Elementary Schools - Chevy Chase DC
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Anonymous
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I apologize for posting in this forum as well as the off-topic forum.
As I noted in my post in the off-topic forum, my wife and I have begun to look seriously at moving to Chevy Chase DC. We really like Lafayette Elementary and the surrounding playground and tennis courts. Today, however, in reviewing US Census data mapped on the NYTimes website, I noticed that in Chevy Chase (East of Conn Avenue) over 80% of elementary school kids attend private school. I have nothing against private school, but one of the reasons we focused on CC DC was our hope that our 1 year old son could grow up with the same gang of kids - at least through elementary school. Short question long . . . Is CC DC a close-knit neighborhood for young families and their kids? Or do children and their parents drift away as kids move on to different schools? Any other thoughts on this neighborhood and if the 80 % number is accurate would be much-appreciated. Thanks! The mapping tool is available at http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer. |
Anonymous
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All of the families we know in the neighborhood except for one send their kids to private school, including us. There is one family across the street with kids that we do not know well. No clue what they do.
We have lived in our neighborhood for a long time, and we have seen a few families on our block come and go. One moved out to the 'burbs for the bigger houses, one moved just across the line to a bigger house but will still send the kids to private, and another moved to a much bigger and more expensive house in Spring Valley but will also send their kids to private. And some people, like us, stay because they love the neighborhood even if they would love a bigger house/yard. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thank you very much for your response. My wife and I are primarily interested in a close-knit community, so we really appreciate your input. The size of the house is really secondary for us.
We assumed that having a school that everyone attended would foster closeness in the neighborhood, but it sounds like you have a strong community despite having a common school? Do you have thoughts on why it's possible in Chevy Chase? Do people meet up at the playground and the tennis courts? Do the kids go to the same private school? Also, do you have thoughts on why private schools are so popular in your neighborhood - is it for increased admission chances for middle and high school? My wife and I have nothing at all against private schools, we just thought that Lafayette was supposed to be a good school. We were surprised to see that majority of the neighborhood does not attend? Thanks again for any input! |
Anonymous
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I hope you get good input on the Chevy Chase DC neighborhood, which I know nothing about. But, seeing your priority on a closeknit community makes me wonder if you have considered living on Capitol Hill. It is supremely walkable and full of parks and playgrounds. The houses are so close together and yards so small that neighbors become like extended family. Public schools are improving rapidly with large numbers of young families expecting to send their kids to the neighborhood school.
Sounds like it might be just what you and your wife are looking for! |
Anonymous
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NP here. We live in CC DC and our child goes to Lafayette, which we love. On our block, there is a mix of private and public. Off the top of my head, three families (incl. us) send their kids to Lafayette, two to Maret, and one to GDS. The other families have pre-school, grown or no kids.
We are pretty close with the people on our street, probably closest to our next-door neighbors, one of whom is a childless couple and the other is one of the Maret families. So, it's not like the folks who send their kids to private aren't neighborly. Folks socialize on their front walks, at the park, Broad Branch market, on the Avenue, etc. It's just a very friendly community. But, of course, we are esp. friendly with the Lafayette families we see at drop-off, pick-up and various school functions. Though everyone in the neighborhood seems to come out for Lafayette's fall festival and spring fair, regardless of whether they have kids there. Incidentally, most of the folks we know in CC MD and Bethesda are an equal mix of private & public school, so I just think that people who can afford to live in these neighborhoods generally can afford to send their kids private and thus many choose to do so, for a variety of reasons, even if they live in a good school district. The bad rap about DCPS generally, and the sense that you can't keep your kids in public school beyond Lafayette (a notion that is become less and less true every year, as Deal and Wilson improve and more families send their kids to DCPS all the way through) are I'm sure contributing factors. Hope this helps. It really is a fantastic neighborhood and I think it's nuts that so many send their kids to privates, but oh well. They're missing out--Lafayette is really wonderful. |
Anonymous
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17:08 here, and I agree with much of what 17:44 said. We see people out in their yards, run into people "on the Avenue" (Connecticut), see the same people at church, or at Arucola (a neighborhood Italian restaurant that is both really good and family friendly), and there are things like the library, the Avalon movie theatre, the fabulous toy store, and the great beer and wine store, and that is just one or two blocks. There is also the farmers market, which is on Lafayette's grounds on weekends, and the Broad Branch market, although we have not been since its latest reincarnation.
People tend to walk down to the starbucks or at least hang out there some on weekends (I'm embarrased to admit we now drive - 2 kids plus the dog was a little too much for us!). All of the kids go to Lafayette for the playground starting with the tot lot on up. One private school does not dominate the neighborhood for those who attend private. I think some people choose it because they believe in it, some people choose it to get a foot in the door of the K-12 schools, and some people choose it for other reasons. We chose it because we thought it would be a better environment for our very shy child, and we thought we couldn't send one to private and not the other one. The biggest advice I give people is not to spend so much for a house that you have to count on public (obviously, this is for people who are looking at buying into these kinds of neighborhoods, and I realize not everyone has a the kind of choices I am talking about). I know too many people who did that and then ended up having a kid who needed to go to a private school for one reason or another. Not every school fits every kid, so I would be suspicious of a neighborhood where all the kids went to the same private school (we actually looked at a nieghborhood like that once, and school seemed to be about status and not the kid). We love the school our children attend, and we also love our neighborhood, so we really feel incredibly fortunate and lucky that things worked out this way. |
Anonymous
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OP, I truly believe the short answer to your question is that in that Census tract you're focusing on, many many kids go to Blessed Sacrament parochial school. Their parents in many cases intentionally moved within parish boundaries in order that their kids could attend. (It's hard to get into Blessed Sacrament in K if you are out of boundary.)
If you look back at that census map you posted, you'll see that there is a precipitous drop off in private school attendance outside that one boundary line. (I live in CC, but OUT of Blessed Sacrament's parish boundary, and almost no one I know attends BS elementary, if that makes sense.) So the point of this post is to plant the idea in your head that the "private school dominant" trait in that one tract is largely because of a cultural thing among certain Catholics, who greatly desire a particular parochial school and community. They may also eschew Layfayette and Murch, but I don't think that is the primary driver in their choosing BS and choosing to live within the tight boundary for BS. |
Anonymous
Are you sure? I keep getting an error message for that link. |
Anonymous
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Really? I've never heard of a Catholic church having a strict boundary. As far as I know, you can join any one you want, and the stated admissions preference is for parishoners, not people living within the parish boundary.
Anyway, I don't know anyone who sends his/her kids to Blessed Sacrament. I do know plenty of people in the 'hood who send their kids to Beauvoir, Sidwell, NPS, and Norwood. I do wonder if the 80% is overstated, though. I saw something else on a real estate website which said that private school students made up 50% of the neighborhood, not 80. |
Anonymous
You have to take the period of the end of explorer, then I get the link. I looked at the data and it looks very estimated to me, and from years 2005 - 2009. It is clearly incorrect for my DC census tract (says fewer than 30 elementary school kids and I know more than that personally). so, I would not rely on this data source as a indicative on the block by block level of what is occurring now in any particular tract. Not to say that they aren't a lot of private school kids in the Lafayette district. But, the school is ~89% inboundary students, and really crowded, so I don't think you'd want many more neighborhood kids to opt in. |
Anonymous
Oh yes, oh yes they do have boundary lines. It creates a ranking system should there be too many applicants for too few spots. |
Anonymous
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I wouldn't trust the statistics very much. I just looked at the site and compared our census tract (11) to others in NW. The numbers are all over the place.
Most, but not all, of the kids in our neighborhood go to public at Janney or Murch. There's a wide range of private schools in the mix as well. We're planning on Murch. I love living in the neighborhood. And yes, the PP is correct. BS has strict boundary lines as well as donation requirements. |
Anonymous
| Per DCPS website -- at Lafayette last year there were 634 kids total and 87% in boundary means 551 kids live in the Lafayette neigbhorhood (between Conn & Rock Creek Park). The number of in boundary kids (and kids in that neighborhood) has steadily risen over the past 10 years. The neighborhood is good as kids get older and can walk/bike to/from school on their own and to the shops, library, and community center. Later easy bus ride to Deal and Wilson (and Wilson pool). |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks everyone for your input. This is very helpful!
One last question. My wife and I are 29 and 32, and our son is a year old. We currently live NW of Dupont Circle, where there are lots of people our age just starting out with their first kid. Would we find other young couples just starting their families in Chevy Chase DC, or is the demographic slightly older (i.e., multiple kids, already in elementary school)? Thanks again. |
Anonymous
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Yes the demographic is older.
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