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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thanks for your insight.  I am hoping to transition my kids back to public (Wilson) or closer in private like St. Johns for high school.  I just feel that my twins need to be in an environment where they can get more support for middle school but not feel like they are "special" which they are not and may tracked into at Deal Middle.[b]  I am glad you mentioned the weak athletic program at McLean as my kids are very sports centered, both swim competitively and play on their current schools boys and girls basketball teams which are competitive teams. [/b] They are outgoing socially and will likely not want to remain for high school if there are limited social outlets and sports is not strong.

I have  not heard good things about Siena and the facilities do not seem grat and for all the mony  you will spend, I want nice facilities.  Kingsbury', while it is the closest in proximity, the tuition would be cost prohibitive for two and I am not sure my outgoing twins would like that envronment.  I would consider Bullis for HS.  Two of the girls on the twins'in the twins summer swim club attend the MS and HS there and seem happy.

My gut feeling, with no hard evidence, is that the new Head at McLean coming from Sidwell will enhance the schools visibility and reputation and as a result increase the interest and enrollment in the school.  He will probably assess the school heads in the lower, middle and upper to determine if they fit his vision of where he and the board want to take the school, I presume, to the next level.  At least that is how it works in a corporate environment and I am sure the private school environment is very competitive although more insular.  
Does anyone have a different opinion?  Interesyted in your thoughts.[/quote]

The problem with athletics is that the facility McLean uses is a former elementary school, so there is only one field in the back. No swimming at all.  For league sports, most of the the school buses the kids to other facilities.  They are land-locked with homes all around the school, so they can't expand.  DS played volleyball so we were not affected by that, but it is a negative if you have swimmers.

I don't think your twins would feel labeled "special needs", if that is what you meant at McLean.  As I posted previously, half of the school is comprised of siblings with no issues.  I could not tell who had issues and who did not unless the child was wearing an obvious hearing aid.

I'm the poster who had the good middle-school experience - but my information is stale.  I don't know anything about attrition due to teaching problems.  I do know that the recession hit many of us hard.  That is why we left and mainstreamed into public (a very good decision, it turned out).

There is a financial aid office - Darlene even mentioned to us that we should apply when we told her we were leaving.  I think they would laugh at our stats on paper.  I'm sure we make too much money to qualify for financial aid, yet we really need it because we are the sandwich generation taking care of elderly parents and young children and trying to save some for college, all at the same time.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the new head, but will ask a family I know who still attends there.

I've never even heard of Siena, so can't help you there.  I thought Kingsbury was for more serious issues than mild ADHD (I know one very disruptive boy who attended there) but am happy to be corrected.  Same with Lab, but I really shouldn't comment because I haven't toured those schools.

Middle School is rough.  I'm glad we did McLean for middle school because it did give DS an almost cocoon-like atmosphere for three years.  I did think there was too much homework, though.[/quote]

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