Anonymous
01/30/2013 11:19
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:The goal of trying to retain the middle and upper-class families of Capitol Hill is a worthy one. The problem is how?
The Ward 6 middle school plan, which was drafted by Capitol Hill parents, requested the formation of academies at Jefferson and the IB program at Eliot-Hine. However, nobody is embracing either one of these options. Is the solution really to try to route kids to Stuart Hobson?
Sometimes it feels like the Hill parents are only paying lip service to DCPS middle schools and will never be satisfied with the reality.
I can assure you that Hill parents of EC/ES children had no say in the plans for EH or Jefferson, and if the inputs came from Hill schools PTAs composed of OOB residents vs actual inbound residents, I'd have to question the motives and legitimacy of any of those plans.
Hill parents aren't paying lip service to DCPS -- many are giving it a shot in EC & ES and hit a point of dissatisfaction approaching or at MS. They'll continue to seek out charter and private schools if necessary, but I know of few Hill families who consider that a preferable choice to a good neighborhood MS.
Anonymous
01/30/2013 11:09
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
The goal of trying to retain the middle and upper-class families of Capitol Hill is a worthy one. The problem is how?
The Ward 6 middle school plan, which was drafted by Capitol Hill parents, requested the formation of academies at Jefferson and the IB program at Eliot-Hine. However, nobody is embracing either one of these options. Is the solution really to try to route kids to Stuart Hobson?
Sometimes it feels like the Hill parents are only paying lip service to DCPS middle schools and will never be satisfied with the reality.
The Ward 6 middle school plan, which was drafted by Capitol Hill parents, requested the formation of academies at Jefferson and the IB program at Eliot-Hine. However, nobody is embracing either one of these options. Is the solution really to try to route kids to Stuart Hobson?
Sometimes it feels like the Hill parents are only paying lip service to DCPS middle schools and will never be satisfied with the reality.
Anonymous
01/30/2013 10:42
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Ummm, they're not opening a new school at all. They're talking about Stuart Hobson. Try to keep up.
This is the inherent problem with SH - it does not have the capacity for all Hill schools and so people start talking about excluding. To some it means simply changing the character of SH (Hill residents only = affluence), to others it means getting rid of an option (excluding econ-disadvantaged). That is why Eliot Hine is a better option because it raises everyone up, not just the affluent ones. Assemble all middle class families there, and still have room for disadvantaged families.
I get the whole idea of wanting a good school for your kids, but the message absolutely sucks if you try to do something like make SH a fortress of affluence in a sea of poverty . . .
One person's "raising up" is another's "dragging down". How does Eliot Hine achieve your goal when it attracts no middle class Hill families?
SH has the capacity if it doesn't take so many off-Hill feeders (plus upcoming expansion). The few Hill ES feeders it has do not attract or retain Hill families, so by MS it serves largely non-Ward 6 students.
Anonymous
01/30/2013 10:38
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Ummm, they're not opening a new school at all. They're talking about Stuart Hobson. Try to keep up.
This is the inherent problem with SH - it does not have the capacity for all Hill schools and so people start talking about excluding. To some it means simply changing the character of SH (Hill residents only = affluence), to others it means getting rid of an option (excluding econ-disadvantaged). That is why Eliot Hine is a better option because it raises everyone up, not just the affluent ones. Assemble all middle class families there, and still have room for disadvantaged families.
I get the whole idea of wanting a good school for your kids, but the message absolutely sucks if you try to do something like make SH a fortress of affluence in a sea of poverty . . .
It would have capacity if they closed LT and made it part of the SH campus. Kills two birds because that would reduce the overcapacity in elementary seats on Capitol Hill.
Think about creating even more middle school seats after this round of school closings. Think about Ward Six having two large middle schools (EH & Jefferson) each with about 300 of their 900 seats filled.
It's okay to wish, but ideas like carving out even more middle class seats to assuage middle class families is a non-starter and actually sets back the cause.
Anonymous
01/30/2013 10:33
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Ummm, they're not opening a new school at all. They're talking about Stuart Hobson. Try to keep up.
This is the inherent problem with SH - it does not have the capacity for all Hill schools and so people start talking about excluding. To some it means simply changing the character of SH (Hill residents only = affluence), to others it means getting rid of an option (excluding econ-disadvantaged). That is why Eliot Hine is a better option because it raises everyone up, not just the affluent ones. Assemble all middle class families there, and still have room for disadvantaged families.
I get the whole idea of wanting a good school for your kids, but the message absolutely sucks if you try to do something like make SH a fortress of affluence in a sea of poverty . . .
It would have capacity if they closed LT and made it part of the SH campus. Kills two birds because that would reduce the overcapacity in elementary seats on Capitol Hill.
Anonymous
01/30/2013 10:28
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:I get the whole idea of wanting a good school for your kids, but the message absolutely sucks if you try to do something like make SH a fortress of affluence in a sea of poverty . . .
Anonymous wrote:This is ridiculous. Why should people get shamed for wanting a neighborhood school? Any school with >40% OOB should be subject to review and possible closure.
By that metric SH should close immediately - it is 20% in-bounds, as well as EH at 25% in-bounds. Jefferson is 46% in-bounds, so I guess it is the last one standing.
Anonymous
01/30/2013 10:19
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I get the whole idea of wanting a good school for your kids, but the message absolutely sucks if you try to do something like make SH a fortress of affluence in a sea of poverty . . .
This is ridiculous. Why should people get shamed for wanting a neighborhood school? Any school with >40% OOB should be subject to review and possible closure.
Anonymous
01/30/2013 10:14
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:Ummm, they're not opening a new school at all. They're talking about Stuart Hobson. Try to keep up.
This is the inherent problem with SH - it does not have the capacity for all Hill schools and so people start talking about excluding. To some it means simply changing the character of SH (Hill residents only = affluence), to others it means getting rid of an option (excluding econ-disadvantaged). That is why Eliot Hine is a better option because it raises everyone up, not just the affluent ones. Assemble all middle class families there, and still have room for disadvantaged families.
I get the whole idea of wanting a good school for your kids, but the message absolutely sucks if you try to do something like make SH a fortress of affluence in a sea of poverty . . .
Anonymous
01/30/2013 10:10
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:The entitlement is hilarious. DC's closing schools with low enrollement numbers but sure let's open a middle school for high SES students only. Will you be putting a sign out front that says "NO POOR KIDS ALLOWED?"
A Ward 6 IB MS wouldn't be entirely high SES and would include plenty of less advantaged kids, but it would include enough real academic and social diversity to compete with MS charters. I live in Ward 6 and Deal is largely off the table for MS -- why should non-Ward 6 residents feel entitled to seats at Stuart Hobson ahead of neighborhood kids?
Anonymous
01/30/2013 09:35
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Ummm, they're not opening a new school at all. They're talking about Stuart Hobson. Try to keep up.
Anonymous
01/30/2013 09:33
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
The entitlement is hilarious. DC's closing schools with low enrollement numbers but sure let's open a middle school for high SES students only. Will you be putting a sign out front that says "NO POOR KIDS ALLOWED?"
Anonymous
01/30/2013 04:42
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Capitol Hill has too many elementary school seats. If we don't want to be citywide elementary schools, some Cap Hill schools need to close.
No one said that at the recent school closing meetings.
Fine. Close the crappy ones and keep the rest local schools. Any neighborhood school can choose a specialty approach. DCPS is not in the business of city-wide schools. That is the job of the charters, which have been barred from becoming neighborhood schools. If SWS and Cap Mont. want to be charter schools, so be it. If not, find an IB catchment area.
This.
Anonymous
01/29/2013 23:12
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Would it cripple the Cluster School?
Who cares? The in-bounds Watkins and Peabody kids would be in-bounds for S-H.
You are exactly right 19:57. And I am an IB Cluster parent. Many Peabody/Watkins IB would welcome this. Really SH seems like s foreign land to us, and seems to be the only campus Cluster administration seems to care about. We hate them transferring resources to SH from the lower schools. This pillaging couldn't happen if SH was a separate school, with Hill IB prIority.
The Cluster school is crippled already, losing high-SES lower grades kids to charters, Maury, Brent etc., and droves of 4th graders to BASIS and Latin, while feeding into a MS at which the small IB population is actually dropping.
I can't see how SH could offer Hill IB priority unless DCPS revoked ES feeder priority for the whole city. It's a city-wide policy that clobbers the Hill because most of the kids in our elementary schools are weak students, Ward 7, 8 and PG County kids who struggle, unlike those in the Deal feeder schools WotP. If DCPS would just roll the feeder policy back to its pre Rhee state, SH could blossom within 2 or 3 years, especially if high quality honors classes were introduced. Hill parents might want to lobby for all this, even if they fail.
Anonymous
01/29/2013 20:46
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Would it cripple the Cluster School?
Who cares? The in-bounds Watkins and Peabody kids would be in-bounds for S-H.
You are exactly right 19:57. And I am an IB Cluster parent. Many Peabody/Watkins IB would welcome this. Really SH seems like s foreign land to us, and seems to be the only campus Cluster administration seems to care about. We hate them transferring resources to SH from the lower schools. This pillaging couldn't happen if SH was a separate school, with Hill IB prIority.
Anonymous
01/29/2013 19:57
Subject: SWS moving to Prospect LC building?
Anonymous wrote:Would it cripple the Cluster School?
Who cares? The in-bounds Watkins and Peabody kids would be in-bounds for S-H.