Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is ridiculous. With so many other pressing needs on the capital side around the city even at schools that are doing quite well, spending this kind of money at a practically brand spanking new school is insane. Murch construction is just a twinkle in DGS' eye at this point in time. Hearst and Mann haven't even begun yet and they are going to start this in the next few weeks. Families from around the city want to improve middle schools so Deal and maybe Stuart-Hobson and Hardy are not the only acceptable choices (in their view). Maybe build a new middle school "EOTP".
I am a Ward 3 voter and I will vote against Mary Cheh if this goes through.
Well it is a completely done deal. Was as of last spring. Construction begins in a few days.
Anonymous wrote:This is ridiculous. With so many other pressing needs on the capital side around the city even at schools that are doing quite well, spending this kind of money at a practically brand spanking new school is insane. Murch construction is just a twinkle in DGS' eye at this point in time. Hearst and Mann haven't even begun yet and they are going to start this in the next few weeks. Families from around the city want to improve middle schools so Deal and maybe Stuart-Hobson and Hardy are not the only acceptable choices (in their view). Maybe build a new middle school "EOTP".
I am a Ward 3 voter and I will vote against Mary Cheh if this goes through.
Anonymous wrote:And I suggest that everyone rather than just complain here call their council member and the mayor's office to complain.
Anonymous wrote:Look, even with this renovation, with population projections, they need to do rezoning, even in NW, so that neighborhood schools have zones that reasonably feed the right number of students to the existing facilities. I doubt Janney will be able to get a third expansion 3 years from now.
Also PreK is not compulsory, so the argument to expand for that is pretty weak. Just a fact.
Anonymous wrote:The problem is dcps has no idea how to project future enrollment. They remodel with no eye to the future. This is true not only for Jamey, but also for Deal, Wilson, SWW. It's an outrage that these schools are remodeled and and then are too crowded and need trailers and subsequent additional renovations. DCPS does not know how to plan -never did and never will.
Anonymous wrote:Anyone know the status of the Murch renovation? It seems to keep getting pushed back. How about using funds to renovate a similarly overcrowded school that hasn't had any improvements in decades?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It does seem very shortsighted to be doing this now, before the boundaries discussion. A much cheaper, and somewhat obvious, way to reduce the crowding at Janney would be to move some of those kids to Hearst.
They've already laid down the ground rule that all existing families will be grandfathered. So any change in boundaries isn't going to make a difference for years. If you look at the Master Facilities Plan, there are population projections on page 55 (Figure 4.7). Janney is the only elementary school in Cluster 11. Elementary aged population is projected to go from 1230 in 2012 to 1421 in 2017 1645 in 2022. That's 34% growth in the next ten years. The school is already crowded. Shrinking the boundaries can't fix that.
I agree that the timing isn't helpful for the boundary review commission.