Wednesday, June 08, 2016

a message from Austin Pearl

See this 06-08-2016 message from former Bloomingdale resident and former ANC5E08 Commissioner Austin Pearl:

Dear Bloomingdale,

A few weeks ago, we followed through with one of the hardest and most painful decisions of our entire lives: We sold our house and moved out of Bloomingdale. And of course, since I moved out I also resigned as ANC 5E08. Quite simply, we have long wanted to buy a bigger house--and do so in an area where we can put our children into public, feeder schools.

So why was it so hard and painful? I doubt we'll ever live in a neighborhood with so many smart, awesome friends again. We'll probably never live with something as beautiful as Crispus Attucks Park outside our window again. And we certainly know our commutes will only suck more...  

So hopefully, we won't be going far. But we at least wanted to give people an explanation--especially those who voted for me--and even more so because this whole thing happened extremely quick and there are many people about whom we deeply care and didn't even get a chance to tell in person that we were leaving.

If there is anyone I haven't touched base with that wants to keep contact, please e-mail me at AustinLewisPearl  @  yahoo.com.

Sincerely,

Austin + Gabi

P.S. Don't stop fighting to make the neighborhood the best place to live!

2 comments:

Alexandra in Bloomingdale said...

Best of luck to Austin and his family in this adventure!

Every family will make the best choices for them. Our family is very happy with our neighborhood schools! Depending on one's definition of Bloomingdale, our neighborhood schools are Langley (most of the neighborhood) and Seaton (southernmost area and western part is close even if out of boundary). Both have made enormous strides in just the past few years in almost every measurable metric as well as vital enrichment. Both have weekly foreign language classes, arts, lots of play time and low cost aftercare ($80 a month!). Seaton's principal was DC's Principal of the Year last year, while Langley's PK3 / early education program is now in such demand that there is a waitlist this year, and their STEM programming is exploding (in a good way!). We are proud and pleased to be Langley parents, and we know many others, as well as Seaton parents.

And with both schools going from PK3 - Grade 5 / age 11, (with lots of separation between early childhood and pre-teens) they both have a great deal to offer families at a variety of stages in life. Check out their websites at:

http://www.langleyelementary.org/
and
https://seatondc.org/

Mona Lewandoski said...

We just got back from the event at Langley for newly enrolled families to meet the preschool teaching team. It was great and lots of families were there. We are excited for a great school year!