Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser's idea to create a new "Western" high school isn't a bad one. It would relieve the existing pressure on Wilson immediately (with room to grow), and maybe send the Hardy and SWW-FS kids to the new Western. Don't know of an existing building big enough to house it, though.

I'm the OP of this thread:
the old Western HS actually has a large athletic field just one block away that was used for Western's sports teams. Duke Ellington doesn't have any sports teams, so it's now used as a community sports fields, walking track, and Duke Ellington marching band uses it for practice. However, the sizable piece of land is still owned by DCPS. It's the size of two city blocks and way under-used: https://goo.gl/maps/cAbhLv8ktN32

There's no way that spot would work for a new HS -- Reservoir road is already packed to the gills with Georgetown Hospital traffic. Maybe build an addition on the field behind SWW-Francis Stevens would work, imo. Basically the entire problem is caused by the geographical region for Wilson being far too big. It's not coincidental at all that Ellington occupies the same real estate as the old Western High School. When you look at the feeder map for Wilson, you can see it makes complete sense that a Western high school at Ellington's location would take up the lower half of the map that now feeds to Wilson. The region's just too big and needs to be cut in half with a new Western HS to take the students it used to take.

Actually that location was the preferred location of a new Duke Ellington as opposed to renovation of the old space, but it was rejected by neighbors in favor of the green space, which means any new Western at that location is also likely to be rejected.

Anonymous wrote:ALL DCPS has to do is copy successful suburban school districts is true. Unfortunately, DCPS's poor population is about 80% or more impoverished. One cannot have a successful school in areas outside of NW when the students are not at benchmark. Wilson, Banneker, Walls are just about the only schools doing well and even then those schools do not provide a well rounded high school experience. DCPS will never have a public school that offers the private prep school experience. Many of our areas best suburban public schools are run like private prep schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser's idea to create a new "Western" high school isn't a bad one. It would relieve the existing pressure on Wilson immediately (with room to grow), and maybe send the Hardy and SWW-FS kids to the new Western. Don't know of an existing building big enough to house it, though.

I'm the OP of this thread:
the old Western HS actually has a large athletic field just one block away that was used for Western's sports teams. Duke Ellington doesn't have any sports teams, so it's now used as a community sports fields, walking track, and Duke Ellington marching band uses it for practice. However, the sizable piece of land is still owned by DCPS. It's the size of two city blocks and way under-used: https://goo.gl/maps/cAbhLv8ktN32

There's no way that spot would work for a new HS -- Reservoir road is already packed to the gills with Georgetown Hospital traffic. Maybe build an addition on the field behind SWW-Francis Stevens would work, imo. Basically the entire problem is caused by the geographical region for Wilson being far too big. It's not coincidental at all that Ellington occupies the same real estate as the old Western High School. When you look at the feeder map for Wilson, you can see it makes complete sense that a Western high school at Ellington's location would take up the lower half of the map that now feeds to Wilson. The region's just too big and needs to be cut in half with a new Western HS to take the students it used to take.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, a Ward 3 high school is an old solution to a new DC. No thank you.

No, the absence of an old high school represents the original solution for the old DC, now missing. If you doubt me, please see the following history:

https://educationdc.net/2016/09/24/ellington-and-the-disappeared-western-high-school/

In any event, surely you know Ellington/Western is in Ward 2? What we're really talking about is getting our Ward 2 high school back, because the new DC needs it just like the old DC did. There's no good reason I can see that Ward 2 students should feed into Ward 3 Wilson HS. I don't even know why parts of Ward 2 are called "NorthWest" when there's nothing "North" about it. Georgetown should be deemed part of SW.

Look at the original map of DC, when parts of Virginia were part of the District, including Arlington and Alexandria. You'll clearly see why Georgetown is part of "Northwest":



Then why is the Wharf area called "southwest" when it's always clearly been "southeast," according to you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser's idea to create a new "Western" high school isn't a bad one. It would relieve the existing pressure on Wilson immediately (with room to grow), and maybe send the Hardy and SWW-FS kids to the new Western. Don't know of an existing building big enough to house it, though.

I'm the OP of this thread:
the old Western HS actually has a large athletic field just one block away that was used for Western's sports teams. Duke Ellington doesn't have any sports teams, so it's now used as a community sports fields, walking track, and Duke Ellington marching band uses it for practice. However, the sizable piece of land is still owned by DCPS. It's the size of two city blocks and way under-used: https://goo.gl/maps/cAbhLv8ktN32

There's no way that spot would work for a new HS -- Reservoir road is already packed to the gills with Georgetown Hospital traffic. Maybe build an addition on the field behind SWW-Francis Stevens would work, imo. Basically the entire problem is caused by the geographical region for Wilson being far too big. It's not coincidental at all that Ellington occupies the same real estate as the old Western High School. When you look at the feeder map for Wilson, you can see it makes complete sense that a Western high school at Ellington's location would take up the lower half of the map that now feeds to Wilson. The region's just too big and needs to be cut in half with a new Western HS to take the students it used to take.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, a Ward 3 high school is an old solution to a new DC. No thank you.

No, the absence of an old high school represents the original solution for the old DC, now missing. If you doubt me, please see the following history:

https://educationdc.net/2016/09/24/ellington-and-the-disappeared-western-high-school/

In any event, surely you know Ellington/Western is in Ward 2? What we're really talking about is getting our Ward 2 high school back, because the new DC needs it just like the old DC did. There's no good reason I can see that Ward 2 students should feed into Ward 3 Wilson HS. I don't even know why parts of Ward 2 are called "NorthWest" when there's nothing "North" about it. Georgetown should be deemed part of SW.

Anonymous wrote:I checked:
https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/SY16-17_High%20School%20Fact%20Sheet_10.06.17.pdf

Total 2016-17 DCPS high school enrollment by ward of residence: 17,757

Enrollment by residents of Ward 2: 270.

Ward 2 residents are literally 1.5% of DCPS high schoolers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, a Ward 3 high school is an old solution to a new DC. No thank you.

No, the absence of an old high school represents the original solution for the old DC, now missing. If you doubt me, please see the following history:

https://educationdc.net/2016/09/24/ellington-and-the-disappeared-western-high-school/

In any event, surely you know Ellington/Western is in Ward 2? What we're really talking about is getting our Ward 2 high school back, because the new DC needs it just like the old DC did. There's no good reason I can see that Ward 2 students should feed into Ward 3 Wilson HS. I don't even know why parts of Ward 2 are called "NorthWest" when there's nothing "North" about it. Georgetown should be deemed part of SW.

Anonymous wrote:No, a Ward 3 high school is an old solution to a new DC. No thank you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser's idea to create a new "Western" high school isn't a bad one. It would relieve the existing pressure on Wilson immediately (with room to grow), and maybe send the Hardy and SWW-FS kids to the new Western. Don't know of an existing building big enough to house it, though.

I'm the OP of this thread:
the old Western HS actually has a large athletic field just one block away that was used for Western's sports teams. Duke Ellington doesn't have any sports teams, so it's now used as a community sports fields, walking track, and Duke Ellington marching band uses it for practice. However, the sizable piece of land is still owned by DCPS. It's the size of two city blocks and way under-used: https://goo.gl/maps/cAbhLv8ktN32

Anonymous wrote:Bowser's idea to create a new "Western" high school isn't a bad one. It would relieve the existing pressure on Wilson immediately (with room to grow), and maybe send the Hardy and SWW-FS kids to the new Western. Don't know of an existing building big enough to house it, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Banneker is a dump. They want to pull families away from Wilson and SWW (which is full to the brim and turns away kids each year who pass the test and are on the wait list).

Banneker's current space doesn't allow for much outside of academics (fields, etc); the new Shaw space theoretically would.

The new location with better facilities could help drive demand, but I noticed that that there was a short waitlist for Banneker and the school is not at capacity. So what is the urgency? Is there some cohort of high performing kids that are about to erupt out of DCPS middle schools?