Independent Schools

Any school wishing to vie for a spot in the District's new football playoff must abide by the same eligibility standards to which schools in the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association are bound, D.C. statewide athletic director Clark Ray said in an interview Thursday. Independent institutions such as Friendship Collegiate , a charter school, or the three D.C.-based members of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference – St. John's , Carroll and Gonzaga – have until the...

Cristeen Anyanwu said she transferred to Episcopal from Eleanor Roosevelt because she wanted to get "everything out of being a student-athlete. " Closing out her first year with her third state title and increased aspirations of running at an Ivy League school made it clear the Alexandria private school was the place for her. Anyanwu set a personal best in the 100 with a 12.58 to capture her first outdoor state championship and helped the...

The 17th-ranked Paul VI Catholic girls' basketball team won its sixth consecutive Virginia Independent School championship over the weekend, this time with a little more ease than in previous years. Even more encouraging for the Panthers is that they had no seniors on the 23-10 team that tied a school record for wins. Paul VI finished fourth in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference and lost to Good Counsel in the league semifinals. But the state tournament is the major...

With one out separating Potomac School from winning the Independent School League AA tournament championship Sunday, junior third baseman Anna Regan surprised herself. National Cathedral cleanup hitter Katie Johnsen smacked a ground ball down the third base line that Regan stabbed with her backhand before making a strong throw to first for the final out of a 6-4 Panthers win at Flint Hill in Oakton. "That was probably the first backhand that I've made all...

We're often told that public schools are underfunded. In the District, the spending figure cited most commonly is $8,322 per child, but total spending is close to $25,000 per child -- on par with tuition at Sidwell Friends, the private school Chelsea Clinton attended in the 1990s. What accounts for the nearly threefold difference in these numbers? The commonly cited figure counts only part of the local operating budget. To calculate total spending, we have to add up all sources of funding for education from kindergarten through 12th grade,...

For the first time in decades, the D.C. City Title basketball game will not pit the top Catholic league team against the D.C. public school champion. In the D.C. State Athletic Association's ongoing effort to create a championship format integrating public, private and charter schools within the District, a new eight-team tournament format will be rolled out in March to decide the city champ. The new structure replaces a championship that dates from 1957 and has been contested annually since...

Some of Washington's top private schools might be in for a cultural shift at the end of this school year, as they change leadership. Although the search for a new school head isn't quite as secretive as a papal conclave -- parents aren't massing on MacArthur Boulevard waiting for a puff of white smoke to rise from a chimney at Georgetown Day School -- the job openings occur infrequently, and changes can be significant. The highly paid heads are the schools' public faces, and they juggle the academics and the financial...

Private schools without religious affiliation spend almost twice as much per student as their public and Catholic counterparts and more than double that of other Christian schools nationwide, according to a new study. In the Washington area, there are about 330 private schools with enrollments above 50 students, according to Education Department data . Two-thirds have some religious affiliation, and a quarter are members of non-Catholic Christian school associations. Although it is not surprising that some...

Ritalou R. Harris, 75, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools of Greater Washington from 1973 to 2000, died Oct. 17 at a hotel in Ithaca, N.Y., where she was traveling with friends. The Chevy Chase resident had a ruptured brain aneurysm, said her daughter Gail H. Thomason. Mrs. Harris oversaw operations at the association, which supports independent private schools in the Washington area and is now known as Independent Education. Her responsibilities included advocacy work, government...

The Newport School, a private institution in Montgomery County since 1930, is closing because of economic pressures. Newport was among the first independent schools in the Washington area to integrate racially and has long served a majority-minority student population, a point of pride in increasingly diverse Montgomery, trustee Robin Payes said yesterday. The school is a victim of the slow economy, which is squeezing private schools in the region. Some are losing enrollment, and some are working with families to ease the...

Early in the second day of the Maryland Independent Schools state wrestling championships Saturday, Good Counsel Coach Skylar Saar talked to senior heavyweight Jemal Averette about what was then just a remote possibility. Defending state champion and host McDonogh held a commanding lead in the team competition, but if enough results fell the Falcons' way, Averette needed to be ready. By the time Averette took the mat for the final bout of the tournament, the team's state...

For the first time in decades, the D.C. City Title basketball game will not pit the top Catholic league team against the D.C. public school champion. In the D.C. State Athletic Association's ongoing effort to create a championship format integrating public, private and charter schools within the District, a new eight-team tournament format will be rolled out in March to decide the city champ. The new structure replaces a championship that dates from 1957 and has been contested...

Rashad Manning's teammates describe him as a well-mannered guy, the kind of person who's respectful and incredibly easy to get along with. Manning didn't play well with others Saturday at the Private & Independent Schools Invitational. The Riverdale Baptist sophomore won the gold medal in the shot put with a meet-record 57 feet 4 inches, but his throws went so far that officials had to suspend the nearby high jump competition because of safety concerns,...

Any school wishing to vie for a spot in the District's new football playoff must abide by the same eligibility standards to which schools in the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association are bound, D.C. statewide athletic director Clark Ray said in an interview Thursday. Independent institutions such as Friendship Collegiate , a charter school, or the three D.C.-based members of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference – St. John's , Carroll and Gonzaga –...

SO GOOD IS the football team fielded by Friendship Collegiate Academy in the District that it was ranked among the Washington area's best high school teams in The Post's influential rankings last year. Despite that, the Knights didn't get to play for the city championship; as a charter school, Friendship was ineligible. That cruel inequity is coming to an end with the long-overdue decision by city officials to create an equal playing field for the growing numbers of charter school student-athletes.

A few weeks into the season, the Paul VI Catholic baseball team was in an unfamiliar place. Accustomed to challenging for the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title and among the region's top-ranked teams, the Panthers were struggling. They were .500 after a 5-3 loss to Good Counsel on April 5 and even after reaching the final of the Southeastern Baseball Classic in Hartsville, S.C., Paul VI was just 9-8 and came home after being thumped 11-1 in five innings...

SO GOOD IS the football team fielded by Friendship Collegiate Academy in the District that it was ranked among the Washington area's best high school teams in The Post's influential rankings last year. Despite that, the Knights didn't get to play for the city championship; as a charter school, Friendship was ineligible. That cruel inequity is coming to an end with the long-overdue decision by city officials to create an equal playing field for the growing numbers of charter school student-athletes.

At the end of August, Gabriel Liegey left his crisp school uniform gathering dust in his closet in favor of jeans and T-shirts. Natalie Medrano and her sister traded a long drive to private school in Frederick for a ride on the school bus with other kids on their block. And Lawson Hamilton gave up an eighth-grade class of 26 for a freshman class of almost 500. All four joined the rising number of Washington area students who have switched out of private schools this year as financial pressures and the...

I always say "please" and "thank you. " I tip at least 20 percent. I never abuse editors or waiters. Many people have told me that I am a nice guy. So why do so many private schools these days treat me like a loathsome intruder? They don't actually say they wish I would drop dead, but it is clear that they don't want to hear from me. I am asking them for information — how many graduates and Advanced Placement tests they had last year — that they consider none of my business. Thousands of public schools have...

The St. Stephen's/St. Agnes girls' lacrosse team waited an agonizingly long month for another shot at top-ranked Georgetown Visitation after a rare regular season defeat. So when the Saints took the field for Wednesday's Independent School League AA title game at St. Andrew's Episcopal, they wasted no time in their effort to make amends. The No. 2 Saints won the opening draw, and used their potent quick-strike offense to score three times before the...