Samuel Tucker @ Cameron Station for kindergartener from small-town Ohio? (Arlington: townhomes, elementary schools)

[SpurdyBradlock]

My husband will be working at Andrews AFB, and we're looking at living in Alexandria -- specifically Cameron Station, which seems to be its own little world, with an elementary school on one end, a library on the other, surrounded by parks, with townhomes and single-family homes in the middle.

I've been trolling all kinds of sites trying to find out whether parents (and kids) love Samuel Tucker Elementary and its "modified calendar" (it's a year-round school).

Since my 5-year-old has spent her life in a small, rural area, I am mostly concerned about safety and teacher-to-student ratio. We'd love to be able to walk to school (and to stores and/or restaurants). We just haven't been able to visit Cameron Station, although we've spent a lot of time visiting the D.C. area over the years.

I know the commute to Andrews would probably be easier from the Maryland side of the base, but we have always loved Alexandria (particularly Old Town, which is too expensive for us) but I guess we could consider Arlington as well.

I'd love to hear opinions about Cameron Station and its adjacent school, Samuel Tucker. Most of what I have read focuses more on the high school, T.C. Williams. We most likely won't even live in northern Virginia by the time high school is relevant.

[The Dissenter]

Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School - Alexandria, Virginia - VA - school overview

a link to samuel tucker profile.

[claremarie]

The year-round calendar is a red flag. Northern Virginia school systems use this calendar for schools in which many students need extra help. This particular school has a 60% low-income population and has a high number of minority students. I doubt there are any real safety concerns, and there is probably a higher teacher-student ratio than at schools serving more affluent populations, but keep in mind that the smaller class sizes might not be beneficial to your child if many of the other children in the class require large amounts of the teacher's attention.

[SpurdyBradlock]

Thanks for your replies. I knew Samuel Tucker had a lot of lower-income kids, and I was glad for the racial diversity, but I hadn't considered that the year-round approach might've been to improve academics at that school specifically. I know each of the elementary schools in that area that I've seen have some kind of cachet to distinguish them from others.

I've been to the Web sites and saw a couple of parent reviews, but was hoping to connect with parents who have their kids in school there, just for an anecdotal "We love this school" or "We wish our kids had gone to XXXX School instead ..."