Reply to Capitol Hill families - If you moved to NW or burbs for school, do you have any regrets?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It seems like this thread has completely derailed, but for folks wanting to find a balance between density, walkability, and good schools, I highly recommend  checking out the Rosslyn- Ballston corridor.  It’s changed a LOT over the past decade, with more change to come.  You’re going to find diversity, varied housing types, and the ability to live a car-free or nearly car-free lifestyle, if you choose.  The county offers great youth rec classes and there are lots of parks and restaurants and other things to walk to.  I think when people discuss the sterile Arlington, they are talking about 22207.  I’m not going to claim Arlington schools are the best in the region (and I would be laughed off this board if I did) but for folks that don’t want to fully decamp to the burbs, it’s a great option.  [/quote]

Thank you for this sane and actually useful suggestion.

Can you share the names of a few elementaries, or a HS triangle, that are fine (does not need to be the best at all) to give me a jumping off point for looking in that area? I know zip about the schools in that area but have socialized there and like it and can see what you mean.[/quote]

I would want my kids at WL for HS and Dorothy Hamm for MS.  Both are diverse and plenty of people think the brand new middle school Hamm is the best MS in Arlington.  WL offers the IB program, and people county-wide try and transfer to WL for access to those IB courses.  Arlington Science Focus and Innovation elementary schools will get you into those middle and high schools.  One note- part of Rosslyn goes to Innovation ES, Hamm MS, and then splits off to Yorktown HS.  Yorktown is the “not very diverse,” mostly wealthy, high-scoring high school in Arlington.  Plenty of people like it, but if a rich-kid, travel-sports-heavy school isn’t your vibe, you may want to avoid it. And there are plenty of Yorktown kids wanting to transfer to WL for IB courses, so that goes to show that the test scores aren’t the be-all, end-all for a lot of people.

There are also lottery-based option schools in Arlington.  Arlington Traditional (ATS) is the #1 public elementary school in Virginia and notoriously hard to lottery into.

There may be another elementary boundary change in the next few years to address population growth and shifts in Arlington, but I think you’ll be fine with any schools right along the Rosslyn Ballston corridor.  If you want to balance a walkable lifestyle with schools, I think you couldn’t do much better.  There’s so much to do there.  Always something going on!

[/quote]

Interesting. I work in Rosslyn and while I don’t hate it (and it is walkable), it doesn’t feel very… community-y in the way the Hill does. In fact, I struggle to think of where THs/SFHs are… Where do the people actually live? What is the housing stock like? What kind of price points?[/quote]

Personally I would prefer the neighborhoods in or adjacent to the Courthouse and Clarendon blocks.  You usually need at least 1.1M to get into a TH there, but I have occasionally seen things around 900-1M.  SFHs are expensive everywhere in N Arlington and this area is no exception.  It’s 1.5M and goes up considerably from there.  Lower priced SFHs are usually a building lot or a big project.

I don’t know the particular streets that have condos and THs in Rosslyn (verses the high rises that you may work near).  I’m a little out of my depth on advising on specific areas of the Rosslyn neighborhood other than to say I would prefer the neighborhoods uphill from Rosslyn as they are greener, have lower building heights, and have more family-friendly restaurants and retail, plus better grocery store options (IMHO).

(Also I’m not a realtor, just doing my best to throw out ideas).[/quote]

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