Burtonsville schools

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know anything about the schools in Burtonsville? Thinking about buying a house there and I'm curious about the schools because I have a child that will start kindergarten next year.

[Anonymous]

My Mother in Law is a teacher at Briggs Chaney Middle School in Burtonsville. She has been a teacher for a long time and she never has anything positive to say about the school or her students. From what she says, its a VERY rough school. Many students don't have supportive parents that can provide basic necessities, like a coat in the winter. I would look elsewhere if I were you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Mother in Law is a teacher at Briggs Chaney Middle School in Burtonsville. She has been a teacher for a long time and she never has anything positive to say about the school or her students. From what she says, its a VERY rough school. Many students don't have supportive parents that can provide basic necessities, like a coat in the winter. I would look elsewhere if I were you.

If Briggs Chaney MS has teachers who never have anything positive to say about the school or their students, that's not a good sign. I feel sad for the Briggs Chaney MS students who have the PP's MIL as a teacher.

[Anonymous]

i agree and disagree with above poster. The school definitley has had its share of issues but as more "better" schools start feeding into it - it is starting to change. I know a lot of good kids from my kids' elementary school (which is great) are choosing to go.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I believe one of the houses that DH and I were looking at is closer to Benjamin Banneker Middle School. Middle school is long way off for our child so we'll have time to move or the schools may improve by then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, I believe one of the houses that DH and I were looking at is closer to Benjamin Banneker Middle School. Middle school is long way off for our child so we'll have time to move or the schools may improve by then.

OP, it might be more useful if you asked about specific elementary schools.

Burtonsville, Fairland, and Greencastle elementary schools feed into Banneker MS. Here are the MCPS reports (for last year) for those three elementary schools:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02302.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02303.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02334.pdf

All three are "focus" schools; the effect of this (I think) is that class sizes are smaller.

Fairland is under capacity, Burtonsville and Greencastle are over capacity.

But also keep in mind that the reports only tell you so much. There are lousy schools attended exclusively by kids with rich parents. There are good schools with a lot of kids whose parents are poor. The best thing is to talk to real, live people with real, live kids who are actually going to those schools right now.

[Anonymous]

Stay away from Burtonsville. You might as well be in pg County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stay away from Burtonsville. You might as well be in pg County.

PANIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Wait, why am I panicking?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Mother in Law is a teacher at Briggs Chaney Middle School in Burtonsville. She has been a teacher for a long time and she never has anything positive to say about the school or her students. From what she says, its a VERY rough school. Many students don't have supportive parents that can provide basic necessities, like a coat in the winter. I would look elsewhere if I were you.

Nice teacher! Rather than complain she should do more to inspire change

I had 3 kids go thru Briggs Chaney Middle School which I presume has similar demographics as Banneker. As with all schools in the area - kids self-segregate. There were bad apples but my kids found their group of similar minded friends and did well. Not once were any involved in bad behavior or fights. This stuff happened but it was handled quickly.

The fact that there are students at these schools that have parents that don't care is sad and it certainly impacts the kids in many ways. For example, these kids tend to have lack of motivation in group projects but that meant the dedicated kids would take over and lead the projects which was a great learning experience. My son was directing his other team members and learning the skills to manage differnt types of personalities and hold them accountable for their failure and inspire them to succeed. I always wonder how his experience would have been different if his entire group wanted to lead and had the motivation to do well. My kids are active in team and individual sports and attend various summer camps so they have opportunities to be exposed to a wide variety of kids and experiences. We of course monitored from afar and made sure they weren't pulled into the wrong direction which never really materialized. A child that comes from a loving and supportive environment isn't going to be easily persuaded to be bad.

[Anonymous]

My kid is in first grade at Fairland, and we have been pleased with it so far. It's a focus school, with smaller class sizes than at non-focus schools (18 in each class in K and again this year in first). I believe Burtonsville Elementary is similar. The neighbors with kids at Banneker Middle and Paint Branch or Blake or Springbrook high schools have all seemed satisfied with the experience, and the kids I've talked to have positive things to say about the middle and high schools. The downside I've seen at Fairland is that there isn't a ton of parent participation in the PTA, but the parents we've met and the atmosphere at events like the back-to-school picnic is nice.

[Anonymous]

I live in Burtonsville (and like it!) but my child is a few years away from kindergarten. From what I've heard, Banneker is fine and so is Paint Branch. It all depends on which side of Greencastle you live on whether you are assigned to Greencastle Elementary or Burtonsville Elementary. We live on the Greencastle El. side, which is apparently bad news. A neighbor (and MCPS teacher) told us, "Nobody in this neighborhood sends their kids to Greencastle". I'm really hoping this will change as I'm hoping to send my kids to public schools, but the info on Great Schools/the school's website isn't promising. Change has to start somewhere though, right?

[Anonymous]

Any info on Burtonsville ES?

[Anonymous]

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02302.pdf

[Anonymous]

I was looking for personal experience from people on the board, but thanks.

[Anonymous]

The key in Burtonsville is to live on the West side of route 29
We live here and love it.
DD is not school age yet but will go to Burtonsville elem. We have friends that have gone there and they say it is a wonderful school and has a great Principal.
A lot of our neighbors are teachers in the area, The only 'bad' school I have heard about is Greencastle elem, it gets a lot of kids from Castle Blvd. However, a friend has a kid in 1st grade there now and says its a great school and the people who dont like it are racist because its a predominantly black school.

Burtonsville in general is a great place to live, Been here 4 years and love it.