Reply to Surplussing the old Hardy School

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Key has two classes of fifth graders of roughly 15 each.  The fifth grade that graduated last year sent two kids to Hardy.  What you have to keep in mind is that many families are bailing for charters, privates or the suburbs after third and fourth grade. This cohort was four classes of 25 when they were in kindergarten.  Of the 100 kids who entered kindergarten at Key in September 2007, 71 left key by September 2012 and two went on to Hardy.[/quote]

As others have implied -- at least with respect to overcrowded middle schools -- the elephant in the room is the current Hardy.  Feeder-school parents won't send their kids there, because academics aren't challenging enough.  But if all the in-boundary kids went, en masse, it would immediately become a primarily in-boundary shool (as opposed to its current majority OOB population), with the academic rigor the in-boundary families desire.  It sounds like a simple solution, but with DCPS fiddling with the current Hardy's boundaries right now, no once can make a decision until the boundary process is done.

Focusing solely on the overcrowded elementary school situation avoids any uncomfortable debate over demographics:  no one disagrees that Ward 3 elementaries can't handle the number of new students from the local population.  A new school where Lab currently sits would certainly help.  But there's another problem:  what would the new school's boundaries be?  There are already several DCPS elementaries in close proximity to Lab.  It would make more sense (with geography taken into account) to devote public funds to build more classroom space where those schools already exist.  Though there probably isn't a budget for that, either.  That's why the elementary principals are discussing adding more trailers to their campuses, and no one over at DCPS or the Council is doing anything to create a better solution because it's less headache for them.[/quote]

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