Any Arcola Elementary parents out there

[Anonymous]

Similarly, if your child (or family) is very Humanities-oriented, then go to the Montgomery Knolls ES zone (which is the lower elementary that feeds into the Pine Crest upper elementary) or the New Hampshire Estates ES zone (which is the lower elementary that feeds into the Oak View upper elementary), both of which feed to Eastern MS. Both CES schools draw more students from their 3rd grade than is represented by any other school in the CES area, then Eastern has 10-20 seats reserved in their magnet for students in Pine Crest and Oak View (living in that zone, not bussing in as CES students). It's less competitive than the 6000 MCPS students/year competing for the 100 other magnet seats. Warning about these elementary pairs - the lower elementary is not located near the upper elementary, so if you're considering living near the school to walk to/from, you have to pick one, and if you're within a mile radius of the other school, you will not have a bus.

Most of this is wrong, by the way.

The Oak View CES does not draw heavily from the NHE/OVES attendance zone, and other elementary schools in the feeder pattern have many more kids represented.

There are no set-asides for in-bounds kids in the Eastern magnet the way there are at TPMS. If a seat opens up, they will fill it with a capable in-bounds kid, sometimes, but there is no set aside of any number.

It makes me wonder how much of the rest of that novel was wrong as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Similarly, if your child (or family) is very Humanities-oriented, then go to the Montgomery Knolls ES zone (which is the lower elementary that feeds into the Pine Crest upper elementary) or the New Hampshire Estates ES zone (which is the lower elementary that feeds into the Oak View upper elementary), both of which feed to Eastern MS. Both CES schools draw more students from their 3rd grade than is represented by any other school in the CES area, then Eastern has 10-20 seats reserved in their magnet for students in Pine Crest and Oak View (living in that zone, not bussing in as CES students). It's less competitive than the 6000 MCPS students/year competing for the 100 other magnet seats. Warning about these elementary pairs - the lower elementary is not located near the upper elementary, so if you're considering living near the school to walk to/from, you have to pick one, and if you're within a mile radius of the other school, you will not have a bus.

Most of this is wrong, by the way.

The Oak View CES does not draw heavily from the NHE/OVES attendance zone, and other elementary schools in the feeder pattern have many more kids represented.

There are no set-asides for in-bounds kids in the Eastern magnet the way there are at TPMS. If a seat opens up, they will fill it with a capable in-bounds kid, sometimes, but there is no set aside of any number.

It makes me wonder how much of the rest of that novel was wrong as well.

PCES's CES definitely has set-asides for local students, but maybe OV does it differently. My rising 5th grader (in-bounds at PCES) was given a late spot for 4th grade last year because it was mid-August and a spot opened up, which they give to local students, presumably because it's too late to change bus routes and other school plans. My next door neighbor's kid got a spot in Eastern as a local student, and was informed of this during the last school year. In the TPMS and Eastern magnet information, it is specified that there are some local set-asides. It is fewer at Eastern, but there are always seats reserved that are not competitive with the rest of the county. Also, there are occasionally students who drop out of the program during 6th grade, and new local Eastern students are invited for the second semester to take open spots, as has been discussed this past year in this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Similarly, if your child (or family) is very Humanities-oriented, then go to the Montgomery Knolls ES zone (which is the lower elementary that feeds into the Pine Crest upper elementary) or the New Hampshire Estates ES zone (which is the lower elementary that feeds into the Oak View upper elementary), both of which feed to Eastern MS. Both CES schools draw more students from their 3rd grade than is represented by any other school in the CES area, then Eastern has 10-20 seats reserved in their magnet for students in Pine Crest and Oak View (living in that zone, not bussing in as CES students). It's less competitive than the 6000 MCPS students/year competing for the 100 other magnet seats. Warning about these elementary pairs - the lower elementary is not located near the upper elementary, so if you're considering living near the school to walk to/from, you have to pick one, and if you're within a mile radius of the other school, you will not have a bus.

Most of this is wrong, by the way.

The Oak View CES does not draw heavily from the NHE/OVES attendance zone, and other elementary schools in the feeder pattern have many more kids represented.

There are no set-asides for in-bounds kids in the Eastern magnet the way there are at TPMS. If a seat opens up, they will fill it with a capable in-bounds kid, sometimes, but there is no set aside of any number.

It makes me wonder how much of the rest of that novel was wrong as well.

My DS was invited as a local student to Eastern this coming fall in the magnet. We were in the PCES CES and are local to PCES/Eastern. Our invitation specifically mentioned that DS was invited to a seat for local students. When we went to the Open House for invited students, we noticed 12 students from the PCES CES, and at least 7 of them we know to be local because DS went to MKES/PCES lower grades with them. It's unlikely that all of these students from the same school were deemed "outliers."

[Anonymous]

We were allowed to move him to MKES on a COSA to avoid the dual language because his brother was going to Pine Crest (the usual English option is Glen Haven ES).


Trying to COSA out of kemp mill ES, really not interested in their dual language program....Is COSA to Glen Haven ES automatically granted if this is the reason? Could you please share your experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: We were allowed to move him to MKES on a COSA to avoid the dual language because his brother was going to Pine Crest (the usual English option is Glen Haven ES).


Trying to COSA out of kemp mill ES, really not interested in their dual language program....Is COSA to Glen Haven ES automatically granted if this is the reason? Could you please share your experience?

Yes, the COSA to GHES is automatically granted from KMES. However, busing is generally not preserved in a COSA. I know a number of families in the KMES district who had COSAs approved to GHES, and I know of no COSAs being not approved from KMES to GHES in the last three school years.

[Anonymous]

Any recent info about Arcola Elementary and the middle schools it's zoned for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any recent info about Arcola Elementary and the middle schools it's zoned for?

All of Arcola ES is zoned for Odessa Shannon MS, which has a new building and a new principal.

[Anonymous]

Arcola is an extended school year school and the school year is six weeks longer and starts in July. The school community has a lot of poverty but there are a lot of programs that come on site to help families. Even though it's high FARMS, more people in the single family home neighborhoods are sending their kids there now vs. 5-10 years ago when a lot went private.

The teachers are good and I get the sense that the principal is well-liked by staff and parents.

It is zoned for Odessa Shannon Middle School, which has an really nice new building. Not sure how good the education is, but I think that's mostly because it's middle school and middle school kids are feral. There was a ton of teacher turnover this past year when the former principal left, so there are a lot of new/new to MCPS teachers. Odessa Shannon split articulates to Northwood and Kennedy so kids from MS will be split up, plus some will use the DCC process to go to other schools.