Reply to Ward 3 - Wilson feeders meeting last night: did anyone attend?

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[quote=Anonymous]This week's article from the Current newspaper about Wilson overcrowding - https://currentnewspapers.com/efforts-to-fight-overcrowding-in-ward-3-schools-inch-forward/

Contains some interesting tidbits of info.  I couldn't resist inserting a few comments.
[quote]By this fall, projected enrollment will exceed building capacity in all of the ward’s public elementary, middle and high schools except for Hearst Elementary, which will be overfilled by fall 2020 at the latest. [u]Class sizes have ballooned, and parents report that some Ward 3 schools have resorted to using stairwells as classroom space and closets as offices.[/u] ...

Council member Mary Cheh, who included $550,000 in the city’s fiscal year 2018 budget that will allow the D.C. auditor to [u]study the city’s process for making enrollment projections[/u]. ... [i][Do we really need to "study the process" any more? How long must we admire the problem before we can start fixing it?][/i]

Deputy Mayor for Education Jennie Niles: “It seems like it hasn’t been fast enough by a long shot. [u]But we’re really mobilized now[/u],” Niles said. “I can’t quite speak to everything that’s happened in the past. [u]We are looking at this with priority, with certainty.[/u] We’re committed to figuring this out. And we know that we have to figure it out.” Although Niles made no specific promises at the meeting, she said the school system’s new master facilities plan, planned for release next spring, will provide more concrete guidance on these issues.  [i][I like Niles, but this smells like politician pablum for "We have no idea what to do" or perhaps "I haven't been been read into that program yet."][/i] ... Niles acknowledged that officials need to explore a range of ideas, including commissioning existing buildings as public school space or even constructing new schools. But she said it would be[u] irresponsible to promise action on any of those solutions at this point[/u]. “[u]There’s still more data that I need[/u] to be able to have the city leaders look at for us to say that we’re definitely building new schools,” Niles said.  [i][How does this square with saying you're "really mobilized now"?][/i]

Mayor Muriel Bowser mentioned [u]a goal to reduce the student population at Wilson High in Tenleytown by 40 students total over the next few years[/u].  [i][Not really JFK calling for a moonshot, are you Muriel?][/i]

... [u]budget cuts[/u] have cost the high school [u]30 staff members[/u] over the last few years ...

Wilson is projected to be [u]45 students over capacity this fall despite a $105 million renovation and expansion[/u] that opened in 2011. ...

“Nobody at Wilson was aware that there’s a plan to shrink it.  That is not a great job on community engagement.”

In an interview, Council member Cheh floated the possibility of [u]using the trailer network[/u] constructed for the Lafayette Elementary modernization — later re-used during Murch’s renovation and installed on the university’s campus — [u]as permanent school space[/u].  [/quote]
Also, here is the link for the community survey on Wilson feeder issues, in case you'd like to tell DCPS what parents from the Wilson feeders think about this process and some of the proposed solutions - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ipTNuOvk5_t4UrFuY...8/viewform?edit_requested=true[/quote]

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