Which Montgomery County elementary schools are overcrowded?
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Anonymous
| Rosemary Hills - 10 Ks and my daughter has 25 kids. It was 26 but one moved away. |
Anonymous
| My daughter's grade was always on the brink of getting a new teacher if 1-2 more students enrolled. But of course 5-7 kids would come in DURING the school year and that doesn't count. So, yes they can get to 30+ in the school year but usually not to start. She had mid 20's in K-2, 29 in 3rd (33 in math!), and then 27-31 in 4/5 depending on class and fluctuations. We r in RM cluster. They are ALL over crowded. 4+ Portables at every elementary. JW is a scary scary undisciplined middle school that is beyond crowded. |
Anonymous
Wow - we have 7 K's and I thought that was bad |
Anonymous
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Montgomery county has a standard for kindergarten class size. If you click on this link - http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2012/05/mcps-class-sizes-and-school-staffing.html. It says 27 or less for under grade 3 and 29 or less in grades 4 and 5. So class size between 25-29ish appears planned and standard in MCPS.
If you want to know which schools have portables because they have more students than the building can hold - look at this document from feb. 2012. One of the appendixs has info on portables. Downcounty consoritum has 75 in total - who knew? http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/agenda/cm/2012/120206/20120206_ED2-3.pdf It also gives you some idea about where they are building additions, where they are going to tear down the whole school and rebuild. There might be a similar document for 2013, but google did not disclose that. |
Anonymous
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Bethesda Elementary School parent here. My child had 28 kids in kindergarden class last year; I think all three K classes had about that number of students. Yet my child's class was orderly; a lot of learning happened; and my child was happy.
This year it's again quite a large class, about 27-28 kids (there are transients--many, but not all, are military families or families associated with the Naval Medical Center somehow who parachute in for a few months and leave). Again, my child's class is orderly; the teacher is calm and wonderful, and my child has a lot of friends. The entering K class this year for some reason is 20-21 kids. I am beyond jealous. It just happens--families hear about large classes and make other choices, so classes shrink and then people crowd in and classes grow again. I observed some fine schools in Washington, D.C. before moving to Bethesda. Some seemed chaotic, particularly at dismissal. We are very, very happy at BE, both with teachers, the principal, and the level of services that we are receiving. I do wish there were more music (it's once a week), but I can supplement that. |
Anonymous
| I agree that there's a big difference between "overcrowded" meaning the building wasn't designed to hold that many kids, and "large class size". Predicting class size is probably unreliable over the short term, and predicting over-crowding is unreliable over the longer term. |
Anonymous
It doesn't matter, most MCPS have overcrowded schools AND classrooms. 10 kindergartens in one elementary school. INSANE!!! I can not believe people really like this system. |
Anonymous
Reading this thread makes me think the education system in this country is completely broken. And it is actually distressing that parents are trying to convince themselves that this is all ok 
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Anonymous
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. JW is a scary scary undisciplined middle school that is beyond crowded.
Wow..do you have kids there?.....have two kids there and am happy to report we find it neither scary (and definitely not scary scary) or undisciplined. It is crowded but my kids are used to that from ES. They seem to take reasonable steps to make it work..they just added a minute between classes to ease hall crowding this year. They have options during lunch to leave the cafeteria after eating..go outside..library..chess. While I wish my kids were not in overcrowded schools, statistics say that starting in 2008 (and those kids will reach K next year) the birth rate went way down. I am not sure it makes sense to start building now to accommodate larger numbers of kids who will not be there when the building is complete. And RM is not predicted to become overcrowded so at least we will be there soon. |
Anonymous
No way! 10 K classes? |
Anonymous
Wow..do you have kids there?.....have two kids there and am happy to report we find it neither scary (and definitely not scary scary) or undisciplined. It is crowded but my kids are used to that from ES. They seem to take reasonable steps to make it work..they just added a minute between classes to ease hall crowding this year. They have options during lunch to leave the cafeteria after eating..go outside..library..chess. While I wish my kids were not in overcrowded schools, statistics say that starting in 2008 (and those kids will reach K next year) the birth rate went way down. I am not sure it makes sense to start building now to accommodate larger numbers of kids who will not be there when the building is complete. And RM is not predicted to become overcrowded so at least we will be there soon. Yes, I have a 7th grader there. She has been bullied since day 1. Thrown in a locker her very first day there. Pushed down a half flight of stairs by an 8th grade boy, continued threats by girls double her size. It has been an ongoing issue. The kids act out in class, the hallways during classes are so crowded that kids punching and fighting are missed by staff. A lot of undisciplined kids that go there. Overall just too many kids for 1 middle school and they want to expand. RM is the same kids except IB. We paid good money to be in this district. It is discouraging. I am glad your kids are doing well. |
Anonymous
Yes, and if I'm not mistaken, there are classes with 27 kids. |
Anonymous
| The Rosemary Hills stuff is misleading-that is a K-2 school. There are only 3 grade levels, so of course there are more classes per grade. |
Anonymous
| Yes, RHPS is about the same size in total as most other MoCo elementaries, but it's only 3 grades (K-2) as opposed to 6 (K-5). I actually thought this was a huge positive - the kids are only amongst other young kids; no giant 5th graders in the aftercare etc. I'm a little less happy now that my oldest has moved on, and had to part from half her friends (since half the kids go to CCES, half to NCC.) But all in all, RHPS was a fantastic place with a crazy well-organized and involved parent community. And its class sizes were no bigger (or smaller) than Bethesda Elementary or Somerset or the rest - I think the largest class my daughter was in was 26. Now she's in third grade at NCC and "only" has 22 kids in her class. |
Anonymous
It's not insane at all. I'm with 22:09-- I'd rather have a school with only k-2 students, because the bus situation is better and the chances are they will get a lot more focus that way than in a k-5 school (esp. given that testing and disciplinary stuff tends to be more serious with older kids). Plus I think having more classes might actually help the parent community. In any case, whether it's because it's k-2 or not, we really liked RHPS. |