Hurricane displaced middle schooler
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Anonymous
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Hello!
You may recall that I posted about our family moving to DC next summer (https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/994913.page). Well...life sometimes does crazy things, and we are now displaced after Hurricane Ida (we are New Orleans residents). It is looking like it will be weeks or longer before power is restored...which is a topic for another thread (infrastructure, hello?). There will be no school for the foreseeable future. While many are evaluated and have access to internet for remote education (like I do), many are trying to live in a place that is uninhabitable (summer in New Orleans without electricity) because they don't have the financial means to relocate, or don't have access to internet, etc. As such, we are now considering bumping up that timeline and making a much-sooner-than-expected move. Because of our so-thorough thread, I was starting to plan for a move in the Wilson district, while starting to gather application info for the selective high schools & charter schools. Insert record-scratching sound here. While I will do my own homework, thought I'd also ask you for info on what schools "feed" into Wilson, and what in-boundary MIDDLE schools would be good to consider. Our son would be 3 weeks behind his peers, but he's motivated and could catch up. This is obviously a nightmare but it's worth considering making that move now, rather than being displaced and waiting for things to get back to normal. Thank you for reading this long post & any suggestions you have for an 8th grade program worth considering that would have us relatively well poised to enter Wilson (while also applying for selective high schools for the following year). |
Anonymous
| Hardy and Deal feed into Wilson |
Anonymous
| and, so sorry your family is going through this! |
Anonymous
| *"many are evacuated" it should read. What I was referring to is that they cannot start remote school until all students can access, not just those with the means to evacuate. Electricity for in-person school will be weeks to come. So it'll be a very long school start delay. |
Anonymous
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The current feeder patterns for all DCPS schools are in this document. https://dcps.dc.gov/node/1506601
Two middle schools feed into Wilson. Deal is the bigger and more physically crowded school. Hardy is a little smaller and located farther from Wilson. Personally I would be fine with either. Best wishes to you and your son, OP. |
Anonymous
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To be clear, the selective HS entry starts in 9th grade as well, so if you were already living here, you would definitely apply for those this year/for the same time he'd otherwise be starting at Wilson. (Couldn't tell from your OP if your years were off, so just wanted to make sure.)
Can't go wrong with Deal or Hardy. Deal is more established, but Hardy might actually be easier to start at 3 weeks late/it's less overwhelming. Really either is completely fine and will prepare a good student for Wilson (or SWW or Banneker, etc). |
Anonymous
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OP, if your budget does not cover those areas, circle back with us and we can help you. Maybe you can go somewhere other than Hardy and Deal this year, and that will give you more time to find a place in the Wilson boundary and apply to selective schools, then you might not even need to live in the Wilson boundary at all. You could save a significant amount of money over 5 years if it shakes out that way, and maybe also be closer to work.
You can create the MySchoolDC account right now and start getting on waitlists. Just go ahead and add yourself to a lot of schools-- it's important to get your place on the waitlist ASAP. I would suggest you look into: Two Rivers Inspired Teaching Capital City Wells Middle School Sojourner Truth if you're into Montessori DCI if your child speaks French or Chinese or is willing to start in the language classes offered for beginners. I would suggest you also consider Bethesda, Silver Spring, and Takoma Park, Maryland. |
Anonymous
| I would do an online school until you can get back to in person. MCPS/Montgomery County MD, what previous poster suggested is offering a virtual program. |
Anonymous
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If I was in your shoes, I would try and get a short term rental on CT ave that is inbounds for Deal Middle School.
Deal has 300 fewer students enrolled than they did pre-COVID. Deal feeds Wilson. |
Anonymous
| You may be considered homeless. Look at the guidance for homeless students. I think if you get a hotel or temporary housing you can go to the school in boundary. If you move out of bounds you can probably still stay. |
Anonymous
+1 as someone who lives near there. Close to a Metro as well. Restaurants and other things in walking distance. Great area for kids to get around on their own. Principal at Deal rocks - reach out to her. 8th grade Assistant Principal is good too. Come on up. |
Anonymous
| Our older son attended Hardy. Our younger son just started. I think it's a great school that is still small enough that the staff really gets to know the kids. Deal is a great school too, it's just so enormous. Anyway, the geographic areas those two schools cover big so you can't really go wrong either way. |
Anonymous
| OP here. You all are giving me hope. Thank you! |
Anonymous
Just wanted to speak to this point - Deal is enormous - but my kids like it that way. They all refused to go anywhere other then Wilson because they like big schools. There are issues that come with that but it is one of those schools where everyone seems to find their niche. And there is definitely a very interesting mix of kids  The administration and teachers are generally excellent and they work hard to address the size issue and manage it. Each grade is broken into teams of 100 and they have their classes together.
Best of luck. |
Anonymous
This |