Reply to McLean HS vs. Bishop O'connell

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Anonymous wrote:
We are districted for McLean, and we chose private for my kid. Coming out of Longfellow, there was concern about the size of McLean and while it is an excellent academic school, that creates a lot of stress within the student body, and that can really affect a kid. We have a strong student, was straight As at Longfellow, NJHS, etc. and I think those two years of ubercompetitiveness in all things was a lot. Additionally, most MHS classes are 30-32 students.

I do know kids that diverted from Longfellow to BOC and they are happy there. I think you *have* to be on board with the Catholic doctrine and social beliefs, to include abortion, and a lot of Catholic Families have strong feelings about that and political issues.

McLean is big and as we all know from this board, FCPS isn't doing much about it. The building is in bad repair - It's understood that on a daily basis, a toilet is going to be flooding a bathroom, there are rats in the cafeteria and a ceiling tile might fall from the ceiling during class. The trailer situation is real - a lot of them (probably in the neighborhood of 20 classrooms) and most students will spend a lot of time "not in the building" as a result.

Most McLean classes are not 30-32 kids; there are only 4 trailers this year; and they are getting money to renovate the bathrooms next summer. FCPS ought to be spending more money on the school, especially with the growth in Tysons, but the quality of the education is still very strong. The band, crew, and student publications are all really strong and McLean had more National Merit Semifinalists this fall than any other high school in the state besides TJ. The idea that it’s a “pressure cooker” are overblown, but there are a lot of bright kids there doing different things.[/quote]

I never said it wasn't great academically. You can't deny it's at 125% capacity, academics or not, and that this year's freshman class is 600 students.

They aren't using the brand new, 14 classroom trailer complex close the softball fields this year? What is the average class size? [/quote]

The capacity % depends on whether you include or exclude the 12 modular classrooms.  The modular is exterior to the main building, but it's also got its own bathrooms and climate control, which can't be said for trailers.  Some kids will tell you they like going outside for a breath of fresh air between classes.  It's not a long walk.

The average class sizes in core academic areas ranged from 25 to 29 kids last year.

The freshman class is about 600 kids.  That's smaller than the number of 8th graders at Longfellow last year due to the kids going to TJ and privates.  It's a bit hard to predict what the future class sizes will be.  On the one hand, there's a big drop off now in the number of kids in ES in FCPS, including in most of the feeders to McLean except for Kent Gardens and Spring Hill.  On the other hand, they keep building in Tysons, and all of that feeds into Marshall or McLean.  [/quote]

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