Schools in Woodmoor Silver Spring

[Anonymous]

My daughter is first grader at Montgomery Knolls and is very happy. She has a great teacher. She is in a class with either 16 or 17 kids so she gets a lot of individual attention. She has really blossomed as a learner this year. She has a great teacher and I appreciate that the school is very organized.

I am a little disappointed in the lack of programming (no field trips, not a lot of cultural art programming like assemblies) at school I think there's been a handful of events and the PTA is rather anemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if it is still this way, but a lot of families in the neighborhood used to send their kids to St Bernadette’s.

+1

Most Woodmoor kids are at St. B’s. If your child is not there, you will feel left out a lot of the neighborhood feel.

I'd say that was true 50 or 60 years ago I don't think that's true now.

One of the reasons why there is a split articulation between Montgomery Knolls being a primary school and Pinecrest being the secondary is because there was just such low enrollment at Pinecrest due to the neighborhood being majority Catholic so rather than closing the school Montgomery county decided to split articulation between the two communities. Years later more families have moved in who are not Catholic and having older kids in public school.

FYI that K-2/3-5 setup is referred to as "paired schools." Split articulation is when one school's student body feeds into two or more schools at the next level. Which actually Pine Crest also now has as a result of the recently implemented boundary change. Now, most Pine Crest students feed to Eastern, but some feed to SSIMS (those living west of Colesville).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is in high school, so a little outdated, but we definitely felt left out as our children were not at St. B's or the Catholic high schools. It's not that anyone was mean (it is a friendly neighborhood), it is just that the St. B's families definitely stuck together and there was a very large and active group. I did not feel that we had that group being from the public schools and I did not feel welcomed by the Catholic parents. I personally wish that I had moved to a neighborhood that was more cohesive. That said, my youngest is now in high school, so things might be different now.

This is part of the reason we moved out of Woodmoor after five years there.

[Anonymous]

My oldest attended the PCES CES, so my youngest had a COSA to attend MKES since first grade. My husband had been so involved in the schools and the neighborhood that he's an honorary Woodmoorian, even though we live elsewhere. Those 2 schools have been fantastic, and the neighborhood warmly welcome all kinds of people and has LOTS of dogs (and dog walking).

Eastern is a great school, even for kids not in the magnet. We are trying to get a COSA for our youngest to attend Eastern next year for a number of reasons, not last of which being that it's the home school for all of his friends from grades 1-3. (He was in the CES at Pine Crest for 4-5, so his friends were a mix, but he still has a large number of friends from the neighborhood.)

In the DCC lottery, Blair is generally the most requested high school, but it's very difficult to get that pick unless it's your home school. My oldest will be there next year for the STEM magnet (he's at the TPMS magnet for middle school).

Both of my kids are LGBTQ+, and both have been very comfortable expressing themselves and having friends identifying as LGBTQ+ feeling welcomed and accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if it is still this way, but a lot of families in the neighborhood used to send their kids to St Bernadette’s.

+1

Most Woodmoor kids are at St. B’s. If your child is not there, you will feel left out a lot of the neighborhood feel.

Definitely outdated advice

I think that was true 20-30 years ago but don't know anyone here that goes there these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is in high school, so a little outdated, but we definitely felt left out as our children were not at St. B's or the Catholic high schools. It's not that anyone was mean (it is a friendly neighborhood), it is just that the St. B's families definitely stuck together and there was a very large and active group. I did not feel that we had that group being from the public schools and I did not feel welcomed by the Catholic parents. I personally wish that I had moved to a neighborhood that was more cohesive. That said, my youngest is now in high school, so things might be different now.

This is part of the reason we moved out of Woodmoor after five years there.

We moved to Woodmoor about four years ago. We have a five-year-old headed to Montgomery Knolls in the fall. There's a good mix of public and private school kids in the neighborhood. While it's definitely true that the Catholic parents aren't particularly welcoming to non-Catholics, it also feels like the importance and significance of St. B's has significantly waned over the last several years. It's not the center of neighborhood activities like it sounds like it was decades ago, and more and more non-Catholics are moving into the neighborhood and choosing to enroll their kids in the local public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if it is still this way, but a lot of families in the neighborhood used to send their kids to St Bernadette’s.

+1

Most Woodmoor kids are at St. B’s. If your child is not there, you will feel left out a lot of the neighborhood feel.

Not true. I’d say 50/50. Lots of kids go to Blair.

[Anonymous]

My kid attended the CES at pine crest a few years ago, right after the principal replaced 3/4 of the magnet teachers. The school was fine, but I liked our home school better. Woodmoor is a cute neighborhood, and anecdotally, it seemed like a lot of kids in the neighborhood went to pine crest. If it’s where you want to live, it’ll be fine.

[Anonymous]

We live in the MKES neighborhood, and have one kid there, and another that just finished at Pine Crest and is headed to Eastern next year. The overall feel at both schools is great, as well as all but one of the many teachers my kids have worked with. In general, school leadership has been strong, and people seem happy today, when it was announced today that the AP of MKES will be the acting principal next year as the former principal goes on sabbatical. For being one of the last affordable places to raise a family in the DMV, we feel super lucky to have found our place when we did. We really love both neighborhoods and schools!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do most kids go to St. Bernadette’s? Are the local schools not good?

The neighborhood is really split between the more conservative types who go to Bernadette and liberals at pinecrest. That said I have heard pinecrest is steadily get worse and worse, as needs of students (non English native etc) have increased over time.

[Anonymous]

Eastern is very mixed environment with a lot of really poor kids. You may or may not be ok with that but some of the toughest areas in the entire county are zoned for it. There is a reason they put the magnet there (and Blair). Drive around university and piney branch then go back into the neighborhoods around there like Quebec terrace. Those are the kids your kids will be going to school with. Do you really want an environment where you hope your kids don’t befriend 20% of the kids? 30, 40 or 50%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eastern is very mixed environment with a lot of really poor kids. You may or may not be ok with that but some of the toughest areas in the entire county are zoned for it. There is a reason they put the magnet there (and Blair). Drive around university and piney branch then go back into the neighborhoods around there like Quebec terrace. Those are the kids your kids will be going to school with. Do you really want an environment where you hope your kids don’t befriend 20% of the kids? 30, 40 or 50%

You sit around hoping your kid doesn't befriend poor kids? Jesus Christ. This thread is bringing out some of the real prizes in MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern is very mixed environment with a lot of really poor kids. You may or may not be ok with that but some of the toughest areas in the entire county are zoned for it. There is a reason they put the magnet there (and Blair). Drive around university and piney branch then go back into the neighborhoods around there like Quebec terrace. Those are the kids your kids will be going to school with. Do you really want an environment where you hope your kids don’t befriend 20% of the kids? 30, 40 or 50%

You sit around hoping your kid doesn't befriend poor kids? Jesus Christ. This thread is bringing out some of the real prizes in MoCo.

Get off your high horse. Would you let your teen hang out at Quebec terrace on a Friday night? Are there places you would? Then you acknowledge there is a difference and proximity to trouble breeds trouble. Some places are simply breeding grounds for crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern is very mixed environment with a lot of really poor kids. You may or may not be ok with that but some of the toughest areas in the entire county are zoned for it. There is a reason they put the magnet there (and Blair). Drive around university and piney branch then go back into the neighborhoods around there like Quebec terrace. Those are the kids your kids will be going to school with. Do you really want an environment where you hope your kids don’t befriend 20% of the kids? 30, 40 or 50%

You sit around hoping your kid doesn't befriend poor kids? Jesus Christ. This thread is bringing out some of the real prizes in MoCo.

Get off your high horse. Would you let your teen hang out at Quebec terrace on a Friday night? Are there places you would? Then you acknowledge there is a difference and proximity to trouble breeds trouble. Some places are simply breeding grounds for crime.

DP. The PP is talking about people, you're talking about places as though they were people.

[Anonymous]

Woodmoor is hard as it really depends on your immediate neighbors. If the neighbors next to you all go to St B’s you will definitely feel left out. They are nice enough, but you will not break into their group (if that’s what you want.) My street felt like everyone was there and I felt not included. I am sure there were public school kids mixed in, but as a non-Catholic, I just didn’t find them. It felt cliquish and I was glad to move out.