Takoma Park residents, where do your kids go to HS?

[Anonymous]

We live in the city and are exploring neighborhoods in Maryland to move to with our Elementary age kids. Takoma Park is very high on my list.

One issue I can't get past though, is how far away Montgomery Blair is. It's outside the beltway! Is that where most high schoolers go to school? Does it get annoying to have to drive so far every day, for activities, etc? I was hoping to live somewhere where the local schools are really a part of the community, but I'm afraid it will feel disconnected in TP. What has your experience been?

Thanks so much! I'd also love any other points of view on TP, but this is the issue weighing most on my mind.

[Anonymous]

Even though it's not that close, Blair is the closest HS to TP. But there is also the Downcounty Consortium, which Blair is part of. Students can rank their high schools in order of preference. The other schools are Northwood, Einstein, Wheaton, and Kennedy.

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/school-info/downcounty/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even though it's not that close, Blair is the closest HS to TP. But there is also the Downcounty Consortium, which Blair is part of. Students can rank their high schools in order of preference. The other schools are Northwood, Einstein, Wheaton, and Kennedy.

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/school-info/downcounty/

Good info, thank you! But given that Blair is so far away, I don't think I'd be interested in lottery-ing even further. If we move to TP, it would be to stay in the zoned school pyramid. The schools themselves seem great and I would have no reason to not want to go to Blair (or any of them), I just can't believe it's so far away. I'm wondering if that has an impact on the community feel.

[Anonymous]

Blair really isn't that far. It's just that the other schools are SO close.

[Anonymous]

As others said, Blair is the closest. But your kid will have the choice of 4 other high schools if they don't like Blair for whatever reason, which is a pretty amazing perk of being within the DCC.

[Anonymous]

MCPS provides bus service from all parts of TP to Blair, so you shouldn't have to drive every day.

[Anonymous]

Isn't it 4 miles, tops? I mean, our community in a different part of Montgomery County is 7 miles away from our assigned high school.

[Anonymous]

Blair is not far away at all. 15 min drive tops. My kids walked to school K-8 and now take a bus to high school (like the vast majority of high schoolers in this country).

[Anonymous]

I know kid who bike from Takoma Park to Blair. It's outside the Beltway by like 250 yards, not far at all.

It's also on a lot of bus routes in terms of public transportation, and a lot of kids eschew the school bus for the public bus.

[Anonymous]

And just to add Blair feels very much connected to the TP community. Most kids in TP go to Blair.

[Anonymous]

My kids went to the TPES magnet for early ES. Later went to PBES. My younger child was in the local CES there. My older child was in the earlier version of that program which was hosted by another nearby school. Later they went to TPMS and were part of the MS STEM magnet. Finally, they went to Blair. One was in the STEM magnet, one just started CAP this year. We mostly stumbled into this, but couldn't be happier about the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know kid who bike from Takoma Park to Blair. It's outside the Beltway by like 250 yards, not far at all.

It's also on a lot of bus routes in terms of public transportation, and a lot of kids eschew the school bus for the public bus.

Originally it was in DTSS, but it outgrew that location. The school's new site isn't related to its boundary since there are no HS in the SE part of moco. I assume the boundary is still based on its original location since there aren't other alternatives.

[Anonymous]

It’s 2.6 miles. That seems pretty close to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know kid who bike from Takoma Park to Blair. It's outside the Beltway by like 250 yards, not far at all.

It's also on a lot of bus routes in terms of public transportation, and a lot of kids eschew the school bus for the public bus.

Originally it was in DTSS, but it outgrew that location. The school's new site isn't related to its boundary since there are no HS in the SE part of moco. I assume the boundary is still based on its original location since there aren't other alternatives.

In a way, yes. But it was Northwood's reopening that really made Blair's weird boundary look the way it does now.

2003 boundary (pre-Northwood): https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/fy2003/schools/04757map.pdf

2023 boundary: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/BlairHS.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s 2.6 miles. That seems pretty close to me.

It's about 5 miles from Blair to the southernmost part of TP.