Opinions on Appletree in Capitol Hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yes Maury and other DCPS schools are nearby but what you don't understand is that the schools don't have enough spots for in boundry kids for PS and a few spots for PK. The waitlist from the DCPS lottery is huge. So you are incorrect about neighborhood need. Also the neighborhood is not uniformly weathy- just look in the inboundry FARM numbers for Cap Hill. Also, you are correct that charter schools don't generally give preference but AppleTree has to guarantee a spot for current rising PK kids at the East Capitol location as it is closing next year. Because they plan to open 12th and Gibbs the current parents have a choice. There are several local parents to fill the spots as the 12th st location will only have a few classrooms and half will be filled by current parents. Finally, the school has several locations and asks for your preference when applying. The school can distribute the students as it sees fit and consider the parents geographical location.

I don't think that's right. I remember applying separately to different AppleTree campuses last year, and FWIW I don't remember anything about applying, for example, to Columbia Heights but potentially getting admitted at Southwest (which would be closer for my family).

But you are definitely on-target about neighborhood need! And I think it's only going to get more intense in the short-term .... Maury and Brent have added additional PS classes in past years to help address the demand, but presumably can't do that every year with space constraints.