Reply to SWS - as an IB School? L-T prospects?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it's pretty obvious.  "Neighborhood preference" is just another way of saying inbounds.  (I realize that DCPS has "OOB with proximity" for the lottery, but if there is no IB option, like at SWS, then a proximity preference would essentially be IB.)  They don't want another IB school practically right next to Ludlow Taylor.  They are pouring a lot of money into LT to renovate it-- why would they then go ahead and undermine it by plopping another IB school next to it?  People get pissy enough when they don't get a spot in the PS/PK lottery-- you think folks are going to be happy when they are shut out of their quasi-inbounds school and have to go to the "less than" LT?

There is no upside for DCPS to make this an IB (or if you prefer, "neighborhood preference") school.  None.  [/quote]

If DCPS allows OOB with proximity preference at all other city schools [b](except CHM)[/b] why should this school be different?  I have OOB with proximity preference at Maury and it hasn't undermined  my IB school (Peabody). Proximity preference is much smaller than an IB catchment area and doesn't affect that many kids. [/quote]

There you go - the exception that probed the rule.  DCPS does [u]not[/u] have proximity preference for all other city schools.[/quote]

No. It very oddly does not give proximity preference at only two elementary schools, both in the same part of Capitol Hill.  The fact that the only two city-wide schools are located within blocks of each other is maddening to people who live across the street from these schools.  If there are other city-wide schools, please name then here because I am unaware of any other DCPS school that does not give neighborhood preference.  I do not understand why people on Capitol Hill are turning a blind eye to the outsourcing of their quality elementary schools when no other neighborhood in the city has stood for this kind of treatment at the hands of DCPS.  If all the sudden Murch or Janney became city-wide schools there would be holy hell unleashed by the residents of upper NW. [/quote]

The Montessori program was always a citywide program. It was co-located at Watkins until the move to the unused Logan building. The SWS program was a small, early elementary program co-located at Peabody with IB preference for Cluster families. Last year it moved to trailers at Logan, and next year it will be located in the Prospect building and will expand to 5th grade.

The comparison to Murch or Janney is ridiculous, since those are neighborhood elementary schools. Both the CHM and the SWS programs have expanded into space near your house, but you never had any rights to attend them. Like me, you purchased a house in the L-T catchment. Don't pretend that something has been taken away from us that we never had. The Cluster families are the only ones who have the right to complain; they've lost their IB access to SWS except through their sibling preferences.[/quote]

I am not pretending that something has been taken away from me.  What I am saying is that a new school is opening across the street from my house and I don't see why my child wouldn't have preference to attend it.  It is much closer to my house than LT and it is a better school.  Of course I want preference. I think that most people would advocate for preference at a good school in neighborhood. The real question is: why don't you want to? [/quote]

You are, in fact, pretending that something has been taken away from you when you claim that "people on Capitol Hill are turning a blind eye to the outsourcing of their quality elementary schools when no other neighborhood in the city has stood for this kind of treatment at the hands of DCPS." You are willfully misunderstanding the definition of a citywide program, and you are claiming that DCPS is opening a *new* school across the street from your house, which is not true. An existing program is being located there. I am quite certain that you were not interested in attending the existing program at Prospect, even though it is RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET!

I get it; you don't want to send your kid to L-T. You should lobby DCPS for it, and I'm sure you will. Just understand that others of us are not going to manufacture outrage on your behalf.[/quote]

Fair enough.  I am not actually outraged and would be fine sending my kid to LT  for PS and PK and playing the lotteries to get into a better DCPS/charter. And, I certainly don't expect others who wouldn't benefit to care if SWS gets neighborhood preference.  What I don't quite understand is why a neighbors who would benefit is against the idea.[b] DCPS could have chosen to locate the school anywhere.  But, having chosen a location across the street from my house, I don't see why I am less deserving[/b] and can see why I am, in fact, more deserving, of a seat, just like the people who lived IB for the Cluster were entitled to preference when the school was located close to their houses. [/quote]

You're suggesting that DCPS had a wealth of choices for this new program, when in fact it didn't.  They had to choose from among the facilities being closed, not spend an extra hundred million purchasing a city block, tearing down what's there, and building up a new school.  Prospect is/was a city-wide school in the first place.  It is being replaced with another city-wide school.  It has been in use, ergo it will not need massive renovations to even make it usable (unlike, say, JF Cook, which was awarded to Mundo Verde).  That makes a certain amount of sense.  DCPS is trying to rationalize its spending, capital investments, and programs.  Keeping SWS city-wide in a different facility, not far from its old location (there are current families to serve, after all) contributes to that plan.

What you want is a new and different plan, that serves your personal interests and those of a few dozen families in your immediate neighborhood, [i]and[/i] you want this new plan at the expense of DCPS and everyone else in the city.  Why are you surprised that no-one is jumping on your bandwagon?[/quote]

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