Which elementary school in Arlington?

[Anonymous]

Glebe is fantastic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that hard to figure out. Some people simply like walking, biking.

Then take a nice walk or bike ride. It's one single factor among many factors in deciding boundaries and school use and not every kid who could walk to school is going to be able to walk to school.

Ok? I agree that it’s one of many factors that should be considered for boundary planning.

PP seemed confused about why some people prefer to walk their kids to school.

You might be missing the context of recent debates around this topic. APS needs to do redo middle school boundaries and it started a massive outcry on this very topic. People who want their children to continue to walk to school are willing to throw just about anyone under the bus (no pun intended) just so long as their kids get to keep walking.

"Walking" is such a ridiculous red-herring. All it means is they don't want to give up that particular school, because no kid is "walkable" to their elementary AND middle AND high school. At some point, they aren't "walking."

Huh? People near me do walk/bike to ES/MS/HS. 22201

+1 Ashton Heights, Long Branch/TJ/W-L. Not a short walk but is walkable. Because of work schedules/extended day we did generally drive in ES (,until 5th grader wanted to walk home instead of extended day), they consistently walked to and from for MS. Walked or biked in HS.

+1 Waverly Hills, Glebe/Hamm/W-L. Longest walk was middle school, still only a mile or so. All residential with sidewalks to walk or bike. Crossing guard at traffic light to get across Glebe Rd. It’s really made my kids be willing to walk more places besides school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did the move from DC to Arlington. We live in South Arlington - on purpose! We’ve found it to be a much better vibe for us vs the north Arlington neighborhoods we were looking at. We wanted more diversity and slightly less gunner attitudes. We go to a pool in north Arlington and every summer it justifies our decision.

We drove around every weekend for a few weeks and got out and walked the neighborhoods we liked. Go to the playgrounds and you’ll get a vibe of the communities.

Playgrounds… so your kids are at most in elementary school. Ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably start with high school and work backward. Many people think Washington-Libery and Yorktown are equally good for HS. Some think Yorktown is better, which is code for wealthier and/or less diverse.
Middle school- people like Dorthy Hamm, then Williamsburg.
Elementary- people like ATS, if you get a spot in the lottery. Distant second is Jamestown and Taylor. I don't know why people don't mention Glebe with Jamestown and Taylor. They all seem interchangeable to me.

For the OP, the above is good advice. We also did the move from DC to Arlington solely for schools (Fairfax was too far for me to consider). We moved into Glebe. Glebe is tricky because it splits down the middle for middle school (to Swanson and Dorothy Hamm) and then those middle schools split again between Yorktown and W&L. If I could do it again, I'd think more about Taylor. However, Glebe's neighborhoods allowed us to walk easily to the metro so that was nice (we both worked in the city until covid). I'd also put Science Focus (not really science focused) on the list. No one we know has been happy at Discovery, unfortunate because when you see the building coming from DC, it's amazing.

I'd also think about if you want to stay in DC and try private school. If your child is going into middle or high school, I'd lean towards staying in DC, keeping the equity in your home, and doing one of the privates. We're in the process now of transitioning from Swanson to private school, but our older child has done great moving into high school.

Middle school issues aside, APS is so much better run than DCPS. A lot more transparency. Safer (no lead issues, no asbestos issues, schools have heating and cooling, some mice but no daytime rat infestations...). Less emphasis on testing.

you haven't been here very long have you? We've had lead in the water pipes, mold galore, not all schools have working heating and cooling. And a lot of mice. I will give you I have not seen a rat.

Enjoy your nice new building, that's not what everyone else has.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that hard to figure out. Some people simply like walking, biking.

Then take a nice walk or bike ride. It's one single factor among many factors in deciding boundaries and school use and not every kid who could walk to school is going to be able to walk to school.

Ok? I agree that it’s one of many factors that should be considered for boundary planning.

PP seemed confused about why some people prefer to walk their kids to school.

You might be missing the context of recent debates around this topic. APS needs to do redo middle school boundaries and it started a massive outcry on this very topic. People who want their children to continue to walk to school are willing to throw just about anyone under the bus (no pun intended) just so long as their kids get to keep walking.

"Walking" is such a ridiculous red-herring. All it means is they don't want to give up that particular school, because no kid is "walkable" to their elementary AND middle AND high school. At some point, they aren't "walking."

Not true. The entire walk zone for science focus, glebe, discovery, long branch, Barrett, Taylor, and possibly parts of cardinal/Ashlawn can walk to es, Ms, and hs.

[Anonymous]

These same people prioritizing walkability would drop that in a heartbeat if they got in to ATS or HBW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These same people prioritizing walkability would drop that in a heartbeat if they got in to ATS or HBW.

ATS - didn’t even apply.

HB - can easily bike there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These same people prioritizing walkability would drop that in a heartbeat if they got in to ATS or HBW.

Hahah. Again not the upper N Arlington predominately white families who don’t value “diversity” as much as you do. Check the numbers. Taylor, Jamestown, Nottingham families are not making up a bulk of ATS elementary students. I’m sure you can find some examples fleeing the uber whiteness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These same people prioritizing walkability would drop that in a heartbeat if they got in to ATS or HBW.

Why do you think this is so inconsistent? Walkability is a great thing. But people might be convinced to give that up for another different great thing. I don't want my kids to go to a far away run of the mill neighborhood schools but I'll consider it for something different or special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are planning to move to Arlington from DC and trying to pick which area to move to based on schools. Which elementary or middle schools should we consider being in zone for? I don’t want to ask which is “best” as I’m sure there are many good ones. I am trying to narrow down areas to look at.

I would look very carefully at walk zones. Arlington's walk zones are large, and sometimes have unsafe or really long routes to school. Being in the walk zone is great if you are close and have safe sidewalks and street crossings. If you're in the outer walk zone or don't have a safe route, you will need to walk or drive your kid yourself. And that's a huge pain.

We had a nice route for elementary - close to school on neighborhood streets with a crossing guard at the one dicey crossing. So walking to school was great, and I walked my kids almost every day. The exercise was great for me too and I liked seeing my neighbors. But then middle school hit. We were almost to the edge of the walk zone. Kids would have to walk to school in the dark crossing busy commuter roads without lights, stop signs or crossing guards. I had to drive them to/from every day, and that really sucked.

Next school, they finally got a bus. They get themselves to/from the bus stop independently, it's a godsend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably start with high school and work backward. Many people think Washington-Libery and Yorktown are equally good for HS. Some think Yorktown is better, which is code for wealthier and/or less diverse.
Middle school- people like Dorthy Hamm, then Williamsburg.
Elementary- people like ATS, if you get a spot in the lottery. Distant second is Jamestown and Taylor. I don't know why people don't mention Glebe with Jamestown and Taylor. They all seem interchangeable to me.

For the OP, the above is good advice. We also did the move from DC to Arlington solely for schools (Fairfax was too far for me to consider). We moved into Glebe. Glebe is tricky because it splits down the middle for middle school (to Swanson and Dorothy Hamm) and then those middle schools split again between Yorktown and W&L. If I could do it again, I'd think more about Taylor. However, Glebe's neighborhoods allowed us to walk easily to the metro so that was nice (we both worked in the city until covid). I'd also put Science Focus (not really science focused) on the list. No one we know has been happy at Discovery, unfortunate because when you see the building coming from DC, it's amazing.

I'd also think about if you want to stay in DC and try private school. If your child is going into middle or high school, I'd lean towards staying in DC, keeping the equity in your home, and doing one of the privates. We're in the process now of transitioning from Swanson to private school, but our older child has done great moving into high school.

Middle school issues aside, APS is so much better run than DCPS. A lot more transparency. Safer (no lead issues, no asbestos issues, schools have heating and cooling, some mice but no daytime rat infestations...). Less emphasis on testing.

you haven't been here very long have you? We've had lead in the water pipes, mold galore, not all schools have working heating and cooling. And a lot of mice. I will give you I have not seen a rat.

Enjoy your nice new building, that's not what everyone else has.

Yeah...sure...everyone knows Swanson is brand spanking new, huh? We've been here since 2016 and unless you've lived through carting pallets of water to your kid's school so that students and teachers can have water or months upon months of 90 degrees plus classrooms where it's so humid it rains or an entire room that cannot be accessed at all because sewage has been cascading down the walls from above for years, all while the principal is fired every 18 months and your kid's friends change schools every 90 days and there are kids in elementary school who are visibly in crisis daily and your kid knows how to beat a rat with a broom and you just saw a teacher throw a kid across the room and a swarmy dude in a bowtie from DCPS tells you that actually it's all fine, it's not the same. It's 2023 and the kids in my child's elementary school in DCPS STILL don't have running water in the sinks. There's absolutely no school in APS like that. APS needs to do a lot of work on itself, and I know there's beginning to be a vocal group of teachers looking across the river and thinking the streets are greener, but don't kid yourself. We all have it really, really good in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably start with high school and work backward. Many people think Washington-Libery and Yorktown are equally good for HS. Some think Yorktown is better, which is code for wealthier and/or less diverse.
Middle school- people like Dorthy Hamm, then Williamsburg.
Elementary- people like ATS, if you get a spot in the lottery. Distant second is Jamestown and Taylor. I don't know why people don't mention Glebe with Jamestown and Taylor. They all seem interchangeable to me.

For the OP, the above is good advice. We also did the move from DC to Arlington solely for schools (Fairfax was too far for me to consider). We moved into Glebe. Glebe is tricky because it splits down the middle for middle school (to Swanson and Dorothy Hamm) and then those middle schools split again between Yorktown and W&L. If I could do it again, I'd think more about Taylor. However, Glebe's neighborhoods allowed us to walk easily to the metro so that was nice (we both worked in the city until covid). I'd also put Science Focus (not really science focused) on the list. No one we know has been happy at Discovery, unfortunate because when you see the building coming from DC, it's amazing.

I'd also think about if you want to stay in DC and try private school. If your child is going into middle or high school, I'd lean towards staying in DC, keeping the equity in your home, and doing one of the privates. We're in the process now of transitioning from Swanson to private school, but our older child has done great moving into high school.

Middle school issues aside, APS is so much better run than DCPS. A lot more transparency. Safer (no lead issues, no asbestos issues, schools have heating and cooling, some mice but no daytime rat infestations...). Less emphasis on testing.

you haven't been here very long have you? We've had lead in the water pipes, mold galore, not all schools have working heating and cooling. And a lot of mice. I will give you I have not seen a rat.

Enjoy your nice new building, that's not what everyone else has.

Yeah...sure...everyone knows Swanson is brand spanking new, huh? We've been here since 2016 and unless you've lived through carting pallets of water to your kid's school so that students and teachers can have water or months upon months of 90 degrees plus classrooms where it's so humid it rains or an entire room that cannot be accessed at all because sewage has been cascading down the walls from above for years, all while the principal is fired every 18 months and your kid's friends change schools every 90 days and there are kids in elementary school who are visibly in crisis daily and your kid knows how to beat a rat with a broom and you just saw a teacher throw a kid across the room and a swarmy dude in a bowtie from DCPS tells you that actually it's all fine, it's not the same. It's 2023 and the kids in my child's elementary school in DCPS STILL don't have running water in the sinks. There's absolutely no school in APS like that. APS needs to do a lot of work on itself, and I know there's beginning to be a vocal group of teachers looking across the river and thinking the streets are greener, but don't kid yourself. We all have it really, really good in Arlington.

Swanson is a charming historic school that has been renovated multiple times over the years. It may look old, but the facilities there like the restored auditorium and classrooms with lots of natural light are nice. The hallways are narrower than newer schools, but that just reflects changing standards. The campus while on the smaller side is perfectly located in a walkable neighborhood.

Schools in DCPS are also old. I think Deal and Hardy were also renovated with in the past 25 years or so, so I’m sure it’s top notch. Not sure about others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did the move from DC to Arlington. We live in South Arlington - on purpose! We’ve found it to be a much better vibe for us vs the north Arlington neighborhoods we were looking at. We wanted more diversity and slightly less gunner attitudes. We go to a pool in north Arlington and every summer it justifies our decision.

We drove around every weekend for a few weeks and got out and walked the neighborhoods we liked. Go to the playgrounds and you’ll get a vibe of the communities.

Playgrounds… so your kids are at most in elementary school. Ok.

Go back and look at the title of this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did the move from DC to Arlington. We live in South Arlington - on purpose! We’ve found it to be a much better vibe for us vs the north Arlington neighborhoods we were looking at. We wanted more diversity and slightly less gunner attitudes. We go to a pool in north Arlington and every summer it justifies our decision.

We drove around every weekend for a few weeks and got out and walked the neighborhoods we liked. Go to the playgrounds and you’ll get a vibe of the communities.

Playgrounds… so your kids are at most in elementary school. Ok.

Your point being?
What? That SA districted middle schools and the SA high school suck?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These same people prioritizing walkability would drop that in a heartbeat if they got in to ATS or HBW.

Actually, I think that's opposite. These are the "sweet spot" areas who won't give up anything.