Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I appreciate the response about S. Fairfax. Our goal was to keep the commute to the Pentagon at 30 minutes or less. I was under the impression those areas exceed that. If I'm incorrect, please let me know. It would be great to broaden the search area. As someone guessed, yes we're military. It would be nice to be around military families, but our present neighborhood/school is very non-military. If we moved into a similar situation it wouldn't be a problem. I think we'd be in more of a culture shock if the area was full of military folks.

slugging (carpooling) to the Pentagon from Rolling Valley or Sangster park & ride is 30 minutes due to the hov lanes.

Express bus is very fast too, under 30 minutes depending on your stop.

Sydenstricker park and ride is also around 30 minutes.

Very family and kid centered neighborhoods and wonderful schools.

Burke Center VRE is also a reasonable commute.

My kids go to hunt valley and I slug from Sydenstricker. I go in very early but not counting the wait in line, which can vary, the ride to the pentagon is at most 15 mins in HOV.

OP here. Thanks for all the great feedback! We've broadened our search based on the comments about commute times. DH is in the area house hunting as I type this. I really liked the Glebe ES info that I could find, but locating a single-family rental home there is proving difficult. Does anyone have any feedback on Mantua or Island Creek Elementary? The commutes from there seem to be in the 30 minute range and the houses are larger and within our budget. Everyone's comments have made me feel better about moving to the area. It sounds like there are lots of places where we can find a good neighborhood with friendly schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chesterbrook near the Arlington/McLean border.

+1. Moved here recently and the school has been great and welcoming. The children have all been very welcoming too. Very inclusive academics with differentiation and a great Level IV program for more advanced academics.

+2. Look at Franklin Sherman as well. Wonderful school and one of the smaller public ES in close-in Fairfax or Arlington.

OP, I'd stay in Arlington if I were you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chesterbrook near the Arlington/McLean border.

+1. Moved here recently and the school has been great and welcoming. The children have all been very welcoming too. Very inclusive academics with differentiation and a great Level IV program for more advanced academics.

PP here. Also forgot to say - GW Parkway is great access to the Pentagon. There are lots of military, world bank, foreign embassy employees in the neighborhoods around here.

Anonymous wrote:Chesterbrook near the Arlington/McLean border.

+1. Moved here recently and the school has been great and welcoming. The children have all been very welcoming too. Very inclusive academics with differentiation and a great Level IV program for more advanced academics.

Anonymous wrote:Glebe.

Yes!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about schools in Burke?

Schools in Burke are good. You can get either the W. Springfield or LB or Robinson pyrmid.
I'd avoid the AAP center schools since you want happy. (White Oaks, Sangster)
They are good schools, but they have more pockets of "stress"

Don't know about White Oaks but Sangster is an exceptional school with a great blending of AAP and non AAP populations. For a school so large it feels very much like a neighborhood school. They also have a very active and very large military spouses network/group. The base school parents are wonderful too...very kind to the AAP folks and newcomers to the school. Very nice families all around at Sangster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I appreciate the response about S. Fairfax. Our goal was to keep the commute to the Pentagon at 30 minutes or less. I was under the impression those areas exceed that. If I'm incorrect, please let me know. It would be great to broaden the search area. As someone guessed, yes we're military. It would be nice to be around military families, but our present neighborhood/school is very non-military. If we moved into a similar situation it wouldn't be a problem. I think we'd be in more of a culture shock if the area was full of military folks.

slugging (carpooling) to the Pentagon from Rolling Valley or Sangster park & ride is 30 minutes due to the hov lanes.

Express bus is very fast too, under 30 minutes depending on your stop.

Sydenstricker park and ride is also around 30 minutes.

Very family and kid centered neighborhoods and wonderful schools.

Burke Center VRE is also a reasonable commute.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe Ashlawn or Tuckahoe would come the closest? Or Key School? The only schools that truly have what you're looking for are privates.

I think Key fits the bill. but since it's Spanish immersion with half the day taught in Spanish, a 2nd grader couldn't transfer in unless he/she was already partially bilingual.

Indeed. We love it at Key. We chose it over ASF despite the Great School's rating. Many parents are very involved and the principal and vice principal are great. My K son was vice-principal for a 1/2 day 2 weeks ago and he loved spending all that time with Sra. Fernandez. Bilingual is great for us, but as PP mentioned your child would already have to know Spanish for them to admit her.

I am surprised Falls Church City's Thomas Jefferson Elem. has not been mentioned. With your relatively generous housing budget, you could get a nice home in Falls Church City.

There are a lot of military families at long branch, which might make this a comfortable place for you. My son was happy there.

You could go to Oakridge and have a super-short commute.

Anonymous wrote:This thread is pretty silly, OP. Of course, everyone is going to say that the school their child attends is the happiest. Did you really think someone would post that their child's school is "sad"?

I posted that I don't think our school is "happy". It has other merits, but it is not warm & fuzzy.

This thread is pretty silly, OP. Of course, everyone is going to say that the school their child attends is the happiest. Did you really think someone would post that their child's school is "sad"?