Update from OP?

Thank you all for your input! One more question - I'm not very familiar with that area as yet, however, how's the morning and evening commute to Rockville Pike/Shady Grove Road?

Anonymous wrote:PP, Thank you for your reply. So happy to hear schools are good. It's such a drastic difference between parents views versus the perception of the schools in the area. We are excited to join the community. Any idea how traffic is on Muncaster Mill and Bowie Mill Rds? And to and from the Metro?

In the evening you will hit some traffic on Muncaster Mill between Avery and Bowie Mill as you are passing by Magruder. Generally, if I'm traveling that area at rush hour times I use Needwood Road to Muncaster Mill to Bowie Mill. Metro commute is easy pretty much anytime.

Anonymous wrote:PP, Thank you for your reply. So happy to hear schools are good. It's such a drastic difference between parents views versus the perception of the schools in the area. We are excited to join the community. Any idea how traffic is on Muncaster Mill and Bowie Mill Rds? And to and from the Metro?

Bowie Mill and Muncaster Mill have a decent amount of traffic. Not much shoulder either. The traffic doesn't lengthen the time to the metro much; it's still an easy commute.

PP, Thank you for your reply. So happy to hear schools are good. It's such a drastic difference between parents views versus the perception of the schools in the area. We are excited to join the community. Any idea how traffic is on Muncaster Mill and Bowie Mill Rds? And to and from the Metro?

I don't think OP's question had anything to do with whether or not Norbeck Grove is zoned Magruder or Sherwood. Norbeck Grove is in Olney - it's in 20832 which is Olney. Get over it...

OP, We've lived in Derwood for 7 years. Although my kids are in Catholic school (for religious reasons only), my neighbors LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Seqouyah. The families on our street could afford to send their kids to school anywhere and we are the only ones who are in private. If we need to switch to public down the road, we would do in a heartbeat and probably will for HS. One lady on our street teaches there and she just raves about it. I don't know why people bring up the FARMS and diversity issue, my neighbors don't have a problem with it. The subdivision you are looking at looks nice, we drive by it being built everyday. Our commutes are decent and we love coming home to peace and quiet.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/MCPSViewer/mapviewer.jsf?width=1059&height=587
zoom in if it's not already at that level
You'll see how they cut the lines. They do it ALL THE TIME.

Candlewood, which pulls from a more diverse area, is only 13% FARMs.
http://gis.mcpsmd.org/MCPSViewer/mapviewer.jsf?width=1059&height=587
Again, examine the map.

To anyone who says they don't cut lines, you've got to be kidding yourself. What do you think the NEC did when Blake was built?

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Clearly, the PP has never been to Derwood, we are not McMansionized but we do have nice big yards with lots of open space yet very close to Metro.

The original poster mentioned looking for a home in a "new neighborhood" at Bowie Mill and Muncaster Mill. Bowie Mill is the definition of McMansions!

parts closer to Rockville, yes

But with the exception of Norbeck Grove, most of the homes are "normal."

Norbeck Grove is actually in Olney. Not Derwood.

Do your research. It's a stone's throw away. We actually looked at home that was REZONED from Magruder to Sherwood.

I lived in Olney. I have friends in Derwood. I know the area, and as a teacher am familiar with the schools.

If the owners told you it was rezoned they were in error. There have been no boundary changes between Magruder and Sherwood.

Real estate told us. Parts of Norbeck Grove are closer to the Derwood area. They cut the lines all the time.

Sorry, they don't cut the lines all the time. The Sherwood/Magruder boundary has been fixed for quite some time with the Norbeck Grove kids attending Olney ES. Someone is feeding you bad information.

IF you add an address to this site - http://gis.mcpsmd.org/gis/Publiclocator.asp - which is Mo Co's school boundary page, and if nothing comes up, there is a boundary issue. Bluebell Lane, which is in Norbeck Grove, but farther down, was zoned for Magruder. If you type in an address (using an actual house number), no schools come up.

. . . whereas if you type in another address, you'll see a list of schools into which the house feeds

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly, the PP has never been to Derwood, we are not McMansionized but we do have nice big yards with lots of open space yet very close to Metro.

The original poster mentioned looking for a home in a "new neighborhood" at Bowie Mill and Muncaster Mill. Bowie Mill is the definition of McMansions!

parts closer to Rockville, yes

But with the exception of Norbeck Grove, most of the homes are "normal."

Norbeck Grove is actually in Olney. Not Derwood.

Do your research. It's a stone's throw away. We actually looked at home that was REZONED from Magruder to Sherwood.

I lived in Olney. I have friends in Derwood. I know the area, and as a teacher am familiar with the schools.

If the owners told you it was rezoned they were in error. There have been no boundary changes between Magruder and Sherwood.

Real estate told us. Parts of Norbeck Grove are closer to the Derwood area. They cut the lines all the time.

Sorry, they don't cut the lines all the time. The Sherwood/Magruder boundary has been fixed for quite some time with the Norbeck Grove kids attending Olney ES. Someone is feeding you bad information.

IF you add an address to this site - http://gis.mcpsmd.org/gis/Publiclocator.asp - which is Mo Co's school boundary page, and if nothing comes up, there is a boundary issue. Bluebell Lane, which is in Norbeck Grove, but farther down, was zoned for Magruder. If you type in an address (using an actual house number), no schools come up.

. . . whereas if you type in another address, you'll see a list of schools into which the house feeds

Thank you for everybody's feedback! Any additional information/experiences on Sequoyah/Redland/Macgruder schools are wecome.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly, the PP has never been to Derwood, we are not McMansionized but we do have nice big yards with lots of open space yet very close to Metro.

The original poster mentioned looking for a home in a "new neighborhood" at Bowie Mill and Muncaster Mill. Bowie Mill is the definition of McMansions!

parts closer to Rockville, yes

But with the exception of Norbeck Grove, most of the homes are "normal."

Norbeck Grove is actually in Olney. Not Derwood.

Do your research. It's a stone's throw away. We actually looked at home that was REZONED from Magruder to Sherwood.

I lived in Olney. I have friends in Derwood. I know the area, and as a teacher am familiar with the schools.

If the owners told you it was rezoned they were in error. There have been no boundary changes between Magruder and Sherwood.

Real estate told us. Parts of Norbeck Grove are closer to the Derwood area. They cut the lines all the time.

Sorry, they don't cut the lines all the time. The Sherwood/Magruder boundary has been fixed for quite some time with the Norbeck Grove kids attending Olney ES. Someone is feeding you bad information.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly, the PP has never been to Derwood, we are not McMansionized but we do have nice big yards with lots of open space yet very close to Metro.

The original poster mentioned looking for a home in a "new neighborhood" at Bowie Mill and Muncaster Mill. Bowie Mill is the definition of McMansions!

parts closer to Rockville, yes

But with the exception of Norbeck Grove, most of the homes are "normal."

Norbeck Grove is actually in Olney. Not Derwood.

Do your research. It's a stone's throw away. We actually looked at home that was REZONED from Magruder to Sherwood.

I lived in Olney. I have friends in Derwood. I know the area, and as a teacher am familiar with the schools.

If the owners told you it was rezoned they were in error. There have been no boundary changes between Magruder and Sherwood.

Real estate told us. Parts of Norbeck Grove are closer to the Derwood area. They cut the lines all the time.

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Anonymous wrote:See that is my concern. The FARMS are high and a chunk of the hispanic population is brought from other areas. Is the quality of education directly impacted with these factors?

Not "brought from other areas", the cluster encompasses the wealthy areas (like Fraley Farm, Muncaster Maner, Granby Woods, etc.) but there's some poorer areas as well. There's also several solidly middle class areas so overall, it's pretty diverse. I have never heard anything bad about Sequoyah.

It's sort of silly to say bussed in when all students at Sequoyah take busses.

Sequoyah boundaries include Derwood and portions of Gaithersburg that are no where near Derwood and are not directly tied to the rest of the school boundaries. Flower Hill and Mill Creek are much closer and geographically connect to this area of Gaithersburg where the Sequouah students come from.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly, the PP has never been to Derwood, we are not McMansionized but we do have nice big yards with lots of open space yet very close to Metro.

The original poster mentioned looking for a home in a "new neighborhood" at Bowie Mill and Muncaster Mill. Bowie Mill is the definition of McMansions!

parts closer to Rockville, yes

But with the exception of Norbeck Grove, most of the homes are "normal."

Norbeck Grove is actually in Olney. Not Derwood.

Do your research. It's a stone's throw away. We actually looked at home that was REZONED from Magruder to Sherwood.

I lived in Olney. I have friends in Derwood. I know the area, and as a teacher am familiar with the schools.

If the owners told you it was rezoned they were in error. There have been no boundary changes between Magruder and Sherwood.

My kids go to a nearby elementary school, perhaps one of the best in the county. The teachers are top notch, the principal is great and the PTA is very supportive. My kids have thrived there. The school is a melting pot. There are plenty of hispanic, asian, african-american and other non-white students. Just because the school population isn't "lily white" doesn't mean your kids won't have a good experience or great education....

Anonymous wrote:See that is my concern. The FARMS are high and a chunk of the hispanic population is brought from other areas. Is the quality of education directly impacted with these factors?

Not "brought from other areas", the cluster encompasses the wealthy areas (like Fraley Farm, Muncaster Maner, Granby Woods, etc.) but there's some poorer areas as well. There's also several solidly middle class areas so overall, it's pretty diverse. I have never heard anything bad about Sequoyah.