Anonymous wrote:The current boundaries are already set to be reviewed in 2024. Take a deep breath.

you realize that is way too late. They review in 2024, fight about it until 2025 and then grandfather in a all the kids so the parents are screaming so no real boundaries change until at least 2030 at the earliest. How many more trailers can janney take. Can Deal hold 3000 kids? Time to get rid of feeder rights for OOB kids.

To those who want a 100% IB Wilson High School, I think you are kidding yourselves that this is how our city works. So then the question is what is the next best outcome for you. It seems like your choices are:

A. an overcrowded school
B. split between two high schools that in time will before what Wilson is now

I could be missing a third but I think much else is wishful thinking. It also sounds like it would be overcrowded even if it was 100% IB. So then what? Might as well make the tough choices now while there are some good ones out there.

Signed,

An EOTP parent who will move and become a WOTP parent for middle school

From the report: It is too soon to tell whether these cohorts born in 2007 and 2010 will stay through middle and high school at higher rates as they have in elementary school.

This seems key. We are parents of a middle-schooler, and each year, we determine if we're staying for another.

The report tracks cohorts of kids by birth year to see how many remain in the school system.

For the 1998 cohort, 71% remained for K, 60% - 5th grade, 56% - 8th, 43% - 12th. For white students only, the 1998 cohort looks like 34%, 23%, 17% and 14%.

.For the 2007 cohort, 79% remained for K and 69% - 5th grade. For white students only, the 2007 cohort looks like 40% - K and 25% 5th (note these are estimates as Figure 13 is very small).

Also, Figure 24 shows that even though 5th grade enrollment has been steadily increasing over the years, 8th grade and 12th grade enrollments are basically flat.

While I would love to see DC schools continue to grow, I also don't want to see this report used as a reason to build a bunch more schools when there are so many existing schools that need upkeep and maintenance and are underutilized. Dollars need to be used to serve students already in school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut the Ward 3 District for Wilson in half. Let those on one side of Wisconsin Avenue attend Wilson High and let the others go to Coolidge and Roosevelt. That would reduce overcrowding.

It would reduce by sending more kids to private but how would it help Coolidge? Wilson is not the only issue. As a charter parent, I agree with a PP that we need to start limiting new charters. As it is, many DCPS elementary schools are gaining in popularity. Eventually, with fewer charters, middles will continue (Hardy), it will eventually grow EOTP. I would like to see DCPS open a true application middle school. Maybe one with guaranteed admission to Banneker or Walls.

Totally agree—limit new charters and create an application middle school. Those two things would have far-reaching effects.

+2 for application middle school. Or even a magnet program in an existing, under-enrolled middle school (cough Brookland cough).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The current boundaries are already set to be reviewed in 2024. Take a deep breath.

Fair enough.

Am just frustrated seeing these shiny new buildings open up (Eastern, Woodson, Dunbar, Brookland, etc), and every single one of them is significantly underenrolled.

Funny the schools you picked to highlight.

Eastern, Woodson and WILSON reopened the same year in 2011. (Eastern's building already has a slew of problems, so I am not sure what true renovation went on there in comparison). The schools were in disarray (physically) and needed renovation.

Dunbar's enrollment is increasing and many of their underclassmen classes are overcrowded this year.

DCPS is working to renovate many schools and I know it was frustrating to many on this board that their school was passed by or not started yet, but in general, many, if not all, renovations were overdue.

Anonymous wrote:Cut the Ward 3 District for Wilson in half. Let those on one side of Wisconsin Avenue attend Wilson High and let the others go to Coolidge and Roosevelt. That would reduce overcrowding.

Which side of Wisconsin? East or West? Time for a new acronyms WOW instead of WOTP?

Considering that the public schools gained over 22,000 students in the past ten years, and the Census Bureau is predicting faster growth significantly faster growth over the next few years, another 21,000 in the next eight years actually sounds kind of low.

So much for my attempt to format a table. It looked much better in preview!

Anonymous wrote:
I'd be willing to bet 75% of that increase was because of added PK spots during that 10 years. I am very skeptical of significant increases in the percentage of middle/high school population actually attending DCPS/charter schools.

The school age population of the city has increased significantly in the past ten years and is forecasted to continue to increase. According to the Census Bureau the under-18 population of the city was 101,097 in 2010, 120,567 in 2016 and projected to be 149,646 in 2020. Basically every demographic projection tells the same story, tens of thousands of new kids in the next few years, although the details differ. Except for DCPS, which continues to insist that the population is stable and any growth in enrollment is a temporary bubble.

Since 2007, total public school enrollment in DC has increased by 32%. But DC really has three public school systems: the public charter schools, the DCPS schools that feed Wilson, and the rest of DCPS.


This table summarizes the changes in the last ten years:
SY 2007-08 SY 2017-18 Change %change DCPS Total 49,422 47,982 -1,440 -3% Public Charter Schools 19,73 43,340 23,607 120% Total public 69,155 91,322 22,167 32% Wilson Feeder 6,851 9,770 2,919 43% DCPS non-Wilson Feeder 42,571 38,212 -4,359 -10%
While DCPS is still insisting that the population isn't growing, last spring the public charter school board approved eight new charters with 4,000 seats.

I am indebted to Matt Frumin for these numbers and for pointing out what's happening.

If we weeded out every residency chester we would have less of a problem absorbing these new students. But I think a good portion are fraudsters who came for the free preschool and stayed for an easier commute and free aftercare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The solution (from this Ward 4 parent) is to NOT let anybody else into the Wilson feeder system. If anything, shed people from Wilson-land. There are enough children of parents with advanced degrees to make Roosevelt and Coolidge desirable in 2030. Unless every kid who wants to can go to Wilson.

Roosevelt maybe.

The cockamamie plan for the application school half of Coolidge (take all APs in 9 and 10th, then go off campus and attend college as a dual enrollee for 11th and 12th) will not attract the kinds of families you are describing.

Is this a real proposal? This is asinine.

Yes. It is modeled after an early college high school in Baltimore. So hundreds of millions on renovation and upper Ward 4 won’t have a comprehensive high school.

The other half will be for in-bound students - half in a health sciences program and half in communications arts (career track).

Don’t split the Wilson feeders. Not necessary yet. You just can’t let kids outside of the feeders in once they hit capacity - meaning no expansions if a school is only oversubscribed due to out-of-boundary students. And the truth is that Deal and Wilson aren’t magic and they aren’t even that great. Just force people where we live EOTP to stop relying on Deal and Wilson. I live over here and never go to Ward 3 and I intend to help build up my part of town.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The solution (from this Ward 4 parent) is to NOT let anybody else into the Wilson feeder system. If anything, shed people from Wilson-land. There are enough children of parents with advanced degrees to make Roosevelt and Coolidge desirable in 2030. Unless every kid who wants to can go to Wilson.

Roosevelt maybe.

The cockamamie plan for the application school half of Coolidge (take all APs in 9 and 10th, then go off campus and attend college as a dual enrollee for 11th and 12th) will not attract the kinds of families you are describing.

Is this a real proposal? This is asinine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut the Ward 3 District for Wilson in half. Let those on one side of Wisconsin Avenue attend Wilson High and let the others go to Coolidge and Roosevelt. That would reduce overcrowding.

it would work but they would NEVER get that passed.

Sure you could - that part of DC has not voting power.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut the Ward 3 District for Wilson in half. Let those on one side of Wisconsin Avenue attend Wilson High and let the others go to Coolidge and Roosevelt. That would reduce overcrowding.

It would reduce by sending more kids to private but how would it help Coolidge? Wilson is not the only issue. As a charter parent, I agree with a PP that we need to start limiting new charters. As it is, many DCPS elementary schools are gaining in popularity. Eventually, with fewer charters, middles will continue (Hardy), it will eventually grow EOTP. I would like to see DCPS open a true application middle school. Maybe one with guaranteed admission to Banneker or Walls.

Totally agree—limit new charters and create an application middle school. Those two things would have far-reaching effects.