Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I go to another charter school and have to say, this is why people dislike charter school parents.

It is NOT a neighborhood school. Sorry that you may get more Bloomingdale families and have to "gasp" be neighborly with them for your play dates.

If you want a neighborhood school, go to one.

OP here, I don't care if people dislike me as a new charter school parent. I have spent the last three years with one DC in a private and had to trek all over DC and Maryland to play dates and birthday parties and quite frankly, I am sick of it. I have absolutely no more interest in trekking to any location east of Georgia Avenue for play dates and parties. I have no energy to give to this and will not apologize for it. I have friends in Bloomingdale and our kids go to the same school but we NEVER do playdates. On the other hand, I regularly see my friends who are in Mt Pleasant because it is effortless. With my work schedule and my kids school schedule, I will not apologize for wanting one aspect of my life to be easy. Further, I have found that kids tend to develop closer relationships with kids they can hook up with in the blink of an eye for an impromptu outing to a park. That can't happen if the kid lives on the Hill and I am on the other side of D.C. If my in bound DCPS were a viable option, you can bet I would choose it, but at the end of the day it is not and very few people in my neighborhood even send their kids to our in-bound DCPS.

seriously, OP, you need to take a chill pill. and maybe re-priortize some things in your life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I go to another charter school and have to say, this is why people dislike charter school parents.

It is NOT a neighborhood school. Sorry that you may get more Bloomingdale families and have to "gasp" be neighborly with them for your play dates.

If you want a neighborhood school, go to one.

OP here, I don't care if people dislike me as a new charter school parent. I have spent the last three years with one DC in a private and had to trek all over DC and Maryland to play dates and birthday parties and quite frankly, I am sick of it. I have absolutely no more interest in trekking to any location east of Georgia Avenue for play dates and parties. I have no energy to give to this and will not apologize for it. I have friends in Bloomingdale and our kids go to the same school but we NEVER do playdates. On the other hand, I regularly see my friends who are in Mt Pleasant because it is effortless. With my work schedule and my kids school schedule, I will not apologize for wanting one aspect of my life to be easy. Further, I have found that kids tend to develop closer relationships with kids they can hook up with in the blink of an eye for an impromptu outing to a park. That can't happen if the kid lives on the Hill and I am on the other side of D.C. If my in bound DCPS were a viable option, you can bet I would choose it, but at the end of the day it is not and very few people in my neighborhood even send their kids to our in-bound DCPS.

So you are upset b/c your child got a spot at MV - but it's moving to a location that is inconvenient for you? But your in-bound DCPS is not acceptable. You sound really entitled. Give up your spot at MV since the commute is such a hardship for you and pay for private.

So then why on earth are you going to MV? Is it the only school you got into? Or was this just a hypothetical?

Anonymous wrote:OP, I go to another charter school and have to say, this is why people dislike charter school parents.

It is NOT a neighborhood school. Sorry that you may get more Bloomingdale families and have to "gasp" be neighborly with them for your play dates.

If you want a neighborhood school, go to one.

OP here, I don't care if people dislike me as a new charter school parent. I have spent the last three years with one DC in a private and had to trek all over DC and Maryland to play dates and birthday parties and quite frankly, I am sick of it. I have absolutely no more interest in trekking to any location east of Georgia Avenue for play dates and parties. I have no energy to give to this and will not apologize for it. I have friends in Bloomingdale and our kids go to the same school but we NEVER do playdates. On the other hand, I regularly see my friends who are in Mt Pleasant because it is effortless. With my work schedule and my kids school schedule, I will not apologize for wanting one aspect of my life to be easy. Further, I have found that kids tend to develop closer relationships with kids they can hook up with in the blink of an eye for an impromptu outing to a park. That can't happen if the kid lives on the Hill and I am on the other side of D.C. If my in bound DCPS were a viable option, you can bet I would choose it, but at the end of the day it is not and very few people in my neighborhood even send their kids to our in-bound DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I go to another charter school and have to say, this is why people dislike charter school parents.

It is NOT a neighborhood school. Sorry that you may get more Bloomingdale families and have to "gasp" be neighborly with them for your play dates.

If you want a neighborhood school, go to one.

Exactly.

Anonymous wrote:Really tough to call this one. My money is on:

1) a lot of current families will stay through the move, because they like the school and have grown attached to it. Some small number will leave due to the move (they will either lottery into another charter closer to home, lottery into DCPS, or go DCPS if they have a good IB option).

2) for new families entering PK3, a lot of Mt Pleasant families will choose Bancroft or DC bilingual instead. (Same goes for Creative Minds, when it moves next year)

3) CoHi, Crestwood, Petworth, AdMo families may continue to choose MV or may begin to prefer IB options. It depends how they evaluate their IB options and also DC bilingual or LAMB vs MV. I suspect Powell will get a lot of attention, maybe Tubman too? HD Cooke also seems to be getting more interest.

4) WOTP families will choose MV less and less - that is a long and bad commute.

5) latino population will drop steadily at MV because DC is only 10% latino whereas CoHi, Mt Pleasant is 25% latino (approx?). MV is moving from the single highest concentration of latinos in the District to one of the lowest. Latino population of Bloomingdale was zero in the 2010 census, I believe. I know that's just one of the neighborhoods.

6) too close to call on white versus African American demographics or wealthy vs FARMS because both MV's old location and its new location have lots of both (black and white, rich and poor)

My main assumption underpinning all of this is that location does matter to a lot of parents for ES but it's not absolute. So overall, over time, I expect gradually fewer Crestwood/Mt Pleasant/Co Hi parents and gradually more from near the new location.

Bloomingdale demographics have changed quite dramatically since the 2010 census even though it's only been 4 years. I personally know several Latino families in Bloomingdale so it's certainly not "zero".

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, been to Noma or Ledroit Pk lately either? This question is obnoxious on too many levels to answer!

+1. Long time Bloomingdale resident here. Yes, there are few Latinos in our neighborhood, but it's a wonderful, diverse (in all senses of the word) community with many young families. When I moved to my block there were two families with kids, now there are more than a dozen all with kids under 5 and most under 3. It's a very active, friendly community with strong ties between neighbors, particularly those with kids.

OP, I go to another charter school and have to say, this is why people dislike charter school parents.

It is NOT a neighborhood school. Sorry that you may get more Bloomingdale families and have to "gasp" be neighborly with them for your play dates.

If you want a neighborhood school, go to one.

Really tough to call this one. My money is on:

1) a lot of current families will stay through the move, because they like the school and have grown attached to it. Some small number will leave due to the move (they will either lottery into another charter closer to home, lottery into DCPS, or go DCPS if they have a good IB option).

2) for new families entering PK3, a lot of Mt Pleasant families will choose Bancroft or DC bilingual instead. (Same goes for Creative Minds, when it moves next year)

3) CoHi, Crestwood, Petworth, AdMo families may continue to choose MV or may begin to prefer IB options. It depends how they evaluate their IB options and also DC bilingual or LAMB vs MV. I suspect Powell will get a lot of attention, maybe Tubman too? HD Cooke also seems to be getting more interest.

4) WOTP families will choose MV less and less - that is a long and bad commute.

5) latino population will drop steadily at MV because DC is only 10% latino whereas CoHi, Mt Pleasant is 25% latino (approx?). MV is moving from the single highest concentration of latinos in the District to one of the lowest. Latino population of Bloomingdale was zero in the 2010 census, I believe. I know that's just one of the neighborhoods.

6) too close to call on white versus African American demographics or wealthy vs FARMS because both MV's old location and its new location have lots of both (black and white, rich and poor)

My main assumption underpinning all of this is that location does matter to a lot of parents for ES but it's not absolute. So overall, over time, I expect gradually fewer Crestwood/Mt Pleasant/Co Hi parents and gradually more from near the new location.

NP here - I know at least 5 Hill families starting at MV next year, none of whom would have applied before b/c of the commute. They are all high SES but fairly diverse in terms of race and religion.

I think of MV's new location as similar to Two Rivers. Both are well regarded charters. But do Mt. Pleasant residents send their kids to Two Rivers? No. Did Mt. Pleasant residents follow Cap City's move? Some have. So the answer is -- current MV parents will/may follow the school; but prospective MV parents living in Mt. Pleasant won't.

OP here, PP you assume to much and are bringing your own biases into my question. The question of high and low ses is separate from the question of Latinos and separate from the question of neighborhoods. But at the end of the day all of these aspects make a school what it is and if diversity is something important to you (both racially and economic diversity), then these questions are important, not obnoxious.

Yeah, been to Noma or Ledroit Pk lately either? This question is obnoxious on too many levels to answer!

There will be more kids from the new neighborhood, of course. This does not, by the way, necessarily equal lower SES. Have you been to Bloomingdale recently? The school is trying to ensure a high Latino percentage. However, MV will not be a mt pleasant neighborhood school, if that is what you are looking for.

It seems that now there are a number of children from Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, Crestwood, and neighborhoods WOTP. It also seems that a number of children from these neighborhoods are higher SES given the FARMS rate. Do you think this will change with the move? Will people from those neighborhoods continue to seek entry into MV or will it become a Bloomingdale/Ledroit/Truxton Circle/NOMA dominant sort of school? Will proximity to lower SES neighborhoods mean an increase in the FARMS rates? Will the latino population remain the same or will it end up decreasing given the low concentration of Latinos in MV's new location? What do you think? Note: I have no statistics to back up the perceived rate of High SES vs low SES in the neighborhoods cited. My concern is that although MV is a charter and not a neighborhood school, in light of where I live (near Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, Crestwood, and neighborhoods WOTP), it is still somewhat neighborhoody for my DC because of where the other families come from. So playdates and outings will not be a hassle. On the other hand, if there is an influx of families from MV's new location, this will change things. Another post re: choosing local DCPS over charter has got me thinking seriously about this aspect.