Reply to Grosso comes out against a stand alone middle school for Shaw

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This story points out many of the issues with schools in DC.

1) The school system needs to keep its mouth shut about schools getting new buildings until things are about to move.
Having been through the Bridges building debacle, the bait and switch and political fights around buildings could be avoided if this were treated as an administrative matter rather than a community decision.

2) Long range planning needs to happen, but it's hard in a city where major changes in students expected can happen at the drop of a hat.  Will my family move to Maryland?  Maybe.  But probably not.  DCPS has no idea if we should be part of their planning or not.  I don't either.

3)  Brookland Middle School is a case study in the reasons why throwing a ton of money at a middle school in  quickly gentrifying neighborhood does little to attract high SES parents.  There is no reason to expect a Shaw middle school would turn out differently than Brookland has so far.

4)  Banneker is a good school.  Resourcing them with a better building and/or location is a good idea.

5)  To exclude kids with 504s from test-in schools on the basis of a 504 alone is illegal and shouldn't be happening.  There should be objective criteria.  It's also short-sighted as having a 504 means the parents are clued in to their kids' needs and not in denial about them, in many cases.[/quote]

Brookland Middle was screwed over when DCPS gave it a principal without the right experience to know how to lead it.  With a better principal it will improve.  The active parents at the feeder schools don't yet have kids of age, but this will come in time.  Look at Stuart-Hobson, Eliot-Hine, and Jefferson.  All these same defeatist things were said as an excuse to not invest in the school.  But high-SES parents fought for better resources and now some are enrolling.  The same can happen at Brookland and Shaw if DCPS would stop making excuses.[/quote]

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