Murch vs Lafayette vs Janney

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Janney Country Day School.

Does the country day school still have the chickens ?

[Anonymous]

That’s one teacher per classroom plus an aide. Not two co-teachers.

Happy to correct this misinformation every time it comes up.


Yes, that is what I meant. And I believe only Mann has this all the way till 5th grade; not sure, maybe Janney too, I am not sure.


Janney has 1 aide in every PK and K classroom per DCPS. They also have 2 partner teachers in 1st grade who split between the 5 classes, and a dedicated co teacher. 2nd grade as of this year has 2 partner teachers among the 5 classes and 1 co teacher. 3rd grade has 1 partner, 1 co, 4th and 5th 1 co each. Pretty sure that is accurate, but all this info is given on the school tour.

"partner 'teacher'" = aide

[Anonymous]

If home prices are used as an indicator of school quality, then Mann and Janney are the top ranked public elementaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If home prices are used as an indicator of school quality, then Mann and Janney are the top ranked public elementaries.

Home prices in DC are not indicators of school quality. There are too many private schools for that to matter, and there are some boundaries that hive mixed housing and some that don't.

[Anonymous]

Beware if you are planning to buy in the Janney district and make sure that you look only in American University Park proper. Parents are concerned that Janney is going to be overcrowded, and it's more likely than not that the next boundary review will involve shrinkage at the periphery, especially to the south and east.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beware if you are planning to buy in the Janney district and make sure that you look only in American University Park proper. Parents are concerned that Janney is going to be overcrowded, and it's more likely than not that the next boundary review will involve shrinkage at the periphery, especially to the south and east.

OMG you have no idea.

All of the neighborhood ES are essentially at capacity.

There is a tiny slice of Janney that is slightly closer to Murch and there is another slice that is slightly closer to Mann (that is actually part of "AU Park Proper").

But neither Murch nor Mann have any slack in their enrollment.

You could move the very small part of Tenleytown that is zoned for Janney to Hearst but Hearst is accepting almost no OOB students anymore and is also at capacity and you'd be moving a small number of students so not really accomplishing much.

Doesn't matter anyhow - the enrollment/boundary questions that matter pertain to Deal & Wilson. The ES are all big but not over capacity and all are similarly good schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If home prices are used as an indicator of school quality, then Mann and Janney are the top ranked public elementaries.

Home prices in DC are not indicators of school quality. There are too many private schools for that to matter, and there are some boundaries that hive mixed housing and some that don't.

Ha ha. You wish AU park was the most expensive neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If home prices are used as an indicator of school quality, then Mann and Janney are the top ranked public elementaries.

Home prices in DC are not indicators of school quality. There are too many private schools for that to matter, and there are some boundaries that hive mixed housing and some that don't.

Ha ha. You wish AU park was the most expensive neighborhood.

I think AU Park is the most expensive neighborhood for what you actually get for your dollar. One million basically gets you a nondescript, unrenovated 2000 square foot center hall colonial on a flat small lot.
1.4 or 1.5 in AU Park gets you the same house on the same lot but with a big new addition on the back.

Now 1.5 in the Mann neighborhoods often gets you a bigger, more interesting house on a better lot. Even 1.2 in Mann is a vast improvement over 1.2 in Janney. Same with the housing stock in Lafayette (Chevy Chase DC, Forest Hills).

Basically the Janney housing stock sucks for what you get (and I live in the neighborhood).

[Anonymous]

Oyster is better than all of them

[Anonymous]

Lafayette received 5 stars on the rankings released today

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned the fact that Lafayette is huge and overcrowded. I'd take that into consideration. To me Murch seems like the best option. Parents not too crazy, great location, slightly more diverse, feeds into Deal although Deal is also huge and overcrowded.

I know one Murch parent couple and they are total Type A, think their kid is a genius, leave play-based preschool because it's not challenging enough, types. I'm in a different neighborhood so have nothing else to compare them to, but I would not assume anyone is representative of the entire parent population at any school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned the fact that Lafayette is huge and overcrowded. I'd take that into consideration. To me Murch seems like the best option. Parents not too crazy, great location, slightly more diverse, feeds into Deal although Deal is also huge and overcrowded.

I know one Murch parent couple and they are total Type A, think their kid is a genius, leave play-based preschool because it's not challenging enough, types. I'm in a different neighborhood so have nothing else to compare them to, but I would not assume anyone is representative of the entire parent population at any school.

Yep, there are plenty of these parents at all three schools, along with the other Wilson feeders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned the fact that Lafayette is huge and overcrowded. I'd take that into consideration. To me Murch seems like the best option. Parents not too crazy, great location, slightly more diverse, feeds into Deal although Deal is also huge and overcrowded.

I know one Murch parent couple and they are total Type A, think their kid is a genius, leave play-based preschool because it's not challenging enough, types. I'm in a different neighborhood so have nothing else to compare them to, but I would not assume anyone is representative of the entire parent population at any school.

There are obnoxious Type A parents at every school we're talking about here. As someone who has had a kid in two of those schools, there are significantly fewer of them at Murch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned the fact that Lafayette is huge and overcrowded. I'd take that into consideration. To me Murch seems like the best option. Parents not too crazy, great location, slightly more diverse, feeds into Deal although Deal is also huge and overcrowded.

I know one Murch parent couple and they are total Type A, think their kid is a genius, leave play-based preschool because it's not challenging enough, types. I'm in a different neighborhood so have nothing else to compare them to, but I would not assume anyone is representative of the entire parent population at any school.

There are obnoxious Type A parents at every school we're talking about here. As someone who has had a kid in two of those schools, there are significantly fewer of them at Murch.

If you dismiss a sample size of one, then most DCUM opinions become irrelevant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If home prices are used as an indicator of school quality, then Mann and Janney are the top ranked public elementaries.

Home prices in DC are not indicators of school quality. There are too many private schools for that to matter, and there are some boundaries that hive mixed housing and some that don't.

Ha ha. You wish AU park was the most expensive neighborhood.

I think AU Park is the most expensive neighborhood for what you actually get for your dollar. One million basically gets you a nondescript, unrenovated 2000 square foot center hall colonial on a flat small lot.
1.4 or 1.5 in AU Park gets you the same house on the same lot but with a big new addition on the back.

Now 1.5 in the Mann neighborhoods often gets you a bigger, more interesting house on a better lot. Even 1.2 in Mann is a vast improvement over 1.2 in Janney. Same with the housing stock in Lafayette (Chevy Chase DC, Forest Hills).

Basically the Janney housing stock sucks for what you get (and I live in the neighborhood).

Totally agree with this and it's the reason we ended up in CCDC, with an updated house and an additional 400 sqft of space we couldn't find in AUP. However, I do miss being able to walk to a metro, which you get in AU/Tenley and the pricier parts of CCDC. There are always trade-offs!