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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
How is Ritchie Park Elementary?
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Anonymous
| Rustin is great because the principal is great. She was great at her other school. The RP principal has never been been great. That’s the difference. |
Anonymous
This is a thread about RP. The OP already bought a house in the RPES boundary. I think Rustin sounds like a great school and I'm glad the students and families are happy there, but it's irrelevant to this discussion. Not everything has to be a competition between schools. The RM cluster has great schools. |
Anonymous
| Lots of people in Potomac and Bethesda also send their kids to private school. I guess those W schools suck, too. |
Anonymous
I can, but that's a different topic. Can you answer the question or not? |
Anonymous
| We moved to Rockville a few years ago from out of state and have had two kids go through RP. In my opinion, it’s a great school and aside from a couple teachers who are just average, the teachers are awesome. No problems with the principal and I’m always wondering who is constantly posting about her being so bad as I really don’t see it nor have I heard it as a complaint in real life. |
Anonymous
I don't even have kids who go to RP but live in the district and hear people complain about the principal so I have no idea who you are talking to. It must be the same 5 people who post on this thread about how wonderful she is. |
Anonymous
Seems like you know the complainers then. People who are happy don’t complain. |
Anonymous
I'm an RP parent. More than likely, it's the same handful of people who complain about the Principal. Most of the parents there I know don't complain about her. Only a handful do, and when they do, they use curse words. But then again, those parents are also a piece of work themselves. |
Anonymous
|
The RPES PTA just announced that the MCPS’s Outdoor Environmental Education Program has approved Ritchie Park to create a garden to be used as an outdoor classroom. You can read more information about the new garden program here: www.ritchieparktpa.org
The outdoor classroom/garden project was spearheaded by 2 parents who worked cooperatively with the principal to get this program in place. So there ARE parents who are involved, and the principal does work with parents on issues. There is also a parent at the school who does really good work advocating for gifted & talented programs and enrichments in the school. No schools or administrators are perfect. RPES is a good school by MCPS standards. |
Anonymous
I hadn't heard this. Dang, just when my DC will be graduating this year. This is awesome for the kids there. I'm jealous. |
Anonymous
Please give specifics on the gifted & talented programs and enrichment available at Ritchie Park. What is offered that is different than any other school in the cluster? |
Anonymous
I can't say whether other schools in the cluster do these activities or not, but this parent worked with the principal to bring to our school the Geography Bee, Math Olympiad (incorporated into 4th & 5th grade math classes), an enhanced Junior Great Books program (separate/in addition to the Jr. Great books infused in the curriculum), and a teacher-led after-school coding program. I believe there was talk about starting a Destination Imagination program, too. Again, these aren't programs that any other school couldn't or isn't doing, but it does take initiative and cooperation from involved parents and school administration to start some of these programs. There should be a gifted & talented liaison to the MCCPTA in ALL schools in MCPS - if your school doesn't have one, I recommend becoming one yourself. Here's a link with more info: http://www.mccpta.org/gifted-child.html I'm not saying this parent is doing anything that parents at other schools aren't doing, I was just pointing out the level of parent involvement and advocacy at RPES since other posters implied that parents were not involved with the school or PTA at RPES. |
Anonymous
|
I am in a PTA board of different elementary school in RM cluster. I do talk to PTA board members of all other schools time to time and have friends in 2 other Elementary schools in RM cluster.
RP has a bit less parents involvement and that's mainly due to one area of RP being far away from school. Principal is not great and I can vouch for that based on my interactions few times. Admin is more concerned about maintaining certain impression and also now it's not happening, but special needs families were encouraged to go private to boost test scores in RP. Some of it is second hand information and I can't vouch for that. But it's not a horrible school by any means. I know many families who are happy with school. Their kids are getting good education in RP. If you have time then get more involved in school. That's how you can make some difference. |
Anonymous
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RP parent here.
I have been happy with the school. Is it perfect? No, but I feel like my children are getting a good education in a good school with a great community. I am particularly happy and impressed with our cluster as a whole. If you value diversity (truly value it), the RP cluster as a whole is the most diverse cluster in this area. The RP principal is probably the weakest link but Julius West and Richard Montgomery leadership is outstanding. A lot of RP parents are engaged and active (IE some parents have worked hard to get a garden started at the school) BUT you tend to see the same parents volunteering and helping and then you see other parents always complaining without any action. The recent boundary change helped to reduce the overcrowding and I don’t think anyone wanted it to make the school less diverse. The rezoning made sense in terms of logistics and again all of the kids will end up together for middle raccoon and high school. |
Anonymous
| Surprised nobody has posted about the new principal for the 2019-20 school year. All the threads about RPES seem to eventually include how terrible (or wonderful) the former principal was. |