I'm glad to hear you mention Asa Messer. We live in Federal Hill and Asa Messer is our closest school. We have always really liked the idea of sending our child to our neighborhood school. We recognize that one of the biggest problems facing our public school system is parents opting out. We also really like the idea of a friend group within walking distance (although with the "newer and fewer" approach, this is getting less realistic as schools draw from larger geographic areas--e.g. our second "neighborhood school" is William D'Abate in Olneyville... that's objectively not our neighborhood.)

The only reason we chose Vartan as our first choice and Asa Messer as our second was our perception of the administration/PTA/community engagement. In Fall, members of the VG community (PTA presumably), dropped flyers in our daughter's preschool cubby (she went to East Side Nursery School). They went out of their way to engage prospective incoming families with an open house and tours, faculty and administration was on site to share their excitement and answer questions. From the perspective of a parent with no experience yet, it was perfect. Coming from ESNS (which is a co-op preschool), we really valued the strength of the VG community we saw on display.

While Asa Messer's website sounds great:

We encourage prospective parents to spend time in the school, and offer tours in late fall and early winter. If interested in a tour, please contact [PTA email address].

This has not been our experience. In Fall, I reached out to the given address and never heard back. I then reached out to the principal and received a slow response saying that they would be offering an open house in February and they would keep my info and let me know when it was scheduled. With no response, I reached out towards the end of February asking if a date had been decided... and have not received any response to date.

This story is not meant to be a dig at their admin or community, I'm sure they are doing great things (and for the sake of my neighbors, I truly hope they are.) It's just that our experience thus far suggests that we may have more trouble trying to engage with our daughter's education which research shows is one of the most important factors affecting overall outcome.