Van Ness Elementary School - Who plans on going there?

[Anonymous]

I'm curious to know which families are seriously planning on going to Van Ness Elementary school. Please list whether or not you're in-bound, which grade (PS3, PK4, or K). Also, if you're OOB, where do you live and where do you plan on ranking the school in the lottery... Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I'm going to list it as a safety since it's near my DH's office. But I hope we don't have to go there, because we live in Brookland. I do think it's a neat opportunity to be in a brand-new school!

[Anonymous]

We live inbound (Capitol Quarter), but our child won't be of age to start PS3 until School Year 2016 - 2017. However, right now we do plan on having her go to Van Ness that year.

[Anonymous]

Just curious why this makes a difference to the OP: if I'd posted "I live in Congress Heights and am glad for a school that's on my way to work downtown and feeds into Jefferson and Eastern" would you be more or less likely to consider the school than if I wrote "I live in Tenleytown and since my IB school doesn't offer PK and I work at the Navy Yard it seems like a good choice until K"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just curious why this makes a difference to the OP: if I'd posted "I live in Congress Heights and am glad for a school that's on my way to work downtown and feeds into Jefferson and Eastern" would you be more or less likely to consider the school than if I wrote "I live in Tenleytown and since my IB school doesn't offer PK and I work at the Navy Yard it seems like a good choice until K"?

Yes, I wonder that, too. We live in Hillcrest and will be putting VN as #1 for PK3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just curious why this makes a difference to the OP: if I'd posted "I live in Congress Heights and am glad for a school that's on my way to work downtown and feeds into Jefferson and Eastern" would you be more or less likely to consider the school than if I wrote "I live in Tenleytown and since my IB school doesn't offer PK and I work at the Navy Yard it seems like a good choice until K"?

OP here... I'm just curious to get an idea of which OOB families see Van Ness as an attractive option.

[Anonymous]

I live in the Capitol Riverfront, and most likely will have our child attend PS3 at Van Ness in 2015 - 2016. I also know of at least 10 other families that plan on sending their child to Van Ness for PS3 (They have already sent in their lottery selection). Since Van Ness will have 2 PS3 classes (and 2 PK4 and 2 Kindergarten classes), and each PS3 class has 16 seats, I know that at least 30% of the PS3 classes will be filled from families in the Capitol Riverfront. I'm willing to bet that it in fact will be a lot more, since I'm sure I don't know every family in the Capitol Riverfront who are sending their kids to Van Ness. Looks like Van Ness truly will be a neighborhood school!

[Anonymous]

Since VN has guaranteed PK, anyone who applies in-bounds is listing VN last. Some folks may make it their only choice, but there are a lot of IB folks who will put VN below DCI or Wilson-feeding schools. Just because someone put VN on their list doesn't mean they'll go there; some will continue with private options and others will get into charters or OOB they prefer. If people focused more on getting ready and excited for whatever kids get in and less on how the school will only be good if it's largely in-bounds (and only from the SE portion of the boundary, no less!) the school would probably wind up better for it.

[Anonymous]

Isn't Bancroft the only Wilson feeder that has PS3?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since VN has guaranteed PK, anyone who applies in-bounds is listing VN last. Some folks may make it their only choice, but there are a lot of IB folks who will put VN below DCI or Wilson-feeding schools. Just because someone put VN on their list doesn't mean they'll go there; some will continue with private options and others will get into charters or OOB they prefer. If people focused more on getting ready and excited for whatever kids get in and less on how the school will only be good if it's largely in-bounds (and only from the SE portion of the boundary, no less!) the school would probably wind up better for it.

If you don't list Van Ness as your first option, you lose your guaranteed PS3 PK4 access. This was clearly conveyed at the school meeting. Basically, if you don't list Van Ness as your first option and you lottery into another school that you place higher than Van Ness, you will lose your guaranteed PS3/PK4 access to Van Ness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since VN has guaranteed PK, anyone who applies in-bounds is listing VN last. Some folks may make it their only choice, but there are a lot of IB folks who will put VN below DCI or Wilson-feeding schools. Just because someone put VN on their list doesn't mean they'll go there; some will continue with private options and others will get into charters or OOB they prefer. If people focused more on getting ready and excited for whatever kids get in and less on how the school will only be good if it's largely in-bounds (and only from the SE portion of the boundary, no less!) the school would probably wind up better for it.

If you don't list Van Ness as your first option, you lose your guaranteed PS3 PK4 access. This was clearly conveyed at the school meeting. Basically, if you don't list Van Ness as your first option and you lottery into another school that you place higher than Van Ness, you will lose your guaranteed PS3/PK4 access to Van Ness.

But then if Van Ness wasn't your first choice, you should be happy you got into one of the schools you ranked higher...right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since VN has guaranteed PK, anyone who applies in-bounds is listing VN last. Some folks may make it their only choice, but there are a lot of IB folks who will put VN below DCI or Wilson-feeding schools. Just because someone put VN on their list doesn't mean they'll go there; some will continue with private options and others will get into charters or OOB they prefer. If people focused more on getting ready and excited for whatever kids get in and less on how the school will only be good if it's largely in-bounds (and only from the SE portion of the boundary, no less!) the school would probably wind up better for it.

If you don't list Van Ness as your first option, you lose your guaranteed PS3 PK4 access. This was clearly conveyed at the school meeting. Basically, if you don't list Van Ness as your first option and you lottery into another school that you place higher than Van Ness, you will lose your guaranteed PS3/PK4 access to Van Ness.

But then if Van Ness wasn't your first choice, you should be happy you got into one of the schools you ranked higher...right?

Correct, so you only list a school higher if you are positively sure you'd rather go to that school than Van Ness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If you don't list Van Ness as your first option, you lose your guaranteed PS3 PK4 access. This was clearly conveyed at the school meeting. Basically, if you don't list Van Ness as your first option and you lottery into another school that you place higher than Van Ness, you will lose your guaranteed PS3/PK4 access to Van Ness.

Your first sentence is not quite accurate.

If you put Van Ness anywhere on your Round 1 lottery application, you will either get into Van Ness or a school you ranked higher. You can rank VN #12 and feel confident your kid can attend. Obviously, parents should rank in terms of preference and if they only have 3 schools they prefer over VN, rank it 4th (and if VN is their first choice, rank it first!).

You're right that if you didn't list VN at all and tried to get in during Round 2, you wouldn't be guaranteed a spot for PreK. However, even in that situation you'd get a higher spot on the waitlist than any OOB kids without preference who were waitlisted, essentially jumping that line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you don't list Van Ness as your first option, you lose your guaranteed PS3 PK4 access. This was clearly conveyed at the school meeting. Basically, if you don't list Van Ness as your first option and you lottery into another school that you place higher than Van Ness, you will lose your guaranteed PS3/PK4 access to Van Ness.

Your first sentence is not quite accurate.

If you put Van Ness anywhere on your Round 1 lottery application, you will either get into Van Ness or a school you ranked higher. You can rank VN #12 and feel confident your kid can attend. Obviously, parents should rank in terms of preference and if they only have 3 schools they prefer over VN, rank it 4th (and if VN is their first choice, rank it first!).

You're right that if you didn't list VN at all and tried to get in during Round 2, you wouldn't be guaranteed a spot for PreK. However, even in that situation you'd get a higher spot on the waitlist than any OOB kids without preference who were waitlisted, essentially jumping that line.

The interim principal explicitly said that you MUST list Van Ness as your #1 choice if you want GUARANTEED access to Van Ness (for inbound students). For example. If you list Van Ness as #2, and you get matched with your #1 choice, you WON'T be able to get into Van Ness if the seats at Van Ness are full. However, if you list Van Ness as #1, you are GUARANTEED to get a seat at Van Ness.

[Anonymous]

If you live in-bounds and there is no school you prefer over Van Ness, yes you should rank it #1 (and don't bother ranking anything else) and you'll get in.

But if you list Van Ness as #12 and you get waitlisted at all 11 of your top choices, you WILL have a seat at Van Ness. You can enroll at VN and stay on the waitlist for the other schools. That is how it was explained by the lottery expert, the DCPS enrollment coordinator, and the interim principal.

You're right that if you list Van Ness as #2 and you get into #1, and then change your mind and decide you prefer Van Ness, you don't get guaranteed enrollment. The best you'd be able to do in that scenario is get in line behind everyone who got in during Round 1 of the lottery and enrolled. You would be ahead of any waitlisted OOB folks with no preference. I'm not sure where you'd be compared to waitlisted OOB folks who have a sibling enrolled or who have proximity preference.

So the best thing to do is to know which schools you prefer and rank them accordingly. If you're in-bounds for a guaranteed enrollment PK, it should always be your last pick (whether that means #12, #1, or somewhere in between; you don't have to use all 12 picks in Round 1.) because you will never get into a school ranked below it. For example, if you rank your choices as

LAMB
Mundo Verde
Hyde-Addison
Bancroft
Van Ness
Tyler
Powell

you will never be considered for Tyler or Powell. You'll either get into one of your top 4 picks, or you'll get waitlisted at all 4 of your top choices and into Van Ness.