Mt. Rainier Elementary School

[Anonymous]

We moved, but were happy atheists at FCS. I don't have a heart attack if someone says "god" though. The pledge of allegiance at public school and kids who push about whether my child believes in Jesus are more awkward to my child. Be ready that other kids might be persistent, so we practiced some polite yet evasive things to say. We find it helpful to see how many good people believe differently. we give the respect we expect in return.

I hope your visit at mt rainier goes well!

[Anonymous]

And Friends is a GREAT school....but it is also over $16K a year for kindergarten and completely out of your way if you commute to the city.

IMO, if you have limited $$ to spend and you won't qualify for much financial aid, your neighborhood elementary is safe, and your child doesn't have speech or LD issues, public elementary is fine and you'll be better off saving your money for private middle school or high school if you need it. $18,000 over those six years would pay for a lot of experiences (summer camps, family travel) that would probably be more beneficial in the long run to education.

Since we live in such diverse neighborhoods, there's also a benefit to having a child see a parent invest a neighborhood institution.

An alternative is to look next year t the schools that accept transfers due to under enrollment (Spellman was one last year), but transportation is not provided.

[Anonymous]

Mrs. Baughn at MRE is a FABULOUS kindergarten teacher. Oh man, I love her so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MRE had a good reputation several years ago and a really good principal. my take is that a lot of middle and higher SES families fled the neighborhood schools which brought test scores down and make more families choose elsewhere. It's a very small, walkable school and my take is that it still has a good group of teachers dedicated to the school.

A visit to the school is better than looking at the great schools website. Find out much teacher turnover there is from year to year. If you know of a couple other families that have the energy and resources to be school advocates in your neighborhood look at it together. That's what happened to Hyattsville Elementary several years ago.

Hyattsville Elementary School parent here, and I agree with the above. Test scores (good or bad) don't really tell the story about what sort of education your child will get a school. Visit the school, meet the teachers and principal, and look around the community at other parents with similar age kids. At HES, a about two years before my oldest DD was ready for kindergarten, the local moms group set up a meeting with a lot of parents, the principal and some teachers, giving people a chance to ask a lot of hard questions and to get an idea about what the school was like. Getting parents who could otherwise afford to opt out of the public school to look at and seriously consider sending their children to the neighborhood school (and then doing it and following up with parental involvement at the school) is what will have the greatest long-term effect for the school and for the community.

A random Mt. Rainier Elementary fact: A few years ago Top Chef finalist Carla Hall had adopted the school and was working on improving menus and lunch options there. I don't know if she's still connected with the school or not, however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A visit to the school is better than looking at the great schools website. Find out much teacher turnover there is from year to year. If you know of a couple other families that have the energy and resources to be school advocates in your neighborhood look at it together. That's what happened to Hyattsville Elementary several years ago.

This is what happened at Spellman in Cheverly as well. A few years ago some families who were school advocates really got involved in the school and it resulted in a lot of higher income families taking a chance on the school. The vast majority of them stayed and are very active in the PTA, volunteering etc and the extra parental involvement has made a HUGE difference. They also have a great Principal, staff etc. I'm not suggesting that the lower income families aren't "good" or interested in helping it is just that if you are working 2 jobs and raising a family you don't have time.

And Friends is a GREAT school....but it is also over $16K a year for kindergarten and completely out of your way if you commute to the city.

Didn't Spellman's test scores fall drastically over the past few years? I hear horror stories about how dismissive the principal and staff in general are of the parents at GNS and that there's really bad the communication between the school and parents. If you are going to send your child to a PG public school lottery is the way to go.

[Anonymous]

OP-did you visit MRE after this initial post? What was your impression? I'm new to MR and interested in other parent's impressions of the school. DD is about 3 years away from Kindergarten