Confused about MV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did they pick that location? Especially since far from the spanish-speaking community.

It was a hard choice between there and the other 45 locations they could have "chosen"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did they pick that location? Especially since far from the spanish-speaking community.

They have a shuttle that leaves from Mt. Pleasant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did they pick that location? Especially since far from the spanish-speaking community.

They have a shuttle that leaves from Mt. Pleasant.

Is there a fee for this shuttle?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did they pick that location? Especially since far from the spanish-speaking community.

It was a hard choice between there and the other 45 locations they could have "chosen"

NP, but oh the sarcasm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did they pick that location? Especially since far from the spanish-speaking community.

They have a shuttle that leaves from Mt. Pleasant.

Is there a fee for this shuttle?

Yep and it's all on their website.

[Anonymous]

There's a fee for everything and it ain't cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This far and you're the first MV parent to ask this question. Hmmmmmmmm.

S/he is only the first to post the question publicly. I suspect s/he is more of an optimist or more of a glutton for punishment than many of the rest of us. I am a founding family at MV and have two children there. I -- like many others at MV and other schools -- have been around long enough to know that those who frequent these boards aren't the stuff of our community. So I, more often than not, choose to lurk rather than participate on MV topics in the interest of not feeding the troll. I suspect those even wiser and busier than me choose to skip these boards altogether. Rather than waste time (which, admittedly I'm doing here) on vagaries and rumors posted on these anonymous boards, committed families volunteer to speak directly with admitted families. I've attended open houses for admitted families and answered hundreds of questions over the years. I've emailed back and forth with prospective families; I've taken phone calls. I tell the truth - warts and all. MV isn't perfect, by any stretch. But it's a wonderful school for those families whose children are compatible with expeditionary learning, who want to do an immersion program, and who have an interest in sustainability. If you're worried about panhandling (which, I've not seen a single time on P St in nearly a year of drop off and pick ups on foot and on bike) and hiring full-time security guards, you're simply not going to get many committed MV families to take the bait. Or if you're worried that you didn't get the proper face-time with the principal during the tour conducted during school hours, then, yeah, your priorities might be a bit out of whack. The school, of course, cares about admitted families, but other priorities like dealing with budget shortfalls that affect students, buildings, and staff and possibly other events took precedence. Deal with it, find your information from another source, or move on. I'd bet my last dollar that the tour guide would have provided email or phone numbers for volunteer parents to answer any lingering questions. I know for a fact that the woman who gave the tour is well-spoken, highly knowledgeable, kind, compassionate, and bilingual, and is both a dedicated staff member and founding family. I know her personally and was within earshot of much of one of the tours last week that she conducted as I was there for a separate meeting. To the reasonable observer, she displayed the qualities listed, and was not underwhelming. Her main fault seems to be she wasn't Dahlia or Kristin.

So, to the point, the lack of response on these boards is indicative of nothing more than that many families know better than to engage in the back and forth on these forums. I know better, but took the bait anyway. Likely to my dismay. But if one admitted family thinks twice about the bullshit on these boards, then I guess it wasn't entirely for naught. The rest of you can feed off the herd and believe that MV parents are all unfortunate, self-entitled saps. I'll raise my glass with and to those unfortunate saps any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

i am pp who asked about what people would have liked to see. what is interesting is that in the many pages since this thread started I have yet to see but a few answers that do not equate to "I was underwhelmed" and" the tour was not led by the principal". it leads me to believe as I suspected that folks are looking for a way to say they expected more than a school going about the business of being a school and were looking wizard of oz like, for some magic behind a curtain. unrealistic expectations breed unrealistic complaints. no magic or miracles folks, just good hard work by teachers and students. about the only thing miraculous is my kids beautiful spanish after this year at MV. so, don't come if you are looking for perfection or pristine streets without homeless folks. but i daresay if that is what you want, you won't find that at mundo or anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I also came across a few student working outside of their classrooms and asked them why there were not in their class doing their work to which they replied it was too loud in the class to concentrate so the teacher asked to finish their assignments in the corridor. Those classrooms were JAM PACKED with kids.

Maybe MV should considered security cameras to monitor randos that accost students in the hallways when they're trying to get their work done?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This far and you're the first MV parent to ask this question. Hmmmmmmmm.

S/he is only the first to post the question publicly. I suspect s/he is more of an optimist or more of a glutton for punishment than many of the rest of us. I am a founding family at MV and have two children there. I -- like many others at MV and other schools -- have been around long enough to know that those who frequent these boards aren't the stuff of our community. So I, more often than not, choose to lurk rather than participate on MV topics in the interest of not feeding the troll. I suspect those even wiser and busier than me choose to skip these boards altogether. Rather than waste time (which, admittedly I'm doing here) on vagaries and rumors posted on these anonymous boards, committed families volunteer to speak directly with admitted families. I've attended open houses for admitted families and answered hundreds of questions over the years. I've emailed back and forth with prospective families; I've taken phone calls. I tell the truth - warts and all. MV isn't perfect, by any stretch. But it's a wonderful school for those families whose children are compatible with expeditionary learning, who want to do an immersion program, and who have an interest in sustainability. If you're worried about panhandling (which, I've not seen a single time on P St in nearly a year of drop off and pick ups on foot and on bike) and hiring full-time security guards, you're simply not going to get many committed MV families to take the bait. Or if you're worried that you didn't get the proper face-time with the principal during the tour conducted during school hours, then, yeah, your priorities might be a bit out of whack. The school, of course, cares about admitted families, but other priorities like dealing with budget shortfalls that affect students, buildings, and staff and possibly other events took precedence. Deal with it, find your information from another source, or move on. I'd bet my last dollar that the tour guide would have provided email or phone numbers for volunteer parents to answer any lingering questions. I know for a fact that the woman who gave the tour is well-spoken, highly knowledgeable, kind, compassionate, and bilingual, and is both a dedicated staff member and founding family. I know her personally and was within earshot of much of one of the tours last week that she conducted as I was there for a separate meeting. To the reasonable observer, she displayed the qualities listed, and was not underwhelming. Her main fault seems to be she wasn't Dahlia or Kristin.

So, to the point, the lack of response on these boards is indicative of nothing more than that many families know better than to engage in the back and forth on these forums. I know better, but took the bait anyway. Likely to my dismay. But if one admitted family thinks twice about the bullshit on these boards, then I guess it wasn't entirely for naught. The rest of you can feed off the herd and believe that MV parents are all unfortunate, self-entitled saps. I'll raise my glass with and to those unfortunate saps any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

i am pp who asked about what people would have liked to see. what is interesting is that in the many pages since this thread started I have yet to see but a few answers that do not equate to "I was underwhelmed" and" the tour was not led by the principal". it leads me to believe as I suspected that folks are looking for a way to say they expected more than a school going about the business of being a school and were looking wizard of oz like, for some magic behind a curtain. unrealistic expectations breed unrealistic complaints. no magic or miracles folks, just good hard work by teachers and students. about the only thing miraculous is my kids beautiful spanish after this year at MV. so, don't come if you are looking for perfection or pristine streets without homeless folks. but i daresay if that is what you want, you won't find that at mundo or anywhere.

Big deal. This is every school in the inner city.

[Anonymous]

I agree with 20:34 poster. I was also at the tour last Wednesday and it is surprising that people were so underwhelmed or confused about MV. I find it weird that so many prospective parents on the tour didn't know much about the school, or had never previously visited it, or had no idea about the neighborhood, etc. Most likely everyone that got called off of the first round of the WL probably ranked MV pretty high on their lottery list- so It seems odd that they hadn't investigated the school already- instead of waiting until you have to make a quick decision. I got a friendly and favorable impression from the visit. Yeah, there are a couple of things that I wish were different, but EVERY school I visited had at least one thing I would like to change. Every family just has to weigh all of the criteria of the schools they are considering and prioritize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with 20:34 poster. I was also at the tour last Wednesday and it is surprising that people were so underwhelmed or confused about MV. I find it weird that so many prospective parents on the tour didn't know much about the school, or had never previously visited it, or had no idea about the neighborhood, etc. Most likely everyone that got called off of the first round of the WL probably ranked MV pretty high on their lottery list- so It seems odd that they hadn't investigated the school already- instead of waiting until you have to make a quick decision. I got a friendly and favorable impression from the visit. Yeah, there are a couple of things that I wish were different, but EVERY school I visited had at least one thing I would like to change. Every family just has to weigh all of the criteria of the schools they are considering and prioritize.

In actuality MV was ranked last in our lottery and we added it just to make 12. We went to the open house hoping to be wowed and weren't. No big deal we will go elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

MV was my second-to-last choice. Love that MV families assume it is everyone's first choice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MV was my second-to-last choice. Love that MV families assume it is everyone's first choice!

I think you what love more is to assume that MV families think that way, which is definitely not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MV was my second-to-last choice. Love that MV families assume it is everyone's first choice!

I think you what love more is to assume that MV families think that way, which is definitely not true.

Quoting PP:
"Most likely everyone that got called off of the first round of the WL probably ranked MV pretty high on their lottery list"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MV was my second-to-last choice. Love that MV families assume it is everyone's first choice!

I don't think everyone assumes MV is everyone's first choice, but because of the specific focus of the school --immersion spanish-- it is a very particular choice. I would assume that most families who put it on their list are really prioritizing a dual language program (and/or spanish), and therefore would list the handful of dual language schools at the top.