Just a friendly reminder that neighborhood schools are a choice as well. There is no fundamental right to go to your neighborhood school. School districts adopt systems to identify how they will distribute seats to schools. DCPS has long been a neighborhood school system with a lottery system for available seats. The feeder rights for OOB students has now been in place almost a decade.

Cities like NY give a preference but no guarantee of a spot in a neighborhood school. SF has a complete lottery system. Seattle long had a choice system with a neighborhood preference to a cluster of schools.

DCPS could adopt a number of ways to solve the overcrowding problem. Doing away with the right for OOB students to follow a feeder pattern is one option but not the only and not necessarily the most politically palatable.

My youngest starts Deal in the fall. How they solve this will not have an impact on my kids so I really do not have a dog in this fight other than property values.

All of you parents that recently bought into upper NW and think this can be easily solved by cutting off feeder rights to OOB students likely did not participate in this discussion last time it was actually on the table in a boundary review.

I think it is wise to think about a solution that betters the system for all DCPS students, not just your child's path.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Building Capacity is: 1200
They currently have over 1500 students enrolled

I do not care how many demountables there are -
you have 300 extra kids in the lunch room / in the halls / in the stairwells.

It is a problem and DCPS does not care. They will keep pressuring for OOB (They accepted last year)

Parents who have the means will put their children in private - when their child complains that they can't eat lunch b/c there is no place to sit and eat. The stress is real for these kids.

Have you seen the projections in the DME's Master Facilities Plan? 2108 students by SY 2017-18. That's eight years away.

Shut down feeder OOB at Deal. It would solve this.

Which OOB feeder goes to Deal?

You mean OOB feeder rights. Just because an OOB student attends an in boundary elementary school should not confer the right to go on to Deal and to Wilson.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Building Capacity is: 1200
They currently have over 1500 students enrolled

I do not care how many demountables there are -
you have 300 extra kids in the lunch room / in the halls / in the stairwells.

It is a problem and DCPS does not care. They will keep pressuring for OOB (They accepted last year)

Parents who have the means will put their children in private - when their child complains that they can't eat lunch b/c there is no place to sit and eat. The stress is real for these kids.

Have you seen the projections in the DME's Master Facilities Plan? 2108 students by SY 2017-18. That's eight years away.

Shut down feeder OOB at Deal. It would solve this.

Which OOB feeder goes to Deal?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The stuff above spills into the next day at school. It’s a never ending cycle. I would add that kids are vivacious on Instagram. Even the “good” kids. Learn how to check your kids phones and manage that at home. Edgy memes are shortening my life span on a daily basis.

Yeah, some parents haven't a clue what is going on! Check phones and read the posts, not all squeaky clean or overcrowding like some of you all think

My kid doesn't have a phone.

Mine doesn’t either. Kids really don’t need phones until HS. You invite the crazy in by having a phone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The stuff above spills into the next day at school. It’s a never ending cycle. I would add that kids are vivacious on Instagram. Even the “good” kids. Learn how to check your kids phones and manage that at home. Edgy memes are shortening my life span on a daily basis.

Yeah, some parents haven't a clue what is going on! Check phones and read the posts, not all squeaky clean or overcrowding like some of you all think

My kid doesn't have a phone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Building Capacity is: 1200
They currently have over 1500 students enrolled

I do not care how many demountables there are -
you have 300 extra kids in the lunch room / in the halls / in the stairwells.

It is a problem and DCPS does not care. They will keep pressuring for OOB (They accepted last year)

Parents who have the means will put their children in private - when their child complains that they can't eat lunch b/c there is no place to sit and eat. The stress is real for these kids.

How is this not a fire code violation? It would be interesting if parents sued on the grounds of safety. I'm not sure everyone could evacuate in time, if there was an emergency.

it is

Next time you are in Deal - look on the wall at capacity for the cafeteria. If it is less than the enrollment for a grade - there is a problem.

Problem solved by printing a new placard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Building capacity changes by merely changing the space requirements per student. Deal isn’t overcrowded; it’s just big.

Ha. Guess you haven’t seen the cafeteria during lunch. It’s overcrwded.

The point is DCPS has no standards for school capacity, capacity is whatever they say it is.

Reminds me of the time when I waited forever for a Metrobus, despite ok weather and light traffic conditions. Asked the driver why the bus was 40 minutes behind schedule. The driver replied “The schedule is wherever I’m at!”

It’s a DC thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Building Capacity is: 1200
They currently have over 1500 students enrolled

I do not care how many demountables there are -
you have 300 extra kids in the lunch room / in the halls / in the stairwells.

It is a problem and DCPS does not care. They will keep pressuring for OOB (They accepted last year)

Parents who have the means will put their children in private - when their child complains that they can't eat lunch b/c there is no place to sit and eat. The stress is real for these kids.

Have you seen the projections in the DME's Master Facilities Plan? 2108 students by SY 2017-18. That's eight years away.

Shut down feeder OOB at Deal. It would solve this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I only hear about the fights, like the girl who used the racial slur, and the kid whose hair caught fire.

As for ditching classes, I told my child what my dad told me: “if you can’t seem to make it to class I can take a day off of work and walk you to each class in my bathrobe. The principal said it was a good idea too!”

What sort of racial slur? Normally DCPS has basically zero tolerance for this.

My kids, who are white, and attend Deal, here the N word used by African American kids everyday.


I remember the use of that word was very common, if not over used by African Americans in DC when I was a kid in the 70's and 80's... I guess it's still being used.

Anonymous wrote:The stuff above spills into the next day at school. It’s a never ending cycle. I would add that kids are vivacious on Instagram. Even the “good” kids. Learn how to check your kids phones and manage that at home. Edgy memes are shortening my life span on a daily basis.

Yeah, some parents haven't a clue what is going on! Check phones and read the posts, not all squeaky clean or overcrowding like some of you all think

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Building Capacity is: 1200
They currently have over 1500 students enrolled

I do not care how many demountables there are -
you have 300 extra kids in the lunch room / in the halls / in the stairwells.

It is a problem and DCPS does not care. They will keep pressuring for OOB (They accepted last year)

Parents who have the means will put their children in private - when their child complains that they can't eat lunch b/c there is no place to sit and eat. The stress is real for these kids.

How is this not a fire code violation? It would be interesting if parents sued on the grounds of safety. I'm not sure everyone could evacuate in time, if there was an emergency.

it is

Next time you are in Deal - look on the wall at capacity for the cafeteria. If it is less than the enrollment for a grade - there is a problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Building Capacity is: 1200
They currently have over 1500 students enrolled

I do not care how many demountables there are -
you have 300 extra kids in the lunch room / in the halls / in the stairwells.

It is a problem and DCPS does not care. They will keep pressuring for OOB (They accepted last year)

Parents who have the means will put their children in private - when their child complains that they can't eat lunch b/c there is no place to sit and eat. The stress is real for these kids.

How is this not a fire code violation? It would be interesting if parents sued on the grounds of safety. I'm not sure everyone could evacuate in time, if there was an emergency.

Please tell us more about your expertise in rating building emergency evacuation capacity.

Anonymous wrote:Building Capacity is: 1200
They currently have over 1500 students enrolled

I do not care how many demountables there are -
you have 300 extra kids in the lunch room / in the halls / in the stairwells.

It is a problem and DCPS does not care. They will keep pressuring for OOB (They accepted last year)

Parents who have the means will put their children in private - when their child complains that they can't eat lunch b/c there is no place to sit and eat. The stress is real for these kids.

How is this not a fire code violation? It would be interesting if parents sued on the grounds of safety. I'm not sure everyone could evacuate in time, if there was an emergency.

Anonymous wrote:Building Capacity is: 1200
They currently have over 1500 students enrolled

I do not care how many demountables there are -
you have 300 extra kids in the lunch room / in the halls / in the stairwells.

It is a problem and DCPS does not care. They will keep pressuring for OOB (They accepted last year)

Parents who have the means will put their children in private - when their child complains that they can't eat lunch b/c there is no place to sit and eat. The stress is real for these kids.

Have you seen the projections in the DME's Master Facilities Plan? 2108 students by SY 2017-18. That's eight years away.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Building capacity changes by merely changing the space requirements per student. Deal isn’t overcrowded; it’s just big.

Ha. Guess you haven’t seen the cafeteria during lunch. It’s overcrwded.

The point is DCPS has no standards for school capacity, capacity is whatever they say it is.