Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The major issue has to be that Murch had k classes this year as small as 16. Oops! But last year they were as large as 27 (you try hiring a fifth teacher in September). With volatile IB enrollment because of apartments and embassies, OOB enrollment is the only way to plan ahead.

But why not just wait until September and take kids from the wait list to fill up any under-enrolled classes?

That would be rational. And we don't do rational in DCPS.

I think it's more an issue of money (you project a certain budget, and you need to have the enrollment match to keep the money), politics, and the major-do-whatever-it-takes-to-get-into-Deal/Wilson-card. At some point, the calculus will change, and people will prefer to go to some school other than Murch, because it will be so large, it will no longer be able to offer the kind of quality that drew everyone to it in the first place. Hearst is a fine school - I would start betting on its overtaking Murch in popularity in the new few years.

To be clear, "keep the money" means keep the classroom teacher. Lose the teacher/money and you have a class size of 28+. DCPS does not have a plan for handling an expansion year that causes a temporary dip in class size below the sweet spot that funds a teacher, other than forcing the school to take OOB students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The major issue has to be that Murch had k classes this year as small as 16. Oops! But last year they were as large as 27 (you try hiring a fifth teacher in September). With volatile IB enrollment because of apartments and embassies, OOB enrollment is the only way to plan ahead.

But why not just wait until September and take kids from the wait list to fill up any under-enrolled classes?

That would be rational. And we don't do rational in DCPS.

I think it's more an issue of money (you project a certain budget, and you need to have the enrollment match to keep the money), politics, and the major-do-whatever-it-takes-to-get-into-Deal/Wilson-card. At some point, the calculus will change, and people will prefer to go to some school other than Murch, because it will be so large, it will no longer be able to offer the kind of quality that drew everyone to it in the first place. Hearst is a fine school - I would start betting on its overtaking Murch in popularity in the new few years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, now you conform you are a bit looney. XDay and Stoddert are the extra curriculars you are talking about? And the specials teachers having trouble remembering names? Come on OP, those are really random "stressors" to focus on. I think most telling is your community concern. You are a K family and are having trouble meeting people. You haven't mentioned one stressor which affects your child. I can promise you the specials teachers (most of whom have been there a number of years. Geography teacher is new only because the previous one couldn't renew her visa renewed another time) don't share your concern. XDay has always had a limit on the number of kids it can take in pk and k. It is limited by staff to kid ratio dictated by law. Even when the school was smaller there were limits and people didn't get in. Stoddert-- do I really need to address this? Better yet, please find me a child who was denied playing Stoddert because their school let in a limited number of OOB students in the lottery.

You will meet people as your kid continues at Murch. Why not offer to host the class potluck in the fall? How about volunteer to be a room parent? Why not volunteer to sell pizza before a school event? Have you attended a principal coffee in the playground? I am sure you went to all the HSA meetings, did you introduce yourself to Martha or Maggie? They are really great at welcoming new families and immediately getting them involved with the school and other parents.

Exactly. There are plenty of opportunities to meet people and get involved. You don't seem like a shrinking violet, OP. And you clearly have strong opinions. Get involved.

(And as for the specials teachers, there's one who will never remember all of the kids names, no matter how many she has. She just calls them all "sweetie," even the ones she's had since she started teaching at Murch. But that's a different issue.)

OP again (seems like I'm a glutton for punishment.) Putting aside PP's infantile name calling, I know of many other parents who share my concerns and who have provided me with the examples included in my previous posts. These are parents who I've met and become friends with this year, by the way, so thanks for the advice to become more involved. I've attended HSA meetings, hosted get-togethers, volunteered in the classroom and at the auction, chaperoned fieldtrips, etc., and have met a lot of nice people, but that's beside the point. The fact is a bigger school does stretch the overall resources and sense of a tight-knit community, it just does. Do you think a school that's 900 kids feels the same as a school with 350? Of course it doesn't. Friends of mine who have kids at Key or Mann or other smaller schools talk about how they know almost every kid in K. I can't even imagine that at a school the size of Murch. And before the pro-Murch boosters sharpen their talons, I like Murch. I support the school. I donate my $ and my time. My kid is happy there, and I think it's a nice community. It's not a personal attack against you, your family, your kid, or the school to question the approach of accepting more OOB kids when the school is already so overcrowded. I also think it's interesting that the nasty PPs still haven't addressed my main point -- that it undercuts our complaining about an overcrowded school when we add 10% of our student population from OOB. And, I'll reiterate, I would be very upset I if lived in a part of the Murch district that has been redrawn.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, now you conform you are a bit looney. XDay and Stoddert are the extra curriculars you are talking about? And the specials teachers having trouble remembering names? Come on OP, those are really random "stressors" to focus on. I think most telling is your community concern. You are a K family and are having trouble meeting people. You haven't mentioned one stressor which affects your child. I can promise you the specials teachers (most of whom have been there a number of years. Geography teacher is new only because the previous one couldn't renew her visa renewed another time) don't share your concern. XDay has always had a limit on the number of kids it can take in pk and k. It is limited by staff to kid ratio dictated by law. Even when the school was smaller there were limits and people didn't get in. Stoddert-- do I really need to address this? Better yet, please find me a child who was denied playing Stoddert because their school let in a limited number of OOB students in the lottery.

You will meet people as your kid continues at Murch. Why not offer to host the class potluck in the fall? How about volunteer to be a room parent? Why not volunteer to sell pizza before a school event? Have you attended a principal coffee in the playground? I am sure you went to all the HSA meetings, did you introduce yourself to Martha or Maggie? They are really great at welcoming new families and immediately getting them involved with the school and other parents.

Exactly. There are plenty of opportunities to meet people and get involved. You don't seem like a shrinking violet, OP. And you clearly have strong opinions. Get involved.

(And as for the specials teachers, there's one who will never remember all of the kids names, no matter how many she has. She just calls them all "sweetie," even the ones she's had since she started teaching at Murch. But that's a different issue.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every one of those 60 OOB kids just bailed on their own neighborhood school. If nothing else, DCPS should consider why that is.

OOB enrollment was designed to utilize surplus slots at desirable schools that had capacity. When a school is enrolled over capacity, to the point where they are needing to shrink its IB area, there shouldn't be any new OOB kids enrolled. Period.

You must be new around here. Welcome.

Right -- OOB enrollment is the District's work-around to the end of 1970s bussing. OOB in the 2000s is the vehicle for maintaining a degree of integration in DCPS. OOB will continue so long as the District's leadership is a mix of elected/appointed African Americans and veryliberal Dem whites, who are all (except Matt Frumin) afraid of "optics."

For some reason, the parents and school leadership in AU Park are not perturbed by a school that is ~ 94% white & Asian, and Central allows this. At all the other Ward 3 schools, this is not cool.

Isn't it nutty to continue to accept OOB students into a severely overcrowded school that has become a semi-permanent trailer city?

Anonymous wrote:

And I have heard other parents complain about not getting into Xday, not getting a spot on a Murch Stoddert team, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The major issue has to be that Murch had k classes this year as small as 16. Oops! But last year they were as large as 27 (you try hiring a fifth teacher in September). With volatile IB enrollment because of apartments and embassies, OOB enrollment is the only way to plan ahead.

But why not just wait until September and take kids from the wait list to fill up any under-enrolled classes?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every one of those 60 OOB kids just bailed on their own neighborhood school. If nothing else, DCPS should consider why that is.

OOB enrollment was designed to utilize surplus slots at desirable schools that had capacity. When a school is enrolled over capacity, to the point where they are needing to shrink its IB area, there shouldn't be any new OOB kids enrolled. Period.

You must be new around here. Welcome.

Right -- OOB enrollment is the District's work-around to the end of 1970s bussing. OOB in the 2000s is the vehicle for maintaining a degree of integration in DCPS. OOB will continue so long as the District's leadership is a mix of elected/appointed African Americans and veryliberal Dem whites, who are all (except Matt Frumin) afraid of "optics."

For some reason, the parents and school leadership in AU Park are not perturbed by a school that is ~ 94% white & Asian, and Central allows this. At all the other Ward 3 schools, this is not cool.

Anonymous wrote:So now there are 60 fewer kids at their OOB neighborhood schools. How are those schools supposed to stay open if kids jump ship every chance they get? No wonder Coolidge, Roosevelt, Cardozo, etc... are under enrolled. And no wonder the charter movement is gaining ground every year. There is zero incentive to make those schools better, because all the effort is to maximize ways to shuttle kids to the few WOTP schools that are "desirable."

Anonymous wrote:The major issue has to be that Murch had k classes this year as small as 16. Oops! But last year they were as large as 27 (you try hiring a fifth teacher in September). With volatile IB enrollment because of apartments and embassies, OOB enrollment is the only way to plan ahead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every one of those 60 OOB kids just bailed on their own neighborhood school. If nothing else, DCPS should consider why that is.

OOB enrollment was designed to utilize surplus slots at desirable schools that had capacity. When a school is enrolled over capacity, to the point where they are needing to shrink its IB area, there shouldn't be any new OOB kids enrolled. Period.

You must be new around here. Welcome.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every one of those 60 OOB kids just bailed on their own neighborhood school. If nothing else, DCPS should consider why that is.

OOB enrollment was designed to utilize surplus slots at desirable schools that had capacity. When a school is enrolled over capacity, to the point where they are needing to shrink its IB area, there shouldn't be any new OOB kids enrolled. Period.