Affordable private school - other than religious schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:gds lower school's location, start time and lack of lunch were a deterrent for us. Sidwell's lower school location was also a deterrent. Logistics would have been too complicated. Likely would have applied to both if they were located with their upper schools. I realize many are willing to make those sacrifices, but many aren't. Point is that the moves will increase the number of applicants to both. This is inevitably going to hurt k-8s. People will want k-12, cheaper privates or even publics. An increasingly expensive k-8 becomes a tough sell. In most cases, the facilities won't be able to compete with k-12. And in all cases, the k-12 (which may indeed be an inferior model) will remain desirable because of the guarantee of a top high school.

Lack of lunch is why you wouldn't pick a school. I get location, start time and cost, but lunch?? Distance is a huge deterrent for us as we've done the private school commute the early years and its hard with friends/getting together and after hours activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:gds lower school's location, start time and lack of lunch were a deterrent for us. Sidwell's lower school location was also a deterrent. Logistics would have been too complicated. Likely would have applied to both if they were located with their upper schools. I realize many are willing to make those sacrifices, but many aren't. Point is that the moves will increase the number of applicants to both. This is inevitably going to hurt k-8s. People will want k-12, cheaper privates or even publics. An increasingly expensive k-8 becomes a tough sell. In most cases, the facilities won't be able to compete with k-12. And in all cases, the k-12 (which may indeed be an inferior model) will remain desirable because of the guarantee of a top high school.

Lack of lunch is why you wouldn't pick a school. I get location, start time and cost, but lunch?? Distance is a huge deterrent for us as we've done the private school commute the early years and its hard with friends/getting together and after hours activities.

Hell yes, when other good options are available that also provide very healthy lunches. Tuition at gds lower school is basically the same as competitors but without lunch. And facilities/playground are not all that as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:gds lower school's location, start time and lack of lunch were a deterrent for us. Sidwell's lower school location was also a deterrent. Logistics would have been too complicated. Likely would have applied to both if they were located with their upper schools. I realize many are willing to make those sacrifices, but many aren't. Point is that the moves will increase the number of applicants to both. This is inevitably going to hurt k-8s. People will want k-12, cheaper privates or even publics. An increasingly expensive k-8 becomes a tough sell. In most cases, the facilities won't be able to compete with k-12. And in all cases, the k-12 (which may indeed be an inferior model) will remain desirable because of the guarantee of a top high school.

Lack of lunch is why you wouldn't pick a school. I get location, start time and cost, but lunch?? Distance is a huge deterrent for us as we've done the private school commute the early years and its hard with friends/getting together and after hours activities.

Hell yes, when other good options are available that also provide very healthy lunches. Tuition at gds lower school is basically the same as competitors but without lunch. And facilities/playground are not all that as well.

Send your own lunch.

[Anonymous]

Evergreen School in Silver Spring is secular and goes through 3rd grade. Hidden gem for preschool and younger grades. Warm, dedicated faculty, Montessori approach. ~$20k/year. DD has thrived there.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Are you atheist?

What is this comment? You don't have to be atheist to prefer a non-religious school. We are Jewish and want a non-religious school because we aren't very dogmatic in our beliefs and find even Jewish schools to be stricter than we would prefer.

Anyway, I agree with those above about the K-8s. We are looking at a K-8 that is in the $25K range. We would consider $30K, but can't justify $35-40K at the K-8 level. Since we are looking for a non-religious school, that really limits our options.

I found Episcopalian schools rather light on religion. Maybe a bit more religious than the friends schools but not by much. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed that my 9 year old's knowledge of the bible after being in the school for years. I think may be once in a week they have a chapel service related to Christianity (if that), but most of the time they talk about character education. They do pray before meals but you can decline communion and certainly no classes on religion in any of the Episcopalian schools I know of. Actually, it is quite possible that it is more comfortable for a secular Jewish students to be in than the Jewish day schools in this area. A die hard atheist may not want their child to be exposed to any religion. I know of secular Jews and Muslims who are happy in Episcopalian schools.

Yes Episcopal schools are little different from secular private schools - including in their price tags. Episcopal schools tend to be some to the most expensive and prestigious out there.

There are a few smaller ones in MoCo that is much more affordable.

Define affordable. I consider $10-15K affordable. Others consider under $30K affortable.

Grace Episcopal and Christ Episcopal are both around 20k. Higher than 15K but way less than 30k.

I've spoken with Grace Episcopal. They are just as heavy on religion but twice as much as the Catholic school we looked at. They were not nice about the religion questions at all.

What do you mean, "not nice about the religion questions?" I take that to mean, "they wouldn't bend to exactly what I wanted to hear." And good for them. They don't need you.

They did not want to answer any questions about how they did things and how they handled non-Christian kids. Other schools were much more welcoming and supportive.

This is certainly not our experience at Grace in Kensington as a non-Christian family. It is warm and open and very supportive environment for all children and families. I would be very surprised to learn that the admissions folks there wouldn't have a conversation with you about religion at Grace. No doubt they would invite you to come see one of the weekly (not daily) chapels. Other than the occasional prayer at weekly assembly and the weekly chapel, you won't find religious indoctrination at Grace, in my experience there over several years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:gds lower school's location, start time and lack of lunch were a deterrent for us. Sidwell's lower school location was also a deterrent. Logistics would have been too complicated. Likely would have applied to both if they were located with their upper schools. I realize many are willing to make those sacrifices, but many aren't. Point is that the moves will increase the number of applicants to both. This is inevitably going to hurt k-8s. People will want k-12, cheaper privates or even publics. An increasingly expensive k-8 becomes a tough sell. In most cases, the facilities won't be able to compete with k-12. And in all cases, the k-12 (which may indeed be an inferior model) will remain desirable because of the guarantee of a top high school.

Lack of lunch is why you wouldn't pick a school. I get location, start time and cost, but lunch?? Distance is a huge deterrent for us as we've done the private school commute the early years and its hard with friends/getting together and after hours activities.

This was tough, we did not enroll our second child and eventually pulled the first one once she mainly had friends via club sport.

That said, we noticed many families move close to the K-12 to minimize the crazy driving kids around.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Are you atheist?

What is this comment? You don't have to be atheist to prefer a non-religious school. We are Jewish and want a non-religious school because we aren't very dogmatic in our beliefs and find even Jewish schools to be stricter than we would prefer.

Anyway, I agree with those above about the K-8s. We are looking at a K-8 that is in the $25K range. We would consider $30K, but can't justify $35-40K at the K-8 level. Since we are looking for a non-religious school, that really limits our options.

I found Episcopalian schools rather light on religion. Maybe a bit more religious than the friends schools but not by much. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed that my 9 year old's knowledge of the bible after being in the school for years. I think may be once in a week they have a chapel service related to Christianity (if that), but most of the time they talk about character education. They do pray before meals but you can decline communion and certainly no classes on religion in any of the Episcopalian schools I know of. Actually, it is quite possible that it is more comfortable for a secular Jewish students to be in than the Jewish day schools in this area. A die hard atheist may not want their child to be exposed to any religion. I know of secular Jews and Muslims who are happy in Episcopalian schools.

Yes Episcopal schools are little different from secular private schools - including in their price tags. Episcopal schools tend to be some to the most expensive and prestigious out there.

There are a few smaller ones in MoCo that is much more affordable.

Define affordable. I consider $10-15K affordable. Others consider under $30K affortable.

Grace Episcopal and Christ Episcopal are both around 20k. Higher than 15K but way less than 30k.

I've spoken with Grace Episcopal. They are just as heavy on religion but twice as much as the Catholic school we looked at. They were not nice about the religion questions at all.

What do you mean, "not nice about the religion questions?" I take that to mean, "they wouldn't bend to exactly what I wanted to hear." And good for them. They don't need you.

They did not want to answer any questions about how they did things and how they handled non-Christian kids. Other schools were much more welcoming and supportive.

This is certainly not our experience at Grace in Kensington as a non-Christian family. It is warm and open and very supportive environment for all children and families. I would be very surprised to learn that the admissions folks there wouldn't have a conversation with you about religion at Grace. No doubt they would invite you to come see one of the weekly (not daily) chapels. Other than the occasional prayer at weekly assembly and the weekly chapel, you won't find religious indoctrination at Grace, in my experience there over several years.

They were not very warm or friendly when I called at all. Some of the Catholic schools were much more friendly and 1/2 the price. Haven't decided what we will do yet.

[Anonymous]

I think Alexandria Country day is somewhere around $25–still a ton but less than some and has a nice small school feel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:gds lower school's location, start time and lack of lunch were a deterrent for us. Sidwell's lower school location was also a deterrent. Logistics would have been too complicated. Likely would have applied to both if they were located with their upper schools. I realize many are willing to make those sacrifices, but many aren't. Point is that the moves will increase the number of applicants to both. This is inevitably going to hurt k-8s. People will want k-12, cheaper privates or even publics. An increasingly expensive k-8 becomes a tough sell. In most cases, the facilities won't be able to compete with k-12. And in all cases, the k-12 (which may indeed be an inferior model) will remain desirable because of the guarantee of a top high school.

Lack of lunch is why you wouldn't pick a school. I get location, start time and cost, but lunch?? Distance is a huge deterrent for us as we've done the private school commute the early years and its hard with friends/getting together and after hours activities.

Hell yes, when other good options are available that also provide very healthy lunches. Tuition at gds lower school is basically the same as competitors but without lunch. And facilities/playground are not all that as well.

New poster. Lunch is a factor that affects students everyday. It takes a lot of time and money to pack lunch for two kids everyday, plus snacks, and frankly I’d rather not have to do it. My kids would prefer a fresh hot lunch too. It’s disappointing when a school doesn’t see the need to provide a good lunch. I don’t mind the fee, I just want the service available

[Anonymous]

Check out the new https://www.silveroakscooperative.org/ Silver Oaks Cooperative Elementary (there is a coop and non-coop option). The tuition is in $7,000-11,000 range. Small classes, not-religious, and IMO really awesome curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Alexandria Country day is somewhere around $25–still a ton but less than some and has a nice small school feel.

ACDS tuition 2018-2019 (lunch is offered for an additional fee):

K – 3: $29,350
4 – 8: $31,700

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:gds lower school's location, start time and lack of lunch were a deterrent for us. Sidwell's lower school location was also a deterrent. Logistics would have been too complicated. Likely would have applied to both if they were located with their upper schools. I realize many are willing to make those sacrifices, but many aren't. Point is that the moves will increase the number of applicants to both. This is inevitably going to hurt k-8s. People will want k-12, cheaper privates or even publics. An increasingly expensive k-8 becomes a tough sell. In most cases, the facilities won't be able to compete with k-12. And in all cases, the k-12 (which may indeed be an inferior model) will remain desirable because of the guarantee of a top high school.

Lack of lunch is why you wouldn't pick a school. I get location, start time and cost, but lunch?? Distance is a huge deterrent for us as we've done the private school commute the early years and its hard with friends/getting together and after hours activities.

Hell yes, when other good options are available that also provide very healthy lunches. Tuition at gds lower school is basically the same as competitors but without lunch. And facilities/playground are not all that as well.

New poster. Lunch is a factor that affects students everyday. It takes a lot of time and money to pack lunch for two kids everyday, plus snacks, and frankly I’d rather not have to do it. My kids would prefer a fresh hot lunch too. It’s disappointing when a school doesn’t see the need to provide a good lunch. I don’t mind the fee, I just want the service available

GDS will have a cafeteria in the new building. I think we will all survive until then...