Anonymous wrote:Ward 3 will fight any affordable or public housing faster and harder than they will fight boundary changes. There is one housing authority site in all of upper NW and its for Seniors (cause you know, those are the less threatening poor folks). They fight affordablity in many ways including fighting any building where the height would trigger mandatory inclusionary zoning. They fought apts on top of the new Tenley library cause they new it would bring lower income kids and crowd their prcious Janney. There is zero political will to push for an equitable distribution of public housing. And yes, the boundary changes will survive a legal battle. The vast majority of schools in the country are de facto segragated due to living patterns. So unless DC is going to start forcing busing of Ward 3 kids to eastern, then there is no legal way to enforce divserity at Wilson.

This is total BS. I followed the zoning hearings for one of the biggest construction projects in NW, Cathedral Commons, very closely. It was shocking how the developers and their attorneys bobbed and weaved to evade inclusionary zoning requirements when the community pressed them on it. First, the developers argued that they should be allowed more "bonus" density than zoning allowed because they were including affordable housing units in the project. Then they argued that they the same paltry affordable housing should be credited as an "amenity" to allow them to sidestep parking regulations. And what of the affordable units that they argued were "bonus"-worthy and "amenties"? They were the bare minimum required by the DC inclusionary zoning law. And where are these few affordable units to be located? Closest to the loading dock and the main HVAC towers. When the neighborhood pointed out how evasive the developers were being on affordable housing, the zoning commissioners just shrugged and approved the plans.

When considering Deal and Wilson overcrowding, don't forget the out of District kids who get "grandfathered" in after their scamming parents worm them into a Ward 3 elementary school. Just the other day, a jaywalking kid darted from a car with Maryland plates across the street and into Hearst.

Anonymous wrote:PP, That's exactly what happened at Deal. Dr. Kim did not tolerate behavioral disruption and set a higher bar for both student and teacher actions. At the same time she started integrating IB from her first year and set up middle school teaming to improve the academic programming. I believe she wrote her dissertation on integrating diversity within the school as well. This can be done elsewhere with solid leadership. DC needs to add more compelling schools to parent choice list.

I remember that shortly after Dr. Kim started, Marion Barry led a protest against her intolerance of behavioral disruption. That's when I knew that Deal had found the right principal!

If you've ever been standing between Wilson HS and the Tenley metro after school lets out, watch out! It can be an unruly fracas, and sometimes dangerous on the platforms. It's not all the kids obviously, but it's more than a handful of troublemakers. The cops sometimes come down onto metro platform, but the situation has gone on for years and is still not under control. They need to tell the unruly ones: behave or walk. And walk or out!

In DC, whites are the "diversity."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Currently there are about 82,500 kids who go to public school in DC. About 21,000 of them attend an in-boundary DCPS school, just about a quarter. There are 26,500 who go out-of-boundary to DCPS schools and 35,000 in charters. So over 60,000 kids each day are leaving their neighborhoods to attend school.

I find this statistic incredibly depressing. It is a statistic that reveals the deep dysfunction of DCPS.

I'll take a nuanced view. On an individual level, it's 60,000 kids who are able to chose a better school than their neighborhood school. On a systemic level it's a disaster.

The transit system is not effective. That's the point. You want kids rolling into class 30 minutes late once a week?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One other important reason why Deal and Wilson (and all other DC schools) should remain neighborhood based: From WMATA at 8:05am:

“Red Line: Delays now up to 30 minutes due to track problem. Trains are single tracking btwn Dupont Circle & Van Ness.”

Obviously, some kids successfully use METRO everyday, but to do away with neighborhood preferences would require a robust and reliable public transportation system able to accomodate thousands of ADDITIONAL riders each day at the beginning of morning rush hours. Not going to happen, unfortunately.

I agree. Shuttling everyone willy nilly would be a nightmare. I love that my DC can walk to school.

You're using the wrong tense. Your DC is very much the exception.

Currently there are about 82,500 kids who go to public school in DC. About 21,000 of them attend an in-boundary DCPS school, just about a quarter. There are 26,500 who go out-of-boundary to DCPS schools and 35,000 in charters. So over 60,000 kids each day are leaving their neighborhoods to attend school.

I find this statistic incredibly depressing. It is a statistic that reveals the deep dysfunction of DCPS.

I don't see how it's dysfunctional for teens to become effective mass transit users. The skills involved are entirely age-appropriate, and major cities send kids to specialized high schools across town as a matter of course.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, a lot already use metro to get to Wilson and Deal. BUT they are traveling on the redline AWAY from downtown. If you think that you can add a few thousand more backpack wearing passengers heading downtown in the moring please meet me tomorrow at Cleveland Park at 8am and let's try to get on the first train that pulls up.

Come on! I know Cleveland Park just barely counts, but if you're going to live in a real city (and if we're ever going to make this a real city one day), you'll have to be made of sterner stuff than that! How does anyone get on a crowded train anywhere else in the world where there's respectable population density? One simply learns to do it!

Yes, a lot already use metro to get to Wilson and Deal. BUT they are traveling on the redline AWAY from downtown. If you think that you can add a few thousand more backpack wearing passengers heading downtown in the moring please meet me tomorrow at Cleveland Park at 8am and let's try to get on the first train that pulls up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One other important reason why Deal and Wilson (and all other DC schools) should remain neighborhood based: From WMATA at 8:05am:

“Red Line: Delays now up to 30 minutes due to track problem. Trains are single tracking btwn Dupont Circle & Van Ness.”

Obviously, some kids successfully use METRO everyday, but to do away with neighborhood preferences would require a robust and reliable public transportation system able to accomodate thousands of ADDITIONAL riders each day at the beginning of morning rush hours. Not going to happen, unfortunately.

I agree. Shuttling everyone willy nilly would be a nightmare. I love that my DC can walk to school.

You're using the wrong tense. Your DC is very much the exception.

Currently there are about 82,500 kids who go to public school in DC. About 21,000 of them attend an in-boundary DCPS school, just about a quarter. There are 26,500 who go out-of-boundary to DCPS schools and 35,000 in charters. So over 60,000 kids each day are leaving their neighborhoods to attend school.

I find this statistic incredibly depressing. It is a statistic that reveals the deep dysfunction of DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok when Deal and Wilson were diverse and rated high...before the subway line and there was larger school populations too.

How diverse do you want? Latest stats from DCPS:

Wilson:
Black: 47%
Hispanic/Latino: 19%
White: 22%
Asian: 8%
Multiple races: 3%

Deal:
Black: 32%
Hispanic/Latino: 13%
White: 42%
Asian: 6%
Multiple races: 7%

I doubt that either school has ever in its history been more diverse than it is today. "Before the subway line" was during segregation.

The point is not to show stats now. What will the stats be if you remove Shepherd, Bancroft, Eaton and Hearst as feeders in addition to remover OOB feeder rights from remaining feeder schools? My guess the stats will be more like 90-95% white, yes you might have French or Spanish speaking white students, but still white.

Plus the original posting was nonsensical. Have you even looked at the boundaries for Wilson? Even if only in-bounds kids were allowed to attend, it still encompasses over half the city geographically. Are you saying kids should walk to school from the western side of Capitol Hill or SW? Wilson students -- both in-bounds and out-of-bounds -- have been dependent on public transportation for decades. The same is true for many, many in-bounds kids for Deal.

When you make illogical arguments for exclusion you just start sounding racist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One other important reason why Deal and Wilson (and all other DC schools) should remain neighborhood based: From WMATA at 8:05am:

“Red Line: Delays now up to 30 minutes due to track problem. Trains are single tracking btwn Dupont Circle & Van Ness.”

Obviously, some kids successfully use METRO everyday, but to do away with neighborhood preferences would require a robust and reliable public transportation system able to accomodate thousands of ADDITIONAL riders each day at the beginning of morning rush hours. Not going to happen, unfortunately.

I agree. Shuttling everyone willy nilly would be a nightmare. I love that my DC can walk to school.

You're using the wrong tense. Your DC is very much the exception.

Currently there are about 82,500 kids who go to public school in DC. About 21,000 of them attend an in-boundary DCPS school, just about a quarter. There are 26,500 who go out-of-boundary to DCPS schools and 35,000 in charters. So over 60,000 kids each day are leaving their neighborhoods to attend school.

Anonymous wrote:Ok when Deal and Wilson were diverse and rated high...before the subway line and there was larger school populations too.

How diverse do you want? Latest stats from DCPS:

Wilson:
Black: 47%
Hispanic/Latino: 19%
White: 22%
Asian: 8%
Multiple races: 3%

Deal:
Black: 32%
Hispanic/Latino: 13%
White: 42%
Asian: 6%
Multiple races: 7%

I doubt that either school has ever in its history been more diverse than it is today. "Before the subway line" was during segregation.