Parents who do not send their kids to Hardy won't send their kids to the NW charter middle school either. Charters won't have neighborhood preferences. The lottery mechanism will skew the school student body towards a larger OOB population more than Hardy's. Applications from OOB will be huge, due to parents perception of NW as a safer area. The final result will be just an additional traffic source for an area of the city already badly affected by school-induced traffic from nearby areas and from Virginia and Maryland dropping their kids to the DC private schools.

This is just political propaganda by Stephanie Lilley, Ward 3 candidate to the School Board of Education, and strong proponent of the privatization and charterisation of the DC school system. Good luck with her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the status of a WOTP charter middle school proposal?

The status is "pipe dream." There is no real plan for one, nor is there a need.

Not only is it unneeded, it will do nothing. There will be no proximity preference, so expect it to mirror the demographics of other charters (the horror). Hardy is the solution. Period.

Latin, DCI, or Basis if you're lucky. Hardy if you're not.

Sorry, but folks don't view being moved from a high performing school and sent down to a lower performing school to be a "solution."

Deal is the best performing neighborhood MS in the District, and its overcrowded. So somebody is going to get "sent down" to a lower performing school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the status of a WOTP charter middle school proposal?

The status is "pipe dream." There is no real plan for one, nor is there a need.

Not only is it unneeded, it will do nothing. There will be no proximity preference, so expect it to mirror the demographics of other charters (the horror). Hardy is the solution. Period.

It is needed because Deal MS is overcrowded and Upper NW families dont view Hardy as an acceptable alternative. Blunt but true.

bu they don't like Hardy mostly because of its small IB percentage, and any charter will likely have as many OOB kids. Who may not be better prepared then the OOB kids at the Hardy feeders that have been discussed above. So its not clear that it would be any more adequate as a substitute for Deal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the status of a WOTP charter middle school proposal?

The status is "pipe dream." There is no real plan for one, nor is there a need.

Not only is it unneeded, it will do nothing. There will be no proximity preference, so expect it to mirror the demographics of other charters (the horror). Hardy is the solution. Period.

It is needed because Deal MS is overcrowded and Upper NW families dont view Hardy as an acceptable alternative. Blunt but true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the status of a WOTP charter middle school proposal?

The status is "pipe dream." There is no real plan for one, nor is there a need.

Not only is it unneeded, it will do nothing. There will be no proximity preference, so expect it to mirror the demographics of other charters (the horror). Hardy is the solution. Period.

Latin, DCI, or Basis if you're lucky. Hardy if you're not.

Sorry, but folks don't view being moved from a high performing school and sent down to a lower performing school to be a "solution."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the status of a WOTP charter middle school proposal?

The status is "pipe dream." There is no real plan for one, nor is there a need.

Clearly there is a need when Hardy's current constituency knows that Hardy is better than just about every other option they have, yet Hardy's surrounding community (IB zone) considere it inferior.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the status of a WOTP charter middle school proposal?

The status is "pipe dream." There is no real plan for one, nor is there a need.

Not only is it unneeded, it will do nothing. There will be no proximity preference, so expect it to mirror the demographics of other charters (the horror). Hardy is the solution. Period.

Latin, DCI, or Basis if you're lucky. Hardy if you're not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the status of a WOTP charter middle school proposal?

The status is "pipe dream." There is no real plan for one, nor is there a need.

Not only is it unneeded, it will do nothing. There will be no proximity preference, so expect it to mirror the demographics of other charters (the horror). Hardy is the solution. Period.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the status of a WOTP charter middle school proposal?

The status is "pipe dream." There is no real plan for one, nor is there a need.

Does anyone know the status of a WOTP charter middle school proposal?

Anonymous wrote:
I get that Hardy is a considered better than most middle schools in the city. But compared to Deal, Hardy is a very distant second. Unfortunate but true.

Which would suggest to me that getting middle schools across the city, from Unicorn to the unfortunate schools EOTR, to the level of Hardy, would be a higher priority than worrying overmuch about a few people redistricted from Deal to Hardy. And yes, there has to be someone moved out of Deal, whose space is finite. That it impacts a few years down the road because of grandfathering, etc, only makes the redistricting that much more urgent.

Anonymous wrote:
It is just incredibly frustrating to move into the boundaries of a good school district and then be cast out a couple years later. I hope people can appreciate that frustration. I know Hardy parents feel that Hardy is the next best thing to Deal. It is, but there is a world of difference between the two and it will take years to get Hardy up to the level of Deal.

I am sure all the people across the metro area who cannot afford to move anywhere WOTP, can intellectually understand the source of your pain without actually being moved by it.

And I am not sure the differences will continue to be that great. Same school system, teachers paid the same. The differences are the opportunities associated with a larger school, and the demographics of the student body, and the latter is changing at Hardy.

For posterity, I'm posting this here. It will updated sometime in the future:

Hardy Middle School
STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
(2013-14)

Enrollment: 371
Black: 64%
Hispanic/Latino: 14%
White: 11%
Asian: 8%
Pacific/Hawaiian: 0%
Native/Alaskan: 0%
Multiple races: 2%

English language learners 6%
Free and reduced-price lunch 55%
Special education 12%
In-boundary 13%
Average Core Class Size 20
Powered By OCTO
Inside DCPS Highlights.

From http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Hardy+Middle+School

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sarah Bax is amazing!

How is she "amazing"? Is it her skill on the trapeze or magic tricks?

Yes. And she can juggle. But more importantly, she is a great math teacher, knows how to teach kids at all levels, makes math fun and exciting, and is an incredible mentor for the other teachers in the math program.

Anonymous wrote:Sarah Bax is amazing!

How is she "amazing"? Is it her skill on the trapeze or magic tricks?