OP here: would love to hear things that the principal did (though hearing about Georgetown sports real estate is an added bonus).

There is NO overlap in Spring Valley-one side of mass is Deal and the other is Hardy. The only overlap would be in Cleveland park or if you attended a feeder school and lived IB for the other school or went to a school/lived IB for a cleveland park school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids are better able to focus if they know they will have good outside time regularly. Proper outside space and after school programming utilizing thatspace is noticed by prospective families and, ye, teachers.

Sports are not the be all and end all. However, along with academic rigor,a strong curriculum, an atmosphere conducive to study and learning and a robust extracurricular program, including sports, Hardy is not going to attract families who believe that Deal has superior offerings. If DCPS believes that free, off-street parking is so important to attract staff, then it should put the parking underground to preserve and expand student athletic space. This is what Janney did. Is Hardy not as worthy?

Please, can you refrain from posting when you do not know what we are talking about? Just go and post to a different topic.

First, many (but not all!) of the IB families increasingly heading to Hardy have no access to Deal. So the first half of your message is nonsense.

secondly, underground parking in an old (beautiful!) building in the hearth or Georgetown such as Hardy's is not an option. Take a look yourself to understand that, and understand why the site is different from the Janney's pre-renovation site. It is not only basic cost-effectiveness principles, but also additional considerations (where would you host the huge machinery for digging and consolidating the underground parking? You are in the middle of Georgetown!! Would you suggest to tear down and reduce to a working site for 2 years all of the outdoor available space? Janney was able to kept its outdoor facilities in the Wisconsin side functional during the renovations. Hardy would not. Go and take a look please. Or if you just want to shoot messages , go to the "Going Out" or personal stuff section of the site.

Bottom line. Hardy's outdoor facilities are very good, and they are great if you consider that the school is a downtown school and in the middle of Georgetown The British school, just across the street, has a fraction of the sport indoor and outdoor facilities that Hardy has.

One hour or physical ed. a day, 5 DAYS A WEEK, is only one of the great offerings of the school. If you want unlimited space for outdoor playing, then go to the suburbs. We have chosen to live in the City.

I know families who are in the dual-feeding area of Spring Valley and who are opting this year for Hardy instead of Deal. Smaller numbers (Hardy has 1/4 of Deal population), stronger accountability of teachers and kids. Higher control and security of the school facilities. Great and unique music program (which , finally, does not take away anything from the more traditional rigorous academic subjects, which are now the priority -- used to be the other way round in older times).
I include the uniquely beautiful location (which I know, matters more to me than to the average parents...).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids are better able to focus if they know they will have good outside time regularly. Proper outside space and after school programming utilizing thatspace is noticed by prospective families and, ye, teachers.

Sports are not the be all and end all. However, along with academic rigor,a strong curriculum, an atmosphere conducive to study and learning and a robust extracurricular program, including sports, Hardy is not going to attract families who believe that Deal has superior offerings. If DCPS believes that free, off-street parking is so important to attract staff, then it should put the parking underground to preserve and expand student athletic space. This is what Janney did. Is Hardy not as worthy?

Please, can you refrain from posting when you do not know what we are talking about? Just go and post to a different topic.

First, many (but not all!) of the IB families increasingly heading to Hardy have no access to Deal. So the first half of your message is nonsense.

secondly, underground parking in an old (beautiful!) building in the hearth or Georgetown such as Hardy's is not an option. Take a look yourself to understand that, and understand why the site is different from the Janney's pre-renovation site. It is not only basic cost-effectiveness principles, but also additional considerations (where would you host the huge machinery for digging and consolidating the underground parking? You are in the middle of Georgetown!! Would you suggest to tear down and reduce to a working site for 2 years all of the outdoor available space? Janney was able to kept its outdoor facilities in the Wisconsin side functional during the renovations. Hardy would not. Go and take a look please. Or if you just want to shoot messages , go to the "Going Out" or personal stuff section of the site.

Bottom line. Hardy's outdoor facilities are very good, and they are great if you consider that the school is a downtown school and in the middle of Georgetown The British school, just across the street, has a fraction of the sport indoor and outdoor facilities that Hardy has.

One hour or physical ed. a day, 5 DAYS A WEEK, is only one of the great offerings of the school. If you want unlimited space for outdoor playing, then go to the suburbs. We have chosen to live in the City.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids are better able to focus if they know they will have good outside time regularly. Proper outside space and after school programming utilizing thatspace is noticed by prospective families and, ye, teachers.

Sports are not the be all and end all. However, along with academic rigor,a strong curriculum, an atmosphere conducive to study and learning and a robust extracurricular program, including sports, Hardy is not going to attract families who believe that Deal has superior offerings. If DCPS believes that free, off-street parking is so important to attract staff, then it should put the parking underground to preserve and expand student athletic space. This is what Janney did. Is Hardy not as worthy?

1) Posters who suggested underground parking have either no idea of the basic cost-effectiveness principles, or never been to the Hardy site, as we are talking about a small triangular space hosting 15 cars, not 90 cars.

2) Posters who talked about safety issues at Hardy have never been inside the school. The school is, more than any other, totally unaccessible from the outside during the day. In addition to some emergency escape doors (who cannot be opened from outside), there's a security door at the entrance, which is closed and monitored through a camera ringer, plus a security officer at the entrance, who does not allow you to get in, unless you are a child or have an appointment to see someone in the school (which she checks by calling the person). This is a state-of-the art security arrangements, which are unmatched by any of the other public/private schools nearby, which would prevent any unauthorized and malevolent person to get into the school (unless he/she has a bomb to tear down the front door or side emergency exit doors).

Kids are arranged in different floors according to grade. While this is a solution that facilitates transitions to/from different classes, this also create a sense of community between kids of the same grade. The atmosphere is nice, friendly and quiet.

Bullying is a matter of kids and families attitudes and education. In the small 90% white public elementary school in Ward 3 my kids have attended, we did indeed have bullying episodes. These were pursued by white and very wealthy kids, often against more vulnerable kids, including kids from more modest socio-economic background (not the other way round). Interestingly enough, we had know problems with bullying by two brothers who were in different grades, i.e. reflecting an attitude which was somehow nested inside their wealthy and well-educated family. Bullying at Hardy is no worse that in any other DC middle school, and possibly less than that from anecdotal evidence I know . And the school as a strict and enforced policy of 'tolerance zero" against bullying.

So the safety concerns are only in your mind, not in the school facts.

Anonymous wrote:Kids are better able to focus if they know they will have good outside time regularly. Proper outside space and after school programming utilizing thatspace is noticed by prospective families and, ye, teachers.

Sports are not the be all and end all. However, along with academic rigor,a strong curriculum, an atmosphere conducive to study and learning and a robust extracurricular program, including sports, Hardy is not going to attract families who believe that Deal has superior offerings. If DCPS believes that free, off-street parking is so important to attract staff, then it should put the parking underground to preserve and expand student athletic space. This is what Janney did. Is Hardy not as worthy?

Anonymous wrote:Sports had nothing to do with our decision not to send DC to hardy. It was about academics and safety. Those need to be the priorities.

Huh? Have you crossed the threshold of the school?

--mom of a Hardy student who feels perfectly safe there

Sports had nothing to do with our decision not to send DC to hardy. It was about academics and safety. Those need to be the priorities.

Kids are better able to focus if they know they will have good outside time regularly. Proper outside space and after school programming utilizing thatspace is noticed by prospective families and, ye, teachers.

I think that when a school has about 80-90% profiency is when you need to start worrying about expanding their adequate sports fields.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think having a principal who does/cares about outreach is a good first step. Offering music, foreign language, extracurriculars/sports and especially an enrichment program matter too. But honestly what seems to be working is that there is a school that

a) has room for lots more in-bounds kids
b) is a destination school for elementaries that have a growing in-bound percentage
c) has a boundary with a very high-income and highly-educated population

and the families can no longer get into Deal out of bounds

To attract IB families, Hardy also has to address its athletic facilities issues, particularly fields. I was walking by there this weekend. Most of the school yard seems to have been given over to a parking lot that is used for flea markets. The playing field, if you can call it that, is a kind of "mini-me" embarrassing imitation that is 25-30% the size of a regulation soccer field.

The parking lot is not used for flea markets. It is used by school teachers and administrators (Georgetown has a 2 hrs limit parking for non residents).

The City rents it out on Sundays for the flea market.

Lots of public schools don't provide off street parking. The streets around John Eaton are all resident-zoned, for example. Given the limited space, I would think the right decision is for student recreation facilities to take precedence over administrators' convenience. But I guess we shouldn't be surprised at what is DCPS' priority.

I think that attracting and keeping quality teachers needs to be a higher priority than sports. A school without parking or metro access is going to struggle with that. There are plenty of places where middle schoolers don't have the option of school sports at all. MCPS offers nothing for sixth grade and very little for 7th and 8th and their kids seem to do fine with finding options in the community. On the other hand, there's no substitute for high quality teachers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was just announced GW has taken over the Corcoran building behind Hardy and that GW plans to sell it. Dcps could work with GW to get it back into public hands. Then they could return that parking lot to its original use, a play field for the public schools on its border. This would help rectify the Jelleff takeover by Maret.

A very good idea, but it would take $$$. GW is trying to monetize property on the border of Georgetown. Maybe Peggy Cooper Cafritz can help?

GW has many many many DC properties and many many many points where they want concessions from the city. A deal on non $$$ basis could be possible...especially if dcps and neighborhood engage on this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was just announced GW has taken over the Corcoran building behind Hardy and that GW plans to sell it. Dcps could work with GW to get it back into public hands. Then they could return that parking lot to its original use, a play field for the public schools on its border. This would help rectify the Jelleff takeover by Maret.

What they should have done, and could still do, is to expand the field space into the larger parking area and put the parking underground. That would cost some money, but that's what other schools in DC have started to do. The weekly flea market peddlers would have to go elsewhere, but that isn't a school concern.

DCPS build underground parking for faculty and staff at Janney, to maximize outdoor play space.

Anonymous wrote:Was just announced GW has taken over the Corcoran building behind Hardy and that GW plans to sell it. Dcps could work with GW to get it back into public hands. Then they could return that parking lot to its original use, a play field for the public schools on its border. This would help rectify the Jelleff takeover by Maret.

What they should have done, and could still do, is to expand the field space into the larger parking area and put the parking underground. That would cost some money, but that's what other schools in DC have started to do. The weekly flea market peddlers would have to go elsewhere, but that isn't a school concern.

Anonymous wrote:Was just announced GW has taken over the Corcoran building behind Hardy and that GW plans to sell it. Dcps could work with GW to get it back into public hands. Then they could return that parking lot to its original use, a play field for the public schools on its border. This would help rectify the Jelleff takeover by Maret.

A very good idea, but it would take $$$. GW is trying to monetize property on the border of Georgetown. Maybe Peggy Cooper Cafritz can help?