Reply to Looking for real insight into LCPS - specifically Blue Ridge Middle and Loudon Valley HS

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[quote=Anonymous]I think, from my experience here, that community is what you put into it and how much of an effort you're willing to make. Western Loudoun is semi- to mostly-rural and that means it can be difficult to connect with neighbors. There may not be any other kids or parents at the bus stop to meet, you don't chit-chat with people when you're getting your mail (unless perhaps you're living in parts of Purcellville proper or Hamilton or the other small 'burgs around here) because maybe you're both on 2-3 acre lots or more, so you wave and that's about it. At MS age, you're dropping kids off at school or they're taking the bus -- you have to make an effort to get involved if you want to meet other parents, and BRMS students are scattered all the way from nearly-Leesburg to past Purcellville. If you're a church-goer, it's probably easier to find/get involved with a community and get to know people.

While there are many people out this way who have been here for a very long time (and make it known, lol), it's also full of transplants and, as I think is fairly typical in the DMV area, there's a decent level of turnover as people move in/out. Many, many people don't have family in the area. Quite a few people are federal workers who are telecommuting most of the time, especially now. I'll be honest, we have been here several years and still don't feel like we've had much luck in building a social circle -- it's a lot of work under normal circumstances and about half the time we have lived here has been during the pandemic, which totally put a damper on most socializing. IME, it's not that people are unfriendly, and *many* people want to connect with others and build a social circle, but for whatever reasons it is still difficult to find people you connect with. However, I have found that getting involved with the school has helped me in this area. As far as things being driven by teachers, admin and a small group of parents ... I'm pretty sure that's the norm for a lot of places? I also feel like BRMS admin and teachers really focus on students/what happens at school, you're not going to see them driving community-type things for parents; that's really on the PTO. The school is happy to have parents involved, don't get me wrong, and they definitely WANT parents involved in things like, oh, donating pastries for a teacher coffee cart or helping with the school musical, or attending school concerts or the spelling bee. And if you meet admin once or twice, your name gets remembered, too. :) But there's no MS school-based sport teams or things like that where you might run into other parents and get to know them. (There are plenty of club/private sports.) You have to make the effort to get involved in order to get to know people, and the people you are going to meet are likely to be those who also have the time/inclination to be involved.

The BRMS PTO does have a website, but it's a private group and you can only join if you have kids there. I think there are other social media accounts for the PTO, maybe insta? I'm not on there, so I'm not sure. Western Loudoun Community Connect is another good FB group, also private, you'd have to ask to join and let them know you're moving to the area. If you search "western Loudoun" on Facebook groups, that might be useful in terms of getting a sense of the community.

Good luck with your move.

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