Anonymous wrote:I love all the bitching on this thread from Lafayette parents who don't want their kids to be "social experiments" by being required to travel a couple of extra minutes by car to the next closest Middle School to where they live.

Those parents are going to be in shock when they find out how diverse and wild Deal actually is.

I am loathe to make this suggestion but how about this - the new Wells MS will be limited in its first 3 years to just the populations from Lafayette and Shepherd with no available OOB slots. Assuming that got a pretty high buy in from Lafayette and Shepherd that gets you classes of about 175 per grade and is enough to get Deal at least back under its capacity.

And then Wells is a school that is far whiter and far more UMC than Deal has ever been - would Lafayette parents deign to take their imported cars on Military Road for such a deal?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let’s assume Wells captures 2/3 of its current IB students.

Thats 180x3=540 total students.

Shepherd would add another ~100-120 and Lafayette another ~200.

So we have now exceeded the size of Hardy and are on the way to creating another Deal.

I don't have any problem with an 800-kid middle school. That would allow enough teachers to run sports and extracurriculars like a school paper and a yearbook and an orchestra and a school play or two. There could be multiple sections of honors classes per grade, so that kids who wanted to take honors math but not ELA or vice versa could have easy scheduling, and there would be a large enough cohort of kids above grade level to fill such classes. They could have enough per-pupil funding for full-time librarians, assistant principals, art and music teachers, social workers, nurses, etc. and maybe even offer more than one foreign language. A 150-kid school like ITS' middle school or Capitol Hill Montessori or Elliot-Hine can't do all of that.

The building isn't large enough for that as it shares the space with a growing HS which is housing 2 separate programs.

The high school is so underenrolled it would make sense to let the MS grades use it and the HS can have the Wells building (which is also brand new and lovely). Or make an 8th grade academy in the HS building. Or move one of the HS programs to Dunbar or Roosevelt or Cardozo, all of which are beautiful and metro-accessible buildings with plenty of room.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let’s assume Wells captures 2/3 of its current IB students.

Thats 180x3=540 total students.

Shepherd would add another ~100-120 and Lafayette another ~200.

So we have now exceeded the size of Hardy and are on the way to creating another Deal.

I don't have any problem with an 800-kid middle school. That would allow enough teachers to run sports and extracurriculars like a school paper and a yearbook and an orchestra and a school play or two. There could be multiple sections of honors classes per grade, so that kids who wanted to take honors math but not ELA or vice versa could have easy scheduling, and there would be a large enough cohort of kids above grade level to fill such classes. They could have enough per-pupil funding for full-time librarians, assistant principals, art and music teachers, social workers, nurses, etc. and maybe even offer more than one foreign language. A 150-kid school like ITS' middle school or Capitol Hill Montessori or Elliot-Hine can't do all of that.

The building isn't large enough for that as it shares the space with a growing HS which is housing 2 separate programs.

Anonymous wrote:It really bothers me that people feel sending their kids to school with minorities is a “social experiment.” This all sounds like the same arguments from school integration. These are people we are talking about. They might be poor but they’re still people who are trying to get their kids through school too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really bothers me that people feel sending their kids to school with minorities is a “social experiment.” This all sounds like the same arguments from school integration. These are people we are talking about. They might be poor but they’re still people who are trying to get their kids through school too.

+1. Also, we know there are even benefits for affluent kids when they attend more diverse schools, vs. homogeneous school environments, in terms of empathy, relating to people who are different from themselves, and preparing for a diverse workplace/world.

Also, look at the MD school threads, and the problems at some of the W schools that have very low diversity--racist incidents, vaping-related hospitalizations, suicide clusters related to intense academic pressure, etc. Some of us would rather provide our kids with adequate enrichment and supports in a more diverse school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let’s assume Wells captures 2/3 of its current IB students.

Thats 180x3=540 total students.

Shepherd would add another ~100-120 and Lafayette another ~200.

So we have now exceeded the size of Hardy and are on the way to creating another Deal.

Shepherd only has 50 kids in 5th grade. (2 classes of 23 or 24 kids)

50 x 3 (6/7/8) = 150.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let’s assume Wells captures 2/3 of its current IB students.

Thats 180x3=540 total students.

Shepherd would add another ~100-120 and Lafayette another ~200.

So we have now exceeded the size of Hardy and are on the way to creating another Deal.

Shepherd only has 50 kids in 5th grade. (2 classes of 23 or 24 kids)

50 x 3 (6/7/8) = 150.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let’s assume Wells captures 2/3 of its current IB students.

Thats 180x3=540 total students.

Shepherd would add another ~100-120 and Lafayette another ~200.

So we have now exceeded the size of Hardy and are on the way to creating another Deal.

Shepherd only has 50 kids in 5th grade. (2 classes of 23 or 24 kids)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let’s assume Wells captures 2/3 of its current IB students.

Thats 180x3=540 total students.

Shepherd would add another ~100-120 and Lafayette another ~200.

So we have now exceeded the size of Hardy and are on the way to creating another Deal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let’s assume Wells captures 2/3 of its current IB students.

Thats 180x3=540 total students.

Shepherd would add another ~100-120 and Lafayette another ~200.

So we have now exceeded the size of Hardy and are on the way to creating another Deal.

I don't have any problem with an 800-kid middle school. That would allow enough teachers to run sports and extracurriculars like a school paper and a yearbook and an orchestra and a school play or two. There could be multiple sections of honors classes per grade, so that kids who wanted to take honors math but not ELA or vice versa could have easy scheduling, and there would be a large enough cohort of kids above grade level to fill such classes. They could have enough per-pupil funding for full-time librarians, assistant principals, art and music teachers, social workers, nurses, etc. and maybe even offer more than one foreign language. A 150-kid school like ITS' middle school or Capitol Hill Montessori or Elliot-Hine can't do all of that.

Anonymous wrote:Again, this is not a conservative or racist view - I do not want my 9 year old to be on the front lines of tackling generational poverty. End of story. It is not their responsibility, and it seems like a lot of the SJWers on here are trying to make that so.

Anonymous wrote:It really bothers me that people feel sending their kids to school with minorities is a “social experiment.” This all sounds like the same arguments from school integration. These are people we are talking about. They might be poor but they’re still people who are trying to get their kids through school too.

Anonymous wrote:So let’s assume Wells captures 2/3 of its current IB students.

Thats 180x3=540 total students.

Shepherd would add another ~100-120 and Lafayette another ~200.

So we have now exceeded the size of Hardy and are on the way to creating another Deal.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t want my car to be a social experiment! Ban the Bikeshare and push the speed limits up! I don’t want my kid to be a social experiment - no curriculum changes! Segregation forever! No social experiments - never change tax rates! No social experiments - don’t change maternity leave or employers will all go broke! So much for liberal DC. Every complainer here about change or potential change is a conservative and against hope and change.

Schools are a key part of the community and don’t work well enough. I’m sick of the conservative haves who give lip service to social progress deciding they will try to veto anything that could change their lives and calling it a ‘social experiment.’

Anonymous wrote:Again, this is not a conservative or racist view - I do not want my 9 year old to be on the front lines of tackling generational poverty. End of story. It is not their responsibility, and it seems like a lot of the SJWers on here are trying to make that so.