Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent of an older child--we recently moved away from Shaw. The kids that we knew in Logan and Shaw weren't even sticking around past Kindergarten. I can definitely see why DCPS chose the path they did--avoiding another Brookland MS scenario. Building a new facility for Banneker at this site is one of the few central office decisions I have ever supported. I can only hope the mid-city neighborhoods can get over themselves and support the kids from Banneker--they are amazing.

You left. You forfeited your opinion.

Also, you personally know a bunch of Banneker kids? I don't get these "they are amazing" comments.

This is all so poorly thought through and DCPS is doing such a disservice to the feeder schools. Is it expected that Ross and Thomson will likewise feed to Cardozo? Aren’t they likewise on notice if you will that they have no guaranteed feeder path either? DCPS is handling this situation so horribly.

Part of your problem (imho) is that generally DCPS doesn’t believe that the ‘school’ ie Cardozo middle grades is failing even though the students are failing. And to some extent they are right - staff are often very good at many schools they just have students that are many grades behind, learn slowly and poorly regardless of whether you call that a learning disability, and have a critical mass of behavior problems. You take the same teaching crew and send them to Deal and everything is fine. So an argument that the school’s grades are bad and your students are too good for the place merits a mixed response. Sure the school has problems. But generally your kid will thrive wherever. So what’s bad about it is . . . the number of kids behind grade level choking out attention to your child? The number of unmanageable behavior problems in your kids’ class? Many of those things are not fixable at school - the “fix” is a barrier to enrollment or self-segregation away from those situations. But the staff, the space, everything would be different if your Shaw middle class kid was at Cardozo instead of just a cluster of hard cases and kids who were living in San Pedro Sula last year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cardozo is a viable option, it would just take a cohort of people committed to going to the school. The building has been modernized, the staff is there, etc. The test scores are lower, but comparatively (DC middle schools) are not horrendous, especially when you take into account the amount of English Language Learners. They have the space to take on more students.

I am not saying it doesn't have issues, but if the people here who are putting all this energy into fighting for a stand alone school would push that energy towards helping the school that is already ready and waiting for them, perhaps the school would become more appealing.

Instead, you end up looking like people trying to make, as someone else stated, a bespoke middle school that appeals to all of your requirements... which, from the outside looking in, seems to largely be based on the number of black and brown kids you want in your school.

Another one of these posts that seems to be coming from someone inside DCPS

Well....at least you know their argument.

Bespoke schools just to be ‘viable’ are called ‘charters.’

Anonymous wrote:Cardozo is a viable option, it would just take a cohort of people committed to going to the school. The building has been modernized, the staff is there, etc. The test scores are lower, but comparatively (DC middle schools) are not horrendous, especially when you take into account the amount of English Language Learners. They have the space to take on more students.

I am not saying it doesn't have issues, but if the people here who are putting all this energy into fighting for a stand alone school would push that energy towards helping the school that is already ready and waiting for them, perhaps the school would become more appealing.

Instead, you end up looking like people trying to make, as someone else stated, a bespoke middle school that appeals to all of your requirements... which, from the outside looking in, seems to largely be based on the number of black and brown kids you want in your school.

Totally agree.

Anonymous wrote:Cardozo is a viable option, it would just take a cohort of people committed to going to the school. The building has been modernized, the staff is there, etc. The test scores are lower, but comparatively (DC middle schools) are not horrendous, especially when you take into account the amount of English Language Learners. They have the space to take on more students.

I am not saying it doesn't have issues, but if the people here who are putting all this energy into fighting for a stand alone school would push that energy towards helping the school that is already ready and waiting for them, perhaps the school would become more appealing.

Instead, you end up looking like people trying to make, as someone else stated, a bespoke middle school that appeals to all of your requirements... which, from the outside looking in, seems to largely be based on the number of black and brown kids you want in your school.

Another one of these posts that seems to be coming from someone inside DCPS

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why you don’t get onboard with having a Banneker middle school. Banneker is amazing and way better than cordoza. Build on that. The city won’t touch Banneker. It is their pride and joy.

Area parent and I'm not against a Banneker Middle School attached and the original post/ANC letter is not against it either. Problem is, that is currently not what is proposed. There is no middle school on the table at all.

Team: you can't be 1) against a co-located middle school at Cardozo and 2) potentially for a co-located middle school with Banneker.

Oh but you can, if you are willing to own it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why you don’t get onboard with having a Banneker middle school. Banneker is amazing and way better than cordoza. Build on that. The city won’t touch Banneker. It is their pride and joy.

Area parent and I'm not against a Banneker Middle School attached and the original post/ANC letter is not against it either. Problem is, that is currently not what is proposed. There is no middle school on the table at all.

Team: you can't be 1) against a co-located middle school at Cardozo and 2) potentially for a co-located middle school with Banneker.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why you don’t get onboard with having a Banneker middle school. Banneker is amazing and way better than cordoza. Build on that. The city won’t touch Banneker. It is their pride and joy.

Area parent and I'm not against a Banneker Middle School attached and the original post/ANC letter is not against it either. Problem is, that is currently not what is proposed. There is no middle school on the table at all.

I don’t know why you don’t get onboard with having a Banneker middle school. Banneker is amazing and way better than cordoza. Build on that. The city won’t touch Banneker. It is their pride and joy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd Elementary is 4 miles from Deal. Horace Mann is 1.9 miles from Hardy. Brent is 1.5 miles from Jefferson.

Seaton is 1.1 miles from Cardozo.

LOL, this guarantees all the kids move on, it's the status quo.

Also, Thomson is not that close to SWW. Thomson families could prefer a Shaw location. Ironic thing is all of these schools are still zoned for "Shaw Middle School" - just mean at this point.

Nope. Look at the school profiles. Haven’t been for years either.

Cardozo is a viable option, it would just take a cohort of people committed to going to the school. The building has been modernized, the staff is there, etc. The test scores are lower, but comparatively (DC middle schools) are not horrendous, especially when you take into account the amount of English Language Learners. They have the space to take on more students.

I am not saying it doesn't have issues, but if the people here who are putting all this energy into fighting for a stand alone school would push that energy towards helping the school that is already ready and waiting for them, perhaps the school would become more appealing.

Instead, you end up looking like people trying to make, as someone else stated, a bespoke middle school that appeals to all of your requirements... which, from the outside looking in, seems to largely be based on the number of black and brown kids you want in your school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd Elementary is 4 miles from Deal. Horace Mann is 1.9 miles from Hardy. Brent is 1.5 miles from Jefferson.

Seaton is 1.1 miles from Cardozo.

LOL, this guarantees all the kids move on, it's the status quo.

Also, Thomson is not that close to SWW. Thomson families could prefer a Shaw location. Ironic thing is all of these schools are still zoned for "Shaw Middle School" - just mean at this point.

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd Elementary is 4 miles from Deal. Horace Mann is 1.9 miles from Hardy. Brent is 1.5 miles from Jefferson.

Seaton is 1.1 miles from Cardozo.

LOL, this guarantees all the kids move on, it's the status quo.