I wish people who do not have direct experience with a school would avoid posting their opinions on it. If you have children at Oakland Terrace ES and like it, say that. But saying you would choose OTES over VMES in a heartbeat... well, you don't know anything really about VMES unless you've been there.

Okay, sorry, end rant on THAT subject... Here's my opinion: Viers Mill is great! High ESOL population means team teaching, which means for part of the day, my kids' classroom has two teachers to work with 16-18 kids. Other times, aides are there working with smaller groups, so my kids are either in a small group, or with their teacher whose attention is divided among fewer children. If you look at the school's "at a glance" you will see the high ESOL and FARMs rates, but you will also see the ">95%" across the board passing rates for MSA, and the small class sizes, so whatever those students' needs are being addressed somehow. The greatschools.org rating is 9 (not to make it a competition, but Oakland Terrace is 8).

My kids have loved their teachers, and it seems like the teacher turnover rate is very low. The principal is excellent--very involved with parents and accessible is you have any questions or concerns. The PTA is very small, and there is a core group that plans/coordinates most activities. But those activities seem to be very well attended by all families, so the other parents do do their part to "show up."

The school is fairly overcrowded now, as PP mentioned, so lunch and recess is crazy, and the "playground" is a fenced off parking lot. Don't love that, but the addition is supposed to be finished for the next school year, and it is pretty large, so I think those problems will be solved.

We have been very happy there. I would caution parents who look at the demographics of a school and see high ESOL and think they won't be able to communicate with other parents. We speak Spanish at home, but I am also fluent in English. My kids were tested for ESOL but did not need it. I would hate to think that there are parents who would look at my kids' school and our family and think that they wouldn't be able to communicate because they only speak English. VMES is very diverse in MANY ways--my son's class just got a kid from Turkey. You can't judge a school just on paper. You really need to talk with other parents of current students and/or speak with the principal.

Anonymous wrote:If you are broadening your search check out the area around Oakland Terrace elementary -- it's terrific!

I agree. I'd choose Oakland Terrace over Veirs Mill in a heartbeat.

Another rec. for 20853, Manor Woods. Commute to Twinbrook for Metro, RC Valley ES is great, and feeds into Rockville High which is a fine option. We really like it here, and we moved from Randolph Hills and VM ES.
Can definitely get in under $500k for much larger houses than Randolph Hills, many with garages.

20853 in Rockville. Our kids aren't in school yet but our neighbors all rave about Rock creek valley ES. It takes me an hour to get to metro center (bus or drive to Rockville or twin brook metro). Houses on our block our around $450k

If you are broadening your search check out the area around Oakland Terrace elementary -- it's terrific!

Check out olney (Germantown is accessible via back roads).

Anonymous wrote:OP here--we can go up to $500k, and we want to be within an hour commute of metro center via bus, metro, or some combination thereof. DD's grandparents who help with child care and her nanny both live in Germantown so we don't want to be too far from there. We've looked the neighborhoods in the Beall and Garrett Park school districts but we're either priced out or the home is too far away or too small.

up to 500K near public transportation and good schools... Pick any 2
I would say it's impossible to find SFH in decent condition, but there would be plenty of options with TH.

WC - Iverness Forest - rare TH community in WC cluster
RM cluster west of Rockville Pike - somewhat old housing, but nice community around Dogwood park
Wotton cluster - plenty of TH under 500K, a bit tough with public transit but still doable ~ 1hr
QO - not sure, never check prices there, but it's cheeper than Wootton, but commute is almost the same

OP here--we can go up to $500k, and we want to be within an hour commute of metro center via bus, metro, or some combination thereof. DD's grandparents who help with child care and her nanny both live in Germantown so we don't want to be too far from there. We've looked the neighborhoods in the Beall and Garrett Park school districts but we're either priced out or the home is too far away or too small.

Anonymous wrote:73% farms and nearly 50% ESOL.

I grew up near that area a million years ago. It was diverse back in the 1970s, but now I think it's safe to say that very few families in that area are native English speakers. The only reason I mention that is bc it might be something to consider in terms of establishing connections in your neighborhood. Our first home in silver spring began to transition to lots of rentals and lots of non-English speaking families, and the problem was (1) those folks worked a lot and were never around to socialize with and (2) communicating was difficult. I am bilingual and could speak with Spanish speaking folks, but my husband could not. Plus, many of the families spoke other languages. So it was tough to find folks in the neighborhood to hang out with. Now that we live in a new area (still diverse, but everyone speaks English/bilingual, etc) I appreciate knowing all my neighbors, block parties, play dates, etc. And this impacts the schools as well in terms of having SAHMs available to volunteer at school, play dates (someone has to be home), etc. And fwiw, our neighbors nanny pulled her kids out of that school (it's where she lives) to send them to our neighborhood school. I don't want to give too many details here, but she had concerns. Not sure how she was able to get her kids into our neighborhood school (not near each other), but she is very glad she made the switch. What's your housing budget OP? Maybe folks could suggest other areas you might like to consider.

I think this information is a bit outdated. There are a lot of native English speaking, non-Hispanic people in the area. It's just a pretty low-key place, and if you don't live there or spend much time there, you might get an inaccurate impression of the overall demographics if the area. I don't have any personal experience with VM elementary, but a friend's daughter attended and their family loved it. From what I understand, it is a diverse school that outperforms other schools with similar demographics (FARMS and ESOL).

73% farms and nearly 50% ESOL.

I grew up near that area a million years ago. It was diverse back in the 1970s, but now I think it's safe to say that very few families in that area are native English speakers. The only reason I mention that is bc it might be something to consider in terms of establishing connections in your neighborhood. Our first home in silver spring began to transition to lots of rentals and lots of non-English speaking families, and the problem was (1) those folks worked a lot and were never around to socialize with and (2) communicating was difficult. I am bilingual and could speak with Spanish speaking folks, but my husband could not. Plus, many of the families spoke other languages. So it was tough to find folks in the neighborhood to hang out with. Now that we live in a new area (still diverse, but everyone speaks English/bilingual, etc) I appreciate knowing all my neighbors, block parties, play dates, etc. And this impacts the schools as well in terms of having SAHMs available to volunteer at school, play dates (someone has to be home), etc. And fwiw, our neighbors nanny pulled her kids out of that school (it's where she lives) to send them to our neighborhood school. I don't want to give too many details here, but she had concerns. Not sure how she was able to get her kids into our neighborhood school (not near each other), but she is very glad she made the switch. What's your housing budget OP? Maybe folks could suggest other areas you might like to consider.

I can add something, but no time at the moment--hopefully tonight. Just wanted to say that the (HUGE) addition is supposed to be finished for the start of the 2013-14 school year.

My son went to K there last year and we had a fairly good experience. His first teacher wasn't so great, but he got moved mid-way through the year when a new class was added and his new teacher was awesome!
There were a few downsides for us. First, the school is very overcrowded. They are building an addition now (not sure when it is to be done) which will be good for the future, but only added to he problems now. The overcrowding meant things like a ridiculously late lunchtime where there wasn't enough room for all the kids to sit and not nearly enough capacity to get them through the lunchline in time to eat. No room for time in the gym on rainy days. Another limitation was that while the principal was very good, it felt like all of the resources were going into helping bring kids up to grade level, especially the larger number who don't speak English at home. While this is certainly important to focus on, it felt like there wasn't a lot of time/money for enhancing education for others. Finally, there was A LOT of homework for the kindergarteners. WAY TOO MUCH.
We moved over the summer for other reasons. Downsides aside, I felt iVM was a good option.

Thanks for your response! I'll do some more research and check out the school myself.

I see no one has posted and I don't have personal experience but I have a good friend whose daughter is in 1st and has really liked it there. She was unsure about it before K so she went in to meet with the principal and was very impressed.

I noticed that Randolph Hills in Rockville is noted in the real estate forum as an affordable neighborhood for young families. If anyone has children currently at Viers Mill ES it would be great to hear about your experience. Thanks in advance!