OLGC in Vienna
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Anonymous
| I don’t see what MAGA or not has got to do with it. As long as they are not virtue signaling on taxpayer’s dime. |
Anonymous
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There are positive things, nice people, and good teachers at OLGC. On the whole, the child I enrolled there graduated with a satisfactory education (above average in writing and grammar) and had a decent experience. But I am glad to be leaving, as our enjoyment of the school and parish community has notably decreased over the past several years. Once your kid starts here - or at any school - you as a parent know that it's just difficult to move them absent something really significant. For the reasons below, I don't think I would start/stick with OLGC if I had it to do over again, because I don't really feel it was worth the cost, as compared to public school or even another Catholic school.
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: - OLGC is a Salesian parish and school, and the school is attended by a good number of non-Catholics, so it's on the liberal end of the spectrum for Catholic schools in NoVA. Not that this is a bad thing -- just something to be aware of if it matters to you. The (Catholic) religious curriculum (especially in middle school) is pretty strong. - Expect MANY random half-days and days on which their version of after-care is cancelled or ends early. Generally, this school's scheduling and setup for parent participation are not conducive to households with two working parents or single-parent households where that parent works full-time. - Beginning 2026-27, there's a new policy on tuition: If you change your mind about sending your kid to OLGC on or after the June 1 immediately preceding the school year for which you enrolled your child (for any reason - an unexpected move, a family emergency, etc.), they've pledged to come after you for the FULL TUITION for the following school year (during which your child will not be attending OLGC) - even though they also say they have a waitlist for most grades, so it would seem likely "your spot" would be filled anyway. - Tuition will increase every year. Fees will increase every year. - Class sizes are too large. The minimum we saw was 25 (with a continued push to meet the diocese cap of 30) students per classroom - those numbers are excessive for a public school, much less a private one charging $12K+ per year. - Elementary classrooms have an aide half-time if lucky; no aides in MS. They have said they're trying to improve this; however, I am not optimistic because..... - ....there is a high rate of teacher turnover here. We've seen 2 or more teachers leave each year; and in most years, at least one quits mid-school year. Attrition is natural, and teaching careers look different now compared to 20 years ago. But for an established private school that offers some of the most competitive salaries in the diocese and only has 2 teachers per grade level to lose several teachers every year -- including teachers willing to break their contracts midyear -- is significant. That speaks to problems with recruitment and hiring, problems with retention, and problems supporting educators who are struggling. - Promises of differentiated learning are disingenuous at best. Aside from varied-level math instruction (beginning in upper elementary), these promises simply cannot be fulfilled. None of the staff (with the exception of the one MS math teacher, who is great) have the time, resources, expertise, or experience to differentiate their curriculum or instruction, yet admin continues to promise to meet current and incoming students "where they are at." Because that is impossible, each classroom has a bunch of kids, on both ends of the spectrum, whose needs are not being met. This results in behavioral issues that are not adequately addressed (most teachers do not have classroom control skills) and detract from the education of the class as a whole. - Students with significant behavioral issues are frequently allowed to run roughshod over teachers and peers and to hold hostage the learning of their entire class with misdeeds, meltdowns, and arguments. The administration will not turn away problematic students (e.g. kids who they know have been asked to leave another Catholic school in the diocese) or children with learning differences, despite the fact that this school is not properly equipped to handle kids who need the kind of push-in and pull-out behavioral or educational services they'd receive in public school. - Disciplinary measures are selectively enforced. Favorites of the principal and children from wealthy families are given special treatment; others bear the brunt. - Family culture is increasingly cliquish. The previous head priest was solely focused on increasing revenue, and because of this, wealthy families are given preferential treatment w/r/t teacher selection, school and parish programs (including CYO sports), discipline, admin responsiveness, etc. That socioeconomic class-focused attitude does trickle down to the kids. The Westwood Country Club set is on the ascent here - families who know their dollar won't go real far at Flint Hill, Potomac, Langley, or Congressional (where everyone is wealthy) - but they have gotten word that they can pretty much pay to play at OLGC, and they dig it. They vocally resent the "free-riding" they feel is being done by families that don't or can't contribute generously to the "Wildcat Fund" - which they view as taking advantage of the donations and assets provided by country-clubber largess. I get that this is how the world works - it is just depressing to see that dynamic played out so obviously in an elementary/middle school setting. - Twice now, the parish's finance council has attempted to roll out a new tuition policy that withholds the in-parish discount from families that didn't donate, during the previous year, a certain amount in a certain way to the church. This does not take into account tuition/school expenses, cash contributions made without labeled envelopes, or historic (> 1-year-old) donations to the church. Both times, the effort has failed spectacularly, requiring the previous head priest to issue a formal retraction. Whatever the justification may be for the policy itself, I would note here that it's odd the parish staff has (twice) issued a school policy without providing proper notice to the school administrators - i.e. the people responsible for defending and enforcing that policy. There's a fracture in communications between school staff and parish staff, and it's had some serious consequences. -To a previous question on this post: No, the bullying families have not been exited, nor will they be due to reasons indicated above. In closing, I'd like to stress again these points: **For parents of children with any kind of special learning need: I would strongly recommend against enrolling at OLGC. If you are set on Catholic school, you might consider Holy Spirit in Annandale or All Saints in Manassas. **OLGC could be a good fit for you IF: #You are, or are seeking to become, a member of Westwood CC or a part of the wealthier social scene in Vienna generally and are willing to donate (preferably publicly) significantly to the school and parish each year, on top of your tuition expenses. OR --You are committed to being a visible part of the school and parish community, attending Mass regularly at OLGC and volunteering at least 10 hours a year at the school in a capacity that can be verified by at least one staff member or other parent (Keep a written record of those hours and witnesses. Ask me how I know.), AND --You donate a documented, regular (at least yearly) amount to the school activities/Wildcat fund, and the parish, AND the Bishop's Lenten Appeal credited to OLGC, AND --Your child is an average to above-average student who will likely do fine in an environment where they can coast through mostly unnoticed. |
Anonymous
| So accurate “ The Westwood Country Club set is on the ascent here - families who know their dollar won't go real far at Flint Hill, Potomac, Langley, or Congressional (where everyone is wealthy) - but they have gotten word that they can pretty much pay to play at OLGC, and they dig it. ” it is such a social climby set of people but not sure if other privates are like this or this just particular to OLGC |
Anonymous
That’s sad to hear…. you’d think the Catholic element would make more kind hearted people? What advice do you have for a new family entering the school? Starting next year in a younger grade level and was very excited to start here and get away from some really blatant and pathetic social climbing behavior at a different, non religious private, but sounds like that’s not the case. |
Anonymous
Absolutely 100% not the case for us who went there for 9 years with multiple kids, but DCUM loves to bring out the extreme commenters. |
Anonymous
| I think they are kind in word at least. Just discriminatory. |
Anonymous
lol |
Anonymous
| Wow class sizes are big. We are at Dominion Christian School (Oakton/Vienna campus) and they are capped at 18 there, most classes are more like 14-16. OLGC seems to be the default for non-Catholic Vienna families who don’t want FCPS but don’t want to pay almost 40k for Green Hedges or Congressional (or 50k+ for Langley/Potomac). DCS is a smidge more (17k vs 15k, and no parish or sibling discount, though need-based aid) but I think it’s good bang for your buck, without being in the $$$ price of most DMV privates. |
Anonymous
| Pp here, I meant to say, I did not realize Olgc class sizes are so big—those are bigger than what my kid had when he was in FCPS elementary |
Anonymous
You will find nice people. Just like kids there are all sorts of groups. Sometimes you try to stay away from the Westwood social climbers but they drag you into their drama. |
Anonymous
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Wow, I wish I knew who you were in real life because this is SPOT ON!!! Like all the way down to the good MS math teacher.
I actually thought the teachers were for the most part very kind and dedicated to the mission of the school (although yes INCREDIBLE amount of turnover). My child had some really good teachers along the way - loved the MS religion teacher also. But there were a handful of bad ones as well along the way. I think the PP said it very well when she said they simply are just not equipped to deal with any kind of special need. For us, the cliquiness was the worst part and I didn’t realize other people felt that way. I kind of felt like we were the odd ones out (quite literally) and didn’t know what was wrong with my family that nobody wanted to be friends with us.
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Anonymous
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Right - they're just not equipped for that. It's not that I wanted my kids to be in a bubble where they'd never encounter someone who learned differently from "the norm," such as it is. The reality is, there are finite resources at OLGC and an administration that seemed to set very few limits as to the students they accepted who had learning differences. When one of my children was here, they were in a class of 58 total students, 1/3 of whom had diagnosed learning or behavioral/emotional challenges. And that's just the diagnosed kids.) They burned through about 4 different teachers in three years. I can't imagine how those teachers felt being overwhelmed in a class of 28 kids, at least 7 of whom had, e.g. ADD and/or dyslexia, with little meaningful resource support and no full-time aide. At least at that time, they did have a reading specialist who could do O/G or similar with the kids if needed. I don't know whether they still have one - last I heard the whole school's resource department was a 1-woman show, and she's great, but come on. They also have a wonderful speech therapist who I believe is called upon to serve pre-k through 8th. That's a lot of kids.
So, finite resources meet liberal acceptance practices, and something has got to give there. My kids had a few -bad- teachers here, and a few great ones. But most were just overworked and underprepared to deal with the needs of all those students. You're also in a situation with any private school, I think, where the fact that a parent is paying any amount of tuition at all makes them feel kind of entitled to certain things. I am no exception. It got to the point with all my kids where I started thinking, wait a minute.... There's what, 7 class periods a day? Each maybe 45 minutes? So if 5% of that time is transitioning to/from and settling in; 10-15% (conservative estimate) is spent with the teacher dealing with one particular student who's having a bad day; another 10% spent with that typical group of kids who are acting out AGAIN, you're left with -- maybe 60ish% of the time for instruction of the kids in the middle, who don't all learn the same way and might be having difficulties of their own? All that in 25 minutes seeped in stress and the basic need of young kids and lingering frustration from days past? That's not necessarily a teacher issue, it's like a struggle that would be so challenging for any normal human just to get through day-to-day! And there were definitely cases where a teacher asked more than once for help from admin and admin decided to take a sort of wait-and-see approach. I just don't think that was probably very helpful at that time in those circumstances - seemed like everyone paid the price there except for the kid who was misbehaving. Then couple that with constant demands from parents who do feel some entitlement, or whose kids aren't getting promised accommodations, or who just start to feel like, hold on a sec, I am paying just as much tuition as so-and-so, why does the teacher spend hours a day on them and maybe two minutes with my kid? It's not a very Christian perspective for a parent to have, but I have to admit - more than I'm proud of it was the truth for me. Re: the country club, I can't speak to the younger set of parents, my kids have all left OLGC now. But I can say that when my oldest was there, the WWCC members were more like the people who knew they had means but wanted their kids to be around more "normal" (socioeconomically) kids. By the time my youngest graduated, that was really not the case for most of the wealthier families, whose kids tended to socialize only with each other and were kind of meaner to the other kids generally. YMMV, and there are definitely nice families from all ends of the spectrum here. I do agree that the richer folks are kind of taking over, but I recognize that is just like being snobby in reverse. |
Anonymous
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I actually think that for a Catholic parochial school, the academics are almost as strong as they can be. It has a great academic reputation, with a strong principal/vice principal, counselors, resource teachers, 2 classes per grade (3 classes in Kindergarten to really focus on those reading skills), and it is trying to cap the older classes at 25-26. They publish the MAP scores and start MAP testing in K to get them practicing and to monitor progress over time. They have a reading specialist for K-2 and differentiate math in 3rd. Geometry is a solid option for 8th.
My biggest issue is SOCIALLY the parents, which then trickles down to the kids. About a third of the parents (at least the new ones) are WWCC, which affects your child's ability to socialize. If the WWCC only hangs out with each other, then they aren't inviting your child to their playdate or birthday party. The WWCC is also NOT great about making new friends. If there were a way to filter them out, the school would be absolutely amazing, because there are genuinely incredible families in this school who just get overshadowed by the WWCC families. |
Anonymous
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I am the opposite of the "WWCC type" and have never felt like I, nor my children, did not fit in. Maybe we got lucky? Get involved with school volunteer opportunities. Make connections in ways that have nothing to do with country clubs.
My child happens to be in the largest grade (27 kids per class) but my others are in regular-sized grades: 24 per class and 22 per class so previous posters may have outdated information. Each classroom through 3rd grade, I believe, has a full time assistant for each classroom. Fourth grade definitely has a shared full-time assistant. Fifth grade and above do not have assistants. My child reports the same students getting sent to the office for getting in trouble (being disrespectful, making stupid decisions) so I would have to agree with above that some kids do get "too many chances" and not severe enough consequences at school. However, I doubt this has to do with who is a country club member and who is not. Probably more likely that parents are not following-up with consequences at home. |
Anonymous
Is the school doing anything about this behavior issue? Why would parents even want their kids somewhere that they can’t get what they need? |