Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is what Eric Goulet said ( below) on our listserv---- ironic, given how Whittle was originally pitched to parents as the school of their dreams, a once in a lifetime opportunity...

"I'm going to step up advocacy efforts to obtain the Whittle School campus. DC cannot miss the opportunity to get the Whittle in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, because it is a once-in-a-half-century opportunity to obtain a 2,400 seat transit-accessible school building. Three Ward 3 ANCs - 3B (Brian Turmail sponsor), 3C (Beau Finley sponsor), and 3F (J.P. Szymkowicz sponsor) - have approved resolutions requesting that DC purchase or enter into a long-term lease at Whittle. Obtaining Whittle must be a top priority if we are going to be able to solve Ward 3 school overcrowding challenges in the upcoming boundary study, because without Whittle, there is no identifiable path forward to solving overcrowding at both Deal and Jackson Reed."

Have the "once in a half-century opportunity" boosters actually looked at an operating budget or toured the building with a real estate professional? Or examined the 20 pages of liens and lawsuits on the property? All the docs are publicly available.

A resolution to purchase or enter into a long term lease--- on a well known disaster of a property they haven't seen or done a fact based analysis on? ..public servants shooting from the hip it seems.

Goulet is claiming three ANCs have passed resolutions. I’ve only seen one of them (Beau’s). 3F has no commissioner named J.P. Szymkowicz and so it’s difficult to understand why he would sponsor a resolution for them. Have three ANCs passed resolutions or is Eric making things up again?

Anonymous wrote:Here is what Eric Goulet said ( below) on our listserv---- ironic, given how Whittle was originally pitched to parents as the school of their dreams, a once in a lifetime opportunity...

"I'm going to step up advocacy efforts to obtain the Whittle School campus. DC cannot miss the opportunity to get the Whittle in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, because it is a once-in-a-half-century opportunity to obtain a 2,400 seat transit-accessible school building. Three Ward 3 ANCs - 3B (Brian Turmail sponsor), 3C (Beau Finley sponsor), and 3F (J.P. Szymkowicz sponsor) - have approved resolutions requesting that DC purchase or enter into a long-term lease at Whittle. Obtaining Whittle must be a top priority if we are going to be able to solve Ward 3 school overcrowding challenges in the upcoming boundary study, because without Whittle, there is no identifiable path forward to solving overcrowding at both Deal and Jackson Reed."

Have the "once in a half-century opportunity" boosters actually looked at an operating budget or toured the building with a real estate professional? Or examined the 20 pages of liens and lawsuits on the property? All the docs are publicly available.

A resolution to purchase or enter into a long term lease--- on a well known disaster of a property they haven't seen or done a fact based analysis on? ..public servants shooting from the hip it seems.

Anonymous wrote:It would probably cost a lot less money and take a lot less time if they converted the Lord and Taylor in Friendship heights to a school.

The State Dept. owns the land and considering it's proximity to Embassies they aren't likely to be selling it to the city any time soon.

Anonymous wrote:Admittedly I don't live over there, but isn't a brand new HS being built over there already? And don't we not know yet how that will impact Hardy enrollment and feeder path?

Anonymous wrote:When is the realistic opening of McArthur HS expected?
I can’t imagine it is opening Fall 2023

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Goulet is nuts but I guess he appeals to some people

Yes, the uncritical. If you think deeply at all about what he's saying, you'll realize he's inhabiting a fantasy-land.

Anonymous wrote:Here is what Eric Goulet said ( below) on our listserv---- ironic, given how Whittle was originally pitched to parents as the school of their dreams, a once in a lifetime opportunity...

"I'm going to step up advocacy efforts to obtain the Whittle School campus. DC cannot miss the opportunity to get the Whittle in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, because it is a once-in-a-half-century opportunity to obtain a 2,400 seat transit-accessible school building. Three Ward 3 ANCs - 3B (Brian Turmail sponsor), 3C (Beau Finley sponsor), and 3F (J.P. Szymkowicz sponsor) - have approved resolutions requesting that DC purchase or enter into a long-term lease at Whittle.

Anonymous wrote:Goulet is nuts but I guess he appeals to some people

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DC bought the site, they could knock down the building and do both mixed income housing and a school on the site. I would love to see it be a boundaryless ECE program like Stevens and military road. Then the nearby schools could cut out pk4 and have more classroom space for the mandatory enrollment grades.

Personally, I think friendship heights is an even better location for this type of development, but whittle would be fine too. I have absolutely zero faith in DC being able to do this type of forward thinking and investment, or to be able to carry it out effectively if they did but a parcel.

Friendship Heights? On the Maryland border?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DC bought the site, they could knock down the building and do both mixed income housing and a school on the site. I would love to see it be a boundaryless ECE program like Stevens and military road. Then the nearby schools could cut out pk4 and have more classroom space for the mandatory enrollment grades.

Personally, I think friendship heights is an even better location for this type of development, but whittle would be fine too. I have absolutely zero faith in DC being able to do this type of forward thinking and investment, or to be able to carry it out effectively if they did but a parcel.

The building is under historic designation.

The land is owned by the federal government. They don't typically sell to DC.

Yes, IIRC, DCPS briefly considered the option for swing space there when all the elementary school were being renovated and it was a non-starter. In addition to the red-tape items mentioned, it also required too much expensive work to make it compliant with regs for public school occupation.