To Deal parents: has the confidence & trust in Wilson decreased?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wilson parent here- many of the issues are more problematic for the parents than the students. My DC never feels unsafe and does not complain about class size. There is a range. He has excellent teachers- we've been lucky. He has thrived at Wilson and came from Deal. My biggest issue is DCPS. They annually change so many things- LEAP, 8 classes instead of 7, Aspen instead of Jupiter, testing... the list is endless. There is never any consistency year to year That's not Wilson's fault- it's central office all the way.

I would agree with this. I taught in DCPS for a while and the bureaucracy is insane. When it came time to sign my own child up for Deal/Wilson track and I was handed the foot thick stack of paperwork, I just had bureaucracy flashbacks and we bolted for a charter where DD was happy and so were we.
A question I would ask current Wilson parents is how responsive are teachers / admin in Wilson? I don't mean to obnoxious helicoptering, but to real inquiries, concerns and needs for partnership that come up from time to time? That's what I look for in a school because bottom line that affects my own child's trajectory the most.

I don't recall any onerous paperwork when enrolling my child at Deal. Basic enrollment data, health forms, proof of residency, couple of optional papers that just required a signature. Heck of a lot easier than the hoops you have jump through to apply for and enroll in private school.

But I agree the changes every year must be a real pain for teachers to deal with -- kids, not so much. Kids just go to class and do their work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am asking this following a conversation with a person I absolutely trust and has first-hand information about a nearby private high school. This private high school received last year twice as much the"normal" number of applications from Deal families compared to the previous years.
Anecdotal talks and exchanges in my neighborhood tell me that Deal's community confidence in Wilson has been negatively affected by: 1) the change in leadership (a trusted principal being arbitrarily replaced by an outsider, who seems to be struggling to establish her way in such a complex school and system); 2) by last year's loaded gun episode; 3) and now by the worsened PARCC outcomes (regardless of the explanation re. the conflict with the APs tests and DCPS mismanagement).

I am very interested in hearing Deal parents' views. We are considering returning IB, after 3 middle school years at a good charter and almost 1,000 hours spent in commuting time, we can't take no more. Wilson is a 15 minute bike ride.

8th grade charter parent IB for Wilson.

My DC is a Wilson 9th grader who was at Deal last year. I'm guessing the school you mention is St. John's. I don't think you can treat it as a wholesale signal that Deal families have lost faith in Wilson. From my perspective I think those families who already had kids at Wilson were fine with sending their younger kid there (I fall in this camp) and in some instances those that chose St. John's it was their first kid in high school or they already had a child at St. John's. Anecdotal I know but just an element to consider. Deal still sent the majority of its students to Wilson.

My older child has had a great time at Wilson and is very positive about her experience there and my 9th grader has adjusted very well. Every family has to make a decision that works for them.

[Anonymous]

I too think it is SJC. We are a long time Deal to SJC family. Last year there was a large increase of Deal applicants to SJC but that wasn't just Deal. They had a 1100 applications so a lot more people all over were applying. Between the almost 90 siblings in the SJC freshman class and the uptick in applications the number of Deal kids who got in for this year is much lower than previous years. Really not a reflection of Wilson though.

[Anonymous]

No idea if it is sjc, but if it is, that may be due to the fact that tuition for even 4 years of other private high schools is really high now. Even compared to Visitation, another Catholic school, not to mention big 3/5. Sjc is still reasonably priced, with awesome facilities and continuing investment. Or so I hear.

[Anonymous]

I think the OP refers to GDS. I also heard they had a spike in applications from Deal.

[Anonymous]

I would expect that trend to continue given that every single class coming up for the next 5-6 years is bigger than the previous class. Even if the same percentage of kids apply elsewhere, the number will increase.There are a whole lot more kids in DC.

[Anonymous]

While there are certainly issues at Deal that may cause parents to consider private for high school, don't forget also that an improving economy and stock market may make it more do-able for some families to apply for private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know nothing about what Deal parents think of Wilson. I also think that's not a super important question except inasmuch as it impacts whether your kids' friends will attend Wilson. To me, the important question is what current Wilson parents think.

As a Wilson parent, I would strongly urge you to make decisions by visiting the school. DS is a freshman, so our experience is limited, but here's my take so far:

- Safety concerns (e.g. gun in the school) aren't on the radar of kids attending the school based on my conversations with DS and his friends. None of them have expressed that the feel unsafe. Asking the question elicits and eye roll and a laugh. I tend to spend a fair amount of time at the school because I pick DS up from sports practices, and it seems _much_ safer than my high school was.

- The administration struggles with some things. We did not get any mailings over the summer, and when I tried to check on what electives DS would be in before school started, I got a very annoying run around. The only direct answers that I got were all wrong. Literally. With that said, DS is in the honors classes that he is supposed to be in, which is what I was trying to find out.

- Teachers are better than expected. 7 out of 8 seem great. One is so-so.

- There are tons of opportunities for kids to explore new interests and learn and grow, which is very cool. Much more than DS's middle school (not Deal).

There are many, many folks on DCUM who don't have kids there but seem to really dislike Wilson, which you see just about any time a Wilson thread comes up. Based on having read a lot of these, I was very pleasantly surprised by our family's experience with the school. Do yourself a favor and spend some time at open houses and talking to current parents rather than reading DCUM and hearing lots of second hand rumors from other middle school parents. We almost made a different choice based on second-hand information relayed by other middle school parents specifically related to DS's interests, but when we investigated for ourselves we learned that those parents were completely wrong in just about everything that they said. Not out of ill will or bias against Wilson, they just didn't know and were repeating rumors. I'd go straight to the school for information.

+1. My DS is a freshman at Wilson and came from Deal. He was scheduled to attend private, as were most of his friends. They ALL decided to go to Wilson. He LOVES it. It is so must better than we ever thought. It's richly diverse. I would say at least 70% of his classmates went to Wilson, and that included the white kids FWIW. He had a sleepover with his friend this weekend. His friend went to Maret. I asked the mom how it was going. She said just ok and her son wants to go to Wilson. He might transfer.