Whittier vs. Dorothy Height for PK?

[Anonymous]

Hello! I'm trying to figure out our lottery pics for the PK3 lottery... I'm trying to figure out whether to rank Whittier or Dorothy Height higher. They will be our 7th and 8th ranked schools, overall, but the only two we are very likely to be matched with, so the order in which we rank them does matter.

Whittier is our IB and is walking distance from our house. We have several neighbors with PK kids there who love it, but we are concerned about the planned renovation (especially the not-yet-determined swing space) for the 25-26 and 26-27 school years. It would also be nice for most of my kids classmates to live in our neighborhood.

Dorothy Height, on the other hand, is a very reasonable distance from our house (maybe an 8 minute drive, if traffic is bad), and will be moving into their new building for the upcoming school year, so we wouldn't have to deal with an unknown swing space for PK4 and K.

If my kids ends up at either of these schools, we would try the lottery again for PK4 in hopes of getting into either a bilingual school (my kid is currently more fluent in Spanish than English, though English is our home language) or a school with a more favorable feeder pattern, but there's no guarantee that we would get anything better... and it's unlikely we would stay at either Whittier or DH past 1st grade (we would move, if necessary), so I am also wondering whether I am overthinking this and whether it really matters whether my kid does PK3-K at Whittier or DH, given our plans/circumstances.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Whittier then Dorothy height.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whittier then Dorothy height.

Agree. If you don't want the swing space you'll get into Height or somewhere else in a couple years. But being walking distance and making local friends is worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello! I'm trying to figure out our lottery pics for the PK3 lottery... I'm trying to figure out whether to rank Whittier or Dorothy Height higher. They will be our 7th and 8th ranked schools, overall, but the only two we are very likely to be matched with, so the order in which we rank them does matter.

Whittier is our IB and is walking distance from our house. We have several neighbors with PK kids there who love it, but we are concerned about the planned renovation (especially the not-yet-determined swing space) for the 25-26 and 26-27 school years. It would also be nice for most of my kids classmates to live in our neighborhood.

Dorothy Height, on the other hand, is a very reasonable distance from our house (maybe an 8 minute drive, if traffic is bad), and will be moving into their new building for the upcoming school year, so we wouldn't have to deal with an unknown swing space for PK4 and K.

If my kids ends up at either of these schools, we would try the lottery again for PK4 in hopes of getting into either a bilingual school (my kid is currently more fluent in Spanish than English, though English is our home language) or a school with a more favorable feeder pattern, but there's no guarantee that we would get anything better... and it's unlikely we would stay at either Whittier or DH past 1st grade (we would move, if necessary), so I am also wondering whether I am overthinking this and whether it really matters whether my kid does PK3-K at Whittier or DH, given our plans/circumstances.

Thanks.

I say this gently, but: this makes no sense. The Whittier swing space is the exact building DHES is in right now, which is 250 feet from the new DHES building. Whittier kids *will* live in your neighborhood, they'll just be matriculating in a swing space, exactly where you say you're comfortable driving.

If facilities are what matters most, you can pick DHES to enjoy the schmancy new building and then flip back to Whittier when the reno is done.

[Anonymous]

I’m the OP. When I recently asked about the swing space, I was told the location is still TBD, so I’m a lot less confident than you are about where it will be.

One thing I forgot to add to my original post: I’m curious whether anyone here has any more insight than I do about academic differences between the two schools… I’m not seeing much difference between the two right now, but I’m not sure whether they’re just very similar or whether I’m missing something.

[Anonymous]

If you are leaving by 1st, it really doesn't matter. Chose walking distance for your first year in preK.

[Anonymous]

I know nothing about Whittier. But I did not like it when I toured Dorothy Height's PreK3 program. The main concerns are that the teachers don't seem know what they are doing(indifference look) and there are kids screaming in all the classrooms that I toured on that day. It's to a point that I was not able to hear others were talking. The teachers did not seem care managing the screaming.

I was hoping that we can get into DHES, but decided not even put it on our list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP. When I recently asked about the swing space, I was told the location is still TBD, so I’m a lot less confident than you are about where it will be.

One thing I forgot to add to my original post: I’m curious whether anyone here has any more insight than I do about academic differences between the two schools… I’m not seeing much difference between the two right now, but I’m not sure whether they’re just very similar or whether I’m missing something.

Ward 4 only has one swing space. JLG is making noise about how unfair that is, but there's not another facility and even if they try to buy something it won't be repurposed in time to use it for Whittier's refurbishment.

Also the poster below who thinks they can tell whether teachers are experienced based on a walk through is truly dumb. My kid went to DHES for PK3 and her teacher and para had 40+ years experience between them. DHES is Reggio, Whittier is not. In the higher grades Whittier has a STEM focus (not pre-k), while DHES does not. These are differences at the margin; outside of immersion programs most DCPS schools are more or less interchangeable in pre-K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are leaving by 1st, it really doesn't matter. Chose walking distance for your first year in preK.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are leaving by 1st, it really doesn't matter. Chose walking distance for your first year in preK.

+1

+1

Why even stress about this if you won’t stay beyond kindergarten? Just go to whichever school is more convenient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are leaving by 1st, it really doesn't matter. Chose walking distance for your first year in preK.

+1

+1

Why even stress about this if you won’t stay beyond kindergarten? Just go to whichever school is more convenient.

OP here. That's the question that I keep asking myself. I guess I am doing the same thing many others in my area are doing and looking (futilely hoping?) for a path to stay in a neighborhood we love with less-than-ideal school options. So it goes.

Re: convenience... There are a ton of schools in my neighborhood, including several [non-competitive] charter schools that would be even more convenient than Whittier or DH for us, but I visited all of them and was so unimpressed that I wouldn't even send my kid there for PK. There are also a few super convenient charters that I would definitely send my kid to, but they have PK3 acceptance rates of ~2.5-30% for kids who don't qualify for a "preference," so those are on my lottery list, but I'm certainly not counting on any of them.

[Anonymous]

The Whittier PTO is trying to get a temporary swing space (trailers) built somewhere on the DPR space across the street, like Coolidge had during their renovation.

[Anonymous]

My child is really into art. Does Whittier have a strong arts program as well as a designated art classroom?

[Anonymous]

PK3 Whittier parent here.

We were also concerned about the swing space issues when we were trying to lottery in for our rising PK3er last year. We are in Whittier this year and could not be happier. We also considered Capital City Charter (which I assume is one of the ones in the neighborhood you reference) and we were so unimpressed on the tour we moved it down the list. We landed at Whittier and absolutely love it. There is great advocacy happening (check out the PTO) and the campaign to use modulars or an alternate swing space has made great progress. There's a good chance they'll be able to keep kids in the neighborhood during renovations. Which are still two years off.

The community at Whittier is incredible, and we have been so impressed with all of the teachers and staff. Principal Johnson knows every student by name, no joke. To paraphrase a parent at a recent event, a school is a place, but the community makes it a home.

Whittier doesn't have a designated art program but our Prek3er is in an arts after school program and they regularly do art in the classroom. They also have an amazing performing arts teacher. and plans to expand other arts next year.