Okay. I also posted in the "what happened at the W3EdNet overcrowding meeting last night" thread (http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/640148.page). So if you want some even broader context for what I am about to say you can read my posts there.

The short version of the broader context: Families and staff in Wilson feeder schools are concerned about overcrowding and have tried to both brainstorm about possible solutions and engage with DCPS. We had a meeting with DCPS earlier this week where we reviewed the data and talked about possible solutions. DCPS is convening a "community working group" on overcrowding to consider the issue, which will meet for the next 5-6 months.

Okay so what about this idea of "combining" Deal and Hardy? Where did it come from?

I will confess. It came from me.

One of the ideas that DCPS presented at the meeting -- and I should add that DCPS was trying to get all ideas on the table, not suggest that this was the solution -- was the old idea from the boundary and student assignment process, the "choice set". Namely students in the Deal and Hardy feeders would not have a right to either school, but would rather be assigned to one or the other school based on some process -- random lottery, preferences, whatever. This could relieve some of the overcrowding at Deal because Hardy's building is not at capacity, and Deal's is over.

I responded that I wasn't wild about the idea of a choice set (and some noted that no one was too keen on the idea during the boundary process either). But an alternative that might be more palatable if you were going that route, would be to route all kids in the feeder through the two schools with say 6 grade at Hardy and 7+8 at Deal (I actually said 6+7 at Deal and 8 at Hardy, but some people have pointed out to me that it might make more sense the other way around). You would make more use of the capacity of both schools, relieve the pressure at Deal a bit, and could implement it relatively quickly. It would also simplify administration. As some have noted, you could have shuttle buses (Metro bus provides them now for some schools) between the two schools so that kids could walk to the nearest school and get transferred.

Now some folks might still HATE this idea. That is fine. I wasn't proposing it as the magic solution, but rather responding to another specific proposal. But it is one creative (I think at least) way of addressing the problem in the short run, and one that is likely to be preferable to a large group of people when compared to a bunch of other ideas to relieve overcrowding. Given that Deal is now around 1,500 children, something does have to give. As you can read from the other thread, a large number of ideas are on the table, including the usual ones offered here.

Brian Doyle
Co-Chair
Ward 3 - Wilson Feeder Education Network

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy clinging to Hardy's "unique culture" (and the 1980s-era urban school uniforms). That school 'culture' continues to be a bigly turnoff for attracting meaningful local enrollment at the school.

NP. I don't know much about Hardy. Can you explain what you mean by its "unique culture"? I understand it has uniforms and a large OOB population, which some people consider a turn-off. But what else is there about the school's culture that's notable? Please help educate me.

OP can't. Too many brown children parading around and learning how to be leaders and making their parents and teachers proud through their academics, art, citizenship, music, and creativity. It offends OP's sense of racial superiority.

Your snark is not helpful. If you think you know what the Hardy culture is, please say so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy clinging to Hardy's "unique culture" (and the 1980s-era urban school uniforms). That school 'culture' continues to be a bigly turnoff for attracting meaningful local enrollment at the school.

NP. I don't know much about Hardy. Can you explain what you mean by its "unique culture"? I understand it has uniforms and a large OOB population, which some people consider a turn-off. But what else is there about the school's culture that's notable? Please help educate me.

OP can't. Too many brown children parading around and learning how to be leaders and making their parents and teachers proud through their academics, art, citizenship, music, and creativity. It offends OP's sense of racial superiority.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Gonna. Happen.

-- Hardy IB family who would love it, but seriously why would any IB Deal family or Deal feeder family be up for this...

I seriously don't get the Hardy IB community. You have a school fed exclusively by top performing elementary schools. No dead weight whatsoever and most as hard to get into OOB as Deal feeds. If you just enrolled in boundary you'd have a school superior to Deal with a much more manageable size.

But that means someone's gotta do it first. They gotta keep going to reduce the OOB and thus reduce the brown kids to make it safe for everyone to come on in. You also have a great school in Banneker that no white families look at. DC, neck and neck with Boston for being the most racist liberal city.

Yep, as the mom of an OOB Hardy grad, the bolded statement is really offensive. Yeah, if you could just get rid of kids like mine, your school would be sooooo much better. Nice to know what you think of my child.

Dead weight? No need to hide your racism in these times, eh? You must set a good example for your children.

There seems to be some tension at Hardy where apparently there are current and alumni parents who want to see some modest increase in IB enrollment, to boost test scores and "validate" Hardy. However, they don't want to see an increase that results in a significant reduction in OOB slots or that transforms a school that "looks like DC" into another upper Northwest school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy clinging to Hardy's "unique culture" (and the 1980s-era urban school uniforms). That school 'culture' continues to be a bigly turnoff for attracting meaningful local enrollment at the school.

NP. I don't know much about Hardy. Can you explain what you mean by its "unique culture"? I understand it has uniforms and a large OOB population, which some people consider a turn-off. But what else is there about the school's culture that's notable? Please help educate me.

In the past -- like circa 2010 -- there were people who fought making Hardy more attractive to in-boundary families, and one of the justifications given was that it had a "unique culture." I haven't heard that argument in half a decade though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Gonna. Happen.

-- Hardy IB family who would love it, but seriously why would any IB Deal family or Deal feeder family be up for this...

I seriously don't get the Hardy IB community. You have a school fed exclusively by top performing elementary schools. No dead weight whatsoever and most as hard to get into OOB as Deal feeds. If you just enrolled in boundary you'd have a school superior to Deal with a much more manageable size.

But that means someone's gotta do it first. They gotta keep going to reduce the OOB and thus reduce the brown kids to make it safe for everyone to come on in. You also have a great school in Banneker that no white families look at. DC, neck and neck with Boston for being the most racist liberal city.

Yep, as the mom of an OOB Hardy grad, the bolded statement is really offensive. Yeah, if you could just get rid of kids like mine, your school would be sooooo much better. Nice to know what you think of my child.

Enjoy clinging to Hardy's "unique culture" (and the 1980s-era urban school uniforms). That school 'culture' continues to be a bigly turnoff for attracting meaningful local enrollment at the school.

Use of "bigly" doesn't make your argument more relevant. You sound dumber though, there's that.

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy clinging to Hardy's "unique culture" (and the 1980s-era urban school uniforms). That school 'culture' continues to be a bigly turnoff for attracting meaningful local enrollment at the school.

NP. I don't know much about Hardy. Can you explain what you mean by its "unique culture"? I understand it has uniforms and a large OOB population, which some people consider a turn-off. But what else is there about the school's culture that's notable? Please help educate me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Gonna. Happen.

-- Hardy IB family who would love it, but seriously why would any IB Deal family or Deal feeder family be up for this...

I seriously don't get the Hardy IB community. You have a school fed exclusively by top performing elementary schools. No dead weight whatsoever and most as hard to get into OOB as Deal feeds. If you just enrolled in boundary you'd have a school superior to Deal with a much more manageable size.

But that means someone's gotta do it first. They gotta keep going to reduce the OOB and thus reduce the brown kids to make it safe for everyone to come on in. You also have a great school in Banneker that no white families look at. DC, neck and neck with Boston for being the most racist liberal city.

Yep, as the mom of an OOB Hardy grad, the bolded statement is really offensive. Yeah, if you could just get rid of kids like mine, your school would be sooooo much better. Nice to know what you think of my child.

Enjoy clinging to Hardy's "unique culture" (and the 1980s-era urban school uniforms). That school 'culture' continues to be a bigly turnoff for attracting meaningful local enrollment at the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Gonna. Happen.

-- Hardy IB family who would love it, but seriously why would any IB Deal family or Deal feeder family be up for this...

I seriously don't get the Hardy IB community. You have a school fed exclusively by top performing elementary schools. No dead weight whatsoever and most as hard to get into OOB as Deal feeds. If you just enrolled in boundary you'd have a school superior to Deal with a much more manageable size.

But that means someone's gotta do it first. They gotta keep going to reduce the OOB and thus reduce the brown kids to make it safe for everyone to come on in. You also have a great school in Banneker that no white families look at. DC, neck and neck with Boston for being the most racist liberal city.

Yep, as the mom of an OOB Hardy grad, the bolded statement is really offensive. Yeah, if you could just get rid of kids like mine, your school would be sooooo much better. Nice to know what you think of my child.

there's nothing racist in that statement. Take the standardized scores alone and the entire feeder pattern for Hardy comprises the top performing schools in DC. By "dead weight" I only referred to low performing schools. Deal doesn't really have dead weight either. If you want to read into that it's your hang up.

Banneker is an excellent school but irrelevant to Hardy other than it's the tired favorite card in every DCUM race player hand. It's a selective application school and it's demographics are largely self selected.

^^ and to be clear I'm not talking about OOB students at all.

Didn't say you were racist. Said you were saying that the key to a superior performing school is enrolling in-boundary children. Since my child was OOB, it's pretty clear you think that she brought down the quality of the school. Well, thanks for that!

not sure how you possibly reach that conclusion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Gonna. Happen.

-- Hardy IB family who would love it, but seriously why would any IB Deal family or Deal feeder family be up for this...

I seriously don't get the Hardy IB community. You have a school fed exclusively by top performing elementary schools. No dead weight whatsoever and most as hard to get into OOB as Deal feeds. If you just enrolled in boundary you'd have a school superior to Deal with a much more manageable size.

But that means someone's gotta do it first. They gotta keep going to reduce the OOB and thus reduce the brown kids to make it safe for everyone to come on in. You also have a great school in Banneker that no white families look at. DC, neck and neck with Boston for being the most racist liberal city.

Yep, as the mom of an OOB Hardy grad, the bolded statement is really offensive. Yeah, if you could just get rid of kids like mine, your school would be sooooo much better. Nice to know what you think of my child.

there's nothing racist in that statement. Take the standardized scores alone and the entire feeder pattern for Hardy comprises the top performing schools in DC. By "dead weight" I only referred to low performing schools. Deal doesn't really have dead weight either. If you want to read into that it's your hang up.

Banneker is an excellent school but irrelevant to Hardy other than it's the tired favorite card in every DCUM race player hand. It's a selective application school and it's demographics are largely self selected.

^^ and to be clear I'm not talking about OOB students at all.

Didn't say you were racist. Said you were saying that the key to a superior performing school is enrolling in-boundary children. Since my child was OOB, it's pretty clear you think that she brought down the quality of the school. Well, thanks for that!

Hardy parent PP lamented Hardy in relation to Deal. Deal has become a high achieving school because it retains its high performing ES feeders. 1/3 of Deal lives out of boundary too. OOB students aren't the problem for Hardy. The school is not getting buy in from within its boundary on par with Deal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Gonna. Happen.

-- Hardy IB family who would love it, but seriously why would any IB Deal family or Deal feeder family be up for this...

I seriously don't get the Hardy IB community. You have a school fed exclusively by top performing elementary schools. No dead weight whatsoever and most as hard to get into OOB as Deal feeds. If you just enrolled in boundary you'd have a school superior to Deal with a much more manageable size.

But that means someone's gotta do it first. They gotta keep going to reduce the OOB and thus reduce the brown kids to make it safe for everyone to come on in. You also have a great school in Banneker that no white families look at. DC, neck and neck with Boston for being the most racist liberal city.

Yep, as the mom of an OOB Hardy grad, the bolded statement is really offensive. Yeah, if you could just get rid of kids like mine, your school would be sooooo much better. Nice to know what you think of my child.

there's nothing racist in that statement. Take the standardized scores alone and the entire feeder pattern for Hardy comprises the top performing schools in DC. By "dead weight" I only referred to low performing schools. Deal doesn't really have dead weight either. If you want to read into that it's your hang up.

Banneker is an excellent school but irrelevant to Hardy other than it's the tired favorite card in every DCUM race player hand. It's a selective application school and it's demographics are largely self selected.

^^ and to be clear I'm not talking about OOB students at all.

Didn't say you were racist. Said you were saying that the key to a superior performing school is enrolling in-boundary children. Since my child was OOB, it's pretty clear you think that she brought down the quality of the school. Well, thanks for that!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Gonna. Happen.

-- Hardy IB family who would love it, but seriously why would any IB Deal family or Deal feeder family be up for this...

I seriously don't get the Hardy IB community. You have a school fed exclusively by top performing elementary schools. No dead weight whatsoever and most as hard to get into OOB as Deal feeds. If you just enrolled in boundary you'd have a school superior to Deal with a much more manageable size.

But that means someone's gotta do it first. They gotta keep going to reduce the OOB and thus reduce the brown kids to make it safe for everyone to come on in. You also have a great school in Banneker that no white families look at. DC, neck and neck with Boston for being the most racist liberal city.

Yep, as the mom of an OOB Hardy grad, the bolded statement is really offensive. Yeah, if you could just get rid of kids like mine, your school would be sooooo much better. Nice to know what you think of my child.

there's nothing racist in that statement. Take the standardized scores alone and the entire feeder pattern for Hardy comprises the top performing schools in DC. By "dead weight" I only referred to low performing schools. Deal doesn't really have dead weight either. If you want to read into that it's your hang up.

Banneker is an excellent school but irrelevant to Hardy other than it's the tired favorite card in every DCUM race player hand. It's a selective application school and it's demographics are largely self selected.

^^ and to be clear I'm not talking about OOB students at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Gonna. Happen.

-- Hardy IB family who would love it, but seriously why would any IB Deal family or Deal feeder family be up for this...

I seriously don't get the Hardy IB community. You have a school fed exclusively by top performing elementary schools. No dead weight whatsoever and most as hard to get into OOB as Deal feeds. If you just enrolled in boundary you'd have a school superior to Deal with a much more manageable size.

But that means someone's gotta do it first. They gotta keep going to reduce the OOB and thus reduce the brown kids to make it safe for everyone to come on in. You also have a great school in Banneker that no white families look at. DC, neck and neck with Boston for being the most racist liberal city.

Yep, as the mom of an OOB Hardy grad, the bolded statement is really offensive. Yeah, if you could just get rid of kids like mine, your school would be sooooo much better. Nice to know what you think of my child.

there's nothing racist in that statement. Take the standardized scores alone and the entire feeder pattern for Hardy comprises the top performing schools in DC. By "dead weight" I only referred to low performing schools. Deal doesn't really have dead weight either. If you want to read into that it's your hang up.

Banneker is an excellent school but irrelevant to Hardy other than it's the tired favorite card in every DCUM race player hand. It's a selective application school and it's demographics are largely self selected.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. Gonna. Happen.

-- Hardy IB family who would love it, but seriously why would any IB Deal family or Deal feeder family be up for this...

I seriously don't get the Hardy IB community. You have a school fed exclusively by top performing elementary schools. No dead weight whatsoever and most as hard to get into OOB as Deal feeds. If you just enrolled in boundary you'd have a school superior to Deal with a much more manageable size.

But that means someone's gotta do it first. They gotta keep going to reduce the OOB and thus reduce the brown kids to make it safe for everyone to come on in. You also have a great school in Banneker that no white families look at. DC, neck and neck with Boston for being the most racist liberal city.

Yep, as the mom of an OOB Hardy grad, the bolded statement is really offensive. Yeah, if you could just get rid of kids like mine, your school would be sooooo much better. Nice to know what you think of my child.