Reply to Shepherd ES to New North Middle School?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I attended the meeting (which was public) and Mr. Alexander's reporting was accurate. O'Leary did not clearly say he was in favor of maintaining the feeder pattern. Todd's representative did, but this was after saying the exact opposite at other Ward CA meetings, so who knows where he will eventually come out on this - or if it even matters what he thinks. [/quote]

Towards the end of the meeting,[b] he said he would support SP/CV/NPE parents' choice to go to Deal. [/b]But since he was a teacher at Cordozo for years, he doesn't think other schools will fail to meet higher achieving students' needs. He represents all Ward 4 schools! He isn't going to say the other schools suck and we all need to go to Deal. It is really terrible when parents criticize other schools as not good enough for their kids in front of parents whose children are going to that school!![b] I really wish people would think about other parents and children when they tear other schools apart. It is one thing to do it here but in person it is something else to witness[/b].[/quote]

1) He literally has no say in the matter, any more than any other city resident does.

2) I strongly believe that people who have strong views on whatever side of an issue should have the courage to identify themselves and state their position publicly (in a polite manner, hopefully). It's cowardly to only be willing to discuss a contentious issue when you are only with those you know agree with you, or in an anonymous way (e.g. DCUM).[/quote]

This, especially #2. It's important to be clear about what you want and why. Some of these non-Shepherd Ward 4 parents are certainly making themselves heard regarding wanting us Shepherd folks to lose our in boundary rights to Deal and Wilson. We need to respond very directly to advocate for ourselves. If North and Coolidge parents don't want to hear why we don't want to go to their schools then they can stop advocating for us to do so.[/quote]

It might help if you picked better advocates for your cause, the ones speaking for you seem to be elitists with their own bigotries to overcome. Many of us grew up in the era of busing and school closures so to hear you self-proclaimed millionaires whine about your property values and having to mix with the dark-skinned hoi polloi across Georgia is pretty gross. School boundaries change. Your opinion is no more valid than anybody else's and people aren't jealous and envious of you - they just think ward 4 elementary schools should feed into ward 4 MS/HS. This a valid opinion for tax-payers and home-owners to have. [/quote]

Now you're making false allegations to further your own cause.
1) No one from Shepherd/CV/NPE said anything about not wanting "to mix with the dark-skinned hoi polloi across Georgia." This is your made up racist accusations.
2) Wanting better schools isn't bigoted. 
3) Concerns regarding property values is legitimate to bring to our elected officials, who should care about this as it impacts their constituents.
4) It's not reasonable to expect that those of you Ward 4 residents outside the Shepherd/Deal/Wilson boundary can provide their opinions on our fate but we can't provide our opinions on our own fate. Other Ward 4 residents can share any opinion they want for DC schools, but I sure as hell am going to share mine too.
5) Your history of dealing with busing and school closures does NOT mean that others shouldn't expect better for their children AND expecting more for our children isn't racist. I don't buy into your propagation of low expectations. We already have more for our children: Deal and Wilson. You're out of your mind to think we shouldn't fight to keep it.

[/quote]

1) No one said your opinion isn’t valid - just that’s not the only opinion;
2) [b]You need to do some research into the “Our Kind of People” vibe that has historically ruled on the Gold Coast and SP: literally whole books have been written about it.  Much of this not wanting to go to New North is code for not wanting to mix with the AA underclass. [/b]
3) Your bougie concerns about your property values is not more important than building quality MS/HS options in WRd 4; realtors can’t even mention feeder patterns. 
4; Your “propagation low expectations” is pretty ignorant and offensive. 
[/quote]

DP, but I'm guessing you aren't familiar with who's buying in SP these days, and you haven't seen the lower grades at Shepherd recently.  I'm black and live in SP with a young child and am not part of the J&J etc. scene.  However, I'm sorry to say the black elite is not the boogey man here.  [u]No one[/u], irrespective of race or class, wants to be zoned out of the highest performing non-application middle and high school in the city.  Full stop.  And it only gets SP neighbors ire up more when some Ward 3 folks apparently want to remove us from the feeder for racist reasons.  No ma'am, no one here will be rolling over and quietly giving up their Deal/Wilson rights.[/quote]

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