Question about Woodward High School and Kensington/Garrett Park real estate

[Anonymous]

I say this as a WJ parent who has been very happy with the school. If I were to do it all over (now that college is very close), I would have purchased in NoVa. Instate options in VA are much more desirable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So true. OP, if you want to keep up with the Parkwood or Town of Kensington side of town, do you have money for a country club membership and all the other trappings of UMC life? Your kids will be the poorer ones on the block and they will notice. [/quote

What? Have you ever been to Parkwood or Town of Kensington?

LOL. PP thinks Parkwood is Chevy Chase or Battery Park. Most people in Kensington live in crowded cape cods or ranchers and drive RAV 4s and CRVs. If anything, the area is fiercely middle class and lower middle class in their trappings.

The going rate for new/newer homes is $1.4m-$1.7m.
If that’s middle or lower middle class to you, you are uneducated about what people earn or just trying to sound richer than you are. Get over yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I say this as a WJ parent who has been very happy with the school. If I were to do it all over (now that college is very close), I would have purchased in NoVa. Instate options in VA are much more desirable.

But the High schools in NoVa are not desirable at all, unless you can get into TJ

[Anonymous]

Wow, remind me to never look for buying a new home in Kensington. Apparently it is a toxic dump of personalities. No wonder the DMV has such a bad reputation for being filled with people with horrible personalities. Sure sounds like the Kensinton neighborhood is filled with nasty people on either side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, remind me to never look for buying a new home in Kensington. Apparently it is a toxic dump of personalities. No wonder the DMV has such a bad reputation for being filled with people with horrible personalities. Sure sounds like the Kensinton neighborhood is filled with nasty people on either side.

This is DCUM, not real life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, remind me to never look for buying a new home in Kensington. Apparently it is a toxic dump of personalities. No wonder the DMV has such a bad reputation for being filled with people with horrible personalities. Sure sounds like the Kensinton neighborhood is filled with nasty people on either side.

This is DCUM, not real life.

I live in Kensington and have met only the loveliest, most genuine people. Some are zoned for KP, some for OT, some Rock View. The attitudes on this board are crazy to me as, in real life, it's one of the most welcoming areas I've encountered in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, remind me to never look for buying a new home in Kensington. Apparently it is a toxic dump of personalities. No wonder the DMV has such a bad reputation for being filled with people with horrible personalities. Sure sounds like the Kensinton neighborhood is filled with nasty people on either side.

This is DCUM, not real life.

I live in Kensington and have met only the loveliest, most genuine people. Some are zoned for KP, some for OT, some Rock View. The attitudes on this board are crazy to me as, in real life, it's one of the most welcoming areas I've encountered in the DC area.

I live here, too, and have absolutely seen some of enmity from KP folks towards OT/RV families (I'm one of those PPs). It sucks. I disagree that those of us who don't go to KP are nasty, unless sticking up for ourselves and our families is somehow a bad thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So true. OP, if you want to keep up with the Parkwood or Town of Kensington side of town, do you have money for a country club membership and all the other trappings of UMC life? Your kids will be the poorer ones on the block and they will notice. [/quote

What? Have you ever been to Parkwood or Town of Kensington?

Yep. I live in Kensington Heights and the Ktown and Parkwood people can be really insufferable. They have to somehow convince themselves they are better because they spent $200k more on a house to send kids to Parkwood ES with massive overcrowding. I’ve noticed that the white UMC kids from einsten are headed to similar colleges as the ones on the WJ side.

Huh? Kensington-Parkwood is not overcrowded. (Neither are Rock View or Oakland Terrace.)

The average kindergarten class size at KP is 22 and it is 16 at Rock View and 15 at Oakland Terrace. Same number of teachers in K classrooms. KP is definitely a school that feels bursting at the seams to me.

Oakland Terrace is a focus school so lower numbers. 22 is normal or small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So true. OP, if you want to keep up with the Parkwood or Town of Kensington side of town, do you have money for a country club membership and all the other trappings of UMC life? Your kids will be the poorer ones on the block and they will notice. [/quote

What? Have you ever been to Parkwood or Town of Kensington?

Yep. I live in Kensington Heights and the Ktown and Parkwood people can be really insufferable. They have to somehow convince themselves they are better because they spent $200k more on a house to send kids to Parkwood ES with massive overcrowding. I’ve noticed that the white UMC kids from einsten are headed to similar colleges as the ones on the WJ side.

Huh? Kensington-Parkwood is not overcrowded. (Neither are Rock View or Oakland Terrace.)

The average kindergarten class size at KP is 22 and it is 16 at Rock View and 15 at Oakland Terrace. Same number of teachers in K classrooms. KP is definitely a school that feels bursting at the seams to me.

Oakland Terrace is a focus school so lower numbers. 22 is normal or small.

Oakland Terrace is not a focus school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So true. OP, if you want to keep up with the Parkwood or Town of Kensington side of town, do you have money for a country club membership and all the other trappings of UMC life? Your kids will be the poorer ones on the block and they will notice. [/quote

What? Have you ever been to Parkwood or Town of Kensington?

Yep. I live in Kensington Heights and the Ktown and Parkwood people can be really insufferable. They have to somehow convince themselves they are better because they spent $200k more on a house to send kids to Parkwood ES with massive overcrowding. I’ve noticed that the white UMC kids from einsten are headed to similar colleges as the ones on the WJ side.

Huh? Kensington-Parkwood is not overcrowded. (Neither are Rock View or Oakland Terrace.)

The average kindergarten class size at KP is 22 and it is 16 at Rock View and 15 at Oakland Terrace. Same number of teachers in K classrooms. KP is definitely a school that feels bursting at the seams to me.

Oakland Terrace is a focus school so lower numbers. 22 is normal or small.

Oakland Terrace is not a focus school.

Yes, it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So true. OP, if you want to keep up with the Parkwood or Town of Kensington side of town, do you have money for a country club membership and all the other trappings of UMC life? Your kids will be the poorer ones on the block and they will notice. [/quote

What? Have you ever been to Parkwood or Town of Kensington?

Yep. I live in Kensington Heights and the Ktown and Parkwood people can be really insufferable. They have to somehow convince themselves they are better because they spent $200k more on a house to send kids to Parkwood ES with massive overcrowding. I’ve noticed that the white UMC kids from einsten are headed to similar colleges as the ones on the WJ side.

Huh? Kensington-Parkwood is not overcrowded. (Neither are Rock View or Oakland Terrace.)

Double huh to the "really insufferable" comment. I have found that the area is fully of really pleasant, wonderful, down to earth people. yes, lots of folks have a pool membership but that's not exactly rolling in the dough.

DP, but I have seen firsthand how many of these "really pleasant, wonderful, down to earth people" react when I say my kids go to a local public that's not KP. Pursed lips, looks of disgust, eye rolls, etc. It's gross behavior from people who seem to pride themselves on being "down to earth" and yet would never deign to send their kids to a school with significant SES diversity. They're pleasant to *each other*. Not to everyone and definitely not to many of us who made different choices for our kids' education.

This is my experience with Parkwood and ToK families. I run into them frequently at the park and pool and they absolutely look down upon those who do not live in the town or Parkwood. I have one friend who moved from Town to Kensington Heights because she sends kids to independent schools and decided not to continue paying the WJ premium for schools she's not been using for 8 years and the comments she gets are out of this world.

They are nice to their other neighbors in Parkwood/ToK and if you are the undesirables who live in Kensington Heights or North Kensington, what they say behind your back is "They don't really live IN Kensington, they may as well be in Wheaton." Which is doubly rude because they are also putting down another community with some very nice (but browner) residents.

I live in the BCC side of Kensington (is that better? worse?) and I have never heard this. Though I have heard DCC parents complain about feeling like they are on the "wrong side of the tracks.". Their words.

I'm sure there are snobs in this world but there are also plenty of people with chips on their shoulders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So true. OP, if you want to keep up with the Parkwood or Town of Kensington side of town, do you have money for a country club membership and all the other trappings of UMC life? Your kids will be the poorer ones on the block and they will notice. [/quote

What? Have you ever been to Parkwood or Town of Kensington?

Yep. I live in Kensington Heights and the Ktown and Parkwood people can be really insufferable. They have to somehow convince themselves they are better because they spent $200k more on a house to send kids to Parkwood ES with massive overcrowding. I’ve noticed that the white UMC kids from einsten are headed to similar colleges as the ones on the WJ side.

Huh? Kensington-Parkwood is not overcrowded. (Neither are Rock View or Oakland Terrace.)

The average kindergarten class size at KP is 22 and it is 16 at Rock View and 15 at Oakland Terrace. Same number of teachers in K classrooms. KP is definitely a school that feels bursting at the seams to me.

Aren't those schools (Oakland Terrace and Rock View) title one schools? If so, does that explain the different in class size?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So true. OP, if you want to keep up with the Parkwood or Town of Kensington side of town, do you have money for a country club membership and all the other trappings of UMC life? Your kids will be the poorer ones on the block and they will notice. [/quote

What? Have you ever been to Parkwood or Town of Kensington?

LOL. PP thinks Parkwood is Chevy Chase or Battery Park. Most people in Kensington live in crowded cape cods or ranchers and drive RAV 4s and CRVs. If anything, the area is fiercely middle class and lower middle class in their trappings.

I live in Parkwood and I know exactly one family that belongs to a country club. The rest of us hang out at the neighborhood pool. It's not really a Rav4 neighborhood - more Honda Pilot/Toyota Highlander with a sprinkle of Suburbans. We are not Chevy Chase but the cape cods are getting knocked down and I'd say people are generally bringing in 300K min with two working spouses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So true. OP, if you want to keep up with the Parkwood or Town of Kensington side of town, do you have money for a country club membership and all the other trappings of UMC life? Your kids will be the poorer ones on the block and they will notice. [/quote

What? Have you ever been to Parkwood or Town of Kensington?

Yep. I live in Kensington Heights and the Ktown and Parkwood people can be really insufferable. They have to somehow convince themselves they are better because they spent $200k more on a house to send kids to Parkwood ES with massive overcrowding. I’ve noticed that the white UMC kids from einsten are headed to similar colleges as the ones on the WJ side.

Huh? Kensington-Parkwood is not overcrowded. (Neither are Rock View or Oakland Terrace.)

The average kindergarten class size at KP is 22 and it is 16 at Rock View and 15 at Oakland Terrace. Same number of teachers in K classrooms. KP is definitely a school that feels bursting at the seams to me.

Aren't those schools (Oakland Terrace and Rock View) title one schools? If so, does that explain the different in class size?

Neither are title one. Oakland Terrace is a Focus school so it gets more funding than most but less then a Title One. Not sure about Rock View but they are not a title one as Title one schools are listed on the MCPS website. It does explain the class size. Focus schools and Title one have small class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, remind me to never look for buying a new home in Kensington. Apparently it is a toxic dump of personalities. No wonder the DMV has such a bad reputation for being filled with people with horrible personalities. Sure sounds like the Kensinton neighborhood is filled with nasty people on either side.

This is DCUM, not real life.

I live in Kensington and have met only the loveliest, most genuine people. Some are zoned for KP, some for OT, some Rock View. The attitudes on this board are crazy to me as, in real life, it's one of the most welcoming areas I've encountered in the DC area.

+1. I grew up in hoity-toity Chevy Chase, but I love living in Kensington now. So great for kids.

And we love our RAV-4, too!