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H.D. Cooke...thoughts?
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Anonymous
| While I think the crime posting mom was maybe extreme, she did alert some of us who are considering the school and don't live in the neighborhood. Yes, there are actually OOB kids looking at Cooke. It's always good to remember that open houses tend to be good dog and pony shows to promote the school. Cooke has a lot of boosters on this site and I can appreciate that. But actually spending time at the school and neighborhood will reveal much more. For those that don't live there, I thank the crime mom for at least making some of us aware of the issues. Otherwise, we might enroll and be very unhappy in September. Then you would have an open slot that could have gone to someone else. |
Anonymous
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Fair enough. If you are not in the neighborhood, please do come visit and take a look for yourself. Don't rely on a bunch of crime postings on DCUM. Come of drop off. Come at pick-up.
No offense, but I do hope you Murch parents will stay home. Why put your kid in Cooke for one or two years and then change schools. Leave those OOB spots for someone who might want to be in the school long term -- not fair to either set of kids to be disrupting their social group like that. And, leave them for someone for who Cooke might be a much better option than their in-boundary school. |
Anonymous
Precisely. In contract to a collection of scary articles from the past ten years posted anonymously to this thread. |
Anonymous
Two years ago, Cooke was essentially an open construction site. Now, it's an elementary school. Two years might not be a long time for crime patterns to change assuming a consistent context, but that assumption just doesn't hold here. Stories from the construction-site era really are dated in a meaningful way. |
Anonymous
| But it was a school before the rennovation, wasn't it? |
Anonymous
| It was a school before the renovation, yes. The renovation took a really long time - nearly 5 years, I believe. I've heard it was a grim place the years before renovation - falling down and unsafe (from dangers in the neighborhood as well as in the school). In the 5 years it was closed and a construction site, the neighborhood changed a great deal. I've heard the principal - before the school opened - talk about how they had taken measures to ensure those who maybe had been on school grounds of the old school (ie, guns in the lights) were no longer going to have access to the school grounds. |
Anonymous
Not since 2002 or 2003, I believe. It was a derelict building and then a construction site literally for years. Of course it invited crime. But over those years the neighborhood has continued to gentrify and the school has been completely -- and fabulously -- renovated. Adams Morgan still ain't Mayberry (thank goodness!), but those dated crime stories really need to be read with a shaker of salt. |
Anonymous
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I understand your point but you do not sound very welcoming. I hope you are not indicative of other Cooke parents.
-signed, not a Murch parent
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Anonymous
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Are there actually parents in bounds at Murch who go to Cooke for a year or two? Most I know go to private preschool at 3 and to Murch's pre-k 4 program, pretty sure all interested in bounds kids get in.
If this is actually true, I agree that it would be better for people to make a real commitment to the school. I am really ethically troubled by the idea of wealthy parents taking spots like that that would be great for neighborhood children or non-school ready kids. In another post someone said that Head Start has basically been done away with in DC (as a program with a lot of ed and support for whole families), what's left is these pre-K 3 & 4 spots. Not sure if the poster was exaggerating for effect, but if not, wow. PP is that true in the pre-k 3 class? |
Anonymous
Heh! No, that was completely hypothetical! Or more correctly, wishful thinking on the PP's part. No, Murch parents might do Appletree or Bridges (some Lafayette parents do) but they wouldn't do Cooke. If worse came to worst they'd pay for pre-school in Friendship Heights or do a co-op. |
Anonymous
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I'm a Cooke parent too who has been at the school on weekends, during the week, and in the evening as late as 8:00 (9:30 at Harris Teeter down the street). I've lived in AM for 15 years, and there is a HUGE difference between the 17th street from 15 years ago and the one today. The school was closed for 5 years, which invited crime. The school reopened this year, and this, combined with Harris Teeter, has made a big difference in terms of foot traffic and overall safety. The scary house at 17th & Euclid isn't there anymore. There is a security guard at the front door (as there are at many schools) and a crossing guard at the corner of 17th and Columbia before and after school. I do not feel unsafe. I don't think you can compare crimes that happened in 2007 (in front of a closed school building) to the way that the neighborhood feels today. Things are that different.
If you are considering Cooke but are frightened off by this poster, by all means come by the school anytime day or night. Do what you would reasonably do before you move into any neighborhood. I think you will find that it is perfectly fine. |
Anonymous
are you for real? if so, you obviously know nothing about early childhood programs at Cooke, which are most definitely comprable to appletree. |
Anonymous
And, I would note that Appletree (the Col Hts campus) is right next door to murders that happened IN AUGUST 2009, unlike Cooke. So are you saying that Murch parents are more likely to put their kids in danger? 
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Anonymous
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Ignore the alleged Murchers -- I'm assuming "they" are the same poster as the crime-spamer. I wish there was a way to limit discussion on this thread to parents in the school and/or in the neighborhood and I really wish the person who feels the need to attack every Cooke thread would tell us who she is.
Give us the 411. Are you in-bounds for Cooke? Did you have a kid there and remove him/her? Are you the same lady who complained back in the summer b/c you walked past the school and saw no white kids? Are you a teacher who was removed by the principal? None of your attacks seem to be based on first-hand information about the school, you only rely on test scores (which are of little relevance in a school that has recently relocated and has rapidly shifting demographics) and local crime. How about your views on the teachers in the PS and PK? The Principal? The PTA? Do you know anything about that? If you do tell us. |
Anonymous
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Well, based on the writing, I think it's all different posters PP. Do you yourself have a child at Cooke?
I ran over to Harris Teeter and happened to drive past the Euclid Market - has it been closed long? That seems like a good thing, no? |