Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is Charles Allen doing to this end? I know his platform included a Hill Middle school. Still waiting for that.

He's doing absolutely nothing. Because he is useless.

What should he be doing? He's on the Education Cmte. DME reports to mayor and has far more say in this process than Council

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those 5 mile away Deal families might be out of luck soon. Deal and Wilson are reaching a breaking point in attendance. Something has to give soon.

Even if that were the case, they'd still be commuting 3-4 miles somewhere else. The city is too big to have dedicated middle and high schools within 1 mile walking distance. Asking for a middle school that is under 2 miles in the DC is unreasonable. Even if we created a middle school for every neighborhood that was within 2 miles, they would be empty. I cannot believe that Hill families complain about a middle school that is under 2 miles from them. Heck, my elementary school is 1 mile away.

that was my initial point. Hill people get red in the face if they don't get their "neighborhood middle school" but this is common in other parts of the District. It's code for 'I won't send my kid to Jefferson because it's too far away and not because I won't give the school a chance'

Anonymous wrote:What is Charles Allen doing to this end? I know his platform included a Hill Middle school. Still waiting for that.

He's doing absolutely nothing. Because he is useless.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those 5 mile away Deal families might be out of luck soon. Deal and Wilson are reaching a breaking point in attendance. Something has to give soon.

Even if that were the case, they'd still be commuting 3-4 miles somewhere else. The city is too big to have dedicated middle and high schools within 1 mile walking distance. Asking for a middle school that is under 2 miles in the DC is unreasonable. Even if we created a middle school for every neighborhood that was within 2 miles, they would be empty. I cannot believe that Hill families complain about a middle school that is under 2 miles from them. Heck, my elementary school is 1 mile away.

Hill residents complain because all 3 middle schools are crappy and our elected representatives don't care.

Anonymous wrote:Those 5 mile away Deal families might be out of luck soon. Deal and Wilson are reaching a breaking point in attendance. Something has to give soon.

Not really -- their population projections don't show further increases. You'll never see DCPS pull Shepherd out of the Deal/Wilson feed. Will never happen.

Why should Allen do anything to advance MS development? He'll get voted out if he continues to do little? Almost certainly not - longtime Hill realtors will tell you that only around 1/4 of Hill residents and potential buyers, give a hoot about Ward 6 MS quality at any given time. Even if Allen wanted to take bold steps to bolster stakeholder confidence in SH, EH and Jefferson, what could he possibly do from Ward 6, even if Grosso supported him?

The sad fact is that DCPS elected to lavish 40 million on renovating Stuart Hobson, a medium-sized school that isn't very popular with most neighborhood residents, although it serves only 3 of the 9 Hill ES communities. The decision has virtually emptied Ward 6 ed money coffers. The three strongest local elementary programs--Brent, Maury and SWS--were not permitted to feed into one MS as a result of the 2014 boundary and feeder review, despite strong support for this solution across Cap Hill. Moreover, the strongest students in the 3 schools feeding into SH, concentrated at Watkins, tend to end up at BASIS and/or Latin, not SH. As a result, a Deal caliber program can't emerge at any of the schools, at least without a new test-in program, for a good 20 years.

Anonymous wrote:Those 5 mile away Deal families might be out of luck soon. Deal and Wilson are reaching a breaking point in attendance. Something has to give soon.

Even if that were the case, they'd still be commuting 3-4 miles somewhere else. The city is too big to have dedicated middle and high schools within 1 mile walking distance. Asking for a middle school that is under 2 miles in the DC is unreasonable. Even if we created a middle school for every neighborhood that was within 2 miles, they would be empty. I cannot believe that Hill families complain about a middle school that is under 2 miles from them. Heck, my elementary school is 1 mile away.

What is Charles Allen doing to this end? I know his platform included a Hill Middle school. Still waiting for that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS isn't sympathetic to these families bc there are plenty of others that are more than satisfied with Stuart Hobson and Eastern. Either these high SES families make a decision to send their children to these schools and become the change they want to see or continue to flee to Upper NW or the burbs.

I wouldn't say there are "plenty" of hill families "more than satisfied" with Eastern.

There are plenty of families happy with Eastern. You likely don't socialize with them because they are not your SES.

Why would they be happy with such terrible test scores?

Why are you endorsing the soft bigotry of low expectations?

- Person of color

Those 5 mile away Deal families might be out of luck soon. Deal and Wilson are reaching a breaking point in attendance. Something has to give soon.

Anonymous wrote:Deal isn't in Mount Pleasant, Shepherd Park, or Crestwood either

I think Crestwood is no longer zoned for Deal (or won't be after grandfathering has ended).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS isn't sympathetic to these families bc there are plenty of others that are more than satisfied with Stuart Hobson and Eastern. Either these high SES families make a decision to send their children to these schools and become the change they want to see or continue to flee to Upper NW or the burbs.

I wouldn't say there are "plenty" of hill families "more than satisfied" with Eastern.

There are plenty of families happy with Eastern. You likely don't socialize with them because they are not your SES.

That's laughable.

Stuart Hobson may be the shiniest toy but its low capacity presents some inherent limitations. The only change variable is the composition of students coming from Watkins, LT, and JO Wilson and that leave out a large chunk of Hill families. It's comparable to Hardy in that regard and doesn't scale well with comprehensive middle schools. SH has 1/2 the capacity of either EH or Jefferson.

In hindsight it would have made more sense to sell it off before renovating and use the windfall to pump up Eliot Hine as a school with the capacity for comprehensive MS. That ship has long since sailed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS isn't sympathetic to these families bc there are plenty of others that are more than satisfied with Stuart Hobson and Eastern. Either these high SES families make a decision to send their children to these schools and become the change they want to see or continue to flee to Upper NW or the burbs.

I wouldn't say there are "plenty" of hill families "more than satisfied" with Eastern.

There are plenty of families happy with Eastern. You likely don't socialize with them because they are not your SES.

Deal isn't in Mount Pleasant, Shepherd Park, or Crestwood either