numbers in each grade.  Here is the link showing lottery results, so you can see in-boundary vs OOB applications - http://dcps.dc.gov/page/my-school-dc-lottery-results

Building Capacity 342
Total Enrollment 2015-16 330 
PK3 15 
PK4 36 
K 56 
1st 41 
2nd 43 
3rd 42 
4th 49 
5th 48

[/quote]

Sure, but I'm not talking about current numbers; I'm talking about future projections based on changing demographics in SP.  A lot of elderly neighbors are downsizing and selling their homes to young families with babies/toddlers, who seem more likely to opt for Shepherd than families in the neighborhood with older elementary kids. Based on the much higher IB% in younger cohorts, unless there's significant attrition, as they matriculate through Shepherd, the school will become increasingly IB.  It's the same pattern observed at many other schools (e.g., Hearst).  And because SP is zoned for Deal/Wilson currently, those families will likely be less likely to bail in the upper grades, as has been the case with many schools with less popular middle/high school feeder options.[/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