How/When to start transfer process to Jamestown?

[Anonymous]

We just moved to N. Arlington last year, and our son is a fourth grader at Jamestown. As a aside, we're very happy with the school. We're a military family, and Jamestown is the third elementary school our son has attended. We're looking to buy this spring, and many of the houses we're considering are zoned for other schools, such as Taylor and/or Nottingham. Bottom line, we don't want to limit our house hunt to houses zoned for Jamestown. At the same time, for whatever reason, starting a new school this time was incredibly stressful for our son, and we want to avoid putting him through that again. He'll only have one year left -- does anyone know what the transfer policy or process is? We'd like to keep him at Jamestown for fifth grade regardless of where we buy. We're pretty sure we'll be looking at houses zoned for Taylor/Nottingham (in addition to Jamestown -- which would clearly avoid this whole problem). Any insight appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I read this as saying between Feb. 1 and April 15.

http://www.apsva.us/page/3005

[Anonymous]

Because of capacity problems at most Arlington elementary schools, only Hoffman-Boston Elementary is accepting non-sibling transfers next year. Jamestown will not accept a transfer if you live in the Nottingham district. Also, even though Jamestown, Taylor, and Science Focus are team schools, they cannot accept transfers now because the schools are at or near capacity. See the relevant webpages:

http://www.apsva.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=3010

http://www.apsva.us/page/3011

[Anonymous]

i'm surprised how many military families live in the most pricey part of the entire metro area

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i'm surprised how many military families live in the most pricey part of the entire metro area

We had a military family rent a home in our N.arlington neighborhood for $6k/month. The guy was an Officer. Wife said it was slightly over their monthly allowance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i'm surprised how many military families live in the most pricey part of the entire metro area

We had a military family rent a home in our N.arlington neighborhood for $6k/month. The guy was an Officer. Wife said it was slightly over their monthly allowance.

ah, that makes sense. tks.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who moved from the Jamestown district to a neighboring school district during the summer between 4th and 5th grade. The child had attended Jamestown for a few years. They were unofficially told to not say anything and they continued to send their child to Jamestown with no problems.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the previous poster that there is virtually no way to transfer to Jamestown.

But maybe that's not so bad. We moved to Arlington from DC when my eldest was in 5th grade, and we opted to keep him in his DC school for the remainder of the year (December-June) rather than have him start a new elementary school in Arlington for just 6 months before going on to middle school.

In retrospect, he probably would have had an easier transition to middle school if we had moved him to our Arlington neighborhood elementary school, even for that short time. He started middle school in Arlington knowing virtually no one. I think things would have gone more smoothly if he'd been able to meet some kids in 5th grade so there would have been at least a few friendly faces in 6th. I don't know whether you are considering neighborhoods that aren't zoned for Williamsburg, but if so moving to a new elementary school might turn out to be a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i'm surprised how many military families live in the most pricey part of the entire metro area

Really? Sounds like you assume most military families can't have two parents who work outside the home (like many other N. Arlington families).

Also, the housing allowance for most ranks in the DC/Pentagon area is WELL below $6K. As in several thousand below. It's all public -- just google 2012 military housing allowances.