Are the Bethesda/Potomac public schools worth the financial sacrifice to live there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. stay where you are or move to another nice inexpensive place and spend your money in private school

Having had kids in MoCo (Takoma, immersion, magnets) and private school, I recommend you ignore this advice. Unless your kid gets into a "top 3," many area private schools don't offer much more than a good MoCo public.

Not only that, but do the math. At least if you choose a non-parochial independent school (the only ones, in my opinion, which may be better academically than the MoCo top publics) you must figure 30k every year for the rest of their schooling -- and each child adds on to this burden. This can end up being a lot more $$ than just buying a more expensive home in a better school cluster.

Actually -- the private school tuitions keep going up. 30k right now may well be 40k/yr by the time for DC hits high school. True story - when we started our kids in private it was 15k/yr -- 8 years later it was 28k. Yikes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely worth it. We used to live in Takoma Park and moved to the Churchill Cluster. Haven't looked back and also found a huge group of like-minded families here in Potomac. We are so happy with our choice and it's been several years. Worth the mortgage -- and it's double what we were paying before.

Just curious as to what the issues were in the Takoma Park schools that led you to want to move to the Churchill cluster? I ask, because we have been considering buying a home in Takoma Park.

Also really curious about this post. Was the poster thrilled to find a crunchy enclave in Potomac, or was she happy to find some like minded capitalists? If the answer is crunchy enclave, where is it?

[Anonymous]

OP, I think what you can take from this thread is that most people are happy with their schools. The "W" crowd assumes theirs is better but they really don't know what the other schools are like beyond scores and FARMS numbers. I live in an RM neighborhood with lots of very well educated/involved parents. Most kids are obviously not in the magnet..but the reviews I get (my kids are MS age) are very positive. I don't mean to imply that every high school is the same but it is difficult to give a comparison when all you have is one experience.

[Anonymous]

OP you probably could move from Silver Spring to the Wooten cluster living somewhere in Rockville/NP without too much a financial sacrifice. There are nice neighborhoods with 500K, 2000 sq foot homes on nice lots, under 500K fixer uppers under 2000 sq feet and townhouses in the 300K range in these areas. While the majority of the houses in our elementary cluster are on the 700K up range, there are a good number of houses in the 500K range and its not a big deal to live in a smaller house. I get the feeling that there is more of show of wealth in the Bethesda and Potomac crowds from people in big houses.

The sacrifice is really about urban vs suburban lifestyle. North Potomac is great for kids to play in yards, sports activities, and driving to places. My kids love it. We (parents) miss the walkable lifestyle that comes with areas like DC or even SS.

[Anonymous]

I think the more important question may be whether it is worth the financial sacrifice for the elementary years. We love our neighborhood in the SS area and love our elementary school but may end up making that move 5 years from now for middle and high school, but will be able to do so with 5 more years of savings and a paid-off house, so it is always an option to stay where you are for a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's your budget? Depending on what it is, you may find something in Potomac (Churchill cluster). There are some nice neighborhoods in the neighborhoods that feed into Bells Mill, Beverly Farms and Wayside. They are older homes (1960's or 1970's) but you will find lots of down to earth people who moved to the area for the schools.

Agree that there are a lot of young down to earth families in the Bells Mill area. Even those in the million dollar houses are much more chill than the BCC types. The woodsiness of the area attracts less status conscious people.

Having lived in both districts, my personal opinion is that BCC areas are more down to earth than the Churchill district by a long shot. Plus, Bells Mill area is not what I'd consider wooded.

I've lived in both also and totally disagree. To each their own. I currently live in a house within blocks of Bells Mill that backs to woods, we constantly have deer in our yard and neighborhood etc. BCC area is full of the new fancy houses replacing the tear-downs (Somerset etc) - you see none of what I just described (which isn't for everyone, obv.). Probably depends which area of each you're in.

[Anonymous]

We moved to the WJ cluster and most of the parents seem very happy with the cluster. We are giving up diversity, in fact are the diversity, living here but commute-wise it made more sense for DH. As for being worth it, we were fortunate to sell a townhouse durung the market heyday that allowed for a decent downpayment. If we didn't have that downpayment, I'm not sure I would have made the move. Having lived thru my parents having financial difficulties when one parent was unemployed, and one parent feeling as though the strain of the bigger house payments limited what she could do careerwise and the other parent resenting that, and in general living paycheck to paycheck, and pretty much being on our own to pay for college (which for me worked out okay but for a sibling could have been the difference between finishing) - did NOT want to relive any of that now that I have a choice. What good is the bigger house or better school if the financial pressures put a strain on your marriage?

I would also caution if your child has any special needs you may end up wanting to send your child to private school if you feel the public school is not bringing out the best in your child. We are facing that problem right now. We are in one of the top school districts and may end up sending one child atleast to private school. It kills DH because we are paying all this money to live here and moved here for the schools but I'm at the point where I need to find a support group with other parents to see how they are making things work, accept that the behavior may not improve and just hope it doesn't put our child behind in academics at some point and hope things will work out in the end, medicate, or find another environment that may work better. You really don't want to stretch yourself thin financially for public school only to find it isn't working for your child and you need more free time (specifically not working full time) to give your child extra support or to find a private school.

[Anonymous]

I work with a lot of people with kids in the WJ cluster and many of the parent's comments are disturbing. They talk about most of the children there taking drugs as if it's ok, their kids always wanting to buy something, the parents actually write and send in the children's college applications, they still spend every weekend doing stuff for their kids. I went to a pretty highly regarded and wealthy high school, but it was nothing like what they describe. No experience with the actual school, but these are the parents you might be meeting there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work with a lot of people with kids in the WJ cluster and many of the parent's comments are disturbing. They talk about most of the children there taking drugs as if it's ok, their kids always wanting to buy something, the parents actually write and send in the children's college applications, they still spend every weekend doing stuff for their kids. I went to a pretty highly regarded and wealthy high school, but it was nothing like what they describe. No experience with the actual school, but these are the parents you might be meeting there.

Sorry, I don't believe half of the stuff about parents being OK with their kids taking drugs. Or maybe your coworkers are the 2 crazy parents at WJ. The WJ parents I know are nothing like this. And the stuff about parents writing their kids' college applications and spending the weekends driving their kids around (Potomac and Bethesda are the burbs, after all) is actually endemic in all high income area schools, public and private.

[Anonymous]

writing and sending in college applications, really? This is truly sad if this is the case everywhere. Mine will be filling them out and sending them in ON THEIR OWN. The parents I know there don't think they are crazy at all. Maybe you or they think pot isn't a drug, I don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:writing and sending in college applications, really? This is truly sad if this is the case everywhere. Mine will be filling them out and sending them in ON THEIR OWN. The parents I know there don't think they are crazy at all. Maybe you or they think pot isn't a drug, I don't know.

This is most definitely not the case everywhere. I don't know who that PP is talking to, and it sounds like just a coworker or two. She doesn't have kids at WJ, however. So a teensy, tiny grain of salt is called for.

[Anonymous]

OP, what is it you hope to gain by sending your kids to Bethesda/Potomac schools over the Silver Spring schools? I think that's what you must evaluate. I grew up here - went to DCPS (which sucked even worse back then), but had many friends who went the private school (Big 3) route. We've all ended up about the same. In my professional life, I've met many graduates of the W high schools. We work in the same places, have similar professional experiences. In the end, there are so many factors that go into a child's happiness and success in life, that it seems hard to say whether or not a certain educational experience was "worth the sacrifice," other than the piece of mind it may give you as a parent. And of course, that piece of mind can be false. Also, your kids are young - you don't yet know what sort of school environment will or won't work for your kids. If moving to one of these districts would cause great financial stress or cause you to purchase a house you would resent, I think you need to ask yourself what it is you are looking to gain from these schools - other than a general feeling that you've sent your kids to "good" schools.

[Anonymous]

Rosemary Hills (SS), Rock Creek Forest (CC), and Rock Creek Hills (Kensington) all feed into BCC and all have houses in your price range (even below your price range esp. in Rosemary Hills).

Rosemary Hills has a wonderful, close-knit, community feeling and is fairly diverse to boot. It is also a whole heck of a lot shorter commute to DC than some of the other neighborhoods mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, what is it you hope to gain by sending your kids to Bethesda/Potomac schools over the Silver Spring schools? I think that's what you must evaluate. I grew up here - went to DCPS (which sucked even worse back then), but had many friends who went the private school (Big 3) route. We've all ended up about the same. In my professional life, I've met many graduates of the W high schools. We work in the same places, have similar professional experiences. In the end, there are so many factors that go into a child's happiness and success in life, that it seems hard to say whether or not a certain educational experience was "worth the sacrifice," other than the piece of mind it may give you as a parent. And of course, that piece of mind can be false. Also, your kids are young - you don't yet know what sort of school environment will or won't work for your kids. If moving to one of these districts would cause great financial stress or cause you to purchase a house you would resent, I think you need to ask yourself what it is you are looking to gain from these schools - other than a general feeling that you've sent your kids to "good" schools.

I find this interesting. And I recently talked to a very professionally accomplished person (now geting a PHD at an Ivy) who went to high school in a tiny town in the sticks. She acknowledged it put her behind in some areas, but she caught up in college. If people like these can overcome the disadvantages, what does that say about the value of school? Why are we agonizing over where to send our kids? It does make me wonder. Although the woman I spoke with did extoll her caring teachers, and the extracurriculars. Maybe it's the way a school helps develop the whole person that is more important than its academics.

[Anonymous]

I went to BCC (Rosemary Hills and then Westland) and gew up in Kensington. I cannot afford Kensington now for the size house we wanted unless it was a tiny tiny starter home. We just bought in Potomac in the Churchill district in the 600-700k range and love it. Its our forever home and not huge but we have a good amount of land to put on an addition if we want at some point.

Very nice area, quiet, nice neighbors and we also bought basing our decisions heavy on a good school district. We were happy going with BCC, WJ, Whitman, Churchill and really happy we ended up in the Vhurchill cluster.