Reply to Any significant chance of Murch boundaries changing in the next couple of years?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The parking lot will be replaced by more trailers next month. That part will be built on for sure, but it won't be enough. All building (and parking) options are being explored. The amount of extra square footage needed by code for 700-800 elementary students is pretty staggering.

The CCCC is a good idea - it was a DCPS school before it became the community center. And DCPS has several schools that dual function as community centers (like Stoddert).

btw- the CBA language on parking is "if possible," with agreement to "explore other options." But teacher parking is important.[/quote]

The entitlement of and misinformation offered by Murch parents (also, Janney) is always vaguely amusing, yet a touch offensive.

The national park service isn't going to give you national park land -- held in trust for all Americans, per federal law -- for your dream school.  And, the greater CCDC community isn't going to hand over its heavily used community center for a stand alone center to (non-compulsory) early childhood education.  CM Cheh can't make this one go through the hurdles it would face.

The CC community center, built in the 1960's - 1970, was never a dcps school.  An early 1900s school  at Chevy chase circle was demolished at some point prior, though.  There are zero community centers in nwdc that were taken away from broader community  use and turned into schools. Sometimes the two types of buildings coexist on the same piece of city-owned land (stoddert; Hearst rec center / former hardy MS). 
[/quote]

There is nothing wrong with brainstorming ideas. It is OK for you to not like them, but no one suggested any entitlement here.

Discussions between DGS and NPS are in progress regarding building and egress restrictions for the NPS land [b]already swapped[/b] with DC, which Murch has been using since the school opened. There are two odd points about that long-ago swap that are causing feasibility issues for the renovation on Murch's current lot -- no one is talking about a grant of new park land currently being used by the nation's public. I won't criticize you for being uninformed about this because it is hard to find this information if you are not at Murch or involved in these issues. The issue about school size depends on whether or not DC and NPS can resolve those issues. Reasonable people are having reasonable discussions about it.

As for the community center, first, the comment was that dual purpose facilities are not unprecedented. This is true. Second:  "The Chevy Chase School, located on land now occupied by the Chevy Chase Community Center and the Chevy Chase Library, on Connecticut Avenue between McKinley and Northampton Streets, was renamed for Elizabeth Virginia Brown in 1915." .... "The number of students continued to increase and portable buildings were erected: one in 1921, one in 1925, one in 1926, five in 1928, and one in 1929. To ease the pressure of overcrowding, in 1928
attendance was restricted to D.C. residents. The Chevy Chase Citizens Association asked Congress to build more schools. By 1929 portable buildings covered the entire playground: there were 300 children in portable buildings and 960 in the school’s 16 rooms, which had a capacity of 640, forty to a classroom. Portable buildings were also constructed in 1928 at Connecticut Avenue and Grant Road, now the site of the Murch School. In the same year, two portable buildings were built at Northampton Street and Broad Branch Road, now the site of the Lafayette Elementary School. As a last resort, schools were placed on half-day sessions to accommodate the large number of students." .... "Enrollment at the E.V. Brown school decreased rapidly after the new schools opened. The school was closed in 1942, and the building was used by the Office of Price Administration during World War II. After the war, the citizens succeeded in obtaining the building for a community center and the Chevy Chase Branch Library. In 1968 the building was torn down and replaced by the present library building and adjoining community center."  http://www.chevychasecitizens.org/100YearHistory/ccca_history.pdf

So today's parents, faced with similar crowding issues, are looking for solutions -- there is no sense of entitlement, just a lot of discussion and creative problem-solving through proper channels. I don't see how that is offensive.[/quote]

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