I would go with Whittier hands down. Truesdell has high staff turnover. While West has an amazing school staff the building is very old. There's no telling how much mold or other arial bacteria floating in the air due to the old filters and pipes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whittier parent here. I agree with the advice to go with your neighborhood school. I also agree with PP that the West principal is great; Whittier's principal is also incredible and works very hard to meet the needs of all of our families.

Truesdell recently got a new principal that I haven't met yet. Their families and staff turn out for advocacy activities. Both Whittier and Truesdell successfully lobbied to get moved up on the modernization schedule in the Mayor's budget. Meanwhile West is getting a brand new building for this fall--great for them!

If you email me at whittierdc.pto@gmail.com, I can put you in touch with parents at any of the schools. You don't mention the grade but I'm assuming PK3?

When is the Whittier modernization planned for?

The current budget proposal has design starting at the end of 2024 and completion for August 2027. Still way too far off, but it's better than it was... CM Janeese Lewis George has been working hard on it, and the parents ran a well-organized campaign

Thanks! And is there a plan yet for where kids will go during the modernization?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whittier parent here. I agree with the advice to go with your neighborhood school. I also agree with PP that the West principal is great; Whittier's principal is also incredible and works very hard to meet the needs of all of our families.

Truesdell recently got a new principal that I haven't met yet. Their families and staff turn out for advocacy activities. Both Whittier and Truesdell successfully lobbied to get moved up on the modernization schedule in the Mayor's budget. Meanwhile West is getting a brand new building for this fall--great for them!

If you email me at whittierdc.pto@gmail.com, I can put you in touch with parents at any of the schools. You don't mention the grade but I'm assuming PK3?

When is the Whittier modernization planned for?

The current budget proposal has design starting at the end of 2024 and completion for August 2027. Still way too far off, but it's better than it was... CM Janeese Lewis George has been working hard on it, and the parents ran a well-organized campaign

Anonymous wrote:Whittier parent here. I agree with the advice to go with your neighborhood school. I also agree with PP that the West principal is great; Whittier's principal is also incredible and works very hard to meet the needs of all of our families.

Truesdell recently got a new principal that I haven't met yet. Their families and staff turn out for advocacy activities. Both Whittier and Truesdell successfully lobbied to get moved up on the modernization schedule in the Mayor's budget. Meanwhile West is getting a brand new building for this fall--great for them!

If you email me at whittierdc.pto@gmail.com, I can put you in touch with parents at any of the schools. You don't mention the grade but I'm assuming PK3?

When is the Whittier modernization planned for?

OP, it's not clear to me if you're looking for a school just for pre-k4 or if you're looking for an option that you could stay at for elementary instead of Lafayette. If it's just next year, it truly doesn't matter. If you're looking to avoid Lafayette, then pick whichever one you get a better vibe from and/or is more convenient. I agree both are more similar than different, though I wonder if the Wells feed for Whittier will help retention in the upper grades.

Anonymous wrote:Original poster here:

This is all very wonderful feedback. I'm truly grateful!

My son will be starting Prek 4 and all of these schools are actually OB for us. Currently we are enrolled at Whittier and on the waitlist at West. Excited about both those awesome schools! We did decline enrollment at Truesdell.

IB is Lafayette and we won't get a slot this year for Prek 4.

To be honest, I'm totally cool with that cause I'm really digging all these other options! I'm a product of Lafayette graduate myself, so I have a soft spot for it but... things seem a bit intense at Lafayette and I don't know if I want any part of that.

Thanks again for the advice!

If you are doing Lafayette eventually, it doesn't reallymatter which preschool you choose. Go for the most convenient.

Original poster here:

This is all very wonderful feedback. I'm truly grateful!

My son will be starting Prek 4 and all of these schools are actually OB for us. Currently we are enrolled at Whittier and on the waitlist at West. Excited about both those awesome schools! We did decline enrollment at Truesdell.

IB is Lafayette and we won't get a slot this year for Prek 4.

To be honest, I'm totally cool with that cause I'm really digging all these other options! I'm a product of Lafayette graduate myself, so I have a soft spot for it but... things seem a bit intense at Lafayette and I don't know if I want any part of that.

Thanks again for the advice!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d pick Whittier or West over Truesdell, personally. Agree with PP that they both have more “momentum.” I think West has nicer facilities than Whittier—it was renovated recently, right?—but ultimately I’d pick whichever was closer to my house because I doubt the differences between the two are that significant.

I wonder why Truesdell still isn’t getting more “neighborhood buy-in” (from the gentrifier set, that is - it’s got plenty of buy-in from the local Latino community). We attended for two years of PK a few years ago (OOB), and my kid was the only non-Hispanic white kid in the class. The principal seemed great and had a stellar reputation, even on this board. The PK teachers were great. We didn’t stay because we eventually moved on to our IB, but I am surprised that the school doesn’t seem to change along with the neighborhood like others are.

I'm the PP that's in-bound for Truesdell. I think it's a few things. First, as another PP said, they've "never heard one parent speak positively about truesdell." That doesn't mean people speak negatively or that there's anything wrong with the school at all, but when you hear ZERO about the school and never see kids in those distinctive purple uniforms on the playground, it's easy to fall into the line of thinking that "nobody" goes there so of course you wouldn't go there either. The neighborhood is also the land of charters - there are so many it's almost impossible not to get a match SOMEWHERE that gives you "something more" than a neighborhood DCPS that nobody knows anything about. Breakthrough for Montessori, Sela and Bethune for immersion, EL Haynes and Capital City for the alluring though unlikely path through middle school, plus the Center Cities, CMI, Bridges, and of course DCB, LAMB, YY, etc. I think what happens in these kind of neighborhoods is that some schools get neighborhood buy in faster, and some schools just get left behind (Brightwood and Height are similar to Truesdell in that regard).

Whittier parent here. I agree with the advice to go with your neighborhood school. I also agree with PP that the West principal is great; Whittier's principal is also incredible and works very hard to meet the needs of all of our families.

Truesdell recently got a new principal that I haven't met yet. Their families and staff turn out for advocacy activities. Both Whittier and Truesdell successfully lobbied to get moved up on the modernization schedule in the Mayor's budget. Meanwhile West is getting a brand new building for this fall--great for them!

If you email me at whittierdc.pto@gmail.com, I can put you in touch with parents at any of the schools. You don't mention the grade but I'm assuming PK3?

Which one is your neighborhood school? I would choose that one. I think they are all strong options for prek.

Anonymous wrote:I’d pick Whittier or West over Truesdell, personally. Agree with PP that they both have more “momentum.” I think West has nicer facilities than Whittier—it was renovated recently, right?—but ultimately I’d pick whichever was closer to my house because I doubt the differences between the two are that significant.

I wonder why Truesdell still isn’t getting more “neighborhood buy-in” (from the gentrifier set, that is - it’s got plenty of buy-in from the local Latino community). We attended for two years of PK a few years ago (OOB), and my kid was the only non-Hispanic white kid in the class. The principal seemed great and had a stellar reputation, even on this board. The PK teachers were great. We didn’t stay because we eventually moved on to our IB, but I am surprised that the school doesn’t seem to change along with the neighborhood like others are.

I’d pick Whittier or West over Truesdell, personally. Agree with PP that they both have more “momentum.” I think West has nicer facilities than Whittier—it was renovated recently, right?—but ultimately I’d pick whichever was closer to my house because I doubt the differences between the two are that significant.

100% hands down West. First, the principal is incredible. Her energy, how she knows kids by name, her excitement is unmatched. The campus is opening this fall and truly jaw dropping. Each early elementary class will have a door directly leading to the younger children playground, lots of outdoor space and so many cool things, huge indoor basketball court, kilm for pottery making, outdoor spaces, huge library etc. Additionally, test scores are exactly aligned to Shepherd which many here reference as a "high performing school" note that West is a title 1 school so the fact that kids are coming from lower incomes but performing on part as what many consider a high performing school with very slim margins of disadvantaged kids is a huge plus in my mind. Also, really warm, inviting and engaged community. Parents care, they know each other, they participate.

I can't speak the other schools so i guess my review is bias, however i've never heard one parent speak positively about truesdell or the other school you mentioned. we matched with tuesdell on accident and after a review of the school didn't even consider it as an option.

just my two cents not that it's worth much.

We're in bounds for Truesdell, but are Spanish speakers so prioritized that. I don't know anyone in the neighborhood, playground small talk or otherwise, that has kids at Truesdell after pre-k. I have heard from people in education that it's a good school, but doesn't seem to have community buy-in yet. Whittier and West are pretty similar, and similar to Truesdell, but have more hype in the community. I'd probably do Whittier over Truesdell since it's got more momentum and feeds into Wells, but between Whittier and West I'd choose your in-bound. Take all of that for what you will.

Can anyone give me some feedback on these schools?

Currently enrolled at Whittier and waitlisted at Truesdell and West. I'm having a hard time finding parents to talk to.

Thanks for any info!