Working in Crystal City - where to live with family with elementary school children? (Arlington: sales, apartment)

[loborob]

We will be moving for my job in Crystal City, VA and I have two elementary age children. We are interested in renting because I will likely only be in the area for 3 years. My budget is going to be roughly 1800-2100 per month and we are not opposed to living in a town home or condo/apartment. Our primary concern is the safety of the neighborhood and the quality of the public elementary school. Can anyone give some suggestions of areas I should look for housing? Thank you!

[geniegrl]

If you only need two bedrooms (wasn't clear if your children would be sharing a room), you might find a small townhouse for rent in Rosemont or Del Ray (22301 area code). The elementary schools are Maury, Mount Vernon, and Jefferson Houston depending on where in the zip code you are. All are highly regarded by parents, and there are many young families in this part of Alexandria. Jefferson Houston, in particular, stuggles with test scores because of its very diverse student base but I have heard from many in the community that the teachers are outstanding and smaller class sizes are a draw.

From this part of Alexandria, you'd be only a short drive to Crystal City. Depending on where within the zip code you are, walking to Metro might also be an option, or taking the bus to Metro (Metrobus 10A, 10B, 10E, or DASH 10). The 10A bus goes directly into Crystal City which might also be an option.

[loborob]

Originally Posted by geniegrl

If you only need two bedrooms (wasn't clear if your children would be sharing a room), you might find a small townhouse for rent in Rosemont or Del Ray (22301 area code). The elementary schools are Maury, Mount Vernon, and Jefferson Houston depending on where in the zip code you are. All are highly regarded by parents, and there are many young families in this part of Alexandria. Jefferson Houston, in particular, stuggles with test scores because of its very diverse student base but I have heard from many in the community that the teachers are outstanding and smaller class sizes are a draw.

From this part of Alexandria, you'd be only a short drive to Crystal City. Depending on where within the zip code you are, walking to Metro might also be an option, or taking the bus to Metro (Metrobus 10A, 10B, 10E, or DASH 10). The 10A bus goes directly into Crystal City which might also be an option.

Thank you so much for the information!

[loborob]

We have been looking at homes in the Centreville and Bristow areas and the schools seem pretty good. Does anyone have any input about living in those areas and commuting to Crystal City?

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by loborob

We have been looking at homes in the Centreville and Bristow areas and the schools seem pretty good. Does anyone have any input about living in those areas and commuting to Crystal City?

Ugly commutes. You cannot use 66 inside the beltway during rush hours unless you are HOV (going into the city in the morning, coming out in the afternoon). That pretty much limits you to taking 66 (traffic) to 495 to 50 (stop lights and traffic). Others can give you an estimated time, I'm sure.

Google maps has a neat feature where you can see the average traffic levels at a given time of day. Type in your start/end cities, then select "traffic" from the menu on the right of the map, and then select "change" next to the live traffic box on the bottom left of the map. You can drag the ticker to your expected commute hours to see the red/yellow/green portions of the map change.

There are good elementary schools MUCH closer to Crystal City than Centreville or Bristow. Why not look at Kingstowne, Springfield, or Annandale?

[mlv311]

Originally Posted by CaliTerp07

Ugly commutes. You cannot use 66 inside the beltway during rush hours unless you are HOV (going into the city in the morning, coming out in the afternoon). That pretty much limits you to taking 66 (traffic) to 495 to 50 (stop lights and traffic). Others can give you an estimated time, I'm sure.

Google maps has a neat feature where you can see the average traffic levels at a given time of day. Type in your start/end cities, then select "traffic" from the menu on the right of the map, and then select "change" next to the live traffic box on the bottom left of the map. You can drag the ticker to your expected commute hours to see the red/yellow/green portions of the map change.

There are good elementary schools MUCH closer to Crystal City than Centreville or Bristow. Why not look at Kingstowne, Springfield, or Annandale?

Agree with CaliTerp07. That' a long commute and you don't have many public transportation options. Since you'll be working in Crystal City, if you work regular business hours, you can choose to live near the bus/metro, VRE or commuter bus route. In addition to the locations suggested, you might want to check out West Springfield, Burke and some parts of Fairfax (near Burke). Good luck.

[stpickrell]

Mount Vernon ES "2" on Greatschools and 61% free-reduced price lunches
Jefferson Houston ES "2" on GS and 72% free-reduced price lunches
Maury ES "6" on GS and 44% free-reduced price lunches

Maury I've heard decent things about, not so much Jefferson Houston or Mount Vernon.

If you're only looking at ES and staying 2-3 years, you might want to consider some areas around Fort Hunt, Waynewood, etc.

If you can find something in North Arlington, take it. It'll work for you if those 2-3 years turn into a longer timeframe and nearly all the schools there are good. I'd also look at Vienna, Burke, or the areas of Fairfax east of Fairfax City.

[Middlin]

I agree that since you're renting, stay as close to work as possible. You could take VRE from Bristow, but it depends on how long of a commute you're willing to tolerate. Driving from Bristow to Crystal City would be a nightmare and even Centreville is not much of an improvement. Unless you are in close proximity to work, you're better off being close to public transportation. In your price range, I 2nd the recommendation for Burke. Here is a link to the VRE site

Service Information - Virginia Railway Express

[JHParent]

Hi.

You should be able to tell from my handle that I am a current Jefferson-Houston parent. The school is great, but I'm not going to do a big sales job here. Test scores, free and reduced lunch stats, and GS ratings tell only a very small (and mostly unfair) part of the story.

If anyone wants *ANY* info about the school, they can either contact me directly or post any question (don't worry about offending us, we've heard it already) to the Yahoo group at [URL="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jeffersonhouston/"]jeffersonhouston[/URL].

Thanks.

[stpickrell]

Originally Posted by JHParent

Hi.

You should be able to tell from my handle that I am a current Jefferson-Houston parent. The school is great, but I'm not going to do a big sales job here. Test scores, free and reduced lunch stats, and GS ratings tell only a very small (and mostly unfair) part of the story.

If anyone wants *ANY* info about the school, they can either contact me directly or post any question (don't worry about offending us, we've heard it already) to the Yahoo group at jeffersonhouston.

Thanks.

Why are the FRL stats and GS ratings (which are just test scores distilled into a 1-10 scale) unfair? They show a large concentration of poverty there -- we're not talking 20-25% FRL, we're talking 75% FRL here.

Why should parents want to send their kids there -- and risk having their not at-risk kids get ignored by the administration, who're probably too busy performing Herculean tasks with the at-risk kids?