The District needs more magnets and G&T fast. Put them in the neighborhoods that need support and you will see middle class people move there in droves. This isn't rocket science.

Anonymous wrote:The city has got itself into a pickle. It is managing to attract and engage increasing numbers of middle class families. But these families won't stick around for a crappy education and won't throw their kids at a school that has its main focus on educating the least common denominator to a minimum standard. At the same time, educating the poorest and most disadvantaged to a minimum level (ie no child left behind ) is a vital, necessary and worthy goal. City leaders need smarts and an iron will to.figure out how to do both at the simultaneously. Indeed success in either endeavor makes success in the other easier.

Do we have the leadership to figure this out?

I know this is a rhetorical question but I'll answer it loud and clear. HELLLLL NO! We got rid of the mayor that acknowledged this catch22 and was doing something about it. Now we have a mayor who is interested in fighting 1960s battles and rolling the city back. Good fucking luck.

Anonymous wrote:
Nothing at all prevents parents in other parts of the city from doing the same.

Right, and the law, in its equality, prohibits both the poor and the wealthy from sleeping under a bridge.

The city has got itself into a pickle. It is managing to attract and engage increasing numbers of middle class families. But these families won't stick around for a crappy education and won't throw their kids at a school that has its main focus on educating the least common denominator to a minimum standard. At the same time, educating the poorest and most disadvantaged to a minimum level (ie no child left behind ) is a vital, necessary and worthy goal. City leaders need smarts and an iron will to.figure out how to do both at the simultaneously. Indeed success in either endeavor makes success in the other easier.

Do we have the leadership to figure this out?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't blame the parents in the Palisades area. They deserve better for their kids.

It's not their fault that decades of welfare living have entrenched most parts fo the city with poor people who have zero desire or need to ever get out of their situation. To me, it doesn't matter if those people are black or white.

Complaining because well off, hard working, educated people want to create a school for thier kids sounds ridiculous to my upper, middle class NOVA ears....

I don't "blame the parents" either but the appropriate, fair and reasonable response to having the only decent middle schools be in one area of DC is not the only or even the best option. I don't get how you can defend this whent he most obvious answer-- give more resources, including better teachers (pay them more to work outside of Ward 3 if that is what it takes) to the other parts of the city.

You are probably the same type of person that berates parents for attending good schools OOB-- "why don't you work to improve schools in your own neighborhood?" But parents can only do so much to improve the schools in their own neighborhood-- at some point the city has to take steps to also improve those schools, not just turn their back and focus on the wealthy and connected in Ward 3.

No better school resources will not fix the parts of the city.

I don't think the parents need to be "fair". They need to look after their own kids. If they want to band together and do something about it, that's their choice and their right.

Nothing at all prevents parents in other parts of the city from doing the same.

Anonymous wrote:I don't blame the parents in the Palisades area. They deserve better for their kids.

It's not their fault that decades of welfare living have entrenched most parts fo the city with poor people who have zero desire or need to ever get out of their situation. To me, it doesn't matter if those people are black or white.

Complaining because well off, hard working, educated people want to create a school for thier kids sounds ridiculous to my upper, middle class NOVA ears....

I don't "blame the parents" either but the appropriate, fair and reasonable response to having the only decent middle schools be in one area of DC is not the only or even the best option. I don't get how you can defend this whent he most obvious answer-- give more resources, including better teachers (pay them more to work outside of Ward 3 if that is what it takes) to the other parts of the city.

You are probably the same type of person that berates parents for attending good schools OOB-- "why don't you work to improve schools in your own neighborhood?" But parents can only do so much to improve the schools in their own neighborhood-- at some point the city has to take steps to also improve those schools, not just turn their back and focus on the wealthy and connected in Ward 3.

I don't blame the parents in the Palisades area. They deserve better for their kids.

It's not their fault that decades of welfare living have entrenched most parts fo the city with poor people who have zero desire or need to ever get out of their situation. To me, it doesn't matter if those people are black or white.

Complaining because well off, hard working, educated people want to create a school for thier kids sounds ridiculous to my upper, middle class NOVA ears....

We need better middle schools in the city. This does not mean that we have to build a new middle school, there are many empty school buildings already! But a master plan for middle level education in this city needs to be be created to address student needs. Who is working on that?

Turn Francis back into a middle school?

Anonymous wrote:Umm. Hardy is the middle school for "other parts of the city".

Only because the options in the other parts of the city are so lackluster by comparision. Why wouldn't they want to have a great middle school in their own neighborhood? You think folks enjoy the commute?

I get what the Palisades parents want to do but there are enough of them to build up Hardy if they choose to enroll there. Is Kaya really able to justify this when there is no funding? How about a middle school charter there so all the city can attend?

Umm. Hardy is the middle school for "other parts of the city". And those parts of the city are very very unlikely to give it up.

I'm pretty sure Jeff doesn't live in bounds for Hardy, let's just be clear about that.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:
frankly, it is quite clear from that article that the school is aimed at Palisades

Then, frankly, it should be quite easy for you to provide a quote to support your position. I'll wait.

Obviously, a quote is not needed because you make the same point yourself below.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

It's all about replacing Hardy.

I can't say I know what you mean by that. It's more about recognizing the facts on the ground. Isn't Cheh giving the Hardy parents exactly what they've been asking for over the past year? If you make Hardy a magnet school, you have to provide somewhere else for the kids who were in-boundary to go. Saying "they all go private anyway" is just wishing the problem away.

That boat sailed. The Key parents wanted Hardy to be a neighborhood school and now its a neighborhood school. Pope is gone. It's a little late to start showing concern for what the Hardy parents wanted. But, if you do suddenly care, I am sure that what they want is the new magnet school they were promised. A new school in Palisades is not likely at the top of their list of priorities.

Anonymous wrote:Here's what's really happening. Ward 3 draws kids from the whole city. In 2010-11 there were 5,759 kids who attended DCPS schools in ward 3, and 2,675 of them lived in Ward 3. This isn't new, it's been going on for a while. What is new is that suddenly these schools have become real crowded. Total capacity of the Ward 3 schools is 5,340 so overall they're over 400 kids over capacity. In 2008-9 total enrollment in Ward 3 schools was 5,103 -- a 13% increase in two years. People look back on that as the good old days. Almost every school was below capacity, it was pretty easy to get in out-of-boundary. In spring 2009 the Deal principal was visiting OOB elementary schools trying to drum up students to hit her enrollment number. People in Ward 3 weren't happy that Hardy wasn't a real neighborhood school, but it wasn't a big deal because pretty much everyone could go to Deal if they wanted to

If the idea for a new school were about adding capacity, the school would be in addition to Hardy, not a replacement. Any inbound student that wants to go to Hardy can go. The problem is that they do not want to go. Cheh was very clear that she thinks they might attend a new school. So, instead of creating additional seats, this is about creating seats that are more attractive than Hardy's. In other words, the goal is to add additional students to the system, not resolve an overcrowding issue. Here is what the Examiner article says:

"She is hoping a new middle school in the heart of Ward 3 would prevent some of the flight from D.C. Public Schools that occurs when students age out of elementary school."

That flight is not happening because there is no room at Hardy. It is happening because those parents don't want to go to Hardy.

The Key parents made their bed at Hardy. Now they should sleep in it. Hardy is their neighborhood school. Other parts of the city need new schools far more urgently than Palisades. Giving those parts of the city better options will lower the need for OOB slots west of the park.

Anonymous wrote:Deal's principal was visiting the elementary schools to talk about the newly created 6th grade team, not to drum up enrollment.

In January 2009 I was present when Principal Kim came to my school, OOB for Deal, and addressed the PTA. She asked parents of fifth graders to consider sending their kids to Deal in the fall because if she didn't have at least 800 students when school opened in September she was in trouble with downtown. The renovation was completed the previous July and she was getting heat to fill the building.

The concern seems laughable now with enrollment rocketing past 1000.

Deal's principal was visiting the elementary schools to talk about the newly created 6th grade team, not to drum up enrollment.