Reply to Out of Boundary Parent feeling left out

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Reply to "Out of Boundary Parent feeling left out"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am sorry that the OP felt unwelcome.  A school community should be exactly that -- a community in which everyone feels an equal and valued part.

Let me offer a different perspective, as a so-called "in bounds" parent for many years in a Ward 3 school with a slight majority of "out of bounds" students.  (I do dislike both those terms -- maybe "local" and "lottery" would be better?).  We have valued greatly the experience our child has had in forming friendships with children from around DC and of various backgrounds, and my comments below should not detract from our appreciation of that and the good education our child has received at the school.

However, it sometimes seemed like some OOB parents felt that the role of the IB parents was to "pay up and shut up."   First of all, I always felt that I had to be careful of what I said.  People would get upset if you referred to the school as a neighborhood school, even though the school has been an important part of its local community for over 100 years.  Suggestions for program additions or improvements were sometimes met with skepticism if not outright disdain, lest the result might be to attract more IB families, and thereby reduce OOB spots, in the school.   Yet when ever there was a need for additional funds, to cover a class actiivty or to make up the yearbook deficit, it seemed like the IB parents were always expected to be the first to pony up.  Similarly a proposed modest increase in the suggested parent fee was opposed as being unfair to OOB families -- despite the appreciable number of them who dropped their kids off in Rovers, Benzes and other high-priced vehicles with those low-numbered DC tags.  To be sure, there were a number of parents who lived locally and farther away who contributed generously of their time and treasure to the school.  Nevertheless, there was this undercurrent...[/quote]

Aah, yes, Eaton is an odd bird of a school. The pushback against efforts to make it stronger academically lest more neighbors send their kids there is quite disturbing, particularly since the feed back from Deal is that students coming from Eaton are relatively weak.
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