Germantown or Gaithersburg schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can't find anything in your budget for the QO area of Gaithersburg, I suggest looking into the 20882 zip code. Some addresses in that zip code are Laytonsville, and some are Gaithersburg. If you're okay with going a little further north, take a look at Rockwell E.S. in Damascus. It isn't too far from Germantown & Laytonsville, affordable, and I know several families who love the school and send their younger kids to the Kidsco Jr daycare at Rockwell.

LES is a gem of a school. Especially if you can find the pocket that goes to Rosa Parks MS, or up to Baker (tho, isn't much better than GMS from what I hear)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can't find anything in your budget for the QO area of Gaithersburg, I suggest looking into the 20882 zip code. Some addresses in that zip code are Laytonsville, and some are Gaithersburg. If you're okay with going a little further north, take a look at Rockwell E.S. in Damascus. It isn't too far from Germantown & Laytonsville, affordable, and I know several families who love the school and send their younger kids to the Kidsco Jr daycare at Rockwell.

LES is a gem of a school. Especially if you can find the pocket that goes to Rosa Parks MS, or up to Baker (tho, isn't much better than GMS from what I hear)

Another +1 for Laytonsville area and LES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Note that OP's child is 1 year old. Maybe we don't need this thread to be taken over with arguments about fighting at high schools.

Maybe. Except that high school comes around really fast! It's usually a good idea to think ahead, in case it's a great ES, but maybe not a great HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These are elementary schools I would suggest: Rachel Carson, Thurgood Marshall, Diamond, Jones Lane, DuFief.

Especially Jones Lane and Carson.

[Anonymous]

What’s your budget? It doesn’t help to suggest clusters you can’t buy in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Note that OP's child is 1 year old. Maybe we don't need this thread to be taken over with arguments about fighting at high schools.

Maybe. Except that high school comes around really fast! It's usually a good idea to think ahead, in case it's a great ES, but maybe not a great HS.

No one has any idea what the high school boundaries will be like in 2037.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are buying our starter townhouse in either Germantown or Gaithersburg location because it is close to family. We don't have big budget, but we would love to live in an okay public school district (ES/MS/HS) and nice/safe neighborhood. We have a baby girl who is 1 year old. We are from DC area, so I am not familiar with where we should look at, or where we ahould avoid.

Thank you.

Hi OP. NP here. To the first order the High Schools and Middle Schools in Germantown and Gaithersburg are all very similar - neighborhoods are diverse and bring different populations together. All of the schools have a mix of high and low achieving students. MS & HS are 10-15 years away and demographic changes along with new schools and boundary changes can significantly shift by the time your child goes there. Plus, this is your starter home and in 10 years you may decide to move. I would focus your school concern at the elementary level. MCPS has a variety of boundary tools to help you figure out where schools are here - https://gis.mcpsmd.org/

In addition to elementary school, I would consider your commute, where exactly your family is, and neighborhood amenities (e.g. swimming pool, community centers, playgrounds, walking paths). There are a lot of roads on both the east and west side of 270 that roughly parallel 270, so going north/south along those roads is pretty easy. However, crossing from one side to the other can be traffic intensive.

I'll add my neighborhood to the suggestion list. I live in East Montgomery Village, which is part of the Montgomery Village Foundation. https://www.montgomeryvillage.com/ There are 6 pools, multiple community centers with summer programming for kids, etc. The half near Lake Marion goes to Goshen ES (walkable) and the other half goes to Laytonsville ES. Both ES are excellent and have strong PTAs. They feed to Gaithersburg HS (we are the higher SES pickup area). https://www.mocorealestate.com/maps/gaithersburg-cluster/ The neighborhood is a good mix of townhouses, small SFH, and large SFH. Lot's of neighborhood unity around summer swim team and various friendships related to sports or clubs/activities at the schools carry from ES through HS. 15-20 min drive to Germantown or Olney or Shady Grove metro. 20-30 min drive to cross 270 to Kentlands or Crown or down to Rockville.

Good luck!