Garrison parent here (early childhood). First of all, it's sad to hear that parents might be turning away from Garrison because of the condition of the school. It will obviously be much better when it's renovated, but it's functional. Garrison has a great, diverse community, and a lot of really great teachers at all grade levels. There is definitely some momentum for improvement within the school that may not yet be reflected in test scores (which to me don't mean much anyway). If you're IB and thinking of sending your kids, you should definitely give it a shot.

Although I'm quite happy with the school, and I hate to say it, but I have to agree with other posters who complain about DCPS. It's not an easy task to convince parents that any other NW middle school besides Deal is acceptable, but DCPS seems to not have any interest in even trying, let alone pushing ahead with the new mid-city middle school. So, that's problem #1 with attracting and especially retaining IB (or OOB) students to Garrison. Second, DCPS has indeed been dragging their feet with the modernization. For the past several years Garrison is scheduled for modernization, and every year it is held up by some change in plans, Garrison loses its budget and we have to fight to get it back. But it's not just DCPS. This year, we were all set to go full steam ahead with the design for the renovation, and then the Council cut our budget in half, throwing everything in a tailspin again and making us vulnerable to not being able to meet the deadlines to spend our allotted budget this year, and repeating this Groundhog Day scenario we're in. It's really nuts.

So for those of you who are wondering why Garrison is in the shape that it's in, why Garrison is under-enrolled and unloved by its IB community, or why some parents at Garrison never seem to stop lobbying for something....maybe this description explains some of it. The good news is that I think it is changing for the better. But it's in spite of, not because of anything that DCPS or the Mayor's office is doing or not doing.

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Anonymous wrote:That's nice how you did that "we vs. you" thing there. Glad we are all in this together.

Yeah...since we are accused of a diabolical plan to keep schools from modernization (and overthrowing neighborhood schools in general). If only you knew how disorganized we really are.

That is rather shocking considering all the corporate consultants and DCPCSB-mandated vendors.

Which vendors are those? Corporate consultants?

The Charter Board has never mandated a vendor. I don't think people on this message board know how independent charters are of each other and of the PCSB. Only KIPP is really close to the DC Government and its affiliates.

This - having worked with the Charter Board - I can pretty much tell you, the above (disorganized) is more factual.

Yes, charter schools cannot be bullied easily because it's hard to figure out whom to bully.