PS & PK lottery follow-up: are you happy where you landed?

[Anonymous]

I've heard that there are still open spaces for PS3 and PK4 at Appletree (Columbia Heights & Lincoln Park) and at Inspired Teaching--two programs where I'd be happy to send my young child. Does this mean that there's now a (slight) glut of spaces in quality pre-elementary programs, and that families are likely to have secured a spot somewhere that they're happy to send their child? How did your lottery and waitlist experience shake out?


I'm the parent of a PK4 student who did PS3 in a very good DCPS school, where we would have been content to send him for another year (but which feeds into a middle school that I'm really not comfortable with). We applied to the following schools, with the following results:

Haynes: school lost our application
Capital City: our absolute top choice, but were in the 100s on the waitlist, so no prayer
Yu Ying: admitted off the waitlist in mid-May; child now attends there--it was our second choice, but we're excited to make Mandarin a part of life around the house for the next decade


From my perspective now, it seems that my sense of panic from last spring was entirely misplaced. Is that others' take as well, or did we just get really lucky?

[Anonymous]

Appletree added over 300 spots this year, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Appletree added over 300 spots this year, FWIW.

And we had Mundo Verde and Inspired Teaching opening, adding another (100?) spots. The question is, has the demand now been met, and will parents be less stressed during the lottery for 2012-2013?

[Anonymous]

I get the sense that most families ended up someplace they're happy with this year. We're at Yu Ying, which if I'd given it any thought and hadn't taken a "throw the spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks" approach to charter school applications, probably would have been our first choice. Also have friends who ended up at Inspired and seem really happy.

[Anonymous]

That is a really good question on the supply and demand side of equation that makes we wonder if this year is an unfair comparison to the future:
Lots of new spots at Mundo Verde and Inspired Teaching-
plus bubble year classes at LAMB and Yu Ying
plus all the new Apple Tree spots.

What I find most interesting is that none of these schools even existed when my first child was born (except LAMB).

I think it shows the difficulty in predicting what will be available for kids in the future.

[Anonymous]

We are at MV, which was our first choice, so we are thrilled!

We also got spots at Appletree and Bridges but have heard nothing from LAMB, Stokes, Haynes, Two Rivers, Cleveland or Ross. We are PS. From what I can tell, most PK got into where they wanted to go, and PS got into somewhere that made them happy enough.

[Anonymous]

There are no PS3 places open at Inspired Teaching. I think there might be one PK4 space available.

We got places at Appletree and Bridges as well as Inspired Teaching. I loved Bridges but we were looking to the long term and took the Inspired Teaching place instead. So I think you're right about there being a glut of PS3 places, but I would think most parents are still worried about what comes after PS3 and PK4. IMO there's still going to be a wait list next year for the popular schools for PS3 and PK4.

[Anonymous]

Agreed. No bubble classes, lots of sibs at the new schools etc.

[Anonymous]

Very happy. We're at YY which was our first choice. We applied to no other public/charter. Got into the 2 privates we applied but we really wanted Chinese and neither offered a second language for PK.

[Anonymous]

We started at CH Appletree but after 2 weeks couldn't handle the logistics or long day anymore. We put our DS into a 3 hour program closer to home. We really liked the Appletree program and teachers but made a decision that made sense for us. It was a hard decision to walk away from Appletree, but we wouldn't have stayed next year anyway.

[Anonymous]

My PK-4 daughter did not get into any charters (or DCPS) the first time around. Waitlisted everywhere, albeit with decent numbers at both. She got off eventually our third (June), fourth (mid-August), second (late Aug), and first (earlySept) school choices (charter)in that order so we consider ourselves lucky. I think if I had followed up with DCPS (we had a decent waitlist number at one school), we may have lucked out on that end too. We would have been happy with any of the four schools though they all had different advantages as well as logistical challenges. I think this year was exceptional given the number of new schools/bumper classes (as cited above). I think next year will be tighter because of siblings from these bumper classes, a lesser number of new/expanding charters.

[Anonymous]

We are happy with where we landed, Inspired Teaching--but I think they will have much longer waitlists next year. Also, they have no openings in PS or PK (just filled a spot) currently, though who knows what will happen over the next week or so until Count Day.

We only got off the waitlist at one other place, which once we evaluated, was not as good a fit for us as IT. (IT was not our 1st choice but has been great.)

Think it'll be much harder to get into IT, MV, LAMB, and Yu Ying next year -- as PPs have said. Probably Bridges too if rumors of their expansion into K and beyond are correct. Appletree seems to be a good backup plan for early childhood--because everybody wants a long-term solution.

[Anonymous]

Got into IT towards the end of the summer for PS3. They no longer have any PS3 or PK4 spots.

We are thrilled with the option this gave us and, a month in, it's an incredible school with a strong teaching staff and excellent prospects. It's going to be a top contender for anyone's wait list in the future.

[Anonymous]

I think lotteries will continue to be very competitive...lots of younger sibs will continue to take spots, some highly sought after charters might lose a bit of shine (meaning they drop down or off of a family's consideration list) while others may over perform and yield even longer wait lists. Plus, not all parents are as clued into "the next big thing" (this year IT, MV, etc.) as the type of parents trolling the DC forum on DCUM but word eventually trickles down to the less tuned in parents and wait lists will get longer as word gets out and some schools prove that the initial hype was not out of line.

[Anonymous]

What's a bubble class?