My k-8 bombed

[Anonymous]

Anyone else know about good outcomes to share with the k-8 crowd? I believe it's the best model, but 9th grade placement makes people nervous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The real bottom line is that in Metro DC for private HS the demand exceeds openings.

I would be extremely happy if one or more K8s (on either side of the river) would expand to be a K12. This is just what Potomac did, more than 50 years after its founding. There would be a startup curve to filling the upper school in such a case, but I think more than enough demand exists.

Congressional's buildable land actually is about the same as Potomac's buildable land, but all of the existing Congressional buildings would need to be replaced systematically with taller versions (which means $$$$$).

Buildable land is one challenge. A very wealthy interested donor is the biggest challenge of all.

Was considered at Congressional over a decade ago. Determined to be not feasible.

Not really - Potomac has 90 acres (plus multiple faculty houses). Congressional has 40 acres. Potomac had a strong history of going through 9th grade and was founded in 1904. Congressional is relatively newer and has only been around for 80 years. It took years of vision and tons of $ for Potomac to make the leap to k-12. I was actually there at the time and the first year they added 10th, then 11th and then finally had a full high school. It was seen as a gamble at the time, and the expenses were enormous bc they built the entire high school, hired the whole staff, etc and then let the school grow to fill it. They didn’t just open the flood gates and fill the 3 new grades instantly.

Congressional opened a HS in the 1950s. They phased it out in the 1980s when the board decided to refocus on elementary and MS grades. Unlikely they will consider ever opening a HS again. They have a very strong program and really build to the 8th grade capstone.

[Anonymous]

Sheridan and St. Patrick’s have new heads. Might factor in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The real bottom line is that in Metro DC for private HS the demand exceeds openings.

I would be extremely happy if one or more K8s (on either side of the river) would expand to be a K12. This is just what Potomac did, more than 50 years after its founding. There would be a startup curve to filling the upper school in such a case, but I think more than enough demand exists.

Congressional's buildable land actually is about the same as Potomac's buildable land, but all of the existing Congressional buildings would need to be replaced systematically with taller versions (which means $$$$$).

Buildable land is one challenge. A very wealthy interested donor is the biggest challenge of all.

Was considered at Congressional over a decade ago. Determined to be not feasible.

Not really - Potomac has 90 acres (plus multiple faculty houses). Congressional has 40 acres. Potomac had a strong history of going through 9th grade and was founded in 1904. Congressional is relatively newer and has only been around for 80 years. It took years of vision and tons of $ for Potomac to make the leap to k-12. I was actually there at the time and the first year they added 10th, then 11th and then finally had a full high school. It was seen as a gamble at the time, and the expenses were enormous bc they built the entire high school, hired the whole staff, etc and then let the school grow to fill it. They didn’t just open the flood gates and fill the 3 new grades instantly.

Most of Potomac’s land is not “buildable” — due to a stream, a broad riparian conservation area, various utility easements, other governmental building restrictions, and what not. The buildable area at Potomac is about the same as the buildable area at Congressional, which also has a stream and RPA. Yes, it did take very big $$$$$ (i.e., wealthy interested donors) for Potomac to expand, and that would be an issue for any K8 which wanted to expand.

The bottom line though is that Congressional does not WANT to be a K12 — and given that one fact then nothing else matters.

[Anonymous]

How did little Langley do? I know they have been having terrible results with since the new head of middle school came in and old HOS school left. People awfully quiet this year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The real bottom line is that in Metro DC for private HS the demand exceeds openings.

I would be extremely happy if one or more K8s (on either side of the river) would expand to be a K12. This is just what Potomac did, more than 50 years after its founding. There would be a startup curve to filling the upper school in such a case, but I think more than enough demand exists.

Congressional's buildable land actually is about the same as Potomac's buildable land, but all of the existing Congressional buildings would need to be replaced systematically with taller versions (which means $$$$$).

Buildable land is one challenge. A very wealthy interested donor is the biggest challenge of all.

Was considered at Congressional over a decade ago. Determined to be not feasible.

Not really - Potomac has 90 acres (plus multiple faculty houses). Congressional has 40 acres. Potomac had a strong history of going through 9th grade and was founded in 1904. Congressional is relatively newer and has only been around for 80 years. It took years of vision and tons of $ for Potomac to make the leap to k-12. I was actually there at the time and the first year they added 10th, then 11th and then finally had a full high school. It was seen as a gamble at the time, and the expenses were enormous bc they built the entire high school, hired the whole staff, etc and then let the school grow to fill it. They didn’t just open the flood gates and fill the 3 new grades instantly.

Congressional opened a HS in the 1950s. They phased it out in the 1980s when the board decided to refocus on elementary and MS grades. Unlikely they will consider ever opening a HS again. They have a very strong program and really build to the 8th grade capstone.

I was on a committee to consider it a number of years ago when my kids attended. As a prior poster noted, it was not feasible.

[Anonymous]

Where there is no will, there will not be a way. The marketing might vary as to why not, but fundamentally lack of will means nothing will happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sheridan and St. Patrick’s have new heads. Might factor in.

Don’t think Sheridan bombed. Don’t know about St. Pat’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How did little Langley do? I know they have been having terrible results with since the new head of middle school came in and old HOS school left. People awfully quiet this year

Current Langley parent here of a younger child and this has me worried. Have results really been bad recently? We hear very little in the lower school about outplacement.

[Anonymous]

At our (non-catholic) K-8, results that I know about (about 2/3 of the class, my kid is very chatty and outgoing) are fairly mixed. It seems people did very well at the single sex schools and largely struck out at the more difficult to gain admission co-eds. School has had a similar pattern the last cycle or two.

[Anonymous]

I always love when K-8s post where their kids got into high school and there's one or two that are like South Lakes High School or Falls Church High School. Sounds like you got a great bang for your buck, parents, LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always love when K-8s post where their kids got into high school and there's one or two that are like South Lakes High School or Falls Church High School. Sounds like you got a great bang for your buck, parents, LOL!

At least at our K-8, the kids that go to public actually tend to be among the better students and it is rarely because they got shut out. K-8s are really small, so there’s often a couple of kids who want a big school experience! So the public ones you can’t really read much into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did little Langley do? I know they have been having terrible results with since the new head of middle school came in and old HOS school left. People awfully quiet this year

Current Langley parent here of a younger child and this has me worried. Have results really been bad recently? We hear very little in the lower school about outplacement.

I am a LS parent but am close with a mom of an 8th grade grad from last year who said the results were good. Don’t have insight on this year though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always love when K-8s post where their kids got into high school and there's one or two that are like South Lakes High School or Falls Church High School. Sounds like you got a great bang for your buck, parents, LOL!

There are definitely people who out there kids in private for ES/MS with the specific intention of moving them to public for HS.

When our child was diagnosed with dyslexia, we asked the psychologist whether, if we only had enough money to do private for 5-8 or 9-12, which we should do, she was absolutely adamant that the groundwork in ES/MS would be critical to our child’s academic success and that by HS, DC would likely not need the extra supports, and to go private for 5-8. As it’s turned out, we’ve gotten aid and are able to stay in private, but our initial plan was to switch to public for HS. That’s just one example. We have friends who were zoned to a MS with real problems and went private for MS then back to public, because their public HS was good.

Just like their are folks who choose private for HS and aren’t gunning for HYP or T20 colleges to the utter disbelief of the typical private crowd, there are folks who go private for earlier grades and switch to public because that’s the better choice for their family, not because their kid or their private school were failures.

[Anonymous]

Private during K-8 years is way more important than private during high school. For many kids, they intentionally want public high school. Most people think they have it figured out though by first applying to private for 9th grade. It is almost comical.