Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 18:53     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our oldest daughter will enter kindergarten next year. We had planned to send her to the elementary we are zoned for, one of the ones that's supposed to be "better" - but the recent abysmal report card from the state is seriously disturbing. Not a single school fully accredited in ACPS, almost all elementaries (including ours) listed as off track. I've seen many defend clerical issues that led to the scores, but even if that's true - it's no prize. It's also bad and indicative of the kind of environment that's been allowed to continue in the system here it seems.

It would be a huge stretch to pay for private. We love living in ALX, but it seems like the families around us much be much much richer if they can afford to send multiple kids to private school and continue to live in the community.

Do we just leave Alexandria for Bethesda or somewhere else? Uprooting our lives to move? Do we plant a money tree and hope for the best? What are families here doing?

Thanks.


I mean, this is the dilemma parents have been struggling with for at least the entire 30 years I have lived here. We lived Alexandria for North Arlington. And then Arlington for Loudoun, which has far better schools. Don't regret it. Added bonus is it was easier to get into UVA and VT as top students from those schools than it might have been from Yorktown. There are some cynics who say if you can thrive at Alexandria City High School (previously TC Williams) that can help your college admissions because you will have seemed to have survived a bad school. But IMO, schools shouldn't be something one has to "survive."


*left

We went MacArthur ES in Alexandria to Jamestown ES in Arlington/Williambsurg MS to Loudoun Valley in Loudoun. No regrets.


Can you elaborate on what made Loudoun schools so much better than Arlington in your view?


Smaller, more opportunities to get involved with extracurricular, less intense (not a pressure cooker), better to be big fish in smaller pond. They had great teachers, AP, DE opportunities. House twice the size at half the cost on three acres of land.

Mind you I worked from home since before Covid so commute wasn’t a concern.


This is just... horseshit trolling. Assuming a 1900 sqf house n Del Ray goes for 1.2, please tell us where you got a 4000sqf house on three acres in Loudon for 600,000.

We'll wait!

What is it about ACPS that brings out the trolls? Is it jealousy?


We moved in 2017. We sold our 3,000 square foot house in 22207 on a fifth of an acre for $1.1 million and bought a 5,700 square foot home on a 3.5 acre lot in Oak Knoll Farms in 20132 for $750,000. So, maybe exaggerated slightly and it wasn’t precisely half the price and twice the house but it was damn close.

Kids matriculated to UVA and Brown.


22207 is Arlington, dumb ass. Arlington county in 2017 did not permit 3000 sqf houses on 8000 sqf lots. And half of 1.1, is 550,000, not 750,000. So, you are FOS three times over And, most importantly of all, you're still in .....podunk Loudon county.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Alexandria gets losers so frothed up that they cant help themselves but make up complete and total lies. Sad.

I think some of us losers get frothed up because we liked living in Alexandria but don’t appreciate being called racist because we didn’t want to put our kids in failing, unsafe schools (mold and violence) I don’t understand why people insist on denying things are bad.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 18:53     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our oldest daughter will enter kindergarten next year. We had planned to send her to the elementary we are zoned for, one of the ones that's supposed to be "better" - but the recent abysmal report card from the state is seriously disturbing. Not a single school fully accredited in ACPS, almost all elementaries (including ours) listed as off track. I've seen many defend clerical issues that led to the scores, but even if that's true - it's no prize. It's also bad and indicative of the kind of environment that's been allowed to continue in the system here it seems.

It would be a huge stretch to pay for private. We love living in ALX, but it seems like the families around us much be much much richer if they can afford to send multiple kids to private school and continue to live in the community.

Do we just leave Alexandria for Bethesda or somewhere else? Uprooting our lives to move? Do we plant a money tree and hope for the best? What are families here doing?

Thanks.


I mean, this is the dilemma parents have been struggling with for at least the entire 30 years I have lived here. We lived Alexandria for North Arlington. And then Arlington for Loudoun, which has far better schools. Don't regret it. Added bonus is it was easier to get into UVA and VT as top students from those schools than it might have been from Yorktown. There are some cynics who say if you can thrive at Alexandria City High School (previously TC Williams) that can help your college admissions because you will have seemed to have survived a bad school. But IMO, schools shouldn't be something one has to "survive."


*left

We went MacArthur ES in Alexandria to Jamestown ES in Arlington/Williambsurg MS to Loudoun Valley in Loudoun. No regrets.


Can you elaborate on what made Loudoun schools so much better than Arlington in your view?


Smaller, more opportunities to get involved with extracurricular, less intense (not a pressure cooker), better to be big fish in smaller pond. They had great teachers, AP, DE opportunities. House twice the size at half the cost on three acres of land.

Mind you I worked from home since before Covid so commute wasn’t a concern.


This is just... horseshit trolling. Assuming a 1900 sqf house n Del Ray goes for 1.2, please tell us where you got a 4000sqf house on three acres in Loudon for 600,000.

We'll wait!

What is it about ACPS that brings out the trolls? Is it jealousy?


We moved in 2017. We sold our 3,000 square foot house in 22207 on a fifth of an acre for $1.1 million and bought a 5,700 square foot home on a 3.5 acre lot in Oak Knoll Farms in 20132 for $750,000. So, maybe exaggerated slightly and it wasn’t precisely half the price and twice the house but it was damn close.

Kids matriculated to UVA and Brown.


No they didn't. Had your kids "matriculated to UVA and Brown" you would have said so in your first response. You're totally full of shit.


It’s odd that this angers you so. It’s like you are taking it personally.

But hey, enjoy your $6,000 monthly payment for your dumb Craftsman on a postage stamp lot, mkay?


That's a funny post coming from someone that needs to use a $14 toll road to go to the grocery store.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 18:49     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Well, we've been in Del Ray since 2001 and have three kids. My oldest is still asleep upstairs while home on break from UVA. My middle kid is a senior this year and they will be attending Georgetown next year. My youngest is, surprisingly, a very talented athlete getting D1 recruiting looks as a Freshman, but they are also a 4.0 GPA honors track kid.

We were Maury- GW, then ACHS. We are white with a HHI of 280k.

The thought of leaving never even crossed our minds. But then again, we aren't xenophobic racists.

FWIW- I know plenty of people like you that moved or went private and still ended up with a kid at JMU.

Best of luck!


They probably moved because you let them live in your head rent free instead.

I live in Del Ray too and I cannot imagine caring that anyone stays or leaves, nor would it bother me in the slightest.

Also lol at calling people xenophobic racists for moving. Both because of the complete illogic of the statement and because you live in one of the whitest and most upper class parts of Alexandria and sent your kids to what was one of the whitest and most upper class elementary schools in the whole system at the time.



DP.

Maury in 2010ish (when PP would have had a kid there) was anything but the whitest or most upper class. That was the heyday of bussing kids from the burg to Maury, all the while forcing the Del Ray rich white families to JH in a wild attempt to bolster the failing scores at JH. The solution to pollution is dilution was their approach. They didnt try to help the poor black kids; they instead hoped the rich white kid's scores would buoy the overall scores. That's when most of us in the SE corner of Del Ray ended up in privates.

Ask me how I know.

Was that also the era where it was pretty easy to get admin transfers?


This era didn’t end until this very school year, at least for MVCS transfers. That’s how the school got so overfilled.


That's a programatic transfer- totally different than the old admin transfers.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 18:48     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our oldest daughter will enter kindergarten next year. We had planned to send her to the elementary we are zoned for, one of the ones that's supposed to be "better" - but the recent abysmal report card from the state is seriously disturbing. Not a single school fully accredited in ACPS, almost all elementaries (including ours) listed as off track. I've seen many defend clerical issues that led to the scores, but even if that's true - it's no prize. It's also bad and indicative of the kind of environment that's been allowed to continue in the system here it seems.

It would be a huge stretch to pay for private. We love living in ALX, but it seems like the families around us much be much much richer if they can afford to send multiple kids to private school and continue to live in the community.

Do we just leave Alexandria for Bethesda or somewhere else? Uprooting our lives to move? Do we plant a money tree and hope for the best? What are families here doing?

Thanks.


I mean, this is the dilemma parents have been struggling with for at least the entire 30 years I have lived here. We lived Alexandria for North Arlington. And then Arlington for Loudoun, which has far better schools. Don't regret it. Added bonus is it was easier to get into UVA and VT as top students from those schools than it might have been from Yorktown. There are some cynics who say if you can thrive at Alexandria City High School (previously TC Williams) that can help your college admissions because you will have seemed to have survived a bad school. But IMO, schools shouldn't be something one has to "survive."


*left

We went MacArthur ES in Alexandria to Jamestown ES in Arlington/Williambsurg MS to Loudoun Valley in Loudoun. No regrets.


Can you elaborate on what made Loudoun schools so much better than Arlington in your view?


Smaller, more opportunities to get involved with extracurricular, less intense (not a pressure cooker), better to be big fish in smaller pond. They had great teachers, AP, DE opportunities. House twice the size at half the cost on three acres of land.

Mind you I worked from home since before Covid so commute wasn’t a concern.


This is just... horseshit trolling. Assuming a 1900 sqf house n Del Ray goes for 1.2, please tell us where you got a 4000sqf house on three acres in Loudon for 600,000.

We'll wait!

What is it about ACPS that brings out the trolls? Is it jealousy?


We moved in 2017. We sold our 3,000 square foot house in 22207 on a fifth of an acre for $1.1 million and bought a 5,700 square foot home on a 3.5 acre lot in Oak Knoll Farms in 20132 for $750,000. So, maybe exaggerated slightly and it wasn’t precisely half the price and twice the house but it was damn close.

Kids matriculated to UVA and Brown.


No they didn't. Had your kids "matriculated to UVA and Brown" you would have said so in your first response. You're totally full of shit.


It’s odd that this angers you so. It’s like you are taking it personally.

But hey, enjoy your $6,000 monthly payment for your dumb Craftsman on a postage stamp lot, mkay?


6000 dollar mortgage? Postage stamp lot? My house is paid off and on a 15,000 sqf lot. I could sell it tomorrow for 2.5M

Enjoy your $6000 mortgage on a POS tract home slapped up in 90 days by meth heads at Ryan homes.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 18:43     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Well, we've been in Del Ray since 2001 and have three kids. My oldest is still asleep upstairs while home on break from UVA. My middle kid is a senior this year and they will be attending Georgetown next year. My youngest is, surprisingly, a very talented athlete getting D1 recruiting looks as a Freshman, but they are also a 4.0 GPA honors track kid.

We were Maury- GW, then ACHS. We are white with a HHI of 280k.

The thought of leaving never even crossed our minds. But then again, we aren't xenophobic racists.

FWIW- I know plenty of people like you that moved or went private and still ended up with a kid at JMU.

Best of luck!


They probably moved because you let them live in your head rent free instead.

I live in Del Ray too and I cannot imagine caring that anyone stays or leaves, nor would it bother me in the slightest.

Also lol at calling people xenophobic racists for moving. Both because of the complete illogic of the statement and because you live in one of the whitest and most upper class parts of Alexandria and sent your kids to what was one of the whitest and most upper class elementary schools in the whole system at the time.



DP.

Maury in 2010ish (when PP would have had a kid there) was anything but the whitest or most upper class. That was the heyday of bussing kids from the burg to Maury, all the while forcing the Del Ray rich white families to JH in a wild attempt to bolster the failing scores at JH. The solution to pollution is dilution was their approach. They didnt try to help the poor black kids; they instead hoped the rich white kid's scores would buoy the overall scores. That's when most of us in the SE corner of Del Ray ended up in privates.

Ask me how I know.

Was that also the era where it was pretty easy to get admin transfers?


This era didn’t end until this very school year, at least for MVCS transfers. That’s how the school got so overfilled.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 18:40     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our oldest daughter will enter kindergarten next year. We had planned to send her to the elementary we are zoned for, one of the ones that's supposed to be "better" - but the recent abysmal report card from the state is seriously disturbing. Not a single school fully accredited in ACPS, almost all elementaries (including ours) listed as off track. I've seen many defend clerical issues that led to the scores, but even if that's true - it's no prize. It's also bad and indicative of the kind of environment that's been allowed to continue in the system here it seems.

It would be a huge stretch to pay for private. We love living in ALX, but it seems like the families around us much be much much richer if they can afford to send multiple kids to private school and continue to live in the community.

Do we just leave Alexandria for Bethesda or somewhere else? Uprooting our lives to move? Do we plant a money tree and hope for the best? What are families here doing?

Thanks.


I mean, this is the dilemma parents have been struggling with for at least the entire 30 years I have lived here. We lived Alexandria for North Arlington. And then Arlington for Loudoun, which has far better schools. Don't regret it. Added bonus is it was easier to get into UVA and VT as top students from those schools than it might have been from Yorktown. There are some cynics who say if you can thrive at Alexandria City High School (previously TC Williams) that can help your college admissions because you will have seemed to have survived a bad school. But IMO, schools shouldn't be something one has to "survive."


*left

We went MacArthur ES in Alexandria to Jamestown ES in Arlington/Williambsurg MS to Loudoun Valley in Loudoun. No regrets.


Can you elaborate on what made Loudoun schools so much better than Arlington in your view?


Smaller, more opportunities to get involved with extracurricular, less intense (not a pressure cooker), better to be big fish in smaller pond. They had great teachers, AP, DE opportunities. House twice the size at half the cost on three acres of land.

Mind you I worked from home since before Covid so commute wasn’t a concern.


This is just... horseshit trolling. Assuming a 1900 sqf house n Del Ray goes for 1.2, please tell us where you got a 4000sqf house on three acres in Loudon for 600,000.

We'll wait!

What is it about ACPS that brings out the trolls? Is it jealousy?


We moved in 2017. We sold our 3,000 square foot house in 22207 on a fifth of an acre for $1.1 million and bought a 5,700 square foot home on a 3.5 acre lot in Oak Knoll Farms in 20132 for $750,000. So, maybe exaggerated slightly and it wasn’t precisely half the price and twice the house but it was damn close.

Kids matriculated to UVA and Brown.


22207 is Arlington, dumb ass. Arlington county in 2017 did not permit 3000 sqf houses on 8000 sqf lots. And half of 1.1, is 550,000, not 750,000. So, you are FOS three times over And, most importantly of all, you're still in .....podunk Loudon county.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Alexandria gets losers so frothed up that they cant help themselves but make up complete and total lies. Sad.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 18:38     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Well, we've been in Del Ray since 2001 and have three kids. My oldest is still asleep upstairs while home on break from UVA. My middle kid is a senior this year and they will be attending Georgetown next year. My youngest is, surprisingly, a very talented athlete getting D1 recruiting looks as a Freshman, but they are also a 4.0 GPA honors track kid.

We were Maury- GW, then ACHS. We are white with a HHI of 280k.

The thought of leaving never even crossed our minds. But then again, we aren't xenophobic racists.

FWIW- I know plenty of people like you that moved or went private and still ended up with a kid at JMU.

Best of luck!


They probably moved because you let them live in your head rent free instead.

I live in Del Ray too and I cannot imagine caring that anyone stays or leaves, nor would it bother me in the slightest.

Also lol at calling people xenophobic racists for moving. Both because of the complete illogic of the statement and because you live in one of the whitest and most upper class parts of Alexandria and sent your kids to what was one of the whitest and most upper class elementary schools in the whole system at the time.



DP.

Maury in 2010ish (when PP would have had a kid there) was anything but the whitest or most upper class. That was the heyday of bussing kids from the burg to Maury, all the while forcing the Del Ray rich white families to JH in a wild attempt to bolster the failing scores at JH. The solution to pollution is dilution was their approach. They didnt try to help the poor black kids; they instead hoped the rich white kid's scores would buoy the overall scores. That's when most of us in the SE corner of Del Ray ended up in privates.

Ask me how I know.

Was that also the era where it was pretty easy to get admin transfers?
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 18:25     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Well, we've been in Del Ray since 2001 and have three kids. My oldest is still asleep upstairs while home on break from UVA. My middle kid is a senior this year and they will be attending Georgetown next year. My youngest is, surprisingly, a very talented athlete getting D1 recruiting looks as a Freshman, but they are also a 4.0 GPA honors track kid.

We were Maury- GW, then ACHS. We are white with a HHI of 280k.

The thought of leaving never even crossed our minds. But then again, we aren't xenophobic racists.

FWIW- I know plenty of people like you that moved or went private and still ended up with a kid at JMU.

Best of luck!


They probably moved because you let them live in your head rent free instead.

I live in Del Ray too and I cannot imagine caring that anyone stays or leaves, nor would it bother me in the slightest.

Also lol at calling people xenophobic racists for moving. Both because of the complete illogic of the statement and because you live in one of the whitest and most upper class parts of Alexandria and sent your kids to what was one of the whitest and most upper class elementary schools in the whole system at the time.



DP.

Maury in 2010ish (when PP would have had a kid there) was anything but the whitest or most upper class. That was the heyday of bussing kids from the burg to Maury, all the while forcing the Del Ray rich white families to JH in a wild attempt to bolster the failing scores at JH. The solution to pollution is dilution was their approach. They didnt try to help the poor black kids; they instead hoped the rich white kid's scores would buoy the overall scores. That's when most of us in the SE corner of Del Ray ended up in privates.

Ask me how I know.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 18:00     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

I think it's worthing moving for schools, whether in VA or to MD. We're in Bethesda now, but plan to move to Alexandria once our youngest is through high school.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 17:58     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our oldest daughter will enter kindergarten next year. We had planned to send her to the elementary we are zoned for, one of the ones that's supposed to be "better" - but the recent abysmal report card from the state is seriously disturbing. Not a single school fully accredited in ACPS, almost all elementaries (including ours) listed as off track. I've seen many defend clerical issues that led to the scores, but even if that's true - it's no prize. It's also bad and indicative of the kind of environment that's been allowed to continue in the system here it seems.

It would be a huge stretch to pay for private. We love living in ALX, but it seems like the families around us much be much much richer if they can afford to send multiple kids to private school and continue to live in the community.

Do we just leave Alexandria for Bethesda or somewhere else? Uprooting our lives to move? Do we plant a money tree and hope for the best? What are families here doing?

Thanks.


I mean, this is the dilemma parents have been struggling with for at least the entire 30 years I have lived here. We lived Alexandria for North Arlington. And then Arlington for Loudoun, which has far better schools. Don't regret it. Added bonus is it was easier to get into UVA and VT as top students from those schools than it might have been from Yorktown. There are some cynics who say if you can thrive at Alexandria City High School (previously TC Williams) that can help your college admissions because you will have seemed to have survived a bad school. But IMO, schools shouldn't be something one has to "survive."


*left

We went MacArthur ES in Alexandria to Jamestown ES in Arlington/Williambsurg MS to Loudoun Valley in Loudoun. No regrets.


Can you elaborate on what made Loudoun schools so much better than Arlington in your view?


Smaller, more opportunities to get involved with extracurricular, less intense (not a pressure cooker), better to be big fish in smaller pond. They had great teachers, AP, DE opportunities. House twice the size at half the cost on three acres of land.

Mind you I worked from home since before Covid so commute wasn’t a concern.


This is just... horseshit trolling. Assuming a 1900 sqf house n Del Ray goes for 1.2, please tell us where you got a 4000sqf house on three acres in Loudon for 600,000.

We'll wait!

What is it about ACPS that brings out the trolls? Is it jealousy?


We moved in 2017. We sold our 3,000 square foot house in 22207 on a fifth of an acre for $1.1 million and bought a 5,700 square foot home on a 3.5 acre lot in Oak Knoll Farms in 20132 for $750,000. So, maybe exaggerated slightly and it wasn’t precisely half the price and twice the house but it was damn close.

Kids matriculated to UVA and Brown.


No they didn't. Had your kids "matriculated to UVA and Brown" you would have said so in your first response. You're totally full of shit.


It’s odd that this angers you so. It’s like you are taking it personally.

But hey, enjoy your $6,000 monthly payment for your dumb Craftsman on a postage stamp lot, mkay?


Troll.

Nobody on the planet thinks that Loudoun Valley High School is anywhere near as good as Yorktown. It's not even one of the better high schools in Loudoun. It's a nothing school.

Who on DCUM proudly says "my kid went to Loudoun Valley?"

What a joke.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 17:52     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our oldest daughter will enter kindergarten next year. We had planned to send her to the elementary we are zoned for, one of the ones that's supposed to be "better" - but the recent abysmal report card from the state is seriously disturbing. Not a single school fully accredited in ACPS, almost all elementaries (including ours) listed as off track. I've seen many defend clerical issues that led to the scores, but even if that's true - it's no prize. It's also bad and indicative of the kind of environment that's been allowed to continue in the system here it seems.

It would be a huge stretch to pay for private. We love living in ALX, but it seems like the families around us much be much much richer if they can afford to send multiple kids to private school and continue to live in the community.

Do we just leave Alexandria for Bethesda or somewhere else? Uprooting our lives to move? Do we plant a money tree and hope for the best? What are families here doing?

Thanks.


I mean, this is the dilemma parents have been struggling with for at least the entire 30 years I have lived here. We lived Alexandria for North Arlington. And then Arlington for Loudoun, which has far better schools. Don't regret it. Added bonus is it was easier to get into UVA and VT as top students from those schools than it might have been from Yorktown. There are some cynics who say if you can thrive at Alexandria City High School (previously TC Williams) that can help your college admissions because you will have seemed to have survived a bad school. But IMO, schools shouldn't be something one has to "survive."


*left

We went MacArthur ES in Alexandria to Jamestown ES in Arlington/Williambsurg MS to Loudoun Valley in Loudoun. No regrets.


There's is no comparison between Loudoun Valley High and Yorktown High, the school you gave up in Arlington. It's universally regarded as one of the state's best high schools, which LV is not, and it's in Arlington -- not Purcellville, egads.


DP. A possible advantage of a lower ranked school is that students who are sharp sometimes (not always) will have higher class rank, less competition from within that HS, and better college admissions.

It literally is the big fish, small pond scenario. If LVHS has more % FARMS, then the student also might benefit from that now that colleges are looking for a proxy for ethnicity.


Are you from NOVA? Do you know ANYTHING about the public schools here? If you did, you’d know that (1) there are more FARMS at Yorktown than LV and Yorktown has greater diversity but (2) Yorktown’s SAT scores are still much higher and its graduates do better with college admissions. The top kids at Yorktown are much better students.


And yet … my top stats kid who would have gone to Yorktown did just fine at LVHS and went T-20 while her friends with similar stats ended up at … Alabama. And then transferred after a year to ODU. So.


Uh huh. Sure they did.


They sure did!
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 17:52     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our oldest daughter will enter kindergarten next year. We had planned to send her to the elementary we are zoned for, one of the ones that's supposed to be "better" - but the recent abysmal report card from the state is seriously disturbing. Not a single school fully accredited in ACPS, almost all elementaries (including ours) listed as off track. I've seen many defend clerical issues that led to the scores, but even if that's true - it's no prize. It's also bad and indicative of the kind of environment that's been allowed to continue in the system here it seems.

It would be a huge stretch to pay for private. We love living in ALX, but it seems like the families around us much be much much richer if they can afford to send multiple kids to private school and continue to live in the community.

Do we just leave Alexandria for Bethesda or somewhere else? Uprooting our lives to move? Do we plant a money tree and hope for the best? What are families here doing?

Thanks.


I mean, this is the dilemma parents have been struggling with for at least the entire 30 years I have lived here. We lived Alexandria for North Arlington. And then Arlington for Loudoun, which has far better schools. Don't regret it. Added bonus is it was easier to get into UVA and VT as top students from those schools than it might have been from Yorktown. There are some cynics who say if you can thrive at Alexandria City High School (previously TC Williams) that can help your college admissions because you will have seemed to have survived a bad school. But IMO, schools shouldn't be something one has to "survive."


*left

We went MacArthur ES in Alexandria to Jamestown ES in Arlington/Williambsurg MS to Loudoun Valley in Loudoun. No regrets.


Can you elaborate on what made Loudoun schools so much better than Arlington in your view?


Smaller, more opportunities to get involved with extracurricular, less intense (not a pressure cooker), better to be big fish in smaller pond. They had great teachers, AP, DE opportunities. House twice the size at half the cost on three acres of land.

Mind you I worked from home since before Covid so commute wasn’t a concern.


This is just... horseshit trolling. Assuming a 1900 sqf house n Del Ray goes for 1.2, please tell us where you got a 4000sqf house on three acres in Loudon for 600,000.

We'll wait!

What is it about ACPS that brings out the trolls? Is it jealousy?


We moved in 2017. We sold our 3,000 square foot house in 22207 on a fifth of an acre for $1.1 million and bought a 5,700 square foot home on a 3.5 acre lot in Oak Knoll Farms in 20132 for $750,000. So, maybe exaggerated slightly and it wasn’t precisely half the price and twice the house but it was damn close.

Kids matriculated to UVA and Brown.


No they didn't. Had your kids "matriculated to UVA and Brown" you would have said so in your first response. You're totally full of shit.


It’s odd that this angers you so. It’s like you are taking it personally.

But hey, enjoy your $6,000 monthly payment for your dumb Craftsman on a postage stamp lot, mkay?
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 17:51     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our oldest daughter will enter kindergarten next year. We had planned to send her to the elementary we are zoned for, one of the ones that's supposed to be "better" - but the recent abysmal report card from the state is seriously disturbing. Not a single school fully accredited in ACPS, almost all elementaries (including ours) listed as off track. I've seen many defend clerical issues that led to the scores, but even if that's true - it's no prize. It's also bad and indicative of the kind of environment that's been allowed to continue in the system here it seems.

It would be a huge stretch to pay for private. We love living in ALX, but it seems like the families around us much be much much richer if they can afford to send multiple kids to private school and continue to live in the community.

Do we just leave Alexandria for Bethesda or somewhere else? Uprooting our lives to move? Do we plant a money tree and hope for the best? What are families here doing?

Thanks.


I mean, this is the dilemma parents have been struggling with for at least the entire 30 years I have lived here. We lived Alexandria for North Arlington. And then Arlington for Loudoun, which has far better schools. Don't regret it. Added bonus is it was easier to get into UVA and VT as top students from those schools than it might have been from Yorktown. There are some cynics who say if you can thrive at Alexandria City High School (previously TC Williams) that can help your college admissions because you will have seemed to have survived a bad school. But IMO, schools shouldn't be something one has to "survive."


*left

We went MacArthur ES in Alexandria to Jamestown ES in Arlington/Williambsurg MS to Loudoun Valley in Loudoun. No regrets.


There's is no comparison between Loudoun Valley High and Yorktown High, the school you gave up in Arlington. It's universally regarded as one of the state's best high schools, which LV is not, and it's in Arlington -- not Purcellville, egads.


DP. A possible advantage of a lower ranked school is that students who are sharp sometimes (not always) will have higher class rank, less competition from within that HS, and better college admissions.

It literally is the big fish, small pond scenario. If LVHS has more % FARMS, then the student also might benefit from that now that colleges are looking for a proxy for ethnicity.


Are you from NOVA? Do you know ANYTHING about the public schools here? If you did, you’d know that (1) there are more FARMS at Yorktown than LV and Yorktown has greater diversity but (2) Yorktown’s SAT scores are still much higher and its graduates do better with college admissions. The top kids at Yorktown are much better students.


And yet … my top stats kid who would have gone to Yorktown did just fine at LVHS and went T-20 while her friends with similar stats ended up at … Alabama. And then transferred after a year to ODU. So.


Uh huh. Sure they did.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 17:50     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our oldest daughter will enter kindergarten next year. We had planned to send her to the elementary we are zoned for, one of the ones that's supposed to be "better" - but the recent abysmal report card from the state is seriously disturbing. Not a single school fully accredited in ACPS, almost all elementaries (including ours) listed as off track. I've seen many defend clerical issues that led to the scores, but even if that's true - it's no prize. It's also bad and indicative of the kind of environment that's been allowed to continue in the system here it seems.

It would be a huge stretch to pay for private. We love living in ALX, but it seems like the families around us much be much much richer if they can afford to send multiple kids to private school and continue to live in the community.

Do we just leave Alexandria for Bethesda or somewhere else? Uprooting our lives to move? Do we plant a money tree and hope for the best? What are families here doing?

Thanks.


I mean, this is the dilemma parents have been struggling with for at least the entire 30 years I have lived here. We lived Alexandria for North Arlington. And then Arlington for Loudoun, which has far better schools. Don't regret it. Added bonus is it was easier to get into UVA and VT as top students from those schools than it might have been from Yorktown. There are some cynics who say if you can thrive at Alexandria City High School (previously TC Williams) that can help your college admissions because you will have seemed to have survived a bad school. But IMO, schools shouldn't be something one has to "survive."


*left

We went MacArthur ES in Alexandria to Jamestown ES in Arlington/Williambsurg MS to Loudoun Valley in Loudoun. No regrets.


There's is no comparison between Loudoun Valley High and Yorktown High, the school you gave up in Arlington. It's universally regarded as one of the state's best high schools, which LV is not, and it's in Arlington -- not Purcellville, egads.


DP. A possible advantage of a lower ranked school is that students who are sharp sometimes (not always) will have higher class rank, less competition from within that HS, and better college admissions.

It literally is the big fish, small pond scenario. If LVHS has more % FARMS, then the student also might benefit from that now that colleges are looking for a proxy for ethnicity.


Are you from NOVA? Do you know ANYTHING about the public schools here? If you did, you’d know that (1) there are more FARMS at Yorktown than LV and Yorktown has greater diversity but (2) Yorktown’s SAT scores are still much higher and its graduates do better with college admissions. The top kids at Yorktown are much better students.


And yet … my top stats kid who would have gone to Yorktown did just fine at LVHS and went T-20 while her friends with similar stats ended up at … Alabama. And then transferred after a year to ODU. So.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 17:48     Subject: Should we leave Alexandria?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our oldest daughter will enter kindergarten next year. We had planned to send her to the elementary we are zoned for, one of the ones that's supposed to be "better" - but the recent abysmal report card from the state is seriously disturbing. Not a single school fully accredited in ACPS, almost all elementaries (including ours) listed as off track. I've seen many defend clerical issues that led to the scores, but even if that's true - it's no prize. It's also bad and indicative of the kind of environment that's been allowed to continue in the system here it seems.

It would be a huge stretch to pay for private. We love living in ALX, but it seems like the families around us much be much much richer if they can afford to send multiple kids to private school and continue to live in the community.

Do we just leave Alexandria for Bethesda or somewhere else? Uprooting our lives to move? Do we plant a money tree and hope for the best? What are families here doing?

Thanks.


I mean, this is the dilemma parents have been struggling with for at least the entire 30 years I have lived here. We lived Alexandria for North Arlington. And then Arlington for Loudoun, which has far better schools. Don't regret it. Added bonus is it was easier to get into UVA and VT as top students from those schools than it might have been from Yorktown. There are some cynics who say if you can thrive at Alexandria City High School (previously TC Williams) that can help your college admissions because you will have seemed to have survived a bad school. But IMO, schools shouldn't be something one has to "survive."


*left

We went MacArthur ES in Alexandria to Jamestown ES in Arlington/Williambsurg MS to Loudoun Valley in Loudoun. No regrets.


Can you elaborate on what made Loudoun schools so much better than Arlington in your view?


Smaller, more opportunities to get involved with extracurricular, less intense (not a pressure cooker), better to be big fish in smaller pond. They had great teachers, AP, DE opportunities. House twice the size at half the cost on three acres of land.

Mind you I worked from home since before Covid so commute wasn’t a concern.


This is just... horseshit trolling. Assuming a 1900 sqf house n Del Ray goes for 1.2, please tell us where you got a 4000sqf house on three acres in Loudon for 600,000.

We'll wait!

What is it about ACPS that brings out the trolls? Is it jealousy?


We moved in 2017. We sold our 3,000 square foot house in 22207 on a fifth of an acre for $1.1 million and bought a 5,700 square foot home on a 3.5 acre lot in Oak Knoll Farms in 20132 for $750,000. So, maybe exaggerated slightly and it wasn’t precisely half the price and twice the house but it was damn close.

Kids matriculated to UVA and Brown.


No they didn't. Had your kids "matriculated to UVA and Brown" you would have said so in your first response. You're totally full of shit.