Beall Elementary School

[Anonymous]

Please share your experiences at this school, for a third grader and a kindergardener.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Fabulous! Community is fantastic. Principal and counselor are just amazing. There are some AMAZING teachers and some really really good ones. I have only heard of one horrible one but the Principal addresses those concerns immediately. Really you can't ask for a better school. It is crowded and there are portables, but that is pretty typical in moco.
Any family would be lucky to be a this school.

[Anonymous]

I don't have kids at Beall but I've heard really great things about it. My sister lives near the school but her kids go to a school in a different cluster. She has said that every time she meets a really nice family and asks where the kids go to school, the answer is Beall Elementary. I think that bodes well for the school.

The downside is Julius West, the middle school it feeds into, has mixed reviews, and is overcrowded. Richard Montgomery is also overcrowded and has some mixed reviews as well.

[Anonymous]

Wow, thanks PP! That's great to hear.

[Anonymous]

Julius West is just beginning a 22 classroom addition and Richard Montgoremy is not currently over crowded.

[Anonymous]

Just realize that the RM district is looking into and hopefully getting a 5th elementary school to deal with the overcrowding. I think slated to be open the 2017/18 school year. You could get redistricted.

That said, the middle school is clearly overcrowded and even with the small addition, it will still continue to be.

RM is a mixed bag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Julius West is just beginning a 22 classroom addition and Richard Montgoremy is not currently over crowded.

RM applied for an addition because of overcrowding this year. They just built the school and they are at capacity. Extremely poor planning. Every ES school is beyond over capacity and projections in the next 5-1-years (when OP's kids will be in HS) are thru the roof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just realize that the RM district is looking into and hopefully getting a 5th elementary school to deal with the overcrowding. I think slated to be open the 2017/18 school year. You could get redistricted.

That said, the middle school is clearly overcrowded and even with the small addition, it will still continue to be.

RM is a mixed bag.

A small addition? It will increase the capacity of the school by 391 students (37%), and the school is projected to be under capacity when the addition is complete.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/03211.pdf

(Also, nobody is getting redistricted. The district is Montgomery County Public Schools. What there might be, is rezoning.)

[Anonymous]

Beall is the example that I often think about when I mention a parent noting a night and day difference in the quality of instruction for her kids after moving to another school within MCPS.

Where Beall was an example of an excellent school in teaching kids.

At the new school, the person mentioned that she found that she had to spend a lot more time in going over things compared to when her older child was in the same grade at Beall.

But it might just be a difference between the siblings and how they do in school as well.

Hearing this experience kind of confirmed my thoughts about how choosing a good schools is important because they're not all the same.

Same thing when it comes to rigors and grading. ie there are examples of students who get 4.0s in AP and honors classes but don't do well in the SATs and AP exams. But the person that I have min mind might have been a bad test taker.

But I've heard good things about Beall from multiple sources.

As others mentioned, once you start getting into middle school and high school it might be more of a mixed bag.

[Anonymous]

Beall's PTA seems very involved and active. (I'm the parent at another ES in the cluster and am always impressed with how well they turn out at events.)

[Anonymous]

OP here. It's good to hear Beall is so strong. I think we'll be in that zone for at least a couple years, probably through elementary. Not sure if we'll move or be able to afford private for MS/US.

I do hope they make JW less crowded. MS is tough as it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. It's good to hear Beall is so strong. I think we'll be in that zone for at least a couple years, probably through elementary. Not sure if we'll move or be able to afford private for MS/US.

I do hope they make JW less crowded. MS is tough as it is.

A lof of schools in MCPS are over crowded.

One good thing about going to JW from CG is the continuation of the IB PYP program, but I don't know how good the program is at JW.

[Anonymous]

^ OP here. We're zoned for Beall, not CG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. It's good to hear Beall is so strong. I think we'll be in that zone for at least a couple years, probably through elementary. Not sure if we'll move or be able to afford private for MS/US.

I do hope they make JW less crowded. MS is tough as it is.

There are zero plans to make JW less crowded, that is, through a 2nd MS being built. There are plans for an addition to add capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. It's good to hear Beall is so strong. I think we'll be in that zone for at least a couple years, probably through elementary. Not sure if we'll move or be able to afford private for MS/US.

I do hope they make JW less crowded. MS is tough as it is.

There are zero plans to make JW less crowded, that is, through a 2nd MS being built. There are plans for an addition to add capacity.

Hopefully that will help keep class sizes relatively low.