Anonymous wrote:This is the last time I will try to resurrect this thread. Are there any current families out there?

SP resident here. I really do think for the majority (IB and OB) of the families that go to Shepherd are happy and do not find their way onto DCUM. The PTA is active, scores are high and increasing, it has IB status and has great community relationships. You will find a lot of people that apply to Shepherd are also applying to all the major WotP schools for feeder rights to Deal.

This is the last time I will try to resurrect this thread. Are there any current families out there?

Shepherd has WAY better scores that Powell and Barnard and and those schools are discussed here alot.

There is no recent information on the Shepard Park listserv except for announcements.

Anonymous wrote:I started the thread about West, also wondering why it's not a more discussed option. I wonder if maybe both are not highly sought after in part because they are on the north side of town, the opposite direction of many parents' commutes.

Shepherd and West aren't bad, just not great and that's probably why they don't garner much interest on this forum. West was one of our six picks this year for PS3, but we got into our IB (Barnard) as we expected. But, if it turned out West was our school for the next year or two, I think it would have been fine. I will offer the only personal connection I have to West, which is really not much...for the last 8 years or so we have spent lots of summer time at Upshur Pool and I remember there was one West parent booster who was always there incessently talking up the school, trying to get neighborhood buy-in, etc. After a while it started to feel like one of those situtation where the harder someone pushed the more I realized I probably didn't want the school because if it needed so much "selling" then what exactly was wrong with the place? Anyway, that was with our first child and we got a spot for her in the school we wanted so it didn't matter.

I started the thread about West, also wondering why it's not a more discussed option. I wonder if maybe both are not highly sought after in part because they are on the north side of town, the opposite direction of many parents' commutes.

My children were at shepherd several years ago. reasons we left: poor aftercare, a lot of teachers who shouted/screamed at children (esp in aftercare), high turnover in the administration

Caveat: this info is several years old.

Do a search of DCUM. Look for the reasons people left.

I have a feeling you're not going to get the same response on a listserv as you would on an anonymous forum. Many people use it as a lottery, but I imagine mainly to feed into Deal. With it's IB status, decent (better than most EoTP schools) scores and feeder school, I would think that it would be a whole lot more popluar than I hear on DCUM. So what's the skinny?

There's probably a Shepherd Park listserve. Another idea is to get yourself on a listserve that relates to Deal so maybe you can tap into families who recently attended.

No one has any current information?

Bump

I am also very curious for a response. We just moved into the neighborhood last month and wondering if we can hear from parents. We currently attend a charter, but would love to attend out neighborhood school if its a good option for our rising 1st grader.

And it feeds to Deal (for now) so that's a huge bonus. My kids don't go there, but I've always heard pretty good things.

It looks like my kid got a low wait list number at shepherd for PK and I would love to hear from current parents. The scores there are better than almost every other east of the park school, but you don't hear that much about it. Anyone with current feedback?