Gaithersburg HS

[Anonymous]

I know most posters here send their kids to Sidwell, GDS etc but does anyone here have info on Gaithersburg high school? Is it safe, are there gangs? Bullying? Special ed support? Large class size? Any info appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Gaithersburg is my home school. It is very diverse in every way. The kids in my neighborhood are all friends from ES, all advanced academically, and all took rigorous classes and got into good colleges. There may be issues among kids who live in apartment complexes and have bad history together, but generally those groups don’t cross the academic lines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gaithersburg is my home school. It is very diverse in every way. The kids in my neighborhood are all friends from ES, all advanced academically, and all took rigorous classes and got into good colleges. There may be issues among kids who live in apartment complexes and have bad history together, but generally those groups don’t cross the academic lines.

Well this is my concern. DD may attend for one year and has learning differences so will be in general ed population..

[Anonymous]

Most people send their kids to privates? No.

[Anonymous]

GHS will undergo a boundary change with the new Crown HS opening. Don't know when your kid will be going to HS, but it's supposed to open in 2027. Boundary analysis will start in 2025.

[Anonymous]

If you’re particularly Concerned about special ed, you might want to post on the special needs board. All schools will have special ed for kids with IEPs. The question is usually how well they will be implemented and that is going to be pretty teacher specific at the HS level.

If your child needs a special program they might be placed elsewhere even if GH is your home school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gaithersburg is my home school. It is very diverse in every way. The kids in my neighborhood are all friends from ES, all advanced academically, and all took rigorous classes and got into good colleges. There may be issues among kids who live in apartment complexes and have bad history together, but generally those groups don’t cross the academic lines.

"There may be issues among kids who live in apartment complexes and have bad history together, but generally those groups don’t cross the academic lines."

Ew. There was a lot implied there.

[Anonymous]

You won't find accurate details about this school here. Most posters are more concerned with why their W school dropped a ranking. I think GHS is a fine school with many dedicated teachers. One recently won an award. Just try to be involved in your child's education and everything will be OK.

[Anonymous]

I went to a really rough school out west, but I took mostly AP classes, with serious students. As long as the school has enough high achieving peer groups, academically, your kid will be fine. I'm sure there are several kids at GHS who are academically successful.

Having stated that, a rough school in general is not a great environment overall. If I had the choice, I wouldn't send my kids to the same school I went to. Don't know how "rough" GHS is, though. FWIW, I also wouldn't send my kid to where most of the kids were wealthy, either. I'd tried to find a decent mix with a FARMS rate around 25%, and a good mix of MC and UMC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous[b wrote:]I know most posters here send their kids to Sidwell, GDS[/b] etc but does anyone here have info on Gaithersburg high school? Is it safe, are there gangs? Bullying? Special ed support? Large class size? Any info appreciated!

Huh???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know most posters here send their kids to Sidwell, GDS etc but does anyone here have info on Gaithersburg high school? Is it safe, are there gangs? Bullying? Special ed support? Large class size? Any info appreciated!

Ask away! This is the Montgomery County Public schools forum, so no most here aren't sending theirs to Sudwell and GDS. Of course there are private school lurkers on here.

[Anonymous]

To answer your questions:

Is it safe? It depends on your threshold for violence and incidents in schools. There are fights and a student was arrested for having a gun on them last year. https://moco360.media/2024/03/14/loaded-gun-allegedly-found-with-gaithersburg-high-student-during-drug-search/ I wouldn't call it "safe" but it's also not the worst high school in the world either.

are there gangs? Yes, there are gang involved students at this school.

Bullying? Yes, there is bullying at GHS.

Special ed support? Don't know too much about this one.

Large class size? Probably depends on the class but given that the latest CIP has GHS at and forecasted to be over capacity in the future, it's probable that several classes willl be large: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP26_AppendixE.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a really rough school out west, but I took mostly AP classes, with serious students. As long as the school has enough high achieving peer groups, academically, your kid will be fine. I'm sure there are several kids at GHS who are academically successful.

Having stated that, a rough school in general is not a great environment overall. If I had the choice, I wouldn't send my kids to the same school I went to. Don't know how "rough" GHS is, though. FWIW, I also wouldn't send my kid to where most of the kids were wealthy, either. I'd tried to find a decent mix with a FARMS rate around 25%, and a good mix of MC and UMC.

That middle ground is sadly hard to find in MCPS because schools are de facto segregated. So you have high schools with 70-80% FARMS rates instead of something more balanced like 20-30% as you are suggesting.

Redistricting after the boundary study could address this, but if they do that, it will be a nasty fight as wealthy parents push back at their kids being placed in environments with higher FARMS rates. And "high" for those families could be anything more than 10%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a really rough school out west, but I took mostly AP classes, with serious students. As long as the school has enough high achieving peer groups, academically, your kid will be fine. I'm sure there are several kids at GHS who are academically successful.

Having stated that, a rough school in general is not a great environment overall. If I had the choice, I wouldn't send my kids to the same school I went to. Don't know how "rough" GHS is, though. FWIW, I also wouldn't send my kid to where most of the kids were wealthy, either. I'd tried to find a decent mix with a FARMS rate around 25%, and a good mix of MC and UMC.

That middle ground is sadly hard to find in MCPS because schools are de facto segregated. So you have high schools with 70-80% FARMS rates instead of something more balanced like 20-30% as you are suggesting.

Redistricting after the boundary study could address this, but if they do that, it will be a nasty fight as wealthy parents push back at their kids being placed in environments with higher FARMS rates. And "high" for those families could be anything more than 10%.

DP. There are only 3 MCPS high schools with FARMS rates between 20 and 30%: BCC, RM, and Sherwood

[Anonymous]

All three of my kids graduated from there (last one in 2024). They took AP classes, participated in activities and had good, solid friend groups. They all went on to college, with merit aid awards.

I can't speak to the special education program. I can say there are very solid and dedicated teachers. Mr. Dimmick was the Principal for most of my kids time there (Dr. Handy for my oldest, but we didn't have any interaction with her), and we enjoyed his leadership. He just left and I can't speak to the new Principal. Mr. Loznack is one of the vice Principals and he's a great guy.

GHS has a great Biomedical Program, Navy ROTC, a wonderful marching band. There are other academies that can help your child take specialized classes as well.