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Anonymous wrote:Clearly people from out of state should not be attending. That is not what is controversial. What is controversial is why people feel so certain there are address cheaters without any evidence other than seeing an occasional lisence plate (hence the reason why it has been pointed out so many times that one parent may live in DC and one in MD).

It is not controversial if you live near or attend Ludlow Taylor. It is very well known that there are many, many children from Maryland.

Anonymous wrote:Clearly people from out of state should not be attending. That is not what is controversial. What is controversial is why people feel so certain there are address cheaters without any evidence other than seeing an occasional lisence plate (hence the reason why it has been pointed out so many times that one parent may live in DC and one in MD).

Anonymous wrote:Do you like sit out and count the MD plates or something? I rarely see MD plates outside the school and I am by the school during mornings and drop offs. It is also possible for children to have one parent that lives in MD an one in DC. I attended a high SES DCPS in NW and had friends who had parents that lived in MD. But perhaps Bethesda is o.k. where District Heights is not.

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Anonymous wrote:+100. Far too easy to blame in-boundary parents for not trying hard enough to effect change. We learned the we couldn't the hard way, really a miserable experience. But I'd still be glad to rally neighbors to get a group together to meet with whomever replaces Tommy Wells to talk about LT's leadership issues (assuming that he'll see his mayoral race through).

It is absurd to think a principal who is doing an EXCELLENT job would be replaced simply because you do not feel "welcomed enough."

Maybe 20 years ago it would have been absurd, but today it's not at all absurd. The game has changed, and the dinosaur mentality of just sitting back and automatically getting students in the door every year is no longer how things work. Schools and principals now have to EARN the respect of families, has to COMPETE for students, and work hard to RETAIN them if they wish to stay relevant, and for their schools to stay open. If a DC principal isn't in that mindset, isn't actively seeking out and welcoming in families, that principal will fast find failure no matter how everything else is going.

It would be nice to think that this is true, but you are just wrong. Ludlow-Taylor's scores are pretty good, and DCPS has made it clear that the school is going to stay open, with or without neighborhood families. What you don't understand is that there are lots of families who do respect the principal and love the school, even if you personally don't.

It will be interesting to see where neighborhood families end up over the next few years, as seats at Brent, Maury, SWS and Peabody are harder and harder to come by.

Isn't a public school supposed to be welcoming to ALL families? Not just some?

If it's not welcoming and seats in other schools are so hard to come by then principals like this may well be the best thing to happen to charters.

Well, no. When a DCPS welcomes kids who do not live in DC, that is a problem.

But if they're welcoming kids from other wards, because the neighborhood is leaving empty seats, then it really isn't.

It is from your perspective, but not from DCPS's.

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Anonymous wrote:Such myopia on this thread. Neighborhoods benefit when the families in them send their kids to schools the small fry can reach on foot. Kids benefit from attending schools they can attend with neighborhood pals. Struggling schools benefit tremendously from an influx of the children of the affluent and highly educated. Yet one PP after another defends the mediocre status quo at LT.

Your comment isn't rooted in reality. Many families enroll in schools without respect to geography. Just look at the Hill students attending private schools across town (not as uncommon as you think). Same deal with charters. People will send their kids to the school they think is best suited to their educational philosophy and the needs of their children. That may be a neighborhood school, but it could just as easiliy be located somewhere else. You are likely to find that your kid's "neighborhood pals" attend school all over the map whether you think that's best or not.

Anonymous wrote:Such myopia on this thread. Neighborhoods benefit when the families in them send their kids to schools the small fry can reach on foot. Kids benefit from attending schools they can attend with neighborhood pals. Struggling schools benefit tremendously from an influx of the children of the affluent and highly educated. Yet one PP after another defends the mediocre status quo at LT.

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Anonymous wrote:+100. Far too easy to blame in-boundary parents for not trying hard enough to effect change. We learned the we couldn't the hard way, really a miserable experience. But I'd still be glad to rally neighbors to get a group together to meet with whomever replaces Tommy Wells to talk about LT's leadership issues (assuming that he'll see his mayoral race through).

It is absurd to think a principal who is doing an EXCELLENT job would be replaced simply because you do not feel "welcomed enough."

Maybe 20 years ago it would have been absurd, but today it's not at all absurd. The game has changed, and the dinosaur mentality of just sitting back and automatically getting students in the door every year is no longer how things work. Schools and principals now have to EARN the respect of families, has to COMPETE for students, and work hard to RETAIN them if they wish to stay relevant, and for their schools to stay open. If a DC principal isn't in that mindset, isn't actively seeking out and welcoming in families, that principal will fast find failure no matter how everything else is going.

It would be nice to think that this is true, but you are just wrong. Ludlow-Taylor's scores are pretty good, and DCPS has made it clear that the school is going to stay open, with or without neighborhood families. What you don't understand is that there are lots of families who do respect the principal and love the school, even if you personally don't.

It will be interesting to see where neighborhood families end up over the next few years, as seats at Brent, Maury, SWS and Peabody are harder and harder to come by.

Isn't a public school supposed to be welcoming to ALL families? Not just some?

If it's not welcoming and seats in other schools are so hard to come by then principals like this may well be the best thing to happen to charters.

Well, no. When a DCPS welcomes kids who do not live in DC, that is a problem.

Anonymous wrote:We're a "high SES" IB family and happy to send our child to preschool at LT. I am willing to give our neighborhood school a try, and do my part to make the school the best it can be. I have not had any negative encounters with the principal or staff; actually everybody has been very welcoming and willing to communicate with us. I for one am cheering the school and encouraged by the solid test scores - higher than Maury's, by the way. Something good is happening in those classrooms and I wish them all the best. Certainly not deterred by the negativity on this forum... a positive attitude and realistic expectations go a long way in my world.

Anonymous wrote:I love that this thread is 53 pages. Really crazy! I think that LT will eventually revert to a neighborhood school, or at least partially a neighborhood school, but it will in part take the families in the area who have bad feelings about the principal to move on (literally, move on to being concerned about the woes of their current elementary, middle and high schools). And I think it will take the principal evolving too - which I think will happen as the demographics of the school continue to change. Good luck LT!

Anonymous wrote:The next Brent through what? Passive observing and waiting for "someone else" to do it (whatever "it" may be)? That is not how things work.