Brightwood Schools
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Anonymous
The early pickup time after school has always been an issue for us (private and public) because we are a household where both parents work. Even if our children went to a school close by, we would still need to manage the fact that their days end before our work days do. So needing to figure out aftercare options has always been part of our lives  In terms of commute, we cut through the park using military road and Ridge Road in the morning and we are there in about 20m. The traffic tends to flow smoothly if you are out of the house before 8am. Since we have another kid in a private middle school near the public as well, we need to do the commute no matter what and it doesn't add time.
Given our experience with an older kid in private, we are used to the notion of having friends be spread out throughout neighborhoods (and in VA and MD) and needing to make plans to drive for playdates so I have never really held onto the 'neighborhood' feel as being a draw for the choice of school. We are only about 2 months into our experience with our WOTP public, but in terms of playdates and parties, I do not feel any disadvantage being OOB. People are not as phobic of making an effort to go outside of their neighborhood for playdates as might be imagined reading some of these threads. But that is just our own experience 
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Anonymous
| I am happy to connect you to Vanessa Rubio, the PTO president at Brightwood. I know a bunch of Brightwood alumni through Wells Middle (where we are having a fantastic experience) and they are mostly really great kids. |
Anonymous
One of PPs and yes the infrastructure of these schools sucks. Some of them have fantastic communities and several will be moving to swing spaces for renovations in the next few years. |
Anonymous
Here you go: dcbrightwoodpta@gmail.com |
Anonymous
DP, but friends that have their kids in WOTP schools do notice those impacts. The commute is tough, particularly when older kids start doing early afternoon extracurriculars. Socialization is harder when you're the only friend not in the neighborhood. As others have said, if the neighborhood vibe is important to you, I would try to buy in a neighborhood where families use the IB middle and high schools. We're in middle elementary at one of the schools mentioned in this thread, and friends move/switch schools every year. You hear more willingness to try Wells than MacFarland, but the reality is that it's still a very small minority of higher SES families that actually use those schools. Maybe that should and will change, but maybe not fast enough for your family. Even if you're willing to stick with your IB (we are!), I think you'll end up disappointed if you move into most of these EOTP neighborhoods (Shepherd Park aside) and expect more than a minority of neighbors to do the same. That said, some neighborhoods still have a lot of kids, and I think there's a benefit to having separate school and neighborhood friends, particularly as kids get older and social dynamics get harder. And we've lotteried for WOTP schools every year and have never gotten a seat. PP got a good lottery number and multiple offers, but keep in mind the lottery is a lottery and you cannot count on it working out. Do you have kids now and if so, how old are they? As a PP said, there's a boundary study happening now and a good chance school zones will change. There will likely be substantial grandfathering, but I think last time it was for kids in 1st or 2nd grade when the boundary change happened. Because a neighborhood vibe is important to you, I would urge you to focus on neighborhoods that feed into Deal or Hardy, maybe Wells if you're willing to be one of the first families. But perhaps wait until after the boundary change if you don't have school aged kids already. |
Anonymous
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OP here again. I really cannot thank each of you enough for the insight and even the PTO email, thank you so much. This does make our decision much more challenging.
What changes to the boundary study would likely impact EOTP? The house we are looking at is actually closer to Takoma miles wise, but is zoned for Brightwood (by .1 miles) Would that be what changes? Or what else should I be concerened with on this study? |
Anonymous
People think some EOTP elementary schools that feed WOTP to Deal and JR (Shepherd and Bancroft) will be pushed to EOTP middle and high schools instead. I think changes will be recommended early next year and implemented a few years after that. I can’t tell you how likely these changes actually are though. I’m not sure anyone knows. |
Anonymous
| Love all the advice that says "you should just buy WOTP, the schools and neighborhoods are better". Everyone on here knows that. People asking about Brightwood almost certainly cannot afford a house that meets their needs or preferences WOTP, otherwise they wouldn't be asking. |
Anonymous
All the advice that says buy WOTP should be interpreted as “look to the suburbs because that’s what you can afford if an IB school with a middle school path is important to you. Or, but after you lottery into a charter with a feeder path.” |
Anonymous
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My oldest now 23 had several friends from our immediate neighborhood (Brightwood; zoned for Whittier) attend WOTP schools. My two youngest (11 and 13) not so much; even at all. I believe now with more Charter options and less of a chance of getting in WOTP schools, it’s less likely.
I will say they do have friend groups who live in the Shepherd Park neighborhood where they meet up at the Rec from time to time. |
Anonymous
Maybe, but Brightwood/Takoma isn't cheap anymore either. If OP has a $1m+ budget, she may be hoping for a 4 bedroom SFH with a yard EOTP, but could also afford a 3 bedroom attached house WOTP. She knows her budget, and is the only one that can decide whether her preference for a walkable IB neighborhood outweighs her housing preferences. I think she was (reasonably) hoping she could find both EOTP, but aside from Shepherd Park and Mount Pleasant (which is much more dense than Brightwood), she's learning that it's just not really possible. OP, I personally think it's good odds that Bancroft gets re-zoned to MacFarland and Roosevelt as the designated bilingual middle/high schools for DCPS. IMO it's highly unlikely for political reasons that Shepherd loses it's JR feed. This thread seems to have devolved into snark, but there may be some helpful insights amongst the bickering. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1158035.page I think it's unlikely they tweak certain boundary zones by a block or two, particularly those that aren't overcrowded and already feed into the same middle school (like Brightwood, Takoma, and Whittier). But Takoma, Brightwood, and Whittier start clearing their waitlists in K, so if you prefer one, then you can do pre-K anywhere and switch for elementary. Many of us are happy at our EOTP elementaries while still being nervous about middle school. But do think about what you'd do if you bought your forever house with the plan to use the elementary, then don't win the middle school lottery. Maybe that's Wells or maybe that's private or moving, but it does happen and is something to think about before you buy the house. |
Anonymous
Sure Jan, a simple redfin search would prove that to be very much not be the case. |
Anonymous
And some of us giving that advice bought our EOTP house a few years before the boundaries were redrawn last time and were suddenly IB for MacFarland instead of Deal. Hence my suggestion to consider waiting to buy until after the report comes out in 6 months. If you buy now and won’t have a kid in DCPS for a few more years you almost certainly won’t be grandfathered if your IBs change for the worse. |
Anonymous
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make is, but there are two houses on Redfin IB for Lafayette for under $1.1m and another IB for Key. I'm guessing the house she's considering is this one listed at $975k. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1367-Underwood-St-NW-20012/home/10022908 Without knowing OP's budget, it's not unreasonable to suggest she could go up another $125k and look at options WOTP. But that's OP's decision to make, not DCUM snarkers. |
Anonymous
16:23 here and I agree, if OP decides that she wants to prioritize a neighborhood with buy-in for the IB middle and high schools. Which it sounds like she's considering now based on the feedback she's gotten here. All of that to say, PP's are also correct that there ARE neighborhood kids and a neighborhood feel at a lot of EOTP elementary schools. And DCPS families EOTP often go OOB to another neighborhood school without losing the neighborhood school feel. We're at one OOB and I do think it would be nice if we lived blocks from the school like DC's friends, instead of a mile away. We're not the only semi-neighborhood family that's within a mile and a half OOB, but a mile in opposite directions of the school means that some friends are in farther neighborhoods, not adjacent ones. There's not one right answer for OP, and it's a question many of us EOTP have thought through already. |