Question about Woodward High School and Kensington/Garrett Park real estate

[Anonymous]

Op, given your concern about being rezoned to a lower ranked school, you might want to look at the Western end of Bethesda,
currently zoned for Whitman. Even if rezoning occurs, you would get moved to another high performing school, unless MoCo was willing to largely throw geography out the window and have very extensive bussing. That's unlikely to happen and, if it does, there is no way to predict how rezoning will shake out and anywhere would be at risk.

But, your money won't go as far there and I don't remember if you posted about budget.

[Anonymous]

KP is really nice, Garrett Park is really nice, parts of Viers Mills are really nice (and more affordable for now). Look at the elementary school’s website and take a drive around - they’re doing a lot of great work there.

[Anonymous]

What is DCC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is DCC?

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/downcounty/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP take this advice. Given that you can’t risk a drop in home value, I’d buy somewhere where prices are more likely to go up or stay the same. Or just rent for a few years.


You all honestly think this OP would be happy living in the Viers Mill ES zone? Really?

+1 The OP posts that she wants to move into an area with the best public schools and instead you try to convince her to move into an area with the worst schools in the county??

Seriously, they are crap. Its fine to think an advanced kid can do well anywhere so the quality of the school doesn't matter but somehow I don't think that even those booster for low schools believe this. If they did they would move over to PG county where the schools are rated worse than Einstein or Wheaton. The reality is that people buy the best schools that their money can buy. Some people will trade school quality for house size rationalizing that school quality doesn't matter but they are just drawing the line lower, they really don't believe that either.

WJ is in an odd spot where it is next to Einstein one of the worst schools. In areas further west, the top schools sit next to schools that rank more in the upper middle around 8 not the bottom like Einstein. As for Woodward, its likely that it will not be anywhere near a 10 or 9 school. It may end up being a 7 which will draw tons of people out of the DCC into it IF they can afford to move but it could also be another 4 like the other DCC schools. The OP is not off when she worries that she could lose hundreds of thousands in equity AND need to pay for private schools.

Seems like the OP has a few choices:

1) buy in Kensington and risk getting zoned for Woodward. Personally this would be fine with me but if you think you may need to sell the house again in a few years and are worried about a slight drop in value then I can understand your hesitation

2) stretch your budget and buy somewhere closer to WJ that is less likely to be reassigned.

3) just forget about this part of MoCo altogether and move to somewhere like Urbana. Yes longer commute but very high performing schools and less likely to change

[Anonymous]

What’s your budget, OP?

FWIW, we had a budget under $500k and ended up in the Rock creek Palisades neighborhood zoned for Rock view ES/Newport Mill Ms/Einstein. There are TONS of young families moving into our neighborhood and there is a great ensemble of community being developed with our citizens association. We have a fall festival 9/28 from 3:30-6:30 on astoria st and Newport Mill rd. Come check it out! Many of us are using or planning on using the public schools. Some do parochial. We have a great babysitter who is a freshman at Einstein and her education seems way way better than the opportunity iris I had at my UMC suburban school in ohio. She has lots of AP classes and extracurriculars.


Here’s a house in our neighborhood for sale-

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Kensington/11102-Lund-Pl-20895/home/11060018?utm_source=ios_share&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy_link&utm_nooverride=1&utm_content=link

[Anonymous]

OP I would ignore the relentless Einstein booster. Just Google Einstein -lots of articles on truancy problems, drop out and failure rates, fights and a few years ago a girl was beaten to death right behind the school. The boosters will say that is not important and happens everywhere which is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Seems like the OP has a few choices:

1) buy in Kensington and risk getting zoned for Woodward. Personally this would be fine with me but if you think you may need to sell the house again in a few years and are worried about a slight drop in value then I can understand your hesitation

2) stretch your budget and buy somewhere closer to WJ that is less likely to be reassigned.

3) just forget about this part of MoCo altogether and move to somewhere like Urbana. Yes longer commute but very high performing schools and less likely to change

The idea of moving to Urbana because you can't stand the risk that your property might get reassigned from the Walter Johnson cluster to the Woodward cluster...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I would ignore the relentless Einstein booster. Just Google Einstein -lots of articles on truancy problems, drop out and failure rates, fights and a few years ago a girl was beaten to death right behind the school. The boosters will say that is not important and happens everywhere which is ridiculous.

Or you can ignore the fear mongering by people who don’t live in the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Seems like the OP has a few choices:

1) buy in Kensington and risk getting zoned for Woodward. Personally this would be fine with me but if you think you may need to sell the house again in a few years and are worried about a slight drop in value then I can understand your hesitation

2) stretch your budget and buy somewhere closer to WJ that is less likely to be reassigned.

3) just forget about this part of MoCo altogether and move to somewhere like Urbana. Yes longer commute but very high performing schools and less likely to change

Churchill and areas close to Whitman seem pretty safe. MCPS would need to really go full on bussing and create weird islands where they bus kids away intentionally. I'm sure that MCPS would love to do something this stupid but hopefully this is less likely.

I'd also consider McLean. The big debate/controversy in Fairfax is that some wealthy kids previously zoned for McLean- a well ranked school- will now get to go to Langley-an even more well ranked school- because it is under enrolled. Not exactly a big risk and no where near as stressful as what is going on in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I would ignore the relentless Einstein booster. Just Google Einstein -lots of articles on truancy problems, drop out and failure rates, fights and a few years ago a girl was beaten to death right behind the school. The boosters will say that is not important and happens everywhere which is ridiculous.

A few years ago, when, exactly?

[Anonymous]

We avoided the same area for the same reason, OP. Even if they are not reassigned, it is guaranteed 4 years of non-stop stress, politics, attending inane BOE meetings, involvement in community, PTA, all that jazz. I liked the areas, but no way was I going to sign up for all this. I simply took most elementary schools in Walter Johnson off my Redfin notification list.

+1 The same thing is starting to happen around Wootton. People are afraid that MCPS will come after Wootton because it ranks so high, has many asian americans which MCPS seems to hate and is one of the more affordable W schools. Buyers are giving up on MD and just going to NOVA or spending more to live in Churchill /Whitman areas more to the southwest in MOCO. It sucks for WJ and Wootton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s your budget, OP?

FWIW, we had a budget under $500k and ended up in the Rock creek Palisades neighborhood zoned for Rock view ES/Newport Mill Ms/Einstein. There are TONS of young families moving into our neighborhood and there is a great ensemble of community being developed with our citizens association. We have a fall festival 9/28 from 3:30-6:30 on astoria st and Newport Mill rd. Come check it out! Many of us are using or planning on using the public schools. Some do parochial. We have a great babysitter who is a freshman at Einstein and her education seems way way better than the opportunity iris I had at my UMC suburban school in ohio. She has lots of AP classes and extracurriculars.


Here’s a house in our neighborhood for sale-

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Kensington/11102-Lund-Pl-20895/home/11060018?utm_source=ios_share&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy_link&utm_nooverride=1&utm_content=link

Hello neighbor, see you at the festival, I'll be in the beer line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP I would ignore the relentless Einstein booster. Just Google Einstein -lots of articles on truancy problems, drop out and failure rates, fights and a few years ago a girl was beaten to death right behind the school. The boosters will say that is not important and happens everywhere which is ridiculous.


A few years ago, when, exactly?

2016

Don't try to downplay the problems at and around Einstein.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I would ignore the relentless Einstein booster. Just Google Einstein -lots of articles on truancy problems, drop out and failure rates, fights and a few years ago a girl was beaten to death right behind the school. The boosters will say that is not important and happens everywhere which is ridiculous.

Google all the school and they each have their issues. Drop out, truancy are parenting issues but many may drop out for financial or other reasons. There are fights at every school. There have been significant things happen at the W schools. The only difference is more money.