Mount Daniel Elementary (Falls Church City)

[Anonymous]

We will be returning to the area next summer following an overseas posting and are leaning towards living in Falls Church City, which would entail enrolling my rising first grader at Mount Daniel. The online reviews generally look good but can anyone with kids currently there weigh in with additional feedback and pros/cons? Also, we won’t be back in town to register her until August 2020- is there any hope of getting her in the after care program for the coming school year or does it usually fill up early?

[Anonymous]

Are you renting or buying? If you are FS or military, when will you have orders in hand? That facilitates all registration and programming matters with the schools.
Are you going to be posted here indefinitely or will you and family go out again? We were hesitant about buying an expensive, crappy home around here after our last tour overseas because we knew we would head out again. Our family ended up at Oakwood for a time and we just sent the kids to Catholic school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you renting or buying? If you are FS or military, when will you have orders in hand? That facilitates all registration and programming matters with the schools.
Are you going to be posted here indefinitely or will you and family go out again? We were hesitant about buying an expensive, crappy home around here after our last tour overseas because we knew we would head out again. Our family ended up at Oakwood for a time and we just sent the kids to Catholic school.

Yes, we are foreign service and will have orders, though not sure when exactly we will receive them. Will they allow us to register for school/programming with them prior to our return even if we do not yet have proof of residency? (Have heard conflicting info- especially for FS). We will be posted for three years and are planning to rent, not buy. We had also considered Catholic school as an option so do you mind sharing where you sent your kids and if you were happy with it?

[Anonymous]

We LOVED Mt. Daniel. Nurturing teachers, small classes, only grades k-2 so no older kids (which changes the dynamic a bit).

There is a wait list once in a while for aftercare but they usually try to clear the waitlist by hiring more staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We LOVED Mt. Daniel. Nurturing teachers, small classes, only grades k-2 so no older kids (which changes the dynamic a bit).

There is a wait list once in a while for aftercare but they usually try to clear the waitlist by hiring more staff.

When were you there? Are the classes still small? I don’t know the answer to that. We almost bought a house and later found out the kindergarten class was very large that year. This wasn’t the reason we ultimately did not choose the district but we would have been disappointed if we had because we were looking at Falls Church because we heard about smaller classes. This was a few years back but I know the district has been growing in population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We LOVED Mt. Daniel. Nurturing teachers, small classes, only grades k-2 so no older kids (which changes the dynamic a bit).

There is a wait list once in a while for aftercare but they usually try to clear the waitlist by hiring more staff.

When were you there? Are the classes still small? I don’t know the answer to that. We almost bought a house and later found out the kindergarten class was very large that year. This wasn’t the reason we ultimately did not choose the district but we would have been disappointed if we had because we were looking at Falls Church because we heard about smaller classes. This was a few years back but I know the district has been growing in population.

I’m not the other poster but we also looked at St. James, the Catholic school in Falls Church. We ended up close to FC in Fairfax County in FCPS schools We instead. We looked at houses in Arlington, FC, McLean and Vienna when we were moving and choose FCPS because it was less expensive and a bigger district which meant more options within the schools. All of these had similar demographics with the neighborhoods we were considering and were very close to each other. Good luck! It’s all a matter of personal preference and I’m sure your children will be fine at Mt. Daniel. All schools have private after school places that pick up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We LOVED Mt. Daniel. Nurturing teachers, small classes, only grades k-2 so no older kids (which changes the dynamic a bit).

There is a wait list once in a while for aftercare but they usually try to clear the waitlist by hiring more staff.

When were you there? Are the classes still small? I don’t know the answer to that. We almost bought a house and later found out the kindergarten class was very large that year. This wasn’t the reason we ultimately did not choose the district but we would have been disappointed if we had because we were looking at Falls Church because we heard about smaller classes. This was a few years back but I know the district has been growing in population.

A couple years ago. My kids are still in elementary school. They shift teachers and staff around to accommodate larger grades. For example, if there is a particularly large grade, they will add an additional classroom(s) for that grade in order to meet target class sizes.

[Anonymous]

We almost bought a house and later found out the kindergarten class was very large that year. This wasn’t the reason we ultimately did not choose the district but we would have been disappointed if we had because we were looking at Falls Church because we heard about smaller classes.

The overall kindergarten class may have been large, but each individual K room generally has 20-24 students, plus a full-time para. As a PP said, if the school is expecting a bumper crop of incoming students, they will add another classroom to keep the ratios down. You're usually looking at a total of 8-10 K classrooms, which seems like a lot until you realize the building is only K-2.

[Anonymous]

We have friends with kids there and they are very happy. I have heard it's very overcrowded, and not particularly diverse, but it has a stellar reputation.

[Anonymous]

It’s not currently overcrowded. There was a recent addition to the building. There are currently 9 kindergarten classes with about 20 students in each. Every class has a teacher and full time para. About 70 percent of the students are Caucasian.

[Anonymous]

In addition to each kindergarten class having a full-time para there are also additional special ed paras if there are students in the class whose IEPs indicate that need.

[Anonymous]

I am in exact same position as the OP and just finished up a tour at Mt. Daniel. I can confirm its 9 or 10 classrooms per grade. Smallish class sizes (around 20 kids per room). One teacher + one para + parent volunteers.

Definitely had a pretty white feel. Was hoping there would be more diversity given that there are a range of housing options in FCC (including high rise apartments and smaller townhomes).

[Anonymous]

Tons of homework if that matters to you. Plus, 8-9 classes per grade so the kids get shifted around each year which makes it hard to keep friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tons of homework if that matters to you. Plus, 8-9 classes per grade so the kids get shifted around each year which makes it hard to keep friends.

Mt Daniel does not give homework unless a parent requests it. There may be one outlier 2nd grade teacher who is giving homework, but generally the teams all agreed not to give homework. Same stance applies at TJ (3-5th grades). I have three kids in FCCPS elementary schools and none of them have homework beyond "read every night."

[Anonymous]

Following. We bought in FCC 6-7 years ago but DS is not due to start K until August-2021.
We have heard that the educational program is not really structured in the public schools in general (FCC and Mount Daniel included). For example, different teachers might have different teaching lessons or different approaches. Is this true? Can parents rely on the teachers to help kids to learn to read and write, or do parents need to teach the same at home too, if individual attention is not given at Mount Daniel?