South Arlington Parent, so I’ll bite.

What are the “big 3” private schools ?

OP: If you were just looking at a house zoned for this school; by the time you finish reading the responses it will probably be gone.

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown, Discovery and Nottingham are all APS elementaries with wealthy families because their attendance zones have no apartments. It’s all single family homes. And most homes are around a million dollars. So you have educated, wealthy parents who can afford to enrich their kid’s lives with trips, exposure to culture like plays and museums, summer camps, classes, sports, and tutors.

Ha ha, right. You mean home prices start at a million dollars.

Jamestown, Discovery and Nottingham are all APS elementaries with wealthy families because their attendance zones have no apartments. It’s all single family homes. And most homes are around a million dollars. So you have educated, wealthy parents who can afford to enrich their kid’s lives with trips, exposure to culture like plays and museums, summer camps, classes, sports, and tutors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown is essentially a private school for parents who can’t quite afford the real thing. The school auction takes place at Washington Golf every year and the parents try to outdo each other with gross displays of money. The dads tend to be 10-15 years older than the wives, and the wives are vapid and catty. We moved to get away from that scene.

Trust me, they can afford the real thing. What keeps them there is the excellent academics and teachers. Most of the families/kids I know that go there love it.

Oh. My. God.

Jamestown is a public school like any other. And trust me, most of them can’t afford 40K per kid for 13 years, and if they could without cutting back, they would in a heartbeat.

No, it isn't and hasn't been for a long time. It's the one school in Arlington where I do think that many of the families could pretty easily go private if they wanted. I personally know several families there whose parents make millions of dollars a year. You really don't see that anywhere else in Arlington public elementary schools. It's why we didn't send our kids there. Honestly.

I don’t doubt that you know several families there who make in the seven figures, and that is quite unique for public school. But what you fail to grasp is how unbelievably common that is at the 40K privates! Honestly our HHI is that high (well into 7 figures) and we feel average / comfortable at our kids 40K private,
(not a big 3!) compared to all those with significant family money or 8 figure incomes.

My point is I think it’s embarrassing to act like a public school is “essentially a private school”. No. No, it is not. Ridiculous!

How do I put this? I'm wealthy. Most of the families I know put their kids in private. And, yes, the ones I know are wealthy. But they're no wealthier than the Jamestown parents who I also know.

And Jamestown is probably a better school than a non-Big 3 private anyway.

Totally ridiculous, though I wouldn't be surprised if your attitude reflects that of many Jamestown parents: that their PUBLIC is a better school than not only every other public, but the vast majority of private schools in the DC area.

This seems like a hard argument to make in the best of times, but during covid it seems particularly absurd, given that my kids' private school has been in person, with its routine 12-14 kids per class, this entire academic year.

Anyway I'm not typically one to argue that private is always better than public - it's not, depending on the school and the kid - but NO PUBLIC SCHOOL IS EXCLUSIVE, by definition (and no, needing to buy real estate or rent in the right area does not make a school "exclusive"!). Also, literally no public school provides anything like what the expensive privates do. I've seen the Jamestown campus (can you even call it a campus?). It's just *not* on par with a good DC area private school.

Spoken like a true second tier private school parent. When you can't talk about academics, you talk about the "campus."

Jamestown is most definitely not like private. Private schools were open all year, at least the ones I know people at. Jamestown shit the bed like every other APS public school. No teaching in spring, literally 15 minutes a week with a K teacher who literally wouldn’t even provide a suggested reading list. And awful DL that utterly inappropriate for first graders. Total disappointment. #racetothebottom #howarlingtondoesequity

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown is essentially a private school for parents who can’t quite afford the real thing. The school auction takes place at Washington Golf every year and the parents try to outdo each other with gross displays of money. The dads tend to be 10-15 years older than the wives, and the wives are vapid and catty. We moved to get away from that scene.

Trust me, they can afford the real thing. What keeps them there is the excellent academics and teachers. Most of the families/kids I know that go there love it.

Oh. My. God.

Jamestown is a public school like any other. And trust me, most of them can’t afford 40K per kid for 13 years, and if they could without cutting back, they would in a heartbeat.

No, it isn't and hasn't been for a long time. It's the one school in Arlington where I do think that many of the families could pretty easily go private if they wanted. I personally know several families there whose parents make millions of dollars a year. You really don't see that anywhere else in Arlington public elementary schools. It's why we didn't send our kids there. Honestly.

I don’t doubt that you know several families there who make in the seven figures, and that is quite unique for public school. But what you fail to grasp is how unbelievably common that is at the 40K privates! Honestly our HHI is that high (well into 7 figures) and we feel average / comfortable at our kids 40K private,
(not a big 3!) compared to all those with significant family money or 8 figure incomes.

My point is I think it’s embarrassing to act like a public school is “essentially a private school”. No. No, it is not. Ridiculous!

How do I put this? I'm wealthy. Most of the families I know put their kids in private. And, yes, the ones I know are wealthy. But they're no wealthier than the Jamestown parents who I also know.

And Jamestown is probably a better school than a non-Big 3 private anyway.

Totally ridiculous, though I wouldn't be surprised if your attitude reflects that of many Jamestown parents: that their PUBLIC is a better school than not only every other public, but the vast majority of private schools in the DC area.

This seems like a hard argument to make in the best of times, but during covid it seems particularly absurd, given that my kids' private school has been in person, with its routine 12-14 kids per class, this entire academic year.

Anyway I'm not typically one to argue that private is always better than public - it's not, depending on the school and the kid - but NO PUBLIC SCHOOL IS EXCLUSIVE, by definition (and no, needing to buy real estate or rent in the right area does not make a school "exclusive"!). Also, literally no public school provides anything like what the expensive privates do. I've seen the Jamestown campus (can you even call it a campus?). It's just *not* on par with a good DC area private school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown is essentially a private school for parents who can’t quite afford the real thing. The school auction takes place at Washington Golf every year and the parents try to outdo each other with gross displays of money. The dads tend to be 10-15 years older than the wives, and the wives are vapid and catty. We moved to get away from that scene.

Trust me, they can afford the real thing. What keeps them there is the excellent academics and teachers. Most of the families/kids I know that go there love it.

Oh. My. God.

Jamestown is a public school like any other. And trust me, most of them can’t afford 40K per kid for 13 years, and if they could without cutting back, they would in a heartbeat.

No, it isn't and hasn't been for a long time. It's the one school in Arlington where I do think that many of the families could pretty easily go private if they wanted. I personally know several families there whose parents make millions of dollars a year. You really don't see that anywhere else in Arlington public elementary schools. It's why we didn't send our kids there. Honestly.

I don’t doubt that you know several families there who make in the seven figures, and that is quite unique for public school. But what you fail to grasp is how unbelievably common that is at the 40K privates! Honestly our HHI is that high (well into 7 figures) and we feel average / comfortable at our kids 40K private,
(not a big 3!) compared to all those with significant family money or 8 figure incomes.

My point is I think it’s embarrassing to act like a public school is “essentially a private school”. No. No, it is not. Ridiculous!

How do I put this? I'm wealthy. Most of the families I know put their kids in private. And, yes, the ones I know are wealthy. But they're no wealthier than the Jamestown parents who I also know.

And Jamestown is probably a better school than a non-Big 3 private anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown is essentially a private school for parents who can’t quite afford the real thing. The school auction takes place at Washington Golf every year and the parents try to outdo each other with gross displays of money. The dads tend to be 10-15 years older than the wives, and the wives are vapid and catty. We moved to get away from that scene.

Very little of this is true. I didn’t know any mismatched age couples there. The women are not vapid and catty (sexist much, PP?) I met a couple of nice stay at home dads, in fact. That said, I did encounter a few snobby moms, but most were parents were lovely. My child made really good friends there. I only did the auction once because it wasn’t my scene. No big deal. I prefer Jamestown over the other close by elementary we were at before.

I agree with you. But the first sentence is at least partially true. It's a very exclusive public school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown is essentially a private school for parents who can’t quite afford the real thing. The school auction takes place at Washington Golf every year and the parents try to outdo each other with gross displays of money. The dads tend to be 10-15 years older than the wives, and the wives are vapid and catty. We moved to get away from that scene.

Trust me, they can afford the real thing. What keeps them there is the excellent academics and teachers. Most of the families/kids I know that go there love it.

Oh. My. God.

Jamestown is a public school like any other. And trust me, most of them can’t afford 40K per kid for 13 years, and if they could without cutting back, they would in a heartbeat.

No, it isn't and hasn't been for a long time. It's the one school in Arlington where I do think that many of the families could pretty easily go private if they wanted. I personally know several families there whose parents make millions of dollars a year. You really don't see that anywhere else in Arlington public elementary schools. It's why we didn't send our kids there. Honestly.

I don’t doubt that you know several families there who make in the seven figures, and that is quite unique for public school. But what you fail to grasp is how unbelievably common that is at the 40K privates! Honestly our HHI is that high (well into 7 figures) and we feel average / comfortable at our kids 40K private,
(not a big 3!) compared to all those with significant family money or 8 figure incomes.

My point is I think it’s embarrassing to act like a public school is “essentially a private school”. No. No, it is not. Ridiculous!

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown is essentially a private school for parents who can’t quite afford the real thing. The school auction takes place at Washington Golf every year and the parents try to outdo each other with gross displays of money. The dads tend to be 10-15 years older than the wives, and the wives are vapid and catty. We moved to get away from that scene.

Very little of this is true. I didn’t know any mismatched age couples there. The women are not vapid and catty (sexist much, PP?) I met a couple of nice stay at home dads, in fact. That said, I did encounter a few snobby moms, but most were parents were lovely. My child made really good friends there. I only did the auction once because it wasn’t my scene. No big deal. I prefer Jamestown over the other close by elementary we were at before.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown is essentially a private school for parents who can’t quite afford the real thing. The school auction takes place at Washington Golf every year and the parents try to outdo each other with gross displays of money. The dads tend to be 10-15 years older than the wives, and the wives are vapid and catty. We moved to get away from that scene.

Trust me, they can afford the real thing. What keeps them there is the excellent academics and teachers. Most of the families/kids I know that go there love it.

Oh. My. God.

Jamestown is a public school like any other. And trust me, most of them can’t afford 40K per kid for 13 years, and if they could without cutting back, they would in a heartbeat.

No, it isn't and hasn't been for a long time. It's the one school in Arlington where I do think that many of the families could pretty easily go private if they wanted. I personally know several families there whose parents make millions of dollars a year. You really don't see that anywhere else in Arlington public elementary schools. It's why we didn't send our kids there. Honestly.

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids had played sports with a lot of Jamestown kids. The kids and the families are super nice. Don’t know anything about the school or the administration, but I’ve never met anyone that has rubbed me the wrong way.

+1 my kid didn’t go to Jamestown but played on teams with a bunch of kids there. The kids and the parents were all super nice and friendly.

One of my kids had played sports with a lot of Jamestown kids. The kids and the families are super nice. Don’t know anything about the school or the administration, but I’ve never met anyone that has rubbed me the wrong way.

Anonymous wrote:Jamestown is essentially a private school for parents who can’t quite afford the real thing. The school auction takes place at Washington Golf every year and the parents try to outdo each other with gross displays of money. The dads tend to be 10-15 years older than the wives, and the wives are vapid and catty. We moved to get away from that scene.

Please. We don’t go to Jamestown, but this is ridiculous. I know probably a dozen families there, and all of the dads are similarly aged to the moms.