Silver Spring International

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When the boundary changes take effect, SSIMS may have a pretty different student population. It looks like Rolling Terrace will be going somewhere else in all four scenarios, and that is currently the highest FARMS elementary school feeding into SSIMS. And seems like there's a decent chance Woodlin would get rezoned to SSIMS. Who knows how all of this will shake out, but it's worth noting that the elementary schools feeding into SSIMS will almost definitely be changing.

This does seem to be the case with the second round of options in the boundary study. FARMS rate will drop significantly in all four scenarios.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does SSIMS still let kids pick two electives a year (on top of the foreign language requirement)? What electives do they offer?

Does anyone know this?

[Anonymous]

Yes SSIMS has a block schedule and there are 8 classes total. After the 5 core classes you get 3 more - one is foreign language (or 2, if you’re in immersion) and then electives. So two electives for most kids, one for immersion kids. Typical electives include band, orchestra, chorus, piano, guitar, digital music, dance, lights camera literacy, studio art/theater/consumer sciences, and Model UN. The Model UN teacher is amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes SSIMS has a block schedule and there are 8 classes total. After the 5 core classes you get 3 more - one is foreign language (or 2, if you’re in immersion) and then electives. So two electives for most kids, one for immersion kids. Typical electives include band, orchestra, chorus, piano, guitar, digital music, dance, lights camera literacy, studio art/theater/consumer sciences, and Model UN. The Model UN teacher is amazing.

Do they offer different electives than other middle schools? They have guitar, dance, model UN etc.? Or do all MS offer same electives?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes SSIMS has a block schedule and there are 8 classes total. After the 5 core classes you get 3 more - one is foreign language (or 2, if you’re in immersion) and then electives. So two electives for most kids, one for immersion kids. Typical electives include band, orchestra, chorus, piano, guitar, digital music, dance, lights camera literacy, studio art/theater/consumer sciences, and Model UN. The Model UN teacher is amazing.

They don’t have dance despite having a dance studio.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes SSIMS has a block schedule and there are 8 classes total. After the 5 core classes you get 3 more - one is foreign language (or 2, if you’re in immersion) and then electives. So two electives for most kids, one for immersion kids. Typical electives include band, orchestra, chorus, piano, guitar, digital music, dance, lights camera literacy, studio art/theater/consumer sciences, and Model UN. The Model UN teacher is amazing.

Do they offer different electives than other middle schools? They have guitar, dance, model UN etc.? Or do all MS offer same electives?

MCPS does its best to keep from allowing effective side-by-side comparisons of school offerings, especially as it relates to those classes actually held and with enough capacity for all seeking then vs. those that are in a catalog but not held regularly.

Anecdotally, there are some schools with a greater variety of electives in their catalog and in the actual offing. There certainly are schools where the electives offered better facilitate conpletion of the state/MCPS-required tech credit, prerequisites for CS h other sciences, and, of course, the oft-mentioned, non-catalog but routine Algebra 1 offerings for entire classes of 6th-graders, as opposed to handling that in a case-by-case, review/test-in manner (not an elective, per se).

[Anonymous]

I guess none of this will matter soon- now that there is a proposal to shutdown SSIMS in 2031.

I fear the school will be run into the ground between now and then- as good teachers will leave and parents who care will get their kids out.

Really sad as this is a great community!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When the boundary changes take effect, SSIMS may have a pretty different student population. It looks like Rolling Terrace will be going somewhere else in all four scenarios, and that is currently the highest FARMS elementary school feeding into SSIMS. And seems like there's a decent chance Woodlin would get rezoned to SSIMS. Who knows how all of this will shake out, but it's worth noting that the elementary schools feeding into SSIMS will almost definitely be changing.

SSIMS closing in 2031 and turning into a holding school https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1296678.page ? Purple line will go right by the school's front doors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the boundary changes take effect, SSIMS may have a pretty different student population. It looks like Rolling Terrace will be going somewhere else in all four scenarios, and that is currently the highest FARMS elementary school feeding into SSIMS. And seems like there's a decent chance Woodlin would get rezoned to SSIMS. Who knows how all of this will shake out, but it's worth noting that the elementary schools feeding into SSIMS will almost definitely be changing.

SSIMS closing in 2031 and turning into a holding school https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1296678.page ? Purple line will go right by the school's front doors.

SSIMS facility will still be a holding school after MCPS shuts down SSIMS. The school district has a lot of work to do to this "holding" school, because students who will be temporarily housed in that building matter.

[Anonymous]

So stupid. Taking the one walkable middle school in a dense urban environment and bussing the students elsewhere. I've come to the conclusion that Moco doesn't like nice things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the boundary changes take effect, SSIMS may have a pretty different student population. It looks like Rolling Terrace will be going somewhere else in all four scenarios, and that is currently the highest FARMS elementary school feeding into SSIMS. And seems like there's a decent chance Woodlin would get rezoned to SSIMS. Who knows how all of this will shake out, but it's worth noting that the elementary schools feeding into SSIMS will almost definitely be changing.

SSIMS closing in 2031 and turning into a holding school https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1296678.page ? Purple line will go right by the school's front doors.

SSIMS facility will still be a holding school after MCPS shuts down SSIMS. The school district has a lot of work to do to this "holding" school, because students who will be temporarily housed in that building matter.

We welcome you, Wootton/Magruder stakeholder, to the 2-plus-decade-long effort to address the facility conditions left by MCPS's failure to renovate to any reasonable standard when they opened SSIMS in this old Blair HS building. Unfortunately, Dr. Taylor indicated that temporary pain (the kind associated with 2 years at a holding facility of lesser condition) was acceptable.

Goodness knows that the students currently housed there (and the families/communities that have been for 25+ years, and will for 5+ more) haven't mattered to MCPS decision makers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi,

Can anyone share feedback on this MS? DD is in French Immersion now and we’d love to keep it up. We are thinking about moving to the SS area.

Thanks!

Just read that it will be closing in 2030 and only used as a campus when they are doing repairs on a school.

[Anonymous]

It will be closing in 2031.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So stupid. Taking the one walkable middle school in a dense urban environment and bussing the students elsewhere. I've come to the conclusion that Moco doesn't like nice things.

Agree with you, although TPMS is also walkable for a significant slice of DTSS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will be closing in 2031.

They knew this, they started making students in RCFES Spanish immersion program go to Westland MS unless SSI MS is your neighborhood MS, your neighborhood MS and magnet or choice programs.