Reply to Why Does Van Ness Elementary School Not Have a Boundary

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]also, the 400 units of public housing and any population growth from the market-rate units at CQ are still a little ways off.  DCPS should draw the boundaries in a way that fills Van Ness now, starting the school with younger grades only and adding a grade a year until it's PK-5th.  That probably means a boundary that extends into SW, with older kids still going to Amidon and some allowances for little kids to attend Amidon if they want to and they have a sibling there.  If the population in Capitol Riverfront gets big enough that Van Ness is overfull with in-boundary kids, they can do what DCPS has recently done at other schools (put up portables and/or expand the school) or redraw the boundary at that point.

But the idea that CQ is going to get to gerrymander a school that cuts out poor kids (even for a few years until more public housing is built in the area and the main VN proponents' kids just happen to be in middle school or in charters that start in 5th grade) is just unrealistic.  [/quote]

I don't think having a boundary of South Capitol Street to the West, The SE/SW Freeway to the North, and the Anacostia River to the South and East is gerrymandering the Van Ness Elementary School Boundary.  It makes a lot of sense to make that the boundary (take a look at the map).  [b]Also, take a look at the current boundary for Amidon-Bowen.   Its huge![/b][/quote]

All the more reason to shift some into Van Ness, don't you think?[/quote]

But isn't Amidon way underenrolled?  So no real need to shrink its boundary.[/quote]

By this logic, there is no real need to open Van Ness.[/quote]

Except, if you don't open a school that is acceptable to CQ families, you won't have any CQ families DC in DCPS elementary schools.  Which will change the nature of the city.  The residents of the new condos and apartments will be defined by what schooling is available to them.  And the people paying big bucks for housing aren't going to send their children to A-B.  Just ain't gonna happen.  Creating a 35% FARM school for these families is a net positive for DC's finances.  The extra real-estate taxes accruing on the extra priciness of these condos and the extra income taxes more than pays for the cost of a not yet full elementary school.

You can look at this as 'entitled' (yep, it is!) or as a trade-off (pay taxes, get services you value).  It is still a better deal for the city than not providing a school that high-SES city residents will use. [/quote]

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