We live in South Woodside Park, which we really like and is less than one mile to SS metro. That was a deal breaker for my dh, too. We have great friends in Woodside Forest, which is less than a mile to Forest Glen metro and we really like North Woodside as well. I think North Woodside would be the least metro accessible of the three, but I'm not sure. We will send kids to public school through middle school and will re-evaluate when high school comes around. Oldest is in 1st grade and we are happy with ES so far.

OP here. Thanks, good point about the magnets being so competitive. Food for thought, as I am nervous to send my girls to Sligp MS. Maybe it will be better in a few years.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you pp for your answers. Maybe magnet is the way to go for MS. My friend's daughter was aggressively bullied at Sligo MS and was then jumped and beat up. They have sinced moved.

May I ask which magnet school your daughter goes to?

PP here - I'd rather not say, but it is a competitive-admission magnet to which she applied as an eighth-grader.

Be cautious about banking on magnets being "the way to go" for school because there is no guarantee your child will be admitted (whether it is a lottery-based one, or a competitive-admission one). This year there were over 700 applications for the TPMS math/science magnet (they take 125 kids).

The parts of Kensington that feed to Walter Johnson and B-CC are a lot further from the Metro, although some, like Garrett Park Estates and White Flint Park are close to the other side of the red line at the Grosvenor-Strathmore and White Flint stations.

OP, I'm in Sligo Park Hills and love it, although I don't think it would work for you because there are no sidewalks and we might be too far from the Metro. I had a great agent who showed me about 50 houses before I bought, so let me know if you're looking for someone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if you really need wealthy middle and high schools right now, the Town of Kensington and the Kensington Parkwood area are part of the north Bethesda schools, and the housing prices are much higher.

OP here. Could you clarify what this means? I most definitely do not want to live in Bethesda, north or otherwise. I really have my heart set on the area from Kensington across Silver Spring to Takoma Park.I was just wondering what people's thoughts are on middle and high school.

I was the one who wrote it, just to clarify that parts of Kensington go to Newport Mill and then Einstein, and parts go to North Bethesda and then Walter Johnson, and the demographics of the schools are very different, with the latter schools drawing from much wealthier neighborhoods and consequently having higher test scores. But I was pleased to see the previous poster say Einstein was a hidden gem of a school, and my neighbors have said similar things, and when my kids are old enough they will probably go there too.

Thank you pp for your answers. Maybe magnet is the way to go for MS. My friend's daughter was aggressively bullied at Sligo MS and was then jumped and beat up. They have sinced moved.

May I ask which magnet school your daughter goes to?

I think Sligo will improve soon. The demographics have changed and people like the principal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if you really need wealthy middle and high schools right now, the Town of Kensington and the Kensington Parkwood area are part of the north Bethesda schools, and the housing prices are much higher.

OP here. Could you clarify what this means? I most definitely do not want to live in Bethesda, north or otherwise. I really have my heart set on the area from Kensington across Silver Spring to Takoma Park.I was just wondering what people's thoughts are on middle and high school.

Not a PP in this thread, but we live in the Woodside area, near downtown Silver Spring. Our elementary school gets great reviews, the middle school (Sligo MS) not so much, and the high school (Einstein) is IMO a hidden gem. Our child doesn't go there as she is in a magnet HS program, but we looked at it (with skepticism I will admit) and were very pleasantly surprised by how much we liked it. I did a follow-up visit and spoke with some teachers and the head of the IB program there and that further reassured me - there is a core population of highly motivated, highly able, college-bound kids there, doing great work at school and in the community. Had DD not been admitted to and chosen the magnet for HS, we would have been 100% comfortable sending her to Einstein.

I don't know what to say about Sligo MS. We managed to avoid it (magnet), but honestly, having visited and spoken with friends and neighbors, we were not comfortable with it.

Silver Spring Int'l MS gets good reviews as does Takoma Park MS.

Anonymous wrote:But if you really need wealthy middle and high schools right now, the Town of Kensington and the Kensington Parkwood area are part of the north Bethesda schools, and the housing prices are much higher.

OP here. Could you clarify what this means? I most definitely do not want to live in Bethesda, north or otherwise. I really have my heart set on the area from Kensington across Silver Spring to Takoma Park.I was just wondering what people's thoughts are on middle and high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:South Four Corners area near Argyle Park using Forest Glen metro stop

Isn't that more than a mile?

We live in this area. Argyle Park itself is about 1 mile from the metro, so if that covers about half of that neighborhood. The zip code is 20901. Our preschool is in the Forest Estates neighborhood (20902), and that is halfway to the Forest Glen metro. Great neighborhood feel and great mix of SAHM and WOHM/Ds.

Both these neighborhoods are feeding into the new shool that will open in the fall of 2012. We are being split up from Oakland Terrace ES, which is an awesome school, with great principal and teachers, only over crowded. the plans for the new school look great. We are hoping the administration and teachers will be too. The parents have been active at Oakland Terrace, so I am confident that we will have an active set of parents at the new school as well. The kids are very happy, both in the schools and in our neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:These are great tips. Thank you all. I will check out the neighborhoods in the coming year, we are planning to move spring 2013.

I want to have a short list to focus on.

One more question, it's about schools. I know most people are very happy with their elementary schools on the east side of the county, but what about the middle schools and high schools? Any thoughts?

We live in Kensington right near Oakland Terrace elementary and really like it. The school is a gem for its great principal and happy, excited children from a wide variety of different places. In that area and the rest of what's considered Kensington Heights, you can walk to the the little "downtown" Kensington, MARC, lots and lots of parks, etc. It's true that the middle and high schools are in transition. I believe this is because the run-up in housing costs in the last 10 years have made these neighborhoods a lot wealthier than they used to be, and this is slowly causing a ripple effect of more well-off and involved parents in the schools. But if you really need wealthy middle and high schools right now, the Town of Kensington and the Kensington Parkwood area are part of the north Bethesda schools, and the housing prices are much higher.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Garret Park is too far from Metro.

Hello? Grosvenor??

It'll be hard to find a decent place for $600,000 in Garrett Park.

Anonymous wrote:South Four Corners area near Argyle Park using Forest Glen metro stop

Isn't that more than a mile?

Anonymous wrote:Garret Park is too far from Metro.

Hello? Grosvenor??

South Four Corners area near Argyle Park using Forest Glen metro stop