Will Van Ness Elementary School be on the same level as Brent/Maury in 3 years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A fountain in which children are allowed to frolic is not the equivalent of a spray park. Check out Lafayette, Chevy Chase, Palisades or even Lyon Village Spray Parks. Wards 2 and 6 are the only two that do not offer a spray park.

For pete's sake, what does this have to do with schools!?! And children age out of these things pretty quickly.

[Anonymous]

I was at yards park last Saturday with my toddler. Yes, on a sunny day its packed with kids but most do NOT live in NAvy Yard area. The estimated population at full build out of the neighborhood is something like 25k people, however I still stand by my earlier post that the overwhelmeing majority of HH will be childfree. In DC, it still is not very common for a HH of 2 children to live in apartments unless they are low income. In NYC, totally expected. there are no more row houses being built in Capital Quarters. Any 2 pluc bedroom units are going to be in public housing that still has yet to be built (on canal park no less). If people are so determined to make this a high SES /high perfomring school then they should put their effort into expanding into the Brent boundary and poaching those families.

[Anonymous]

The upper SWS grade are legacy grades from the Cluster neighborhood. The school is in the process of reconstituting itself within the confines of the citywide lottery, of course with sibling preference that skews things slightly. And if Stuart-Hobson is off of the table, as it seems to be, a significant percentage of those legacy classes will be leaving after fourth grade, just as with Brent.

[Anonymous]

^^ a significant number will peel off because they will have sibling preference at Latin and BASIS, regardless of whether SWS will feed to SH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A fountain in which children are allowed to frolic is not the equivalent of a spray park. Check out Lafayette, Chevy Chase, Palisades or even Lyon Village Spray Parks. Wards 2 and 6 are the only two that do not offer a spray park.

For pete's sake, what does this have to do with schools!?! And children age out of these things pretty quickly.

In part, because there seems to be a "if you build it they will come" belief about Van Ness' magnet effect. Thoughtful planning (or the lack of same) is certainly worthy of discussion in terms of its impact on population trends. I happen to agree with PP who thinks the Navy Yard will continue to draw mostly young single professionals and DINKs who can afford steep market rents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ a significant number will peel off because they will have sibling preference at Latin and BASIS, regardless of whether SWS will feed to SH.

Most of the kids who had older siblings didn't stay with SWS when it expanded so really there are only a few who will have sibling preference at BASIS or Latin - I'd say it's about 5-10 across all grades.

[Anonymous]

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It's hard for me to guess...like others have mentioned, most of the housing over there consists of 1-2 bedroom apartments and condos. will there be enough IB children (high SES especially) to sustain a school through grade 5?

Young high-SES families live in 2 BR condos. I know -- i was one.

For goodness sakes, where did anyone say it "never" happens? The point is that you are much more likely to find families in SFHs than 2 BR condos. That is all.

There are many rowhouses on the Hill with families in them that are only 2BR.

A SFH is not comparable to a high-rise, at least IMO. Aside from the Yards and Canal Park, the Navy Yard area is not particularly family friendly in terms of restaurants and other amenities. And yes, i know that Harris Teeter and a gym are coming, to be followed by Whole Foods several years down the road. Too many commuters, plus stadium traffic, and the Green Line is overwhelmed on game days. My fear is that developers will leave the neighborhood with all of the charm of Crystal City more high rises continue to spring up. I would much prefer Near Northeast (H Street/Atlas District) which also will have a Whole Foods and more interesting restaurant offerings.

Have you been to Yards Park in the summer? It's crowded with families on a nice day. We always see friends at the ice-skating rink in winter. Food options are growing, but for now Nando's has been great. I live north of the freeway but have spent lots of time with my kids in the general area.

They said "aside from the Yards and Canal Park." Granted, that doesn't make a ton of sense because you are referring to Navy Yard and then excluding 80% of Navy Yard from the analysis, but I digress...

I think the point he/she was trying to make is that Navy Yard isn't going to have the same walkable feel as the Hill and H Street. We also live north of the freeway and spend alot of time there, but I would also never want to live there.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't want to live there because I like old row houses, but it's not due to the lack of family friendly amenities, or commuters, or stadium traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are the kids zoned for now?

Amidon-Bowen.

Isn't that school under enrolled? How'd Navy Yard manage to get a new school?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Van Ness Elementary School near the Navy Yard is slated to open for the 2015 - 2016 school year. With all the new development (Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, etc) and housing springing up every year, how likely will Van Ness become a high performing, high demand elementary school like Brent & Maury? My take on this is that it will open with limited grades (PS3, PK4, K), and and a grade every year until it becomes a full fledged elementary school. I think this will allow the school to grow just as the community is growing, and that it will most likely being just as good (or even better) than Brent & Maury.

If Watkins is a barometer, you will be waiting a long, long, long time. That's not meant to be a slight, but more of an observation that Watkins is in a far more developed area than Van Ness, is a well-established school, feeds to SH, and it still can't come close to filling itself with IB kids.

Two factors. Development doesn't necessarily equal lots of young kids. As others have noted, that area is more targeted toward young professionals than families. You also have so many options. Even if you had the potential to fill Van Ness with a critical mass a high SES kids, you will still lose a fair number to charters and privates.

I think you need to lower your expectations and hope that in 5 years it might be on par with Ludlow Taylor.

I predict the following for Van Ness Elementary:
The school will open only for PS3, PK4, K. Doing this will allow the school to start off as a school with a majority of inbound kids from high SES familes (most of the the kids living in public housing are much older). Every year, the school will add a grade and pretty much keep the demographics the same. It will have a snowball effect. Since a ton of new housing is planned, families from across the city will see Van Ness Elementary as a up and coming school, and they will also have lots of different new housing units to choose from. By the time Van Ness Elementary is a full PS3 - 5 elementary school, it will be at least on the same level as what Brent is now.

You predict or speculate? Even if you are assuming only two classes per grade, you are going to need at least 60 IB high SES kids (20 per grade). I'd be shocked if there are that many total living IB right now, but you really need 100+ to account for leakage to other options. You can't just plop a school down next to a Wholefoods, throw open the doors, and call it Brent II.

As we are seeing with Eliot-Hine right now, parents are very reluctant to have their kids be the guinea pigs. Brent did not just emerge fully formed. Lots of people continue to forget that fact. It wasn't that long ago when getting into Brent OOB was a reasonable proposition, and that was when the area around it was full on gentrified.

Van Ness needs to crawl, then walk, then trot, and then you can tell me about the marathons it will run.

[Anonymous]

Ross is near a whole foods, just sayin'.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Where are the kids zoned for now?

Amidon-Bowen.

Isn't that school under enrolled? How'd Navy Yard manage to get a new school?

They will be quick to tell you that it is not a "new" school but just a reopening of one that closed in 2006.

In short, there is a small group of motivated parents who were squeaky wheels for long enough that DCPS eventually gave in. And I don't in any way mean that as a negative. That's the only way to get things done in D.C.

Their argument was that (a) everyone should have a neighborhood elementary school and (b) a neighborhood school isn't one that requires traveling a mile and doing so across SCap. The con argument was, as you note, if Amidon was already underenrolled, how could they expect to fill a new/reopened school? To that question, they had projections, but it would be interesting to see whether those projections have been met.

But it wouldn't surprise me at all if the 2015 opening slips based on not enough kids.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think SWS is a better example, current city-wide draw notwithstanding.

On what do you base that dig on SWS ? Look at SWS demographics, which are virtually identical to Brent's (city-wide draw or not). Academic performance is tougher to compare as SWS doen't even have DC CAS testing grades yet. I'm confident based on DIBELS and other anecdotal evidence that Brent and SWS will be rate comparably when it's an apples to apples comparison.

Let's not forget Brent is currently borrowing SWS's science teacher on a development assignment and is coopting it's early childhood Reggio approach. Why don't you just stick to the topic at hand you troll.

I read that comment completely differently---at the very least, you are way too sensitive. I took it to mean that Van Ness, like SWS and not like Brent/Maury, will be starting from scratch, and therefore, it is closer in kind.

It's also pointless to compare demographics of SWS and Brent. Brent's are not changing. How the new classes at SWS shake out is still an unknown.

Original SWS commenter here and NOT a troll -- I meant that Van Ness will have the great opportunity to slowly build up the school and its culture, like SWS, instead of having to change the existing culture like Brent and Maury have. Not at all a dig at SWS (pp has VERY sensitive skin!), but a cheer/hope for another great elementary school on this side of town.

I'm an SWS parent and that other PP's reaction to your first post was just bizarre. Can't imagine how she got anything negative from your post.

I also don't get the strained comparison of Brent and SWS demographics. On the surface, the racial makeup amf FARMs rares are similar, but Brent is PS thru 5, with 360+ students. Right now SWS is only 200 students, with 1st and 2nd grades having been added by way of citywide lottery in the past two years. Apples and oranges.

1st and 2nd grade were largely kids who transitioned from Peabody, but the 1st grade classes include Cluster IB, not citywide. Get your facts straight

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think SWS is a better example, current city-wide draw notwithstanding.

On what do you base that dig on SWS ? Look at SWS demographics, which are virtually identical to Brent's (city-wide draw or not). Academic performance is tougher to compare as SWS doen't even have DC CAS testing grades yet. I'm confident based on DIBELS and other anecdotal evidence that Brent and SWS will be rate comparably when it's an apples to apples comparison.

Let's not forget Brent is currently borrowing SWS's science teacher on a development assignment and is coopting it's early childhood Reggio approach. Why don't you just stick to the topic at hand you troll.

I read that comment completely differently---at the very least, you are way too sensitive. I took it to mean that Van Ness, like SWS and not like Brent/Maury, will be starting from scratch, and therefore, it is closer in kind.

It's also pointless to compare demographics of SWS and Brent. Brent's are not changing. How the new classes at SWS shake out is still an unknown.

Original SWS commenter here and NOT a troll -- I meant that Van Ness will have the great opportunity to slowly build up the school and its culture, like SWS, instead of having to change the existing culture like Brent and Maury have. Not at all a dig at SWS (pp has VERY sensitive skin!), but a cheer/hope for another great elementary school on this side of town.

I'm an SWS parent and that other PP's reaction to your first post was just bizarre. Can't imagine how she got anything negative from your post.

I'm not sure how SWS is relevant to a discussion of Hill elementary schools at all. It is a citywide school and as legacy siblings dwindle, it is quite possible that the majority of its students will come from other neighborhoods. It just can't be compared to the situations of neighborhood schools.

That's highly unlikely, and it's not out of the question that the neighbors will continue to push for proximity preference. Most of the PS/PK spots went to sibs (more PS than PK). Those kids also have younger siblings. The big draw for SWS is on or near the Hill and that isn't going to change. SWS will eventually feed MS schools, just like Van Ness, and is highly relevant to that discussion (not to mention some SE Waterfront families already have kids enrolled as SWS).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are the kids zoned for now?

Amidon-Bowen.

Isn't that school under enrolled? How'd Navy Yard manage to get a new school?

Not really. I think it has a current building capacity of 400 and there are 342 students enrolled. Also the apple tree charter classroom will be vacant next year so they may have plans to add more ECE classrooms.

I do think the numbers will fluctuate when Van Ness opens.