Ward 3 PK 4 options?

[Anonymous]

You should go to the best school for your child. Many private daycare options are likely not as strong as Hearst or Eaton. DCPS has far more educated teachers. I say stay in the neighborhood and spend a year at Hearst or Eaton it is an easier commute. A lottery is a lottery, it is all about luck. If you are lucky enough to get in why not go?

Isn't the ultimate goal to have more Ward 3 Kids at Hearst any way, sounds like a win-win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had my child at a school for one year and had the chance to upgrade and did not look back. We were very active for the year we were at our previous school.

I can assure you that the move was both the best for my child and that the families still at the school have carried on without us just fine.

OP, do what is best for your child and family.

With an attitude like that my guess is that the old school didn't miss you.

That's the point. Any decent school does not miss a family that moves on for any reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should go to the best school for your child. Many private daycare options are likely not as strong as Hearst or Eaton. DCPS has far more educated teachers. I say stay in the neighborhood and spend a year at Hearst or Eaton it is an easier commute. A lottery is a lottery, it is all about luck. If you are lucky enough to get in why not go?

Isn't the ultimate goal to have more Ward 3 Kids at Hearst any way, sounds like a win-win.

The ultimate goal is to have engaged and committed families at Hearst. We have that now from both IB and OOB families, but the families that come for PK4 and then leave generally don't fall into that category. They are, of course, entitled to enter the lottery and come. If they come, we hope they will contribute to the life of the school and we will welcome them. And we hope they will decide to stay. But let's not pretend that the churn is not disruptive to the school.

If Janney and other nearby schools solve their overcrowding problem by shrinking PK4 at their schools, I do feel that reassessing their IB families' access to PK4 elsewhere in the city is in order. Especially since they fought the boundary changes so hard. They should live with the consequences of their efforts.

[Anonymous]

From this churn of perhaps up to 10 students leaving between PK4 and K, is it the PK4 classes that suffer or the K classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should go to the best school for your child. Many private daycare options are likely not as strong as Hearst or Eaton. DCPS has far more educated teachers. I say stay in the neighborhood and spend a year at Hearst or Eaton it is an easier commute. A lottery is a lottery, it is all about luck. If you are lucky enough to get in why not go?

Isn't the ultimate goal to have more Ward 3 Kids at Hearst any way, sounds like a win-win.

The ultimate goal is to have engaged and committed families at Hearst. We have that now from both IB and OOB families, but the families that come for PK4 and then leave generally don't fall into that category. They are, of course, entitled to enter the lottery and come. If they come, we hope they will contribute to the life of the school and we will welcome them. And we hope they will decide to stay. But let's not pretend that the churn is not disruptive to the school.

If Janney and other nearby schools solve their overcrowding problem by shrinking PK4 at their schools, I do feel that reassessing their IB families' access to PK4 elsewhere in the city is in order. Especially since they fought the boundary changes so hard. They should live with the consequences of their efforts.

I thought the ultimate goal is to teach the kids that enter through the doors each year, whether by right or by lottery.

OP - do what is best for your child. Maybe 1 year at an OOB school and moving IB works for his/her personality, maybe it doesn't. Maybe you think that PK/K at OOB works and then transition as a matter of right, or more years at OOB. To me the pertinent question is what your DC will tolerate in terms of the number of moves. People come in and out of schools all the time. Some are more committed to supporting the school over their few years than others who are lifers.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think you will feel welcome if you contribute to the any given school while you are there. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think you will feel welcome if you contribute to the any given school while you are there. Good luck!

Thank you, that's definitely my the plan!

I also appreciate the comments re how much change my child can take. I think she will handle the transition pretty well, but will give it some additional thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should go to the best school for your child. Many private daycare options are likely not as strong as Hearst or Eaton. DCPS has far more educated teachers. I say stay in the neighborhood and spend a year at Hearst or Eaton it is an easier commute. A lottery is a lottery, it is all about luck. If you are lucky enough to get in why not go?

Isn't the ultimate goal to have more Ward 3 Kids at Hearst any way, sounds like a win-win.

That's one of the most offensive things I've read here, and that's really saying something. How are "ward 3 kids" more desirable than other kids, especially when OOB?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should go to the best school for your child. Many private daycare options are likely not as strong as Hearst or Eaton. DCPS has far more educated teachers. I say stay in the neighborhood and spend a year at Hearst or Eaton it is an easier commute. A lottery is a lottery, it is all about luck. If you are lucky enough to get in why not go?

Isn't the ultimate goal to have more Ward 3 Kids at Hearst any way, sounds like a win-win.

The ultimate goal is to have engaged and committed families at Hearst. We have that now from both IB and OOB families, but the families that come for PK4 and then leave generally don't fall into that category. They are, of course, entitled to enter the lottery and come. If they come, we hope they will contribute to the life of the school and we will welcome them. And we hope they will decide to stay. But let's not pretend that the churn is not disruptive to the school.

If Janney and other nearby schools solve their overcrowding problem by shrinking PK4 at their schools, I do feel that reassessing their IB families' access to PK4 elsewhere in the city is in order. Especially since they fought the boundary changes so hard. They should live with the consequences of their efforts.

So you're advocating that AU park residents be prohibited from attending a school where 4 out of every 5 students are out of bounds. But you want to specifically redline just the Janney OOB families and allow in the other 82% of kids who live out of bounds.

Do I have that right?

How about we instead let janney IB kids attend hearst for a year .... but force them to wear a big letter or symbol sewed onto the front of their shirts so everyone will know their status? That's worked well in history and in Fiction.

[Anonymous]

School communities are likely to try to attract kids who are not planning to leave after one year before they even start. That sentiment is not be specific to AU Park and surely the PP knows this.

But okay, play the victim card for AU Park and see how that goes over on DCUM and to families all over DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should go to the best school for your child. Many private daycare options are likely not as strong as Hearst or Eaton. DCPS has far more educated teachers. I say stay in the neighborhood and spend a year at Hearst or Eaton it is an easier commute. A lottery is a lottery, it is all about luck. If you are lucky enough to get in why not go?

Isn't the ultimate goal to have more Ward 3 Kids at Hearst any way, sounds like a win-win.

That's one of the most offensive things I've read here, and that's really saying something. How are "ward 3 kids" more desirable than other kids, especially when OOB?

No one at Hearst feels this way. We would much rather have a family who is thrilled to be part of the community and committed to staying through fifth grade, regardless of what ward they are from, as opposed to a Ward 3 family that is just biding their time for a year until they can "upgrade" to another school.

[Anonymous]

OP, good luck and do the best you can for your child, as everyone else is trying to do. If you are lucky enough to get into Hearst, even if you stay only for a year, I am sure you will be sensitive to those who would have stayed until 5th grade. If you get into Janney, good for you. Or whatever your child ends up.

To everyone who is telling OP to do otherwise, I'm sure most of you have good intentions. All those points are valid. But to those (hopefully very few) OOB people who are being snarky because they want the OOB spot at Hearst instead of a Janney parent, please remember that you are trying to leave your own IB community - all the way through HS. How do you think they feel about you? Let's try to be sensitive to everyone before we start picking on a Ward 3 parent who is trying to do his or her best, just like you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so glad my charter is a commute and thus safe from you. I would never dream of doing anything other private preschool in your position.

Huh?? What do you know of my position??

Is it an unwritten rule that people only apply to their in-bound school and don't select backups???

When I was IB for Eaton and had a PK3 I didn't play the lottery but went private till pk4. What schools need are a stable student/parent body, not people looking for a free ride for a year before committing to tehir neighbrohood school.

AppleTree Columbia Heights is a school that focuses only on PreS / PreK. They are focused on realy education. The do not NEED a stable student / parent body.

Watch out with AppleTree anywhere! This franchise is all too used to giving low-income parents their marching orders. Their parent organizations are weak or non-existent. The kids are pushed around and disciplined for every little thing. They hold staff meetings during naptime but won't let kids who can't sleep do a darn thing. We aren't thrilled with our AppleTree campus. Free is the best part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so glad my charter is a commute and thus safe from you. I would never dream of doing anything other private preschool in your position.

Huh?? What do you know of my position??

Is it an unwritten rule that people only apply to their in-bound school and don't select backups???

When I was IB for Eaton and had a PK3 I didn't play the lottery but went private till pk4. What schools need are a stable student/parent body, not people looking for a free ride for a year before committing to tehir neighbrohood school.

AppleTree Columbia Heights is a school that focuses only on PreS / PreK. They are focused on realy education. The do not NEED a stable student / parent body.

Watch out with AppleTree anywhere! This franchise is all too used to giving low-income parents their marching orders. Their parent organizations are weak or non-existent. The kids are pushed around and disciplined for every little thing. They hold staff meetings during naptime but won't let kids who can't sleep do a darn thing. We aren't thrilled with our AppleTree campus. Free is the best part.

Our experience has been totally the opposite. Loving teachers, very focused on our child, lots of excellent feedback that is tailored to their needs. True, there is not much of a parent organization, but frankly, the school is doing and providing a lot of what our DCPS PTA does at the school where our other child is at. Life isn't perfect (school wide communication isn't great and it'd be cool if they had even a few dedicated parking spots for drop off and pick up), but it is pretty good.

[Anonymous]

Just food for thought under how the lottery works now. In order to get into Hearst OOB you have to have a very good lottery draw. If you get that good of a lottery draw, chances are that you will be one of the few IB without sibling preference families that make it into Janney pre-k where your odds are much better than in the general lottery pool.

All this angst is likely about nothing.