Capitol Hill - middle school and beyond?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the current high interest rates and low housing inventory will cause people to take a second look at SH/EH and increase buy in to those schools

Yes. There are just more families with older kids on the Hill in general. Not all of them get into charters, some families go private but not all can afford it (the cost of housing on the Hill might actually make it harder for many than it used to be -- much easier to swing private school tuition when your mortgage is $1800/mo as opposed to $7k/mo, even adjusting for inflation.

I just noticed this myself the other day. It used to be that you couldn’t walk a sidewalk without bumping into a stroller, but these days, not so much.

YES! I had assumed this would always be the case. Wonder what families with babies are doing these days instead?

These days if you're around Eastern Market in the morning, you will see all these kids, some in uniforms (Latin's two campuses) walking to the bus stop or their school.

I wonder if they are priced out. It's not going to be great for the schools if we don't continue to have young families moving in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the current high interest rates and low housing inventory will cause people to take a second look at SH/EH and increase buy in to those schools

Yes. There are just more families with older kids on the Hill in general. Not all of them get into charters, some families go private but not all can afford it (the cost of housing on the Hill might actually make it harder for many than it used to be -- much easier to swing private school tuition when your mortgage is $1800/mo as opposed to $7k/mo, even adjusting for inflation.

I just noticed this myself the other day. It used to be that you couldn’t walk a sidewalk without bumping into a stroller, but these days, not so much.

YES! I had assumed this would always be the case. Wonder what families with babies are doing these days instead?

These days if you're around Eastern Market in the morning, you will see all these kids, some in uniforms (Latin's two campuses) walking to the bus stop or their school.

I wonder if they are priced out. It's not going to be great for the schools if we don't continue to have young families moving in.

They're definitely priced out. Young couples are moving to Kingman Park, North Michigan Park, and historic Anacostia to start their families.

[Anonymous]

I think the divide is much bigger these days. There are young families with a lot of money who are buying in rich suburban areas, and there are poorer young families who are buying much further out. But in both cases, I don’t think young people are buying in the city as much as before.

[Anonymous]

Population of pre-preschool kids on the Hill has definitely fallen. When my oldest was that age, we were 15th on the waiting list for Ms. Frances and 9th for Hill Preschool. Now both of those (very good) programs are still advertising slots being open. Gan Shalom & River Park are also not full.

On the flip side, everyone talks about how few MS & HSers there are on the Hill and it's just not true where I live. My single block street & the streets we share alleys with has 15ish MS/HSers... plus at least 5 3rd/4th graders whose families have no plans to move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Population of pre-preschool kids on the Hill has definitely fallen. When my oldest was that age, we were 15th on the waiting list for Ms. Frances and 9th for Hill Preschool. Now both of those (very good) programs are still advertising slots being open. Gan Shalom & River Park are also not full.

On the flip side, everyone talks about how few MS & HSers there are on the Hill and it's just not true where I live. My single block street & the streets we share alleys with has 15ish MS/HSers... plus at least 5 3rd/4th graders whose families have no plans to move.

Which part of the Hill are you in?

[Anonymous]

Yes, of my MS kids' cohorts, some kids have moved, but more have stayed, and they are all over the place as far as schools.

[Anonymous]

Agree, we live on the Hill and my kiddo is at a DCPS application HS which has a lot of kids from the Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Population of pre-preschool kids on the Hill has definitely fallen. When my oldest was that age, we were 15th on the waiting list for Ms. Frances and 9th for Hill Preschool. Now both of those (very good) programs are still advertising slots being open. Gan Shalom & River Park are also not full.

On the flip side, everyone talks about how few MS & HSers there are on the Hill and it's just not true where I live. My single block street & the streets we share alleys with has 15ish MS/HSers... plus at least 5 3rd/4th graders whose families have no plans to move.

Which part of the Hill are you in?

Near Stanton Park.

[Anonymous]

I guess this is all anecdotal…where we are (right north of Lincoln park), it seems like all of our neighbors are families with 1-3 kids under the age of five. Not so many older kids. Of course, we don’t know families with older kids probably because we’re not there yet. And perhaps those with older kids don’t see all the families with babies and preschoolers. Lincoln park is still baby/nanny central during the week day.

[Anonymous]

We're in Hill East and there are way more middle and high school aged kids around then there were when we moved in 10 years ago. It was all baby strollers (us included) back then. And while some people left and there are still some babies and toddlers around there is a much larger age span of kids than there used to be.

[Anonymous]

I still see lots of little kids on the Hill, and have met a bunch of people with babies/toddlers who moved here recently. They are definitely wealthier, on average, than people who moved here with kids, or just before having kids, 10-15 years ago. Which makes sense.

I think the main reason that the private PK programs have more availability now is that people have actually finally gotten sold on the idea of the public PKs being really good, plus there are more charters than there used to be. If you want a spot in a public PK on the Hill, you'll get one, and odds are pretty good it will be a high quality program. Even if you don't mind spending 20-30k on preschool, if you can get a high quality preschool experience for free, why wouldn't you?

What that means for upper elementary and MS/HS remains to be seen. I think if the neighborhood continues to get wealthier (and all signs point to yes) that poses some interesting challenges for the current trend of increased buy-in at the MS level, as well as the prospect of that ever extending to Eastern. I honestly don't know what will happen. But CH is definitely getting wealthier, and there are still many families buying in the area. That's clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still see lots of little kids on the Hill, and have met a bunch of people with babies/toddlers who moved here recently. They are definitely wealthier, on average, than people who moved here with kids, or just before having kids, 10-15 years ago. Which makes sense.

I think the main reason that the private PK programs have more availability now is that people have actually finally gotten sold on the idea of the public PKs being really good, plus there are more charters than there used to be. If you want a spot in a public PK on the Hill, you'll get one, and odds are pretty good it will be a high quality program. Even if you don't mind spending 20-30k on preschool, if you can get a high quality preschool experience for free, why wouldn't you?

What that means for upper elementary and MS/HS remains to be seen. I think if the neighborhood continues to get wealthier (and all signs point to yes) that poses some interesting challenges for the current trend of increased buy-in at the MS level, as well as the prospect of that ever extending to Eastern. I honestly don't know what will happen. But CH is definitely getting wealthier, and there are still many families buying in the area. That's clear.

People have been saying this for years. Guess what, it's not much better than it was a decade ago when people were saying the same thing. CH has a high school problem that will forever stall the middle school momentum. People will go to charters, go private, or move, as they have been doing for years now.

[Anonymous]

No. 10 years ago many people were shut out of public ECE which is why the private options were in demand. If it is easy to get a dcps ECE spot now something is moving backwards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still see lots of little kids on the Hill, and have met a bunch of people with babies/toddlers who moved here recently. They are definitely wealthier, on average, than people who moved here with kids, or just before having kids, 10-15 years ago. Which makes sense.

I think the main reason that the private PK programs have more availability now is that people have actually finally gotten sold on the idea of the public PKs being really good, plus there are more charters than there used to be. If you want a spot in a public PK on the Hill, you'll get one, and odds are pretty good it will be a high quality program. Even if you don't mind spending 20-30k on preschool, if you can get a high quality preschool experience for free, why wouldn't you?

What that means for upper elementary and MS/HS remains to be seen. I think if the neighborhood continues to get wealthier (and all signs point to yes) that poses some interesting challenges for the current trend of increased buy-in at the MS level, as well as the prospect of that ever extending to Eastern. I honestly don't know what will happen. But CH is definitely getting wealthier, and there are still many families buying in the area. That's clear.

This is not correct. Ms Frances starts at 2.5 and the large majority of her class has always been age ineligible for DCPS. HPS & Gan Shalom split about half and half, but even their younger programs still have slots now in September. The missing kids in the 2-3 year old bracket are not in DCPS schools, they’re not living on the Hill.

Yes, of course there are new young families moving in, but the average age of kids is definitely moving up because of pressure from both ends.

That said, it is true that more Hill families are happy to use Miner or AppleTree or Payne for ECE (and in Payne’s case, increasing stay there) than there used to be and that is why River Park is likely to have open slots for the foreseeable future; it’s not Brent or bust anymore for families. It’s not that it’s easier to get into most individual Hill schools — is mostly not, Maury, LT & Payne are all much harder to get into than 10 years ago; it’s not even close — it’s that there are more schools people will go to. And of course, there are a few schools that seem to be easier… Peabody & 2R4 chief among them. (Brent gentrified long enough ago that demographics trends may make it more of a wash in a 10 year span.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still see lots of little kids on the Hill, and have met a bunch of people with babies/toddlers who moved here recently. They are definitely wealthier, on average, than people who moved here with kids, or just before having kids, 10-15 years ago. Which makes sense.

I think the main reason that the private PK programs have more availability now is that people have actually finally gotten sold on the idea of the public PKs being really good, plus there are more charters than there used to be. If you want a spot in a public PK on the Hill, you'll get one, and odds are pretty good it will be a high quality program. Even if you don't mind spending 20-30k on preschool, if you can get a high quality preschool experience for free, why wouldn't you?

What that means for upper elementary and MS/HS remains to be seen. I think if the neighborhood continues to get wealthier (and all signs point to yes) that poses some interesting challenges for the current trend of increased buy-in at the MS level, as well as the prospect of that ever extending to Eastern. I honestly don't know what will happen. But CH is definitely getting wealthier, and there are still many families buying in the area. That's clear.

This is not correct. Ms Frances starts at 2.5 and the large majority of her class has always been age ineligible for DCPS. HPS & Gan Shalom split about half and half, but even their younger programs still have slots now in September. The missing kids in the 2-3 year old bracket are not in DCPS schools, they’re not living on the Hill.

Yes, of course there are new young families moving in, but the average age of kids is definitely moving up because of pressure from both ends.

That said, it is true that more Hill families are happy to use Miner or AppleTree or Payne for ECE (and in Payne’s case, increasing stay there) than there used to be and that is why River Park is likely to have open slots for the foreseeable future; it’s not Brent or bust anymore for families. It’s not that it’s easier to get into most individual Hill schools — is mostly not, Maury, LT & Payne are all much harder to get into than 10 years ago; it’s not even close — it’s that there are more schools people will go to. And of course, there are a few schools that seem to be easier… Peabody & 2R4 chief among them. (Brent gentrified long enough ago that demographics trends may make it more of a wash in a 10 year span.)

This, 100%. My kid is now 13, so I remember the situation 10 years ago quite well.

Peabody falling on hard times is sad.