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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Get the facts straight before you talk about the problems at Einstein. What you say happened, didn't actually happen.

This is what actually happened:

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/courts/judge-sentences-silver-spring-man-to-two-35-year-prison-terms-for-attempted-murder/

And it has as much to do with Einstein HS as George Huguely's murder of Yeardley Love has to do with the Landon School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

There is already talk of mass bussing and increasing diversity throughout the county. Whitman has the highest percentage of white kids in all MoCo. That school will be ripe for redistricting soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

There is already talk of mass bussing and increasing diversity throughout the county. Whitman has the highest percentage of white kids in all MoCo. That school will be ripe for redistricting soon.

Here on DCUM, yes. At MCPS board meetings? No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Well, I just googled “Walter Johnson High School fight” and saw where a girl got stabbed with scissors in 2014, and then “Walter Johnson student arrested” and got an article where a boy was arrested less than a year ago for threatening to shoot up the school with an AR -15. So let’s not use Google anecdotes to generalize please.

[Anonymous]

I would never consider sending my kids to Einstein. 70% of the kids can't even pass a basic ELA test. It has one of the highest drop put rates in the county despite being the focus of a WAPO article on extreme truancy being overlooked to keep kids graduating. It ends up near the bottom on every list generated by MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would never consider sending my kids to Einstein. 70% of the kids can't even pass a basic ELA test. It has one of the highest drop put rates in the county despite being the focus of a WAPO article on extreme truancy being overlooked to keep kids graduating. It ends up near the bottom on every list generated by MCPS.

OK, then don't. But plenty of other people do.

[Anonymous]

Op hasn’t told us her budget. We know she’s concerned about spending her money on the same 1800 sq ft house she could get in Einstein cluster for $200,000 less. The houses in Einstein part of Kensington have the same commute/practically same location as Parkwood or Garret Park, and maybe even better since it’s closer to the MARC and either wheaton or Forest Glen metros, depending on location. Those of us that send our kids to einstein are saying that the school cluster isn’t as bad as you make it out to be, and in fact, can be very good to excellent for smart kids. Boundaries are changing around here, for good or bad. If money is a concern, you’re not going to be SOL if you buy a cheaper house zoned for Oakland Terrace or Rockview ES. If the schools really are as bad as you fear, there are a million catholic schools around here or after ES you move, (which is like in 7 years for you)

[Anonymous]

I’m OP and we are Jewish and Unitarian and not observant so our children won’t be going to Catholic School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP and we are Jewish and Unitarian and not observant so our children won’t be going to Catholic School.

I’m PP who lives in the Einstein cluster. We are also Jewish.

[Anonymous]

There are a few ways to think about this.

Buy in KP or GP and pay a lot for what you get and likely never love your home.

If you chose a home you expected will be WJ or Woodward and get it wrong, you likely overpaid and it will take a long, long time to recover financially.

If you choose a home zoned for Einstein (especially one on the border of WJ right now) you can't lose financially. You have a decent chance at rezoning and then the price of the house goes up a lot. If it's not rezoned, the school will improve just because the overcrowding issue will be solved and you are still in a good school district.

Rockview is a really good elementary school. My kids went there and the teachers were wonderful as were the families. Small classes and really dedicated staff.

I don't have experience with the middle and high school but my neighbors are pretty happy.

Find a house you love and can afford. If money is an issue (and isn't it an issue for everyone to some extent), you don't want a house you cannot afford or one you don't like or that needs a ton of work if you can't do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

There is already talk of mass bussing and increasing diversity throughout the county. Whitman has the highest percentage of white kids in all MoCo. That school will be ripe for redistricting soon.

It seems like the talk of mass bussing is mostly on DCUM. But, if MCPS were to engage in substantial long-distance bussing, then Whitman and everywhere else would certainly be in play.

It seems, however, that MCPS is more likely to make last drastic border changes that will cause some people to have longer commutes, but nothing that would become "mass bussing." There are a lot of reasons mass bussing isn't likely, including the cost and logistical difficult of such steps.

If the border adjustments are more moderate and few people are shipped way away from their home, folks currently at Whitman would be less at risk. That doesn't mean that some people wouldn't be rezoned. But the schools to which they would be rezoned are also high performing.

There is no absolutely guarantee until the maps come out, and even then they can be changed again. But if you are playing the odds, that seems about as safe as you can get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buy a house as close as you can get to WJ high school if you are worried about boundary change.

That simply doesn't matter.
There are homes almost next door to Silver Creek Middle School in Kensington who go to North Bethesda Middle School.
The boundaries do not always make sense.

[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.

Oh Come on. All the schools have problems. My kid goes to Silver Creek and the list of serious problems there is never ending (despite a great Principal).

All schools have issues and it will all be different by the time OPs kids are in those schools. BCC created a list of girls based on how they look. A student threatened to shoot kids at WJ and posted a photo of himself with an AR 15.

To be honest, it's the middle and upper middle class white boys who are shooting kids at schools - not the minorities. Kids aren't safer at white schools these days.

I'd rather my kid sit next to someone who was from a working class or middle class family than an entitled kid who rated girls online or threatened to shoot classmates.
Clearly we are all dealing in generalities here.

Pick a house and neighborhood you like. You will find your people there and your kids will find good friends.
You aren't worried your kid won't graduate from high school so it really doesn't matter if a few more kids at a school don't graduate. It really isn't going to matter to you in the end.

[Anonymous]

Wootton, Churchill, Whitman or bust

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wootton, Churchill, Whitman or bust

Yup... enjoy the drug busts.