Any PG Co. people out there? New middle school in College Park?

[Anonymous]

It's been a matter of debate how it should be repurposed, city of greenbelt and berwyn heights have been in discussion.
(plus how to fix it up/keep it up.) It sounds more like a budding community space, no news of any charter/private school taking it over.
though I haven't seen an update recently, I don't regularly get the newspapers from there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That being said, we LOVE our neighborhood. College Park, University Park, Hyattsville, Berwyn Heights, Greenbelt - all have their own neighborhood vibe and all have positives and in many cases would be far cheaper than comparable homes in MoCo. In our case we've gone private though, as have many of the faculty members who have decided to live near work.

Can you say more about the vibe in these various places? We are a faculty family, new in the area, and definitely looking for a family-oriented community.

[Anonymous]

Re: online learning, it's hard to opine without really knowing what's in the works. "Online learning" can mean a lot of things. My guess is that what we're going to be looking at is some hybrid learning, which is shown to be the most beneficial/least likely not to work interpretation.

My TAG kid will be attending Greenbelt Middle's program next year as a 6th grader, and this year two of his texts are online (Pearson math & science texts). Getting issued a book is optional, but encouraged only for those that lack internet access. They are also issued to kids who temporarily lose internet access at home (think power outage, suddently unable to pay internet bill, etc.)

The online version is identical to the hard copy. I have to say, the reality of just how much weight kids are asked to carry makes this a really nice thing this year. It's much more practical.

[Anonymous]

P.S. I'm in Mount Rainier. Love it.

[Anonymous]

OP, also check pgcps.org if you haven't already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: online learning, it's hard to opine without really knowing what's in the works. "Online learning" can mean a lot of things. My guess is that what we're going to be looking at is some hybrid learning, which is shown to be the most beneficial/least likely not to work interpretation.

My TAG kid will be attending Greenbelt Middle's program next year as a 6th grader, and this year two of his texts are online (Pearson math & science texts). Getting issued a book is optional, but encouraged only for those that lack internet access. They are also issued to kids who temporarily lose internet access at home (think power outage, suddently unable to pay internet bill, etc.)

The online version is identical to the hard copy. I have to say, the reality of just how much weight kids are asked to carry makes this a really nice thing this year. It's much more practical.

I agree that there are models of online learning that are effective, and I teach online, so I'm not opposed to it in theory. Flipped classrooms are having great results. My concern is that in all the talk from the people who are supposedly spearheading the project, there has been little to no mention of concrete details like facilities, extracurriculars, athletics, mission, philosophy. It's been very vague and it worries me that the words "remote" and "distance" have made it into these little speeches. I don't think a remote/distance ed high school option actually matches well with the purpose of the school, which was supposed to be a lure to draw faculty to the CP area and create more of a college town community in CP. I realize this is anecdotal, but I don't know any faculty members who have expressed a desire for remote learning in PG County. The primary concerns have been a) lack of academic rigor and b) safety in the MS/HS grades. I suppose both of those could be addressed by a non-traditional school setting, but I'm not sure anyone wants that at the expense of socialization, school community, and extracurriculars/athletics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That being said, we LOVE our neighborhood. College Park, University Park, Hyattsville, Berwyn Heights, Greenbelt - all have their own neighborhood vibe and all have positives and in many cases would be far cheaper than comparable homes in MoCo. In our case we've gone private though, as have many of the faculty members who have decided to live near work.

Can you say more about the vibe in these various places? We are a faculty family, new in the area, and definitely looking for a family-oriented community.

People will definitely differ on this so please chime in, but here's my overly generalized take on each:

College Park - varies a lot neighborhood by neighborhood, you have money in the Estates, a good number of faculty and professionals in the college streets, Berwyn tends to be a little older, the Hollywood area tends to be rental heavy and more blue-collar mixed with student renters. Hard to pin down a "feel" for the town as a whole. Other pieces like the higher end Yarrow neighborhood are fairly disconnected from campus and the rest of the town.

UP - LOTS of tenured faculty and attorneys. Good elementary school. The neighborhood is small and chummy. Very pretty homes. Definitely the highest average income of this little list of towns.

Berwyn Heights - very young family and senior oriented. Very active playgroups, senior groups, busy and crowded town events. Firmly middle class with a mix of NASA/UMD people and blue collar. More diverse than UP. Elementary school has a decent reputation, many families attend the local parish school at Holy Redeemer. Access to Lake Artemesia makes it popular for biker/joggers and it is walkable/bikable via trail to both campus and the M Square.

Greenbelt - also pretty family oriented. Very walkable. Lots of participation at town events. Probably a little more granola than BH, but similar in terms of diversity and SES. Fair number of faculty, govt. employees, NASA people. Has a more centralized town center than any of the others on this list and that serves as a hub for activity - farmers market, festivals, etc.

Hyattsville - I'll limit to the historic district since I don't know the other areas well. Definitely a strong granola vibe. Lots of attorneys, govt., DC commuters in the historic homes. Some very beautiful homes, especially the Victorians and bungalows. The elementary school puts off a lot of people, but the PTA is really active and trying to improve the school. St. Jerome's and Holy Redeemer get a fair number of kids from the neighborhood though.

[Anonymous]

That was a good overview...greenbelt ES has a new principal - haven't heard how that was going. The one before this was not a good fit, making unhappiness among teachers and parents in a school people have traditionally been pretty satisfied with. Berwyn Heights families seem pretty happy - much happier than Greenbelt under the last principle. We are at Friends Community school and there are always a couple of faculty families there. The magnet program french immersion and montessori programs are close by and popular, but hard to get in with the lottery. There's an arts program at hyattsville middle.

[Anonymous]

oh, and if you have younger kids most people like the on-campus center for young children.

[Anonymous]

My objection to online textbooks is too much time in front of a computer, plus lacking the hands-on navigation and portability of a textbook that seems more fitting to paper and pencil work, esp. for math. In my mind computers induce passivity...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My objection to online textbooks is too much time in front of a computer, plus lacking the hands-on navigation and portability of a textbook that seems more fitting to paper and pencil work, esp. for math. In my mind computers induce passivity...

I get that, believe me. And had/have similar feelings. But aside from the screen time issue (says the lady with the internet in her face eight hours a day five days a week) and lack of tactile interface, the book really is laid out the same and requires similar text navigation skills. Also, I am not exaggerating when I say that the weight load these kids were required to carry was a serious health concern. Rolling bags are recommended for this very reason, but still. My leaving-town-for-a-week luggage weighed less.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for the neighborhood breakdown. I'm also curious what areas have a lot of international families. We have always lived in college towns with a large international faculty presence.

[Anonymous]

Greenbelt and Berwyn Heights both have sizable international populations. On our street we know people from Russia, Peru, Korea, Nigeria, and El Salvador.

College Park seems to vary by neighborhood. UP probably a little less international than Greenbelt or BH. I am not as sure about Hyattsville - we don't know many international families in the historic district, but I would imagine there are some. UMD has a large international faculty presence, but the areas surrounding UMD might not reflect that completely because many faculty members flee to MoCo for the schools. You still get a heavy international presence in all of these neighborhoods though, just not all of them are faculty.

[Anonymous]

Where do UMD faculty live?? Are there pockets in DC and the giant suburban megalopolis that is Montgomery County, or PG?

[Anonymous]

University Park is home to a good number of faculty members (tenured). Greenbelt has a decent number of faculty as well (usually a bit younger). A LOT of faculty are in MoCo, or pockets in DC, a few up in Howard County, or even in Alexandria there are a fair number of faculty from UMD. People are very scattered. We've lived in a fair number of college towns at this point and this is the only place we've lived where there was not a high concentration of faculty members in the neighborhoods closest to the university. The public school options really have chased people off, hence this proposed middle school. Anecdotally (and I can't vouch for the truth of these stories), I've heard that some of the highly recruited full profs that have been brought in have had private school perks (or salary boosts to account for paying private here) negotiated into their contracts. The reputation of the PG publics is pretty terrible. You have the double whammy of PG having a reputation as a high-crime county. We live in PG near the university. As I mentioned before, I love our neighborhood. I have never felt unsafe here, it is incredibly convenient, we have great neighbors, there is a strong sense of community, and we've got easy access to the university for work and fun events. But our kids are in private (didn't get in via lottery to the specialty programs). We were hopeful about the new school being a good alternative once they hit middle school, but I'm very skeptical now given the info they've put out so far.