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[quote=Anonymous]Someone just posted this massive wall of text under a new thread. Preserving it here for us to pick apart in case the new thread is deleted:

“ Oct 29, 2021: The Saga of the $100M+ Foxhall and MacArthur Schools and neighborhood concerns (Part 1)

For more information see: http://savehardypark.com/

I am responding to posts on DCMoms about the recent article published at (https://foxhall.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/October-2021_FCCA_v5.pdf ). 
Our neighborhood is a relatively-small neighborhood, sandwiched between the Potomac River and Georgetown University (and Medstar Georgetown University Hospital). The neighborhood pretty much corresponds to DC Census Tract 8.02, so it is easy to find data on the demographics of the neighborhood. The 2020 Census reports the tract’s population as 3,327. (The Tract has 1,541 housing units—most units are apartments or row houses.) Median household income in the 2010 
Census was $‎89,712.5 (2020 Census data do not seem to be available yet).

According to my calculations using 2020 Census data, the racial composition of Census Tract 8.02 is: 65.5% Non-Hispanic white; 6.3% Non-Hispanic black; 11.6% Asian; 5.9% Non-Hispanic mixed race (2 or more races); 0.8% Non-Hispanic other races; 2% Hispanic white; and 7.9% Hispanic other (non-white and 2 or more races).

Most people in DC proper and in the greater DC metro area probably have never heard of this neighborhood, even though many people commute daily on its three main roads: MacArthur Blvd, Reservoir Rd, and Foxhall Rd. Earlier this year however, the neighborhood (hereafter referred to as the Lower-MacArthur-Foxhall (LMF) neighborhood) became more widely known for an unfortunate reason: A contentious proposal to locate two new public schools (1200+ students) at this particular location in Ward 3.

In early 2021, the DC government (specifically DCPS which is run by the Mayor’s office) created a working group to evaluate how to use two new public schools that it had funded ($100M+) in the budget passed during the summer of 2020. The two schools (called the Foxhall School and the MacArthur School) are to be located by a small stretch of Q street NW where it intersects with Foxhall Rd and MacArthur Blvd. One of the schools, the $56M Foxhall School, is slated to be built as a campus for 550 students next to an existing small DCPS-owned school (the Old Hardy School), which has been leased to the Lab School of Washington since 2008. This means that the 550-student campus will be built on our relatively small park (Hardy Park and Rec Center). The MacArthur School will be located roughly 500 yards away on the 5+ acre former Georgetown Day School (GDS) Lower-Middle school campus that the city purchased this past Spring (the $48M capital expenditure to buy the GDS campus was added to the budget in July 2020).

Material in the attached links to “community input” that DC obtained in the Spring of 2021 indicate the this is a complicated issue!!!!! 
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY-uiZCOfzs is the link to the May 17th, 2021 DCPS CWG listening session----only 2 commenters (and they live very close to Hardy Park) favored the 2-school plan. 
2. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IXrSwfJCOGWVUid_vwkr7-QqUYZGYDIM is the link to testimony submitted to the DCPS CWG 
The name of the PDF file is: Foxhall MacArthur Community Hearing Testimony as of 5.31.pdf. It is in the folder called: April Community Engagement. 
It includes statements of those who testified as well as of individuals who could not be at the May 17th 2021 listening session).

3. https://publicinput.com/Report/w0nlmef4kj2 is the link to the results of the Spring 2021 DCPS Community Survey on Foxhall and MacArthur Planning (I encourage you to expand the sections where you can read the comments in the DCPS survey---they are very enlightening!!!)

Importantly, many residents in the LMF neighborhood did not become aware of this two-school plan until the spring of 2021. At this time, we ( at least people who use the Listserv) saw Listserv posts asking city residents to fill out a DCPS survey about HOW the two schools should be used –NOT whether BOTH new public schools should be put at this particular location in Ward 3 (again see: https://publicinput.com/Report/w0nlmef4kj2).

Many residents in our neighborhood were surprised by the announcement that 1200+ students would be located in such a small area on the southwestern edge of Ward 3. As we have said many times, we are happy that the city will use the 5+acre $48M GDS campus (at Q street and MacArthur BLVD) as a much needed neighborhood public school. (We are not anti-public school!!!). The concern is about the issue of building a second large public school, 500 yards away on our small park.

Starting in the Spring of 2021, there have been numerous--often heated--exchanges about the plan (including long conversations on the Palisades Listserv).

One group of commenters appears to be very angry that the Mayor DID NOT want to use the Old Hardy School as part of the proposed Foxhall School. . They seem to believe (or just want to assert) that our neighborhood association, the Foxhall Community Citizens Association (FCCA), is to blame for the Mayor’s decision. (I am amazed that they think the Mayor would be swayed by such a small group of people. 😊)

Another group of commenters seem to be relatively unfamiliar with the whole complicated issue but react that any expenditures on public schools--no matter what they are for--must be “good”.

I am still trying to understand how the DC budget’s two-school, $100M+ capital expenditures came to be during the summer of 2020 —especially since it was a time when DC (the rest of the US and much of the world) was dealing with the economic, social, and health crises in the early months of the Coronavirus Pandemic. I have been scouring the DC govt website for everything I can find about the “process.”

On May 19th, 2020, Mayor Bowser and her staff presented her proposed FY 2021 budget to the DC Counsel. The Mayor and her staff were very clear that from day one—the plan for the Foxhall School was to build it next to the Old Hardy School and to continue to lease “Old Hardy.” to the Lab School. In July 2020, city officials added $48M to the budget to buy the GDS campus. Although the large $48M GDS campus could have been put forth as an alternative to building the $56M 550-student Foxhall School on Hardy Park, the Mayor and the DC Counsel have chosen to put two large schools in this particular location.

You can listen to Mary Cheh discussing the proposed Foxhall School with the Mayor’s staff at the May 19th, 2020 meeting at http://dc.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=4&clip_id=5444 . . The discussion starts at 1:43:05 into the 3:57:17 recording.

Mary Cheh originally seemed to have concerns about building a 550-student school next to the Old Hardy School (currently the Lab School lower-school campus). As recently as June 8th, 2021, CM Cheh expressed concern about building a school next to the Lab School (The Old Hardy School). The attached link includes a discussion that Mary Cheh had with Deputy Mayor Kihn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzquO91PqIs . The discussion starts at 4:22:50 (into the 8:39:18 recording).

However, since then, CM Cheh seems to have embraced the plan to build the 550-student Foxhall School on Hardy Park--next to the Lab School and so close to the new MacArthur School (500 yards away). Mary Cheh knows that our neighborhood is by a large margin opposed to putting a school on Hardy Park.

The article published in the October 2021 FCCA Newsletter lists reasonable questions related to the proposed Foxhall School. Many of us do not believe the statements made by Mary Cheh’s staff and do not see any actual analysis by the DC Government that would prove us wrong.

Many residents in my neighborhood believe that before proceeding with the two-school proposal, the Mayor and DCPS should conduct the quantitative analysis needed to assess the impact of building the 550-student Foxhall School on Hardy Park (and so close to the new MacArthur School). This expensive policy choice will affect our neighborhood, as well as the families of the students who will be redistricted to the two new schools. It also will affect the availability of funds for other DCPS projects. This seems like a sensible request. 
For more information see: http://savehardypark.com/ ”[/quote]

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