Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Thank you for all the perspective. Some random replies...

I hear you about recess not mattering in the upper grades, but honestly shouldn't the kids be active even when they're a bit older? I remember getting a lot of outdoor time when I was in ES. They're only little for so long; it kinda breaks my heart that they spend so much time inside from such a young age.

As for Murch, is there even a chance of a K spot there? How would I figure that out?

I'm so disappointed to hear the negative reviews of CMI. It seemed like such a great campus and I loved the tour.

I know LAMB isn't a community school per se. But, it's walking distance from our house and that bumps it way up on our list.

Maybe you're looking for a Waldorf school. This is a city, even outdoors isn't exactly playing in the woods (except at CMI...). I personally don't think I had more than one recess growing up either, although we may have gone outside during part of lunch period, hard to recall. Do remember PE - some schools do a lot more PE than others. Something to ask them. PE may take place indoors but keeps them active. Also, don't forget aftercare - my kids go outside right after school during aftercare too.

+1. You may want to look at a private if that is a big priority for you. We have DCPS and private experience--current private has 3-4 recesses, but we found that multiple recesses was very teacher-dependent at our IB school.

Also keep in mind that if it's cold, recess may be held inside--not so in privates, but definitely in many DCPS schools. Especially for the littler kids.

I don't think recess alone is a reason to consider private, but if that's a big priority, then you may want to explore.

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Thank you for all the perspective. Some random replies...

I hear you about recess not mattering in the upper grades, but honestly shouldn't the kids be active even when they're a bit older? I remember getting a lot of outdoor time when I was in ES. They're only little for so long; it kinda breaks my heart that they spend so much time inside from such a young age.

As for Murch, is there even a chance of a K spot there? How would I figure that out?

I'm so disappointed to hear the negative reviews of CMI. It seemed like such a great campus and I loved the tour.

I know LAMB isn't a community school per se. But, it's walking distance from our house and that bumps it way up on our list.

OP, if you are interested in CMI, talk to families who are currently there. We started at CMI this year and absolutely love it. It's a joyful place and my children are leaning a ton and they are happy. I talked to other happy CMI families when we made our decision (and weighed it more than the anonymous commentary here), and I have no regrets and we plan to stay. I'm not saying is the right or best option for you--maybe you have other choices you prefer--but there are plenty of very happy CMI families and it's a strong community.

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Thank you for all the perspective. Some random replies...

I hear you about recess not mattering in the upper grades, but honestly shouldn't the kids be active even when they're a bit older? I remember getting a lot of outdoor time when I was in ES. They're only little for so long; it kinda breaks my heart that they spend so much time inside from such a young age.

As for Murch, is there even a chance of a K spot there? How would I figure that out?

I'm so disappointed to hear the negative reviews of CMI. It seemed like such a great campus and I loved the tour.

I know LAMB isn't a community school per se. But, it's walking distance from our house and that bumps it way up on our list.

Maybe you're looking for a Waldorf school. This is a city, even outdoors isn't exactly playing in the woods (except at CMI...). I personally don't think I had more than one recess growing up either, although we may have gone outside during part of lunch period, hard to recall. Do remember PE - some schools do a lot more PE than others. Something to ask them. PE may take place indoors but keeps them active. Also, don't forget aftercare - my kids go outside right after school during aftercare too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it is incredible short sighted to choose a school for the next 6 years based on whether your kindergartner will have two recesses. Please think about upper grades as you order your preferences. They come faster than you can imagine.

This. Especially to consider a school like CMI where most every person I know is going crazy to get out of the school.

Can you expand on why every person you know is trying to get out of CMI? Considering it for PK3, from the open house, it seemed like a very warm environment with staff that seemed invested in the school. And they mentioned that a lot of the administrative staff was all fairly new and they were aware that they needed to make some changes. And the student to teacher ratio was wonderfully low. But I only know one person who has a child there and she is happy....would love any more details on the bad things you've heard!

Charters generally pay teachers less, and CMI is one of the worst. Significant teacher turnover year to year. Their test scores are subpar - lower than the Title 1 scores nearby - despite the fact that the school has relatively few poor students. They do have a higher than average special needs population, but those kids too are not doing any better than a fair to middling DCPS school (comparing just that subgroup). The curriculum is not very rigorous at all.

It is ok for preschool but you don’t want to stick around past K.

+1. Ask yourself why a school like CMI (who has been around almost 10 years) has all new admin staff? The elementary school was two stars on the OSSE report card last year and only a tad higher this year. The school spent a lot of money on the new campus and had to dramatically increase class size to stay afloat financially. Do some digging on here to get more of a story for grades above 1st. It’s pretty bad. As mentioned before, they don’t come close to performing on par with low income nearby schools like Barnard, West, Takoma, or even schools like Noyes or Burroughs. I would never waste a spot for CMI and that is not coming from a place or hate at all.

Recommend reading the CMI threads on here. There has been an incredible amount of turmoil there over the past few years, and a lot of families I know who were once happy there all left as a result.

But I thought they got new leadership this year and so things might begin to turn around?

OP again. Thank you for all the perspective. Some random replies...

I hear you about recess not mattering in the upper grades, but honestly shouldn't the kids be active even when they're a bit older? I remember getting a lot of outdoor time when I was in ES. They're only little for so long; it kinda breaks my heart that they spend so much time inside from such a young age.

As for Murch, is there even a chance of a K spot there? How would I figure that out?

I'm so disappointed to hear the negative reviews of CMI. It seemed like such a great campus and I loved the tour.

I know LAMB isn't a community school per se. But, it's walking distance from our house and that bumps it way up on our list.

Murch is actually an easy drive from Crestwood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it is incredible short sighted to choose a school for the next 6 years based on whether your kindergartner will have two recesses. Please think about upper grades as you order your preferences. They come faster than you can imagine.

This. Especially to consider a school like CMI where most every person I know is going crazy to get out of the school.

Can you expand on why every person you know is trying to get out of CMI? Considering it for PK3, from the open house, it seemed like a very warm environment with staff that seemed invested in the school. And they mentioned that a lot of the administrative staff was all fairly new and they were aware that they needed to make some changes. And the student to teacher ratio was wonderfully low. But I only know one person who has a child there and she is happy....would love any more details on the bad things you've heard!

Charters generally pay teachers less, and CMI is one of the worst. Significant teacher turnover year to year. Their test scores are subpar - lower than the Title 1 scores nearby - despite the fact that the school has relatively few poor students. They do have a higher than average special needs population, but those kids too are not doing any better than a fair to middling DCPS school (comparing just that subgroup). The curriculum is not very rigorous at all.

It is ok for preschool but you don’t want to stick around past K.

+1. Ask yourself why a school like CMI (who has been around almost 10 years) has all new admin staff? The elementary school was two stars on the OSSE report card last year and only a tad higher this year. The school spent a lot of money on the new campus and had to dramatically increase class size to stay afloat financially. Do some digging on here to get more of a story for grades above 1st. It’s pretty bad. As mentioned before, they don’t come close to performing on par with low income nearby schools like Barnard, West, Takoma, or even schools like Noyes or Burroughs. I would never waste a spot for CMI and that is not coming from a place or hate at all.

Recommend reading the CMI threads on here. There has been an incredible amount of turmoil there over the past few years, and a lot of families I know who were once happy there all left as a result.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it is incredible short sighted to choose a school for the next 6 years based on whether your kindergartner will have two recesses. Please think about upper grades as you order your preferences. They come faster than you can imagine.

This. Especially to consider a school like CMI where most every person I know is going crazy to get out of the school.

Can you expand on why every person you know is trying to get out of CMI? Considering it for PK3, from the open house, it seemed like a very warm environment with staff that seemed invested in the school. And they mentioned that a lot of the administrative staff was all fairly new and they were aware that they needed to make some changes. And the student to teacher ratio was wonderfully low. But I only know one person who has a child there and she is happy....would love any more details on the bad things you've heard!

Charters generally pay teachers less, and CMI is one of the worst. Significant teacher turnover year to year. Their test scores are subpar - lower than the Title 1 scores nearby - despite the fact that the school has relatively few poor students. They do have a higher than average special needs population, but those kids too are not doing any better than a fair to middling DCPS school (comparing just that subgroup). The curriculum is not very rigorous at all.

It is ok for preschool but you don’t want to stick around past K.

+1. Ask yourself why a school like CMI (who has been around almost 10 years) has all new admin staff? The elementary school was two stars on the OSSE report card last year and only a tad higher this year. The school spent a lot of money on the new campus and had to dramatically increase class size to stay afloat financially. Do some digging on here to get more of a story for grades above 1st. It’s pretty bad. As mentioned before, they don’t come close to performing on par with low income nearby schools like Barnard, West, Takoma, or even schools like Noyes or Burroughs. I would never waste a spot for CMI and that is not coming from a place or hate at all.

I have to echo that you should look at West if you are in Crestwood. West will have a brand new building beginning in school year 2021 and it is already a great program even though it was in an unacceptable building. We live in 16th Street Heights and West is our school and my neighbors with young kids (prek) are very invested in it and happy to deal with the swing space at Sharpe until they have their brand new building. My kids are just slightly too old to benefit from this and would not have been able to manage the open classroom building structure of the current building. So, we went the lottery/charter route. But if they were just now starting elementary school now, we would be at West. I am happy for my neighbors!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it is incredible short sighted to choose a school for the next 6 years based on whether your kindergartner will have two recesses. Please think about upper grades as you order your preferences. They come faster than you can imagine.

This. Especially to consider a school like CMI where most every person I know is going crazy to get out of the school.

Can you expand on why every person you know is trying to get out of CMI? Considering it for PK3, from the open house, it seemed like a very warm environment with staff that seemed invested in the school. And they mentioned that a lot of the administrative staff was all fairly new and they were aware that they needed to make some changes. And the student to teacher ratio was wonderfully low. But I only know one person who has a child there and she is happy....would love any more details on the bad things you've heard!

Charters generally pay teachers less, and CMI is one of the worst. Significant teacher turnover year to year. Their test scores are subpar - lower than the Title 1 scores nearby - despite the fact that the school has relatively few poor students. They do have a higher than average special needs population, but those kids too are not doing any better than a fair to middling DCPS school (comparing just that subgroup). The curriculum is not very rigorous at all.

It is ok for preschool but you don’t want to stick around past K.

Anonymous wrote:We live in Crestwood and both of our kids go to Oyster Bilingual. We love that school, and it’s community.

May I ask, how did you get into Oyster (for the first kid, at least) with no preference? Looking at waitlist data, it looks like you can only get a spot if you have sibling preference or, at least, in-bound preference. Wondering if I'm missing something in how this whole lotto works! I'm not putting any schools where, based on waitlist data, I have zero chance of getting in because even everyone on the waitlist has some sort of preference....but are you saying there's a chance I'm not seeing?? I put Oyster on the wasted-pick list for this very reason.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it is incredible short sighted to choose a school for the next 6 years based on whether your kindergartner will have two recesses. Please think about upper grades as you order your preferences. They come faster than you can imagine.

This. Especially to consider a school like CMI where most every person I know is going crazy to get out of the school.

Can you expand on why every person you know is trying to get out of CMI? Considering it for PK3, from the open house, it seemed like a very warm environment with staff that seemed invested in the school. And they mentioned that a lot of the administrative staff was all fairly new and they were aware that they needed to make some changes. And the student to teacher ratio was wonderfully low. But I only know one person who has a child there and she is happy....would love any more details on the bad things you've heard!

We live in Crestwood and both of our kids go to Oyster Bilingual. We love that school, and it’s community.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I wouldn’t rank CMI ahead of Powell. I get that recess is important but you’ll thank me later to prioritize what’s happening inside the doors over outside in two years. I would look at Shepherd, Capital City, West, and Barnard if I were you/where you are. I know Ross, Eaton, and Hearst are long shots, but if you have room, try them.

Please don’t try to come WOTP. The classes are already too crowded and many schools are getting hammered with unprecedented numbers of embassy kids who magically appear throughout the year. The IB parents will curse you under their breadth while they are smiling at you.

Sorry, but I have kids in my neighborhood WOTP school and I think anyone who curses the arrival of more kids at the school to get a good education is an antisocial creep. It’s a school. There are going to be kids. Sometimes more than they planned for. Everyone will survive!

Thank you! I only hope and imagine that it's actually pretty obvious which parents are like you and which are cursing under their breath so as to avoid those.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I wouldn’t rank CMI ahead of Powell. I get that recess is important but you’ll thank me later to prioritize what’s happening inside the doors over outside in two years. I would look at Shepherd, Capital City, West, and Barnard if I were you/where you are. I know Ross, Eaton, and Hearst are long shots, but if you have room, try them.

Please don’t try to come WOTP. The classes are already too crowded and many schools are getting hammered with unprecedented numbers of embassy kids who magically appear throughout the year. The IB parents will curse you under their breadth while they are smiling at you.

Sorry, but I have kids in my neighborhood WOTP school and I think anyone who curses the arrival of more kids at the school to get a good education is an antisocial creep. It’s a school. There are going to be kids. Sometimes more than they planned for. Everyone will survive!