The Lists are In...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys are so weird!!! We bought our house before we were even engaged. Things happen step by step. And it's not short term thinking--most of us cannot afford to buy our first home in Chevy Chase. We bought where we could afford. I do not want this string to turn into the argument of those who "care" about their children's education and rent a 1-bedroom on Connecticut Ave vs those who don't because they bought a house they could afford. But really--should you have bought a house in a good school distinct before even thinking of having kids? Seems bizarre.

This exactly what we did, along with 3 other households on our block. We live in CCDC and all of of moved in over a period of ~12 years as just a man and a woman: no baby, no baby bump, and no kids.

I'm not saying we are better than anyone else who fancied a house elsewhere for reasons having nothing to do with public schools. I am however certain that what we did is common, not "bizarre" among a certain personality type. We also have plans for "bizarrely" far off things like retirement, college, assisted living (serious), death (will, benefits), orthodontia and so on.

[Anonymous]

Def a certain personality type. Not snarky, just not the type of neighborhood I would enjoy as a young couple, and we needed space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys are so weird!!! We bought our house before we were even engaged. Things happen step by step. And it's not short term thinking--most of us cannot afford to buy our first home in Chevy Chase. We bought where we could afford. I do not want this string to turn into the argument of those who "care" about their children's education and rent a 1-bedroom on Connecticut Ave vs those who don't because they bought a house they could afford. But really--should you have bought a house in a good school distinct before even thinking of having kids? Seems bizarre.

This exactly what we did, along with 3 other households on our block. We live in CCDC and all of of moved in over a period of ~12 years as just a man and a woman: no baby, no baby bump, and no kids.

I'm not saying we are better than anyone else who fancied a house elsewhere for reasons having nothing to do with public schools. I am however certain that what we did is common, not "bizarre" among a certain personality type. We also have plans for "bizarrely" far off things like retirement, college, assisted living (serious), death (will, benefits), orthodontia and so on.

A lot has changed in 12 years pp. The first poster may have been able to afford a CC house back then too. For all you know she was still in high school then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Def a certain personality type. Not snarky, just not the type of neighborhood I would enjoy as a young couple, and we needed space.

You comment is a little more condescending than snarky.

You are right, it is a certain personality type that that prioritizes schools for my children over a great neighborhood for childless couples and more space. It is called planning. And because I planned i am happy with my neighborhood schools. If I could not have afforded a good school neighborhood in DC I would be in VA or MD where I could have afforded good schools. I also take responsibility for my choices, part of my personality.

[Anonymous]

Why do people fight like this? Both sides are ridiculous and snarky. Everyone wants a good education for their kids.

[Anonymous]

DH and I bought a house in Shaw 10 years ago before we were engaged. Now we are trying our luck with the charter lottery and if it doesn't work out we'll take the money we made buying thanks to 10 years of gentrification and buy in Cleveland park. In the meantime we have a great public preschool option nearby and have enjoyed 10 years of walking to work. I don't see how living in Shaw implies we don't think ahead or don't care about our kids.

[Anonymous]

Haven't we had this fight a gazillion times. Aren't we all done with this yet?

[Anonymous]

No one wins this fight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It just dawned on me that I haven't seen Sela listed in any of the lists posted.

Or William e. doar? No doar fans out there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Losing your IB status makes no sense. What if the school you choose doesn't work for your child? Our children change as they grow and something that works for PK might not work for the later grades.

Agreed. If people pay the price premium on their house for the security of a good IB school, then they're entitled to what they paid for. If you moved IB for Lafayette because you wanted to make sure that's an option, then decide you want LAMB or YY or whatever, that's totally fair. Now, if you got in via OOB and leave and want to come back, you gave up your shot. Also, if you pick an immersion school and move closer to it and then want to return to your former IB school, you shouldn't be any further ahead on the WL than anyone else OOB. However, there is nothing wrong with using your IB school as a back-up plan. Private school families do it too, there no reason that public schools families shouldn't either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Losing your IB status makes no sense. What if the school you choose doesn't work for your child? Our children change as they grow and something that works for PK might not work for the later grades.

Agreed. If people pay the price premium on their house for the security of a good IB school, then they're entitled to what they paid for. If you moved IB for Lafayette because you wanted to make sure that's an option, then decide you want LAMB or YY or whatever, that's totally fair. Now, if you got in via OOB and leave and want to come back, you gave up your shot. Also, if you pick an immersion school and move closer to it and then want to return to your former IB school, you shouldn't be any further ahead on the WL than anyone else OOB. However, there is nothing wrong with using your IB school as a back-up plan. Private school families do it too, there no reason that public schools families shouldn't either.

+1

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:For K:

Hearst
Eaton
Murch
Lafayette
Mundo Verde
Janney
Mann
Inspired Teaching School
Cap City
Stoddert
Hyde-Addison
EL Haynes

IB for Powell, and probably would rank it below ITS.

Wow - and Powell is nowhere on your list. What will you do if you (likely) get shut out and not into a single one of these schools?!?

it's for K, therefore he/she will have the right to show up the first day of school (assume her child may be there already).

This example seems to support an argument that families who eschew their local DCPS in the lottery, should not have the continued right to show up and enroll whenever they want. This sort of lottery playing, where your local school remains your back-up plan, but the school isn't aware, will only cause havoc on the school's budget and enrollment projections. I imagine this poster's child is already at Powell. They know they can stay, but will jump if they get a spot at any school above IT. OK, that's cool. But if you get a spot, accept it but then decide after a month or two that the commute is terrible and the school isn't all that you had hoped and you want to go back to Powell, I don't think you should be able to. That's completely unfair to school, the budget, the families who already committed, etc. These are the sort of things the boundary, feeder pattern committee is looking at.

Completely with you. I think if you give up your IB preference after K, you should lose your right to attend the school. No DCPS should be a "back up plan" but a place you invest in. It's not fair for the other children and families.

Agreed. And I'm not picking on this particular poster...particularly since she clarified that she's not at Powell now. As she rightly pointed out, inboundary families can't "lottery" for K and above because they get in as a matter of right. But once you do make the decision to not exercise that right by enrolling in and attending another public school (DCPS or charter) you should not just be able to show up whenever you want. If you want to get back into your old local school, you should have to lottery for it as if you were OOB.

Jeez, folks. I can't put Powell down for K! We are not at Powell. My example does not support your argument. Pick on someone else, please.

They are simply stating that if you get in any one of the 12 schools above, you should lose your IB status.

Agreed.

This is how the Denver lottery works. If you get in to a "choice" school you no longer have the option for your Inbounds school.

So what? A lot of things are different in Denver.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:For K:

Hearst
Eaton
Murch
Lafayette
Mundo Verde
Janney
Mann
Inspired Teaching School
Cap City
Stoddert
Hyde-Addison
EL Haynes

IB for Powell, and probably would rank it below ITS.

Wow - and Powell is nowhere on your list. What will you do if you (likely) get shut out and not into a single one of these schools?!?

it's for K, therefore he/she will have the right to show up the first day of school (assume her child may be there already).

This example seems to support an argument that families who eschew their local DCPS in the lottery, should not have the continued right to show up and enroll whenever they want. This sort of lottery playing, where your local school remains your back-up plan, but the school isn't aware, will only cause havoc on the school's budget and enrollment projections. I imagine this poster's child is already at Powell. They know they can stay, but will jump if they get a spot at any school above IT. OK, that's cool. But if you get a spot, accept it but then decide after a month or two that the commute is terrible and the school isn't all that you had hoped and you want to go back to Powell, I don't think you should be able to. That's completely unfair to school, the budget, the families who already committed, etc. These are the sort of things the boundary, feeder pattern committee is looking at.

Completely with you. I think if you give up your IB preference after K, you should lose your right to attend the school. No DCPS should be a "back up plan" but a place you invest in. It's not fair for the other children and families.

Agreed. And I'm not picking on this particular poster...particularly since she clarified that she's not at Powell now. As she rightly pointed out, inboundary families can't "lottery" for K and above because they get in as a matter of right. But once you do make the decision to not exercise that right by enrolling in and attending another public school (DCPS or charter) you should not just be able to show up whenever you want. If you want to get back into your old local school, you should have to lottery for it as if you were OOB.

Jeez, folks. I can't put Powell down for K! We are not at Powell. My example does not support your argument. Pick on someone else, please.

They are simply stating that if you get in any one of the 12 schools above, you should lose your IB status.

Agreed.

I disagree that PP should not be able to go to Powell for 1st grade if she accepts a K place through the lottery. That's completely messed up! What if the other school is not a good fit? What if the family needs to not drive from Petworth to Cleveland Park or Brookland every morning? I understand what you guys are getting at, but suggesting that a person should not be able to go to their neighborhood school unless they start in kindergarten is completely unreasonable.

Then they should have factored that into the lottery in the first place.

Okay, so what you're saying is that no matter what happens, your child should stay at the school they lottery into at age 3 or 4, and if you do not commit to your neighborhood school BEFORE the K lottery, you are just screwed?

How exactly do you factor a student's changing needs into a lottery decision at age 4? How exactly do you 100% rule out a parent taking a new job (or losing an old one) that results in a wildly different commute structure? I live down 14th Street from Powell, but I work downtown. I didn't put Powell on our PK4 list, despite thinking it's a good school, because I have to go the opposite direction. If I worked in Silver Spring, though, I would absolutely put Powell on the list.

It's like you do not want to accept that circumstances and kids change, at all, and want to hold people to decisions they made when their kids were 4 years old. Also, are you sure you're talking about Powell and not, say, Janney? Because you seem really upset about a person attending a charter instead of choosing their EOTP neighborhood school that people only started being excited about last year.

Pipe down, toots. Do you have any idea how unusual DC is with the amount of choice we have and the ability EVERY SINGLE YEAR, to change schools? In most areas on this country your local school is it, otherwise, it's private or homeschooling. So if you don't think that school is a "good fit" then you have to move, pay tuition or teach them yourself. I think what is being argued here is that if YOU CHOOSE to enroll and attend another school other than your local DCPS you have indicated that you don't want to attend the school that is assigned to your address. That's great. You're CHOICE. That doesn't mean you can't change the next year (the circumstances don't matter...whether it's logistical or philosophical). But if you suddenly want to reclaim your right to your local school you really should be required to submit enrollment documentation in the timeframe that IB children already attending are asked to, otherwise you should have lottery as if you're OOB. At first I thought people who were preaching "do away with all school assignments" were crazy, but now I'm starting to see the value in it.

Not a chance. Until charters are funded as well as DCPS, DCPS has to pick up the slack. As a district school system, it's their job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Losing your IB status makes no sense. What if the school you choose doesn't work for your child? Our children change as they grow and something that works for PK might not work for the later grades.

Agreed. If people pay the price premium on their house for the security of a good IB school, then they're entitled to what they paid for. If you moved IB for Lafayette because you wanted to make sure that's an option, then decide you want LAMB or YY or whatever, that's totally fair. Now, if you got in via OOB and leave and want to come back, you gave up your shot. Also, if you pick an immersion school and move closer to it and then want to return to your former IB school, you shouldn't be any further ahead on the WL than anyone else OOB. However, there is nothing wrong with using your IB school as a back-up plan. Private school families do it too, there no reason that public schools families shouldn't either.

While price premia for good schools exist, they are a function of the market, and are not an entitlement. No school system is obligated to maintain the value of your home for you. That's why school systems are allowed to redraw boundaries with no regard to community whining about property values.

That said, I agree that students need to have a default school to which they are assigned. If a charter folds, a parent becomes disabled and can no longer transport the student across town, or a student diagnosed with special needs only the public system can handle, they have to have a place to go on the first day of school. Whatever the circumstance, everyone gets an education. The Supreme Court says so.

[Anonymous]

You are right, it is a certain personality type that that prioritizes schools for my children over a great neighborhood for childless couples and more space. It is called planning. And because I planned i am happy with my neighborhood schools. If I could not have afforded a good school neighborhood in DC I would be in VA or MD where I could have afforded good schools. I also take responsibility for my choices, part of my personality

Yes, the rest of us are irresponsible and you are sooo perfect. Newsflash: many,many, many people in DC cannot afford rent in your fancy areas. And there are many other reasons for not buying west of the park. Like my spouse, who moved to a less expensive neighborhood in order to send his special needs child to a private school. The idea of more children was, at the time, unthinkable. We probably can, now, afford those schools, but honestly we prefer the low key, diverse population of our school now. WIll it be great when the kids are older? Not sure, but we have to balance a number of factors: finances, proximity to private school, good public school, our commutes and the kind of kids we want our kids to be around.

and, serious question here; if every single family who could possibly even do it moved west of the park, then how great would those schools be? YOu'd be screaming even more about overcrowding and under-resourcing schools like Janney. So, poster, you should be glad that not everyone is as responsible as you. Keeps the numbers down in your school.