Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm sorry so many responses have been nasty. In your situation, I would see if enrolling your 10th grader at Eastern for the IB program is an option. For your 4th grader, see if Chisholm and Stokes East End has any openings if Spanish immersion is important to you. Other options would be the Hill elementary schools (minus Brent because of the swing space issue). Thomson (downtown) is also decent and has a viable.middle school path.

Here's the short waitlist website: https://www.myschooldc.org/short-waitlists

I’m assuming OP’s 4th grader has no spanish background. If so, I would not start a 4th grader in am immersion program. Bad idea.

OP, I'm sorry so many responses have been nasty. In your situation, I would see if enrolling your 10th grader at Eastern for the IB program is an option. For your 4th grader, see if Chisholm and Stokes East End has any openings if Spanish immersion is important to you. Other options would be the Hill elementary schools (minus Brent because of the swing space issue). Thomson (downtown) is also decent and has a viable.middle school path.

Here's the short waitlist website: https://www.myschooldc.org/short-waitlists

The high school commute will be brutal but doable with a mix of driving and public transit. You can probably find a carpool. But you absolutely need to need to get over the idea of the best lottery option for 4th grade and move the 4th grader somewhere closer by asap - because they cannot ever commute by themselves yet and you will not be in a position to help your older child with their commute or carpool etc if you are also driving your younger child round trip to brookland 2x each day!!!

Anonymous wrote:Today (on a Tuesday - more traffic than Mondays) with a 7:45 departure Hillcrest to MacArthur was 32 minutes. Yes, there is a little less traffic in general in the summer than the school year. But lots of people here seem invested in inventing terrible traffic conditions (an hour plus driving by car each way!) that just don’t exist.

LOL! Get back to us in the fall. End of July and August is the lightest. So many people on vacation, Congress in recess, no school, etc…

Anonymous wrote:Today (on a Tuesday - more traffic than Mondays) with a 7:45 departure Hillcrest to MacArthur was 32 minutes. Yes, there is a little less traffic in general in the summer than the school year. But lots of people here seem invested in inventing terrible traffic conditions (an hour plus driving by car each way!) that just don’t exist.

Traffic was crazy light today for a Tuesday. Made it from deep SE to mid NW in half the normal time. Commute back was even easier, probably a third. August recess definitely started early this year.

Anonymous wrote:Today (on a Tuesday - more traffic than Mondays) with a 7:45 departure Hillcrest to MacArthur was 32 minutes. Yes, there is a little less traffic in general in the summer than the school year. But lots of people here seem invested in inventing terrible traffic conditions (an hour plus driving by car each way!) that just don’t exist.

What was the return trip? How does thr younger sibling get to school?

dc post-pandemic traffic with the recent government rto and everything is really terrible some days

Today (on a Tuesday - more traffic than Mondays) with a 7:45 departure Hillcrest to MacArthur was 32 minutes. Yes, there is a little less traffic in general in the summer than the school year. But lots of people here seem invested in inventing terrible traffic conditions (an hour plus driving by car each way!) that just don’t exist.

Anonymous wrote:Hillcrest to MacArthur and vice versa today at 5:20 pm was 31-33 min (each way).

This is summer, when traffic is very light. No school, lots people on vacation. It is not going to be anywhere near time above.

Also she is not going to leaving towards the end of rush hour when it’s lighter so add more time on top of the added fall time

School usually start 8:15-8:30pm and ends 4pm. So driving at the height of rush hour and same with leaving.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hillcrest to MacArthur non-rush hour is 22 minutes. Even if you double that it is not an hour.

If this is true I don't see why OP can't drive at 6:45am and 2pm. Take calls on the way.

Use the list-serve to arrange carpools.

Younger daughter still needs to get to school ..

Anonymous wrote:This may be unpopular, but here's what I'd do:

I'd put my youngest in the best, closest school I could find and drive them (if carpool works out, great).

For the 10th grader I'd enroll them in online high school and have them take classes of their choice at UDC or similar, for enrichment.

Done.

What a terrible idea. All so she can own a big SFH?

Hillcrest to MacArthur and vice versa today at 5:20 pm was 31-33 min (each way).

There is a recent DCUM post along these lines because Brent is going to swing space. There is a small concentration of SW DC families who go to Hyde-A. But I think you will find a lot of nuanced self-selection: two parents/one with a very flexible and/or part-time job or a parent who commutes in that direction for work everyday anyways etc. Hillcrest is further than this. That said, a lot of people think the DC public high school options are JR, the set of application schools, or McA. A lot of McA students are likely commuting far to get there.

Anonymous wrote:Hillcrest to MacArthur non-rush hour is 22 minutes. Even if you double that it is not an hour.

If this is true I don't see why OP can't drive at 6:45am and 2pm. Take calls on the way.

Use the list-serve to arrange carpools.

This may be unpopular, but here's what I'd do:

I'd put my youngest in the best, closest school I could find and drive them (if carpool works out, great).

For the 10th grader I'd enroll them in online high school and have them take classes of their choice at UDC or similar, for enrichment.

Done.