Anonymous wrote:Closest thing to Clinton Hill/Ft. Greene is probably Capitol Hill. You'd want to rent a rowhouse inbound for Brent or Maury elementary schools. You'll have a few years to get the lay of the land for middle school. You may have to move, eventually, but there are significant school boundary issues in play right now - nothing is certain for anyone.

Having lived in BKLYN, second this. FWIW, Columbia Heights/Mount Pleasant do as well. OP, DC will never be NYC. Will help you tremendously to embrace that as soon as you can. If you are going to be in DC for the duration, then you probably want to figure out the best possible feeder option, which would mean upper NW DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And another question...

To go somewhat off the reservation, I was noticing a lot of housing that's relatively cheap in the SW corner of DC. Is it awful down there?

Crime.

Not true. Southwest has lower crime than most of Cap Hill, Hill East, Old City and Kingman Park. What Southwest does not have is great schools (yet).

We moved from Brooklyn 3 years ago with a large dog and found a rental IB for Maury. We use Craigslist and contacted local rental agencies to help us look with a pet. We convinced two owners to accept our dog and went with the slighter larger house (2 bedrooms and den/office) for $2650. We found more rentals in the late spring/early summer on the market. We were chosen over childless couples and single roommates renters because we we perceived as more stable and wouldn't damage the house. You have to work that angle. Send pics of your animals, etc.

This was my plan! Glad it works!

I lived in NY back when Clinton Hill was still Bedstuy, so I'm wondering what the racial/socioeconomic mix is now, and what the test scores are for your current schools, and your level of comfort with a changing school environment. I imagine the schools in Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill are still on an upward trajectory performance wise? I live in Petworth and you can get a great house for your price range, but very few professional parents have 3rd graders in the local schools. That said, I don't think it's out of the question. If you are looking EOTP but not into immersion programs, I have heard good things about West, and the scores are reasonably high. I know parents with kids currently in PK and 1st grade who said they would definitely consider staying through 5th. The principal is really energetic and approachable, so definitely organize a tour for when you come out here. There is also an engaged parent group. At Powell, the draw is really the Spanish immersion track, and the highest grade that I know people with kids is 1st but all in the bilingual program. I do not know the quality of the English-only track. Again, you can definitely visit and there is an engaged parent group. Bancroft is another popular "rising" school in Mt. Pleasant, but I feel like again it is the Spanish track that is attracting the professional class. But Mt. Pleasant is an awesome neighborhood. It seem like for an English-only option I would look at West, Brent, Maury, Ross, ... I'm IB for Barnard and it seems to be an extremely well-run school with beautiful facilities, but your daughter would really be an "only" in her class. That said, I was pretty impressed with the classrooms I saw.

How do you get downtown from Glover Park? Also... price...

Anonymous wrote:And another question...

To go somewhat off the reservation, I was noticing a lot of housing that's relatively cheap in the SW corner of DC. Is it awful down there?

Crime.

Anonymous wrote:And another question...

To go somewhat off the reservation, I was noticing a lot of housing that's relatively cheap in the SW corner of DC. Is it awful down there?

Near the ballpark or north of the river? Yes, it is nice near the Waterfront metro. My single uncle lives over there in a nice building. The only issue is schools. I know a few families in that area but they all have their children at charters and private schools.

I would consider Glover Park as well.

If I had a 3rd grader I would be a lot more comfortable with Stoddert than Powell.

And another question...

To go somewhat off the reservation, I was noticing a lot of housing that's relatively cheap in the SW corner of DC. Is it awful down there?

Anonymous wrote:2 dogs. 1 cat. The dogs are both under 25 pounds. Well, okay, one is about 27 pounds, but we could not feed him for a few days. I know a lot of the corporate buildings have weight restrictions (and charge pet rent, which I wouldn't mind paying.... but not $50/month per pet...)

That was a joke.

Tennessee Ave looks great, but no pets. We have time, going to finish school year in New York. Although is summer going to be a worse time to look?

We moved from Brooklyn 3 years ago with a large dog and found a rental IB for Maury. We use Craigslist and contacted local rental agencies to help us look with a pet. We convinced two owners to accept our dog and went with the slighter larger house (2 bedrooms and den/office) for $2650. We found more rentals in the late spring/early summer on the market. We were chosen over childless couples and single roommates renters because we we perceived as more stable and wouldn't damage the house. You have to work that angle. Send pics of your animals, etc.

Ross--okay, Dupont Circle. I see. Where is SWWSX?

Anonymous wrote:I would agree with one of the previous posters and check out ross and/or swwfs. the program at ross is strong and swwfs is an up-and-coming school. A few parents from ross have switched their kids there and are happy with the direction to program is heading in. either way - they're both nice neighborhoods to be in terms of being able to walk your kids to school and then likely be able to walk to work. they don't see like kid neighborhoods compared to the hill, but you would be surprised by how many little rugrats are running around at 4pm each day.

IB for Ross at $3K/month?

And will definitely put in for lottery because it can't hurt. Although I have no idea what schools to put in for. I'm not sure where to research the charters and so many are language-based...

I would agree with one of the previous posters and check out ross and/or swwfs. the program at ross is strong and swwfs is an up-and-coming school. A few parents from ross have switched their kids there and are happy with the direction to program is heading in. either way - they're both nice neighborhoods to be in terms of being able to walk your kids to school and then likely be able to walk to work. they don't see like kid neighborhoods compared to the hill, but you would be surprised by how many little rugrats are running around at 4pm each day.

She's a minority now. I'm totally okay with it. As long as the programs are good. Shepard really does look like a very solid school--probably a little similar to where she is now.