Washington, Nov. 22: After a school search that inspired weeks of frenzied speculation among parents in the nation’s capital, President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, announced today that they had decided to send their two daughters to Sidwell Friends School, the pricey and prestigious academy that has educated generations of this city’s elite.

“A number of great schools were considered,’’ said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama.

“In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now.”

The Obama family had also considered two other private institutions, Georgetown Day School and Maret School, for their girls, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. But the Quaker-run Sidwell, which was established in 1883 and costs as much as $29,442 a year, has long been described by some as the Harvard of this town’s private schools. Sidwell has already educated children of two sitting presidents, Theodore Roosevelt and Bill Clinton. And there was another added bonus: grandchildren of Vice-President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who are friendly with the Obama girls, currently attend Sidwell.

Washington’s mayor, Adrian M. Fenty, strongly lobbied the Obamas to consider a public school. But the Obama girls currently attend private school — the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools where annual tuition runs as high as $21,480 — and the family seemed unlikely to switch gears.