Anonymous wrote:I hope the terrible things being said here are not true. All three of our children attended Lowell, 2 until 8th and 1 until 5th. They then went to one of the big schools often mentioned and magnet programs in MCPS. They are all fantastically well educated children, terrific writers, and the most interesting people and I do credit a lot of it to their early years at Lowell.

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP! I’m a current parent and we have been there since our first started in Preprimary. First off, I highly encourage you to come visit next month. Lowell is an excellent school and warm community. Please come judge for yourself!

There is both misinformation and some shades of personal vendetta that gets repeated on this forum about Lowell and directed at our head, in particular. I’ll give you my take as an involved parent whose family has had some challenges, but is overall very pleased with Lowell

The current head started in the summer of 2019–imagine a worse time to take over! She is highly capable, incredibly thoughtful, and does significant research before making her decisions. She cares deeply for faculty, staff, students, and families. There has been turnover, of course.

There is always turnover with a new HoS—and we know the pandemic shifted many people’s priorities. But turnover has not been out of line with other schools. Lowell faculty is overall wonderful. Some of our best teachers are new in the last few years; others have been here for decades. I can rattle of multiple people who left for new growth opportunities. Others were probably unhappy, but we all have left jobs for that reason. When a new leader comes in, not everyone will align with their approach or vision, and that is ok.

Donna is a big reason we have some excellent new teachers to complement our longer term faculty. People know her and want to work with her. The school is well-known as a model of progressive education, and it’s a selling point for families, teachers, and administrators. The school tends to attract pretty down to earth folks, as well.

As to the finances, yes, there was a tuition model shift last year. It was not rolled out well, and that was HARD. And, it correctly put Lowell in line with the market, which it previously hadn’t been.

I have all kinds of examples about our good to excellent experiences there. I have a short list of my frustrations (don’t we all.)

What is most important is that Donna has led the community through a few very difficult years—including crises outside of the pandemic—and we have come out strong and connected. Not everything is perfect, and it never will be. But there is a palpable JOY on campus this year that I haven’t felt this strongly since before the pandemic. Our kids are thriving, and our community is growing together.

Anonymous wrote:Loads of people apply to both WES and Lowell. There are families that have switched from one to the other in both directions.

Lowell might be considered more progressive and WES more traditional, but although surely left-leaning, WES probably would not put a picture of a kid in a political t-shirt on the homepage of their website, like Lowell has done. I think Lowell really leans into that identity. I think WES is indeed probably ideologically and parent-community-wise more similar to Norwood than to Lowell, with NPS and St. Pats skewing equal distance to the other side of the spectrum.

As far as academic profiles, I am less certain. When we were looking, we felt that St. Patrick’s offered a traditional curriculum, and WES as well. Beauvoir and NPS both seemed more coddling in their approach to teaching (and I don’t mean that in a bad way).

They’re all great schools. Pick one you like that’s close to your home. I LOVE being five minutes away and it is by far more impactful to our lives than so many of the other minute details often discussed here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP! I’m a current parent and we have been there since our first started in Preprimary. First off, I highly encourage you to come visit next month. Lowell is an excellent school and warm community. Please come judge for yourself!

There is both misinformation and some shades of personal vendetta that gets repeated on this forum about Lowell and directed at our head, in particular. I’ll give you my take as an involved parent whose family has had some challenges, but is overall very pleased with Lowell

The current head started in the summer of 2019–imagine a worse time to take over! She is highly capable, incredibly thoughtful, and does significant research before making her decisions. She cares deeply for faculty, staff, students, and families. There has been turnover, of course.

There is always turnover with a new HoS—and we know the pandemic shifted many people’s priorities. But turnover has not been out of line with other schools. Lowell faculty is overall wonderful. Some of our best teachers are new in the last few years; others have been here for decades. I can rattle of multiple people who left for new growth opportunities. Others were probably unhappy, but we all have left jobs for that reason. When a new leader comes in, not everyone will align with their approach or vision, and that is ok.

Donna is a big reason we have some excellent new teachers to complement our longer term faculty. People know her and want to work with her. The school is well-known as a model of progressive education, and it’s a selling point for families, teachers, and administrators. The school tends to attract pretty down to earth folks, as well.

As to the finances, yes, there was a tuition model shift last year. It was not rolled out well, and that was HARD. And, it correctly put Lowell in line with the market, which it previously hadn’t been.

I have all kinds of examples about our good to excellent experiences there. I have a short list of my frustrations (don’t we all.)

What is most important is that Donna has led the community through a few very difficult years—including crises outside of the pandemic—and we have come out strong and connected. Not everything is perfect, and it never will be. But there is a palpable JOY on campus this year that I haven’t felt this strongly since before the pandemic. Our kids are thriving, and our community is growing together.

Lowell tuition is significantly higher than WES, Sheridan, St. Pats, and Norwood. I would not say it is “in line with the market.”

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP! I’m a current parent and we have been there since our first started in Preprimary. First off, I highly encourage you to come visit next month. Lowell is an excellent school and warm community. Please come judge for yourself!

There is both misinformation and some shades of personal vendetta that gets repeated on this forum about Lowell and directed at our head, in particular. I’ll give you my take as an involved parent whose family has had some challenges, but is overall very pleased with Lowell

The current head started in the summer of 2019–imagine a worse time to take over! She is highly capable, incredibly thoughtful, and does significant research before making her decisions. She cares deeply for faculty, staff, students, and families. There has been turnover, of course.

There is always turnover with a new HoS—and we know the pandemic shifted many people’s priorities. But turnover has not been out of line with other schools. Lowell faculty is overall wonderful. Some of our best teachers are new in the last few years; others have been here for decades. I can rattle of multiple people who left for new growth opportunities. Others were probably unhappy, but we all have left jobs for that reason. When a new leader comes in, not everyone will align with their approach or vision, and that is ok.

Donna is a big reason we have some excellent new teachers to complement our longer term faculty. People know her and want to work with her. The school is well-known as a model of progressive education, and it’s a selling point for families, teachers, and administrators. The school tends to attract pretty down to earth folks, as well.

As to the finances, yes, there was a tuition model shift last year. It was not rolled out well, and that was HARD. And, it correctly put Lowell in line with the market, which it previously hadn’t been.

I have all kinds of examples about our good to excellent experiences there. I have a short list of my frustrations (don’t we all.)

What is most important is that Donna has led the community through a few very difficult years—including crises outside of the pandemic—and we have come out strong and connected. Not everything is perfect, and it never will be. But there is a palpable JOY on campus this year that I haven’t felt this strongly since before the pandemic. Our kids are thriving, and our community is growing together.