fewer spots available for next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Applying family asking a question, though based on this thread, it seems we sadly don't have to worry about it. What are the rules for drop-off and pick-up? We live in Chevy Chase and were planning to drop our DC off.

If you have only one child and they are above 1st grade, then you will need to send them by bus, carpool, or drop off before 7:30. GDS sends weekly reminders about the rules we need to abide by and has staff issuing warnings, which I have seen myself. Link below offers some information including a map that clearly indicates where drop off can and cannot happen. It is frustrating that many members of our GDS community seem to violate the agreements we've all made about transportation. I do believe that the school is doing more this year than I've ever seen to get it under control.

https://www.gds.org/community/hopper-transportation-program

There is definitely not a problem in the morning. Must be something in the afternoon. Picking up is a more painful matching system and wait than quickly dropping off in the carpool line.

That makes sense when other parents are quickly dropping off in the neighborhood instead of the carpool line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in admissions in a private in the DMV. The school has been discussed many times on this site.

It is true, we have very few slots for new families. For example, our kindergarten class is over 50% siblings. This is the highest it’s ever been so it really limits new family admits. We have examined trends and many of our families simply have larger families now.

As for higher grades, most grades have some attrition but we are probably only filling 4-7 seats throughout the lower school. I’ll note, grade 3 is not a growing year for us.

That part in particular that I've bolded is 100 percent incorrect. People, especially wealthy and educated, are having significantly fewer children. This is a fact.

It might be that across the larger population family size is smaller. But what matters is for the families applying to that school.
I know many wealthier families who are in private schools (not Catholic) in the DMV who have 3 or 4 kids.

Anecdotally that’s what you’re experiencing, I understand and of course, believe you. Statistically however you are incorrect; that’s not happening, especially in the wealthier and educated demographic. It may very well be that the schools are taking fewer students, but it has nothing to do with expanding families. It’s actually despite smaller family size.

No. This has been explained before. Nationwide averages do not contradict actual local data from a particular school. The administrator said they had surveyed their families, and they have more children than the families at their school used to have. This is a fact. “Statistics” do not render data “incorrect.”

In any case, I think you’re wrong.

https://qz.com/1125805/the-reason-the-richest...having-the-most-kids

It’s one of the best-established relationships in economics: as women’s education and income levels go up, the number of children they have goes down.

But something happened to the American family over the last three decades: that downward slope became a U-turn. Women in families in the top half of the income spectrum are having more kids than their similar-earning counterparts did 20 years ago. Women from the very richest households are now having more children than those less-well off. Less than 28% of 40- to 45-year-old women in a household in any income bracket below $500,000 per year have three or more children, according to data from the 2011-2015 US Census, while 31.3% of families earning more than $500,000 do.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:GDS should plan to have a typical sized 9th grade class (whatever that number was pre-covid) because you need the athletes and the super smart kids and connected kids to ensure college placement / reputation says strong. Obviously you plan for much higher yield and accept fewer students and make more use of the waitlist.

For the other grades you accept siblings and any stand outs / children of DC royalty that you need to accept and that's it. Maybe a few extras to make sure you have at least 12 in pre-k and 2 small kindergarten classes. You can always back fill the classes in future years.

This makes the most sense. When (if) they are granted a waiver to enlarge the school they can fill in the younger years classes.

They won’t be granted another waiver. The ANC is extremely pissed off.

Haha... Thus was /s correct.

What is the ANC going to do? Vote with Great Weight to make them move?

And there is the attitude that makes caps and thresholds necessary. Some members of the school community cannot abide by the agreement without being forced to do so.

The ANC can advise the city that the school does not appear to be satisfying the Trip Cap or Trip Threshold conditions it agreed to and should not be entitled to any automatic increase in its enrollment. The city gives a lot of weight to what the ANC says.

The city does not care for a minute about what the ANC thinks. But it is charming you think it does.

The ANC complained to the city. The city audited GDS. GDS will limit admits this year to comply with their agreement.

Sounds like they’ve decided to stop waiving the cap despite the Covid spike in yield and enrollment still persisting. That’s shortsighted.

Shortsighted on who's part?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I walk my DCPS elementary school kid along River Road each morning and then home again. Several times a week I watch cars entering and exiting GDS from River Road in ways that put pedestrians in danger and/or block the traffic on River Road. This is why the ANCs are so rigid about their relationships with private schools in their neighborhoods: it has a real impact on our safety. More students = more cars impacting our neighborhoods. FWIW, I also have a child in private school outside of our neighborhood and our school is very diligent about warning parents not to violate our agreements with the ANC and sending security guards out to enforce during drop off and pickup. Private schools are a part of their geographic community and they need to act like it!

I drive by there on my way to NPS. Maybe it’s just when I go, but the Janney parents seem to clog up that area with weird driving and lingering as they say hi to people from their cars, or walkers on the crosswalk needing to strut slowly as they walk multiple dogs to drop their kids off. GDS parents get on with it.

Private school and public school have different zoning requirements. GDS parents are required to get on with it.

Janney parents... Such a nightmare. Talk about privileged.

First, this isn't about Janney, which is a school attended entirely by DC taxpaying families with no enrollment cap and no traffic requirement other than those at law generally. Not a part of this conversation.

Second, for the privilege of paying no DC taxes while educating numerous children from MD and VA, GDS must adhere to a few simple rules to lessen the burden on the residential part of the neighborhood. Hardly too much of the DC government to ask of an entity that pays nothing to the DC coffers, while occupying land that could be occupied by prime DC revenue generating commercial entities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS just sent out the following message to current families:
"Our zoning approval process also sets a specific enrollment cap for the School. During the pandemic, as parents sought alternative educational experiences for their children, GDS experienced increased enrollment. Our attrition (the number of students leaving the school) decreased and our yield (the number of students who chose to enroll following our acceptance during admissions season) increased. This phenomenon was experienced by independent schools and colleges and universities nationwide.
As we are currently over the enrollment cap in our agreement (1,075), for the 2023-24 school year, GDS is obligated to move into compliance. This means that for next year we will need to admit fewer students than normal."

Are other private schools admitting fewer students for next year?

hi, how was this message sent out? We have one child currently at GDS (and reenrolled for next year) and one applying for admission this year and I don't think i recieved this message.
thank you.

[Anonymous]

earlier they said newsletter. in the text about parking and dropoffs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of trickle-down impact will this have for other privates? Seems competition will be even more stiff to make up for fewer GDS spots? I have a 9th grade applicant, so i want to be positive, but wouldn't it make sense to admit pk/k/9 as normal (don't they want a full 9th grade class to graduate in 4 years?) and severely curtail all other years?

I'm sure they are considering all scenarios. They could even just cut the whole K class for a year. It's not like they are hurting for applicants and it's not like people won't apply for their 1st grader a year later. Purely speculating your idea does seem to make sense that they may want to keep those grades' admits as usual or close to whatever they had planned. 9th is also where they can pick a lot of athletic or academic superstars which pays off later with sports teams and college admissions and prestige for the school.

Yeah! And just, like, lay-off the kindergarten teachers and invite them back in a year, whatever!