Anybody UNhappy with Janney?

[Anonymous]

No one said anything about force. I do think families should be aware of how diverse or not their future school will be if they are moving but that's just my opinion. By diverse, I don't only mean race.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PPs, agreed that JKLM is overall very white bread. Not indicative of how the world looks today.

So now we should FORCE people to move out of their neighborhood to go to school? This diversity crap is just going overboard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PPs, agreed that JKLM is overall very white bread. Not indicative of how the world looks today.

So now we should FORCE people to move out of their neighborhood to go to school? This diversity crap is just going overboard.

Wow - what a strawman! I challenge you find anything CLOSE to suggesting people should be forced to move for diversity, or any other reason for that matter. You're either a complete idiot or you're looking for a fight. That chip on your shoulder is so large as to be disfiguring.

[Anonymous]

No one is looking for a fight, except the people who always scream "diversity". These schools are as diverse as a neighborhood with million dollar homes will be. Deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one is looking for a fight, except the people who always scream "diversity". These schools are as diverse as a neighborhood with million dollar homes will be. Deal with it.

Get a grip. The only person who can't seem to deal without losing her cool is you. Nobody suggested forcing people to move. Learn to read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PE, aftercare, diversity, and liberals? That it? Honestly, it's a pretty good sign if nobody is complaining about the principal, teachers, bullying, "things going downhill in the higher grades," etc.

Isn't that true of all of DCPS, even JKLM? In upper NW, a lot of families only use DCPS for elementary, after that it's important to go private.

And a lot of us who live in the neighborhood and are underwhelmed by Janney just go private in the first place.

Ah, finally someone who can really speak to the point of this thread! What is it about Janney that underwhelmed you (and/or others in the neighborhood who have gone private)? TIA!

Well, yes and no -- in the sense that we opted out, so we know less than someone who opted in.

What underwhelmed us -- the usual DCPS stuff (focus on standardized testing, less science, foreign language, arts, PE, writing instruction than at privates, budget crises, facilities issues, and lots of administrative churn) as well as a parent community whose simultaneous senses of entitlement and victimization can be really off-putting. Basically, it's clearly always a fight to grab as many resources from DCPS as possible (and let's ignore the fact that whatever we get will come at the expense of other schools that are in much worse shape) while resenting the fact that your neighbors' kids in private might get something your kids aren't getting. These might not have been voting issues had the teachers seemed amazing or the cohort seemed diverse and interesting. But there was no wow factor for me -- and I did have that reaction to one of the privates we looked at.

The big plusses of the school are that there is a strong sense of community with school and neighborhood ties reinforcing each other and that seemed great for the kids (even if I wasn't that take with many of the parents). When we looked, class sizes seemed very reasonable as well (<25 at every level, I think). Cohort was fine academically speaking -- it's a community with more parents who have some flex time and work in academic-y/cultural jobs (rather than more corporate) so you have kids who come from homes with lots of books and conversations about ideas. And the campus had some really nice play space (which is now being reconfigured and, to some extent, eliminated as the addition gets built).

You save a lot of money by going there rather than private and a smart kid with well-educated parents will do fine. We didn't think Janney was bad -- just that there was nothing exciting or compelling about it and we had a better option. If privates were ruled out, and if housing choice were up for grabs/to be determined primarily by school, we'd have moved inbounds for Oyster (but this was pre-Rhee).

Of the six families with elementary-aged kids in my immediate neighborhood, 2 have kids at Janney and the other 4 went private (one after sending their eldest to Janney for the first couple years).

[Anonymous]

DCPS parent here (Title I school) and I have to say, this quote:

whose simultaneous senses of entitlement and victimization can be really off-putting

Really and truly is one of the most accurate I have ever seen in describing what happens in so much of DCPS. Or at least the DCPS that plays out on these boards. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS parent here (Title I school) and I have to say, this quote:

whose simultaneous senses of entitlement and victimization can be really off-putting

Really and truly is one of the most accurate I have ever seen in describing what happens in so much of DCPS. Or at least the DCPS that plays out on these boards. Thank you.

I think the sense of entitlement is a bit justified when these are the people paying the majority of the taxes in the city. We should get some return on our investment.

[Anonymous]

10:26, you have 100% reinforced my point. It's funny, I don't think of my property taxes as an "investment." Many of us don't. Entitled sums it up.

[Anonymous]

Not just entitled but entitled to their sense of entitlement, LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS parent here (Title I school) and I have to say, this quote:

whose simultaneous senses of entitlement and victimization can be really off-putting

Really and truly is one of the most accurate I have ever seen in describing what happens in so much of DCPS. Or at least the DCPS that plays out on these boards. Thank you.

I think the sense of entitlement is a bit justified when these are the people paying the majority of the taxes in the city. We should get some return on our investment.

Oh my, that's hilarious! You must be a troll just trying to make these people look bad. Too funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:26, you have 100% reinforced my point. It's funny, I don't think of my property taxes as an "investment." Many of us don't. Entitled sums it up.

It is an investment. It is an investment in my community. Thus I deserve to get a piece of it. Or should I pay my taxes and not see a dime? If all the people in the JKLM districts left the tax base would dry up and ALL schools would be in even worse shape.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:26, you have 100% reinforced my point. It's funny, I don't think of my property taxes as an "investment." Many of us don't. Entitled sums it up.

It is an investment. It is an investment in my community. Thus I deserve to get a piece of it. Or should I pay my taxes and not see a dime? If all the people in the JKLM districts left the tax base would dry up and ALL schools would be in even worse shape.

You must have never ventured east of Connecticut Ave. or you'd know there are other neighborhoods outside JKLM where people pay taxes as high as yours. Or higher. (Some of them have enough left over for private schools, after all.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh my, that's hilarious! You must be a troll just trying to make these people look bad. Too funny.

Nope -- see, they're serious.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this post -- it's very helpful.

Anonymous wrote:Well, yes and no -- in the sense that we opted out, so we know less than someone who opted in.

What underwhelmed us -- the usual DCPS stuff (focus on standardized testing, less science, foreign language, arts, PE, writing instruction than at privates, budget crises, facilities issues, and lots of administrative churn) as well as a parent community whose simultaneous senses of entitlement and victimization can be really off-putting. Basically, it's clearly always a fight to grab as many resources from DCPS as possible (and let's ignore the fact that whatever we get will come at the expense of other schools that are in much worse shape) while resenting the fact that your neighbors' kids in private might get something your kids aren't getting. These might not have been voting issues had the teachers seemed amazing or the cohort seemed diverse and interesting. But there was no wow factor for me -- and I did have that reaction to one of the privates we looked at.

The big plusses of the school are that there is a strong sense of community with school and neighborhood ties reinforcing each other and that seemed great for the kids (even if I wasn't that take with many of the parents). When we looked, class sizes seemed very reasonable as well (<25 at every level, I think). Cohort was fine academically speaking -- it's a community with more parents who have some flex time and work in academic-y/cultural jobs (rather than more corporate) so you have kids who come from homes with lots of books and conversations about ideas. And the campus had some really nice play space (which is now being reconfigured and, to some extent, eliminated as the addition gets built).

You save a lot of money by going there rather than private and a smart kid with well-educated parents will do fine. We didn't think Janney was bad -- just that there was nothing exciting or compelling about it and we had a better option. If privates were ruled out, and if housing choice were up for grabs/to be determined primarily by school, we'd have moved inbounds for Oyster (but this was pre-Rhee).

Of the six families with elementary-aged kids in my immediate neighborhood, 2 have kids at Janney and the other 4 went private (one after sending their eldest to Janney for the first couple years).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is an investment. It is an investment in my community. Thus I deserve to get a piece of it. Or should I pay my taxes and not see a dime? If all the people in the JKLM districts left the tax base would dry up and ALL schools would be in even worse shape.

The question is not whether you're entitled to a piece -- it's how big a piece. And the answer is the same size piece as any other family with the same number of kids with comparable educational needs. Your share of public education isn't a function of how much you pay in local taxes. Or do you think that you're entitled to more votes than a household whose tax burden is lower as well?