Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:



In theory you are allowed but as you can imagine the reality is much more complicated. The biggest barriers are communication, getting information on tryouts, etc., transportation, and socially not knowing anyone for the kids. It is intimidating for the kids trying out for the team of an unfamiliar school.


The interesting question for me is why these newly built high schools in mostly black neighborhoods are not appealing to black families. Too many black people? I am tired of the simple, although not untrue line that DC is racist which is why high school enrollment is low, Black people also opt out of their local school and go private to charters. So yes DC white parents are afraid of black kids (above a percentage I estimate to be 30%), but is that really what is driving the high availability of high school seats?

Middle class black families want the same thing for their kids that middle class white families want. The underenrolled schools are predominantly populated by lower income "at-risk" families. The schools spend so much time trying to address the social/emotional/learning needs of those kids that there is not a lot of time/attention left for kids from more secure environments. Discipline is an issue. DCPS won't eject disruptive actors from classrooms; teachers are just expected to "teach around" the issues. Middle class parents want their kids in classrooms where there is a minimum of foolishness so learning can happen. At the high school level, peer influence is incredibly important. Middle class families don't want their kids to be surrounded by peers for whom drug use, incarceration, teen pregnancy are the "norm".
Many middle class black families in DC became middle class via extraordinary hard work and savings by grandparents and great-grands who fled poverty in the rural south to migrate to DC in the first half of the 20th century. They worked as butlers, maids, and cab drivers in a segregated city and then scrimped and saved to buy houses in neighborhoods like Petworth, Brightwood, 14th Street Heights and Brookland when segregation was prohibited in the 1960s. Those families understand that education is a key to stability and that in 2022, being able to maintain a middle class lifestyle is fragile.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

While they may not have to "break ground" as it were, I am a little confused as to the SY23/24 timeline quoted in the communication sent out by DC Central office. This is only a line item in the budget which needs to be approved by Council. And the new fiscal year is not until July (I'm not sure but I think that is the earliest). So bids for planning will go out in the summer and finalized late Fall. Given that the site was originally for K-8 for 600 kids (and without a cafeteria etc.) I would imagine that it will take longer than 9 months to finish up all the work, given that they need to put in labs etc. Eaton renovation took over 2 years but granted it did involve a lot of foundation work for the new section.

Then there is the question of sequencing -- if the current crop of 7th Graders at Hardy are the first to attend this school, that only makes about 120 kids for the 9th grade class. Are they planning to fill the rest by lottery + at risk preference? Are there even that many kids in the system who would want to attend? What about class offerings? If the majority are at risk in grades 10-12, will they have sufficient mass to offer AP/honors classes right off the bat? While this may sound politically incorrect, am I accurate in assuming that many of these possible 10-12th graders are coming from other schools in the system that do not currently have extensive AP offerings (or honors?)

If not, then what is the draw of this school?

I'm wondering if they plan to add one additional class each year?

So 23-24 has only the freshman class. 24-25 has freshman and sophomore classes. Etc.

In this scenario, they do not need the entire campus finished by 22-23. They can work on renovations and expansion each year, adding more capacity for the next year's additional class. Finally, by year 26-27 the school has all four grades filled.

This is how most new schools operate. It wouldn't make sense to fill all grades the same year.

So this high school would be totally inferior to Wilson with regard to athletics opportunities? How can they offer funded, competitive programs when you only have freshmen trying out? And then only freshman and sophomores the next year. And how does ramping up the student body like that allow for all the course offerings, including honors and AP? This plan seems like it might roll out as a bait and switch, at least for advanced and athletic kids. For the first 2 or 3 years, Hardy kids should be given the option to choose to go to Wilson or the new HS (like they did with Eaton with Hardy and Deal). I attended many of the meetings about the Gtown day and Old Hardy properties and every presentation emphasized that there WOULD be grandfathering. The
Y better stick to that promise.

Under DCPS rules, if you attend a school that doesn't offer a sport you're interested in you're eligible to play for a school that does.

Here's a list of all DCPS high schools and their enrollment:

River Terrace Education Campus 132
Luke C. Moore High School 208
Bard High School Early College DC (Bard DC) 265
Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School 276
Anacostia High School 326
H.D. Woodson High School 434
Ballou STAY High School 523
Benjamin Banneker High School 549
Coolidge High School 561
Duke Ellington School of the Arts 591
School Without Walls High School 600
Cardozo Education Campus 621
Roosevelt STAY High School 634
Ballou High School 664
Dunbar High School 666
McKinley Technology High School 696
Eastern High School 735
Roosevelt High School 752
Columbia Heights Education Campus 1477
Woodrow Wilson High School 1951

At full capacity this school will be the third largest in the city. At half capacity it will be firmly in the middle. Most DC high schools can't offer a full menu of sports.

These enrollments seem so anemic. How can they possibly justify another high school when they ought to be consolidated. The only possible reason is obvious racism among DC residents. If Wilson is overcrowded there is surely space elsewhere.

Do you know DCPS well? Parents don’t send their kids to Cardozo, not because it’s full of Black kids, but because it’s a bad school where less than 60% of kids graduate.

Anonymous wrote:Also pointing out to the sports eye-rollers that it’s really important to play a varsity sport if you want to get into a top college. And demonstrate leadership in multiple extracurriculars. This isn’t just personal preference but could be a real challenge for some of the early cohorts. That said, I’m sure there are ways to solve it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

While they may not have to "break ground" as it were, I am a little confused as to the SY23/24 timeline quoted in the communication sent out by DC Central office. This is only a line item in the budget which needs to be approved by Council. And the new fiscal year is not until July (I'm not sure but I think that is the earliest). So bids for planning will go out in the summer and finalized late Fall. Given that the site was originally for K-8 for 600 kids (and without a cafeteria etc.) I would imagine that it will take longer than 9 months to finish up all the work, given that they need to put in labs etc. Eaton renovation took over 2 years but granted it did involve a lot of foundation work for the new section.

Then there is the question of sequencing -- if the current crop of 7th Graders at Hardy are the first to attend this school, that only makes about 120 kids for the 9th grade class. Are they planning to fill the rest by lottery + at risk preference? Are there even that many kids in the system who would want to attend? What about class offerings? If the majority are at risk in grades 10-12, will they have sufficient mass to offer AP/honors classes right off the bat? While this may sound politically incorrect, am I accurate in assuming that many of these possible 10-12th graders are coming from other schools in the system that do not currently have extensive AP offerings (or honors?)

If not, then what is the draw of this school?

I'm wondering if they plan to add one additional class each year?

So 23-24 has only the freshman class. 24-25 has freshman and sophomore classes. Etc.

In this scenario, they do not need the entire campus finished by 22-23. They can work on renovations and expansion each year, adding more capacity for the next year's additional class. Finally, by year 26-27 the school has all four grades filled.

This is how most new schools operate. It wouldn't make sense to fill all grades the same year.

So this high school would be totally inferior to Wilson with regard to athletics opportunities? How can they offer funded, competitive programs when you only have freshmen trying out? And then only freshman and sophomores the next year. And how does ramping up the student body like that allow for all the course offerings, including honors and AP? This plan seems like it might roll out as a bait and switch, at least for advanced and athletic kids. For the first 2 or 3 years, Hardy kids should be given the option to choose to go to Wilson or the new HS (like they did with Eaton with Hardy and Deal). I attended many of the meetings about the Gtown day and Old Hardy properties and every presentation emphasized that there WOULD be grandfathering. The
Y better stick to that promise.

Under DCPS rules, if you attend a school that doesn't offer a sport you're interested in you're eligible to play for a school that does.

Here's a list of all DCPS high schools and their enrollment:

River Terrace Education Campus 132
Luke C. Moore High School 208
Bard High School Early College DC (Bard DC) 265
Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School 276
Anacostia High School 326
H.D. Woodson High School 434
Ballou STAY High School 523
Benjamin Banneker High School 549
Coolidge High School 561
Duke Ellington School of the Arts 591
School Without Walls High School 600
Cardozo Education Campus 621
Roosevelt STAY High School 634
Ballou High School 664
Dunbar High School 666
McKinley Technology High School 696
Eastern High School 735
Roosevelt High School 752
Columbia Heights Education Campus 1477
Woodrow Wilson High School 1951

At full capacity this school will be the third largest in the city. At half capacity it will be firmly in the middle. Most DC high schools can't offer a full menu of sports.

These enrollments seem so anemic. How can they possibly justify another high school when they ought to be consolidated. The only possible reason is obvious racism among DC residents. If Wilson is overcrowded there is surely space elsewhere.

Do you know DCPS well? Parents don’t send their kids to Cardozo, not because it’s full of Black kids, but because it’s a bad school where less than 60% of kids graduate.

Anonymous wrote:



In theory you are allowed but as you can imagine the reality is much more complicated. The biggest barriers are communication, getting information on tryouts, etc., transportation, and socially not knowing anyone for the kids. It is intimidating for the kids trying out for the team of an unfamiliar school.


The interesting question for me is why these newly built high schools in mostly black neighborhoods are not appealing to black families. Too many black people? I am tired of the simple, although not untrue line that DC is racist which is why high school enrollment is low, Black people also opt out of their local school and go private to charters. So yes DC white parents are afraid of black kids (above a percentage I estimate to be 30%), but is that really what is driving the high availability of high school seats?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

While they may not have to "break ground" as it were, I am a little confused as to the SY23/24 timeline quoted in the communication sent out by DC Central office. This is only a line item in the budget which needs to be approved by Council. And the new fiscal year is not until July (I'm not sure but I think that is the earliest). So bids for planning will go out in the summer and finalized late Fall. Given that the site was originally for K-8 for 600 kids (and without a cafeteria etc.) I would imagine that it will take longer than 9 months to finish up all the work, given that they need to put in labs etc. Eaton renovation took over 2 years but granted it did involve a lot of foundation work for the new section.

Then there is the question of sequencing -- if the current crop of 7th Graders at Hardy are the first to attend this school, that only makes about 120 kids for the 9th grade class. Are they planning to fill the rest by lottery + at risk preference? Are there even that many kids in the system who would want to attend? What about class offerings? If the majority are at risk in grades 10-12, will they have sufficient mass to offer AP/honors classes right off the bat? While this may sound politically incorrect, am I accurate in assuming that many of these possible 10-12th graders are coming from other schools in the system that do not currently have extensive AP offerings (or honors?)

If not, then what is the draw of this school?

I'm wondering if they plan to add one additional class each year?

So 23-24 has only the freshman class. 24-25 has freshman and sophomore classes. Etc.

In this scenario, they do not need the entire campus finished by 22-23. They can work on renovations and expansion each year, adding more capacity for the next year's additional class. Finally, by year 26-27 the school has all four grades filled.

This is how most new schools operate. It wouldn't make sense to fill all grades the same year.

So this high school would be totally inferior to Wilson with regard to athletics opportunities? How can they offer funded, competitive programs when you only have freshmen trying out? And then only freshman and sophomores the next year. And how does ramping up the student body like that allow for all the course offerings, including honors and AP? This plan seems like it might roll out as a bait and switch, at least for advanced and athletic kids. For the first 2 or 3 years, Hardy kids should be given the option to choose to go to Wilson or the new HS (like they did with Eaton with Hardy and Deal). I attended many of the meetings about the Gtown day and Old Hardy properties and every presentation emphasized that there WOULD be grandfathering. The
Y better stick to that promise.

Under DCPS rules, if you attend a school that doesn't offer a sport you're interested in you're eligible to play for a school that does.

Here's a list of all DCPS high schools and their enrollment:

River Terrace Education Campus 132
Luke C. Moore High School 208
Bard High School Early College DC (Bard DC) 265
Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School 276
Anacostia High School 326
H.D. Woodson High School 434
Ballou STAY High School 523
Benjamin Banneker High School 549
Coolidge High School 561
Duke Ellington School of the Arts 591
School Without Walls High School 600
Cardozo Education Campus 621
Roosevelt STAY High School 634
Ballou High School 664
Dunbar High School 666
McKinley Technology High School 696
Eastern High School 735
Roosevelt High School 752
Columbia Heights Education Campus 1477
Woodrow Wilson High School 1951

At full capacity this school will be the third largest in the city. At half capacity it will be firmly in the middle. Most DC high schools can't offer a full menu of sports.

In theory you are allowed but as you can imagine the reality is much more complicated. The biggest barriers are communication, getting information on tryouts, etc., transportation, and socially not knowing anyone for the kids. It is intimidating for the kids trying out for the team of an unfamiliar school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it will be immensely popular. The building will be gorgeous, it will not be overcrowded and kids peers from Hardy will be there. It is also perhaps more convenient than Wilson for some definitely for those in the key boundary.

Have you seen plans for this “gorgeous” building? Roughly 500 out of the 1500 kids attending will be at-risk out of boundary by design, according to the plan. It’s sole purpose isn’t to serve the surrounding community. They’re setting a precedent for an entirely new system here.

How will someone living east of the park (aka not zoned for hardy or deal) who is at risk get to the school via public transit in less than an hour. They know they will never get that many at risk kids from oob enrolling. If they really wanted to do this they should at least do it at Wilson which is right on the metro.

I'm not even sure how somebody who ISN'T at risk would get to this school EotP. Palisades from Capitol Hill or Ward 5, a real headache due to bad traffic downtown. Take the Red Line to Dupont or Tenley Town and a bus over? Some sort of DCPS shuttle bus from a Red Line Metro stop would be needed to make the commute work, and it would still take EotP students 45 mins or an hour to get to this site. Having a parent willing to drive a kid wouldn't necessarily help much, not to Palisades during rush hour.

M4 to D6, from Tenleytown it’s 25 minutes of bus time plus the layover at Sibley. If MacArthur is a parking lot your healthy teenager can get out and walk the end of the route. In exchange he gets a shiny new school that, when it opens, will be an order of magnitude smaller than Wilson. Maybe your kid is planning to make the basketball team at Wilson and take AP World History as a freshmen (note: Wilson does not offer AP World History and does not allow freshmen to take APs) but not all kids have such ambitions and god willing enough kids will prefer the smaller school to relieve some of the pressure on Wilson, which is operating this year at 130% of capacity, with rising feeder school enrollments and a rising rate of retention from its feeders.

Red Line Metro to Tenleytown from Union Station is 20 minutes. You're talking about 50-60 mins commute time from where I live in Ward 6. My ex lives in Arlington, kids attend MS & HS school there. Commute time to Washington-Liberty is 15 mins before 7:30 AM.

You know, there's nothing to stop a Wilson 9th grader from prepping for AP World History independently (there are on-line AP courses, summer AP courses) and taking the test at a different school accepting outside test takers/homeschoolers. It's been done before.

Oh, yes, I wasn’t trying to explain how kids would get from EotP to MacArthur. I was thinking that my kid, who already lives in Tenleytown, could roll out of bed onto the M4. The commute is no worse than the commute to Walls, and kids from around here do that every day.

The m4 turns at MacArthur and Arizona, over 2 miles away from gds. That is a long walk.

The city very deliberately runs buses for Deal/Wilson kids commuting to school from the east. They can easily do the same for another school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it will be immensely popular. The building will be gorgeous, it will not be overcrowded and kids peers from Hardy will be there. It is also perhaps more convenient than Wilson for some definitely for those in the key boundary.

Have you seen plans for this “gorgeous” building? Roughly 500 out of the 1500 kids attending will be at-risk out of boundary by design, according to the plan. It’s sole purpose isn’t to serve the surrounding community. They’re setting a precedent for an entirely new system here.

How will someone living east of the park (aka not zoned for hardy or deal) who is at risk get to the school via public transit in less than an hour. They know they will never get that many at risk kids from oob enrolling. If they really wanted to do this they should at least do it at Wilson which is right on the metro.

I'm not even sure how somebody who ISN'T at risk would get to this school EotP. Palisades from Capitol Hill or Ward 5, a real headache due to bad traffic downtown. Take the Red Line to Dupont or Tenley Town and a bus over? Some sort of DCPS shuttle bus from a Red Line Metro stop would be needed to make the commute work, and it would still take EotP students 45 mins or an hour to get to this site. Having a parent willing to drive a kid wouldn't necessarily help much, not to Palisades during rush hour.

M4 to D6, from Tenleytown it’s 25 minutes of bus time plus the layover at Sibley. If MacArthur is a parking lot your healthy teenager can get out and walk the end of the route. In exchange he gets a shiny new school that, when it opens, will be an order of magnitude smaller than Wilson. Maybe your kid is planning to make the basketball team at Wilson and take AP World History as a freshmen (note: Wilson does not offer AP World History and does not allow freshmen to take APs) but not all kids have such ambitions and god willing enough kids will prefer the smaller school to relieve some of the pressure on Wilson, which is operating this year at 130% of capacity, with rising feeder school enrollments and a rising rate of retention from its feeders.

Red Line Metro to Tenleytown from Union Station is 20 minutes. You're talking about 50-60 mins commute time from where I live in Ward 6. My ex lives in Arlington, kids attend MS & HS school there. Commute time to Washington-Liberty is 15 mins before 7:30 AM.

You know, there's nothing to stop a Wilson 9th grader from prepping for AP World History independently (there are on-line AP courses, summer AP courses) and taking the test at a different school accepting outside test takers/homeschoolers. It's been done before.

Oh, yes, I wasn’t trying to explain how kids would get from EotP to MacArthur. I was thinking that my kid, who already lives in Tenleytown, could roll out of bed onto the M4. The commute is no worse than the commute to Walls, and kids from around here do that every day.

The m4 turns at MacArthur and Arizona, over 2 miles away from gds. That is a long walk.

You change to the D6 at Sibley.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it will be immensely popular. The building will be gorgeous, it will not be overcrowded and kids peers from Hardy will be there. It is also perhaps more convenient than Wilson for some definitely for those in the key boundary.

Have you seen plans for this “gorgeous” building? Roughly 500 out of the 1500 kids attending will be at-risk out of boundary by design, according to the plan. It’s sole purpose isn’t to serve the surrounding community. They’re setting a precedent for an entirely new system here.

How will someone living east of the park (aka not zoned for hardy or deal) who is at risk get to the school via public transit in less than an hour. They know they will never get that many at risk kids from oob enrolling. If they really wanted to do this they should at least do it at Wilson which is right on the metro.

I'm not even sure how somebody who ISN'T at risk would get to this school EotP. Palisades from Capitol Hill or Ward 5, a real headache due to bad traffic downtown. Take the Red Line to Dupont or Tenley Town and a bus over? Some sort of DCPS shuttle bus from a Red Line Metro stop would be needed to make the commute work, and it would still take EotP students 45 mins or an hour to get to this site. Having a parent willing to drive a kid wouldn't necessarily help much, not to Palisades during rush hour.

M4 to D6, from Tenleytown it’s 25 minutes of bus time plus the layover at Sibley. If MacArthur is a parking lot your healthy teenager can get out and walk the end of the route. In exchange he gets a shiny new school that, when it opens, will be an order of magnitude smaller than Wilson. Maybe your kid is planning to make the basketball team at Wilson and take AP World History as a freshmen (note: Wilson does not offer AP World History and does not allow freshmen to take APs) but not all kids have such ambitions and god willing enough kids will prefer the smaller school to relieve some of the pressure on Wilson, which is operating this year at 130% of capacity, with rising feeder school enrollments and a rising rate of retention from its feeders.

Red Line Metro to Tenleytown from Union Station is 20 minutes. You're talking about 50-60 mins commute time from where I live in Ward 6. My ex lives in Arlington, kids attend MS & HS school there. Commute time to Washington-Liberty is 15 mins before 7:30 AM.

You know, there's nothing to stop a Wilson 9th grader from prepping for AP World History independently (there are on-line AP courses, summer AP courses) and taking the test at a different school accepting outside test takers/homeschoolers. It's been done before.

Oh, yes, I wasn’t trying to explain how kids would get from EotP to MacArthur. I was thinking that my kid, who already lives in Tenleytown, could roll out of bed onto the M4. The commute is no worse than the commute to Walls, and kids from around here do that every day.

The m4 turns at MacArthur and Arizona, over 2 miles away from gds. That is a long walk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the school works out but I would give it 5 years to get established. The first few graduating classes are tricky. Colleges won’t know what to make of it as there will be no track record or baseline to assess students. Colleges know schools like Wilson, Walls, Banneker, McKinley Tech, DE, Coolidge, etc., for better or worse. They will have no idea what category to put McArthur in until a few years have passed. That worries me.

Counterpoint: My son goes to a college that was historically all-girls but went coed in 1969. In every poll of alumni the highest satisfaction -- and the biggest donations -- come from the students who entered in the fall of 1969. Sometimes it's exciting to be a part of something new.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

While they may not have to "break ground" as it were, I am a little confused as to the SY23/24 timeline quoted in the communication sent out by DC Central office. This is only a line item in the budget which needs to be approved by Council. And the new fiscal year is not until July (I'm not sure but I think that is the earliest). So bids for planning will go out in the summer and finalized late Fall. Given that the site was originally for K-8 for 600 kids (and without a cafeteria etc.) I would imagine that it will take longer than 9 months to finish up all the work, given that they need to put in labs etc. Eaton renovation took over 2 years but granted it did involve a lot of foundation work for the new section.

Then there is the question of sequencing -- if the current crop of 7th Graders at Hardy are the first to attend this school, that only makes about 120 kids for the 9th grade class. Are they planning to fill the rest by lottery + at risk preference? Are there even that many kids in the system who would want to attend? What about class offerings? If the majority are at risk in grades 10-12, will they have sufficient mass to offer AP/honors classes right off the bat? While this may sound politically incorrect, am I accurate in assuming that many of these possible 10-12th graders are coming from other schools in the system that do not currently have extensive AP offerings (or honors?)

If not, then what is the draw of this school?

I'm wondering if they plan to add one additional class each year?

So 23-24 has only the freshman class. 24-25 has freshman and sophomore classes. Etc.

In this scenario, they do not need the entire campus finished by 22-23. They can work on renovations and expansion each year, adding more capacity for the next year's additional class. Finally, by year 26-27 the school has all four grades filled.

This is how most new schools operate. It wouldn't make sense to fill all grades the same year.

So this high school would be totally inferior to Wilson with regard to athletics opportunities? How can they offer funded, competitive programs when you only have freshmen trying out? And then only freshman and sophomores the next year. And how does ramping up the student body like that allow for all the course offerings, including honors and AP? This plan seems like it might roll out as a bait and switch, at least for advanced and athletic kids. For the first 2 or 3 years, Hardy kids should be given the option to choose to go to Wilson or the new HS (like they did with Eaton with Hardy and Deal). I attended many of the meetings about the Gtown day and Old Hardy properties and every presentation emphasized that there WOULD be grandfathering. The
Y better stick to that promise.

Under DCPS rules, if you attend a school that doesn't offer a sport you're interested in you're eligible to play for a school that does.

Here's a list of all DCPS high schools and their enrollment:

River Terrace Education Campus 132
Luke C. Moore High School 208
Bard High School Early College DC (Bard DC) 265
Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School 276
Anacostia High School 326
H.D. Woodson High School 434
Ballou STAY High School 523
Benjamin Banneker High School 549
Coolidge High School 561
Duke Ellington School of the Arts 591
School Without Walls High School 600
Cardozo Education Campus 621
Roosevelt STAY High School 634
Ballou High School 664
Dunbar High School 666
McKinley Technology High School 696
Eastern High School 735
Roosevelt High School 752
Columbia Heights Education Campus 1477
Woodrow Wilson High School 1951

At full capacity this school will be the third largest in the city. At half capacity it will be firmly in the middle. Most DC high schools can't offer a full menu of sports.

These enrollments seem so anemic. How can they possibly justify another high school when they ought to be consolidated. The only possible reason is obvious racism among DC residents. If Wilson is overcrowded there is surely space elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, how is it possible they could have this school opened for the 23/24 school year? They haven’t even bid it out yet let alone broken ground and the facility is much larger than the elementary school renovations that have all taken almost 2 years up to the day to renovate.

While they may not have to "break ground" as it were, I am a little confused as to the SY23/24 timeline quoted in the communication sent out by DC Central office. This is only a line item in the budget which needs to be approved by Council. And the new fiscal year is not until July (I'm not sure but I think that is the earliest). So bids for planning will go out in the summer and finalized late Fall. Given that the site was originally for K-8 for 600 kids (and without a cafeteria etc.) I would imagine that it will take longer than 9 months to finish up all the work, given that they need to put in labs etc. Eaton renovation took over 2 years but granted it did involve a lot of foundation work for the new section.

Then there is the question of sequencing -- if the current crop of 7th Graders at Hardy are the first to attend this school, that only makes about 120 kids for the 9th grade class. Are they planning to fill the rest by lottery + at risk preference? Are there even that many kids in the system who would want to attend? What about class offerings? If the majority are at risk in grades 10-12, will they have sufficient mass to offer AP/honors classes right off the bat? While this may sound politically incorrect, am I accurate in assuming that many of these possible 10-12th graders are coming from other schools in the system that do not currently have extensive AP offerings (or honors?)

If not, then what is the draw of this school?

I'm wondering if they plan to add one additional class each year?

So 23-24 has only the freshman class. 24-25 has freshman and sophomore classes. Etc.

In this scenario, they do not need the entire campus finished by 22-23. They can work on renovations and expansion each year, adding more capacity for the next year's additional class. Finally, by year 26-27 the school has all four grades filled.

This is how most new schools operate. It wouldn't make sense to fill all grades the same year.

So this high school would be totally inferior to Wilson with regard to athletics opportunities? How can they offer funded, competitive programs when you only have freshmen trying out? And then only freshman and sophomores the next year. And how does ramping up the student body like that allow for all the course offerings, including honors and AP? This plan seems like it might roll out as a bait and switch, at least for advanced and athletic kids. For the first 2 or 3 years, Hardy kids should be given the option to choose to go to Wilson or the new HS (like they did with Eaton with Hardy and Deal). I attended many of the meetings about the Gtown day and Old Hardy properties and every presentation emphasized that there WOULD be grandfathering. The
Y better stick to that promise.

Under DCPS rules, if you attend a school that doesn't offer a sport you're interested in you're eligible to play for a school that does.

Here's a list of all DCPS high schools and their enrollment:

River Terrace Education Campus 132
Luke C. Moore High School 208
Bard High School Early College DC (Bard DC) 265
Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School 276
Anacostia High School 326
H.D. Woodson High School 434
Ballou STAY High School 523
Benjamin Banneker High School 549
Coolidge High School 561
Duke Ellington School of the Arts 591
School Without Walls High School 600
Cardozo Education Campus 621
Roosevelt STAY High School 634
Ballou High School 664
Dunbar High School 666
McKinley Technology High School 696
Eastern High School 735
Roosevelt High School 752
Columbia Heights Education Campus 1477
Woodrow Wilson High School 1951

At full capacity this school will be the third largest in the city. At half capacity it will be firmly in the middle. Most DC high schools can't offer a full menu of sports.

These enrollments seem so anemic. How can they possibly justify another high school when they ought to be consolidated. The only possible reason is obvious racism among DC residents. If Wilson is overcrowded there is surely space elsewhere.