Luxmanor, Ashburton, Kensington-Parkwood, Garrett Park?

[Anonymous]

I will echo....pick a neighborhood, house, and area you like. Pike & Rose is close to Kensington and Garrett Park so it's six of one, half dozen of the other really. I live in Ktown and love it.

[Anonymous]

All the schools are fine, all are overcrowded or will be soon. My suggestion is to ask more pointed questions: how's the principal of the school, what's the feel of the school, how do parents feel about the community, how active/involved is the PTA.

Our children attended one of the schools you mentioned some years ago, but since there is a new principal, I don't feel like I can respond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the schools are fine, all are overcrowded or will be soon. My suggestion is to ask more pointed questions: how's the principal of the school, what's the feel of the school, how do parents feel about the community, how active/involved is the PTA.

Our children attended one of the schools you mentioned some years ago, but since there is a new principal, I don't feel like I can respond.

Not all are overcrowded. Ashburton and Farmland are significantly overcrowded. All are or will be (when Luxmanor construction is completed) big elementary schools. I haven’t heard consistent criticism of any of the principals. The parent communities are pretty similar. The PTAs are pretty similar. I’d also say find the house/neighborhood/commute you like best and go with it. I would not personally sacrifice on the house I preferred to be in Luxmanor rather than the other schools you list. I have heard that it can be hard for kindergarteners (or presumably other new, non-returning students) to get into the on-site aftercare at Ashburton. There are other off-site options people use because of that. Don’t know if that would matter to you OP.

[Anonymous]

I am in the Luxmanor community with a child starting K in the Fall. I was not comfortable with 1) the holding school- 26 kids in a portable 2) the fact they really push "redshirting" 3) the community seemed to be pretty nonexistent and 4) the principal was VERY unresponsive (and I think he is leaving- could be wrong!). The staff when I called was great. We decided to do private for K but will reconsider for 1st once they are out of the holding school.

[Anonymous]

If you like and can afford the housing stock in Garrett Park, then go with Garrett Park. The school has not suffered a "decline" whatever that means - and is in a relatively new building with dedicated teachers and staff. It is a very international student body which is awesome. The kids are generally bright and engaged, and the parents are engaged as well. There is a real neighborhood feel with the kids marching through the neighborhood at Halloween, etc. Many of the kids at GPES also are members of the GP pool so they hang together in the summer as well.

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP about boundary changes. It's hard to know what the county will do - but there is 100% likelihood that there will be boundary changes for the high school that services the ES you mentioned. My guess is that Ashburton is most likely to stay within WJ boundaries if you want to be there. It's unclear what the county is going to do with Woodward (which seems likely Luxmanor would be districted for) and it's unclear whether KP or GP will be carved out and redistricted to go elsewhere west or south in the county. Similar problem with Farmland but probably headed north in the county.

The issue being that if you spend a premium price to end up in WJ district but are then redistricted - your home value could go down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP about boundary changes. It's hard to know what the county will do - but there is 100% likelihood that there will be boundary changes for the high school that services the ES you mentioned. My guess is that Ashburton is most likely to stay within WJ boundaries if you want to be there. It's unclear what the county is going to do with Woodward (which seems likely Luxmanor would be districted for) and it's unclear whether KP or GP will be carved out and redistricted to go elsewhere west or south in the county. Similar problem with Farmland but probably headed north in the county.

The issue being that if you spend a premium price to end up in WJ district but are then redistricted - your home value could go down.

Then just buy 5 more minutes away in stock creek palisades zones for Rock view ES, get the same house for $200,000 less and save your money. The schools are good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP about boundary changes. It's hard to know what the county will do - but there is 100% likelihood that there will be boundary changes for the high school that services the ES you mentioned. My guess is that Ashburton is most likely to stay within WJ boundaries if you want to be there. It's unclear what the county is going to do with Woodward (which seems likely Luxmanor would be districted for) and it's unclear whether KP or GP will be carved out and redistricted to go elsewhere west or south in the county. Similar problem with Farmland but probably headed north in the county.

The issue being that if you spend a premium price to end up in WJ district but are then redistricted - your home value could go down.

Then just buy 5 more minutes away in stock creek palisades zones for Rock view ES, get the same house for $200,000 less and save your money. The schools are good.

Rock creek palisades. Autocorrect fail

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will echo....pick a neighborhood, house, and area you like. Pike & Rose is close to Kensington and Garrett Park so it's six of one, half dozen of the other really. I live in Ktown and love it.

Ditto

[Anonymous]

Don't pretty much all of those schools have new Principals? There was an article in Bethesda. Eat about the KP one leaving over the rocking chair incident, Luxmanor (or Farmland? Or both?) just got new ones, Wyngate and Ashburton within the past few years, same with GP. I wonder more about what is going on over there...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't pretty much all of those schools have new Principals? There was an article in Bethesda. Eat about the KP one leaving over the rocking chair incident, Luxmanor (or Farmland? Or both?) just got new ones, Wyngate and Ashburton within the past few years, same with GP. I wonder more about what is going on over there...

Farmland is the only one with a brand-new principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't pretty much all of those schools have new Principals? There was an article in Bethesda. Eat about the KP one leaving over the rocking chair incident, Luxmanor (or Farmland? Or both?) just got new ones, Wyngate and Ashburton within the past few years, same with GP. I wonder more about what is going on over there...

Farmland is the only one with a brand-new principal.

Farmland parent here. We loved our old principal but she had to retire due to health problems. There was nothing fishy 'going on over there', in fact, the school won awards two years in a row. Granted, that was before it became terribly overcrowded due to all those new apartments, but that's another story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you like and can afford the housing stock in Garrett Park, then go with Garrett Park. The school has not suffered a "decline" whatever that means - and is in a relatively new building with dedicated teachers and staff. It is a very international student body which is awesome. The kids are generally bright and engaged, and the parents are engaged as well. There is a real neighborhood feel with the kids marching through the neighborhood at Halloween, etc. Many of the kids at GPES also are members of the GP pool so they hang together in the summer as well.

I agree. I'm biased because I live in the Town of GP, but the community outside the school is great as well. There's a Fourth of July parade, Spooky Woods at Halloween, and lots of other community traditions for both kids and adults. I like the principal and my kids had really good teachers at GPES. It's a happy school overall. Both the Town and Garrett Park Estates are great places to live with kids to get that community feeling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP about boundary changes. It's hard to know what the county will do - but there is 100% likelihood that there will be boundary changes for the high school that services the ES you mentioned. My guess is that Ashburton is most likely to stay within WJ boundaries if you want to be there. It's unclear what the county is going to do with Woodward (which seems likely Luxmanor would be districted for) and it's unclear whether KP or GP will be carved out and redistricted to go elsewhere west or south in the county. Similar problem with Farmland but probably headed north in the county.

The issue being that if you spend a premium price to end up in WJ district but are then redistricted - your home value could go down.

Uh, what??

How could Ashburton ever get redistricted?

There are literally two neighborhood streets separating WJ & Ashburton.

They are 0.6 miles apart if you take the long way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP about boundary changes. It's hard to know what the county will do - but there is 100% likelihood that there will be boundary changes for the high school that services the ES you mentioned. My guess is that Ashburton is most likely to stay within WJ boundaries if you want to be there. It's unclear what the county is going to do with Woodward (which seems likely Luxmanor would be districted for) and it's unclear whether KP or GP will be carved out and redistricted to go elsewhere west or south in the county. Similar problem with Farmland but probably headed north in the county.

The issue being that if you spend a premium price to end up in WJ district but are then redistricted - your home value could go down.

Uh, what??

How could Ashburton ever get redistricted?

There are literally two neighborhood streets separating WJ & Ashburton.

They are 0.6 miles apart if you take the long way.

Ashburton, or parts of it, could easily get redistricted. The Toll development plan includes a reservation for an ES (Small, but a reservation nonetheless). A new ES there could easily absorb the Toll Brothers Kids, some of the Ashburton kids from near the mall, an adjacent neighborhood along Greentree from the Whitman cluster, etc., and send them off to Whitman. Likewise, a new ES in place of the Grosvenor holding school (On the Wildwood side of the Ashburton cachement) could collect a different group of kids and send them off to the future Woodward. To say that any ES zone is absolutely safe from redistricting is not sound logic.