Reply to Ward 2/3 High School proposal in the NW Current

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Is it just me, or are people on DCUM very imprecise about option 2b, above? For example, given that the Deal boundary extends EOTP, why would you assume that shrinking the Wilson boundaries means it becomes exclusively WOTP?

The DME and committee, in contrast, are precise (see Policy Option B).

The real work on this issue is not done at the very big picture level like the PP and most posters on this thread (full credit for taking it seriously, though).

The real work is in tweaking Policy Option B as needed, in a very detailed way. [i]For example, DME Smith reportedly said at the Hardy meeting (I was not there - see other thread) that if the Wilson boundaries were shrunk [b]only as far as the current Hardy and Deal boundaries,[/b] this would likely solve the current overcrowding issue. 
[/i]
just to be clear (precise) that means:

1) Wilson boundaries shrunk to Deal and Hardy, which means that no-one currently IB gets cut out of Deal or Hardy and the only families cut from Wilson are those that aren't IB for Deal or Hardy - for example Southwest. 
2) OOB students can stay if they want, now and forever, so long as the schools in question (ES, MS, HS) are still accepting OOB. Currently enrolled OOB students stay and follow the feeder patterns. 
3) anticipating the time in the future when none of the ESs or MSs in this pyramid, or Wilson, will be accepting OOB naturally because they all have a lot of IB interest, have a 10-20% set-aside to ensure that they always take some OOB. This is now necessary at Janney, for example, but isn't yet necessary at Hearst, Murch or Hardy, for example.

The result will be a short-term crowding as all the OOB work their way through. IB will slowly replace OOB, up to the limit of the set-aside. No one gets zoned to a worse MS. Some people may get zoned from Wilson to a worse HS, but, just possibly, these are not people who were really planning on Wilson anyway, with some exceptions. (that is to say, how many people IB for Wilson but not IB for Deal or Hardy are planning on Wilson?)

In the meantime, lots of time to gradually build up schools for the OOB families that will gradually be replaced by IB at the above pyramid.

Emphasis on "gradually".

Does this sound like a reasonable way to go?

[/quote]

If the DME said that, the DME was wrong.

Here's the problem: DCPS policy is that if a school has capacity beyond the number of IB students it has to accept OOB students. The capacity of the schools that feed Deal, per grade, is greater than the capacity of Deal, per grade (although it's getting closer with the expansion of Deal). Similarly, the capacity of Deal and Hardy, per grade, is greater than the capacity of Wilson per grade.

You can't solve crowding at Deal by reducing its boundaries. Nobody is getting in as an OOB student at sixth grade, they're all coming in through the feeders. The only way to reduce the number of kids who have the right to attend is by either shrinking the capacity of the feeder schools, or reducing the number of feeder schools. If you shrunk the boundaries of the feeders it would mean the same number of kids, just more of them would be OOB.

Same deal with Wilson. [/quote]

At the same time you narrow the Wilson/Deal/Hardy boundaries, you could put a soft cap on the enrollment at Deal, Wilson, and Hardy (including the feeder schools) to be exceeded only to accommodate neighborhood students who have a right to attend there.  To the extent there is capacity less than the soft cap, OOB kids could enroll.  But if the soft cap is low enough at each of the feeder schools, there would not be an overcrowding problem within a few years.  Unless new 2/3 BR condos are built in the neighborhoods -- but that's another topic.[/quote]

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