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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why would your kid need to lie about where they live? My kid has friends who don’t live in bounds (they don’t lie about where they live or change the subject so I know where they live) and I assume they lotteried in or used to live in bounds.  Are people really out there trying to figure these things out about other people? If so, mind your business. [/quote]

No shortage of busybody parents of little kids on CH, where my spouse and I have lived for 30 years, particularly in the school communities for the most desirable in-boundary elementary schools (read Brent, Maury, maybe Ludlow).

Just look at the responses to posts that do no more than explain where the boundary "fudging" phenomenon/mentality originates. PPs are called "trash" for their explanations on the assumption that they're boundary cheaters (good chance that they aren't).

We're OOB for Brent, living a couple blocks outside the boundary in NE. We lotteried in late in the game. I find it useful not to talk about where we live w/IB Brent parents.

The harsh reality is that many of the Ward 6 DCPS elementary schools are still fine for ECE and maybe 1st and 2nd grade. But by around 3rd grade high performing kids tend to get bored, there are too many disruptive kids in class, teachers and admins don't always treat white and Asian parents well. Raise issues of concern with teachers and admins, however politely and legitimately, and you may well be treated like an entitled pest.

We know parents who've bailed from JO Wilson, Payne, Watkins and Miner in the lower grades, thrilled to land at thoroughly gentrified Brent, Maury, Ludlow. Who know, maybe some of them are...egad, boundary cheaters owning two Hill houses.  [/quote]

I agree with you about people bailing from JOW, Payne, Watkins and Miner after ECE, and the reasons why. But I know MANY people who have done this and know them well enough to know they are not boundary cheaters. It is much easier to get lottery spots at Ludlow and Brent starting in 2nd or 3rd (and actually I've know quite a few people who have gotten spots at Ludlow in K due to the class size expansion). I know very few people who are wealthy enough to own multiple houses on the Hill and those that do are more likely to go private or can afford to live in their preferred house IB for the school they want (the housing stock IB for Brent/Maury/Ludlow is, on average, nicer than for those other schools except Watkins, it just costs more).

I am extremely sympathetic to people who struggle with finding a good school for their kids and understand all sorts of solutions people come up with. But if I knew someone was boundary cheating in this way, I would distance from them and think less of them. If you have the wealth to afford multiple homes, you have the wealth to come up with an above-board solution to this problem. [b]Choosing to instead cheat the system is scummy, sorry.[/b][/quote]

No dog in this fight but as somebody who lived on the Hill for 25 years with kids in DCPS, I don't agree. If Hill parents pay their DC taxes, and are here on CH to stay, in my books they're v. welcome to use whatever properties they own as addresses for in-boundary schools.  I'm glad that DCPS doesn't go at these people, driving them to go private or move. I'm tired of old friends running to the burbs when they strike out in the original Latin and BASIS lotteries.  If a "cheating" family stays for Stuart Hobson, great, do it. You say scummy, some of us say resourceful and determined to stay, great. [/quote]

You can say that because, presumably, you are happy with where your kids are going to school.

There are many families on the Hill who can't afford to be "resourceful" in this way. I know plenty of families on the Hill who would be irate if their next-door neighbors used this strategy to get their kids into Brent/LT/Maury even though they lived IB for Miner/JOW/Payne/etc. In fact, not only would they be annoyed at the family for lying about their residence, they'd probably be most angry about the fact that this family is IB for a struggling school, but rather than invest in that school and make it better, is just cheating to get into a better school. And while they do that, no one else can live in that IB house, robbing the IB school of the potential for a family that actually gives a damn about it.

If you honestly think most people on the Hill "don't care" or simply admire their neighbors for being resourceful, you are extremely wrong. The lottery system in DC breeds a ton of sour grapes and resentment, and that will absolutely get channeled against families who skirt the rules in order to get their kids into better schools. You might think this is no big deal, but would change your mind if the people who resented you were your direct neighbors and explained to their kids that your kids go to Brent because "their mommy and daddy think it's okay to lie."

Best of luck.[/quote]

How long have you been on the Hill? A few years? We've been here since the 90s and couldn't disagree more (although we haven't done any boundary cheating, last time I checked). DCPS school options aren't complicated when your kids are in the ECE years and lower grades. Wait a few years. We're thrilled when longtime Hill pals with kids around the ages of ours find ways to stay in the neighborhood, however that works.

PS. We gave up on caring what neighbors might think of us when Bill Clinton was in office. [/quote]

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