Recently in Schools Category

I was talking with the Help about a GGW post that I commented on about charter schools and asked him if I could tell his story. The crime took place about 25 years ago so I guess it is safe to talk about since one of the responsible parties are dead and the other is ill. The crime was lying about the Help family address so the Help could go to a 'better' school.

In arguments about school choice, charters, and DC Public schools there is this strain of belief that middle class parents must/will leave their kids in DCPS so DCPS will get better. There just needs to be enough middle class and or motivated and dedicated parents to turn a school and a school system around. However, parents can be selfish and only thinking about their own kids and not the city's children as the case with my in-laws have proven.

The Help grew up in the Silicon Valley area, before Silicon Valley was super high tech and what not, in a middle classish neighborhood. His mom was an elementary school teacher and his dad a lineman at the GE factory. When it came time for the Help to go high school, his parents used their friends' address to get him into Santa Teresa High* and avoid Thomas Madison*, which according to the Help was a drug and gang infested school. Kevin, the Help's next door neighbor of the same age, moved several blocks away into Oakdale High's* boundary.

When my in-laws chose Santa Teresa over Thomas Madison they weren't thinking academics, which is a topic often brought up in comparing DCPS and DC charters. Academics were the furthest from their minds, they were very concerned about safety. Little good that did, because the Help got punched in the nose by a bully and still bears the scar from that today. Except for that and other things related to living a lie about your address, he had a decent high school experience and was able to get into the University of California system.

When we went back to Silicon Valley to visit family, we took the pastor who married us out to lunch. Apparently Santa Teresa or Oakdale (I don't remember) is heading downward and the pastor and his family are moving to get into a better school. Better, still meaning not drug and gang infested, not necessarily better academically.

Studies showing that charter schools are not always academically superior, or citing that there is an unfair advantage charters have or whatnot, is not as meaningful when the parent measures the desirability of a school by other values. In the case of my in-laws it was safety. In the case of some friends it was finding an environment where their child flourished emotionally.

My point is policy people will advocate what is best for their policy and most parents will do what they believe is best for their children. If that means moving, they will move, and lots do. If that means trying other options, like breaking the law and lying about where they really live, they'll do that too. Well that would explain all the Maryland license plates I see in front of one DC charter school.

*The names of the school have been slightly changed.

The Help will on occasion drive me to work, so we can spend a few more minutes together and talk about stuff. On our way downtown he'll take P Street west and we will sometimes hit KIPP traffic. If not distracted by the dogs at the dog run across the street we will play license plate bingo while waiting for parents and guardians to drop off their charges.

I would say the last time we were on the 400 block of P St NW, I said looking at the different tags parked, "DC, Maryland, Maryland, Maryland, Maryland, DC..." There just seems to be a large number of Maryland tags for this DC public charter school when we pass through. Now I understand in a world of divorce and broken families, the person dropping the kids off may not be the primary parent, and that person may not live in the District. Then there is competition and wait lists to get into KIPP, I wonder what happens when a DC family moves to MD. Of course there are plenty of KIPP kids getting to school by foot and WMATA, when I'm not being chauffeured, those are the ones I see.

I'm not really thinking deeply about this, I'm just writing what I've observed in the morning.

Past-

The people at the Charles Sumner School Archives are awesome! I got a nice quick answer from them about a school that used to exist in the TC, the William J. Twining School that used to be where the current Dunbar School sits now, but smaller. It kept showing up on maps of the neighborhood, and I was trying to figure out if it was a black school or a white school. Anyway it was built in 1883, and was a white school up until 1925. In the 30s it was combined with the Morse School, then later Bundy. Then in 1947 Armstrong began using come of the building space. In 1949 it stopped being an elementary school, students were transfered to Scott Montgomery, and the building annexed to Armstrong High School. In 1955 it became a warehouse. No date of when it was torn down.

The Future-

A new business that specializes in desserts, particularly cookies is coming to North Capitol Street. Or is already there.

The Present-

I've been having tons of fun with the webcam overlooking the O Street Market. The nighttime images particularly made me smile. Then I got interested in watching the cars in the parking lot and along O Street at the bottom of the camera, appear and disappear. There is a yellow cab that got there at 4:50AM and is still there. Too bad camera #1 isn't up, I wonder what it captures.

We, three of us, myself, the Help, and a neighbor, were driving back to the house when I noticed something coming down R St. There was a woman, slender, pony tail bouncing away, white earbuds and iSomething in her left hand which extended with her advancing steps. About 4 feet directly behind her on the sidewalk was a kid on a bike going slowly. I pointed it out to my companions and we watched at the intersection as the woman crossed and the kid stayed a good 3-4 feet behind her, without trying to pass, and she seemed completely oblivious to the situation. As they both made it through the intersection, we all looked at the kid and the kid, who was in his late teens, looked back at us looking at him. Not feeling right about it, we swung the car around the block to see the woman make it to the next corner, without the kid on the bike following her so closely. This was about 6:15PM on Saturday. Nothing happened. But something in my gut says we prevented something from happening.

Anyway, be aware of your surroundings. Stop holding your iCrap with one hand extended out from your body.

It has been reported as Bloomingdale getting a new playground, but this puppy is actually in the TC. And of the various links to the playground next to Associates for Renewal in Education (ARE) over in the Slater school building, I don't see a picture. So here's an old picture. Honestly, I haven't been over to this section of Truxton for a while as I've been sending the Help (the spouse) out for the Saturday morning Catania Bakery run, so I don't know of any changes.

There is a video with some ARE kids, some guy from the Washington Caps and Elliot Segal of DC101. I don't see any footage of what the present and possible look of the playground is to be. But I know where ARE is and can guess that their parking lot with a playset is to be the new playground.

Here's the question I have, what's going to happen with that neighboring hulk that is the decrepit Langston, on the other side of the future playground. Fuzzy memory, and feel free to correct me if I am way off base, but don't the ARE people have some sort of hold, control, somethin' over Langston?

 Hat Tip: Bloomingdale Blog

There is a active debate over at Greater, Greater Washington about the report showing that in most cases it is cheaper to live in DC in regards to taxes. I've lived in Arlington, Hyattsville, College Park and the District and yes, over time the District has lower taxes. I say over time, because I distinctly remember getting less take home pay after I moved from Maryland to the District and looking at my taxes now, they aren't bad.

To those who say you can't live in Arlington without a car (re: VA car tax), I lived in Arlington for 2 years without one and did fine thank you very much. Hell, until I married the Help, this household has been carfree since 1993.

I didn't move to the District because of the property taxes or the income taxes or the schools. I moved here because of my commute and what I wanted my future commute to be. Also because I wanted to own a house and compared to the surrounding areas, DC has the best set up with programs, tax incentives, and helpful non-profits for 1st time homebuyers. As a homeowner the lower property tax for staying in my current home is an incentive to stay put, as well as the 20-30 minute commute and the ability to walk home on a nice sunny day.

We have been pondering a what if of moving to a spot where The Help's commute would be nicer into PG Co, and well the property taxes there would have us factoring that into the price. Yes, the houses are cheaper in PG but watch out for the property tax and the locality rates for income taxes.

And schools not a factor for us. There are no children in our house now. I have cousins in Virginia who send there kids (my 3rd cousins) to a private Christian school. Not because the schools in that area are bad but because their kids really liked their school, and that's where their friends go. And some other friends in Maryland, their kid goes to a private secular school for his 'special needs', adult siblings went to Catholic schools. And we know some people who (gasp!) homeschool in Maryland. My first cousins who grew up in Laurel, went to public school, probably because my aunt was a teacher there. Then we've got DC friends and neighbors carting their kids off to charter schools. So in our circle of friends and associates no one goes to the 30K a year elite private school that gets dragged out in these conversations. And no, DCPS is not the worst in the nation. I compared Dunbar to my old high school and Dunbar was better. I went to school with rednecks and fared ok. If and when children become part of our household, we'll do the charter and out of boundary lotto dance.

But that's years away, if at all. Who knows I could wind up getting my high paying dream job in Florida or Northern California and this would be moot.

Mice

It's winter and they found a way into the house, I gotta kill them.

So, right now the center of my universe is killing a mouse, or mice as you never have "a mouse" problem but a mice problem. Damned things are pooping on my stove top. There are several bait stations in the house left by the pest control guy and if they are eating the poison they aren't dying fast enough. I don't care about humane capture. You take a dump where I make food, your ass has gotta die. Also these rodent bastards are smart. I suspect they pretty much know to avoid the white glue traps. There was an instance many years back where I had cornered a mouse and surrounded it with glue traps, it got on top of my bookbag, where it was hiding behind, surveyed the situation and tried to Evil Kenevil itself over all the big flat glue traps I laid. It fell short and hit a trap.

I suspect the cellar is the weak point. So we've made it our goal to save up for a basement renovation to plug up any holes or whatever they're getting into. Not a pretty renovation, just one to make the cellar, or the basement for short people (and thankfully we're both short), a functional and secure storage space where mice can't get in and eat up my food stores.

Misc- MVSA and replacing Cary

Tonight there will be a short meeting to elect a new MSVA prez, because Cary Silverman who was the prez is moved to the boonies because he's going to be a father soon. Rob Amos is listed as being on the ballot and I see no challengers.

Misc- Parents moving

A chat with one of my co-workers who lives within the Beltway, in the Hyattsville area mentioned he an his wife were moving even farther into Charles County because their oldest was getting school aged. And then there is Cary's move and I was wondering is there a word to describe this, I don't know, when parents feel a need to move further and further away from their jobs in pursuit of a 'better' school or environment for their kids. They are not the only ones. I've had neighbors who moved here single or childless and married/partnered, then as soon as a baby is expected, they take action to move far away. Not just over the border into Silver Spring or Arlington or Alexandria, but completely outside of the Beltway into Fairfax or counties that don't even touch the boundaries of DC. It happens often enough there must be a word for it.

And I'm not criticizing, as the Help/Mr. InShaw and I have discussed what-ifs. So far in any of those scenarios the farthest we'd go is Beltsville, MD, if that, and NoVa is a NoGo.

Misc- School Lottery You Can't Win If You Don't Play

There is a useful discussion for those parents who do stay in the city over at PoP regarding the Out of Boundary Lottery. Read the comments because I'm glad someone addressed the 'being the only white kid in class' issue. These things need to be discussed, along with issues of class, 'cause otherwise, parents will move to Charles or Fairfax county. I also liked that someone mentioned the convenience factor, you know how easy/hard it is to pick up your kid. Then I just remembered another neighbor who walks their kid to Two Rivers, crossing the New York Ave, so there is one more family that has an incentive to make that road more pedestrian friendly. I know another Truxton Circle family whose kid goes somewhere around Columbia Heights and is picked up sometimes by parent via metro, sometimes by car. So at least two families making use of the walkabilty and the easy transit of the city.

I should give a shout out to one of my favorite families' schools Yu Ying and Bridges.

The difficult, I'll do right now

The impossible, will take a little while

-Billie Holiday

There was a comment on another blog that just annoyed the crap out of me and continued to bug me. It insinuated that lower income kids can't go to college and that college only has middle and upper middle class kids running around it. My own and the experiences of friends proves that so wrong and I am so sick of that mindset. Also since this is Inshaw, the quick tie in to this is a) it's my blog and b) Shaw and other gentrifying neighborhoods have lower income kids, who may wind up going to college.

Let me start with my aunts and mom. They were girls, in the late 60s. The family was black and sharecroppers in rural North Carolina. My oldest aunt only had two dresses, everyone else got hand-me-downs. Not exactly rolling in dough. My aunts went to small black colleges and became teachers. They helped fund their education by working at colored resorts, one in NY state. Mom didn't go to college because grandpa, on his deathbed, asked her to take care of grandma. Mom did however, many years later went to community college and became a CNA.

I got several ideas going let's see how well I plop them into one post.

Last night was the BACA meeting, which my neighbor Brett, who is in charge of something relating to the North Capital corridor, totally forgot about. Slipped his mind. I wound up shouting highlights of the meeting at him up to his 2nd floor window. Something I didn't mention to him was the swimming pool at Dunbar High School has shallow water aerobics. See more info over at the BACA blog. Supposedly there is info on the DC Parks and Rec site but you'd have to scroll down to page 7. Personally, I don't spend time in pools, mainly because it takes about 2 hours for my hair to dry under the dryer at home, 1.5 hours in the salon. The curse of thick hair.

During the meeting while we were told about the unfortunate conditions of the locker and bathroom areas for pool users at Dunbar (this was well after we were told about the rebuilding of Dunbar), Jim, serving his final year as BACA prez, brought up a vision and recreation playing a part of that vision for the neighborhood. If I remembered that right.

Attractive parks and recreation for residents of the community would make the neighborhood a nicer place to live. Try to visualize an even cooler Truxton, what does that look like?