For anyone who is interested in River's actual plans rather than the fearmongering, here they are: https://anc3e.org/wp-content/uploads/River-School-Presentation-to-ANC3E-0210.pdf

Traffic is all off Nebraska with a large U-shaped drop-off entirely self-contained on their property, just like NPS across the street. The "health clinic" is the same as the one on their current campus and is a very small pediatric hearing clinic -- not exactly a heavy driver of traffic!

River told parents that it was heavily outbid on the old GDS campus by another independent school well-funded school (they didn't say, but the hint was that it was The Avenues or something similar). That independent school has, I believe, pulled out, thus the sale to DCPS.

River does not have a bus currently. They start at 18 months and go to 3rd grade. The bulk of the students are pre-K and under. There is an infants program, but it's exclusively staff kids and the hearing-impaired. The vast majority of the kids are from the DC Palisades area or surrounding environs, in accordance with "people don't want to commute long distances for preschool". (A small number of kids at River have cochlear implants and commute from wherever, but it's probably no more than 1 out of 10 kids overall.)

River currently offers audiology and other services for the hearing impaired. With the expansion, they'd turn that into a larger clinic, but it would still be specifically on being a specialty center for hearing challenges.

A health clinic? Connected to the school?

Have no dog in this fight. Thrilled for River. Special little school in a terrible location. Tenleytown is already bustling and full of traffic.

Anonymous wrote:They would be building a new building at the corner of Nebraska, Van Ness and 41st St.

I hope it happens, it would be great for both the school and the neighborhood.

Interesting viewpoint. How would it be good for the neighborhood? The school is fantastic no one can contest that but flipping a very beautiful and historic residential lot into a commercial one while adding a ton of traffic and congestion, without bringing community jobs or expanding public schools for local students (REALLY NEEDED) - I fail to see how this is good for the neighborhood off the bat?

Anonymous wrote:River lost the bid to purchase the old GDS campus. They tried.

My understanding as a GDS family is that River did go under contract to buy the old GDS campus, but then backed out. It was only after it backed out that it was resold to DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen signs popping up about opposing River’s “new plan.” Anyone know what that plan is?

They are hoping to open a new campus in Tenleytown. I went to the website on the signs, but there wasn't much more information available there.

I heard from an adjacent neighbor they are trying to get information together to get the neighborhood informed. Is there anything on River School's website or has the school let the neighborhood know of their plans?

Anonymous wrote:Dc bought the old gds location. Not sure why they can’t use it to get more of the DCPS kids into in person school this year.

Combining bus routes would not work as many of the kids at River are not from dc. And many of the bus lines for gds are for dc area. Also, the traffic from gds and other schools in the area are all of the cars and then parking. The neighborhood has hundreds of public and private school kids walking and biking to and from school each day and people walking to the metro. All of the parents rushing to drop off and pick up their kids in cars is a nightmare already and causes huge safety issues as they cut through residential streets, double park and try to drive around cars at drop off while rushing and almost hitting small children that they did not notice in their rush. The MacArthur area is a mess around River but moving it to a new more crowded and trafficked neighborhood in DC to do the same thing makes no sense.

Does River School even has buses? Their students start at babies, like infants, to Grade 3? If they start having buses how are you going to put a baby on a bus?! Sounds like a great solution to have the school add bus routes, but in actuality it will never happen. What about the patients to the clinic? Staff? Visitors? Do any of the current students or staff take public transit at the present location?

That sounds like a traffic nightmare.

Dc bought the old gds location. Not sure why they can’t use it to get more of the DCPS kids into in person school this year.

Combining bus routes would not work as many of the kids at River are not from dc. And many of the bus lines for gds are for dc area. Also, the traffic from gds and other schools in the area are all of the cars and then parking. The neighborhood has hundreds of public and private school kids walking and biking to and from school each day and people walking to the metro. All of the parents rushing to drop off and pick up their kids in cars is a nightmare already and causes huge safety issues as they cut through residential streets, double park and try to drive around cars at drop off while rushing and almost hitting small children that they did not notice in their rush. The MacArthur area is a mess around River but moving it to a new more crowded and trafficked neighborhood in DC to do the same thing makes no sense.

The want to expand the school to 350 kids (expanding to add through sixth grade), day care center and health clinic open to the public. The issue in the neighborhood is not the mission of the school it is that there are already 12+ schools, the department of homeland security and the new buildings at the old Fannie Mae site that are already causing huge amounts of traffic in an area that already has dangerous traffic. They are under contract to purchase TTR old Buchanan estate which is on the corner of Nebraska, 42nd and Van Ness. With 350 kids, 90 faculty, many more staff, patients to the clinic, families of the infants and staff at the health clinic that will add more than 500 cars to the residential part of tenleytown.

The River school in under contract to purchase a historic estate and has plans to relocate and put in a huge new campus in tenleytown with 350 kids, 90 plus faculty, hundreds of cars at pick up and drop off, a day care center, underground spaces, and increase traffic due to all of these new cars in a neighborhood with 12 plus schools and day care centers and bad traffic. Also they are going to put in a health care clinic for the public and have not added parking on their site for the patients.

Anonymous wrote:What building do they plan to use?

If it's an existing non-residential space, I don't see how the neighbor can complain. If you live in a city, you're going to interact with other people.

I wonder what will move into their current space.

The existing space is residential. The school is trying to get it flipped to commercial. Amazing school and mission! Think about it...if one school or business can come in and flip a lot from residential to commercial, what does that say about future residential lots???

Anonymous wrote:If River builds there, River and NPS should try to work out a deal with GDS to join their bus routes. More kids using a single bus system is good for everyone and the campuses are close enough to make it work.

Of they did this we would consider River, especially if they did k-6 (or k-8!). We loved the school but not the location.

I don’t have kids at those schools, but honestly a common bus system for several private schools is a brilliant idea.