Reply to Bowser’s first community outreach mtg since re-election: education focused

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Bowser's idea to create a new "Western" high school isn't a bad one.  It would relieve the existing pressure on Wilson immediately (with room to grow), and maybe send the Hardy and SWW-FS kids to the new Western.  Don't know of an existing building big enough to house it, though.[/quote]

I'm the OP of this thread:
the old Western HS actually has a large athletic field just one block away that was used for Western's sports teams. Duke Ellington doesn't have any sports teams, so it's now used as a community sports fields, walking track, and Duke Ellington marching band uses it for practice. However, the sizable piece of land is still owned by DCPS. It's the size of two city blocks and way under-used: https://goo.gl/maps/cAbhLv8ktN32

[/quote]

There's no way that spot would work for a new HS -- Reservoir road is already packed to the gills with Georgetown Hospital traffic.  Maybe build an addition on the field behind SWW-Francis Stevens would work, imo.  Basically the entire problem is caused by the geographical region for Wilson being far too big.  It's not coincidental at all that Ellington occupies the same real estate as the old Western High School.  When you look at the feeder map for Wilson, you can see it makes complete sense that a Western high school at Ellington's location would take up the lower half of the map that now feeds to Wilson.  The region's just too big and needs to be cut in half with a new Western HS to take the students it used to take.[/quote]

I live in Burleith and would agree with that logic. However, I have no idea where there would be enough space to have another HS. The ship already sailed with Duke Ellington. The space behind SWW-FS is tiny, plus I think much of that land may be part of the Park Service.

The old Western track is a large lot - easily 30% larger than Duke Ellington's current lot. People will deal with traffic. Honestly, I can't think of another location for a Ward 2 high school that doesn't involve buying a very expensive existing building. It's already owned by DCPS and is shovel-ready.[/quote]

Hardly any kids from Ward 2 go to a DCPS high school, and this is the main reason the very old call to have a ward 2 high school has not gotten any traction.  Jack Evans, W2 CM,  has gone on about his for years to no avail. Moreover, to argue in terms of Wards is not the most strategic, because this is not how DCPS thinks or plans. [/quote]

Whatever you have to do to relieve overcrowding at Wilson, I don't care how you phrase the means.  Cutting the current feeder pattern from EOTP schools to Wilson seems politically untenable (albeit the MOST logical way), so slicing it in half, starting at the "Ward 2" line ("Whitehaven" street, appropriately named imo) to the south, would seem to be the only other logical alternative.  Call them Ward 2 students or not, you've gotta move them if you can't move the EOTP feeders.  I guess plopping a charter HS WOTP would be another way to do it, but how politically untenable is that.  The whole thing's a mess.[/quote]

See the current thread on moving Oyster Adams Middle school feed to McFarland as a part of a solution. [/quote]

That wouldn't make much of a difference.  Wilson is overcrowded by hundreds.  [/quote]

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