2023-2024 Current K - 1 Bethesda Parents

[Anonymous]

OP we moved from Santa Monica to Bethesda and our kid went into 3rd grade at Bradley Hills. It had been rebuilt a few years earlier and overcrowding is not a problem there. We also toured several ES schools in the area and chose Bradley Hills because it was an area close enough to walk into town, to the Library, Giant etc without being in the center of Bethesda or out in the sticks. When there is a blizzard you benefit from this proximity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you got a tour, didn't you see class sizes? You may not know exact number but didn't you see if classes were over crowded? That's why you saying you got a tour during a time in the school day is questionable and that too by a PTA. That should not be happening while students are present in the building.

Not quite sure why it's questionable to have a tour with PTA. Private schools run tours during the school day as well while kids are in the building it's pretty common practice and I think it's great that public schools in Bethesda are trying to do the same so parents who are new to the area have a more realistic sense of the culture of the school. I am asking for current K-1 parents at these schools to see how large their cohort is specifically as we didn't get to see all the classrooms in a group tour and I was hoping to see if they felt like those specific grades were overcrowded since we were told it shifts by classes quite a bit. As I mentioned in my previous post we were told about the size for some grades and not others. We didn't disturb classrooms in sessions but saw the specialty areas such as the library, gym while PE was in session etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP we moved from Santa Monica to Bethesda and our kid went into 3rd grade at Bradley Hills. It had been rebuilt a few years earlier and overcrowding is not a problem there. We also toured several ES schools in the area and chose Bradley Hills because it was an area close enough to walk into town, to the Library, Giant etc without being in the center of Bethesda or out in the sticks. When there is a blizzard you benefit from this proximity.

This is great feedback, really useful info. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ratio of 14:1 and 16:1 is misleading: none of those schools are title 1 or focus, so it'll likely be twenty-something per class, just depends on entollment.

The ratio includes all adults, from the ESOL teachers to the secretaries, not the classroom to student ratio. And, all those schools are excellent - you can't go wrong with any of them

If OP goes to the School Profiles site, they can see the average class sizes (as opposed to student teacher ratios), though these can vary a lot by year. For 2022-23, the average K class size was 22.5 at BES

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiZWJmMzk4MTItMjZjZS00OGYxLTlhYTAtNDM5ODFiMWI1MjhjIiwidCI6ImRkZjc1NWU5LWJjZDYtNGE1ZS1hNDcyLTdjMzc4YTc4YzZjNyIsImMiOjF9

I'll check this out, thank you!!