I had 2 kids at Mason. They are now 7 and 9th grades.

My older stayed till 5th my younger stayed till 4th. Her 4th was Covid year. Both enrolled and thriving in private.

I'll tell you why we moved. The neighborhood is amazing so enjoy it! The prob is academics. If your kid is "perfect" in that they have no learning disabilities and are 100% focused and socially and mentally not just ok but really well adjusted as in maybe top 5% of society, your experience in public incl Mason and through ACPS will be just fine. This is a neighborhood of amazing parents and very safe as well. The parents are typically not helicopter ones who go to Mason. We have many friends whose kids are thriving at public MS out of Mason.

So here's the rub: if your kid is not 100% well rounded and "perfect" you need to consider other schools. Mason until about 4th is no prob. After that it gets dicey. Our older one was never flagged for dyslexia nor ADHD until after he left and we confirmed our suspicions. Not one teacher at Mason could tell us they saw anything and his case is really severe. In terms of teachers. The good ones who my kids loved would leave after 2 yrs. They knew.

I would say that it's been a few yrs and I know Mason redistricting pulled many to Barrett and Mason lost some of their polish I think. Cause it was less and less students and attention there. Barrett in my opinion is stronger than Mason. I hated the head of school at Mason.

With a lot of upcoming changes perhaps Mason will be better than ever. When your kids are young it's really hard to say what a good fit is. I would personally not struggle with elementary until 4/5th grades however. You need time to see how your kid develops and things are always changing in life so it's hard to tell how Mason will evolve in a span of 5 years no matter what happens. I think the neighborhood will prevent it from ever being a trashy school. How good a for it is for your family is another story.

There is no good support for learning disabilities however in ACPS that's a certainty. MS would have pulled support for my kid as long as they had a C grade or above. Anytime he's under that grade he gets help but at a C, he would not get any help. It's 500 kids per grade at the MS so you can figure out how life goes with your imagination. I reiterate that it's fine if your kid is perfect but otherwise I know families who left public desperately seeking options after 6th as it was so bad.

Hello OP, this is a terrible forum to ask about ACPS due to its anon nature and toxicity. Criticism is fine, but not when it's toxic in nature. There's no way to assess the credibility of the comments. There are two Facebook groups with 1000+ ACPS families and community members, which is where the conversation that used to live here has moved. You can post in the groups anonymously and responses will show who is giving you the feedback so you can make an informed decision and one that is best for your family. ACPS as a system has a long way to go and has had a hard time keeping pace with the population growth and demographic change in Alexandria. That said, my kids have thrived and are doing great academically, performing above grade level. We have had phenomenal teachers, and not so great teachers. But you have to be very involved in their academics and experience, and be an advocate. This is true for any urban public school system however, and that is the biggest misconception among new parents. ACPS is not a suburban school system, it's a very diverse city school system.

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/Jbo4JQmrBdFGbB5W/?mibextid=K35XfP

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/UCVWvwDAFXtdoNa4/?mibextid=K35XfP

Anonymous wrote:If you want to use public schools, you shouldn’t have bought a house in Alexandria.

Really? My son was Maury - ACHS and graduated this June. He's on a full ride at Cornell. What part of that is bad?

Anonymous wrote:We reside in an adjacent district but know a a few families who attend ACPS. While it may not seem like it on these boards, there is still a critical mass of middle and upper middle class support the schools, although less so post pandemic. As to the quality of specific schools, I’m not sure. Reach out to your neighbors with kids in ACPS. ACPS is investing heavily in new school facilities including the much ballyhooed new high school academies.

Someone pointed out on another thread , that those families now have kids who are older past elementary school and those families are not moving. That means, there are fewer and fewer middle and upper middle class families to attend the schools. This is true of George Mason but it is also true of other schools as well.

We reside in an adjacent district but know a a few families who attend ACPS. While it may not seem like it on these boards, there is still a critical mass of middle and upper middle class support the schools, although less so post pandemic. As to the quality of specific schools, I’m not sure. Reach out to your neighbors with kids in ACPS. ACPS is investing heavily in new school facilities including the much ballyhooed new high school academies.

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t matter if the building is new. Can’t polish a turd.

NP here. Just look at Jeff Houston.

You should also know that there are a lot of moving parts with schools right now. In addition to the new building at George Mason, there is discussion of making it a K-8 (since it will be a lot bigger), ACPS is trying to figure out the future of two current K-8s (Jefferson-Houston and Patrick Henry) with a slate of different proposals on whether their grade configurations should change, what to do with the current space where George Mason kids are (possibly making it a new middle school), and redistricting by 2026. Some of these things will affect George Mason directly, while some may affect your middle school options.

What it is all going to look like after this is anyone’s guess, though trust ACPS to make the worst decisions possible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t matter if the building is new. Can’t polish a turd.

i haven't posted here before, is the forum just for trolls?

No, ACPS is just that bad

If it were my child, I would be looking into other school options for my child, whether that meant moving house or parochial (we are both Catholic) or private.

ACPS is part of the reason that SSSAS and other nearby privates always have more applicants than openings…

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t matter if the building is new. Can’t polish a turd.

i haven't posted here before, is the forum just for trolls?

Anonymous wrote:We're in a different ACPS elementary so I can't answer your question directly but be advised, if you don't already know, that the George Mason building is being replaced (scheduled for 2025-2027). So at least the facilities should be great after that.

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/departments/facilities-operations/office-of-capital-programs-planning-design/george-mason-elementary-modernization

I did know this, thank you!

Doesn’t matter if the building is new. Can’t polish a turd.

We're in a different ACPS elementary so I can't answer your question directly but be advised, if you don't already know, that the George Mason building is being replaced (scheduled for 2025-2027). So at least the facilities should be great after that.

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/departments/facilities-operations/office-of-capital-programs-planning-design/george-mason-elementary-modernization

If you want to use public schools, you shouldn’t have bought a house in Alexandria.

We recently moved to the area and are zoned for George Mason Elementary School. We have three children but none are yet full time school aged.

Can anyone tell me about recent experiences with George Mason?

We would really like to send our kids to public school - we are not religious and are not looking to spend 200K a year at the nonreligious schools in the area, but are worried about the ACPS system.

Thank you!