Glen Haven Elementary? Boundary Changes

[Anonymous]

We are looking for a home in Silver Spring and found something great just north of the boundary for Oakland Terrace. I know the boundaries are changing, but looks like this home will remain in Glen Haven. Any experiences out there with that school? Or any info about the new school they are building and boundary changes. Looks to me that the only schools affected by the boundary changes will be Oakland Terrace and Woodlin - is that true?

[Anonymous]

You can see the propsed boundaries on the MCPS website. Glen Haven is not supposed to be as good as the schools you mention.

[Anonymous]

I think I might know which house you looked at. It is really nice but I think that the owners are moving because of Glen Haven. OTES and Woodlin are good choices, and OTES houses are closer to the metro.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]I think I might know which house you looked at. It is really nice but I think that the owners are moving because of Glen Haven. OTES and Woodlin are good choices, and OTES houses are closer to the metro. [/quote]

How do you know why they're moving? Do you know them? Have you seen this house? I think we may have looked at the same one and am curious to know the situation.

[Anonymous]

What's wrong with Glen Haven? Seems the principle is controlling and the PTA is her personal puppet...but what else? Poor teaching teams? Bad school atmosphere? Choosing where to have my child go next year.

[Anonymous]

Any more recent thoughts on Glen Haven? We're in their area and love our neighborhood. We're outgrowing the house and are debating addition v. move. A good number of the kids on our street go to St. John's (private).

[Anonymous]

Any recent experiences from those in the Glen Haven nieghborhood? We live near the school, but the Great Schools rating continues to drop (because testing performance continues to drop). I realize first-hand experience may provide more context than test scores / GS can.

Would love to hear from parents who may have experience.

We are considering moving and/or sending to DD to private but niether option is our preferred option since we love our nieghborhood and also are believers in public education.

[Anonymous]

There will be a new principal next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will be a new principal next year.

Thanks PP. Any other feedback or experience with the school?

[Anonymous]

Can you move into Flora Singer and still be near your old neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

If you can give it a try, it's possible a new principal could make it a more desirable school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you move into Flora Singer and still be near your old neighborhood?

If we move it will be out of this part of Silver Spring. But really, that is a last resort and would be a real hardship for us, financially and otherwise. We've got many friends on our street and we've invested a considerable amount in our home to make it wheelchair accessible (my husband is disabled), so we'd likely sell at a loss. We are considering renting an apartment in another neighborhood and DD and I will spend M-Th there and home for F-Sun. But obviously, that would be incredibly hard on our family.

Feel really frustrated by the lack of information on Glen Haven. No one on our street sends their kids there - everyone is either in special programs or in privates. I guess that should tell us something ....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can give it a try, it's possible a new principal could make it a more desirable school.

Thanks PP. I am interesting in learning more about the school because I want to know what the root issues were and why/how a new principal can make a difference. The test scores are pretty bad overall, so I suspect it's got to be more than just a matter of a bad principal. That said, would love to hear from any Glen Haven parents because, of course, test scores don't tell the whole story.

[Anonymous]

Are you on the silver spring moms yahoo group? There are probably some moms on that group with direct experience. Good principals have helped make some other schools in this area more desirable, but I don't know if that will be the case. I know that the school has a lot of military families, which accounts for the high mobility rate. Also, The title I status will mean small class sizes.

[Anonymous]

I live in the Glen Haven neighborhood and I love the neighborhood. From what I've heard, more and more neighborhood kids are going there. I know one parent who has a 4th grader and a 2nd grader there and she has been very satisfied. She says she respects the principal, though she can see why people might have problems with her. If they are getting a new principal that is probably a good thing. But I would not shy away from the neighborhood because of the school. It is an awesome community in a great location, and I know several people whose children have gone K - 12 with our zoned schools and all of those kids are now in good colleges and they all turned out just fine.