Please help me understand DC schools--Woodley Park, Adams Morgan, & Capitol Hill areas

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wow. This is such great information. I'm going to have to re-read this post a few times to digest it all. To the PP, I would take 395 to 110 to 66 to get to Tysons. Most of my colleagues do it in about 30-40 minutes max. I currently live in Arlington, and with daycare drop off, it already takes me about that long to get to work anyway. I wanted to stay close to 395 or Rock Creek to have easier access to 66. I want to avoid 495 at all cost and I am not so keen on the G-town area (mostly because it seems too expensive, at least the areas that we would want to live in). Another poster was correct in noting that we want to be in the more walkable and urban parts of DC. I love Arlington, but right now I really want to be in the city. I just feel more comfortable in the city, and am not ready for the suburbs just yet. I see us moving back to Arlington in about 10 years when the kids are a bit older and moving into middle school.

For the poster who did out of bounds, do you pay a tuition to send your child to another DC public school? Is it akin to private school tuition?

Also, thanks for the mention of Oyster. I will do some research on that school. I have seen the recent press about the firing of the principal. Elementary school is another 3-4 years away for me, but we need to take all of this into account now.

Is the zip code for Kalorama Triangle 20008?

Thanks again for such great information! And thanks to the poster who provided the link. I'll take a look at that now.

I would do Woodley Park then. The Rock Creek Parkway entrance is right there off Calvert St. Woodley is walkable to the zoo, Cleveland Park, Adams Morgan, DuPont, the Cathedral area - it really doesn't get better than living in Woodley!

[Anonymous]

capitol hill cluster schools are improving by leaps and bounds. peabody's SWS program is already fantastic. life on the hill is good: a little bit urban, a little bit small-town feel.

definitely narrow to the neighborhoods you are interested in and then do a test-drive during the hours the commute would take place. also discuss if there is flexibility in the specific hours worked, because if you leave just a little later you can miss all the traffic. Coming back into the city always seems to me to have more traffic, but that might just be a function of the time i am usually going there and back (which is not for business, so i don't do it everyday).

[Anonymous]

PP 11:18 is spot on. You've got to do a dry run no matter where. Plus, as another PP mentioned, you can actually do the rent-in-boundary-move later when your child is actually school aged.

We just moved to Adams Morgan for Oyster because we are Spanish speakers. But we did not do much homework on Hill schools like Tyler. In hindsight, we should have looked closer at the Hill. Love old architecture. Many friends with young children there now.

If you want Oyster don't worry about the principal change. But make sure you are in 20009/08 and that you are on the correct side of the boundary. Especially in Woodley where it can be confusing which side of the street. As pp said, DC school website lets you put in exact address to verify school. But look at Oyster immersion model first. It is not right for all children. I know Spanish and English parents who left the school because it was not a good fit, not because it's a bad school.

AM has true walkability, city feel, suburb amenities (Target!), diverse/international elements. We rarely use our one car. DH commutes by metro to NoVA/66. DCs under age 4 love to take the bus everywhere. Many free public charter schools we will consider if Oyster is not right for all our kids. Many more families than a few years ago.

OP - Kalorama Triangle is a small small cluster of streets in the so-called historic part of Adams Morgan. Historic group are people who can make it difficult to get permits to renovate your house if they do not like it. Just something to think about. Not a big problem.

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