Alice Deal and some of her sisters. Photo by born1945 on Flickr.

This article was posted as an April Fool’s joke.

The Alice Deal Middle School, in Ward 3, is by far the most coveted middle school in the District, and some have urged DCPS to replicate the school in other wards. Now the advisory committee charged with redrawing DC’s school boundaries has stumbled upon an idea that could make that possible.

The 23-member committee is due to unveil several draft scenarios for new school boundaries and feeder patterns on April 5. Greater Greater Education has learned that one of those scenarios proposes a creative solution to the vexing middle school problem.

Not much is known about the woman for whom Alice Deal Middle School is named. But Martha Hogan, an enterprising member of the committee, undertook some genealogical research and discovered that Deal had 7 sisters. “That gives us enough Deals for every ward in the city,” Hogan said.

Ward 1, which currently has no stand-alone middle school, will get a new one, to be named the Mary Ann Deal Middle School. Ward 2’s Hardy Middle School will become Gertrude Deal, and Ward 4 will get a stand-alone school named after another sibling, Mildred. Wards 5, 6, 7, and 8 will have new or renamed schools honoring Florence, Sadie, Harriet, and Zelda Deal.

“This is definitely a step in the right direction,” said Councilmember Muriel Bowser, who has been campaigning for mayor on an education platform that calls for replicating Deal’s success across the District.

She added, “Everyone in the city wants to send their middle-school child to Deal. Now they’ll be able to.”

“Finally!” said Roger Blinderman, an elementary school parent in Ward 6. “We’ve been waiting for a high-quality middle school in this neighborhood for years. I just don’t understand why someone didn’t think of this sooner.”