Feedback on Hearst for 2nd and K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have had a child OOB, but I am curious why one would accept OOB in elementary if it necessitates trailers? Does that not mean the school is over capacity? Not sure why an OOB family would want that either?

Getting your children into a school that has strong academics, from a school with less strong academics, is a good reason for many families to accept that the school has trailers for some classes. Because the school doesn't have control over the number of IB children in a grade, it may make sense to add a classroom for a grade to keep the teacher:child ratio down, which benefits the IB kids by allowing them more individualized instruction and support. Keeping class sizes smaller is also a benefit during covid when kids aren't vaccinated yet. Maybe in previous years there were 2 classrooms of 24-26 per grade, and instead they're going to 3 classrooms of 20, which also creates more slots for OOB kids.

An OOB family may also want to get into a better middle/high school feeder pattern. A lot of families lottery every year to get into a better middle and/or high school and many never get in, so they end up deciding in mid/late elementary to move to MD or VA or back home.

[Anonymous]

Hearst, Eaton or Mann? If given the chance where would you go? OOB, commute is equally bad for all three.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearst, Eaton or Mann? If given the chance where would you go? OOB, commute is equally bad for all three.

Do you prefer a large middle school or a smaller one?

[Anonymous]

Hearst is a great school. Have two kids, now at Deal who attended throughout elementary. We were OOB (Crestwood) about 15 minutes away. Small community, diverse and welcoming. Great teachers and leadership. Felt like a high quality private school. We loved it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback on the school! It was particularly helpful to hear from the Crestwood poster who was in a similar situation a few years back. It makes sense that some parents were unhappy the teachers in the younger grades and left, and that may be why there were slots open for us. It looks like there were only 2 waitlist offers by October 2020 in all grades K-5, so this was a huge surprise.

Would love to hear more about the school from others! Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

How are things looking forward fall safety wise? What was the exoeri nce like last spring?

[Anonymous]

What about middle school? based on this site, Deal is overcrowded. So try to go to Hardy? Eaton now feeds to Hardy, I believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious how this will affect the already-crowded Deal down the line. Unless these Hearst OOB kids were already in Deal feeders.

Not a particularly helpful or welcoming comment. OOB families are DC residents who also pay DC taxes and have every right to attend a DC public school where they were offered a slot through the DC public school lottery.

You must not have a kid at Deal

+1. Not thrilled that my IB kid will be spending the year learning in a mobile home while OOB kids will be in brand new classrooms. Especially after a year when the principal would not offer my IB kid an seat because others (mostly OOB) were a higher priority. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious how this will affect the already-crowded Deal down the line. Unless these Hearst OOB kids were already in Deal feeders.

Not a particularly helpful or welcoming comment. OOB families are DC residents who also pay DC taxes and have every right to attend a DC public school where they were offered a slot through the DC public school lottery.

You must not have a kid at Deal

+1. Not thrilled that my IB kid will be spending the year learning in a mobile home while OOB kids will be in brand new classrooms. Especially after a year when the principal would not offer my IB kid an seat because others (mostly OOB) were a higher priority. Sorry.

They don’t separate classes by boundary. This is just you complaining

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious how this will affect the already-crowded Deal down the line. Unless these Hearst OOB kids were already in Deal feeders.

Not a particularly helpful or welcoming comment. OOB families are DC residents who also pay DC taxes and have every right to attend a DC public school where they were offered a slot through the DC public school lottery.

You must not have a kid at Deal

+1. Not thrilled that my IB kid will be spending the year learning in a mobile home while OOB kids will be in brand new classrooms. Especially after a year when the principal would not offer my IB kid an seat because others (mostly OOB) were a higher priority. Sorry.

They don’t separate classes by boundary. This is just you complaining

Of course they don’t. But filling the lower grades with OOB students has pushed the upper grades to trailers. The IB parents will smile in polite company with our new OOB friends while frequently checking their phone for emails from private school admissions offices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious how this will affect the already-crowded Deal down the line. Unless these Hearst OOB kids were already in Deal feeders.

Not a particularly helpful or welcoming comment. OOB families are DC residents who also pay DC taxes and have every right to attend a DC public school where they were offered a slot through the DC public school lottery.

You must not have a kid at Deal

+1. Not thrilled that my IB kid will be spending the year learning in a mobile home while OOB kids will be in brand new classrooms. Especially after a year when the principal would not offer my IB kid an seat because others (mostly OOB) were a higher priority. Sorry.

They don’t separate classes by boundary. This is just you complaining

Of course they don’t. But filling the lower grades with OOB students has pushed the upper grades to trailers. The IB parents will smile in polite company with our new OOB friends while frequently checking their phone for emails from private school admissions offices.

That’s fine. Had kids at Hearst a long time and it was much better when it was majority OOB and the neighborhood families went private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious how this will affect the already-crowded Deal down the line. Unless these Hearst OOB kids were already in Deal feeders.

Not a particularly helpful or welcoming comment. OOB families are DC residents who also pay DC taxes and have every right to attend a DC public school where they were offered a slot through the DC public school lottery.

You must not have a kid at Deal

+1. Not thrilled that my IB kid will be spending the year learning in a mobile home while OOB kids will be in brand new classrooms. Especially after a year when the principal would not offer my IB kid an seat because others (mostly OOB) were a higher priority. Sorry.

They don’t separate classes by boundary. This is just you complaining

Of course they don’t. But filling the lower grades with OOB students has pushed the upper grades to trailers. The IB parents will smile in polite company with our new OOB friends while frequently checking their phone for emails from private school admissions offices.

OK, so you're unhappy the school is filling the lower grades with OOB students. What are you recommending as an alternative?

Is your annoyance directed toward the school or the OOB families?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious how this will affect the already-crowded Deal down the line. Unless these Hearst OOB kids were already in Deal feeders.

Not a particularly helpful or welcoming comment. OOB families are DC residents who also pay DC taxes and have every right to attend a DC public school where they were offered a slot through the DC public school lottery.

You must not have a kid at Deal

+1. Not thrilled that my IB kid will be spending the year learning in a mobile home while OOB kids will be in brand new classrooms. Especially after a year when the principal would not offer my IB kid an seat because others (mostly OOB) were a higher priority. Sorry.

They don’t separate classes by boundary. This is just you complaining

Of course they don’t. But filling the lower grades with OOB students has pushed the upper grades to trailers. The IB parents will smile in polite company with our new OOB friends while frequently checking their phone for emails from private school admissions offices.

OK, so you're unhappy the school is filling the lower grades with OOB students. What are you recommending as an alternative?

Is your annoyance directed toward the school or the OOB families?

We are at a CH school that filled K classes up to 24-25 kids last year with OOB kids when every class would have been 20+ with IB only. Apparently they want to grab the kids earlier than than later and since K classes have aides, they think K can support 24-25 to keep about 20 through 4th and not have to offer any additional OOB seats. I sort of get it, but I was also sort of annoyed in COVID times when they they didn’t have enough in person seats for everyone and 4-5 less kids per class would have meant one fewer reading/math small group and so one more meeting of my kid’s group each week (which mattered a ton more during COVID because whole class zoom K is a waste of time in every respect). All of which is to say, I didn’t like my school’s approach to OOB kids. BUT I can’t imagine holding it against the individual OOB kids/families. One of my DD’s closest friends was OOB and most OOB kids live in basically the same neighborhood on the wrong side of an unfortunate line; I don’t really even think about who is OOB v not unless their address makes it super clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious how this will affect the already-crowded Deal down the line. Unless these Hearst OOB kids were already in Deal feeders.

Not a particularly helpful or welcoming comment. OOB families are DC residents who also pay DC taxes and have every right to attend a DC public school where they were offered a slot through the DC public school lottery.

You must not have a kid at Deal

+1. Not thrilled that my IB kid will be spending the year learning in a mobile home while OOB kids will be in brand new classrooms. Especially after a year when the principal would not offer my IB kid an seat because others (mostly OOB) were a higher priority. Sorry.

They don’t separate classes by boundary. This is just you complaining

Of course they don’t. But filling the lower grades with OOB students has pushed the upper grades to trailers. The IB parents will smile in polite company with our new OOB friends while frequently checking their phone for emails from private school admissions offices.

That’s fine. Had kids at Hearst a long time and it was much better when it was majority OOB and the neighborhood families went private.

Amen. That’s when Hearst was at its peak. Amazing community. Now we have a lot of the mentality above and it’s not a good look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious how this will affect the already-crowded Deal down the line. Unless these Hearst OOB kids were already in Deal feeders.

Not a particularly helpful or welcoming comment. OOB families are DC residents who also pay DC taxes and have every right to attend a DC public school where they were offered a slot through the DC public school lottery.

You must not have a kid at Deal

+1. Not thrilled that my IB kid will be spending the year learning in a mobile home while OOB kids will be in brand new classrooms. Especially after a year when the principal would not offer my IB kid an seat because others (mostly OOB) were a higher priority. Sorry.

Yikes... is this all grades, or which does it impact?