In D.C.s school boundary study, Maury and Miner elementaries could merge
Maury and Miner elementary schools are within walking distance of one another and in some ways a world apart — with lopsided demographics that mirror the racial and economic segregation surrounding them on D.C.’s Capitol Hill.
Maury enrolls more than 500 children, and nearly 6 in 10 of them are White. Demand to get in is so high that its wait list last year was in the hundreds. At Miner, where 80 percent of students are Black, most children are homeless, in foster care or receive public assistance. Enrollment, now around 370 students, has been on the decline.
District officials see an opportunity: improve diversity at both schools by wiping the boundary that divides them and pairing them together. Under the proposal, children would spend their early grades at one school and later years at the other.
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It is one of several plans under consideration as part of D.C.’s ongoing boundary study, the once-a-decade process that reexamines the invisible lines that often define so much, such as whether a student can study a foreign language or what kind of college counseling they’ll get. It’s one of the more contentious proposals, sparking arguments online, in person and in dueling petitions over who should be educated where — and testing the commitment of generally liberal-minded parents to school integration when it affects their own families.
In much of the country, bringing together children of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds is difficult if not impossible — the students either live too far away from each other or attend different districts altogether. But Maury and Miner present a doable, if controversial, target because the two schools are so different demographically but so close physically.
“As we’ve shared in our citywide community engagements, racially and socioeconomically diverse schools are one of the guiding principles of the study,” the office of D.C. Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn said in a statement. “We believe that all students and communities flourish when schools have diverse student bodies, provided that schools have, at a minimum, welcoming, affirming, and culturally and linguistically responsive environments for students and families.”
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Families at Maury and Miner say they value that diversity but have different ideas about how best to achieve it. And unanswered questions over academics and the logistics of dividing an elementary school into two buildings are making some parents, especially those at Maury, hesitant to embrace the plan.
Maury’s students, as is typical with more advantaged children, score higher on standardized tests, and some parents are anxious about whether a merger could bring down averages. Miner parents worry about the future of programs that meet the needs of their unique community, such as an effort this year to get free eye exams and glasses to students.
“From my perspective, there’s a lot of unknowns about what the quality of the school would look like,” Jonathan Rothwell, who has two children enrolled at Maury, said in an interview. He also wonders if teachers would leave and who would lead the school — concerns that were raised during a tense town hall meeting with Maury families in November. “A lot of parents are already satisfied with Maury, and this jeopardizes that satisfaction.”
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If the plan goes through, a handful of Maury’s parents would consider leaving the neighborhood, D.C.’s public schools or the city altogether, they said. That’s a threat that is frequently voiced amid school integration efforts — from busing to detracking — and it’s real: Families who can afford to leave sometimes do.
‘Lift students at both’
The months-long boundary study has inflamed similar tensions elsewhere in the nation’s capital. School boundary debates are highly emotional, and families who bought houses near — or entered the citywide lottery into — popular schools worry their children will be forced into schools they did not choose and may not like.
Officials say they are listening to parents’ concerns, hosting dozens of meetings with hundreds of participants. Another meeting is set at Maury on Thursday. In March, the advisory committee will present its recommendations to D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who will decide which changes to implement.
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Among the city’s goals are to reduce overcrowding in some schools and fill seats at others, foster diversity and improve access in a system where more than a quarter of children attend their neighborhood schools. Most families apply to the schools of their choice through the city lottery, sometimes trekking across the District for certain programs.
The majority of families zoned for Maury choose to send their kids there — 64 percent of children in the boundary attended last school year, data show. At Miner, about a quarter of in-boundary families enrolled. Some see the pairing as a way to encourage more families to invest in their local school.
“Instead of just making one school better and one school more diverse, we can offer that to both,” said Kiki Fox, a Miner parent who supports the proposal. “It’s surprising to some of us that people aren’t able to think of the bigger picture, which is the fact that, yes, this could be disruptive for a lot of people for some time. I definitely understand that, but the benefits are going to be much further reaching for much longer.”
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Like at Maury, there is hardly a consensus at Miner — its parent-teacher organization has not taken an official position. But those who do support the merger want their kids to benefit from the offerings at Maury.
Keysha Powell, who is sending her fourth child through Miner, said she wants her daughter to have more activities. She was disheartened to hear at a meeting of a parent-teacher organization last week that the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams won’t play this year because too few parents turned in doctor forms.
“I just like that my kids will probably be able to [be afforded] those opportunities, to be a part of something else other than cheerleading and basketball,” she said, referring to options at Maury such as ski club.
Jeff Giertz, father of a Miner kindergartner, has similar hopes. He wrote a petition supporting the measure, and said he’s garnered more than 300 signatures.
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“It struck me as a way to lift students at both schools but, in particular, students at Miner. And hopefully, improve educational outcomes,” Giertz said. He mentioned recent staff turnover at Miner, particularly in the principal’s office — where there have been around seven leaders since the 2019-2020 school year — which has contributed to feelings of instability on the campus. “I view the pairing of the schools as a way to address issues like that.”
Those same reasons, however, are concerns for some Maury families. “That non-consistent leadership affects the whole gamut of things, the teacher satisfaction, how teachers and parents engage, information sharing,” said Lora Nunn, a Maury parent. “Overall it needs to be a more strategic approach so that we’re not just putting a Band-Aid on the problem.”
Shavanna Miller, co-president of Maury’s parent-teacher association, worries the change is too disruptive and that uprooting children in the middle of elementary school could be stressful. During the November town hall, she said children can “fall through the cracks” when they transition from one school to another, as they often do between middle and high school.
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“I think it’s not just because the children have to adjust their environment. I think it’s because a whole new set of adults needs to understand the kids, understand their family, understand their needs and how to best support them,” she said.
Pairing questions
The idea of pairing schools is not new, in D.C. or nationwide. A suggestion to pair Maury and Miner had previously been raised in 2017, but only Maury parents were surveyed. The idea was rejected.
As the debate continues, city leaders said they are considering more options, such as creating a task force to further study the feasibility of a merger. The group would not meet until 2027, at the earliest.
In the meantime, Maury would use an “at-risk set aside” — a suggestion that some parents have embraced — to reserve some of its lottery seats for students who are homeless, in foster care or live in low-income homes.
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“I applaud DME for actually listening to our concerns and our feedback in making this revised recommendation,” said Ben Wasserman, who has twin toddlers, referring to the deputy mayor for education’s office. He wrote a petition opposing the pairing. “You want people to talk to each other to understand what is this going to look like for our community.”
Still, many families fall somewhere in the middle. “A lot of folks just feel there isn’t enough info to have an opinion about it,” Miller said in an interview. There are questions about how families with children across campuses will handle pickup and drop-off, or what will happen to the federal Title I funding that Miner receives for having a large population of low-income families. Roughly two-thirds of students enrolled are at risk.
Miner parents wonder about a unique early-action prekindergarten program that guarantees coveted seats for in-boundary parents — a point of pride for the community. At most elementary schools, families have to apply for preK-3 and preK-4 spots through the lottery, whether they live in-boundary or not.
“The programming of the two schools looks very, very different to the needs of its specific populations,” said Abby McGill, vice president of Miner’s parent-teacher organization. Miner, for instance, has struggled with attendance, and the school started an incentive program to reduce absenteeism. Maury also recorded dozens of absences last year, but the problem was more acute at Miner — 44 percent of children missed at least 18 days of school last year, compared with 9 percent of children at Maury who were chronically absent.
“I do wonder, in a paired model, is that going to be the focus of a paired school, or is it going to be really hyper-focused on testing and ensuring that the kids meet benchmark?” she said.
Maury in recent years has become a popular destination for elementary-age students. Driven in part by a $52 million renovation completed in 2019, enrollment has grown 15 percent between the 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 school years, from 457 to 527 students — nearly reaching capacity. The student body at Miner, meanwhile, has remained relatively flat, falling from 372 to 368 students over the same period. Miner is scheduled to get a renovation and new early-childhood-learning spaces this year.
“I think they’re getting high-quality academic instruction, great interventions when needed and a well-rounded experience,” said Meredith Parnell, a Maury parent who supports the pairing. She added her daughter has a learning disability and has received “amazing care and attention” at the school. “I want all kids in the neighborhood to have access to all the great things at Maury that we’ve been able to experience.”
correction
A previous version of this article misstated the share of in-boundary students who attend Maury and Miner elementary schools. Data shows 64 percent of children in Maury's boundary attended the school, and about a quarter of in-boundary families enrolled at Miner. The article has been corrected.
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