The Potomac School and McLean School are located, not surprisingly, in the DC suburbs of Potomac and McLean. Except the Potomac School sits not in Potomac, where one might logically look for it, but rather in McLean. McLean School? You’ll find it—where else?—in Potomac.
This counterintuitive situation has led to some confusion. The two K–12 private schools—in different states and on opposite sides of the Potomac River—regularly encounter mistaken-identity mishaps. Earlier this year, a family moving to the area from overseas had an appointment to tour McLean. “On the day of their visit, they called from . . . you guessed it, the Potomac School,” says Bobby Edwards, McLean’s director of community inclusion and external relations. “They were rescheduled for the next day.”
The same stomach-dropping mistake happened a number of other times back when Edwards worked in admissions, he recalls, and “it was a running joke because occasionally they, too, would call over to us saying that they had one of our families.” Whenever a prospective Potomac family showed up at McLean, “they would be primed and ready to go, the child usually dressed to impress and the parents a little anxious. We’re checking our schedules, we don’t see their names. Then we say to them, ‘By any chance, are you expecting to interview with the Potomac School?’ They would say yes, and we’re like, ‘Well, we understand what’s happened here. You’re on time—you’re just at the wrong school.’ ”
McLean and Potomac both get phone calls meant for the other school, and sports events are also issue-prone. “There are stories of fans or referees who are in a hurry, and if you’re speaking into your phone and say, ‘Give me directions,’ if you talk too quickly or get it muddled, you could easily end up at the wrong school,” says Tim Jaeger, Potomac’s associate head of school. “They realize, ‘Oh my God, I’d better get back in the car!’ ”
Last year on the first day of school, one McLean fourth-grader boarded his bus at a shopping center in Virginia where both schools pick up students. When the kid arrived at the campus, nobody could figure out who he was—because he was not at McLean in Potomac, but rather at Potomac in McLean. “I mean, it’s funny now looking back on it,” says Jaeger. “We sorted it all out. We try to label the buses really clearly so that doesn’t happen.”
How did this scrambled state of affairs come to be? Founded in the 1950s, McLean took its name from McLean Gardens, the housing development in Northwest DC where it was located for some of its early years. The school moved to Maryland in the 1960s, seeking more space. The Potomac School opened in 1904 in Dupont Circle, and it eventually headed to Virginia for similar reasons.
Given that this is all just a coincidence, it’s not crazy to think that the institutions could solve a lot of problems by simply swapping names. But the area’s beleaguered referees shouldn’t get their hopes up: Neither school seems inclined to negotiate such a trade. As Edwards points out, “That’s a lot of stationery that would have to be changed.” And anyway, a name exchange at this late date would probably just make things worse. “In an already confusing universe, that would really confuse people,” says Jaeger. “We would have many kids getting on different buses.”
Rob Brunner grew up in DC and moved back in 2017 to join Washingtonian. Previously, he was an editor and writer at Fast Company and other publications. He lives with his family in Chevy Chase DC.
