Garfield Elementary in Springfield? [VA]

[jegunt4488]

I am beginning to house hunt and do research on school districts in the Annandale/Springfield/Burke/Kings Park/Mantua area. I understand GS ratings don't tell the whole story of a school. I don't see much information on here about Garfield Elementary in Springfield. I am looking for current parents who can let me know what its like. I understand test scores are low and many students use English language services. How do teachers deal with this in the classroom? Are they able to help kids who are at or above grade level? How does the school deal with behavior issues (we are coming from DCPS where teachers did very little to address major behavior problems)? Appreciate if only current or recent parents can respond. I've seen the test scores and the GS ratings and I know the boundary has lots of apartments.

[Anonymous]

Crestwood just down the road has AAP and is also high ESOL. Most ESOL is pull out support. There is opportunity to differentiate.

[Anonymous]

Are you planning to stay for middle school? Because Garfield feeds into Key, which has such poor behavior that they have to dismiss kids in shifts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you planning to stay for middle school? Because Garfield feeds into Key, which has such poor behavior that they have to dismiss kids in shifts.

This. I taught at Key for years and would never send my kids there today. It's really sad what it has become.

[Anonymous]

Key MS's most recent principal for a few years was a Gatehouse exile who just couldn't be fired. She had previously been removed from another school but was given another chance to head Key. She finally retired two months ago in the middle of the school year. A new principal was just hired at Key with administrator experience from Centreville and Sandburg. He hopefully can make positive changes among teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Key MS's most recent principal for a few years was a Gatehouse exile who just couldn't be fired. She had previously been removed from another school but was given another chance to head Key. She finally retired two months ago in the middle of the school year. A new principal was just hired at Key with administrator experience from Centreville and Sandburg. He hopefully can make positive changes among teachers.

She didn't retire, actually. Someone finally just kept a log of all the verbally abusive things Dr. Holleb said to them and got it in front of the right person who actually did something about it. Staff had been complaining for years that she was cruel and manipulative and incompetent in her job (they lost 90% of their staff in her first 2 years while the kids ran wild, and then couldn't hold onto anyone after that) but no one took one-off complaints seriously I guess. Holleb was given the choice to resign or face a lawsuit based on the things she said. She resigned and took a position with Prince William as director of special ed. Failed up, yet again.

The new principal was an assistant principal under Holleb at Key for several years. He's not mean like Holleb was, but I don't have the highest hopes that he is strong enough to turn the school around. I hope I'm wrong.

[jegunt4488]

Thanks everyone for your responses. This is very helpful. We would want to stay for at least 10 years so we would be there for middle and high school. Sounds like Garfield is ok but we should avoid the area because Key and Lee are undesirable and as we know, change is slow to come when schools are that bad. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

So these schools are undesirable and relegated to having only people who can't afford other schools. You can see how they got to this point and where this leads. If there was room at the nearby pyramids I would say shut down Key and Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So these schools are undesirable and relegated to having only people who can't afford other schools. You can see how they got to this point and where this leads. If there was room at the nearby pyramids I would say shut down Key and Lewis.

DP. The homes are not necessarily cheaper (or more expensive) than other areas. But yes, they're undesirable for people who value schools in a certain way.

[Anonymous]

To be fair, middle school is a mess everywhere. Irving, right down the road and in WSHS pyramid, has been a constant mess of behaviors this year.

And I wouldn’t say the elementary schools in Lewis pyramid are undesirable. Some people like title 1 and smaller class sizes. And they all have good teachers.

[Anonymous]

I'll stand up for the Lewis pyramid since we went through it recently finishing in 2021. It receives a lot of criticism on this board, but obviously most commenters have zero direct experience with this pyramid since they admit they actively avoid the schools. It ends up being mostly an echo chamber of rumors and pointing to low test scores of the FARMs population.

It's no secret that the pyramid serves low-income families. Most low-income kids enter the trades or blue-collar work after graduation.
But for the college-bound kids, including my own, it was a fine school and I'm happy with their experience. The IB coordinator has been there for over 20 years. Many teachers there choose to serve and stay in that particular kind of community for their whole careers. Maybe things would have been very different had I pupil-placed my kid at a large school like LBSS, but I really have no complaints other than it being such a small school (under 1700 now.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, middle school is a mess everywhere. Irving, right down the road and in WSHS pyramid, has been a constant mess of behaviors this year.

And I wouldn’t say the elementary schools in Lewis pyramid are undesirable. Some people like title 1 and smaller class sizes. And they all have good teachers.

Irving has been much better this year than last year, they are just communicating more about the bad behaviors. There's been much less drama at the plaza as well.

There is no comparison between Irving and Key. Yes, Irving has it's issues because all middle schools do, but it's a diverse group of good kids with overall supportive families of all races/cultures. Key is dangerous.

[Anonymous]

I would avoid that particular school b/c its in in an industrial area and I think the air quality on the playground must be terrible. Plus the noise. It just seems unpleasant and not a good learning environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, middle school is a mess everywhere. Irving, right down the road and in WSHS pyramid, has been a constant mess of behaviors this year.

And I wouldn’t say the elementary schools in Lewis pyramid are undesirable. Some people like title 1 and smaller class sizes. And they all have good teachers.

Irving has been much better this year than last year, they are just communicating more about the bad behaviors. There's been much less drama at the plaza as well.

There is no comparison between Irving and Key. Yes, Irving has it's issues because all middle schools do, but it's a diverse group of good kids with overall supportive families of all races/cultures. Key is dangerous.

NP here. I don’t know…I still feel like Irving is struggling a lot, unfortunately. Read the post in the local moms’ group about boys going into the mattress store at the Plaza and performing fake sex acts in the window.

I have 7th and 9th graders, for reference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would avoid that particular school b/c its in in an industrial area and I think the air quality on the playground must be terrible. Plus the noise. It just seems unpleasant and not a good learning environment.

Industrial? It has neighborhoods on 2 sides and a park right next door.