Does anyone send their child to private school instead WW/WJ/Churchill/Wooton?

[Anonymous]

We are new to the area. We are looking at homes in these school districts for access to these schools. Hoping to hear perspectives of anyone that lives in these school districts and was planning to use the public schools but felt they had to pull their children out and pay for private. Could you tell us why you realized it was not the right school or school system for you?

[Anonymous]

Yes. I was zone Whitman and went private and met lots of kids who were zoned for those schools.

[Anonymous]

Whitman is too large, resources do not compare to many privates. In addition, the curriculum and student body is too left of center for me and my kids...there are many Catholic schools where a conservative or old school liberal will feel comfortable.

[Anonymous]

Saw plenty of elementary and middle school students from Whitman area at area privates. Many do return for high school.

[Anonymous]

Churchill cluster here. One kid pulled after middle school for private HS. The other never saw the inside of an MCPS school and is starting private HS next year.

[Anonymous]

We are in Churchill cluster. Moved one DC because of smaller class sizes in private which we felt he needed. In elemtary school, class size was 27 compared to 14 students.

[Anonymous]

My kids’ MoCo private schools, one K-8, one K-12, have kids from all those HS zones. I’d say more from Whitman and Churchill than WJ/Wooton.

My younger child left MCPS (WJ cluster) for smaller classes in mid ES.

Both kids will complete private HS, we’re primarily interested in smaller classes and more writing/discussion.

[Anonymous]

seems like top reason is class size?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:seems like top reason is class size?

Yes and class size trickles down into everything…
Length and feedback on assignments
Hands on learning experience/materials
Roster spots on sports teams
Chance of getting a role in the play

[Anonymous]

There is a night and day comparison between top privates and these overcrowded public’s. MoCo public schools have been resting on their laurels for 15 years. If you have the means, and can get into one of the better privates in the area, do that.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, publics (autocorrect).

[Anonymous]

We live in a rather large neighborhood in Potomac that is zoned to Whitman. At least 50% of the kids go to private schools.

[Anonymous]

Whitman cluster. Pulled both DCs when the pandemic started and put them into private. I watched many MCPS BOE meetings online and came to realize how poorly managed the school district is. The teachers we had in MCPS were great, but top management leaves a lot to be desired. To be fair, it's difficult to get things done when you're managing a huge organization with 160k students -- it's sort of the nature of the beast -- but the small size at privates means they can be more nimble and adapt.

Our youngest was in K at the time, which means she had 12 years to go when we made the switch. My gut tells me we're going to have another "big thing" in the next decade, maybe not a pandemic but something like it, and MCPS will again fail to lead. We could afford not to take that risk.

[Anonymous]

Many of the families in the private schools in Bethesda and Potomac are zoned for these schools. These are wealthy areas, so the people who have the means to pay for private school often live there.

Most of the families at our private school have always gone to private school. There are a handful, like our family, who came from public, but that is the exception. For the ones who are private school lifers, it seems to be largely about the small class size and the facilities/resources. Some families are so wealthy I don’t think the private school tuition even registers as a significant expense, so they would never even consider public.

We left MCPS because of the pandemic and also because we can easily afford it for all our kids. It has been such an improvement for our child who transferred, the younger ones have started/will start in private school.

The most important benefits we value are: much better curriculum, responsive teachers and admin, and the ability to make hyper-local decisions to benefit the school community. We are also BIPOC, and our private is more racially and ethnically diverse than our public school. The community (other parents) is wonderful.

There are also negatives (other than the tuition): small community so if your kid is quirky they may not find their “people” until upper school, highly wealthy culture and people assume you have money, fewer clubs/activities than public schools.

[Anonymous]

We are zoned for Wootton and have had DD in private since elementary school. Yes class size and general chaos was top reason. And overall lack of academic rigor.