Reply to Question for Supporters of New WotP High School

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Why would Roosevelt turn out any differently than Eastern?[/quote]

Roosevelt would be different because two things have changed pretty dramatically in the last few years.  They are 1) the demographics, and 2) the housing and school options available to families.

A LOT of young couples bought homes EOTP in the last 5-7 years, before they had kids, and they're still here.  More are coming. When the DC USA shopping mall, Giant grocery store and 11th Street corridor of restaurants opened back in 2007, you had an influx of buyers who sent housing prices way up.  That phenomenon is pushing its way up the path of the green and yellow Metro line.  If you've got a HHI around $150K and you're looking for a starter home on a tree-lined street, the smart housing investment right now is in walking distance of the Petworth Metro station, just a few blocks from MacFarland MS and Roosevelt High.

The same is happening along the H street corridor in NE.  Couples are buying their homes in areas they previously would not have been caught in dead or alive, and they're making their decisions before they've had kids or even thought about the school situation.

The economic development is not slowing down.  I'm looking at a house across the street from mine in Petworth.  Two months ago it was a run-down shell that had been empty for more than a decade.  Now it's been renovated and will go on the market shortly for about $870k.  Who's buying homes at that price point?  High SES families who have young kids or will have them soon.

So we've also made conscientious home-buying decisions, and we want to stay in them.  The decision now that we have school-aged children is, do we sell and move WOTP to add to the overcrowding there, or do we stay and invest in the continually-rising schools over here?

The answer to that is positive at the elementary school level, but it gets murky when we think about MS.  If DCPS wants to hold on to higher SES families EOTP, they have to grab them NOW while they're making decisions about PK. And then they have to keep them by assuring that there's something to look forward to at MS and HS.  They're already telling us that Deal/Wilson ain't it, so they have to convince us that somrthing else here in our back yard is something we can count in ten years out.

From what I've heard, this was the same scenario in Ward 3 less than ten years ago.  People invested in the neighborhoods, but they needed to be convinced to invest in the schools.  So the same can be done over here.  I believe it.[/quote]

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