Oakridge ES in Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anyone have personal experiences to share? Positive/Negative. We are considering moving to a neighborhood close by and would be sending out 7 year old there. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

We live in the neighborhood and my son will be entering kingergarten at Oakridge in the fall. We have several friends who are already enrolled or have been through the school. All feedback has been exceptionally positive - and the neighborhood is really great. A hidden gem in Arlington, in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in the neighborhood and my son will be entering kingergarten at Oakridge in the fall. We have several friends who are already enrolled or have been through the school. All feedback has been exceptionally positive - and the neighborhood is really great. A hidden gem in Arlington, in my opinion.

Thanks! Do you know what MS and HS it feeds to and how they are?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in the neighborhood and my son will be entering kingergarten at Oakridge in the fall. We have several friends who are already enrolled or have been through the school. All feedback has been exceptionally positive - and the neighborhood is really great. A hidden gem in Arlington, in my opinion.

Thanks! Do you know what MS and HS it feeds to and how they are?

Oakridge will feed to Gunston MS/Wakefield HS.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is in first grade at Oakridge, and she has had a great experience there. (She attended K out of state.) The PTA is very active, and the extended day program is wonderful (if you need it). We love the neighborhood and hope to eventually buy in the area.

I personally don't know much about Gunston MS or Wakefield HS, but I know a mom of two Gunston middle-schoolers, and she and her daughters love it.

[Anonymous]

PP here - I just realized you might want some details as to why I think Oakridge is great!

The academics are sound. Her teacher groups the kids according to the abilities in math and reading, challenging the kids where they are at. My daughter was only reading sight words at the beginning of the year and is now reading beginning chappter books. (I was late at reading too.) And she is quick at math, so she is working on more advanced stuff there than others in her class.

The school is ethnic and internationally diverse. No majority this year. The large number of apartment buildings in Crystal City and Pentagon City feed into the school, and in those you will find foreign diplomats and foreign military attending the National Defense University. I think about 100 countries are represented by the students. This also leads to flux of students only staying one or two years. One of my daughter's friends will be going back to her home country this summer, so that can be a downside.

My only negative isn't really school related. Having only lived here since last summer, I have found it hard to get to know the parents of her classmates. Setting up playdates is difficult as they all seem too busy to fit it in. But this may be just her class, and it is starting to get better after the recent birthday parties.

[Anonymous]

I live in the neighborhood, and everyone I know who sends their kids there speaks highly of Oakridge. Some neighborhood parents send there kids to privates, including St. Stephens/St. Agnes in Alexandria, Potomac Crescent Waldorf, in the neighborhood, among others, while others send their kids Claremont.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in the neighborhood and my son will be entering kingergarten at Oakridge in the fall. We have several friends who are already enrolled or have been through the school. All feedback has been exceptionally positive - and the neighborhood is really great. A hidden gem in Arlington, in my opinion.

There are no more hidden gems in Arlington than there are undiscovered short-cuts to get from VA into the district.

Would it were otherwise...

[Anonymous]

I might have thought better of Oakridge/Gunston/Wakefield if my new neighbor in South Arlington hadn't bummed me for money within TWO HOURS of meeting my wife and me.

We stayed there six years, though a series of drunken fights next door, more getting bummed for money, and getting treated coldly at best by an extended family that were moving up and down my street. These guys would fight, too, and they'd also build additions to their house without permits. The only interaction I ever had with them was them complaining about me parking on a PUBLIC street in front of/near their house. I'd say hi to them, get ignored. The kids would run in terror from me and even my wife.

Let's just say the 12-to-a-house Hispanics and the drug dealer (yeah, pit bulls, cars stopping by for 10 minutes, and the cops coming by one day) were among the BETTER neighbors.

On the flip side, I never felt in danger, never had anything stolen from my car. My wife felt in danger, though; probably most scared when a hostile 20something began asking for the previous occupant of the place. She did repeatedly ask for one of those chain things on the door, I never did get that for her.

It was only when she said she was moving out, and I was welcome to join her, did we leave that place.

FWIW, the folks who we sold to proceeded to renovate the heck out of the place (even more than the cosmetic things my wife and I did, they added an attic bedroom, combined the kitchen and dining room, etc.) and then sold the place in UNDER a year -- I'm sure after Realtor commissions, they took a nice little bath on the place.

Some other folks who lived in South Arlington advised my wife not to send DD to that school pyramid (at least that is what she picked up.)

Gunston has the "honor" of being one of a handful of middle schools in Virginia not to be fully accredited by the SOLs. Wakefield seems to be a smaller version of TC Williams with Yale or jail being the potential destinations.

With that said, am I the only one whose experience in an "emerging" neighborhood was this bad? Possibly, and I'm sure some troll (who likely lives in Bethesda) will say it.

Now if OP is living in one of the highrise areas, or the nice areas off of 23rd Street near Crystal City, her experience might be better, at least in terms of neighbors. The schools may, or may not, be acceptable to your standards.

[Anonymous]

I live in South Arlington and I have no idea what the PP is talking about. Sounds like a bad personal experience that unfairly colored the the PP's perception. I don't know what neighborhood the PP is referring to, but we live in the Arlington Ridge/Addison Heights neighborhood and it is wonderful. Indeed, it has been one of the "Best Neighborhoods" in Washingtonian magazine several times I believe. Although our DC is too young to attend Oakridge, the neighborhood children do and I've heard nothing but positive things about the school. The parents seem very involved and supportive.

[Anonymous]

It would have been more helpful if 8:37 was more specific as to his old South Arlington neighborhood. I can understand why he might want to discourage the OP from buying or renting in that particular area, but it doesn't really speak to the quality of the local school. Oakridge draws from several different parts of South Arlington.

[Anonymous]

I lived in Parkway (between S Glebe, 395, and Four Mile Run. Yeah, it has a name.) Older duplexes, similar to the duplexes behind the Shirley Park Giant.

I was wrong about Gunston. It is now SOL accredited. For that, I apologize.

Gunston hasn't made AYP, but that in and of itself shouldn't be a dealbreaker, and let's face it: no self-respecting school snob would be caught dead living in the Wakefield zone.

I do stand by what I said about Wakefield. It's like TC Williams, smaller, to be sure, but still a strong streak of "Yale or jail."

Also, if you go private living in South Arlington (or Alexandria), you've dropped $2k a month, per kid, for 13 year. For that kind of money you could be in North Arlington.

I still haven't gotten that mindset -- and probably never will. I'd be singing an ENTIRELY different tune if I'd stumbled across a neighborhood that was just that -- a neighborhood, instead of a bunch of people thrown together.

FWIW, 14:32, Arlington Ridge/ADdison Heights -- isn't that one of the "nice neighborhoods off of 23rd Street near Crystal City?"