Anonymous
09/27/2025 15:47
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:We don't know your budget. Knowing it would help.
Capitol Hill is a snore and once you get past the elementary school level things get dicey.
Mt Pleasant is awesome but expensive.
The rest of the Deal/JR zones might as well be the strip mall suburbs. No thanks.
One suggestion would be Del Ray in Alexandria. That's a real neighborhood. White folks on DCUM don't like the schools there -- too brown for them -- but there as good as any neighborhood school in DC. If your kid is a fit for JR they're a fit for Alexandria High School.
You think MtP is expensive but suggest Del Ray?
Anonymous
09/27/2025 15:32
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
We don't know your budget. Knowing it would help.
Capitol Hill is a snore and once you get past the elementary school level things get dicey.
Mt Pleasant is awesome but expensive.
The rest of the Deal/JR zones might as well be the strip mall suburbs. No thanks.
One suggestion would be Del Ray in Alexandria. That's a real neighborhood. White folks on DCUM don't like the schools there -- too brown for them -- but there as good as any neighborhood school in DC. If your kid is a fit for JR they're a fit for Alexandria High School.
Capitol Hill is a snore and once you get past the elementary school level things get dicey.
Mt Pleasant is awesome but expensive.
The rest of the Deal/JR zones might as well be the strip mall suburbs. No thanks.
One suggestion would be Del Ray in Alexandria. That's a real neighborhood. White folks on DCUM don't like the schools there -- too brown for them -- but there as good as any neighborhood school in DC. If your kid is a fit for JR they're a fit for Alexandria High School.
Anonymous
09/27/2025 15:27
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We really like Maury, near Lincoln Park. Ticks all the boxes you mention and easy commute to Pentagon via 695/395. We also wanted small classes and a tight knit feel and it’s been great. Only downside is the feeder pattern - middle school is fine (people vary on this but the number of people from Maury sending kids there is increasingly significantly each year, so would be even better by the time your kid gets there) but high school is a no for almost everyone.
Where do the kids go for HS?
Eastern. It could be a whole different situation by the time OP’s kid gets to 9th grade but right now the zoned MS is finally getting significant buy in but as far as I’m aware very few people are currently seeing Eastern as a viable HS choice.
For the people for whom “high school is a no.” Where do their kids go?
DC has a number of application high schools that are open to everyone in the district. Many students go to one of them.
And there goes the neighborhood feel OP requested.
Not at all. If you stay in the neighborhood school through 9th and live on completely walkable and transit accessible Capitol Hill, you don’t lose the neighborhood feel. For however folks feel about the middle school and up schools on the Hill, few would claim the Hill is not one of the most neighborhoody neighborhoods in DC. My kids go or went to Ludlow-Taylor and it’s very similar. Not quite as highly regarded ES as Maury, but we love it and it is an amazing community; then we have Stuart-Hobson as our feeder MS, which is slightly better regarded than Elliot-Hine (Maury’s); then we have the same no for HS.
Anonymous
09/27/2025 15:25
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We really like Maury, near Lincoln Park. Ticks all the boxes you mention and easy commute to Pentagon via 695/395. We also wanted small classes and a tight knit feel and it’s been great. Only downside is the feeder pattern - middle school is fine (people vary on this but the number of people from Maury sending kids there is increasingly significantly each year, so would be even better by the time your kid gets there) but high school is a no for almost everyone.
Where do the kids go for HS?
Eastern. It could be a whole different situation by the time OP’s kid gets to 9th grade but right now the zoned MS is finally getting significant buy in but as far as I’m aware very few people are currently seeing Eastern as a viable HS choice.
For the people for whom “high school is a no.” Where do their kids go?
DC has a number of application high schools that are open to everyone in the district. Many students go to one of them.
And there goes the neighborhood feel OP requested.
Not at all. If you stay in the neighborhood school through 9th and live on completely walkable and transit accessible Capitol Hill,
Anonymous
09/27/2025 15:15
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We really like Maury, near Lincoln Park. Ticks all the boxes you mention and easy commute to Pentagon via 695/395. We also wanted small classes and a tight knit feel and it’s been great. Only downside is the feeder pattern - middle school is fine (people vary on this but the number of people from Maury sending kids there is increasingly significantly each year, so would be even better by the time your kid gets there) but high school is a no for almost everyone.
Where do the kids go for HS?
Eastern. It could be a whole different situation by the time OP’s kid gets to 9th grade but right now the zoned MS is finally getting significant buy in but as far as I’m aware very few people are currently seeing Eastern as a viable HS choice.
For the people for whom “high school is a no.” Where do their kids go?
DC has a number of application high schools that are open to everyone in the district. Many students go to one of them.
And there goes the neighborhood feel OP requested.
Anonymous
09/27/2025 14:45
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We really like Maury, near Lincoln Park. Ticks all the boxes you mention and easy commute to Pentagon via 695/395. We also wanted small classes and a tight knit feel and it’s been great. Only downside is the feeder pattern - middle school is fine (people vary on this but the number of people from Maury sending kids there is increasingly significantly each year, so would be even better by the time your kid gets there) but high school is a no for almost everyone.
Where do the kids go for HS?
Eastern. It could be a whole different situation by the time OP’s kid gets to 9th grade but right now the zoned MS is finally getting significant buy in but as far as I’m aware very few people are currently seeing Eastern as a viable HS choice.
For the people for whom “high school is a no.” Where do their kids go?
DC has a number of application high schools that are open to everyone in the district. Many students go to one of them.
Anonymous
09/27/2025 14:41
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Murch
Anonymous
09/27/2025 14:35
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:DCUM hivemind:
Interested in the thoughts of the collective...
We are moving back to DC after a few years away. We have one child who will be in 1st grade. We previously lived in both DC and VA (Alexandria) prior to becoming parents. We are looking for a great public school with a real neighborhood feel -- committed community, ability for kids to walk or bike to school, experienced teachers and reasonable sized classrooms. One parent will be WFH and one will work in the Pentagon. Our plan is to first decide on the preferred school and then find housing (recognizing the dynamics around in-bound requirements).
If you were in our shoes, where would you choose?
If you need a solid school system through high school, I would honestly just live anywhere in Ward 3. Pick somewhere that is within a mile of Deal and JR.
We didn't do this (live EOTP but scrambled for good schools in the lottery, particularly starting in middle school) but this is what I have advised to friends who move to DC with school aged children.
Anonymous
09/27/2025 14:00
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We really like Maury, near Lincoln Park. Ticks all the boxes you mention and easy commute to Pentagon via 695/395. We also wanted small classes and a tight knit feel and it’s been great. Only downside is the feeder pattern - middle school is fine (people vary on this but the number of people from Maury sending kids there is increasingly significantly each year, so would be even better by the time your kid gets there) but high school is a no for almost everyone.
Where do the kids go for HS?
Eastern. It could be a whole different situation by the time OP’s kid gets to 9th grade but right now the zoned MS is finally getting significant buy in but as far as I’m aware very few people are currently seeing Eastern as a viable HS choice.
For the people for whom “high school is a no.” Where do their kids go?
Anonymous
09/27/2025 13:56
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We really like Maury, near Lincoln Park. Ticks all the boxes you mention and easy commute to Pentagon via 695/395. We also wanted small classes and a tight knit feel and it’s been great. Only downside is the feeder pattern - middle school is fine (people vary on this but the number of people from Maury sending kids there is increasingly significantly each year, so would be even better by the time your kid gets there) but high school is a no for almost everyone.
Where do the kids go for HS?
Eastern. It could be a whole different situation by the time OP’s kid gets to 9th grade but right now the zoned MS is finally getting significant buy in but as far as I’m aware very few people are currently seeing Eastern as a viable HS choice.
Anonymous
09/27/2025 13:41
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:We really like Maury, near Lincoln Park. Ticks all the boxes you mention and easy commute to Pentagon via 695/395. We also wanted small classes and a tight knit feel and it’s been great. Only downside is the feeder pattern - middle school is fine (people vary on this but the number of people from Maury sending kids there is increasingly significantly each year, so would be even better by the time your kid gets there) but high school is a no for almost everyone.
Where do the kids go for HS?
Anonymous
09/27/2025 13:40
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Live in Virginia. Check out Falls Church City schools.
Anonymous
09/27/2025 12:28
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
We really like Maury, near Lincoln Park. Ticks all the boxes you mention and easy commute to Pentagon via 695/395. We also wanted small classes and a tight knit feel and it’s been great. Only downside is the feeder pattern - middle school is fine (people vary on this but the number of people from Maury sending kids there is increasingly significantly each year, so would be even better by the time your kid gets there) but high school is a no for almost everyone.
Anonymous
09/27/2025 12:16
Subject: Re:Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
I don’t know if all of DCUM would consider it a top school but Bancroft in MtP has an incredibly engaged community. It is Spanish immersion so I don’t know how you feel about that. All my son’s friends live in the neighborhood and he goes to play with them on his own now. (3rd). The neighborhood in general is very cohesive. We love it here.
Anonymous
09/27/2025 12:10
Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
DCUM hivemind:
Interested in the thoughts of the collective...
We are moving back to DC after a few years away. We have one child who will be in 1st grade. We previously lived in both DC and VA (Alexandria) prior to becoming parents. We are looking for a great public school with a real neighborhood feel -- committed community, ability for kids to walk or bike to school, experienced teachers and reasonable sized classrooms. One parent will be WFH and one will work in the Pentagon. Our plan is to first decide on the preferred school and then find housing (recognizing the dynamics around in-bound requirements).
If you were in our shoes, where would you choose?
Interested in the thoughts of the collective...
We are moving back to DC after a few years away. We have one child who will be in 1st grade. We previously lived in both DC and VA (Alexandria) prior to becoming parents. We are looking for a great public school with a real neighborhood feel -- committed community, ability for kids to walk or bike to school, experienced teachers and reasonable sized classrooms. One parent will be WFH and one will work in the Pentagon. Our plan is to first decide on the preferred school and then find housing (recognizing the dynamics around in-bound requirements).
If you were in our shoes, where would you choose?