Anyone with a child in a NW DC private?
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Anonymous
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We love our PG neighborhood. We are surrounded by a fantastic community and have many close friends. DH has a short commute to his university job.
However, DC is almost ready for K and I am very stressed about the school situation. Our neighborhood ES is not an option for me, too few children can pass the basic bar in regards to reading and math. DC has been tested as part of the private school admissions process and is in the highly gifted range. I want DC to be challenged and have friends. We aren't going to mess around with TAG lottery which wouldn't help in the early years anyway. We are looking at St. Jerome's, independent privates in DC which are $$$ and involve a long commute, or moving to Arlington or Fairfax. Any BTDT PG parents out there? |
Anonymous
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Honestly, I've been teaching for 12 years and I have been in Fairfax, Prince George's and DCPS along with one private school in Oxon Hill, which shall remain nameless. I also have three kids ages 2-8. My two school-aged children go to John Hanson French Immersion and my baby boy is at an in-home daycare. I must be blunt and say there is no option in our county for high quality public schools except for the French Immersion or Montessori school, which are both lottery. You will be among thousands of other PG parents that have to either send our kids across the bridges or a half-way decent Christian school. And DC private schools range from way over 10k to in the 30's. Virginia can run you mid 20s to upper 30s in some cases, but then you face the issue of being from Prince George's county (that's another forum) and your kids will feel the heat (we sent our baby girl at the time to a Montessori school in Alexandria and spent 17K.
I'm starting a private school myself, along with a few other experienced educators, but I'm not sure if our doors will be open by the time your child will be of age. I was just talking to my wife about these threads online to get a sense of who is looking, so please, take a look at my dream-soon-to-be-reality. www.themarylandschool.org email me to share or I'll check back on the forum. |
Anonymous
| Where will this private school be located "The Maryland School" and is there any other information about the school other than your site |
Anonymous
| OP look at Friend's Community School in college park. Friends of mine are sending their very bright daughter there and seem happy. It is quite a commute for them to do so. |
Anonymous
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Thanks for the replies. I am happy to know that someone is working on a new school to better serve the needs of PG families. I would suggest having more information about the founder/ founding group on the site. When does the school plan to open?
I appreciate the suggestion of Friend's Community School and will definitely look into it. |
Anonymous
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I'll update the site to include some info about me and include pics of my family to personalize the education of my future student population.
The location will be along the busy 210 pipeline between Accokeek and Oxon Hill. Mostly catching people from Waldorf and points south. There will also be drop off points on Route 5 and off route 4. Then I'll expand to Clinton. My philosophy is that children learn more from experience than classroom repetition. I need a core of 40 3 to 6 year olds to start. OK. Enough excitement. Happy New year. |
Anonymous
| OP, where are you? CF montessori in Petworth is affordable. |
Anonymous
| OP, where do the older kids in your neighborhood go? Friends of mine in PG are at Friend's Community, Sandy Spring Friends, Paint Branch Montessori, Christian Family - all more accessible to PG and more affordable than DC privates. |
Anonymous
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I am in the Ft. Washington area and am applying to a private in Ft. Washington (probably the same one the PP mentioned that used to be in Oxon Hill is is the only one I am aware of that had an Oxon Hill address), a NW DC private that will be $30k each, and watching what is going on with the addition of Spanish Immersion options in north, central and south county (though lottery is not something you can count on so you have to have a backup plan). We are just looking at preK for our first child this year. Siblings will be two years later. We are also planning a move to another county after the elementary years. We need to stay in PG for at least a few more years while ours are young as we have a great childcare situation with family nearby. I prefer small classes and private for elementary anyway. If I am going to spend it, I'd rather spend it while living in an affordable zip code with inexpensive childcare nearby.
With respect to moving, I am not convinced that it solves all the problems as I have so many friends in better school districts who have pulled their kids from what we all assume are better publics and are putting their kids in private for various reasons. I do not want to pay 2 to 3 times more for housing and a good school and then still find public is inadequate and end up paying for private as well. So in essence, going through the same thing right now. |
Anonymous
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OP, we live in PG and sent our DD to an all-girls private frequently mentioned on the private school boards. She is able to bus there and that has been great, but it still makes for a fairly grueling schedule for her due to the commute. That being said, our local options were not working for her at all. She's thriving at her current school and while it is tough (financially and schedule-wise), it was the right choice for us. She's also not in K though so we had a few years of finding out that our local options weren't going to work.
As much as we love her school, we've definitely had the moving discussion too. We have the same fears. We love our neighborhood and our community. We would pay a lot more to find a comparable house in MoCo or HoCo and we would then both be dealing with lengthy work commutes, with no guarantees that the public options there would be much better for our kids. It's a really tough decision. What we've decided is to take a year at a time. I think all you can do is make the best choice for your child and your family at the time and know that nothing is permanent and you can revisit the issues each year. |
Anonymous
| Very interested in the proposed The Maryland School. Went to theMarylandschool.com but there was no available website. |
Anonymous
.org, not .com |
Anonymous
| We have PG friends with kids at CHDS, Sidwell and even Bullis (the latter is a high schooler, I think the commute would be too long for a 3d grader). |
Anonymous
| thmarylandschool.org site is down pending renewal. Pls let us know when it is back up, I would like to take a look. Thanks. |
Anonymous
| ^^themarylandschool.org^^ Typo, sorry! |