Recent experiences with Silver Spring International

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are the schools where the track is completely fenced in like a prison yard?. I live right there, have a kid at SCES and no, most people don’t use the track while school is in session. The gym is on Wayne but not right on the street and the track is even farther back along the Sligo Creek trail. I don’t get the expectation that the track be so closed off. The issue of the gym not being connected I somewhat get…but as someone who routinely walked 10-15 to gym facilities as a middle and high schooler in Europe, this expectation that all schools have a gym and track is very odd to me.

With respect, PP, you were walking to and from those facilities in a part of the world where there is much less physical danger available.

Agreed. My concern would be a Uvalde type situation. Guns are far more prevalent and accessible here in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an incoming parent, the track and field house seem less of an issue then staff sending a letter to the principal with statements like this:

“A number of serious incidents have led staff members to feel unsafe coming to work, and the unstructured atmosphere in the hallways has negatively impacted student learning and wellbeing,” the letter read.

Exactly. I’m a PP with a kid at SCES and we got a similar letter just last week. That concerns me a lot more than the gym/track.

Yikes. Was the letter about SCES or SSIMS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an incoming parent, the track and field house seem less of an issue then staff sending a letter to the principal with statements like this:

“A number of serious incidents have led staff members to feel unsafe coming to work, and the unstructured atmosphere in the hallways has negatively impacted student learning and wellbeing,” the letter read.

Exactly. I’m a PP with a kid at SCES and we got a similar letter just last week. That concerns me a lot more than the gym/track.

Totally agree. I’m a SSIMS parent and my level of concern about the field house is zero…kids are all over those areas on the way to and from school anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an incoming parent, the track and field house seem less of an issue then staff sending a letter to the principal with statements like this:

“A number of serious incidents have led staff members to feel unsafe coming to work, and the unstructured atmosphere in the hallways has negatively impacted student learning and wellbeing,” the letter read.

Exactly. I’m a PP with a kid at SCES and we got a similar letter just last week. That concerns me a lot more than the gym/track.

Yikes. Was the letter about SCES or SSIMS?

It was about SSIMS. But given that the building are connected, it was scary.

[Anonymous]

Bump. Any other current parents out there who can weigh in? We are SCES parents who are concerned about everything we are hearing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bump. Any other current parents out there who can weigh in? We are SCES parents who are concerned about everything we are hearing.

The PTSA meets the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. I think current SCES parents would be welcome and it would be a chance to meet other parents.

[Anonymous]

I am a SSIMS parent and so happy the PTA highlighted the safety and building concerns in a recent letter.

My DD has told me that even when her gym class is using the outdoor track there are community members who they have to run around. I get that it’s not MCPS land, but I don’t think that the public and the school should be on the track at the same time.

She also reports that kids are roaming the halls (this is corroborated by another adult with knowledge of the building). Small things like not being able to keep kids in classrooms make the whole vibe feel out of control.

I just dropped something off to my daughter last week, and saw what she was talking about. Two kids- obvs a couple- were in the hallway NOT between classes having a heated argument. No staff around. (On my way out, I told them to get back to class!)

Fights at lunch are also not uncommon.

If I had another choice, I wouldn’t send my kid there. Lovely families, a kind seeming principal, some good teachers, but the layout of the building I really do believe contributes to some of these problems. It’s huge and rambling with dead-end kind of hallways and the kids are walking along Wayne to get to gym? and it just doesn’t feel safe.

I hope this SSIMS thread is not deleted.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

We made an offer on a house that was inbounds for SCES/SSIMS. So glad it didn't end up going through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think we are allowed to talk about SSIMS on this site. I posted a link to this article when it was first came out. After a few responses thread was removed. Weird censorship.

There was a thread that had inappropriately specific details about campus security vulnerabilities. It was like a how to manual for intruders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We made an offer on a house that was inbounds for SCES/SSIMS. So glad it didn't end up going through.

This seems like you are some weird SS bashing troll. Who would write such a thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read the recent Bethesda Beat article on Silver Spring International Middle School and I'm interested in some recent perspectives on the school. My child, who would start next year, is somewhat anxious. I am, in turn, now somewhat apprehensive about descriptions of SSIMS that make it seem chaotic and disruptive. My kid's heard from current 6th graders about fights and that kind of thing, but I also don't know how much of that is kids talking and making their school seem more dangerous than it really is.

https://moco360.media/2023/01/30/safety-concerns-at-ssims-prompt-two-visits-from-county-officials-in-one-week/

The school is 1 mi from the Metro, but is described as next to a Metro station. Makes me wonder about other errors.

That detail is an unfortunate error, and I’m not sure why it hasn’t been corrected. The rest is an accurate, if not understated, depiction of the issues

Bethesda Beat does not correct errors, even when obvious and they are notified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The track is on park land -- it was transferred to M-NCPPC/Montgomery Parks when the old Blair HS was decommissioned and cut up into SSIMS and Sligo Creek ES. Why? Because the spec for middle schools did not include a track and field of that size, whereas the HS had to have one. (Lots of head-scratching facility decisions over the past 3 decades, especially in areas like downcounty where space is at a premuim and the county hasn't done enough to ensure public-use space isn't overwhelmed by private development interests.)

Like many adjacent park facilities that are used for school athletics/activities, it is supposed to be reserved for school use during school hours and otherwise open to the community. A problem at SSIMS (and, honestly, and sadly unsurprisingly much of downcounty) is that the park has not been well kept by the parks folks. Ignoring the overgrowth, field condition, etc., the fencing/access is poor and poorly marked.

The "random people" walking the track, using the blacktop, etc., are just those from the extended neighborhood, often accessing it via the popular, adjacent trail along Sligo Creek -- the same folks you'd see using outdoor facilities while walking the Capital Crescent Trail or Bethesda Trolley Trail. The differences are the dual use, school and community, and the poor upkeep, signage and care by the parks folks to pay attention/enforce the hours that are supposed to be school-only.

I doubt this is intentional, just that there are louder voices elsewhere that divert attention/resources.

The track was never transferred. It was always park land.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read the recent Bethesda Beat article on Silver Spring International Middle School and I'm interested in some recent perspectives on the school. My child, who would start next year, is somewhat anxious. I am, in turn, now somewhat apprehensive about descriptions of SSIMS that make it seem chaotic and disruptive. My kid's heard from current 6th graders about fights and that kind of thing, but I also don't know how much of that is kids talking and making their school seem more dangerous than it really is.

https://moco360.media/2023/01/30/safety-concerns-at-ssims-prompt-two-visits-from-county-officials-in-one-week/

The school is 1 mi from the Metro, but is described as next to a Metro station. Makes me wonder about other errors.

That detail is an unfortunate error, and I’m not sure why it hasn’t been corrected. The rest is an accurate, if not understated, depiction of the issues

I think context is important here. This list of issues was generated by staff and parents as part of an advocacy effort to coincide with the recent operating budget hearings. Good for them for being thorough and organized, and they got a good bit of preliminary attention from central office and the media. We'll see if it helps with increased funding. But I don't think neighborhood parents should overreact to the publicity. SSIMS does have some unique challenges, with its very old and poorly connected buildings, the external field house, and the never-ending Purple Line construction, but honestly the problematic student behaviors are standard middle school stuff, these days, unfortunately.

Meh; my experience at SSIMS was that it's student behavior problems were a bit worse than the average at MCPS; Bryant is notorious for not holding student's accountable - until said student is in HER face. That said, my experience was behavioral issues were more general unruliness rather than violence. Other middle schools in MCPS are more violent, though I'd put SSIMS in the bottom third for sheer chaos. One consequence of that chaotic behavior is that students, even in the "honors" math, are between a quarter to a semester behind what the better run middle schools are doing. Nominally they may be on the same page, but often the school has to drop much of the detail just to get students to pass county formatives.

Although the metro is a whopping whole mile away (not much for middle schoolers), downtown silver spring is much closer; easy walk from SSIMS to Chik-fil-a, Chipotle, Mod pizza for lunch, especially when there are few consequences for students for not getting back in time, if at all.

But as others said, there are worse middle schools in the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We made an offer on a house that was inbounds for SCES/SSIMS. So glad it didn't end up going through.

This seems like you are some weird SS bashing troll. Who would write such a thing?

Ummmm, someone who is glad that their kids don't go to the schools that are the subject of this thread.