Reply to New DCPS school on former Georgetown Day site will be a high school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I appreciate the thoughtful piece by Frumin.  I might not agree with everything, but clearly he is a smart and knowledgeable person.  The piece is detailed and goes farther in outlining his position than many other candidates.  That is a plus in my book.[/quote]

As others have said, it’s the fact that he is so knowledgeable that makes what he is saying so disappointing. He knows full well that the alternatives he is proposing have been tried and were found to be unworkable [b](as if no one talked to LAB and asked them to explore taking over River![/b]). In proposing to cut the lion’s share of the OOB slots from MacArthur, he is pandering to base prejudice among those who oppose the school for entirely that reason. In refusing to call out falsehoods when they are presented to him, he is failing as a leader. If this is the kind of candidate that appeals to you, I really don’t know what more I can say to help you.[/quote]

What incentives were provided? I don't recall any. That is where leadership would come in. None of the other candidates are even trying. They are simply happy to let a bad scenario play out without trying to improve it.[/quote]

What incentives could be offered? Who would authorize those incentives? How would they be politically feasible? The River School property is vastly inferior in almost all respects to Old Hardy, for which LAB has as sweet a lease as they ever could have dreamt of. I can’t imagine what you would have to pay them to walk away from that and, even if I could, I can’t imagine how Bowser, White or whoever could put such incentives in a budget. The Old Hardy lease extension stinks to high heaven but it’s done and we have to live with it. Cheh tried her darndest to get the lease renewal cancelled and failed. And she would have done a deal with LAB to move them to River in a heartbeat had there been a sliver of hope of that happening. The notion that a Council newbie could somehow do it is fairy tale stuff, I’m sorry.[/quote]

You offer a generous buy-out of the city lease that would more than compensate for the move, plus renovations etc. The city needs the old Hardy site intact. It was stupid to extend the Lab lease. But the lobbyists got to the Mayor and the Council. It is really constraining the most sensible results. It seems that is what Frumin is suggesting, though I suppose someone should ask him.[/quote]

I would love nothing more than to see LAB vacate Old Hardy, but I have yet to see any feasible way this happens this decade. That is, I don’t think you’re thinking this through. First, that buy-out would need to be huge - tens of millions of dollars. Second, it would attract a lot of public attention. Third, Bowser (after she wins the election) putting that in a budget would be very public admission that she messed up very badly in renewing the lease. Fifth, why would a freshman councilor be able to talk Bowser (and LAB) into funding (accepting) a massive buy-out when a long-term council-member like Cheh couldn’t find a way to get Bowser to not renew the lease (a much less politically costly course of action). A buy-out becomes a bit more feasible if Robert White wins the election, but we are still talking fairy tales even then.[/quote]

One of Cheh's closest friends was a Lab School lobbiest. She had no incentive or interest in buying out Lab. The result of a second school literally next door to the first school is an epic failure of planning and imagination. How much did they spend on GDS? How much will they spend buidlng a new ES next to an existing school building? The money is fungible at this point. A better solution is worth waiting for if it is real.[/quote]

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