The wait-list may move faster this year- we got a pk3 spot (sibling preference) and also an email asking to confirm our spot by next Friday, or it would be offered to another family.

Also want to say we are happy at lamb, and choose to send our kids here even though we are in bounds for an in demand school in ward 3.

I have kids in Upper El at LAMB and have been there through three different campuses. Overall it has been a spectacular experience and we feel really lucky (which does not mean there is not room for improvement).

I find the remark about summer school so odd. LAMB did provide summer camp last summer (and it was cheaper than pretty much any other camp you could find in DC, and my kids really enjoyed it). The school announced months ago (I think in December) that the school would be doing construction over the summer in anticipation of the combined campuses and so for this summer there would be no summer camp at LAMB. There are legitimate complaints to make about LAMB, but when you bring this up, it makes me question the rest of your complaints.

Anonymous wrote:There are going to be a lot of slots.

First, many parents are not able to make the commute from the South Dakota campus. Exec director is not willing to do a shuttle after repeated promises to do so, so a huge percentage is leaving.

Second, the firing of the AP is rattling the heck out of upper and lower elementary parents. I’ve heard many parents are playing the lottery and pulling out their whole family. Exec director is incredibly unpopular. They do backfill quite a bit.

Third, they’ve said on numerous occasions that many people will be shut out of aftercare. The pandemic is basically over, and many offices are now mandating a return to work. I know that I personally am not going to keep my kid in lamb if there is no aftercare. Allegedly we will know if we have spots before the enrollment deadline for lottery choices ends, so I bet more spots will open up for those shut out of aftercare.

Fourth, unless they really mess with the rubric I would be very surprised if LAMB keeps its tier one status. It’s basically a monolingual school and the exec director is doing nothing to push spanish at all. Ask to tour an upper el classroom on a spanish day. There will be almost no spanisb spoken.

+1. This. If you are considering LAMB, plan other options for aftercare.

A number of fami,it’s at SD are not going to do that horrendous commute. LAMB screwed them over with not providing a shuttle.

The waitlist is going to move more this year.

#4 will be the clincher of why LAMB is going down the tubes in popularity and why more families in the upper grade are not happy and leaving. BTW FYI, MV provides summer school, restarted it last year, and aftercare so no idea why LAMB can’t step up and do the same. I think it’s because leadership is so weak and don’t place a high priority on Spanish.

We got into SD PK3 last year from #18, two weeks AFTER school started — the waitlist hardly moved until the end of August, so don’t go crazy checking your number every day. We were in the waitlist for Kingsbury at #54 and ended at #35 I think.

While I believe the school is offering same number of PK3 slots (SD+Kingsbury), I think the dynamics are different this year. There may be some attrition in PK4 and K with the move from SD campus without a shuttle, but I don’t think many new rising preK3 parents applied to Kingsbury without the intent to make the commute. (We actually took an inconvenient commute this year for the opportunity to go to the closer Kingsbury campus after 1 year.) Everyone I’ve talked to in our class says they intend to make the move, but that commute for years might be rough)

The limited slots for aftercare was unfortunate and that might have made/might make some folks turn down their slot (likely after school starts). Hopefully they will fix this, but we and others made due with private aftercare.

We’ve been thrilled with LAMB so far, despite some vocal parents on some upper elementary issues. We love all the teachers we’ve met, there are increasing opportunities for parent involvement, and the primary admin have been helpful, particularly since we had to start after school had been in session. My child has really embraced Spanish there too.

Good luck!

Last year there were 20 WL offers made at Kingsbury and 21 made at SD.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

I agree with PP who said you can't just add them all together, but I think it's a possibility (though if I were you, I would be feeling much more optimistic with #31 as compared to #39).

I wish I could remember what my waitlist number was last year. It was in the 20s somewhere, maybe like 27? We did not make it off the waitlist.

Oh stop with this drama already. For incoming LAMB families: ignore this noise on DC Urban moms and talk to real parents. I honestly think it might be the same 3-4 people who post on here with their complaints.

I'm a LAMB parent and the vast majority of families I know are very happy. I have had my kids in two other DC schools--one charter, one DCPS--and LAMB is by far the best in terms of teacher quality, educational environment, and sense of warmth and community for the kids. My kids love it and have thrived.

But it is a very good DC charter school, not a private school that can cater to the demands of every Type A parent. Some of the quibbles below are real things that could be better--sure, would be great to have a shuttle and yes the aftercare thing is annoying (though every family I know that got shut-out just sends their kid to casa lala or brillando, so it's not like there aren't options)--but honestly these are nothing compared with some of what we experienced at the other schools. I won't go into detail on the AP thing, though I have thoughts and don't necessarily think it was a bad decision.

Anyway to your original question on the waitlist, I think 30s is possible but not a guarantee. If you get in, likely won't be till after school starts, though who knows what the list movement will be like this year given the campus consolidation. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:There are going to be a lot of slots.

First, many parents are not able to make the commute from the South Dakota campus. Exec director is not willing to do a shuttle after repeated promises to do so, so a huge percentage is leaving.

Second, the firing of the AP is rattling the heck out of upper and lower elementary parents. I’ve heard many parents are playing the lottery and pulling out their whole family. Exec director is incredibly unpopular. They do backfill quite a bit.

Third, they’ve said on numerous occasions that many people will be shut out of aftercare. The pandemic is basically over, and many offices are now mandating a return to work. I know that I personally am not going to keep my kid in lamb if there is no aftercare. Allegedly we will know if we have spots before the enrollment deadline for lottery choices ends, so I bet more spots will open up for those shut out of aftercare.

Fourth, unless they really mess with the rubric I would be very surprised if LAMB keeps its tier one status. It’s basically a monolingual school and the exec director is doing nothing to push spanish at all. Ask to tour an upper el classroom on a spanish day. There will be almost no spanisb spoken.

There are going to be a lot of slots.

First, many parents are not able to make the commute from the South Dakota campus. Exec director is not willing to do a shuttle after repeated promises to do so, so a huge percentage is leaving.

Second, the firing of the AP is rattling the heck out of upper and lower elementary parents. I’ve heard many parents are playing the lottery and pulling out their whole family. Exec director is incredibly unpopular. They do backfill quite a bit.

Third, they’ve said on numerous occasions that many people will be shut out of aftercare. The pandemic is basically over, and many offices are now mandating a return to work. I know that I personally am not going to keep my kid in lamb if there is no aftercare. Allegedly we will know if we have spots before the enrollment deadline for lottery choices ends, so I bet more spots will open up for those shut out of aftercare.

Fourth, unless they really mess with the rubric I would be very surprised if LAMB keeps its tier one status. It’s basically a monolingual school and the exec director is doing nothing to push spanish at all. Ask to tour an upper el classroom on a spanish day. There will be almost no spanisb spoken.

Current LAMB parent and my understanding is they'll have the same number of PK classes as prior years. They're doing work on the building this summer to get the additional classrooms ready. We had a number under 10 on the waitlist for 14th Street last year and got in two weeks before school started.

I don't think you can just add the numbers from last year though to get a sense of how many spots will be offered this year because there were parents who were on the waitlist at both schools or in at SD and on the waitlist for 14th Street. My guess is with a number in the 30s its unlikely, but maybe you'll get lucky!

The SD campus only has PK3, PK4, and K. So there isn't any combining of students in higher grades. All the higher grades are already only at the kingsbury campus.

All of the PK3-K classes that were at SD, are moving to the Kingsbury campus. So next year there will be the same number of PK3 spots as there are this year, except that instead of spread out across two campuses they will be consolidated at one campus. So if you're looking at historical data, you should look at both campuses together.

Anonymous wrote:I think your odds are good (though my guess is that you wouldn't get the offer until late summer/September). This is the first year that there is only one LAMB campus, so presumably they need to fill the spots that had previously been spread out across Kingsbury and South Dakota. Across both campuses it looks like they've generally made just under 40 offers. I don't think it will be quite as high as that, but I think you'll get in.

I didn't think that was the plan at all; I thought the consolidation meant they would actually have less space for PK3 because combining all the existing students in the higher grades from both campuses will take up most of the space. Any current LAMB parents who can give some insight into which interpretation is right?

I think your odds are good (though my guess is that you wouldn't get the offer until late summer/September). This is the first year that there is only one LAMB campus, so presumably they need to fill the spots that had previously been spread out across Kingsbury and South Dakota. Across both campuses it looks like they've generally made just under 40 offers. I don't think it will be quite as high as that, but I think you'll get in.

Not likely. You can see the historic data here:

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

They offered 20 spots last year. Unless the aftercare situation drives families away, I don’t think you have chance.

Not likely, no. They only offered 16 spots last year - and your number will go up before it starts going down.

Is it likely to get offered a LAMB PK3 spot with a waitlist number in the 30s? If your child had a similar number and was offered a spot in the past, when did they receive it?