I am not taking the bait on this one (and you've posted it twice now)... |
But PP said Potomac Gardens was inbounds for Maury, which is simply untrue. Also, 'the poles can walk around a bit'? What kind of asshole are you? Also - look at a map. Christ. |
|
We looked at places IB for Maury that we could afford and they were all far from metro (more than a few blocks is far for us) and did not feel safe (just gut feeling, no data). The area IB for Maury that we liked, we were priced out of. That's how we ended up buying IB for LT- maybe school not as sought after as Maury, but we like it and we like the neighborhood a lot as well. Basically, unless you buy in Eastern Market- which is awesome but pricey- the area IB for LT was the best for us in terms of amenities and walkability to grocery stores, cafe and restaurants, AND school.
The Hill elementary schools are so small and on top of each other. Really JO Wilson and LT can both be considered Hill schools I think- not technically perhaps but practically. |
| Ludlow Taylor has the highest CAS scores and is only ranked 3rd. Interesting. |
Just curious - what was your budget and when did you buy? It seems like the l-t neighborhood is getting expensive too now. |
JO Wilson feeds into SH, which is what makes it a Hill school IMO. SH is definitely a Hill middle school. |
800k and 2 years ago; we did not buy a flip, nice but old (renovated but maybe 10-15 years ago) and only one bathroom plus powder room. So it was in the low end on the spectrum. |
| Van Ness Elementary School definitely has a good upside going for it now. The fact that they are only opening with PS3, PK4, and K will give the school the ability to focus on their early childhood education program, while giving the parents of the school the ability to choose a curriculum later (when more grades are added). The school is undergoing a $20 Million renovation over the next 2 years, and will incorporate the current parking lot, as well as the Joy Evens park into outdoor recreation space for the school. There are tons of new housing currently being built, so this brand new school will surely attract families looking for new housing zoned for a new school. Also, it was announced that they do not project that this school will be a Title I school, so you Van Ness will most likely not be a school that is mostly concentrated with kids coming from poverty (which we all know tends to lead to dysfunctional classrooms). |
I think you're going to find that most people think of both LT and JO as Hill schools. And I'm quite sure that the 130k new residents who have moved into DC since the 2000 census definitely agree. But here's the more important point; longtimers don't have school age kids! And since this a forum about DC schools I think maybe you're confused about what and why people are discussing - maybe that comes with advanced age I'm also not sure why you think anyone cares what only the longtimers think (as if they are the arbiters of these things), but since it is the newcomers who are sending their kids to DCPS I'm thinking that if we are to discount or dismiss a group's thinking on this, it should probably be the longtimers, not the people with school age kids. It isn't that we don't care what the septuagenarians and octogenarians think about DCPS...oh wait, we really don't.
Every time you pull out your keyboard you make my point for me. And my point is this: "wisdom and advice" about DC schools (or anything, really) from people like you who don't understand DC as it is, not as it was, is pretty much useless. But you are kind to show your time warp mentality for all to see so we can discount most of what you are saying. |
|
OP -- Take much of the advice with a grain of salt, but consider this -- if you're interested in gaining a PK3 seat without a sibling preference you'll likely be looking at long odds at Brent or Maury, and in two year possibly even Ludlow Taylor. I'd rank SWS highly but without an older sib you'll be looking at long odd there as well.
Peabody has the most ECE seats and it's an excellent program in a modernized building. It's not a lock for PK3 but it's not a longshot either. Watkins will be modernized by the time you're looking at 1st and there will likely be momentum from the largely inbound population rising from Peabody. Watkins has had some issues to which the mountains of DCUM posts will attest (and take those with a grain of salt too), but in 5 years it will likely look different than today and there is a lot of potential. Watkins' building is larger than Brent or Maury and the size can be a turnoff for some families. |
so you think: a) parents get to choose the curriculum in the future (even though DCPS decided not to do Reggio, Montessori, IB, or any of the other curricula/approaches some parents requested thus far) b) the renovation will decrease parking available for teachers AND take over a DPR site c) lots of families with school-aged kids want to move into apartment complexes that mostly offer 1 or 2 bedrooms, with low square footage, high rents, and few kid-friendly amenities (treadmills, dog parks, and rooftop grills are nice, but not the best things if you're 9 years old) d) families that live in the two large public housing complexes and the subsidized housing built as part of the Capper-Carrollsburg redevelopment will not send their kids to their in-bounds school, while families living in market-rate units (who have more means to research, apply to, and transport their kids to charters, private, or Wilson-feeding DCPS) will enroll at Van Ness. Good luck with that. I predict it is going to wind up a fairly split school, with a diverse and largely in-bounds population from grades PK3-2, and very small classes with a lot of OOB families seeking a Jefferson/Eastern feed in the testing grades. The PTA will mostly be families with kids aged 5 and under, including a sizable group of "prospective parents" with 2-year-old twins, who will rank Van Ness lower than Two Rivers or an immersion charter and bail for Arlington after a couple of unsuccessful years in the lottery. |
Why on earth would anyone seek out a Jefferson feeder? they offered 65 lottery seats and only filled 42.
|
| If your choice is a school that feeds Jefferson or a school that feeds Johnson, Hart or Kramer, you might want to lock in the Jefferson feed. VN will probably have higher test scores than some of the elementaries close by but east of the river, and it's not like the commute to Van Ness is very difficult. |
What is the Peabody inbound population like in terms of SES? |
I've owned a home in the historic district since 1999. Do I count as a long timer? I consider everything between Florida Avenue NE and the highway SE to be Capitol Hill and from North Capitol to the Anacostia River. I realize that realtors have several different names for the sub neighborhoods (Hill East, Rosedale, NOMA, H Street/Atlas) and those distinctions are interesting for talking about different parts of the Hill, but it's pedantic to nitpick about subdivisions when people crisscross these neighborhoods all day for the purposes of shopping, recreation, commuting, libraries, restaurants, etc.). Any school in those boundaries is a Hill school because the lives of the kids and the families intersect at events and activities. I'm even willing to throw in Van Ness and the whole new Navy Yard area as essentially the same as the Hill. I now do all my grocery shopping at the Navy Yard Harris Teeter since it's the nicest grocery store "on the Hill," at least until the Whole Foods opens on H Street (which will still be "on the Hill"). I am not sure there is any point in arguing with you since you clearly think differently, but I wanted to represent the opinion of someone who has lived on the Hill for more than a few years. |