fewer spots available for next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard of other schools having fewer spots? If so, which ones? It seems like many schools are still accepting late applications (for second round). I would think if they had less spots, they wouldn't be accepting late applications.

You mean Sidwell? I thought they always accepted late applications.

Most schools will take late or rolling applications, as they are always looking for the best possible pool of applicants. They don't want to turn away a kid who is a great fit.

Of course, hard application deadlines are for the common folk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do other schools have these caps?

Is there a way to find out what they are?

Every non-public school does.

They all do but I believe it's up to the local ANC to enforce it. It's not something that gets audited (to a person) each year.
It appears that schools are given grace unless they 1)grossly exceed the agreed upon enrollment AND/OR 2)tick off the neighbors enough that they really complain

The ANC can monitor and report but ANCs really have no power. They are advisory.

But yes, behavior by the school community as described above will get you negative attention. As it should.

True, our school regularly sends our reminders about expected behavior (parking, drop off location, etc) based on agreements with the neighborhood.

Do they ever actually enforce that behavior? Penalize offenders?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As we are currently over the enrollment cap in our agreement (1,075), for the 2023-24 school year

So with their current pk-12 student body, they exceed caps. So will they fill a normal-sized pK class and not fill attrition in other classes? Or are they going to reduce the size of pK as well? Also when they say “next year” are they referring to the admissions season currently in progress?

Great question.

I suppose it depends on each grade’s current size and desired size next year.

What’s the procedure for getting these capped waived given the public school issues and avoid shutdown dynamic. Families don’t like switching schools every couple years due to a crazy pandemic and response. Can’t the community and local govt agree with that and waive things.

You have to go through BZA, and if there are no mitigating circumstances, then there is no reason to believe the cap can be exceeded. It is a fire code issue in most cases and neighborhood agreement, in others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is the reality of living in a city. mixed use. maybe instead there should be vehicle restrictions like other schools (potomac and field come to mind) rather than on enrollment.

The school should just comply with the terms they agree to in the contract they signed. Some of these ANC restrictions are very stupid and hurt the larger community - like the restrictions on using fields.

This one does is not. This is totally on the school and their incompetency. If the agreement was the school had to pay the ANC 50k for every student over a certain number this would not have happened.

Also Field has enrollment caps in addition to the vehicle restrictions. It is a part of zoning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is the reality of living in a city. mixed use. maybe instead there should be vehicle restrictions like other schools (potomac and field come to mind) rather than on enrollment.

The school should just comply with the terms they agree to in the contract they signed. Some of these ANC restrictions are very stupid and hurt the larger community - like the restrictions on using fields.

This one does is not. This is totally on the school and their incompetency. If the agreement was the school had to pay the ANC 50k for every student over a certain number this would not have happened.

Also Field has enrollment caps in addition to the vehicle restrictions. It is a part of zoning.

So do NCS and STA and they're quite strictly enforced. That neighborhood does not take any crap when it comes to parking or traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard of other schools having fewer spots? If so, which ones? It seems like many schools are still accepting late applications (for second round). I would think if they had less spots, they wouldn't be accepting late applications.

You mean Sidwell? I thought they always accepted late applications.

Most schools will take late or rolling applications, as they are always looking for the best possible pool of applicants. They don't want to turn away a kid who is a great fit.

Of course, hard application deadlines are for the common folk.

No, hard application deadlines are for those who want to maximize their changes. GDS's application website, and I'm sure others, states that they will take applications after the deadlines, but that spaces may be limited to non-existent. If you want to roll the dice that way, go ahead.

[Anonymous]

I was poking around and found a transportation study by STA in 2017 in a failed attempt to increase enrollment from 579 to 600.
https://app.dcoz.dc.gov/Exhibits/2010/BZA/19606/Exhibit26.pdf

96 pages of analysis for permission to have 21 additional kids and 2 additional teachers on campus each day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard of other schools having fewer spots? If so, which ones? It seems like many schools are still accepting late applications (for second round). I would think if they had less spots, they wouldn't be accepting late applications.

You mean Sidwell? I thought they always accepted late applications.

Most schools will take late or rolling applications, as they are always looking for the best possible pool of applicants. They don't want to turn away a kid who is a great fit.

Of course, hard application deadlines are for the common folk.

No, hard application deadlines are for those who want to maximize their changes. GDS's application website, and I'm sure others, states that they will take applications after the deadlines, but that spaces may be limited to non-existent. If you want to roll the dice that way, go ahead.

If you have enough cash or a high enough profile, you need not worry about trifles like dice.

[Anonymous]

I find this incredibly distressing. Why are schools so bent on maximising applications when they have so little space?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS should plan to have a typical sized 9th grade class (whatever that number was pre-covid) because you need the athletes and the super smart kids and connected kids to ensure college placement / reputation says strong. Obviously you plan for much higher yield and accept fewer students and make more use of the waitlist.

For the other grades you accept siblings and any stand outs / children of DC royalty that you need to accept and that's it. Maybe a few extras to make sure you have at least 12 in pre-k and 2 small kindergarten classes. You can always back fill the classes in future years.

This makes the most sense. When (if) they are granted a waiver to enlarge the school they can fill in the younger years classes.

They won’t be granted another waiver. The ANC is extremely pissed off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The city probably cut them some slack over Covid. But now things are getting back to normal, including full-time in-person school with GDS parents and family staff dropping kids off all over the surrounding neighborhood in violation of the school’s agreement, they are requiring the school to comply

It’s not normal or business as usual. Applicants multiplied, acceptance yields spiked and open private schools in the dmv blew out their numbers.

We were shocked how various communities here handled Covid and didn’t put children first, but here we go again. More of the same. What a community.

We have families in other states that had significantly more hours per week of in person school than here those days, in public and private schools. Parents working remotely even subbed in various classes. Can do attitude and made it happen.

Here people were zooming in to teach kids a couple hours a day and staying home. Politicians trying to shut any type of school down.

So If I'm a neighbor I'm supposed to tolerate hundreds more cars whizzing by my front door and turning around in my driveway each day "for the children?" Children who are paying $50K for school and certainly were about the least impacted by the pandemic of any in DC?

Sure. No thank you.

There are many communities, cities, states and countries that would prioritize children’s development and education over a 20 minute rush hour.
Everyone in the world who lives near a school or office district or college or sports arena or whatever, successfully deals with this.

Only the truly selfish would keep more kids out of school so they can look out their window and not see kids arriving or departing school twice a day. That’s a special kind of special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was poking around and found a transportation study by STA in 2017 in a failed attempt to increase enrollment from 579 to 600.
https://app.dcoz.dc.gov/Exhibits/2010/BZA/19606/Exhibit26.pdf

96 pages of analysis for permission to have 21 additional kids and 2 additional teachers on campus each day.

Population up, but seat stay the same.

Same issue universities are dealing with. Is there mission to teach and educate, or something else? Because spending money for a new PAC instead of educating a mere 20 more students seems off. (Example of my private alma mater).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The city probably cut them some slack over Covid. But now things are getting back to normal, including full-time in-person school with GDS parents and family staff dropping kids off all over the surrounding neighborhood in violation of the school’s agreement, they are requiring the school to comply

It’s not normal or business as usual. Applicants multiplied, acceptance yields spiked and open private schools in the dmv blew out their numbers.

We were shocked how various communities here handled Covid and didn’t put children first, but here we go again. More of the same. What a community.

We have families in other states that had significantly more hours per week of in person school than here those days, in public and private schools. Parents working remotely even subbed in various classes. Can do attitude and made it happen.

Here people were zooming in to teach kids a couple hours a day and staying home. Politicians trying to shut any type of school down.

So If I'm a neighbor I'm supposed to tolerate hundreds more cars whizzing by my front door and turning around in my driveway each day "for the children?" Children who are paying $50K for school and certainly were about the least impacted by the pandemic of any in DC?

Sure. No thank you.

There are many communities, cities, states and countries that would prioritize children’s development and education over a 20 minute rush hour.
Everyone in the world who lives near a school or office district or college or sports arena or whatever, successfully deals with this.

Only the truly selfish would keep more kids out of school so they can look out their window and not see kids arriving or departing school twice a day. That’s a special kind of special.

What is wrong with you?? GDS is an elite private school for ppl who think they’re better than the community. Learn to not be so much of a snowflake. We don’t care about seeing cars. We care about cars that block our driveways, make us late to take our kids to school and are so self absorbed they think trivial things like no parking zones and red lights don’t apply to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS should plan to have a typical sized 9th grade class (whatever that number was pre-covid) because you need the athletes and the super smart kids and connected kids to ensure college placement / reputation says strong. Obviously you plan for much higher yield and accept fewer students and make more use of the waitlist.

For the other grades you accept siblings and any stand outs / children of DC royalty that you need to accept and that's it. Maybe a few extras to make sure you have at least 12 in pre-k and 2 small kindergarten classes. You can always back fill the classes in future years.

This makes the most sense. When (if) they are granted a waiver to enlarge the school they can fill in the younger years classes.

They won’t be granted another waiver. The ANC is extremely pissed off.

Haha... Thus was /s correct.

What is the ANC going to do? Vote with Great Weight to make them move?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard of other schools having fewer spots? If so, which ones? It seems like many schools are still accepting late applications (for second round). I would think if they had less spots, they wouldn't be accepting late applications.

You mean Sidwell? I thought they always accepted late applications.

Most schools will take late or rolling applications, as they are always looking for the best possible pool of applicants. They don't want to turn away a kid who is a great fit.

Of course, hard application deadlines are for the common folk.

No, hard application deadlines are for those who want to maximize their changes. GDS's application website, and I'm sure others, states that they will take applications after the deadlines, but that spaces may be limited to non-existent. If you want to roll the dice that way, go ahead.

This is usually for families that are relocating and didn't find out until for example, the summer. The independent schools around the country try to help each other out on this front.