Ward 5 parent here. Moving forward, more schools in Ward 5 will close. We do not have the enrollment to support the schools we have - - because so many Ward 5 families choose other options (including Ward 6). At the elementary level, less than 60% of DCPS Ward 5 families attend Ward 5 schools. At middle school grades, it's even lower (50% I think). And this doesn't include those who choose charters, privates, homeschooling, moving out of the District etc.

Many people have been making noise to create a middle school. But we used to have a middle school and it was a failure. Right now a lot of Ward 5 parents take their kids to Ward 6 schools. While recognizing that there's not a 1 for 1 line between schools and wards, i think it might make sense for there to be a large school serving many of the elementary schools in Ward 6 and Ward 5 (once they close some and the rest revert to elementaries). I am thinking this might provide the greatest chance for there to be the numbers of proficient students (inboundary for Ward 5 and 6 residents) within a big middle school with a rich academic and extracurricular offering.

Agree with PP that Metro access would be great.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if there is middle school consolidation in cap hill/NE, there should be bus routes serving middle-schoolers, just as there are buses for deal and wilson

The Deal Wilson bus routes only serve in boundary students. East of the park areas like Shepherd that are in boundary for Deal.

I'm in boundary for squwat in middle school (and elementary for that matter), so need metro access.

what I mean is, if you get assigned to a far-off middle school you're zoned for, the metro system should run buses, just like deal has buses from shepherd park, 16th street heights etc

I for one think that OP's idea is spot on!

Anonymous wrote:if there is middle school consolidation in cap hill/NE, there should be bus routes serving middle-schoolers, just as there are buses for deal and wilson

The Deal Wilson bus routes only serve in boundary students. East of the park areas like Shepherd that are in boundary for Deal.

I'm in boundary for squwat in middle school (and elementary for that matter), so need metro access.

if there is middle school consolidation in cap hill/NE, there should be bus routes serving middle-schoolers, just as there are buses for deal and wilson

Anonymous wrote:Okay the Van Ness ideal is not the university? Also Ward boundaries will change in 10 years but school boundaries haven't changed in 50 years. So, that is where your headache or heart ache will begin. As for calling kids "little darlings" or "snowflakes" is a tad-bit tempermental. What do you perfer "us" over "them" or "FARM" over "affluent?" If we called as we see it, then it wouldn't be need to respond in black and white text anonymously.

FYI - Van Ness Elementary is near Capitol Hill and the Navy Yard at 5th & M St. SE.

I tend not to get offended when people use language like snowflake, but in general it's best to not "call it as we see it." In a city like DC it is paramount that we enter the public square demonstrating as much respect up-front as we can muster.

Anonymous wrote:You left Walker Jones off the Ward 6 school - or do you only consider the "Cap Hill" Ward 6 schools?

Sorry, it's just an oversight by a parent learning the lay of the land. For what it is worth - Amidon and Thomson, which feed into Jefferson, are not on the Hill Thomson is not in Ward Six. JO Wilson is also not on the Hill. For that matter, Miner, Payne and Watkins are in Old City and not technically on the Hill I think . . . That's why is is a bit easier to talk in terms of Ward Six, and even that's an approximation fraught with inclusion/exclusion issues.

Anonymous wrote:Okay the Van Ness ideal is not the university? Also Ward boundaries will change in 10 years but school boundaries haven't changed in 50 years. So, that is where your headache or heart ache will begin. As for calling kids "little darlings" or "snowflakes" is a tad-bit tempermental. What do you perfer "us" over "them" or "FARM" over "affluent?" If we called as we see it, then it wouldn't be need to respond in black and white text anonymously.

Calling "little darling" or "snowflakes" is really inflammatory. FARMS and affluent and even inbound and out of bound are descriptive.

Frankly it frightens me that people out there have this sort of attitude towards kids who are all just trying to get educated. Do you really not just see beautiful little souls in each child no matter what their "description" or where they come from or even what their parents may do or say that you disagree with? It's chilling that you call little kids names.

You left Walker Jones off the Ward 6 school - or do you only consider the "Cap Hill" Ward 6 schools?

Okay the Van Ness ideal is not the university? Also Ward boundaries will change in 10 years but school boundaries haven't changed in 50 years. So, that is where your headache or heart ache will begin. As for calling kids "little darlings" or "snowflakes" is a tad-bit tempermental. What do you perfer "us" over "them" or "FARM" over "affluent?" If we called as we see it, then it wouldn't be need to respond in black and white text anonymously.

Anonymous wrote:

Ward Five has rightly cited the abundance of middle schools in Ward Six middle schools as unfair. Closing two Ward Six middle schools, and linking it to adding a Ward Five middle school seems straight forward.

Why is this straight forward? Not sure why what happens in Ward 6 should have any bearing on whether or not Ward 5 gets a middle school. Many people in Ward 5 want a new middle school to happen regardless of how things shake down in Ward 6. Whether or not they're willing to accept that some schools will need to be closed to do that is another story.

In a wold of absolute resources it might not matter. But Stuart Hobson wants a huge sum of money (north of $15 million) for its modernization - and they will need it to make SH a top tier school. Also, Jefferson is up for ~$15 million in modernization in 2013.

Thus, Ward Six has one modernized school (Eliot Hine) and it wants $30 million plus for two more middle schools, all the while these three middle schools under 50% of their capacity and 15% are in bounds. Ward Five has ZERO middle schools and Vince Gray, Kwame Brown, Tommy Wells and Kaya Henderson have mentioned this over and over. To suppose that Ward Six operates in its own silo is the kind of thinking that helped get us in this mess and it breeds contempt for the bubbly wine drinking Ward Six set.

Anonymous wrote:I am not in Ward 5 or 6, and look at middle schools from the lens of proximity to the red line. I imagine a lot of students arrive to Stuart Hobson via Union Station (from all the wards the red line goes through, including 5). That proximity means a lot more to me than the Ward a school is located in.

Ward boundaries are going to change again in 10 years, and Eliot Hine could very well be in Ward 7.

Eliot Hine is even closer to the Orange/Blue Line and its proximate stops are east of the river in Wards Seven & Eight. Ward SIx schools have far more students from Wards Seven & Eight than from Wards One and Five. Plus, as a kicker, Ward Five should get a brand new middle school.

Ward boundaries should be irrelevant, but people focus on wards because the dysfunction that is DCPS is deeply dislocating and parents look for control where ever they get it. If Eliot Hine was a world-class school, and DC had a history of getting it done, the ward assignment of a school would be much less relevant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right. OP, what's in this "deal" for Ward 5 parents? I don't get it.

Ward Five has rightly cited the abundance of middle schools in Ward Six middle schools as unfair. Closing two Ward Six middle schools, and linking it to adding a Ward Five middle school seems straight forward.

Or draw its boundaries to include Ward 5. Then you may finally get the DCPS critical mass to make a "deal."

Ward Five has rightly cited the abundance of middle schools in Ward Six middle schools as unfair. Closing two Ward Six middle schools, and linking it to adding a Ward Five middle school seems straight forward.

Why is this straight forward? Not sure why what happens in Ward 6 should have any bearing on whether or not Ward 5 gets a middle school. Many people in Ward 5 want a new middle school to happen regardless of how things shake down in Ward 6. Whether or not they're willing to accept that some schools will need to be closed to do that is another story.

I am not in Ward 5 or 6, and look at middle schools from the lens of proximity to the red line. I imagine a lot of students arrive to Stuart Hobson via Union Station (from all the wards the red line goes through, including 5). That proximity means a lot more to me than the Ward a school is located in.

Ward boundaries are going to change again in 10 years, and Eliot Hine could very well be in Ward 7.