News from Heasrt open house

[Anonymous]

I just got back from the Heasrt Elementary open house and was impressed by what I saw. I visited almost every classroom and each teacher I saw was actively engaging the kids. The kids themselves were very well-disciplined; every single one of them that passed me by in the hallway said "excuse me".

Previously just a Pre-K to 3rd grade school, Hearst will be expanding to fourth and fifth grade beginning next year. It is slated for modernization and building expansion in 2012. There is also a new playground that will be built there this spring.

I spent a long time talking with parents from the PTA and with Ms. Talley, the principal. She would like to see more kids from the neighborhood enroll. As an in-boundary parent, I had up until this point been pretty clueless about the place, but I am now breathing a huge sigh of relief. It seems like a great place for a young child to flourish.

[Anonymous]

OP here - so sorry about the school name typo!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just got back from the Heasrt Elementary open house and was impressed by what I saw. I visited almost every classroom and each teacher I saw was actively engaging the kids. The kids themselves were very well-disciplined; every single one of them that passed me by in the hallway said "excuse me".

Previously just a Pre-K to 3rd grade school, Hearst will be expanding to fourth and fifth grade beginning next year. It is slated for modernization and building expansion in 2012. There is also a new playground that will be built there this spring.

I spent a long time talking with parents from the PTA and with Ms. Talley, the principal. She would like to see more kids from the neighborhood enroll. As an in-boundary parent, I had up until this point been pretty clueless about the place, but I am now breathing a huge sigh of relief. It seems like a great place for a young child to flourish.

This is interesting. I wonder how that will impact Eaton's enrollment. Eaton loses a lot of kids at 2nd/3rd grade, who go to private schools or move away from Eaton.

Hearst children had a choice to go to either Janney or Eaton. Eaton recruited Hearst parents heavily to encourage them to come to Eaton, in order to make up for the drop in enrollment in the upper grades.

What is the rationale behind expanding Hearst to the upper grades? Clearly the building is underutilized? Was there demand from the Hearst parents for this? If so, why?

[Anonymous]

Because DC elementary schools are moving to a K-5 model, standardized across all the schools (except for Oyster, which is K-8).

[Anonymous]

Sorry - that should read K to EIGHT. I didn't mean to put that little emoticon in there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just got back from the Heasrt Elementary open house and was impressed by what I saw. I visited almost every classroom and each teacher I saw was actively engaging the kids. The kids themselves were very well-disciplined; every single one of them that passed me by in the hallway said "excuse me".

Previously just a Pre-K to 3rd grade school, Hearst will be expanding to fourth and fifth grade beginning next year. It is slated for modernization and building expansion in 2012. There is also a new playground that will be built there this spring.

I spent a long time talking with parents from the PTA and with Ms. Talley, the principal. She would like to see more kids from the neighborhood enroll. As an in-boundary parent, I had up until this point been pretty clueless about the place, but I am now breathing a huge sigh of relief. It seems like a great place for a young child to flourish.

This is interesting. I wonder how that will impact Eaton's enrollment. Eaton loses a lot of kids at 2nd/3rd grade, who go to private schools or move away from Eaton.

Hearst children had a choice to go to either Janney or Eaton. Eaton recruited Hearst parents heavily to encourage them to come to Eaton, in order to make up for the drop in enrollment in the upper grades.

What is the rationale behind expanding Hearst to the upper grades? Clearly the building is underutilized? Was there demand from the Hearst parents for this? If so, why?

I also was impressed by this morning's tour, especially by the pK, K, and 3rd grade teachers.

The Hearst building is not underutilized -- there will be "learning cottages" for the 4th and 5th grades until the school is "modernized" in 2012.

My pure speculation as to why Hearst would be expanded when both it and Eaton already take significant numbers of OOB students (Eaton's principal said about 40% of her students are OOB [I'm not sure how that counts Hearst grads in 4th through 6th grade at Eaton]; Hearst's principal said that about 80% of her students are OOB) is that both Heart and Eaton are quite successful, especially with their lower socioeconomic class OOB students, and expanding them should give more OOB kids in less successful school districts a chance to enroll and succeed. There may also be some expectation that improving neighborhood schools plus the economic downturn will equal more demand from in-boundary parents at both Eaton and Hearst.

[Anonymous]

OP again: The principal told me that she has been trying for some time to expand the school to include 4th/5th grades, and this year her petition to DCPS resulted in success. She told me that her motivation was both to provide continuity for the current/future Hearst students and to encourage in-boundary students to come to the school.

[Anonymous]

What is in-boundary for Hearst? Any overlap with the boundary for Eaton or Janney? (I live between Eaton and Hearst.)

[Anonymous]

http://dcatlas.dcgis.dc.gov/schools/

Check your address above. I am also very impressed with Hearst, inbounds and considering it for PreK.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to shamelessly hijack, but when I try to use the dcatlas link provided above, it doesn't give me information on an elementary school -- only middle and high school. I can't figure out whether I'm in boundary for Oyster or not, because I think I'm on the cusp. Anyone else have trouble with that website?

[Anonymous]

I, too, can't figure out what the boundaries are for Hearst from that map. I'd like to move to be within Hearst's boundaries...have to do a bit more research. The Metro stations are marked but not labeled (which is Tenley and which is Van Ness?) I feel so stoopid--well, I had a DC public school education, so what can I expect? : >
Even if I end up within Hearst's boundaries, what do we do for middle school? Some of the kids at Alice Deal are terrifying. Some of the teachers are terrific. Hard to judge whether to risk it when looking at my little five-year old.

[Anonymous]

Really? Terrifying? In what way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because DC elementary schools are moving to a K-5 model, standardized across all the schools (except for Oyster, which is K-8).

This is just not true. Many elementary schools have become "education campuses", moving to a preK to 8 model. Rhee's rationale, I've been told is that DC loses a lot of kids at the middle school level. Personally I don't like having three years and fourteen year olds in the same campus but that is increasingly common in DC.

[Anonymous]

How are the kids at Deal terrifying? My child attends Deal and it is a warm place with really cute kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are the kids at Deal terrifying? My child attends Deal and it is a warm place with really cute kids!

It's hard to describe middle school kids as "cute" in general because they're at such an awkward (though temporary) age.

In any event, PP is probably referring to the unpleasantly boisterous teens and pre-teens who loiter around Tenleytown after school. This concerns me too, because I wish I could send my child to a school in which all the students represent themselves a little more seriously, not one where I imagine she'll have to depend on a bubble of honors kids.