Anonymous
Post 01/31/2017 05:52     Subject: Re:Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Far too many families are dashing around the city to reach charters many miles from home to make drop-off and pick-up, contributing to traffic snarls, particularly in Ward 5. Proximity preference would be good for the environment, and give a leg-up to parent associations. When families live near schools, parents are more likely to get involved in parent associations than not. Strong PAs and PTAs make for better schools. The best schools in the city below the HS level are all neighborhood schools. Moreover, proximity preference for charters would put pressure on DCPS to clean up its act. Bring on proximity preference, though I can't see many charters embracing it.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2017 01:21     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read entire post. Is there a petition or something the public can do to show opposition to this?


How can you really oppose if you don't read the entire thread? Did you even read the article? What, specifically, are your concerns?


Proximity preference violates the entire premise of citywide schools. There are few enough seats after sibling preference.


This is the real problem. There aren't enough seats at schools that people want to attend. If there were, it would be perfectly reasonable to encourage people to attend school closer to where they live.

The whole lottery system is about managing scarcity rather than eliminating scarcity.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2017 01:16     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read entire post. Is there a petition or something the public can do to show opposition to this?


How can you really oppose if you don't read the entire thread? Did you even read the article? What, specifically, are your concerns?


Proximity preference violates the entire premise of citywide schools. There are few enough seats after sibling preference.


+1. I hope most schools say no to this.


There are many situations where it actually works and makes sense for all. Especially if you're talking about a charter taking over an old building where so many kids were displaced. You can always petition individual schools not to opt in, but some should be allowed to.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 20:53     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
My house would fall in that sweet spot of being .6 miles to my local dcps and under .5 to LAMB. Too bad my kid will be in 2nd grade by then. ? I should put my house up in a year on that make me an offer/move from zillow.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 19:33     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read entire post. Is there a petition or something the public can do to show opposition to this?


How can you really oppose if you don't read the entire thread? Did you even read the article? What, specifically, are your concerns?


Proximity preference violates the entire premise of citywide schools. There are few enough seats after sibling preference.


+1. I hope most schools say no to this.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 19:29     Subject: Re:Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:I live in Ward 4 and there are five charters within .5 mile from my house. The closest DCPS school (my inbound school) is over a mile away.

I am very much in favor of this. The amount of traffic generated by parents driving their children to school is ridiculous.


You might be in favor of it, but if the HRCS doesn't want your kid your not getting in. It's at the schools prerogative so how neighborly is that????
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 18:29     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read entire post. Is there a petition or something the public can do to show opposition to this?


How can you really oppose if you don't read the entire thread? Did you even read the article? What, specifically, are your concerns?


Proximity preference violates the entire premise of citywide schools. There are few enough seats after sibling preference.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 18:18     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I just did a quick mapping of Ward 3 (this tool is recommended: http://obeattie.github.io/gmaps-radius/?lat=38.924386&lng=-77.058519&z=13&u=mi&r=0.5 )

Spring Valley, AU Park, Friendship Heights, Foxhall Village and Burleith are all areas that don't have a DCPS elementary school within half a mile. What do you think will happen when someone tries to put an elementary charter there with neighborhood preference?


Presumably, someone so nefarious would have a better understanding of available real estate than you seem to.


Incredibly unlikely the DCPCSB would approve a school planning to locate in Ward 3.
Why not? A new Ward 3 elementary school would help solve the current overcrowding issue.


NP here, so why hasn't a Charter school found a location in Ward 3? I recall Shinning Stars (or another charter) looking at an office building, but it fell through.


First, Ward 3 is very expensive and it would be hard for a school to make ends meet and pay that much in rent.

To get a charter approved these days, schools emphasize and discuss their commitment to serving all students, especially those who have no access to quality schools and articulate their likely location. They have to do at least a cursory market analysis and show that there is a need for a higher quality option where they want to locate.

You can't talk about your commitment to serving disadvantaged, underserved and/or at risk students in DC and at the same time indicate you will set up shop in Ward 3. It doesn't pass the laugh test.

Re Wash Latin, when it first opened, it was chartered by the now-defunct DC School Board. Times have changed since them.



Ward 3 doesn't have any dual-language options. They can't just ask for that without the political language of serving disadvantaged, underserved and/or at risk students in DC.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 18:13     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read entire post. Is there a petition or something the public can do to show opposition to this?


How can you really oppose if you don't read the entire thread? Did you even read the article? What, specifically, are your concerns?
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 17:33     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read entire post. Is there a petition or something the public can do to show opposition to this?


Call or write your council member.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 17:09     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Don't have time to read entire post. Is there a petition or something the public can do to show opposition to this?
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 17:08     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Council better not approve this! That's what has made charters work in this city- the lottery! It is fair and open to everybody! Really crazy idea.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 16:42     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Folks - it's not a done deal yet. Council must approve.

Grosso, per WAMU, expressing concerns.

https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/826172136041672704


Looks like Grosso (or his staffer) is reading up on DCUM. HI!


Haha. This has been rolling on Twitter all day. My first visit to DCUM in 48 hours.

If you really want to participate - and get direct attention of Mayor and CM's - and find like-minded people then that is the arena you should be playing. People go on the record under their own names, as opposed to talking to other parents and paid trolls and lobbyists from DCPS and PCSB.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 16:37     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:The District shouldn't allow charter schools to proliferate near existing traditional schools. That's part of the problem. Residents are told that their neighborhood school needs to close because there are not enough children the neighborhood or that the school building is in need of repair and then a charter school opens up. Charter schools are all right but neighborhood schools need to be made more desirable. Forget the high SES, race, and FARM stuff and make all traditional schools good, diverse, and competitive and that offer foreign language classes (not immersion), physical education, art, and music, too, as part of the standard curriculum.

But still, the mayor's proposal makes sense.


You are the one who's not making sense. Charter schools don't harm traditional schools by being "near" traditional schools, unless the mayor makes a neighborhood preference like she has suggested. You are supporting something that actually would undermine the neighborhood school.
Anonymous
Post 01/30/2017 16:36     Subject: Proximity Preference 0.5 mile for charters
Anonymous wrote:The District shouldn't allow charter schools to proliferate near existing traditional schools. That's part of the problem. Residents are told that their neighborhood school needs to close because there are not enough children the neighborhood or that the school building is in need of repair and then a charter school opens up. Charter schools are all right but neighborhood schools need to be made more desirable. Forget the high SES, race, and FARM stuff and make all traditional schools good, diverse, and competitive and that offer foreign language classes (not immersion), physical education, art, and music, too, as part of the standard curriculum.

But still, the mayor's proposal makes sense.


It's not that there aren't enough children in the neighborhood, it's because there aren't enough children in the neighborhood that are opting to attend that school. That is why the schools were closing.