BCC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading about BCC makes me want to switch my kid who is at Jackson Reed. Sounds like it is a wonderful place to learn and make friends.

My BCC kid wishes they went to Jackson-Reed - much more socially diverse environment from a socio-economic perspective and more racially diverse. Less stressful than BCC in some ways. Privileged people there don’t behave so privileged. BCC can be a little more toxic than Jackson-Reed.

Grass is always greener.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: Westland MS, I have a DC there now. Principal is excellent. Very communicative with the community. Teachers have been mixed - some really excellent, most pretty good, a couple not so strong. But I can't imagine that is different than anywhere else. Classes don't seem overcrowded to me, after the opening of Silver Lake.

Which principal? They just got a new one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: Westland MS, I have a DC there now. Principal is excellent. Very communicative with the community. Teachers have been mixed - some really excellent, most pretty good, a couple not so strong. But I can't imagine that is different than anywhere else. Classes don't seem overcrowded to me, after the opening of Silver Lake.

Which principal? They just got a new one.

No they didn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a 10th grader at BCC. IB is a great program for the right kid. After a BCC student committed suicide, the rumor was that the IB program was at least partially responsible. My son is completely turned off though he will do lots of AP classes.

BCC probably has the widest range of economic diversity. My son has several friends (white and non white) living in $3million homes and many who get free lunch. He's mixed race and is somehow accepted by all groups though I'm not sure how/why. Works out well for him so my perspective is that the diversity there is great. Others may disagree.

The teachers are very good for the most part. One awful teacher was hired this year because of shortages I assume. That teacher will singe handedly keep kids out of science tracks they'd otherwise love. BCC should not have hired this teacher but I'm sure most schools are in the same boat.

Principals make very few decisions so don't let that be a deciding factor for high schools - it all comes from the central office. Getting a good counselor and administrator is key but there is a lot of movement so you often don't know what you are getting.

I think BCC is a good school - really big but they all are these days. Playing a sport helps them find a group so I'd recommend that if possible.

What kind of student is the IB program best for?

DP.. one who doesn't buckle under pressure, has good time management skills, and doesn't consider failure the end of the world.

More important - one who likes to read and write and can do so quickly with ease and fluency - I have a very smart BCC kid who doesn’t like to read and hates to write. The IB program would have made him want to poke his eyes out. Some BCC parents force kids to do IB because they think it is “more rigorous”. I think that is a major mistake. I would have never made my DC do something he hated. Instead he took a lot of the hardest AP math and science.

It definitely is rigorous, but not like that's your only option. Although I value reading/writing, I'm far more interested in STEM subjects which is not the IB's strength. Nevertheless, you could most likely cobble together a decent curriculum from just AP's and honors classes focused on STEM at BCC or any MCPS HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: Westland MS, I have a DC there now. Principal is excellent. Very communicative with the community. Teachers have been mixed - some really excellent, most pretty good, a couple not so strong. But I can't imagine that is different than anywhere else. Classes don't seem overcrowded to me, after the opening of Silver Lake.

Which principal? They just got a new one.

No they didn't.

Yes they did. The last Westland principal was transferred to the central office during the middle of the last school year. I would say that having a new principal with less than a year on the job is difficult to make judgments on quality of performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: Westland MS, I have a DC there now. Principal is excellent. Very communicative with the community. Teachers have been mixed - some really excellent, most pretty good, a couple not so strong. But I can't imagine that is different than anywhere else. Classes don't seem overcrowded to me, after the opening of Silver Lake.

Which principal? They just got a new one.

No they didn't.

Yes they did. The last Westland principal was transferred to the central office during the middle of the last school year. I would say that having a new principal with less than a year on the job is difficult to make judgments on quality of performance.

Who are you talking about? Serino has been principal there for several years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: Westland MS, I have a DC there now. Principal is excellent. Very communicative with the community. Teachers have been mixed - some really excellent, most pretty good, a couple not so strong. But I can't imagine that is different than anywhere else. Classes don't seem overcrowded to me, after the opening of Silver Lake.

Which principal? They just got a new one.

No they didn't.

Yes they did. The last Westland principal was transferred to the central office during the middle of the last school year. I would say that having a new principal with less than a year on the job is difficult to make judgments on quality of performance.

Who are you talking about? Serino has been principal there for several years.

+1 I am a PP who has a BCC grad/current freshman in college and Alison Serino was the principal at Westland when she was there.

[Anonymous]

Maybe PP is talking about B-CC principal? I think the principal there is relatively new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe PP is talking about B-CC principal? I think the principal there is relatively new.

I think this is Shelton Mooney’s fourth year there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: Westland MS, I have a DC there now. Principal is excellent. Very communicative with the community. Teachers have been mixed - some really excellent, most pretty good, a couple not so strong. But I can't imagine that is different than anywhere else. Classes don't seem overcrowded to me, after the opening of Silver Lake.

Which principal? They just got a new one.

No they didn't.

Yes they did. The last Westland principal was transferred to the central office during the middle of the last school year. I would say that having a new principal with less than a year on the job is difficult to make judgments on quality of performance.

Not true at all.

Ms Serino has been the principal at least five years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: Westland MS, I have a DC there now. Principal is excellent. Very communicative with the community. Teachers have been mixed - some really excellent, most pretty good, a couple not so strong. But I can't imagine that is different than anywhere else. Classes don't seem overcrowded to me, after the opening of Silver Lake.

Which principal? They just got a new one.

No they didn't.

Yes they did. The last Westland principal was transferred to the central office during the middle of the last school year. I would say that having a new principal with less than a year on the job is difficult to make judgments on quality of performance.

Not true at all.

Ms Serino has been the principal at least five years.

She's been there since at least 2014.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The (fairly new) Silver Creek MS also feeds into BCC. Opens up real estate options too. Older kids went to Westland and we’re very happy with Silver Creek. BCC was great school for our kids.

and were you happy with Westland MS?

Unless you are going for a magnet program, the middle schools are really quite similar. Jockeying for one middle school over another in that area is really splitting hairs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading about BCC makes me want to switch my kid who is at Jackson Reed. Sounds like it is a wonderful place to learn and make friends.

My BCC kid wishes they went to Jackson-Reed - much more socially diverse environment from a socio-economic perspective and more racially diverse. Less stressful than BCC in some ways. Privileged people there don’t behave so privileged. BCC can be a little more toxic than Jackson-Reed.

Grass is always greener.

BS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading about BCC makes me want to switch my kid who is at Jackson Reed. Sounds like it is a wonderful place to learn and make friends.

My BCC kid wishes they went to Jackson-Reed - much more socially diverse environment from a socio-economic perspective and more racially diverse. Less stressful than BCC in some ways. Privileged people there don’t behave so privileged. BCC can be a little more toxic than Jackson-Reed.

Grass is always greener.

BS

In this case, it is definitely not. BCC is much stronger than J-R/Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading about BCC makes me want to switch my kid who is at Jackson Reed. Sounds like it is a wonderful place to learn and make friends.

My BCC kid wishes they went to Jackson-Reed - much more socially diverse environment from a socio-economic perspective and more racially diverse. Less stressful than BCC in some ways. Privileged people there don’t behave so privileged. BCC can be a little more toxic than Jackson-Reed.

Grass is always greener.

BS

In this case, it is definitely not. BCC is much stronger than J-R/Wilson.

Sorry replied to the wrong post - meant to say the grass is not always greener.