Reply to Shepherd ES to New North Middle School?

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Reply to "Shepherd ES to New North Middle School?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It would be great if the city would stop changing school boundaries when there are other options.[b] People buy homes at high prices to be IB for Deal and Wilson, and real estate is long term. We spent a lot of money (to us) to buy in boundary for Shepherd, Deal, and Wilson after the recent boundary change a few years ago. We specifically bought for Deal and Wilson.[/b] Yes, I understand that boundaries can change, but it's not reasonable to have an area IB for the good schools only for short periods. It's not stable.

I'd rather see feeder rights end for OOB students at schools that feed to Deal and Wilson, or at least changed to a preference in the lottery as opposed to a guarantee. These parents didn't ~$1M for the rights to these schools.

Shepherd is starting to get more in boundary kids, which is great for the school and the neighborhood community. Having a path for stronger schools all the way through 12th grade is part of that. Remove Shepherd from the Deal and Wilson feeder, and the desirability of Shepherd would decrease. People need a feeder pattern. That's why so many kids in all over the rest of the city go to charters schools - it's so they have a path after elementary.

[b]It's also distressing to hear that some Ward 3 parents are plotting to kick us out. I just received a notification from Deal for the gala and asking us to attend and/or donate. Now I feel like I don't want to give anything to benefit these families who don't want my kids there. My oldest is likely going there anyway, but we have younger kids who might not make a potential future cut off.[/b]

I do believe there are racial factors at play here with the Ward 3 parents. There's such an obvious and more fair solution to end feeder rights for OOB students attending feeder schools. Why are they fixating on the 2 IB schools that just happen to have a high percentage of brown kids?[/quote]

I also spent good money on a home IB for Wilson in 2012 and it got redistricted out. It sucked, but it's not a reason to leave boundaries alone forever. If Lafayette and Shepherd fed New North, New North would have pretty high PARCC scores. Ending OOB is a good idea as well, but it does make sense for Bancroft and Oyster to have the same feeder pattern as every other DCPS immersion school, and it does make sense for students at Shepherd to feed into a middle school that's 2 miles away instead of 4. [/quote]

Same but OOB at a Deal feeder. But then again, YOU don't want my kid at Deal any more than WOTP families want your kid there.[/quote]

To the 2nd PP: It's not a reason to leave boundaries alone forever, but there's an option to resolve the situation that doesn't require changing the boundaries. [b]The needs of families who buy IB should be more heavily weighted than OOB.[/b] Don't pretend that New North would hit the ground running. It takes years for schools to work out the kinks and become good schools, if that ever even happens. Deal and Wilson can handle the IB kids with boundaries as-is. Done. I don't see any reason to pursue kicking out Shepherd and Bancroft other than racism.

To the 3rd PP: I don't care if your kid goes to Deal if there's room. You didn't buy IB for these schools, so you shouldn't get preference over those who did.

None of this addresses the real issue which is the racism of Ward 3 parents trying to kick out schools with majority brown kids: Shepherd and Bancroft.[/quote]

DCPS had this choice in the last boundary reassignment and I had a one-on-one conversation with then DME Abigail Smith about it after one of the public forums. She flat-out said that they did not want to end OOB feeder rights because that affected kids all over the district who wouldn't be able to continue to destination middle and high schools with their kids, and they preferred solutions that changed boundaries and feeder patters. I'd like to think Bowser could feel differently than Gray about this, but I don't know. If I were a politician, I might be happy to have a single neighborhood mad at me versus a bunch of motivated (because they got their kids in OOB and trek them across the District each day) parents all over the city. [/quote]

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