Commuter nightmare- any options that you would consider?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know what you are asking us OP. That seems like a literally impossible commute under many circumstances. What exactly are you asking for? The best public transportation routes for your older DD? A closer school for your younger one? If you leave your DD in Stokes then your older DD pretty much has to get herself to school. I’m not sure why you didn’t find an apartment zoned for JR or in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw a post on the MacArthur thread that a student commutes from Anacostia, so I hope your daughter makes friends who also live by you all. It will make the commute better for her!

Let's not mistake that Hillcrest is a beautiful neighborhood!

DCUM is a strange place OP.

OP here! Thank you for this! It really is so strange… as a first time resident of DC and while I am familiar with many schools in dc becuase of friends or work affiliates I certainly wasn’t as prepared when I entered the lottery 8 months ago.

If you had posted for advice to DCUM 8 months ago, we would have helped you figure out something better. Now you’re in a literally impossible situation. The only solution is to switch your DD to Eastern and let her get there on her own and keep other DD in Stokes; or hope your younger DD gets into Stokes East End and you have the time to do both drop offs and work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is such a tough commute for everyone, OP. I think you're right to look for alternatives. But I also think you did a great job finding good schools for your kids with the information you had at the time.

- I think it's going to be harder to find a "good" HS alternative than it is to find a "good" elementary school alternative

- That said, you want to do your best to get your younger child into a "good" middle school pathway too

- I think ideally you'd want to find a high school that is reasonable for your older child to commute to on their own and an elementary school that is reasonable for you to commute with your younger child to.

- I think the next best option is to find two schools in close enough proximity that you can reasonably commute with them both.

Some ideas:

- Eastern, KIPP Legacy, Friendship, Thurgood for your older child to commute to themselves. All have short wait lists and a decent cohort of students passing standardized tests. Definitely ask around the neighborhood for recommendations

- Sojourner Truth is in close proximity to Stokes Brookland and is fairly well regarded

- Thomson is well-liked by families there, short waitlist, feeds into one of the better middle schools, and is sort-of on the way to MacArthur

I think that High School is more important socially and that keeping the Sophomore in the same school is a major factor. And the Sophomore really can commute on their own, so that shouldn't be as big of a factor. This, of course, depends on the kid and their relationships. If they don't make friends and hate the school, by all means find an alternative. But if they like MacArthur, I see no reason to move them.

Getting the younger child into a good middle school is, indeed, pretty important. I wonder if getting into one of the hill middles at 5th grade might be a good call to assure a decent middle school track? I live fairly far from there, so it's not my thing, but my kid is entering 5th this year, so I know there's a big shuffle at that grade.

The commute between MacArthur and Hillcrest via transit is probably a solid hour and a half. Personally I would have hated having to rely on my parents to get to/from school in high school, but it's the only reasonable choice if they go to MacArthur. Commute/lack of autonomy would be my main motivation to pick a different high school.

All things considered, if I were in this situation I'd probably opt for MacArthur and Thomson and try the 5th grade lottery for a Hardy/MacArthur feeder and/or BASIS. If that didn't pan out, Thomson/John Francis is still a decent pathway.

Yep. from Hillcrest I think you would have to do a bus to green line, green line to red line, exit Dupont, bus to MacArthur.

People like to claim this stuff “just works out” but in reality, not really. If you have a better commute to MacArthur let us know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know what you are asking us OP. That seems like a literally impossible commute under many circumstances. What exactly are you asking for? The best public transportation routes for your older DD? A closer school for your younger one? If you leave your DD in Stokes then your older DD pretty much has to get herself to school. I’m not sure why you didn’t find an apartment zoned for JR or in Arlington.

OP here…
You know you literally didn’t have to reply to this thread at all right? I asked it in my original post and you chose to ignore it becuase for whatever reason you don’t understand the words I typed. Let me be clear… the ward I ended up purchasing in changed last minute. The lottery was complete months ago and honestly I am single digit waitlisted for several schools close to McA including Hyde. My oldest was also waitlisted in a super high number at Truth and Latin. My efforts to have a commute that made sense for me and them was put in place but the lottery did not go in a favor in that regard.

Anything else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw a post on the MacArthur thread that a student commutes from Anacostia, so I hope your daughter makes friends who also live by you all. It will make the commute better for her!

Let's not mistake that Hillcrest is a beautiful neighborhood!

DCUM is a strange place OP.

OP here! Thank you for this! It really is so strange… as a first time resident of DC and while I am familiar with many schools in dc becuase of friends or work affiliates I certainly wasn’t as prepared when I entered the lottery 8 months ago.

If you had posted for advice to DCUM 8 months ago, we would have helped you figure out something better. Now you’re in a literally impossible situation. The only solution is to switch your DD to Eastern and let her get there on her own and keep other DD in Stokes; or hope your younger DD gets into Stokes East End and you have the time to do both drop offs and work.

OP here… I applied to multiple schools for each of the children in close proximity to eachother… what better would have been figured out 8 months ago?
For my 10th grader who is currently waitlisted at Latin and truth… was ineligible for Banneker and Walls.
My youngest who is waitlisted at GDS, Hyde and several others what would you have suggested differently?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is such a tough commute for everyone, OP. I think you're right to look for alternatives. But I also think you did a great job finding good schools for your kids with the information you had at the time.

- I think it's going to be harder to find a "good" HS alternative than it is to find a "good" elementary school alternative

- That said, you want to do your best to get your younger child into a "good" middle school pathway too

- I think ideally you'd want to find a high school that is reasonable for your older child to commute to on their own and an elementary school that is reasonable for you to commute with your younger child to.

- I think the next best option is to find two schools in close enough proximity that you can reasonably commute with them both.

Some ideas:

- Eastern, KIPP Legacy, Friendship, Thurgood for your older child to commute to themselves. All have short wait lists and a decent cohort of students passing standardized tests. Definitely ask around the neighborhood for recommendations

- Sojourner Truth is in close proximity to Stokes Brookland and is fairly well regarded

- Thomson is well-liked by families there, short waitlist, feeds into one of the better middle schools, and is sort-of on the way to MacArthur

I think that High School is more important socially and that keeping the Sophomore in the same school is a major factor. And the Sophomore really can commute on their own, so that shouldn't be as big of a factor. This, of course, depends on the kid and their relationships. If they don't make friends and hate the school, by all means find an alternative. But if they like MacArthur, I see no reason to move them.

Getting the younger child into a good middle school is, indeed, pretty important. I wonder if getting into one of the hill middles at 5th grade might be a good call to assure a decent middle school track? I live fairly far from there, so it's not my thing, but my kid is entering 5th this year, so I know there's a big shuffle at that grade.

The commute between MacArthur and Hillcrest via transit is probably a solid hour and a half. Personally I would have hated having to rely on my parents to get to/from school in high school, but it's the only reasonable choice if they go to MacArthur. Commute/lack of autonomy would be my main motivation to pick a different high school.

All things considered, if I were in this situation I'd probably opt for MacArthur and Thomson and try the 5th grade lottery for a Hardy/MacArthur feeder and/or BASIS. If that didn't pan out, Thomson/John Francis is still a decent pathway.

Yep. from Hillcrest I think you would have to do a bus to green line, green line to red line, exit Dupont, bus to MacArthur.

People like to claim this stuff “just works out” but in reality, not really. If you have a better commute to MacArthur let us know.

I think it’s 2 buses at this point but I am looking into some sort of shuttle service. I agree stuff doesn’t just work out but I’ll make sure it does. Asking here was one effort, people are so lame and not helpful though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People think Mccarthur is a good school bc its adjacent to several wealthy neighborhoods. It's a title 1 school - few or none of the parents who live in those neighborhoods would ever send their kids to the school as it is currently constituted. Im talking about the parents who own $2+ million sfh in those adjacent neighborhoods - not parents renting apartments around the corner or across the street from the school.

OP here… I don’t “think” anything about McA. Since my daughter is a rising 10th grader, schools like Banneker and Walls weren’t an option. This is what we got in the lottery, I could at this point consider switching to eastern… we were waitlisted for private and didn’t get low numbers for any of our charter preferences.

To agree with another poster here, "DCUM is a strange place" - and that is very true. While helpful for some questions, it is a very narrow subset of parents. I think your best bet is to talk to other parents in your neighborhood, and then weigh what is best for your family. Many families/kids do make long commutes across town and it works for them, but there is definitely a cost to that.

My vote would be reach out to Eastern - ask about their EPIC program (https://www.easternhighschooldcps.org/ourpages/auto/2020/7/28/55213143/EPIC%20Info%2024-25.pdf?rnd=1704732509155) - since you just moved, there is probably some flexibility with deadlines. You already are have a spot at McA so don't give that up yet, but go visit Eastern this month and see what you think. (and while you are at it, come back here and update the thread, b/c Eastern comes up as a point of discussion sometimes). If you go into the threads about Eastern (or Google it) - the overall test scores aren't great, but as has been discussed, that is an average that takes into account the whole school, including issues of chronic absenteeism, etc. The IB program and some of the other specialized programs have been reviewed positively by parents and there are a lot of opportunities for internships etc. (https://www.easternhighschooldcps.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=456827&type=d)

+1 to all of this.

[Anonymous]

Waitlists are moving now and not always predictable. For the 4th grader, go in and add anything that might work for this year. You can always turn down the waitlist spot if offered. McArthur for high school is doable if you do a combination where you sometimes drive your daughter and she sometimes takes public transit. She will not be the only one. But you wont be in a position to sometimes drive her and make it work unless you find something better for the 4th grader, either because the school is closer to McArthur or closer to home. I wouldn’t based on where you now live worry too much about losing the middle school feed to DCI for the younger kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Waitlists are moving now and not always predictable. For the 4th grader, go in and add anything that might work for this year. You can always turn down the waitlist spot if offered. McArthur for high school is doable if you do a combination where you sometimes drive your daughter and she sometimes takes public transit. She will not be the only one. But you wont be in a position to sometimes drive her and make it work unless you find something better for the 4th grader, either because the school is closer to McArthur or closer to home. I wouldn’t based on where you now live worry too much about losing the middle school feed to DCI for the younger kid.

I would try to get both kids into a school on the Hill. For the high schooler, see post above , for 4th grader, Chisomlm, Payne, Miner, JO Wilson or Brent may have spots (they are about to go to swing space so may have shorter waitlist).

[Anonymous]

When would your younger be going to DCI? Can you find out from DCI whether the older one can transfer in, at that time, or will it be too late?

[Anonymous]

What address did you use on your application?

[Anonymous]

Where do you work, OP? If the kids stay in the current schools, what is your plan for getting them there? This info may help come up with ideas/alternatives.

[Anonymous]

Mostly this problem is because Hillcrest is not at all a convenient location to most of the schools on your list. It's on the edge of the city, and over the river. It's only convenient to the Hill, which is not a great option for a high schooler.

MacArthur and Stokes and fine schools. If you can get your younger kid into Hyde, even better.

I would seriously consider moving. A LOT of homes are going to come on the market soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is such a tough commute for everyone, OP. I think you're right to look for alternatives. But I also think you did a great job finding good schools for your kids with the information you had at the time.

- I think it's going to be harder to find a "good" HS alternative than it is to find a "good" elementary school alternative

- That said, you want to do your best to get your younger child into a "good" middle school pathway too

- I think ideally you'd want to find a high school that is reasonable for your older child to commute to on their own and an elementary school that is reasonable for you to commute with your younger child to.

- I think the next best option is to find two schools in close enough proximity that you can reasonably commute with them both.

Some ideas:

- Eastern, KIPP Legacy, Friendship, Thurgood for your older child to commute to themselves. All have short wait lists and a decent cohort of students passing standardized tests. Definitely ask around the neighborhood for recommendations

- Sojourner Truth is in close proximity to Stokes Brookland and is fairly well regarded

- Thomson is well-liked by families there, short waitlist, feeds into one of the better middle schools, and is sort-of on the way to MacArthur

I think that High School is more important socially and that keeping the Sophomore in the same school is a major factor. And the Sophomore really can commute on their own, so that shouldn't be as big of a factor. This, of course, depends on the kid and their relationships. If they don't make friends and hate the school, by all means find an alternative. But if they like MacArthur, I see no reason to move them.

Getting the younger child into a good middle school is, indeed, pretty important. I wonder if getting into one of the hill middles at 5th grade might be a good call to assure a decent middle school track? I live fairly far from there, so it's not my thing, but my kid is entering 5th this year, so I know there's a big shuffle at that grade.

The commute between MacArthur and Hillcrest via transit is probably a solid hour and a half. Personally I would have hated having to rely on my parents to get to/from school in high school, but it's the only reasonable choice if they go to MacArthur. Commute/lack of autonomy would be my main motivation to pick a different high school.

All things considered, if I were in this situation I'd probably opt for MacArthur and Thomson and try the 5th grade lottery for a Hardy/MacArthur feeder and/or BASIS. If that didn't pan out, Thomson/John Francis is still a decent pathway.

Yep. from Hillcrest I think you would have to do a bus to green line, green line to red line, exit Dupont, bus to MacArthur.

People like to claim this stuff “just works out” but in reality, not really. If you have a better commute to MacArthur let us know.

I think it’s 2 buses at this point but I am looking into some sort of shuttle service. I agree stuff doesn’t just work out but I’ll make sure it does. Asking here was one effort, people are so lame and not helpful though

I just want to underscore how tough this transit commute would be. Both of those buses only come every 20 minutes. Both run through a lot of traffic. So anytime your child runs late or the bus runs late or the bus doesn't run at all, it can and will add significant travel time to your child's commute, which is already 1 hour 20 min as a starting point.

I did a commute like this for a couple of years as a young adult. It was physically and mentally exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do you work, OP? If the kids stay in the current schools, what is your plan for getting them there? This info may help come up with ideas/alternatives.

I work from home