Hoffman Boston Elementary vs Oakridge vs ??
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Anonymous
That same question can be asked of almost every ARL ES. Answer: Not great. |
Anonymous
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One way Oakridge "dealt" with its overcrowding situation was by not complaining at all when APS re-zoned all of Pentagon City (multi-family residences, at least) to Hoffman-Boston during the most recent South Arlington ES zone shake up 2 autumns ago, taking them from 770 kids down to 531 (K-5).
Hoffman-Boston is 45% Free/Reduced Lunch. We know a few families with kids there. They say it's like a United Nations there - every race/ethnicity group is somewhere in the 20's in terms of percentage. They love the principal and seem to be having a good experience there. The one family we know who didn't like the place has college-aged kids now. Oakridge is 21% FRL. We've heard nothing but strange stories about the current principal, but we know several families who've had a great experience there regardless. A former Arlington-wide teacher of the year who used to work at Oakridge, now works at Hoffman-Boston, FWIW. |
Anonymous
| At $3500/month, you could rent at Cherry Hill apartments in North Arlington- we lived there during a recent renovation and it was great. Not on the metro but the bus service is super convenient and the apartments were so nice (large modern 3bedroom for that price). I think the elementary school isTaylor. |
Anonymous
Wow That kind of diversity is unheard of . I would love for my kid to have that cultural exposure. Alas!! I came across something similar about the Oakridge principal on one of the rating websites..And only good things about the HB principal.. Some of these websites list Oakridge as 784. I guess that's old data.  " by not complaining at all when APS re-zoned"
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Anonymous
Thanks for the feedback on Cherry Hill. Somehow the impression I got from reading about Taylor was it catered to a the rich, non-diverse base? We are also not sure about the new school at Key site..Long branch, Glebe, Ashlawn? perhaps.. |
Anonymous
long time resident here. I have had friends move house to go to Ashlawn and others petition APS to go there and have only heard good things. |
Anonymous
I don’t know much about long branch, but I’d happily have my kids attend Ashland or Glebe or Taylor. Fwiw, if you come across McKinkey, the entire school is being moved to a new site called Reed at Westover. It’s a great area, and I’d love if my kid could go there. It will open in September. If you are ok with an apartment, there’s Horizons East and West in 22207 and a bunch of Apartment buildings in 22201 north of Lee highway that are easily walkable to Courthouse Metro. One of them is called Potomac Towers. https://www.apartmentratings.com/va/arlington/horizons-east-west_703527235322207/#floorplans https://www.apartments.com/potomac-towers-arlington-va/tsepvvb/ |
Anonymous
PP here. As for overcrowding, yes it is overcrowded, but class sizes are still reasonable and my fifth grader was so excited to have class in the relocatable trailer. The only issue I have had with class sizes is my kids sometimes have lunch times that are too early, but they have snack time in class later so it hasn’t been a big problem. Another poster mentioned the principal. I have only had bad experiences with the principal. IMO that’s the worst thing about the school. But I have only really interacted with her once and my kids still love/loved their experiences at the school. |
Anonymous
I’m currently at asfs, where the majority of the school is going to the new school at key. So far I have not been impressed with the new principal for key. The main downside for either Asfs or key is that both communities are largely apartment building/multi family housing. This makes this student population very transient— I have a fifth grader and every year she’s had to make new friends because her bffs from the previous year move either to another part of Arlington or out of the area (state department). Talking to other parents, it seems like the area around key is more transient than other parts of Arlington. It’s not a big deal, but it does mean a lot of parents aren’t particularly engaged in school activities. Other than from Lyon Village and Courthouse/Clarendon (which isn’t supposed to be at key, I think courthouse and Clarendon stayed at asfs with the latest boundary), there aren’t a lot of parents who can commit a lot of time to the school. It’s a very international community, but will have a f/rl rate of close to 40% (so similar to hb in that regard). Since it’s a brand new school community, there’s going to be a lot of growing pains from there being a new school with a new pta. Only one current pta officer from asfs will be at the new school, so it will be interesting to see if more parents step up or if they just downscope pta activities. Another area to look would be Barrett. That’s also a very diverse community and would be a short commute. |
Anonymous
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Here’s a house in the tuckahoe district that is walkable to
Metro https://hotpads.com/6718-williamsburg-blvd-arlington-va-22213-vxj01a/pad |
Anonymous
Dude, they are in the walk zone and you were not. It wasn’t some big conspiracy. Also, if they didn’t zone you out, they wouldn’t have had room for the kids in the new affordable housing complex about to open, the one that’s closer to the school than you were, and that would’ve been bused to Drew instead, further exacerbating that school’s economic segregation. |
Anonymous
I have one at Hoffman Boston and one who went there and is now in MS. We love it there! It's a really special place with wonderful, caring teachers. The principal is friendly and cheerful, highly accessible, and seems to really care about the teachers and the kids. The diversity is phenomenal, as others have said, and my kids have friends from all over the world. Yes, many are immigrants and still learning English so their test scores are not as high, but by and large they are good students and their parents really care about education, even if they have to work two jobs to live in an apartment in the area. We are MC/UMC and my kids are in the "gifted services" program, and they feel challenged. They haven't gone to any other APS schools so not sure how it really compares, but for me, elementary school should be about nurturing a love of school and good relationships with others, and that's what I feel my kids have gained by going there. Distance learning has not been ideal, of course, but is it anywhere? Hopefully next year will be back to in-person. |
Anonymous
| Hoffman Boston is an absolute gem of a school. Only parts of South Arlington are really poor. Most of the apartments around HB are market rate, they are no AH. The eastern end of Columbia Pike is nothing like the western end. Don’t listen to the people who aren’t brave enough to cross Rt 50- they have no clue. HB has the highest amount of Asians next to old ASFS. Most are Mongolian. It also has tons of green space. |
Anonymous
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Oakridge and Hoffman-Boston are both great schools.
There are plenty of people on here who will tell you South Arlington is some sort of horror show of poverty. YES, it's financially diverse, unlike North Arlington. I see that as an asset. We live in 22204 and absolutely love it. Our neighborhood is full of normal, middle class families and professionals. |
Anonymous
| 11:51, 11:24 and 11:15 , Thank you for the bring out the positives about HB. I didn't know how extreme the situation was. Glad to hear this. |