Feedback on Eaton Elementary School in Cleveland Park, NW

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hmm, based on these posts maybe OOB isn't code word for brown or poor, maybe it really is about you can't afford to live in my neighborhood (which is why op isn't bothered about being the unwanted OOB at Stoddard because she does feel she lives in the neighborhood). We lived in a crappy 2 bedroom condo IB for Eaton, and I can tell you people in my neighborhood knew we couldn't "really" afford to live there and treated us accordingly though we are white and hyper-educated with kids likely to do well when testing comes around in 3rd grade.

We were in a similar circumstance and but the supposed attitude you mention was not our experience at all. The real point is that there is more economic diversity within the Eaton boundary area than people may realize.

The people who live right around Eaton understand that there are many rental apartments along the avenues. They've been there since the 1920s, so this isn't news to anyone who lives in the general area. It's also not newsworthy that rent for a 1-bed + den apartment on Connecticut is less than the mortgage payment for $4.5 million Victorian on Newark St.

well, just try to get a playdate for your three year old at Macomb playground. I'd be standing with two other moms talking about our babies/toddler, we all just met each other and went through the oh where do you live routine. Then I'd go follow my three year old for five minutes and come back to hear the tail ends of a playdate established by the other two. And it's not me, because now that we live elsewhere playdates just fall from the trees.

i am sure the IBers at Eaton would have been lovely to us (whether they lived in Victorians or apartments) because that is a self-selecting population, but we never made it that long.

Here's one difference, at Halloween, as candy was handed out to my very slow going 2 year old, I can't tell you how many people asked "Do you live in the neighborhood." Never was this asked, not once, in my new neighborhood. It is just a mindset difference. Perhaps some of it is feeling we overstretched ourselves for this mediocre house in a good neighborhood and it isn't fair that others get the same school or neighborhood etc without the sacrifice. Or perhaps it is true snobbery.

Glad you had a better experience in CP.

This was my experience in CP. It was just a really unfriendly place. This has no bearing on Eaton though since I did not end up sending kids there.

That's not the experience of other people. It's like a village in the city. That's why people who move there when they are younger typically live there for decades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't Garrison due before Eaton?

It seems that not much is really happening at Eaton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hmm, based on these posts maybe OOB isn't code word for brown or poor, maybe it really is about you can't afford to live in my neighborhood (which is why op isn't bothered about being the unwanted OOB at Stoddard because she does feel she lives in the neighborhood). We lived in a crappy 2 bedroom condo IB for Eaton, and I can tell you people in my neighborhood knew we couldn't "really" afford to live there and treated us accordingly though we are white and hyper-educated with kids likely to do well when testing comes around in 3rd grade.

We were in a similar circumstance and but the supposed attitude you mention was not our experience at all. The real point is that there is more economic diversity within the Eaton boundary area than people may realize.

The people who live right around Eaton understand that there are many rental apartments along the avenues. They've been there since the 1920s, so this isn't news to anyone who lives in the general area. It's also not newsworthy that rent for a 1-bed + den apartment on Connecticut is less than the mortgage payment for $4.5 million Victorian on Newark St.

well, just try to get a playdate for your three year old at Macomb playground. I'd be standing with two other moms talking about our babies/toddler, we all just met each other and went through the oh where do you live routine. Then I'd go follow my three year old for five minutes and come back to hear the tail ends of a playdate established by the other two. And it's not me, because now that we live elsewhere playdates just fall from the trees.

i am sure the IBers at Eaton would have been lovely to us (whether they lived in Victorians or apartments) because that is a self-selecting population, but we never made it that long.

Here's one difference, at Halloween, as candy was handed out to my very slow going 2 year old, I can't tell you how many people asked "Do you live in the neighborhood." Never was this asked, not once, in my new neighborhood. It is just a mindset difference. Perhaps some of it is feeling we overstretched ourselves for this mediocre house in a good neighborhood and it isn't fair that others get the same school or neighborhood etc without the sacrifice. Or perhaps it is true snobbery.

Glad you had a better experience in CP.

This was my experience in CP. It was just a really unfriendly place. This has no bearing on Eaton though since I did not end up sending kids there.

That's not the experience of other people. It's like a village in the city. That's why people who move there when they are younger typically live there for decades.

I noticed that most people who live there are very old and have lived there forever. But it was such an unfriendly place! I was happy to leave. I'm glad that others have a better experience than I had. I strongly believe that being Central American had a lot to do with the general nastiness I encountered on a near daily basis. Sorry to be a downer but that was my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP above, are you an Eaton parent? My guess is that you are not. Trust me, the Eaton community, staff and parents have asked and held meetings and put great effort into the renovation question.
Agreed that our community has a unique population. Specifically, not enough Ward 3 voters for a council member to advocate for us.
Interesting that moving forward with and making the most of what we have is not virtuous enough for you. No matter what you think, we'll just keep taking care of our kids.

I find your post kind of nasty. Why feel the need to shut down debate? I am also a former Eaton parent -- left three years ago -- and I agree with the poster who said that the Eaton community is very good at making do but not very good at advocating strategically for the school. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. If there were effective advocates in the community, Eaton would be renovated and would still feed into Deal. There were many things I loved about Eaton -- many, many things -- but it is being left in the dust by other schools with more aggressive and effective parent advocates.

[Anonymous]

Former CP apartment-dweller here. Check out the CP listserv some time. The Lee parents who post here seem halfway sane in comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former CP apartment-dweller here. Check out the CP listserv some time. The Lee parents who post here seem halfway sane in comparison.

The "CP list serve" stopped being a neighborhood list seve over a decade ago. It's more of a general list serve for all of upper NW. It seldom deals with serious local issues anymore and half the postings are paid Advertisements. Most locals don't bother with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP above, are you an Eaton parent? My guess is that you are not. Trust me, the Eaton community, staff and parents have asked and held meetings and put great effort into the renovation question.
Agreed that our community has a unique population. Specifically, not enough Ward 3 voters for a council member to advocate for us.
Interesting that moving forward with and making the most of what we have is not virtuous enough for you. No matter what you think, we'll just keep taking care of our kids.

I find your post kind of nasty. Why feel the need to shut down debate? I am also a former Eaton parent -- left three years ago -- and I agree with the poster who said that the Eaton community is very good at making do but not very good at advocating strategically for the school. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. If there were effective advocates in the community, Eaton would be renovated and would still feed into Deal. There were many things I loved about Eaton -- many, many things -- but it is being left in the dust by other schools with more aggressive and effective parent advocates.

This. And it seems that the 'great effort' on an Eaton renovation unfortunately just may be spin and blowing smoke, as no one has stepped forward to share details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP above, are you an Eaton parent? My guess is that you are not. Trust me, the Eaton community, staff and parents have asked and held meetings and put great effort into the renovation question.
Agreed that our community has a unique population. Specifically, not enough Ward 3 voters for a council member to advocate for us.
Interesting that moving forward with and making the most of what we have is not virtuous enough for you. No matter what you think, we'll just keep taking care of our kids.

I find your post kind of nasty. Why feel the need to shut down debate? I am also a former Eaton parent -- left three years ago -- and I agree with the poster who said that the Eaton community is very good at making do but not very good at advocating strategically for the school. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. If there were effective advocates in the community, Eaton would be renovated and would still feed into Deal. There were many things I loved about Eaton -- many, many things -- but it is being left in the dust by other schools with more aggressive and effective parent advocates.

Yes. It seems that Hearst is definitely on the upswing while Eaton has remained kind of stagnant. Ten years ago, there were even questions about Hearst's long terns future and mission. Would it close or even be sold? Used as swing space as nearby schools were renovated? Now it's completely modernized, feeds to Deal instead of Hardy, neighborhood enrollment is moving up fast and some IB families in the Eaton zone are figuring out how to move their kids there. There's good stuff happening at Eaton, but at the same time other schools are passing it by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP above, are you an Eaton parent? My guess is that you are not. Trust me, the Eaton community, staff and parents have asked and held meetings and put great effort into the renovation question.
Agreed that our community has a unique population. Specifically, not enough Ward 3 voters for a council member to advocate for us.
Interesting that moving forward with and making the most of what we have is not virtuous enough for you. No matter what you think, we'll just keep taking care of our kids.

I find your post kind of nasty. Why feel the need to shut down debate? I am also a former Eaton parent -- left three years ago -- and I agree with the poster who said that the Eaton community is very good at making do but not very good at advocating strategically for the school. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. If there were effective advocates in the community, Eaton would be renovated and would still feed into Deal. There were many things I loved about Eaton -- many, many things -- but it is being left in the dust by other schools with more aggressive and effective parent advocates.

Yes. It seems that Hearst is definitely on the upswing while Eaton has remained kind of stagnant. Ten years ago, there were even questions about Hearst's long terns future and mission. Would it close or even be sold? Used as swing space as nearby schools were renovated? Now it's completely modernized, feeds to Deal instead of Hardy, neighborhood enrollment is moving up fast and some IB families in the Eaton zone are figuring out how to move their kids there. There's good stuff happening at Eaton, but at the same time other schools are passing it by.

I am a Hearst parent and while I appreciate your comments, I also know a lot of folks at Eaton (both IB and OOB). They are extremely engaged folks at what seems like an amazing school. I don't think they are stagnant at all. It is not stagnant to consistently provide a fabulous education for your kids. (P.S. Hearst always fed to Deal.)

[Anonymous]

On the Bancroft vs. OOB debate, I'd like to point out that many of my Mt. Pleasant friends whose kids go to Eaton or Hearst or a charter live on Hobart or Irving. Those kids were in bounds for HD Cooke up until this year, so parents opted to try to lottery elsewhere. Some of those parents actually tried to send their kids to HD Cooke when it returned to the neighborhood, but found it to be unwelcoming and hostile, with a disorganized aftercare program and odd dropoff practices (PS 3 and PS 4 kids were dropped off in the gymnasium and were at risk of being trampled by the largely unsupervised 4th & 5th graders).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former CP apartment-dweller here. Check out the CP listserv some time. The Lee parents who post here seem halfway sane in comparison.

As also a former cp apartment dweller, I agree with you on the listserve being nuts (remember the flower thief browhaha!) and CP being rather unfriendly for families who can't afford SFHs. But Lee parents are lovely. IMO, the parent community is one of the best things about Lee (behind the teachers and admin). It's mostly made up of middle-class families from the center of the city (and East or SE) and so a pretty down-to-earth bunch trying to find a way to afford to stay in the city close to their jobs. Families we lost to immersion schools this year (always a big draw) come back to the schoolfor social events because of the bonds formed last year were that strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former CP apartment-dweller here. Check out the CP listserv some time. The Lee parents who post here seem halfway sane in comparison.

As also a former cp apartment dweller, I agree with you on the listserve being nuts (remember the flower thief browhaha!) and CP being rather unfriendly for families who can't afford SFHs. But Lee parents are lovely. IMO, the parent community is one of the best things about Lee (behind the teachers and admin). It's mostly made up of middle-class families from the center of the city (and East or SE) and so a pretty down-to-earth bunch trying to find a way to afford to stay in the city close to their jobs. Families we lost to immersion schools this year (always a big draw) come back to the schoolfor social events because of the bonds formed last year were that strong.

How was your experience in Cleveland Park unfriendly? Did you join any of the community organizations and have a bad experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former CP apartment-dweller here. Check out the CP listserv some time. The Lee parents who post here seem halfway sane in comparison.

As also a former cp apartment dweller, I agree with you on the listserve being nuts (remember the flower thief browhaha!) and CP being rather unfriendly for families who can't afford SFHs. But Lee parents are lovely. IMO, the parent community is one of the best things about Lee (behind the teachers and admin). It's mostly made up of middle-class families from the center of the city (and East or SE) and so a pretty down-to-earth bunch trying to find a way to afford to stay in the city close to their jobs. Families we lost to immersion schools this year (always a big draw) come back to the schoolfor social events because of the bonds formed last year were that strong.

How was your experience in Cleveland Park unfriendly? Did you join any of the community organizations and have a bad experience?

We were renting in CP and were planning to buy since we had just moved to DC. With the exception of one person in our building, everyone in our largely old people building on Connecticut was openly hostile. Interactions such as this were common:
"Good morning!"
"I see you have kids. Keep them quiet at night. I hate the sound of crying."
"Oh okay. Sure they're good sleepers. Have a nice day!"
"Grumble...grumble"

At the playground I would always introduce myself and have pleasant enough chats and the CP moms and babies list serve is nice, but people aren't interested in making friends it seems. This may be because many have been there a while and have friends already. But the reality is that i experienced hostility almost constantly - people cutting me in line at the post office because they had "one quick thing" while I had a crying child. People treating service workers like crap was alarmingly common. My super had some amazing stories to tell. When we moved some woman entered my apartment to "check out the layout Since she wanted to buy one for her son". She never asked, just charged on in and interfered with the movers and packers. I had to ask her to leave and she demanded to speak to the tenant. When I said it was me (a brown person) she was shocked. I made her leave. Everyday rudeness was the norm, as was people assuming I was the nanny or service worker. I have heard lots of comments like the OP's where people would decry the OOB students at Eaton. It's just not a very pleasant neighborhood. The CP list serv is pretty representative in my opinion. Most of the people posting put their address at the bottom and most do live in CP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former CP apartment-dweller here. Check out the CP listserv some time. The Lee parents who post here seem halfway sane in comparison.

As also a former cp apartment dweller, I agree with you on the listserve being nuts (remember the flower thief browhaha!) and CP being rather unfriendly for families who can't afford SFHs. But Lee parents are lovely. IMO, the parent community is one of the best things about Lee (behind the teachers and admin). It's mostly made up of middle-class families from the center of the city (and East or SE) and so a pretty down-to-earth bunch trying to find a way to afford to stay in the city close to their jobs. Families we lost to immersion schools this year (always a big draw) come back to the schoolfor social events because of the bonds formed last year were that strong.

How was your experience in Cleveland Park unfriendly? Did you join any of the community organizations and have a bad experience?

We were renting in CP and were planning to buy since we had just moved to DC. With the exception of one person in our building, everyone in our largely old people building on Connecticut was openly hostile. Interactions such as this were common:
"Good morning!"
"I see you have kids. Keep them quiet at night. I hate the sound of crying."
"Oh okay. Sure they're good sleepers. Have a nice day!"
"Grumble...grumble"

At the playground I would always introduce myself and have pleasant enough chats and the CP moms and babies list serve is nice, but people aren't interested in making friends it seems. This may be because many have been there a while and have friends already. But the reality is that i experienced hostility almost constantly - people cutting me in line at the post office because they had "one quick thing" while I had a crying child. People treating service workers like crap was alarmingly common. My super had some amazing stories to tell. When we moved some woman entered my apartment to "check out the layout Since she wanted to buy one for her son". She never asked, just charged on in and interfered with the movers and packers. I had to ask her to leave and she demanded to speak to the tenant. When I said it was me (a brown person) she was shocked. I made her leave. Everyday rudeness was the norm, as was people assuming I was the nanny or service worker. I have heard lots of comments like the OP's where people would decry the OOB students at Eaton. It's just not a very pleasant neighborhood. The CP list serv is pretty representative in my opinion. Most of the people posting put their address at the bottom and most do live in CP.

Sounds like your issues were more with the dynamics of your apartment building than with the community. The list serve has close to 20K members, and claims to be the largest such list serve in the country. Cleveland Park is a relatively small neighborhood. The list serve is ok to publicize a yard sale in Forest Hills or a lot dog in Van Ness, but discussion of neighborhood issues moved elsewhere a long time ago. Partly this was because the list serve moderators used to axe viewpoints with which they disagreed. People have also come to dislike the constant ads disguised as postings on it.

[Anonymous]

There is a pretty vigorous discussion going on right now about indoor/outdoor cats. Seems like the neighborhood discussion is still there.

Definitely agree with you on the too many advertisements. I'm so done with hearing about Cake Pops that I avoid the store out of principle.

I think if someone posted "I'm going out to buy a gas-powered lead blower- any recommendations?" You would gets tons of "neighborhood" postings.

I am glad you like CP, but I was happy to leave it behind. My building was awful but I hated the neighborhood as well. I could tell more anecdotes but I think that those would not be helpful to others.