Anonymous wrote:Wolftrap has local level IV AAP, but it is still an excellent school environment and not too cray-cray about AAP. Vienna is a strong community school and does not have local level IV AAP. Vienna will unlikely be on the list to have it since it only has two classes per grade and there is no expansion room.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'm the OP. There is something very appealing about this, even the two classes per grade. DC is currently at a large center school and the 4th grade alone has 4 AAP classes and 2 Gen Ed. The GE kids are dwindling there every year and the atmosphere is so competitive, I honestly would love to switch DC to a school similar to Wolftrap or Vienna. Sounds very warm and welcoming, without the cutthroat parental competition we're finding at our current school.

We're at Eagle View (Fair Lakes area) and love it. Very warm environment and have had great teachers.

Anonymous wrote:Hunt Valley or Orange Hunt.

Great neighborhoods, great people with smart kids that seemingly could care less about AAP.

Wow, the anti-AAP attitude on DCUM is finally becoming, "I want to avoid any chance of my child being in a school with an AAP center even if my child is in general ed." Without regard for the quality of the general ed in that school, or the overall "community feel." Yes, center schools are also community schools with community involvement.

Seriously, OP, look at any school as a whole. AAP students are just kids, and in four years when my child has been in an AAP center I haven't seen the kind of elitism or crazed intensity that DCUM posters constantly claim exists in the kids and the parents. I just never saw it, and I spent a lot of time in the school every week working directly with kids and teachers.

Don't make assumptions about an entire school just because it has a center or Level IV classes, and don't dismiss a school outright for just that reason. You might be denying your child a very good general ed program just because it is under the same roof as a center.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hunt Valley or Orange Hunt.

Great neighborhoods, great people with smart kids that seemingly could care less about AAP.

NP here. Glad to hear this- my kid is in kindergarten at Hunt Valley.

I think it is because all the folks who do care about AAP go to Sangster (and we don't have to hear from them anymore) and most of the Orange Hunt parents turn down AAP to keep with the foreign language.

Anonymous wrote:Hunt Valley or Orange Hunt.

Great neighborhoods, great people with smart kids that seemingly could care less about AAP.

NP here. Glad to hear this- my kid is in kindergarten at Hunt Valley.

Wolftrap has local level IV AAP, but it is still an excellent school environment and not too cray-cray about AAP. Vienna is a strong community school and does not have local level IV AAP. Vienna will unlikely be on the list to have it since it only has two classes per grade and there is no expansion room.

Hunt Valley or Orange Hunt.

Great neighborhoods, great people with smart kids that seemingly could care less about AAP.

Wolftrap is a great school, but there's definitely a decent number of AAP students there. Typically about 25-40 children per grade. They have integrated homerooms now with some subjects taught together. AAP talk is definitely not as pervasive as at Louise Archer, but few other center schools are as large as Louise Archer. It's probably similar in a lot of ways to a small AAP center school but with more of a neighborhood focus. I think Chesterbrook and Franklin Sherman are similar. Vienna is not as AAP focused.

Kings Park/Kings Glen.
These two schools have the advantage of being focussed on particular grade levels. KP is K-3 and KG is 4-6. They are a couple blocks apart and are in a very strong, family oriented community.

Shrevewood

Chesterbrook
Franklin Sherman
Wolftrap
Vienna
Shrevewood

Anonymous wrote:Cherry Run
Terra Centre
Fairview
Orange Hunt

+1 have found all of these to have good communities.

Well Spring Hill, for example, is a great school (IMO) and is not a center. But 2 of 5 classes per grade (3-6) are AAP.

Cherry Run
Terra Centre
Fairview
Orange Hunt

I've heard Wolftrap Elementary is a super school, but is it a center? Looking for a great community feel without the AAP nonsense. Thanks in advance.