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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hi there. Long time reader. First time poster.

We are looking at moving to Brightwood. (West of Georgia Ave, north of Missouri, south of new Walter Reed)

House we are looking at is IB is Brightwood (where two blocks north is Takoma).

I’ve read Ft Stevens and Takoma are popular playgrounds. It’s be fun to have the kids play with neighborhood kids.

Anyone in this area of Brightwood send their kids to Brightwood ES? Lottery somewhere else?

We’ve driven around the area a lot and see a lot of kids.

[/quote]

We live in Brightwood but lotteried WOTP for K. FWIW, we were offered slots at 4 schools WOTP through the lottery. we did not look into the IB schools because we had heard some not-so-great things about the infrastructure (not the quality of the teaching) so defer to the other posters on those specifics. But agree with other posters who say try the lottery to give yourself options![/quote]

OP again.
How is the commute? Not being part of the neighborhood, how does that impact friends playing after school, etc? I love the idea of WOTP but the before care, after care drops, not being part of the neighborhood, etc.. [/quote]

DP, but friends that have their kids in WOTP schools do notice those impacts. The commute is tough, particularly when older kids start doing early afternoon extracurriculars. Socialization is harder when you're the only friend not in the neighborhood. As others have said, if the neighborhood vibe is important to you, I would try to buy in a neighborhood where families use the IB middle and high schools. We're in middle elementary at one of the schools mentioned in this thread, and friends move/switch schools every year. You hear more willingness to try Wells than MacFarland, but the reality is that it's still a very small minority of higher SES families that actually use those schools. Maybe that should and will change, but maybe not fast enough for your family. Even if you're willing to stick with your IB (we are!), I think you'll end up disappointed if you move into most of these EOTP neighborhoods (Shepherd Park aside) and expect more than a minority of neighbors to do the same. That said, some neighborhoods still have a lot of kids, and I think there's a benefit to having separate school and neighborhood friends, particularly as kids get older and social dynamics get harder.

And we've lotteried for WOTP schools every year and have never gotten a seat. PP got a good lottery number and multiple offers, but keep in mind the lottery is a lottery and you cannot count on it working out. Do you have kids now and if so, how old are they? As a PP said, there's a boundary study happening now and a good chance school zones will change. There will likely be substantial grandfathering, but I think last time it was for kids in 1st or 2nd grade when the boundary change happened.

Because a neighborhood vibe is important to you, I would urge you to focus on neighborhoods that feed into Deal or Hardy, maybe Wells if you're willing to be one of the first families. But perhaps wait until after the boundary change if you don't have school aged kids already.[/quote]

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