What is your middle-schooler's schedule like?

[Anonymous]

OP here again. Which schools/areas tend to have easier commutes and/or more spots in the extracurricular programs? We are looking mostly at neighborhoods within 40 minutes to downtown DC, so Bethesda (although it's probably too expensive for us), Chevy Chase, Takoma Park. It would be good to know what area posters live in. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Very location dependent, and MCPS doesn't make it easy to see bus routes, which is what you really need to know. Perhaps on individual school's websites?
The bus takes a certain route around the neighborhood, so if you're out of luck, despite being reasonably close to school, you can spend 45 minutes on the bus.

My son wakes up at 6:30 and his bus comes at 7:20. Despite our relative distance to his MS, the bus goes right there after picking him up and right to our house after leaving the school in the afternoon - we are lucky!
The PTA sometimes pays for an "activity bus" on certain days of the week so that children can go home by bus when their after-school activities are over. Otherwise, you have to pick them up by car.

Be careful with walking and biking. Depending on where you've lived before, your kids might not be used to scampering across busy lanes and watching for cars turning on red. Especially at DUSK, which is the most dangerous moment of the day for bikers and pedestrians!

Regarding this warning about traffic -- is that an issue in particular neighborhoods, or everywhere? Is Takoma Park for example easily walkable/bikable for kids, if we live, say 2 miles from the school?

[Anonymous]

Here are the MCPS bus routes so when you start to look at neighborhoods you can see all the bus stops and times

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/transportation/busroutes/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Very location dependent, and MCPS doesn't make it easy to see bus routes, which is what you really need to know. Perhaps on individual school's websites?
The bus takes a certain route around the neighborhood, so if you're out of luck, despite being reasonably close to school, you can spend 45 minutes on the bus.

My son wakes up at 6:30 and his bus comes at 7:20. Despite our relative distance to his MS, the bus goes right there after picking him up and right to our house after leaving the school in the afternoon - we are lucky!
The PTA sometimes pays for an "activity bus" on certain days of the week so that children can go home by bus when their after-school activities are over. Otherwise, you have to pick them up by car.

Be careful with walking and biking. Depending on where you've lived before, your kids might not be used to scampering across busy lanes and watching for cars turning on red. Especially at DUSK, which is the most dangerous moment of the day for bikers and pedestrians!

Regarding this warning about traffic -- is that an issue in particular neighborhoods, or everywhere? Is Takoma Park for example easily walkable/bikable for kids, if we live, say 2 miles from the school?

Takoma Park is great for walking/biking, even if the area right around TPMS is a little hilly. There's also a lot of housing stock right around the middle school. If you want an easy walk, I'd look at Takoma Park + Sligo Park Hills/East Silver Spring. The middle school is right in between Silver Spring and Takoma Park, so you would be conveniently located either way. Here's a place that basically backs up to the middle school field. http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/37284220_zpid/3-_beds/500000-750000_price/1742-2613_mp/globalrelevanceex_sort/38.997091,-76.99826,38.979378,-77.027571_rect/14_zm/

[Anonymous]

Another thing, OP.

The Bethesda/Chevy Chase area is more affluent than the Silver Spring/Takoma Park area. Within MCPS, schools are generally thought of as "better" in the former, mostly because parents there are able to pay for tutors and extra-curriculars, and can donate generously to their PTA, which provide school enrichment. However, to counteract this, MCPS long ago placed all the selective magnets in the east!

All the areas I mentioned are diverse and friendly. Some parts of Bethesda are lily white, but not the downtown, which is quite international.

[Anonymous]

If you're coming from overseas, you might also want to check out the area zoned for Silver Spring International Middle School. There are some lovely homes, and it's a really friendly neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and as to commuting, that depends on where you are commuting TO. When we were looking, I basically drew a 1 mile circle around Takoma, Silver Spring, and Forest Glen Metros because being able to walk to the Red Line was important for commuting. I ended up basically dead between Takoma and Silver Spring metros, with an easy jump down North Capitol if for some reason I need to drive into the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are the MCPS bus routes so when you start to look at neighborhoods you can see all the bus stops and times

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/transportation/busroutes/

OP here, that's super helpful, thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're coming from overseas, you might also want to check out the area zoned for Silver Spring International Middle School. There are some lovely homes, and it's a really friendly neighborhood.

I'm a pp whose DD has a short bus ride to school. SSIMS is our middle school. There are after school activities three days a week, and a late bus after those activities. My commute downtown is about forty minutes.

[Anonymous]

So there are 2 bus choices for kids in Mont Co? You can ride the regular bus home or stay late for a club/sport and take a later bus home? If that's the case, no wonder the schools are overcrowded. They are spending too much money on busing. I think if your child chooses to stay late for an after-school activity, you should pick them up.

[Anonymous]

Another Takoma Park MS parent here. I echo the short commute to/from school and it's very walkable/bikable on Sligo Creek. My son typically leaves the house around 7:35 a.m. for the bus. We live about 1.5 miles from the school -- it's about a 10-15 minute ride. Activity buses take a little longer, but he and a friend just decided to walk home instead of taking the bus last week.

In terms of after-care, by 5th grade for my youngest, we've been leaving him home alone. He comes home, gets a snack and starts homework. We actually used to leave the house before he did in the morning and he'd set an alarm for leaving on time for his bus. He never missed it. By this age, they are completely capable of being responsible.

[Anonymous]

Activity buses are totally standard and definitely necessary. Many if not most kids are coming home on a 4:30 bus to an empty house, so if parents were expected to pick them up after their activity then no one would be able to do activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So there are 2 bus choices for kids in Mont Co? You can ride the regular bus home or stay late for a club/sport and take a later bus home? If that's the case, no wonder the schools are overcrowded. They are spending too much money on busing. I think if your child chooses to stay late for an after-school activity, you should pick them up.

They don't run 5 days a week and they don't run the same routes. They might go to one stop in a community and the kids walk from there. There might be two/three late busses for the whole middle school. The busses are there to help kids with working parents or parents without cars participate in a sport/get extra help etc.

[Anonymous]

To repeat, Late buses are down to two or three days a week and about three buses per school. The number/variety/intensity of school related after school activities in middle school in Montgomery county is pretty low compared to many other places in the USA.

Some places have almost all extracurricular activities school related. Here some activities are related to the "city" like in Rockville. Some are related to Montgomery county. Many are related to for "profit" (I don't think anyone is getting rich but they aren't run publicly) companies like MSI soccer or other "travel" sports. The for "profits aren't only running sports. They also run area theater groups and even some robotics clubs (I think). The area is also big on summer camps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Activity buses are totally standard and definitely necessary. Many if not most kids are coming home on a 4:30 bus to an empty house, so if parents were expected to pick them up after their activity then no one would be able to do activities.

Maybe in your county but I've never heard of them elsewhere. I don't think it's a school system's responsibility to provide additional busing for the convenience of parents. In ES, parents pay for before and after school childcare. Why should that be replaced with free busing in MS and HS?