How wealthy are families at Jackson Reed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school has 2300 students. I assure you it is not majority wealthy.

1) JR currently has about 1950 students. It is way down from its peak enrollment.

2) Shepherd Elementary is zoned for Deal and JR and has a lot of OOB students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has 2300 students. I assure you it is not majority wealthy.

1) JR currently has about 1950 students. It is way down from its peak enrollment.

2) Shepherd Elementary is zoned for Deal and JR and has a lot of OOB students.

As planned because of the opening of MacArthur; I believe official capacity is 1800, so it’s still technically overcrowded—but much better than it was!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has 2300 students. I assure you it is not majority wealthy.

1) JR currently has about 1950 students. It is way down from its peak enrollment.

2) Shepherd Elementary is zoned for Deal and JR and has a lot of OOB students.

As planned because of the opening of MacArthur; I believe official capacity is 1800, so it’s still technically overcrowded—but much better than it was!

I don’t understand how they figure capacity. Wilson was built for 1600 (https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Wilson.pdf) but I can also find official documents saying that “permanent capacity,” without portables, is 1700. And now you’re saying 1800. Who determines the number?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child goes to JR. We live in a one bedroom apartment down the street with a pre-layoff HHI of 95k (abject poverty by DCUM standards).

Do you live on Conn Ave? Are there a lot of classmates he can hang out with? I’m considering moving in boundaries and would be renting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The families at Jackson Reed are likely representative of those all over the city as it is the largest public high school in the city.

Eh but a heck of a lot of folks can't afford to move in bounds for it.... myself included

I assume you mean purchase in-boundary R/E.

Honestly, there are tons of reasonable apartments along CT Avenue that feed into JR. Not exactly a cool area for renters like Navy Yard or any number of downtown areas, so rents are cheaper.

There are a fair number of renters with kids at JR, as well as rank-and-file embassy employees (i.e., these aren't ambassadors or high-level foreign emissaries) who send their kids to DCPS.

A lot of those affordable apartments are apparently not really safe anymore due to housing voucher tenants. My plan has been for a long time to rent on Conn Ave for HS but I’m not sure now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has 2300 students. I assure you it is not majority wealthy.

1) JR currently has about 1950 students. It is way down from its peak enrollment.

2) Shepherd Elementary is zoned for Deal and JR and has a lot of OOB students.

As planned because of the opening of MacArthur; I believe official capacity is 1800, so it’s still technically overcrowded—but much better than it was!

I don’t understand how they figure capacity. Wilson was built for 1600 (https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Wilson.pdf) but I can also find official documents saying that “permanent capacity,” without portables, is 1700. And now you’re saying 1800. Who determines the number?

I thought I’d heard 1800, but if you see 1700, I believe that. And they do have portables now, so maybe what I’m remembering is the capacity number with the portables (which was still not sufficient for the number of students they had when the portables were installed a couple of years ago).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child goes to JR. We live in a one bedroom apartment down the street with a pre-layoff HHI of 95k (abject poverty by DCUM standards).

Do you live on Conn Ave? Are there a lot of classmates he can hang out with? I’m considering moving in boundaries and would be renting.

Yep! We've lived in a few buildings on Connecticut since kindergarten. We've always been surrounded by families with kids. The younger kids seem eager to play with whomever lives in the building. By middle school, they seem more cliquish. The "best friends" lived in nearby buildings, so they walked home together in a group and trickled off as they got to their respective buildings. The current high school friends seem more spread out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The families at Jackson Reed are likely representative of those all over the city as it is the largest public high school in the city.

Eh but a heck of a lot of folks can't afford to move in bounds for it.... myself included

I assume you mean purchase in-boundary R/E.

Honestly, there are tons of reasonable apartments along CT Avenue that feed into JR. Not exactly a cool area for renters like Navy Yard or any number of downtown areas, so rents are cheaper.

There are a fair number of renters with kids at JR, as well as rank-and-file embassy employees (i.e., these aren't ambassadors or high-level foreign emissaries) who send their kids to DCPS.

When did the embassies stop paying for private?! It’s a major reason to be a white collar staffer.

Many countries embassy staffers are paid a pittance. Some can’t even bring their families over. Other than the top positions, in many countries foreign service is not a well paid position.

[Anonymous]

Truly wealthy? Not that many TBH. If you live in Upper NW and have the money, you are more than likely to send your kid to private than JR. Are there exceptions? Of course. But the majority of Upper NW wealth goes to private (even if they went to public for elementary and middle).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The families at Jackson Reed are likely representative of those all over the city as it is the largest public high school in the city.

Eh but a heck of a lot of folks can't afford to move in bounds for it.... myself included

I assume you mean purchase in-boundary R/E.

Honestly, there are tons of reasonable apartments along CT Avenue that feed into JR. Not exactly a cool area for renters like Navy Yard or any number of downtown areas, so rents are cheaper.

There are a fair number of renters with kids at JR, as well as rank-and-file embassy employees (i.e., these aren't ambassadors or high-level foreign emissaries) who send their kids to DCPS.

A lot of those affordable apartments are apparently not really safe anymore due to housing voucher tenants. My plan has been for a long time to rent on Conn Ave for HS but I’m not sure now.

I think most of the nuisance buildings (as identified by the DC Attorney General due to the number of police calls) are clustered between Cleveland Park and Van Ness. Look up where they are and don't rent in them or directly next to them would be my advice (being next to one, we were calling 311/911 on a regular basis due to arguments/screaming/fights). Maybe consider renting north of Nebraska Avenue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The families at Jackson Reed are likely representative of those all over the city as it is the largest public high school in the city.

Eh but a heck of a lot of folks can't afford to move in bounds for it.... myself included

I assume you mean purchase in-boundary R/E.

Honestly, there are tons of reasonable apartments along CT Avenue that feed into JR. Not exactly a cool area for renters like Navy Yard or any number of downtown areas, so rents are cheaper.

There are a fair number of renters with kids at JR, as well as rank-and-file embassy employees (i.e., these aren't ambassadors or high-level foreign emissaries) who send their kids to DCPS.

A lot of those affordable apartments are apparently not really safe anymore due to housing voucher tenants. My plan has been for a long time to rent on Conn Ave for HS but I’m not sure now.

This. Same issue for us. They really aren't great and many are considered "nuisance" buildings now. We are in Adams Morgan now, and it is 100% fine and walkable to both metro and bus.

[Anonymous]

Our daughter just graduated. There are very few families from genuine wealth. A portion are relatively comfortable but the majority struggle in one way or another. A significant minority suffer serious hardship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Truly wealthy? Not that many TBH. If you live in Upper NW and have the money, you are more than likely to send your kid to private than JR. Are there exceptions? Of course. But the majority of Upper NW wealth goes to private (even if they went to public for elementary and middle).

As always, definitions matter. 95th percentile household income in DC is something like 425k. Many families at JR are at and above that range. So if you define wealth as top 5% in DC, there’s lots of wealth at JR.

Which is not the same as saying that it’s not an extremely socioeconomically diverse school—it is! But I’m not sure there’s evidence to support the assertion that people who can afford private but choose JR are “exceptions.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The families at Jackson Reed are likely representative of those all over the city as it is the largest public high school in the city.

Eh but a heck of a lot of folks can't afford to move in bounds for it.... myself included

I assume you mean purchase in-boundary R/E.

Honestly, there are tons of reasonable apartments along CT Avenue that feed into JR. Not exactly a cool area for renters like Navy Yard or any number of downtown areas, so rents are cheaper.

There are a fair number of renters with kids at JR, as well as rank-and-file embassy employees (i.e., these aren't ambassadors or high-level foreign emissaries) who send their kids to DCPS.

When did the embassies stop paying for private?! It’s a major reason to be a white collar staffer.

i think since forever. I doubt the Chinese embassy (or any other embassy) would pay Sidwell's tuition for the janitors who clean the embassy, the cafeteria staff , the employee at the passport renewal office and so on.

Not the point of this thread, but when we lived overseas and worked at an embassy, many of this type of job (except for passport renewal) were staffed by local hires.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Truly wealthy? Not that many TBH. If you live in Upper NW and have the money, you are more than likely to send your kid to private than JR. Are there exceptions? Of course. But the majority of Upper NW wealth goes to private (even if they went to public for elementary and middle).

As always, definitions matter. 95th percentile household income in DC is something like 425k. Many families at JR are at and above that range. So if you define wealth as top 5% in DC, there’s lots of wealth at JR.

Which is not the same as saying that it’s not an extremely socioeconomically diverse school—it is! But I’m not sure there’s evidence to support the assertion that people who can afford private but choose JR are “exceptions.”

wealth =/= income

The families with actual generational wealth don't send their kids to DCPS high schools. HHI, maybe.