Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Francis Stevens was NOT on the list of schools receiving a renovation, according to the list published in the WaPo recently.

The building was updated about 6 years ago. There are many schools in far worse condition that could use modernization.

Like Garrison.

First, the list in the Post was not a list of all schools scheduled for modernization. It was merely a list of those schools for which funds for the current year were shifted. I haven't been inside Francis-Stevens and can't begin to evaluate their need for renovation, but I shouldn't have to and neither should anyone else on this board. That is the job of DCPS and DGS. The real issue is whether they are doing that job.

I now apologize to the OP and Francis-Stevens for derailing this thread, but I can't hold my tongue anymore. I would love it if people - especially the media and the politicians - stopped focusing on the loudest school and started really trying to analyze the need everywhere. Because no matter what you read here or hear just about everywhere, there are needs other than Garrison. Yet every renovation discussion comes around to them. They are running a very effective campaign, and will likely get all they wanted. And I understand that the PTA and community have done what they think is necessary, have been successful, and weren't the first to do it. So I don't blame them. But I do hope all the people fighting for the school (many of whom don't send their kids to Garrison from what I can tell) can realize and acknowledge that there are in fact lots of kids that go to school in far worse physical structures to learn in than Garrison's structure. There are schools that are older and have waited longer, though perhaps more quietly. To their credit, the Garrison PTA recently acknowledged on these boards that the system for how decisions are made is extremely flawed, but I hope it has not been fully broken. Right now it is assumed that a school must run a big campaign just to ensure that the most basic physical needs of kids are met. That is not the right way for decisions to be made. I honestly hope the city can demonstrate they are making smart, evidence-based choices so that the system can somehow be repaired.

It seems true that schools who run big campaigns get what they want. That's how FS stayed open and merged with SWW. Don't kid yourself and think that DCPS would analyze needs and then work off that information.

Anonymous wrote:Francis Stevens was NOT on the list of schools receiving a renovation, according to the list published in the WaPo recently.

The building was updated about 6 years ago. There are many schools in far worse condition that could use modernization.

Like Garrison.

Anonymous wrote:It's a tiny MS and has limited offerings. I think the enrollment goal is 50 a grade- 150 total. Hard to have lots of sports, plays etc with a small MS population. The k-8 formula makes it's difficult to have enough $ for MS. Deal might receive less $ per student( I don't know if that's true) but with 1200 students it's a big budget and the school can offer a lot.

Anonymous wrote:At the open house I went to, the principal suggested that they enough under-capacity that the renovation can take place in one part of the building while they occupy other portions of it. Indeed, he said that they would not be taking as many students as they could (though enrollment would rise) for precisely that reason.