calexander wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you explain why you even want Cardozo to move? They are underenrolled and recently renovated. The space isn't the issue.

Not OP, but the logic seems to be that high school and middle school students should have their own space.

But the first thing the mayor did upon taking office was kill the plan for a Center City Middle School. That plan was still years out, but she said no way. What has changed? sge certainly hasn't indicated that her decision on this issue has.

Anonymous wrote:Can you explain why you even want Cardozo to move? They are underenrolled and recently renovated. The space isn't the issue.

Not OP, but the logic seems to be that high school and middle school students should have their own space.

calexander wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many middle schools does DCPS need? Are they all at current capacity? I think its so wasteful for DCPS to keep giving in to neighborhoods who think they have to have a school two blocks from their house. Dunbar, Coolidge both at what 50% capacity? Wilson is over crowded. The City never needed to rebuild Dunbar. McFarland reopening and now Brookland Middle reopening? I really doubt there is a need for a Shaw Middle School. What folks need is a middle school that actually serves the kids and what the parents want for their kids. DCPS can build it but that in no way makes parents want it (see Brookland Middle and all their big ideas that did not happen)

The push to rebuild the city's middle schools comes because DCPS created a bunch of K-8 "education campuses" about a dozen year ago that turned out to be less than satisfactory to most. Kids scattered like the wind. Now, they are trying to fix that mistake.

Say what you want about Dunbar, Roosevelt (and Coolidge). Their physical plants were disaster areas and definitely needed reinvestment.

And many of those kids went to charter schools. It's simply not reasonable to assume that they will all come back to DCPS once they finish this whole rebuilding effort. In the meantime the law requires them[u] to lease surplus schools to approved charters which generally are paying ridiculous commercial rates for physical plants that were never meant to be schools.

Can you explain why you even want Cardozo to move? They are underenrolled and recently renovated. The space isn't the issue.

Anonymous wrote:How many middle schools does DCPS need? Are they all at current capacity? I think its so wasteful for DCPS to keep giving in to neighborhoods who think they have to have a school two blocks from their house. Dunbar, Coolidge both at what 50% capacity? Wilson is over crowded. The City never needed to rebuild Dunbar. McFarland reopening and now Brookland Middle reopening? I really doubt there is a need for a Shaw Middle School. What folks need is a middle school that actually serves the kids and what the parents want for their kids. DCPS can build it but that in no way makes parents want it (see Brookland Middle and all their big ideas that did not happen)

The push to rebuild the city's middle schools comes because DCPS created a bunch of K-8 "education campuses" about a dozen year ago that turned out to be less than satisfactory to most. Kids scattered like the wind. Now, they are trying to fix that mistake.

Say what you want about Dunbar, Roosevelt (and Coolidge). Their physical plants were disaster areas and definitely needed reinvestment.

Anonymous wrote:How many middle schools does DCPS need? Are they all at current capacity? I think its so wasteful for DCPS to keep giving in to neighborhoods who think they have to have a school two blocks from their house. Dunbar, Coolidge both at what 50% capacity? Wilson is over crowded. The City never needed to rebuild Dunbar. McFarland reopening and now Brookland Middle reopening? I really doubt there is a need for a Shaw Middle School. What folks need is a middle school that actually serves the kids and what the parents want for their kids. DCPS can build it but that in no way makes parents want it (see Brookland Middle and all their big ideas that did not happen)

+1. Adams is under capacity, yet they are building McFarland as another dual language option.

Brookland - underenrolled, Hardy - has room to expand, pretty sure the Cap Hill schools have space as well, although are in desperate need or renovation.

Meanwhile upper Ward 4 has 2-3 underperforming ECs (Takoma, Brightwood and Whittier) and a high school with 40% enrollment.

You forgot about Roosevelt. Talk about a waste of money!

How many middle schools does DCPS need? Are they all at current capacity? I think its so wasteful for DCPS to keep giving in to neighborhoods who think they have to have a school two blocks from their house. Dunbar, Coolidge both at what 50% capacity? Wilson is over crowded. The City never needed to rebuild Dunbar. McFarland reopening and now Brookland Middle reopening? I really doubt there is a need for a Shaw Middle School. What folks need is a middle school that actually serves the kids and what the parents want for their kids. DCPS can build it but that in no way makes parents want it (see Brookland Middle and all their big ideas that did not happen)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all are chicken shit. Becky has the balls to put herself out there like that and not hide in the shadows of anonymity like you. Instead of crapping all over her effort, why don't you add something constructive. Oh, that's right, it's because you are empty of ideas and the only thing you know how to do is bring people down.

Chickenshit? I've been working in education long before you moved DC. I'm on 3 city wide education groups in the city and 10 years ago I worked on issues to make a middle school happen in Shaw. This is happening in my own backyard, yet I know nothing about it.

I imagine a few white, upper SES parents parents sitting around on weekends with their 5 year olds and infants in citi-minis talking about how the are going to "fix" the schools.

PP, you're not wrong. I know it, Becky knows it, and the other PP probably knows it as well. You want the baby parents to put themselves in your position, but you don't seem to be willing to reciprocate. Do you know how demoralizing it is to constantly be told, "It'll never work, we tried it 2, 5, 10 years ago, and it'll never work"? Do you know how insulting it is to be told, "Well, your kids are young, so your opinions are not important"?

Since you've been around, working on these things for a while, you know that parent engagement is hard. You know that it's comparatively easy to get people to come to one organizing meeting, particularly when their kids are young, but that it gets progressively harder as time goes by and people acquire other commitments and priorities. One of the things that I think the parents of younger children have going for them is the cheerful idealism that motivates them to consider this stuff in the first place. Their kids are just starting school, so talking about middle school is largely academic. They do not have to make realistic calculations about their family's future in DC or consider the options that are on the table right now. They can say, "Well, Brookland Middle just opened, we'll see what happens, maybe in 5-10 years, when my kid is ready, it will be a great place!"

Their needs are different than your needs, which is actually a strength in a coalition. Unfortunately, educational needs are a little bit of a one-way flow: you know what the parents of PK kids are experiencing, because your kids were once in PK too, but they don't know anything about what your kid in grade 5+ is experiencing or what they need, because they haven't gotten there yet. Rather than shooting down the ideas of people who want to help, perhaps try offering non-derisive perspective from your experiences on what worked and what didn't work. You want to talk about engaging the families of older kids? That's hard to do, without an introduction. Becky posted her personal email. Why don't you drop her a line and suggest that she have coffee with those families you're talking about?

16:06 here. I certainly don't want to be disparage the new parents. I see where they are coming from, and it is an extremely admirable place. I just want them to become fully informed before taking positions that may inadvertently harm the actual cause they support, providing good educational opportunities to neighborhood kids. By proposing and vocally supporting this idea, they are providing ammunition to DCPS to continue to illegally hold onto abandoned property instead of giving it to one of the schools that could really use it. Inspired Teaching, CMI, and Mundo Verde, among others, would have loved it, as it is a great property in a central location with great access to public transportation, but instead DCPS has left it abandoned by relying on "plans" that they cancel as soon as it is time for them to take action. This is just more of the same, and it is important that those who are newly joining this cause understand all of the history and implications.

I am not chicken shit either. I am an upper SES white woman who has participated in dozens if not hundreds of meetings about education in the city, including many supporting neighborhood school efforts after my children got into a good charter that we never intend to leave. I am extraoridinarily vocal about my desire for children in this neighborhood to have opportunities withib the neighborhood. But I have seen enough to understand what can and can not be done.

Changing DCPS would require support citywide and throughout the administration for the change. That won't happen anytime soon, and all promises to the contrary - of which there have been and will be many - will be broken. On the other hand, the determination of what charter school goes into a building, once it is decided that the building will go to a charter as required by law when it is unused, does not need DCPS buy-in and is very heavily influenced by the opinions of the councilmembera for the affected wards, who are swayed almost completely by the desires of the vocal residents of those wards.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all are chicken shit. Becky has the balls to put herself out there like that and not hide in the shadows of anonymity like you. Instead of crapping all over her effort, why don't you add something constructive. Oh, that's right, it's because you are empty of ideas and the only thing you know how to do is bring people down.

Chickenshit? I've been working in education long before you moved DC. I'm on 3 city wide education groups in the city and 10 years ago I worked on issues to make a middle school happen in Shaw. This is happening in my own backyard, yet I know nothing about it.

I imagine a few white, upper SES parents parents sitting around on weekends with their 5 year olds and infants in citi-minis talking about how the are going to "fix" the schools.

NP. So offer some constructive advice to them (not sure if you are among the "give up now, all is hopeless" posters). Just because you have not heard of it, does not mean that it is not genuine. Just because they have not heard of you, does not mean that they are clueless. And negatively talking about any group of parents trying to improve the schools, is frankly just not helpful. A lot could be done; we need all the help we can to pitch in. New parents should be always welcome, and more seasoned parents should have the patience to remember back to when they first started.

Anonymous wrote:You all are chicken shit. Becky has the balls to put herself out there like that and not hide in the shadows of anonymity like you. Instead of crapping all over her effort, why don't you add something constructive. Oh, that's right, it's because you are empty of ideas and the only thing you know how to do is bring people down.

Chickenshit? I've been working in education long before you moved DC. I'm on 3 city wide education groups in the city and 10 years ago I worked on issues to make a middle school happen in Shaw. This is happening in my own backyard, yet I know nothing about it.

I imagine a few white, upper SES parents parents sitting around on weekends with their 5 year olds and infants in citi-minis talking about how the are going to "fix" the schools.

Anonymous wrote:It's not like you can choose what kind of charter is going to end up there or what age, population it will serve. The neighborhood is in need of a middle school. A charter school for adult learners or incarcerated youth, while great things, is not what we need. And that could very well be the focus of this hypothetical charter school. No thanks. I would rather hedge my bet on a DCPS middle school that has already been contemplated in the boundary plan.

You have Cardozo for now. You are going to have to take a number behind McFarland and the north Ward 4 middle school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not like you can choose what kind of charter is going to end up there or what age, population it will serve. The neighborhood is in need of a middle school. A charter school for adult learners or incarcerated youth, while great things, is not what we need. And that could very well be the focus of this hypothetical charter school. No thanks. I would rather hedge my bet on a DCPS middle school that has already been contemplated in the boundary plan.

That is because you don't get it. You actually have more influence over this than anything in DCPS.

As an example, look at the current location of Mundo Verde. A charter school for kids with disciplinary problems was slated for that space, but the neighbors threw a fit and got Mundo Verde instead.