Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 14:01     Subject: Re:what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
The way Watkins deals with the Basis/Washington Latin departures for 5th grade is to go from 5 sections of 4th grade to 4 sections of 5th grade.


Slightly off-topic: Why are charter middle schools (Basis and Latin) allowed to start at 5th grade when that grade is still part of the elementary school in DCPS? It seems like charter schools that start in middle grades should be made to start at the same grade as DCPS middle schools so as not to undermine the 5th grade in DCPS elementary schools.
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 13:56     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:SH is not strictly-speaking a "Ward 6" school. It is supposed to be a neighborhood school that serves the families living in the nearby area. The same is true for the two other middle schools located in Ward 6, namely Jefferson and EH. As presently constituted, approximately 19 percent of SH students are IB and 54 percent are FARMS eligible. This is not surprising given the OOB percentages for Watkins, JO Wilson and Ludlow-Taylor. As I am not aware of any former Brent students who attend SH, and must assume that few former Maury students opted to attend, SH simply is not meeting its obligation to serve as a neighborhood school for the vast majority of Capitol Hill families living within a ten block radius of the school. And, yes, I do not consider H Street to be Capitol Hill, much less Rosedale or "Hill East."


"Hill East"? Depends on how far east, Kingman Park may be borderline, but virtually everything to the west of it is Capitol Hill. Hill East used to just refer to the eastern edge of the historic district, but that distinction is less relevant as the areas have changed over time. Even Barney Circle is generally considered the Hill.

Maury and Brent are both phyiscally closer to SH than Watkins, but that's not the overriding factor. The boundary for SH is deliberately microscopic becuase the system favors feeders over inboundary students. The broader Hill community can only access SH by living within the tiny boundary (smaller than the Cluster boundary), by OOB lottery, or by attending Watkins through 5th with its larger Cluster boundary and easier OOB space and then rising to SH. If Watkins is a preference that's fine, but for many Hill residents SH does not serve as a true community school unless you ignore the many public school alternatives and enroll in the Cluster for ES. We'll take our chances with charters for MS before being forced into an ES school which is not our preference.


I get it. People who overpayed for a rowhouse at 16th and F NE (or pick some other location) want to brag that they live on Capitol Hill. Captiol Hill does not magically expand with the passage of time merely because surrounding blocks continue to gentrify. In any event, I think we all understand that the Cluster rigged the system to prioritize its constituency over IB populations that were formerly predominately AA and low income. The model has proven to be a failure.
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 13:47     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
IMO. Capitol Hill is largely coextensive with the Historic District, although it is difficult to define whether the H Street/Near Northeast/Trinidad/Galludet neighborhood starts at F or H Streets NE. Those who lived here in the 30s and 40s will tell you with great certainty that the "Hill" did not extend past Fifth Street NE/SE and thus Eastern Market was never considered to be part of the "Hill" proper. There is also a reason that there is a "Hill East" listserve for the area roughly between 14th and 19th Streets SE. Reasonable minds may of course come to a different conclusion.
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 13:32     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
Anonymous wrote:SH is not strictly-speaking a "Ward 6" school. It is supposed to be a neighborhood school that serves the families living in the nearby area. The same is true for the two other middle schools located in Ward 6, namely Jefferson and EH. As presently constituted, approximately 19 percent of SH students are IB and 54 percent are FARMS eligible. This is not surprising given the OOB percentages for Watkins, JO Wilson and Ludlow-Taylor. As I am not aware of any former Brent students who attend SH, and must assume that few former Maury students opted to attend, SH simply is not meeting its obligation to serve as a neighborhood school for the vast majority of Capitol Hill families living within a ten block radius of the school. And, yes, I do not consider H Street to be Capitol Hill, much less Rosedale or "Hill East."


"Hill East"? Depends on how far east, Kingman Park may be borderline, but virtually everything to the west of it is Capitol Hill. Hill East used to just refer to the eastern edge of the historic district, but that distinction is less relevant as the areas have changed over time. Even Barney Circle is generally considered the Hill.

Maury and Brent are both phyiscally closer to SH than Watkins, but that's not the overriding factor. The boundary for SH is deliberately microscopic becuase the system favors feeders over inboundary students. The broader Hill community can only access SH by living within the tiny boundary (smaller than the Cluster boundary), by OOB lottery, or by attending Watkins through 5th with its larger Cluster boundary and easier OOB space and then rising to SH. If Watkins is a preference that's fine, but for many Hill residents SH does not serve as a true community school unless you ignore the many public school alternatives and enroll in the Cluster for ES. We'll take our chances with charters for MS before being forced into an ES school which is not our preference.
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 13:20     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think if people would stop saying Capitol Hill students and schools and just refer to them as Ward 6 schools it would put people at ease.


From Wikipedia

The Capitol Hill neighborhood today straddles two quadrants of the city, Southeast and Northeast, and a large portion is now designated as the Capitol Hill historic district. The name Capitol Hill is often used to refer to both the historic district and to the larger neighborhood around it. To the east of Capitol Hill lies the Anacostia River, to the north is the H Street corridor, to the south are the Southeast/Southwest Freeway and the Washington Navy Yard, and to the west are the National Mall and the city's central business district.


Not to belabor the point but I am not sure this sort of conclusory assertion is definitive. EH is in Ward 6 but not on Capitol Hill.


I don't get it. Where does Capitol Hill end in your mind if Eliot Hine is not "on" Capitol Hill?
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 13:16     Subject: Re:what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
I'm not sure I get the post at 12:54. The closest schools to SH are Ludlow-Taylor, Peabody, JO Wilson, and Capitol Hill Montessori. Those are the "neighborhood" elementary schools. The closest schools to Eliot-Hine include Maury. The closest schools to Jefferson include Brent (even though it is very far away). This isn't to say all of these boundaries/feeders shouldn't be entirely reconsidered, but I'm not sure I get the argument that Stuart-Hobson is supposed to be the middle school for historic Capitol Hill only.
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 13:16     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
Anonymous wrote:Shaw and Walker Jones are also schools in ward 6 serving middle school students


Yes, technically they are part of Ward 6, but only because Tommy Wells allowed Jack Evans to unload what Evans considered to be a less affluent and politically hostile part of Shaw only a couple of years ago, presumably because Wells needed to try to expand his lily white constituency in anticipation of a Mayoral run. In any event, Walker-Jones is not strictly speaking a middle school and no one from the high-SES population residing "east of the tracks" is going to jump at the chance to send their kids there, which is the context of this discussion.
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 13:04     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think if people would stop saying Capitol Hill students and schools and just refer to them as Ward 6 schools it would put people at ease.


From Wikipedia

The Capitol Hill neighborhood today straddles two quadrants of the city, Southeast and Northeast, and a large portion is now designated as the Capitol Hill historic district. The name Capitol Hill is often used to refer to both the historic district and to the larger neighborhood around it. To the east of Capitol Hill lies the Anacostia River, to the north is the H Street corridor, to the south are the Southeast/Southwest Freeway and the Washington Navy Yard, and to the west are the National Mall and the city's central business district.


Not to belabor the point but I am not sure this sort of conclusory assertion is definitive. EH is in Ward 6 but not on Capitol Hill.
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 12:58     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
Shaw and Walker Jones are also schools in ward 6 serving middle school students
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 12:55     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
I know of one or two Brent students who went on to Stuart Hobson. For what it's worth, they were OOB at Brent.
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 12:54     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
SH is not strictly-speaking a "Ward 6" school. It is supposed to be a neighborhood school that serves the families living in the nearby area. The same is true for the two other middle schools located in Ward 6, namely Jefferson and EH. As presently constituted, approximately 19 percent of SH students are IB and 54 percent are FARMS eligible. This is not surprising given the OOB percentages for Watkins, JO Wilson and Ludlow-Taylor. As I am not aware of any former Brent students who attend SH, and must assume that few former Maury students opted to attend, SH simply is not meeting its obligation to serve as a neighborhood school for the vast majority of Capitol Hill families living within a ten block radius of the school. And, yes, I do not consider H Street to be Capitol Hill, much less Rosedale or "Hill East."
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 12:42     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
Anonymous wrote:I think if people would stop saying Capitol Hill students and schools and just refer to them as Ward 6 schools it would put people at ease.


From Wikipedia

The Capitol Hill neighborhood today straddles two quadrants of the city, Southeast and Northeast, and a large portion is now designated as the Capitol Hill historic district. The name Capitol Hill is often used to refer to both the historic district and to the larger neighborhood around it. To the east of Capitol Hill lies the Anacostia River, to the north is the H Street corridor, to the south are the Southeast/Southwest Freeway and the Washington Navy Yard, and to the west are the National Mall and the city's central business district.
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 12:34     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
^^^Right but that brings in some schools ( including a middle school ) that is not at all in the discussion. And schools are actually not organized by wards all though it is a political distinction people like to use. I think Capitol Hill is a perfectly fine short hand for the feeder patterns built around Eliot-Hine, Stuart Hobson and Eastern High School. We could say Capitol Hill and SW Waterfront which would bring in Jefferson which also feeds to Eastern.

What is your concern? Who is left out?
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 11:11     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
I think if people would stop saying Capitol Hill students and schools and just refer to them as Ward 6 schools it would put people at ease.
Anonymous
Post 11/14/2013 11:07     Subject: what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?
Anonymous wrote:More inboundary kids would attend SH (i.e. Brent and Maury students) if there was room and the opportunity. Those parents would love to have their children in a nearby quality middle school.


Huh? Students who are inboundary for Brent and Maury are not in boundary for stuart Hobson. They would need to apply oob