Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not set up a comprehensive middle school on Capitol Hill spread out on two campuses? 6th grade at Stuart-Hobson and 7th and 8th grade at Elliott-Hine. Feeders would be JO Wilson, LT, Watkins, Brent, Maury, Tyler, SWS, Payne, Miner, Van Ness, and Amidon-Bowen. There could be a Spanish immersion track to support students from Tyler Bilingual as well as Hill families from LAMB and Mundo Verde looking for a neighborhood school for the MS years. Turn Jefferson into a test-in STEM MS.

Great question for Henderson, Grosso and Allen.

This idea has merit. Seriously. Something a politician can ( and should ) get behind. And it could be done in the spirit of "uniting ward 6 on the road to Eastern". It would eliminate these funding and feeder squabbles and create incentives for everyone to work together and share resources-- The school would be the size of Deal and have the per-pupiil funding to run robust programs in academics, remediation, sports, arts and drama. I feel like if we can get our neighborhood together in a middle school, amazing things could happen.

I agree that this is the first proposal I have read on one of these threads about the Hill middle school situation that didn't just make me feel more hopeless because it was so obviously not a workable solution. It is a good idea.

This makes sense because these middle schools are so tiny that it really limits what can be offered from an economic perspective -- they are smaller than every Ward 3 elementary school (except one)(combined, they are barely larger than Lafayette). The whole population of the largest, Stuart Hobson, is smaller than one grade at Deal. Pooling the resources is a great idea. (and you won't need a magnet).

Or just have the elementaries go through 6th and pool everyone at E-H? Agree that a consolidated, big middle school on the Hill is a great idea!

The E-H consolidation doesn't work both because a lot of the elementary schools don't have room for 6th (and DCPS obviously has made the decision it doesn't what 6th grade in elementary school) and because of all the sunk cost in Stuart Hobson modernization. The good thing about the above idea is that it allows a consolidated Hill middle school while not abandoning Stuart Hobson, which has just had millions of dollars of updates.

Those who are shocked are new. They've been on the Hill for a year or two and haven't dug in to stay.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If gentrification's just a quirk, why are real estate values shooting up all over the city, even east of the River?

I agree with PP's who make the case that a good many DC public elementary schools on the Hill offer an education on a par with good ones in the burbs, partly because instructor: kid ratios are much better. Our friends who've hit the road from SWS, Maury, Brent and Ludlow-Taylor to MoCo and NoVa sound unhappy with nearly 30 kids in a room and no teachers aide. We've also got decent public options at Walls, Banneker and Ellington. By-right middle schools outside the Deal district are the missing link.

The quirk is the aspect of gentrification that does not allow you to insulate yourself from poverty the way you can insulate yourself inside your flipped rowhouse and your cafe with an unjustifiably hyped reputation (I mean Maketto obviously) or even creating an entirely different kind of public transportiom for yourself that literally runs parallel to the bus of the masses (I mean the street car). With middle schools you are in the same boat with everyone and getting a taste of how the rest of the city runs.

Oh give us a break. Anybody who's spent entire afternoons (or days, weeks, or months) waiting around for a single signature on a well-prepared permit application at the DCRA or Historic Preservation Office knows full well how the "rest of the city runs." Many a coddled Hill gentrifier has lost track of how many times they've done this. And the city can surprise you - the $50/week DC Parks and Recs camp some of us tried last summer, where almost all the kids were AA and poor, was surprisingly good.

We know how the city runs but we dig in to vote, lobby and work for change, even if it gets us nowhere in particular for the time being.

Evidently, people are still shocked when they realize they don't get middle class services just by being middle class. Goes much deeper than having to wait in line once a year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If gentrification's just a quirk, why are real estate values shooting up all over the city, even east of the River?

I agree with PP's who make the case that a good many DC public elementary schools on the Hill offer an education on a par with good ones in the burbs, partly because instructor: kid ratios are much better. Our friends who've hit the road from SWS, Maury, Brent and Ludlow-Taylor to MoCo and NoVa sound unhappy with nearly 30 kids in a room and no teachers aide. We've also got decent public options at Walls, Banneker and Ellington. By-right middle schools outside the Deal district are the missing link.

The quirk is the aspect of gentrification that does not allow you to insulate yourself from poverty the way you can insulate yourself inside your flipped rowhouse and your cafe with an unjustifiably hyped reputation (I mean Maketto obviously) or even creating an entirely different kind of public transportiom for yourself that literally runs parallel to the bus of the masses (I mean the street car). With middle schools you are in the same boat with everyone and getting a taste of how the rest of the city runs.

That's the point - we don't want to have to choose and don't think we should have to choose between neighborhoods that are walkable and lively and schools that are not falling apart (Eliot Hine) or performing poorly. A middle school's composition could change pretty quickly, but it would take cohorts that are unlikely to present themselves because of the charter 5th grade option.

No, you are missing the point. You don't get to just make poor people and their institutions disappear from your sight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If gentrification's just a quirk, why are real estate values shooting up all over the city, even east of the River?

I agree with PP's who make the case that a good many DC public elementary schools on the Hill offer an education on a par with good ones in the burbs, partly because instructor: kid ratios are much better. Our friends who've hit the road from SWS, Maury, Brent and Ludlow-Taylor to MoCo and NoVa sound unhappy with nearly 30 kids in a room and no teachers aide. We've also got decent public options at Walls, Banneker and Ellington. By-right middle schools outside the Deal district are the missing link.

The quirk is the aspect of gentrification that does not allow you to insulate yourself from poverty the way you can insulate yourself inside your flipped rowhouse and your cafe with an unjustifiably hyped reputation (I mean Maketto obviously) or even creating an entirely different kind of public transportiom for yourself that literally runs parallel to the bus of the masses (I mean the street car). With middle schools you are in the same boat with everyone and getting a taste of how the rest of the city runs.

Oh give us a break. Anybody who's spent entire afternoons (or days, weeks, or months) waiting around for a single signature on a well-prepared permit application at the DCRA or Historic Preservation Office knows full well how the "rest of the city runs." Many a coddled Hill gentrifier has lost track of how many times they've done this. And the city can surprise you - the $50/week DC Parks and Recs camp some of us tried last summer, where almost all the kids were AA and poor, was surprisingly good.

We know how the city runs but we dig in to vote, lobby and work for change, even if it gets us nowhere in particular for the time being.

I think that DCPS doesn't realize that there are a lot of high-SES families on the Hill that aren't in the Cluster or want more than what the Cluster offers (languages, etc.). They think that they renovated SH so that should suffice. At least I hope they are that clueless.

Anonymous wrote:You sell your row house and decamp for the burbs, PP. We'll stay to work in partnership with DCPS to create advanced academic programs on a par with those in the burbs. Nobody here (at least outside the Cluster) gains when those pushing for improvements despair of realizing gains and go. Poor kids least of all.

DCPS has never been interested in working in partnership with high-SES Hill parents outside of the mess that is the Cluster. It may make promises like the Ward 6 Middle School Plan and then move on to shiny new objects. Last year was supposed to be the year that DCPS focused on middle schools or some such nonsense. What do we have to show for it? One overcrowded middle school in NW with a cohort of high-performing students (Deal), one middle school in NW that's improving and is doing a better job attracting inbounds families after a lot of drama (Hardy), one middle school on the Hill filled with kids from Wards 7 and 8 (Stuart-Hobson), a new middle school (Brookland), a middle school which will reopen in August (MacFarland), and a bunch of tired, underperforming schools in need of modernization. And what has penned to Shaw MS which was part of the Boundary Process?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If gentrification's just a quirk, why are real estate values shooting up all over the city, even east of the River?

I agree with PP's who make the case that a good many DC public elementary schools on the Hill offer an education on a par with good ones in the burbs, partly because instructor: kid ratios are much better. Our friends who've hit the road from SWS, Maury, Brent and Ludlow-Taylor to MoCo and NoVa sound unhappy with nearly 30 kids in a room and no teachers aide. We've also got decent public options at Walls, Banneker and Ellington. By-right middle schools outside the Deal district are the missing link.

The quirk is the aspect of gentrification that does not allow you to insulate yourself from poverty the way you can insulate yourself inside your flipped rowhouse and your cafe with an unjustifiably hyped reputation (I mean Maketto obviously) or even creating an entirely different kind of public transportiom for yourself that literally runs parallel to the bus of the masses (I mean the street car). With middle schools you are in the same boat with everyone and getting a taste of how the rest of the city runs.

That's the point - we don't want to have to choose and don't think we should have to choose between neighborhoods that are walkable and lively and schools that are not falling apart (Eliot Hine) or performing poorly. A middle school's composition could change pretty quickly, but it would take cohorts that are unlikely to present themselves because of the charter 5th grade option.

^ with the addition of PS3 and 4, many of the Hill elementaries do not have room for 6th grade -- Brent, Maury, SWS. . .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not set up a comprehensive middle school on Capitol Hill spread out on two campuses? 6th grade at Stuart-Hobson and 7th and 8th grade at Elliott-Hine. Feeders would be JO Wilson, LT, Watkins, Brent, Maury, Tyler, SWS, Payne, Miner, Van Ness, and Amidon-Bowen. There could be a Spanish immersion track to support students from Tyler Bilingual as well as Hill families from LAMB and Mundo Verde looking for a neighborhood school for the MS years. Turn Jefferson into a test-in STEM MS.

Great question for Henderson, Grosso and Allen.

This idea has merit. Seriously. Something a politician can ( and should ) get behind. And it could be done in the spirit of "uniting ward 6 on the road to Eastern". It would eliminate these funding and feeder squabbles and create incentives for everyone to work together and share resources-- The school would be the size of Deal and have the per-pupiil funding to run robust programs in academics, remediation, sports, arts and drama. I feel like if we can get our neighborhood together in a middle school, amazing things could happen.

I agree that this is the first proposal I have read on one of these threads about the Hill middle school situation that didn't just make me feel more hopeless because it was so obviously not a workable solution. It is a good idea.

This makes sense because these middle schools are so tiny that it really limits what can be offered from an economic perspective -- they are smaller than every Ward 3 elementary school (except one)(combined, they are barely larger than Lafayette). The whole population of the largest, Stuart Hobson, is smaller than one grade at Deal. Pooling the resources is a great idea. (and you won't need a magnet).

Or just have the elementaries go through 6th and pool everyone at E-H? Agree that a consolidated, big middle school on the Hill is a great idea!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not set up a comprehensive middle school on Capitol Hill spread out on two campuses? 6th grade at Stuart-Hobson and 7th and 8th grade at Elliott-Hine. Feeders would be JO Wilson, LT, Watkins, Brent, Maury, Tyler, SWS, Payne, Miner, Van Ness, and Amidon-Bowen. There could be a Spanish immersion track to support students from Tyler Bilingual as well as Hill families from LAMB and Mundo Verde looking for a neighborhood school for the MS years. Turn Jefferson into a test-in STEM MS.

Great question for Henderson, Grosso and Allen.

This idea has merit. Seriously. Something a politician can ( and should ) get behind. And it could be done in the spirit of "uniting ward 6 on the road to Eastern". It would eliminate these funding and feeder squabbles and create incentives for everyone to work together and share resources-- The school would be the size of Deal and have the per-pupiil funding to run robust programs in academics, remediation, sports, arts and drama. I feel like if we can get our neighborhood together in a middle school, amazing things could happen.

I agree that this is the first proposal I have read on one of these threads about the Hill middle school situation that didn't just make me feel more hopeless because it was so obviously not a workable solution. It is a good idea.

This makes sense because these middle schools are so tiny that it really limits what can be offered from an economic perspective -- they are smaller than every Ward 3 elementary school (except one)(combined, they are barely larger than Lafayette). The whole population of the largest, Stuart Hobson, is smaller than one grade at Deal. Pooling the resources is a great idea. (and you won't need a magnet).

Anonymous wrote:If gentrification's just a quirk, why are real estate values shooting up all over the city, even east of the River?

I agree with PP's who make the case that a good many DC public elementary schools on the Hill offer an education on a par with good ones in the burbs, partly because instructor: kid ratios are much better. Our friends who've hit the road from SWS, Maury, Brent and Ludlow-Taylor to MoCo and NoVa sound unhappy with nearly 30 kids in a room and no teachers aide. We've also got decent public options at Walls, Banneker and Ellington. By-right middle schools outside the Deal district are the missing link.

The quirk is the aspect of gentrification that does not allow you to insulate yourself from poverty the way you can insulate yourself inside your flipped rowhouse and your cafe with an unjustifiably hyped reputation (I mean Maketto obviously) or even creating an entirely different kind of public transportiom for yourself that literally runs parallel to the bus of the masses (I mean the street car). With middle schools you are in the same boat with everyone and getting a taste of how the rest of the city runs.

Anonymous wrote:You sell your row house and decamp for the burbs, PP. We'll stay to work in partnership with DCPS to create advanced academic programs on a par with those in the burbs. Nobody here (at least outside the Cluster) gains when those pushing for improvements despair of realizing gains and go. Poor kids least of all.

\

Oh, I'm not going anywhere. I love the city plus we love our house, neighborhood, and schools. I've worked hard on DCPS as well. Fully plan on both of my kids, now middle school-ish age, graduated from DCPS. I myself am a DCPS grad. I was just pointing out that one is not rich by DC standards simply by owning a house on the Hill.

You sell your row house and decamp for the burbs, PP. We'll stay to work in partnership with DCPS to create advanced academic programs on a par with those in the burbs. Nobody here (at least outside the Cluster) gains when those pushing for improvements despair of realizing gains and go. Poor kids least of all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anyone on who owns a house on the Hill is rich by DC and regional standards.

I get it, you don't want to move, but you have resources.

Thank you! I didn't know I was rich. We own a house on the Hill. Paid $240K for it years ago when our particular corner of the Hill was not sought after. Our HHI is around $115K/year. Yes, by world and US standards we are rich. By DC standards?

So, take the considerable equity that you've built in your house purchased "years ago" and pump that into a down payment in home in Rockville zoned for Wooton or Kensington Parkwood zoned for Walter Johnson.

Your monthly mortgage payment/PITA will be about the same. Your public schools will be excellent. Your $115K will go as far as it does now.

Done!