Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

There's nothing they can say to guarantee this! It's going to be full of on-grade-level students and programmed accordingly and will be very good for students who attend. I agree that there should be no choice option though, unless maybe a sibling is a JR.

Yes, there is! They can guarantee that continuity of courses is offered, even if it means unusually small classes! So if a post-Hardy kid wants to take AP Italian or Algebra II or whatever, even if only a few students at the partially-filled school are ready for it, they should commit to making that available.

High school is more complicated than ES or MS. If the kids showing up early on only have a very limited number of course options, virtually no sports, and no clubs, no reputation with colleges, then they are foregoing a lot of a standard high school experience.

They are not going to overstaff the school for 4 years. Sorry, that's not how it's going to work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

There's nothing they can say to guarantee this! It's going to be full of on-grade-level students and programmed accordingly and will be very good for students who attend. I agree that there should be no choice option though, unless maybe a sibling is a JR.

Yes, there is! They can guarantee that continuity of courses is offered, even if it means unusually small classes! So if a post-Hardy kid wants to take AP Italian or Algebra II or whatever, even if only a few students at the partially-filled school are ready for it, they should commit to making that available.

High school is more complicated than ES or MS. If the kids showing up early on only have a very limited number of course options, virtually no sports, and no clubs, no reputation with colleges, then they are foregoing a lot of a standard high school experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would also give non-Hardy kids with rights to J-R priority for MacArthur. The PP is obviously upset and disappointed, but from her report it sounds like MacArthur will offer everything my current middle school student wants or needs. And when it opens, MacArthur will be an order of magnitude smaller than J-R. You want a “good reason to choose” MacArthur? That’s my reason.

+1 I would love to have the option of a new, non-crowded version of JR

That's basically what it's going to be. You just have to send your kids there. Get together with other parents and make a pact. Will be fine! If a core of highly educated parents can agree to send their kids to our (truly struggling) IB MS, you can do the same for a beautiful, new HS zoned for all on-grade-level/advanced kids. Just send your kids.

Anonymous wrote:Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

There's nothing they can say to guarantee this! It's going to be full of on-grade-level students and programmed accordingly and will be very good for students who attend. I agree that there should be no choice option though, unless maybe a sibling is a JR.

that's weird because even eastern has an IB program. that, said i think APs are just as good and there is nothing truly magical about having an IB program

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would also give non-Hardy kids with rights to J-R priority for MacArthur. The PP is obviously upset and disappointed, but from her report it sounds like MacArthur will offer everything my current middle school student wants or needs. And when it opens, MacArthur will be an order of magnitude smaller than J-R. You want a “good reason to choose” MacArthur? That’s my reason.

+1 I would love to have the option of a new, non-crowded version of JR

I wish they would also give non-Hardy kids with rights to J-R priority for MacArthur. The PP is obviously upset and disappointed, but from her report it sounds like MacArthur will offer everything my current middle school student wants or needs. And when it opens, MacArthur will be an order of magnitude smaller than J-R. You want a “good reason to choose” MacArthur? That’s my reason.

Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

Anonymous wrote:^^ I meant 40 kids in each class, not 40.

30! Too early for typing.

^^ I meant 40 kids in each class, not 40.

Anonymous wrote:I missed the last meeting a few days ago but quickly glanced through the slides. Quite a few were about IB programs. Is that what’s being considered for the school? I didn’t see other options mentioned.

The parent advisory group has talked about IB vs AP a lot. Short answer is IB is unlikely to happen. Basically, DCPS doesn’t have the experience, will, or resources to do it right. (The couple of existing IB high school programs within DCPS barely exist). And it wouldn’t get accreditation for several years anyway.

I would expect the standard AP programming.

And that’s it. Nothing else has happened to report.

And big caveat: It sounds like DCPS has no plans to provide extra budget in the early years to open it with the scale of programming that it will presumably eventually reach. Instead, it will have the budget of a 200 student high school. How do they offer a range of foreign languages, electives, and accelerated math when they only have the teaching staff for a 200 hundred student budget with 40 kids in each class? Doesn’t sound like they have any plan for that.

So basically the only incentives offered for students to choose it the first couple of years are:
— it will be good for JR students since it will ease crowding there.
— your student will get to write about new-school chaos in their college application.

The first few classes are screwed.

I missed the last meeting a few days ago but quickly glanced through the slides. Quite a few were about IB programs. Is that what’s being considered for the school? I didn’t see other options mentioned.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sigh. It’s called Jackson-Reed, not Wilson.

It's been renamed JR, its still called Wilson

Pedantic much?

If I call you dummy that must be correct too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sigh. It’s called Jackson-Reed, not Wilson.

Relax man! Are you always this uptight?
Name changes are hard.

Don’t be racist.

Anonymous wrote:please go to the new school Us JR parents need the space.

Sound like you need to learn grammar too.