My 2nd grader was just offered a spot at Francis Stevens
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jhenn13
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My 2nd grader was just offered a spot at Francis Stevens. We went by for a visit yesterday and while all seems well I was wondering if anyone has any experiences with the school (positive, negative, or otherwise) that they would be willing to share.
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Anonymous
| Where are you now? |
jhenn13
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| coming from FFX county, Rose Hill |
Anonymous
Are you definitely moving to DC? A specific school zone? If so, what would be your in-boundary school? What grade? |
Anonymous
| I know a very intelligent and interesting family - multiple degrees, international, politically engaged (local politics) and they're very happy there. |
Anonymous
| I toured and loved it. Our child is happy at current charter, and I didn't want to do another move because of that, but fs looks fantastic. I kind of wish we'd gone there three years ago, when we first moved to dc. |
Anonymous
| We were there for PK3 and coming back for PK4. The building may be old, but love it so far. It has a great principal. We've been happy overall so far and not heard anything bad of the teachers. As you move up in the school, the SES is not as high for a few reasons, one of which is the IB housing is largely apartment / condos so people leave for more space. Though now that the school is on the up and up the past 3 years since becoming SWWFS, more IB people may stay. |
Anonymous
| Is there still one principle trying to run both the HS and the K-8 campus? It was sort of disastrous a few years ago, with the HS and K-8 parents being up in arms about the decision to merge responsibilities and budgets. |
Anonymous
| It's one principal for both campuses, Mr. Richard Trogisch, but it feels like Ms Hanley runs the day to day at SWWFS almost as the local school principal. I definitely see Trogisch at SWWFS. So it seems ok in that respect as Trogisch seems more strategic now. |
Anonymous
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Hello OP -
We've been at FS for 3 years and have a 2nd-grader as well. Welcome! Wouldn't call it perfect, but it's small (2 sections per grade) and we're very pleased with our child's teachers and school offerings. Less so the aftercare situation, but it's improving. We have fingers crossed that we may have stumbled into a decent (by DC standards) school we can stay in through 8th. Make sure you join the yahoogroup and other communication platforms the school and Home-School Association use to stay in the loop, and check out facebook and website to get a feel for the school. And again - Welcome! |
Anonymous
Would you mind sharing what the problems were with the aftercare and how the school is planning to fix those issues? TIA |
Anonymous
It's run by the YMCA so it's not a safety thing and it's fairly well organized. It's just that aftercare doesn't really feel very enriching. They do have some language classes and clubs, but those cost extra. Talking to friends at charters and other DCPS it seems like aftercare is often just an after thought, and I think that's the case at F-S, too. |
Anonymous
| I would agree that SWWFS aftercare is less than stellar. They are working on it though. |
Anonymous
| With most DC schools MS is the big question. Since SWWFS goes to 8th this issue here is HS (it feeds Cardozo). |
Anonymous
| One of the goals of the principal is that 30% of the kids at SWWFS will get in to SWW in the next few years. So if you are higher SES and focused, you probably have a decent chance of getting into the SWW, an application only nationally ranked high school. I've visited SWW (for reasons not related to my children) and been impressed. Probably still good to be in bounds for Wilson when high school is coming up. |