Beall ES/Julius West MS/Richard Montgomery HS ?

[Anonymous]

We are moving from out of state and I curious if anyone has any thoughts/feedback about these schools. TIA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are moving from out of state and I curious if anyone has any thoughts/feedback about these schools. TIA.

All of the elementary schools in the Richard Montgomery cluster are very overcrowed. The BOE is considering the building of a 5th elementary school in this cluster to relieve the crowding at all 4 existing elementary schools. If this proposal is approved (and I think it is this fall that they will make that decision) there will be a boundry study for the whole cluster because the new school will draw it's population from all 4 existing elementary schools in the cluster. All of that to say that you may not be zoned for Beal ES when all is said and done.

Since there is only one MS in the cluster (Julius West), all of this overcrowding will eventually feed into Julius West, which is slated to be well over capacity in the next 3 years. That is a problem brewing....

[Anonymous]

I don't have specific comments related to that, but we are in the WJ Cluster and we've got the same problem. Which clusters do NOT have this problem?

[Anonymous]

i am not in the Beall district, bit n the cluster. We go to Ritchie Park. However, we have friends at Beall who LOVE IT. They are a focus school and have smaller classes.

[Anonymous]

I'm also in the cluster but not at Beall and echo what PP said. My friends whose kids have gone to Beall loved it.

My older two are at JW now, and we've been pretty happy. No experience with RM yet - my eldest starts next year.

[Anonymous]

PP, Ritchie Park person. Just noticed all the typos and I am sorry. I was typing on my phone!

[Anonymous]

Ditto with friends at Beall--love it. It's a diverse school, pulls from all socio-economic and ethnic classes. But to clarify, small classes only in lower grades (thinking K-2 or K-3?) Then classes rise to typical MCPS style.

We were slated to attend Beall, but my child has SN. I was not immediately impressed with how the principal proposed to 'deal with' my child's SN; So we moved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ditto with friends at Beall--love it. It's a diverse school, pulls from all socio-economic and ethnic classes. But to clarify, small classes only in lower grades (thinking K-2 or K-3?) Then classes rise to typical MCPS style.

We were slated to attend Beall, but my child has SN. I was not immediately impressed with how the principal proposed to 'deal with' my child's SN; So we moved.

OP here, if you don't mind, can elaborate a little? My kids have a visual impairment (no IEP at this time but will have a 504) and this raises a few more questions. Thanks.

To all-thanks for your input.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ditto with friends at Beall--love it. It's a diverse school, pulls from all socio-economic and ethnic classes. But to clarify, small classes only in lower grades (thinking K-2 or K-3?) Then classes rise to typical MCPS style.

We were slated to attend Beall, but my child has SN. I was not immediately impressed with how the principal proposed to 'deal with' my child's SN; So we moved.

Can this parent elaborate about SN and Beall, we have a child who is SN and are thinking of moving to that school district in a few years.

[Anonymous]

Parent of an SN child; we had a choice between Beall and one other school for particular SN curriculum for our child. We did not go with Beall because after talking to another SN mom about her horrendous experience this last year -- she ultimately had to hire a lawyer just to get her son's minimal IEP goals met, we didn't want to deal with that. I've heard nothing but good things about overall Beall experience, but for SN kids the classroom/teacher matters much more and apperently there was a sub all year for that classroom.