Commuter nightmare- any options that you would consider?

[Anonymous]

Recently moved and didn’t end up moving where I initially planned(Brookland/Michigan park etc) but very happy where I am now.

In ward 7(hillcrest) with a kid going to stokes Brookland for 4th and another heading to MacArthur high.

Would you try to switch schools at this 11th hour based on commute or any other factors?

I considered trying for a school with a short waitlist list but a bit torn.

[Anonymous]

I'd switch houses before schools.
Your high schooler can public transit. Brutal commute from Hillcrest to Stokes BL. Can you transfer them to Stokes EE

[Anonymous]

Try for Stokes EE. Look into digital pioneers, Washington leadership academy, and thurgood marshall.

[Anonymous]

Have you mapped out the commute? MacArthur is not very public transportation accessible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try for Stokes EE. Look into digital pioneers, Washington leadership academy, and thurgood marshall.

For the 4th grader you could probably get into Chisolm, they have a year or two before their swing space issue right? If you don’t need language, maybe Payne would have a spot in upper grades? Their 4th grade team is great.

For high school I know there is a whole thread on it, but I’d add Eastern to the list. I think Hill Crest is a lovely area, so I do not agree with the folks saying to move again before school starts.

Also I am not as familiar, but for the high schooler there are some private high schools in PG, but it may be too late to apply for those?

[Anonymous]

If your older child is a girl, Elizabeth Seton.

[Anonymous]

My DD has a very long commute. I would say some kids are fine with it, others find it very tiring/draining. So consider your HS kid's energy/maturity level. Also consider whether you feel comfortable with them commuting on their own or how much you can assist.

There are definitely a lot of kids who commute across the city daily, but how well it works very much depends on a whole list of factors and your comfort level.

Having looked at high schools a year ago, I'm not sure what your options are. There is no pathway to application high schools until next year (but I believe some application high schools do take sophomores).

[Anonymous]

The best thing to do is talk to your neighbors with kids and find out what they know and where they send their kids. You're probably just going to have to suck it up and make your oldest commute on their own this year and drive your 4th grader to school. At 5th grade your younger can commute on their own to school, so this is a temporary problem.

[Anonymous]

I would absolutely look into switching the 4th grader. There are lots of much closer options that would be fine (including Beers - if thats your IB) and other immersion schools. High school options are much more limited and your child can take public transit some by themselves so you might be stuck with McA at least for this year.

[Anonymous]

I'm in Hillcrest and will be doing the commute to Banneker this fall after doing Watkins and SH previously. I would try the Stokes campus on East Capitol. Commuting to Brookland from this side is absolutely brutal in the morning. I would not move. Hillcrest is lovely.

[Anonymous]

I would never do those hellish commute for those schools. McArthur really???

I don’t understand why you moved to Hillcrest without thinking about the consequences of schools and the commute. Even if your kid is older and can take public transportation, it’s still a bad commute for them. It’s a lot of lost quality time for you and your kids and it’s not even like the school is worth it.

I would move.

[Anonymous]

I lived in Randle Highlands (a little bit down Penn Ave, closer to the highway) for 10 years and initially commuted all the way to Petworth for my son's school and my job. It was brutal and I will always say it time I will never get back.

The commute to Brookland would be about the same in the car to MacArthur depending on traffic. The real issue is that these two schools are nothing close to each other.

It's not the way school campuses work, but I would ask Stokes about the possibility of going to EE. As for MacArthur, that is also a long commute. Kids are doing it, but it would be an over an hour commute from there. I know people who lived in Hillcrest growing up who went to St. Johns, Banneker or School without Walls for high school. So again, people do it, but its long.

Hope it all works out!

[Anonymous]

People think Mccarthur is a good school bc its adjacent to several wealthy neighborhoods. It's a title 1 school - few or none of the parents who live in those neighborhoods would ever send their kids to the school as it is currently constituted. Im talking about the parents who own $2+ million sfh in those adjacent neighborhoods - not parents renting apartments around the corner or across the street from the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd switch houses before schools.
Your high schooler can public transit. Brutal commute from Hillcrest to Stokes BL. Can you transfer them to Stokes EE

OP here… I’m not switching houses. The stokes EE waitlist is actually quite small to none so I could try. The thing is I don’t hear anything about stokes EE at all. I am waitlisted for several other schools but honestly just didn’t plan the lottery out as well as I could have as someone moving into dc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD has a very long commute. I would say some kids are fine with it, others find it very tiring/draining. So consider your HS kid's energy/maturity level. Also consider whether you feel comfortable with them commuting on their own or how much you can assist.

There are definitely a lot of kids who commute across the city daily, but how well it works very much depends on a whole list of factors and your comfort level.

Having looked at high schools a year ago, I'm not sure what your options are. There is no pathway to application high schools until next year (but I believe some application high schools do take sophomores).

Thank you for this.
She is a sophomore this year and all of the application schools we applied to came back “not eligible”