Anonymous wrote:After the Lafayette meeting yesterday, I got the feeling the decision has already been made. The minimal expense of hiring busses compared to building a trailer school from scratch has to be enticing for the powers that be downtown. Sorry folks...

Keep in mind that the Lafayette rebuild is surely going to run over its one year estimate so the Murch reno. will probably end up getting pushed back as well.

I came away with a different feeling. For some reason, DCPS feels the need to cover its ass by putting the Lafayette trailers in the mix--either for perceptions of efficiency in reuse or because the other swing space options are problematic. But Kenny Diggs said that using Lafayette costs as much as the other swing space options. So there don't seem to be actual cost savings. And the cost of delays (which I agree, are likely) would make both projects more expensive and create even more blowback.

So I tend to think Murch @ Lafayette won't happen but that the Murch swing situation will be pretty awful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Well, Murch doesn't fare well either. There was no discussion of how students would get to school every day or aftercare. If they bus, what is the additional cost of that? There is no easy bus route from the Murch neighborhood to Lafayette unless you go all the way up to friendship heights first. Driving your kid up there and back is going to add what, 45 minutes to people's commutes?

I have nothing but sympathy for Murch families, seriously.

Please ask this of them at the Murch meeting tomorrow night. I cannot make it. It's a huge issue and as far as what they have said so far, they haven't put any thought into this at all. DCPS doesn't have a huge fleet of buses at their disposal (mostly some specialty use busses that are already being used for other purposes), so this seems like a huge added cost.

Wherever Murch ends up, there will be issues with getting kids to and from school and beforecare and aftercare unless before/aftercare are somehow moved to the swing site.

I can't make it either, but I hope that people who do go really push DCPS/DGS to commit to providing concrete answers to these questions, regardless of where the swing space is.

After the Lafayette meeting yesterday, I got the feeling the decision has already been made. The minimal expense of hiring busses compared to building a trailer school from scratch has to be enticing for the powers that be downtown. Sorry folks...

Keep in mind that the Lafayette rebuild is surely going to run over its one year estimate so the Murch reno. will probably end up getting pushed back as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many OOB students are at Murch currently? If the school is more than 200 over capacity, it would be surprising (and illogical) if there were any at this point.

This. There are OOB students at Murch, which admittedly makes no sense with the severe overcrowding.

Yeah, but this is a nonstarter. It's the case with all the WOTP schools.

Anonymous wrote:How many OOB students are at Murch currently? If the school is more than 200 over capacity, it would be surprising (and illogical) if there were any at this point.

This. There are OOB students at Murch, which admittedly makes no sense with the severe overcrowding.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Well, Murch doesn't fare well either. There was no discussion of how students would get to school every day or aftercare. If they bus, what is the additional cost of that? There is no easy bus route from the Murch neighborhood to Lafayette unless you go all the way up to friendship heights first. Driving your kid up there and back is going to add what, 45 minutes to people's commutes?

I have nothing but sympathy for Murch families, seriously.

Please ask this of them at the Murch meeting tomorrow night. I cannot make it. It's a huge issue and as far as what they have said so far, they haven't put any thought into this at all. DCPS doesn't have a huge fleet of buses at their disposal (mostly some specialty use busses that are already being used for other purposes), so this seems like a huge added cost.

Wherever Murch ends up, there will be issues with getting kids to and from school and beforecare and aftercare unless before/aftercare are somehow moved to the swing site.

Well, but some locations make it much simpler to solve than others.

Exactly. Forest Hills is three blocks from Murch. Getting kids to aftercare from there is pretty simple. UDC is a two-minute shot down Conn. Ave. Very different implications from Lafayette, where the path involves a lot of secondary and tertiary streets that are tough to travel at busy times.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Well, Murch doesn't fare well either. There was no discussion of how students would get to school every day or aftercare. If they bus, what is the additional cost of that? There is no easy bus route from the Murch neighborhood to Lafayette unless you go all the way up to friendship heights first. Driving your kid up there and back is going to add what, 45 minutes to people's commutes?

I have nothing but sympathy for Murch families, seriously.

Please ask this of them at the Murch meeting tomorrow night. I cannot make it. It's a huge issue and as far as what they have said so far, they haven't put any thought into this at all. DCPS doesn't have a huge fleet of buses at their disposal (mostly some specialty use busses that are already being used for other purposes), so this seems like a huge added cost.

Wherever Murch ends up, there will be issues with getting kids to and from school and beforecare and aftercare unless before/aftercare are somehow moved to the swing site.

Well, but some locations make it much simpler to solve than others.

Anonymous wrote:Didn't Wilson move its whole operations for a time to UDC? The UDC campus would be rather close to Murch's existing location and is near Connecticut Ave and the Metro.

They are still considering UDC I believe - but I think it's the soccer field, though I don't know where that is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Well, Murch doesn't fare well either. There was no discussion of how students would get to school every day or aftercare. If they bus, what is the additional cost of that? There is no easy bus route from the Murch neighborhood to Lafayette unless you go all the way up to friendship heights first. Driving your kid up there and back is going to add what, 45 minutes to people's commutes?

I have nothing but sympathy for Murch families, seriously.

Please ask this of them at the Murch meeting tomorrow night. I cannot make it. It's a huge issue and as far as what they have said so far, they haven't put any thought into this at all. DCPS doesn't have a huge fleet of buses at their disposal (mostly some specialty use busses that are already being used for other purposes), so this seems like a huge added cost.

Wherever Murch ends up, there will be issues with getting kids to and from school and beforecare and aftercare unless before/aftercare are somehow moved to the swing site.

Didn't Wilson move its whole operations for a time to UDC? The UDC campus would be rather close to Murch's existing location and is near Connecticut Ave and the Metro.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kenny Diggs actually said at the end of the meeting he hopes this isn't the option they choose. I think even he would admit this is a complete cluster.

I think Kenny Diggs made it pretty clear (in his body language and in what he didn't say) that his team is being forced to explore the Lafayette swing space option--that DCPS is calling the shots and his team is not in favor of this approach.

+1, I agree. The question is, will Kaya listen?

Anonymous wrote:Kenny Diggs actually said at the end of the meeting he hopes this isn't the option they choose. I think even he would admit this is a complete cluster.

I think Kenny Diggs made it pretty clear (in his body language and in what he didn't say) that his team is being forced to explore the Lafayette swing space option--that DCPS is calling the shots and his team is not in favor of this approach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Well, Murch doesn't fare well either. There was no discussion of how students would get to school every day or aftercare. If they bus, what is the additional cost of that? There is no easy bus route from the Murch neighborhood to Lafayette unless you go all the way up to friendship heights first. Driving your kid up there and back is going to add what, 45 minutes to people's commutes?

I have nothing but sympathy for Murch families, seriously.

Please ask this of them at the Murch meeting tomorrow night. I cannot make it. It's a huge issue and as far as what they have said so far, they haven't put any thought into this at all. DCPS doesn't have a huge fleet of buses at their disposal (mostly some specialty use busses that are already being used for other purposes), so this seems like a huge added cost.

PP here (and Lafayette parent). I can't go, alas. But you can send in questions with someone else, I suspect.

As I drove down CT ave today, I couldn't help staring at Intelsat. DGS took it off the table because it would cost $12m to renovate, but my gosh it would work well. It has play space and a playground. It's on a bus route, so pretty simple to get to. Drop off wouldn't be so terrible if along Tilden and it's on the way downtown. And lord knows it has a lot of space.

Additionally, if they did renovate some of the space for a school, could they then use that space later on for another school- Charter etc.?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Well, Murch doesn't fare well either. There was no discussion of how students would get to school every day or aftercare. If they bus, what is the additional cost of that? There is no easy bus route from the Murch neighborhood to Lafayette unless you go all the way up to friendship heights first. Driving your kid up there and back is going to add what, 45 minutes to people's commutes?

I have nothing but sympathy for Murch families, seriously.

Please ask this of them at the Murch meeting tomorrow night. I cannot make it. It's a huge issue and as far as what they have said so far, they haven't put any thought into this at all. DCPS doesn't have a huge fleet of buses at their disposal (mostly some specialty use busses that are already being used for other purposes), so this seems like a huge added cost.

PP here (and Lafayette parent). I can't go, alas. But you can send in questions with someone else, I suspect.

As I drove down CT ave today, I couldn't help staring at Intelsat. DGS took it off the table because it would cost $12m to renovate, but my gosh it would work well. It has play space and a playground. It's on a bus route, so pretty simple to get to. Drop off wouldn't be so terrible if along Tilden and it's on the way downtown. And lord knows it has a lot of space.

Anonymous wrote: Well, Murch doesn't fare well either. There was no discussion of how students would get to school every day or aftercare. If they bus, what is the additional cost of that? There is no easy bus route from the Murch neighborhood to Lafayette unless you go all the way up to friendship heights first. Driving your kid up there and back is going to add what, 45 minutes to people's commutes?

I have nothing but sympathy for Murch families, seriously.

Please ask this of them at the Murch meeting tomorrow night. I cannot make it. It's a huge issue and as far as what they have said so far, they haven't put any thought into this at all. DCPS doesn't have a huge fleet of buses at their disposal (mostly some specialty use busses that are already being used for other purposes), so this seems like a huge added cost.