Reply to DC Auditor Report on Duke Ellington

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm an Ellington parent, middle class, EOTP.  Our HS options were abysmal and Ellington is doing great things for my DC.  Also I see the population they are working with and realize that they are "saving" many many kids.  As an example, LGBTQ kids have a safe haven there with the arts program-- Cardozo boys have targeted Ellington boys all year in both swing space locations.  The other day four Cardozo males chased an Ellington male student into the school, with a knife, because the boys are perceived as gay due to the arts program.  A teacher stood between the Ellington student and the Cardozo students.  With a stick.  Police intervened.

In other news, the ceiling has fallen in at the swing space arts building (Garnet Patterson) and all arts programming there is done for the year.  The kids' instruments, art projects, etc. are all locked inside this literal disaster area-- senior instrumental students did not have a performance at their senior awards dinner because instruments were not available.

The graduation rate is actually in the high 90s and almost all kids go on to a four-year institution.  Not every kid is Denyce Graves or Dave Chappelle, but after four years of taking ten classes every semester they are prepared for post-high school life and well-rounded.  BTW, their are 550 students and the three kids I know who live outside the district are from Baltimore, McLean and Hyattsville.  All of their parents definitely pay tuition.   The new building can accommodate more students-- I think the target is something like 650.

Once the building is finished they plan on using it to the maximum extent possible-- opening it to the public for weekend and night classes and programs.  They will partner with other schools and arts programs and community organizations.  Which is why neighbors insisted on underground parking.

The arts are not just an afterthought here-- the kids are in a pre-professional arts setting.  This is not the same as "band" at Wilson, or "ceramics" at Walls.  They are learning techniques that they would learn in a conservatory or professional arts school.  The building should have appropriate studio and rehearsal space.  They really wanted a black box theatre, which is appropriate for an exceptional theatre arts program.

I agree with the poster who stated that DC is apparently renovating all the high schools with exorbitant price tags... not just Ellington.  If you have driven by the renovated Roosevelt building you will see a gigantic building that was crazy expensive to renovate... but there's NO academic success there.  Abysmal graduation rates, low academics, etc.  At least at Ellington they successfully educate 550 kids each year (and despite what PPs have written, the vast majority are from DC) and send almost all seniors to colleges or conservatories.

I understand why Ellington's parents and faculty wanted to return to R street-- they had been in a non-renovated shabby old building for 40 years. Peeling paint, faded torn carpets, old dark studios in the basement, warped flooring, old tattered auditorium.  Finally they get a renovation... and suddenly developers and Georgetown residents want the building back.  The location isn't great for my family but I do understand it.

If you read the auditor's report, the price tag and cost explosion is solely on DGS and DCPS, not the Ellington board or community.  All the calls for criminal investigations and slandering the school's mission, students and staff and board, sounds very condescending and quite frankly racist. [/quote]

Your trashing of Roosevelt, which is not a selective high school and serves a far more challenging population sounds very condescending and classist, if not racist.  At least Roosevelt has accountability through elected officials.

But hey, I'll throw you a bone.  You have changed my position:
I now denounce our Mayor(s) and Council for ridiculous and wasteful spending on [b]all[/b] of our high schools, to the detriment of the rest of the schools that have not yet been renovated.

Happy now?[/quote]

+1.

What's the history with Roosevelt's renovation? Has it also gone $100 million over budget?[/quote]

I don't know the initial budget, but I think it was also expensive - over $100 million total.[/quote]

Total cost: $136 million, to accommodate 1,100 students
http://www.petworthnews.org/blog/new-roosevelt-long-overdue-renovation

Incidentally, 99% of the people in the pics appear to the black. Perhaps the Roosevelt-trashing DE parent is the most condescending and racist person in this thread?[/quote]

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