Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 14:07     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Is having a more exciting neighborhood more important than having good schools?
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 14:03     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:My husband used to commute to a job near the pentagon from Mt Pleasant. It was pretty miserable, 395 gets super backed up heading into DC. If you can find a place zoned for Lyon Park elementary in Arlington, that has a nice community, is walkable and is a short commute to the pentagon.

The Pentagon has a metro stop, so any place near a metro could work if you’re OK using metro.
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 13:57     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We don't know your budget. Knowing it would help.

Capitol Hill is a snore and once you get past the elementary school level things get dicey.

Mt Pleasant is awesome but expensive.

The rest of the Deal/JR zones might as well be the strip mall suburbs. No thanks.

One suggestion would be Del Ray in Alexandria. That's a real neighborhood. White folks on DCUM don't like the schools there -- too brown for them -- but there as good as any neighborhood school in DC. If your kid is a fit for JR they're a fit for Alexandria High School.


Capitol Hill is a snore? Maybe if you're in your 20s... but even then, H Street & Union Market within walking distance is hardly a snore.


Yawn. Capitol Hill does not compare to NW.


This has to be someone who has never spent time in Capitol Hill. There are a few parts of NW I like a lot (including Cleveland Park and the area around the Eaton IB), but from my house in CH, I can walk to Union Market, H Street and Eastern Market in 20 minutes; the idea that Palisades or Spring Valley or Forest Hills is less of a “snore” is literally insane. There are many places where you can’t walk to anything other than a single road of random shops in 20 minutes.
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 13:55     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
My husband used to commute to a job near the pentagon from Mt Pleasant. It was pretty miserable, 395 gets super backed up heading into DC. If you can find a place zoned for Lyon Park elementary in Arlington, that has a nice community, is walkable and is a short commute to the pentagon.
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 13:35     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DCUM hivemind:

Interested in the thoughts of the collective...

We are moving back to DC after a few years away. We have one child who will be in 1st grade. We previously lived in both DC and VA (Alexandria) prior to becoming parents. We are looking for a great public school with a real neighborhood feel -- committed community, ability for kids to walk or bike to school, experienced teachers and reasonable sized classrooms. One parent will be WFH and one will work in the Pentagon. Our plan is to first decide on the preferred school and then find housing (recognizing the dynamics around in-bound requirements).

If you were in our shoes, where would you choose?


The obvious choice: Ross.


Definitely.
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 13:32     Subject: Re:Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
John Eaton, hands down, best place for so many reasons, especially staff and families
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 13:06     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:We don't know your budget. Knowing it would help.

Capitol Hill is a snore and once you get past the elementary school level things get dicey.

Mt Pleasant is awesome but expensive.

The rest of the Deal/JR zones might as well be the strip mall suburbs. No thanks.

One suggestion would be Del Ray in Alexandria. That's a real neighborhood. White folks on DCUM don't like the schools there -- too brown for them -- but there as good as any neighborhood school in DC. If your kid is a fit for JR they're a fit for Alexandria High School.


Seems nuts to say Capitol Hill is a snore and then suggest Del Ray.

I don’t mind Del Ray, but it’s not exciting and certainly far more of a snore than the heart of Capitol Hill and also how close you are to H Street and other downtown places.
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 13:03     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We really like Maury, near Lincoln Park. Ticks all the boxes you mention and easy commute to Pentagon via 695/395. We also wanted small classes and a tight knit feel and it’s been great. Only downside is the feeder pattern - middle school is fine (people vary on this but the number of people from Maury sending kids there is increasingly significantly each year, so would be even better by the time your kid gets there) but high school is a no for almost everyone.


Where do the kids go for HS?


Eastern. It could be a whole different situation by the time OP’s kid gets to 9th grade but right now the zoned MS is finally getting significant buy in but as far as I’m aware very few people are currently seeing Eastern as a viable HS choice.


I have been on CH for decades. Raised kids on CH. Currently have kid in charter for MS and one in application HS. Lottery and application luck has worked out for us. But the post above has been said by parents on CH since the day we moved in.

If your kid is already in 1st grade and you are not planning on private as a backup, moving to CH is parental malpractice. I know this won't be well received by DCUM CH folks, but it is truth. The stress of not knowing what to do for MS, of applying to Latin and BASIS for 5th (undermining the "community" aspect), of getting to 7th or 8th grade and wondering is you have sentenced your kid to Eastern HS, it all happens fast.

I love my house. I love my neighborhood. But if I was moving to DC with a 1st grader I'd sure as heck be moving IB for Deal/JR or Hardy/MacArthur.


I know several families that chose the IB program at Eastern. They seem to be reasonably happy with it.

Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 12:14     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
disagree. the capitol hill middle schools are okay (arguably better than upper elementary was in at least some respects). the middle school years go super fast, but people who stayed dcps through 8th mostly ended up at a mix of dcps application and private high schools. buy-in at eastern is slowly growing but its far from the only option.
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 10:36     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We really like Maury, near Lincoln Park. Ticks all the boxes you mention and easy commute to Pentagon via 695/395. We also wanted small classes and a tight knit feel and it’s been great. Only downside is the feeder pattern - middle school is fine (people vary on this but the number of people from Maury sending kids there is increasingly significantly each year, so would be even better by the time your kid gets there) but high school is a no for almost everyone.


Where do the kids go for HS?


Eastern. It could be a whole different situation by the time OP’s kid gets to 9th grade but right now the zoned MS is finally getting significant buy in but as far as I’m aware very few people are currently seeing Eastern as a viable HS choice.


I have been on CH for decades. Raised kids on CH. Currently have kid in charter for MS and one in application HS. Lottery and application luck has worked out for us. But the post above has been said by parents on CH since the day we moved in.

If your kid is already in 1st grade and you are not planning on private as a backup, moving to CH is parental malpractice. I know this won't be well received by DCUM CH folks, but it is truth. The stress of not knowing what to do for MS, of applying to Latin and BASIS for 5th (undermining the "community" aspect), of getting to 7th or 8th grade and wondering is you have sentenced your kid to Eastern HS, it all happens fast.

I love my house. I love my neighborhood. But if I was moving to DC with a 1st grader I'd sure as heck be moving IB for Deal/JR or Hardy/MacArthur.
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 09:56     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We don't know your budget. Knowing it would help.

Capitol Hill is a snore and once you get past the elementary school level things get dicey.

Mt Pleasant is awesome but expensive.

The rest of the Deal/JR zones might as well be the strip mall suburbs. No thanks.

One suggestion would be Del Ray in Alexandria. That's a real neighborhood. White folks on DCUM don't like the schools there -- too brown for them -- but there as good as any neighborhood school in DC. If your kid is a fit for JR they're a fit for Alexandria High School.


You think MtP is expensive but suggest Del Ray?


S/he thinks MtP is expensive but not Capitol Hill?
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 09:49     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Budget is very important here.

The Capitol Hill elementary schools are great— Ludlow-Taylor, Maury, Chisholm, Payne, Brent (though they’re in a swing space for 2 years), and the neighborhood is wonderful. But your money is not going to go as far as the burbs and you’ll have less space. The trade off (particularly commute/walking/proximity to H, Eastern Market, downtown) is worth it to many but it’s pricey.
Anonymous
Post 09/28/2025 06:16     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We don't know your budget. Knowing it would help.

Capitol Hill is a snore and once you get past the elementary school level things get dicey.

Mt Pleasant is awesome but expensive.

The rest of the Deal/JR zones might as well be the strip mall suburbs. No thanks.

One suggestion would be Del Ray in Alexandria. That's a real neighborhood. White folks on DCUM don't like the schools there -- too brown for them -- but there as good as any neighborhood school in DC. If your kid is a fit for JR they're a fit for Alexandria High School.


You think MtP is expensive but suggest Del Ray?


You think all of the Red Line DC neighborhoods feel like strip malls and suburbs but somehow Del Ray — literal definition of a suburb— doesn”t?
Anonymous
Post 09/27/2025 22:57     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
since the yellow line is going to go further north in a few months, Mt. P to the Pentagon will be an easier commute than most of Upper NW...you can walk to Columbia Heights and have a straight shot. But if you don't want Spanish immersion it's not a good fit. Also, if the parent working at the Pentagon is coming in as a political, there may be a mismatch in values between most Bancroft families and the OP's.
Anonymous
Post 09/27/2025 22:29     Subject: Top public elementary with neighborhood feel?
OP asked about the quality of the school and school community, not whether you think a neighborhood is boring or not. What does that have to do with the OP?