H.D. Cooke...thoughts?

[Anonymous]

new poster, DCPS generally does not provide summer programs. You need to find a camp for your child in the summer. See the forum on Classes, Workshops, Camps for some ideas. Some years, some schools offer a low/no cost summer school, but my experience as a 4 year DCPS school parent (not HD Cooke) is that the summer school schedule and program are released late enough that I am not comfortable waiting to see if it will be available. Camps fill up in the meantime. In addition, my indirect observation (because my kids havent' been in them) is that the DCPS summer school and/or DC Rec Center camps are of mixed quality, and I would rather be sure that the quality of my kid's care is set a higher bar.

Summer is 10 weeks. If camp is $400 a week that's $4,000. If you find a camp for $250 a week that's $2500. If you decide in advance which 2 weeks you'll take vacation that's 8 x $250 or $2000. All of which are a lot less than full time preschool/ child care year round for a 3/4/5/ year old.

consider going to the White Flint camp expo Jan 30-31 to get a feel for the many options around, their costs and locations, and what might appeal to your child (ren) over the summer.

Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

I don't know about camps or other summer programs. Obviously, HD Cooke or anywhere else, we plan to keep our DD in daycare until school starts in August. My experience at our downtown daycare is that the 4/5 year old class is pretty empty because people have left for public school. So, it might not be that hard to find a daycare spot -- even at your current daycare -- for the summer months. There is also the option of a nanny share with other parents in similar situations.

[Anonymous]

A parent asked Ms. Black about summer school recently, and she said she wasn't sure, but she thought there'd be something there this summer. They like to run summer programs in schools with air conditioning, which makes Cooke a good candidate

[Anonymous]

PP here...a lot of my friends with kids in public school have done the Little Explorers camps at the DC Parks & Rec in the summer time. They are apparently quite affordable, and the one at Takoma Park is supposed to be quite wonderful. The W street one did not get good reviews, however. You can drop off / pick up whenever you want, the Takoma Park Rec center program has the pool, so your kids swim every day, and best of all, you can sign up for the weeks you really need. Apparently, they even do a naptime in the afternoon for the little ones. I'm seriously considering it this year as an option for my kids. We did a private coop day camp in years past, but I might switch to the Little Explorers this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello Fellow Parents,

I have two preschoolers in H.D. Cooke and can confirm that it has been a wonderful experience for us. We have been very impressed with the teachers and (more importantly) the speed and enthusiasm with which our kids are acquiring new skills and knowledge. Principal Black is all that she seemed in the open house and more ... she is invested, concerned and involved. She knows every child by name and can link all the parents to their child. She will regularly pull me aside at morning drop off to discuss things going on in my kids classrooms and will ask my feedback on changes, unexpected developments, etc. The new building is amazing and the vibe across the classes and from the other teachers that work with my kids (gym, art, music) is incredibly positive. We did a lot of research before entering the kids into Cooke last year and have been doing alot of comparing notes with friends at Oyster, Capital City and other schools. I would definitely recommend to parents to consider H D Cooke as a serious option.

- Martina Ban ... Adams Morgan mother of three

Thanks so much, Martina! I'd be very interested to hear some of the specifics as to how Cooke compares to Oyster, Cap City or anywhere else, based on your experience and your conversations with friends!

[Anonymous]

Although I'm really happy to hear from all the parents who attended the open house, I'd also love to hear more from parents with children currently enrolled there...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although I'm really happy to hear from all the parents who attended the open house, I'd also love to hear more from parents with children currently enrolled there...

check out Martina Ban's post above - a current Cooke parent. There are also parents posting throughout this thread.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I've read the whole thread. I see three posts from parents. I appreciate their input, would just like to hear more, that's all.

[Anonymous]

There are a number of families who THOUGHT they wanted to enrol last year... but it turns out that when the rubber met the road the school just didn't measure up.

If you can get into a good charter or another OOB school, go for it. If you're stuck, then maybe you can help out improving the school for some other families a few years from now.

[Anonymous]

Now that Ms. Black the principal has had a year to prove herself, I hope parents -- especially those with 3 year olds -- will give the school a chance. If it doesn't work, you can always to the Charter OOB process when the kids are 4. I for one, plan to become very involved in the school. Dedicated parents involved now, mean a good school now. We already have a great principal and a great building.

[Anonymous]

22:13, I've seen you say that before on another HD Cooke thread, and I still fail to see your point. Yes, some parents enrolled who didn't come. But, a lot of parents who enrolled DID come. I'm there, and my friends' kids are there. I can state that neighborhood parents chose the school and are happy. As for those who enrolled and then didn't go, doesn't that happen all the time with school choice? In the first year my kids were in school, they were enrolled in one charter school, then another one called me and said I had a slot, so I told the first charter school I wasn't coming. I think this happens all the time, so I don't understand what you're trying to say, or what your apparent issue with Cooke is.

[Anonymous]

@22:13. You appear to say the same thing on all H.D. Cooke discussions. Are you at Cooke? Did you enroll and not come? Are you in bounds for cooke but enrolled somewhere else? Or, are you just bitter that you moved from Adams Morgan to Fairfax and now maybe that move was premature?

[Anonymous]

We have a child in prek (age 4) and like the school. Test scores are bad, but it's early yet, and there are encouraging signs. Our child loves it and has a lot of friends. Our child started the year unable to write and now is working on letters and numbers and name writing - making great, age appropriate progress. We like being a part of the neighborhood and the easy drop off and pick up. The facility is great - we toured every possible choice last year and Cooke is by far the best in terms of physical space. There are computers in every classroom. Kids are happy and engaged. Parents are engaged - the winter festival or whatever they called it was great.

In all honesty, I don't know if we'll last til 5th grade. It's going to depend on how things continue to go - test scores, child's progress, peer interactions, etc. But I can unqualified say it is a great free choice for these younger years.

[Anonymous]

10:34 postet, what other schools' facilities are not as nice, any others that are close or comparable?

[Anonymous]

10:34 poster here. I'm not disparaging other schools at all, it's really just that Cooke is so new and so well laid out and large. I've probably toured more than a dozen public, private, or charter schools. Cooke's renovation is just great, with a really nice mix of the old and new. I love that they incorporated the old formerly exterior brick walls in the new sections. There's a huge, beautiful library, full of books and also a host of new computers. Each PreK classroom has 5 brandnew computers, and I think that's generally the case for every classroom. (one well regarded private school proudly showed off its one computer lab - one room, the only place in the building with computers.) There is a ton of natural light. There's a cafeteria AND a gym, though it turns out the cafeteria may not be as big as is really needed. Just as an example, we really liked another school, and would have chosen it over Cooke had we gotten in, but their cafeteria is a tiny little crowded space in the downstairs, their library is about the size of a classroom and has no windows, and there was no one place the entire school could gather for assembly. Some of the older schools - which we liked a lot - have old heating and cooling systems that really aren't that efficient, which is a nice way of saying they are swelteringly hot in the winter during tours.

I wish that Cooke had green space to play - the playgrounds are fabulous, but there really isn't any grass or fields, but that's the case at a lot of schools in the city. I loved that Hearst was right on that giant playfield, for example.

We did not tour the top tier privates, nor all the upper NW schools that don't have out of boundary slots, so there may be better out there - I've heard from others that Murch and Lafayette have nice facilities. We saw plenty of schools that would have been fine options. Cooke's facilities do stand out.