The DC government yesterday started a long-overdue review of public school boundaries that is all but guaranteed to stir controversy among parents who choose homes based on what schools their kids could be sent to.
For the first time in more than 30 years, the District is reconsidering its school boundaries and feeder patterns, the geographic lines that determine which students attend specific schools. Population centers have shifted, public schools have closed and opened, and a network of charters schools has sprouted up since the last time DC redrew its education map. But already, news of the review committee’s mere existence is sending many parents into a tizzy.
On the online forum DC Urban Moms and Dads, some parents in Crestwood, a leafy enclave of upper Northwest on the eastern side of Rock Creek Park, are worried their kids will be cut out from attending Wilson High School in Tenleytown or the middle schools such as Deal or Oyster-Adams that feed into it. “I won’t buy in the Shepherd Park, or Crestwood neighborhoods right now,” one parent writes.
Deputy Mayor for Education Abigail Smith, who is leading the boundary review committee, says there will be “grandfathering provisions” to soften the impact on families when the boundary changes take effect in the 2015-16 school year. But that, too, is being met with skepticism, especially from parents who depend on lotteries to get their children into schools that are in different parts of the city.
“They want to make sure out-of-bounds kids think they will be grandfathered in while actually leaving open the option to boot them,” another DC Urban Moms user writes.
The 20-person committee will release its first recommendations in May 2014, a month after the Democratic mayoral primary. The scheduling muffles the potential political impact on Mayor Vince Gray if he decides to run for a second term.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
DC to Review Public School Boundaries
The DC government yesterday started a long-overdue review of public school boundaries that is all but guaranteed to stir controversy among parents who choose homes based on what schools their kids could be sent to.
For the first time in more than 30 years, the District is reconsidering its school boundaries and feeder patterns, the geographic lines that determine which students attend specific schools. Population centers have shifted, public schools have closed and opened, and a network of charters schools has sprouted up since the last time DC redrew its education map. But already, news of the review committee’s mere existence is sending many parents into a tizzy.
On the online forum DC Urban Moms and Dads, some parents in Crestwood, a leafy enclave of upper Northwest on the eastern side of Rock Creek Park, are worried their kids will be cut out from attending Wilson High School in Tenleytown or the middle schools such as Deal or Oyster-Adams that feed into it. “I won’t buy in the Shepherd Park, or Crestwood neighborhoods right now,” one parent writes.
Deputy Mayor for Education Abigail Smith, who is leading the boundary review committee, says there will be “grandfathering provisions” to soften the impact on families when the boundary changes take effect in the 2015-16 school year. But that, too, is being met with skepticism, especially from parents who depend on lotteries to get their children into schools that are in different parts of the city.
“They want to make sure out-of-bounds kids think they will be grandfathered in while actually leaving open the option to boot them,” another DC Urban Moms user writes.
The 20-person committee will release its first recommendations in May 2014, a month after the Democratic mayoral primary. The scheduling muffles the potential political impact on Mayor Vince Gray if he decides to run for a second term.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
Editors' Picks
The Inside Story of Mike Isabella’s Fallen Empire
Is the Blogger “Mr. Cranky” Out to Save DC’s Tech Industry—Or Destroy It?
A Heartwrenching Story About Why Teachers Are Leaving DC in Droves
Private School Confidential: 25 Things Washington Parents Need to Know
Most Popular in News
Grasping for Metaphor, Reporters Flock to Burning DC Garbage Can
PHOTOS: The 2018 Vice President’s Residence Christmas Decorations
Forged Under Fire—Bob Mueller and Jim Comey’s Unusual Friendship
PHOTOS: The 2018 White House Christmas Decorations
Whole Foods Is Trying to Change a DC Neighborhood’s Name
December 2018: The Unmaking of Mike Isabella
Related
What We Lost When We Lost Hank Dietle’s
WJLA’s TV Legends Are Vanishing. Does It Matter?
In Defense of 2016
There Are Still Six Confederate Memorials Around DC. How’s That Possible?
More from News
Is the Blogger “Mr. Cranky” Out to Save DC’s Tech Industry—Or Destroy It?
PHOTOS: The 2018 Vice President’s Residence Christmas Decorations
Do You Work for One of Washington’s Most Charitable Companies?
Washingtonian Today: Sail into the Weekend on the Friendship
What to Do If You Find Yourself in a Cheesecake Factory Riot
Why Is Sean Spicer Tweeting About Lyft?
Washingtonian Today: Arlington Rebuilds After Cheesecake Chaos
Belletrist Book Club Names Kramerbooks Its Bookstore of the Month