LAMB Questions

[Anonymous]

We did a big jump on the LAMB South Dakota wait list - from 18 to 10 in a matter of a few days. I'm thinking it's possible we'll get an offer, but possibly after school starts? :-/

- How big are the PK class sizes? Student/teacher ratio?

- What are the chances of getting into DCI from LAMB?

- Are people generally happy with LAMB? Worth complicated logistics and 25 min drive or 25 minute bike for a year to get in at the 14th street locations?

- I've heard that on-campus aftercare is not an option this year at 14th street, is that for the SD campus as well?

- Any transportation ideas from the Mt Pleasant/Columbia Heights/Petworth area?

We are currently in at Bethune, which people seem generally happy with but I know a lot of families transfer (in boundary) for K. Our in boundary (Raymond) doesn't have Spanish, and has an inconvenient location for our commutes.

I know we don't need to make a decision unless we get an offer, but I imagine we'll have to make the decision pretty quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did a big jump on the LAMB South Dakota wait list - from 18 to 10 in a matter of a few days. I'm thinking it's possible we'll get an offer, but possibly after school starts? :-/

- How big are the PK class sizes? Student/teacher ratio?

- What are the chances of getting into DCI from LAMB?

- Are people generally happy with LAMB? Worth complicated logistics and 25 min drive or 25 minute bike for a year to get in at the 14th street locations?

- I've heard that on-campus aftercare is not an option this year at 14th street, is that for the SD campus as well?

- Any transportation ideas from the Mt Pleasant/Columbia Heights/Petworth area?

We are currently in at Bethune, which people seem generally happy with but I know a lot of families transfer (in boundary) for K. Our in boundary (Raymond) doesn't have Spanish, and has an inconvenient location for our commutes.

I know we don't need to make a decision unless we get an offer, but I imagine we'll have to make the decision pretty quickly.

To the questions I can answer:
No, there's no on-campus aftercare at either location this year, unless more hiring changes things. They filled the spots with current people within 5 minutes, so the waitlists would appear to be long.

Some people carpool but there's no bus between 14th and SD.

New 14th St. building is lovely.

It's Montessori, so classes are three grade levels (Pk4-K, 1-3, 4-5). There are two teachers per classroom and I think the number of kids is generally about 25/ class.

We are actively wanting to get out of LAMB due to covid shenanigans, lack of response to parents, and continuing drama with catching kids up in an immersion program. Working on making it happen to leave but haven't been financially able to yet.

Teachers seem to all be good, and everyone loves them. For my griping, I will say that the teachers are amazing.

Admin is pretty bad. Don't believe anything they say, as they'll just say something different in two weeks and pretend they never said anything before.

There's a set of toxic parents, but there's one of those at every school. You can pretty easily find a group of parents that you get along with, in my experience.

The school seems to have lost any sense of community due to kicking everyone out during covid, and it seems like they aren't ever going to do any community rebuilding.

They still haven't announced covid policies for the year (see: bad admin), so who knows what they will be. Probably something that doesn't align with DC Health or CDC, like they did last year.

[Anonymous]

Edit: Pk3-k

[Anonymous]

Re: DCI changes -- LAMB doesn't backfill after K, so with attrition there will be (in theory) fewer kids competing for the DCI spots. But DCI is still a long ways out and who knows what will change by the time your kid is in 6th.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how much outdoor time PK-K get?

[Anonymous]

We were happy with the amount of recess and movement time the kids got in pk/k.

You are unlikely to get in, but good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were happy with the amount of recess and movement time the kids got in pk/k.

You are unlikely to get in, but good luck!

How much time?

[Anonymous]

I don't remember the exact amount of time for recess in the PK/K years (my kids are older now and Primary feels like a long time ago) but my kids always had lots of stories about the many things that happened during recess, so it seemed like a long time. I will say that in addition to recess, kids also have weekly PE and the LAMB PE teacher is one of the most amazing women ever - the kids all love her, she knows them all and she's just all around fantastic.

We have generally been happy (and did a couple of years of a not-great commute back when we first started). For all the issues PP identifies (and I think I generally agree with what they've said) my kids have had truly amazing and wonderful teachers and that has overshadowed everything else.

[Anonymous]

35 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Another low WL number question: what's the masking situation at LAMB? Are they matching DCPS policy (i.e., obligatory masks during times of high community spread) or they are masking indefinitely? TIA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another low WL number question: what's the masking situation at LAMB? Are they matching DCPS policy (i.e., obligatory masks during times of high community spread) or they are masking indefinitely? TIA!

LAMB is not following DCPS. Masks required indoors when DC is at medium or high level.