There was plenty of community interest and involvement a few years back and it has died a slow death because the principal has zero interest in engaging the neighborhood.

The opposite happened at Brent, and it made all the difference. Without the school meeting the neighborhood half way, Brent could never have made the amazing turnaround it has (although I'm not sure it ever had as little community support as LT has).

Every in-bounds family I know with real skin in the game who started with kids in the early childhood program at LT has since left, many with hard feelings about being unwelcome and very negative experiences with the principal.

Until she's gone and replaced by someone willing to engage the neighborhood, there will be no Brent Miracle at LT.

The next Brent through what? Passive observing and waiting for "someone else" to do it (whatever "it" may be)? That is not how things work.

I'm not the one you're asking, but can answer in a representative way nonetheless. When we bought our IB home 8 years ago, we read the signs and thought that LT would emerge as the next Brent. We saw IB families starting to use the preschool and assumed that more would stay on with every passing year. It didn't occur to us that Brookland charters would start creaming off high-SES IB families like crazy, or that a new LT principal would help drive the process and stay all this time.

Why would you purchase a home across the street from a school that you feel so negative towards?

Anonymous wrote:^^ All you have to do is say the truth -- no one stays past K.

Andy by "no one" you mean "rich, white folks like me."

^^ All you have to do is say the truth -- no one stays past K.

Seriously, I can think of a lot of reasons to send my child to a school or not, but whether or not they have constructive interactions with local sports leagues is so far down the list it might as well not be there.

Don't get me wrong, I love Sports on the Hill, and my daughter has had a great experience in their programs, and I would encourage LT to work cooperatively with them. But as a parent selecting a school for my child, that is a non-factor.

When you "talk down" about LT to new young families, are you clear with them that you don't like the school b/c of a history of poor interactions with local sports leagues, or do you just make a face and say something vaguely negative that misleads them about the source of your dissatisfaction?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's say the field was open for little league this summer. Would you be ready to send your children to Ludlow?

For 4th and 5th grade? No. But it would make me more likely to not talk down about it amongst the new, young family, neighbors.

Oh boy how kind of you. I imagine the school is more anti obnoxious elitist asshole than anti "IB neighbors" however when you are both it may be hard to differentiate.

I've heard lots of complaining from Sports on the Hill and Little League folks about how impossible LT is to deal with on field use agreements. They use fields all over the Hill, from Eastern to Payne to Tyler to Watkins and LT is definitely the one I hear the most complaining about in terms of how unpleasant and unwelcoming they are to reasonable, responsible neighborhood use of the fields.

This issue goes back many, many years, with the school going well out of its way to block community use of the fields. It's not new and it hasn't improved. I remember LT parents screaming at neighbors at the planning meetings to build those fields 10+ years ago. There's a lot of history to the field use issue and I don't expect it will be untangled anytime soon, and certainly not under the current principal.

My mother always told me that if I didn't have anything nice to say maybe I shouldn't say anything at all. Try it sometime. Silence speaks volumes without making you look anymore like the a**hole you already are.

Anonymous wrote:So let's say the field was open for little league this summer. Would you be ready to send your children to Ludlow?

For 4th and 5th grade? No. But it would make me more likely to not talk down about it amongst the new, young family, neighbors.

Anonymous wrote:So let's say the field was open for little league this summer. Would you be ready to send your children to Ludlow?

Until K?

So let's say the field was open for little league this summer. Would you be ready to send your children to Ludlow?

Anonymous wrote:Give me a break -- it wasn't "active" most weekend evenings.

OK, but it was a construction site nonetheless. Probs not a great idea to be having little league even if it is not "active" But I see that you are adamant about labeling LT as something negative so I will stop trying logic.

And there's a fence.