Reply to does anyone else find the social scene at Janney hard to take?

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Reply to "does anyone else find the social scene at Janney hard to take?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
While I certainly appreciate and agree with the sentiment that proximity should be a highly prioritized factor in school boundaries, the reality of the current situation in upper northwest is we have 3 public elementary schools which are very, very close to each other.  We already have a situation where some families live closer to one school but are zoned for another but the difference in distances we're talking about for a number of homes (not all certainly) are really quite marginal.

But back to the issue of 3 very closely positioned schools -  Two of those schools - Janney, Murch - have geographically large boundaries and a high participation rate by neighborhood students.  One - Hearst - has a relatively very small geographic boundary and low participation rate by neighborhood students.  It simply seems illogical to me NOT to adjust the boundaries to more evenly distribute neighborhood kids among the 3 schools in the neighborhood.  I truly don't understand how anyone can provide a rational argument not to support greater neighborhood participation at Hearst when you consider the neighborhood/system as a whole and not just on a school by school basis.

I could NEVER support a proposal for DCPS to spend another cent on a new school building in upper NW DC until all existing schools in upper NW DC including Hearst see equivalent neighborhood participation.

As a note in response to the PP comment about 'how at-risk kids will get to WOTP schools', I'd offer in general "where there's a will there's a way', and more specifically that Janney in particular is about 100 yards from a public bus stop and perhaps more relevantly the metro.  Of all Ward 3 schools it is arguably the best logistically suited for OOB at risk students to get to given WMATA's provision for kids to ride free to school.    [/quote]

The Hearst zone includes many of the best private schools in the city and people live in the neighborhood to be close to their preferred private schools. The latest version of the proposal actually decreases a part of the Hearst boundary to have it go to Murch (surprisingly it is the portion of the neighborhood farther away from Murch). The proposal is strange and likely politically motivated, someone in the current Hearst boundary wants out fast. There are a handful of Hearst parents who want to force current Murch families into the school, but the reality is that would be really happy to get low-income kids out. Schools have reputations. Hearst is not JKLMM it is an alternative for OOB kids, EOTP, and apartment dwellers in Hearst. There is just too much neighborhood competition from JKLMM, privates and now increasingly charters. Yu Ying and others run tranport service from Tenleytown.

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