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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know families who moved away from Tacoma park to Bethesda because the schools in TP were bad.[/quote]

I call BS on this post.[/quote]

DP.  I call BS on this BS.   The other poster bragged how the 97th percentile didn't get into the program, so that should tell you something. I'm familiar with the PBES program.  I don't think it's any different than the W feeders.  The main difference is TPMS, but now that it's a lottery, the program is not what it was.  There's also an issue with the RLA program at PBES that was never fixed, imho.  Both the P and teachers involved are still there.  Not saying it's a bad program by any means, but the combination of lottery and a few bad apples dragged down the stature of the program overall.[/quote]

This is very different than my experience. Both my kids loved TPES and PBES. They had no trouble making friends despite 10 classes. Both were consistently in the 96%-99% on both MAPs and so were many of their friends. Excellent schools. I could imagine better.[/quote]

Well my kids hated them and found them very unfriendly. There is no “community” at the schools either among the kids or the families. We joined in 2nd and 4th grade and there is absolutely no welcome to new families, no effort from the PTA and no attempt to be inclusive. No efforts to involve anyone other than white upper class families as volunteers.[/quote]

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience but the dozens of families I know who live within walking distance all disagree. In fact, it's a really tight knit community where everyone knows each other. Sure, kids may not all be in the same class each year but there are so many opportunities to interact with others that it hardly matters. Also, many great organizations like Takoma Soccer, D&D at the community center, or scouts that I can't help but think you weren't trying that hard.[/quote]

I'm not the PP but this is a pretty unkind answer. I also question your use of the word "everyone" in terms of "everyone" knowing one another. There are more than 200 kids per grade at TPES and PBES. It's impossible for everyone to know each other.

I suspect that by "everyone" you actually mean all UMC white/Asian families who play Takoma Soccer and belong to Pack 33, which is a pretty narrow slice of "everyone." [/quote]

I'm not the PP either and perhaps but based on my experiences there it's truthful. I can't guess what the poster meant by everyone but it's a very diverse school and neighborhood so I wouldn't imagine that's the case.[/quote]

We're a URM family that moved to the neighborhood a few years back and found Takoma warm and welcoming. Our 6-year-old does lego club at the library and my 9-year-old loves the D&D club at the community center.  I'd never heard anything like what the PP was saying but I guess you can't please everyone.[/quote]

Right, your six year old and 9 year old were probably not at school “a few years back” when you moved. For those of us who moved here after their kids finished kindergarten, it’s been incredibly tough, especially with the pandemic. The cruel responses above that “everyone” knows everyone just rub salt into the wound. I moved here expecting it to be at least as neighborly as our DC neighborhood, but it’s not and the schools are incredibly unwelcoming. To be honest it’s pretty clear that many people know each other but it doesn’t mean they are welcoming to others. They resolutely are not. In fact they are cliquish and seem unapproachable. And the large size of the schools exacerbates this. No one knows who is new. [/quote]

I can see how the pandemic would make meeting new people hard. We had moved to Takoma Park years before any of that so you're right we'd established friendships prior to everything being shutdown. [/quote]

I also think a few things may be in play here, none of which about about the PP "trying hard enough." TkPk and close-in Silver Spring locked down HARD for covid in a way that some other communities did not. That made meeting people even harder because there was a lot of social pressure not to meet up, and programs were slower to reopen here than in other parts of the country. I actually think MoCo did a good job with covid and appreciate the conservative approach, but I can see how it would have made making new friends even harder than it might have been otherwise.

Also, TkPk can be insular and clubby. People make their "parent friends" at TPCDC or the Purple School and then it can be hard to break in. I experienced it as well, with Takoma Soccer. Teams that formed when the kids were 4 were "full" every season, and couldn't bring in any new kids. Some of the Scout troops are similar, made up of families that are a bit of a closed loop.

It doesn't do anyone any good to pretend that's not the case, or to claim that all 200 kids in each grade are best friends when we all know it's just a subset of those 200 kids, and what they tend to have in common. [/quote]

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