Schools in LeDroit/Bloomingdale/Eckington

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I'm new to this board. I plan to go through it in detail, but so far I'm not coming across any schools in my surrounding neighborhood here. We actually live in the LeDroit/Bloomingdale neighborhood, but we're pretty close to Eckington and Shaw too. There seem to be a lot of families with young children here, but maybe no-one is really of school age? Is anyone here from this part of town, and if so where do your children go to school?

[Anonymous]

People I know in those neighborhoods send their kids OOB to Ross, Murch and Oyster or to Cap City, Yu Ying or EL Haynes. Some also moved to Arlington or Silver Spring. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

You know someone who got into Oyster OOB? Wow - I thought that was impossible.

[Anonymous]

We live in Bloomingdale and our son attends ELH. There are some dedicated parents that are putting a lot of work into Emory I believe and the principal there is motivated as well

[Anonymous]

17:01 here, the kiddo that goes to Oyster is a native Spanish speaker.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked at the DC School Chooser? The 2010 version is a waste of time because they took out all the useful graphs (like the category break downs of reading & math scores, as well as demographic data). Fortunately the 2009 version is still available online and it has a lot of good information.

http://fightforchildren.org/pdf/SchoolChooser.pdf

If you want a DCPS neighborhood school that's close by have a look at Cleveland in Shaw, it's probably got the best scores in that area. A little farther away are the Capitol Hill cluster schools and Ross in Dupont Circle. And the Washington Post ed writers have a thing for Thomson downtown/Chinatown.

Otherwise there's the same set of west of the park OOBs and popular charters that get all the love around here.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I live in the LeDroit/Bloomingdale area and my son attends Emery. Emery wasn't my first choice, but we were disappointed and left Brent ES frustrated in October 2009. Emery is an up and coming school with a motivated Principal and dedicated staff. Quite frankly, the only thing it lacks is the support of the parents. The administration has even started the PTA. I haven't seen much participation from the parents and guardians.

How old is your child?

[Anonymous]

What was wrong with Brent? Looks like a good school.

Anonymous wrote:I live in the LeDroit/Bloomingdale area and my son attends Emery. Emery wasn't my first choice, but we were disappointed and left Brent ES frustrated in October 2009. Emery is an up and coming school with a motivated Principal and dedicated staff. Quite frankly, the only thing it lacks is the support of the parents. The administration has even started the PTA. I haven't seen much participation from the parents and guardians.

How old is your child?

[Anonymous]

I know a family that liked Brent a lot. Of course, some of those Capitol Hill schools have a wealthy parent base, that seems to be growing at Brent but maybe only at the Pre-K/K level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in the LeDroit/Bloomingdale area and my son attends Emery. Emery wasn't my first choice, but we were disappointed and left Brent ES frustrated in October 2009. Emery is an up and coming school with a motivated Principal and dedicated staff. Quite frankly, the only thing it lacks is the support of the parents. The administration has even started the PTA. I haven't seen much participation from the parents and guardians.

How old is your child?

That's a pretty significant factor to be missing though, isn't it? Supportive families are what literally make or break a school. There are phenomenal schools that don't have wealthy families (though wealthy families never hurt) but if there's any single variable that makes a school great it's involved families.

[Anonymous]

Brent is a great school if you're a wealthy family and white. I'm a single parent and African-American. I've have been a volunteer (and I still volunteer) at Brent for about 3 years and have seen the racial makeup change as well as the administration. If you are able to donate money--lots of money---Brent will provide you first rate education. However, all I can offer my child and his school is volunteer time and tons of support.

If you have been told great things about Brent then I say give them a try. When I withdrew my child, 5 other parents were withdrawing their children.

Despite the lack of tons of parent support at Emery--the staff and prinicipal has done an excellent job to educate and engage the kids.

[Anonymous]

PP, I'm black, and I'm curious: why do you think money/race made a difference in the education your child received at Brent? Did you get the sense that the teachers or administration were more attentive to white and/or wealthy parents? Did you feel unwelcome? I'm just trying to get a sense of how the fact that more white families or more wealthy families came to the school resulted in your pulling your child out.

[Anonymous]

There's a nascent parent movement to reinvest in Emery this year - there's a group of parents who are really excited about the principal and are willing to give it a go.

[Anonymous]

Thank you to everyone who participated in last night's informal conversation about sending our children to Emery Education Campus for pre-school this fall. And, apologies to those who didn't know about it in time.

I especially want to thank Margie Yeager, from the Office of Chancellor Rhee, for answering our questions about the DCPS lottery, budget and resources available to programs like Emery. I'd also like to recognize and thank Donetta Clark, the president of Emery's PTSA (parent-teacher-student association), for sharing her perspective and encouraging us to participate on the PTSA even if we don't have children at Emery yet. Finally, a big thanks to Stu from Big Bear for hosting us and Ted McGinn for his perspective, hardwork and generosity to make our neighborhood a better place to live.

I quickly want to plug a meeting of the PTSA tonight at Emery from 5:30 - 6:45pm. I hope to attend to at least introduce myself and submit my new membership form.

So...(drum roll)... my husband and I have decided to choose Emery as our #1 lottery pick, which we believe will ultimately lead our son James to attend pre-school at Emery in the fall. After much consideration and review of many schools, we have decided that it makes sense for us from a quality of life aspect, and also because we want to invest in our own community.

Briefly, without going into detail, here are some issues that were raised last night by our small group of parents. Issues I think we will continue to pay attention to and engage on, especially as more local families choose Emery.

Emery Men's Shelter
Emery campus security
PTSA activities, volunteer opportunities, resources for parents
playground, courtyard, garden and kid-friendly outdoor areas at Emery
school renovation plans, capital budget commitment
lottery process, in-bounds v. out-of-bounds, pre-school isn't compulsory
LSRT (local school restructuring team)
Emery's website: www.dcps.dc.gov/emery

If anyone was unable to attend, has a prospective enrollee for fall 2010, and still has unanswered questions about Emery, there are many resources available in the few days before the lottery closes. Feel free to email me and I'm happy to direct you to the appropriate person if you're unsure who that is.

For families considering Emery in the future, I am reminded of a comment made last night about Brent Elementary's PTA program on Capitol Hill. Someone mentioned they have 200+ parents attend on a regular basis. I think the Emery PTSA should be our first stop for involvement. I'm joining today. I hope you'll consider it as well.

Kindest regards,

Annemarie
1st & R St NE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you to everyone who participated in last night's informal conversation about sending our children to Emery Education Campus for pre-school this fall. And, apologies to those who didn't know about it in time.

I especially want to thank Margie Yeager, from the Office of Chancellor Rhee, for answering our questions about the DCPS lottery, budget and resources available to programs like Emery. I'd also like to recognize and thank Donetta Clark, the president of Emery's PTSA (parent-teacher-student association), for sharing her perspective and encouraging us to participate on the PTSA even if we don't have children at Emery yet. Finally, a big thanks to Stu from Big Bear for hosting us and Ted McGinn for his perspective, hardwork and generosity to make our neighborhood a better place to live.

I quickly want to plug a meeting of the PTSA tonight at Emery from 5:30 - 6:45pm. I hope to attend to at least introduce myself and submit my new membership form.

So...(drum roll)... my husband and I have decided to choose Emery as our #1 lottery pick, which we believe will ultimately lead our son James to attend pre-school at Emery in the fall. After much consideration and review of many schools, we have decided that it makes sense for us from a quality of life aspect, and also because we want to invest in our own community.

Briefly, without going into detail, here are some issues that were raised last night by our small group of parents. Issues I think we will continue to pay attention to and engage on, especially as more local families choose Emery.

Emery Men's Shelter
Emery campus security
PTSA activities, volunteer opportunities, resources for parents
playground, courtyard, garden and kid-friendly outdoor areas at Emery
school renovation plans, capital budget commitment
lottery process, in-bounds v. out-of-bounds, pre-school isn't compulsory
LSRT (local school restructuring team)
Emery's website: www.dcps.dc.gov/emery

If anyone was unable to attend, has a prospective enrollee for fall 2010, and still has unanswered questions about Emery, there are many resources available in the few days before the lottery closes. Feel free to email me and I'm happy to direct you to the appropriate person if you're unsure who that is.

For families considering Emery in the future, I am reminded of a comment made last night about Brent Elementary's PTA program on Capitol Hill. Someone mentioned they have 200+ parents attend on a regular basis. I think the Emery PTSA should be our first stop for involvement. I'm joining today. I hope you'll consider it as well.

Kindest regards,

Annemarie
1st & R St NE

For those of us who weren't able to be there, can you share how the school intends to deal with the Emery Men's Shelter and if there are any plans to move it elsewhere? To be honest, I can't think of a less appropriate neighbor for an elementary school than a men's shelter. Even a methadone clinic sounds less dangerous. I want to like Emery, I know the scores are pretty good for schools on this side of town, but I cannot get past that men's shelter they're attached to. WHY doesn't the city move it somewhere (anywhere!) else?!