PP again, We also have an awesome Moms group on meetup. Made lots of friend with toddlers through this group.
Moms of Burtonsville if any of the other posters are interested

I am the poster who said to stay on the west side of 29, where are you looking OP?

We are in a neighborhood very close to the library on Old Columbia Pike, We love our neighbors. Its diverse as far as race but its mostly smaller single family homes so were probably in similar income brackets. We have 3 different neighbors who have our garage code/key to help out with dogs if we have an emergency or need help. We also have watched the same neigbors pets, brought mail in etc when they have gone away. Its exactly what I would look for in a neigborhood and we love it.
I wish that the strip of shops on 198 had a sidewalk on one side but supposedly that is in the plans and will be implemented in a few years ( we'll see)
Would be nice to be able to walk up to Rita's for ice cream but its hard to do right now especially with a stroller.

Ref Greencastle Elem: When I first moved here I heard it was not a good school but the only reason given was that a lot of kids from "the apartments" go there. I never actually got a good reason why it wasnt a good school.
Now my friend has a first grader there who loves it ( she is white if that mattes) I agree with her that it seems to be more about race than anything else.

Anonymous wrote:GreatSchools website ratings are based on the test scores. use this as your guide to evaluate the school academics . neighbors will have a very personal opinion based on their priorities.

we bought our house in Burtonsville 7 yeas ago before we had kids. we thought schools would improve by the time we are ready to send our kids to school. well it is time and things got only worse. the MoCo "red zone" only got bigger. Last year i had a major panic attack when i saw the detailed score card for our school. our neighbors were telling us the schools are nice... but their kids are more interested in travel sports then academics. and th older kids barely got into a local collage. we spent a month debating on what to do and finally decided that we are going private. DD is 3 grade levels ahead in math and reading. There is no way a school with low scores could accommodate kids like that. We thought about moving but we love our house. honestly i wish we did not buy this house 7 y ago. We did not realize that academics would become our top priority. now it is too complicated and expensive to move. so we are forced to pay for private and also drive all over to pick up and drop off kids.

How do you know this?

GreatSchools website ratings are based on the test scores. use this as your guide to evaluate the school academics . neighbors will have a very personal opinion based on their priorities.

we bought our house in Burtonsville 7 yeas ago before we had kids. we thought schools would improve by the time we are ready to send our kids to school. well it is time and things got only worse. the MoCo "red zone" only got bigger. Last year i had a major panic attack when i saw the detailed score card for our school. our neighbors were telling us the schools are nice... but their kids are more interested in travel sports then academics. and th older kids barely got into a local collage. we spent a month debating on what to do and finally decided that we are going private. DD is 3 grade levels ahead in math and reading. There is no way a school with low scores could accommodate kids like that. We thought about moving but we love our house. honestly i wish we did not buy this house 7 y ago. We did not realize that academics would become our top priority. now it is too complicated and expensive to move. so we are forced to pay for private and also drive all over to pick up and drop off kids.

Sounds like my kind of neighborhood! Thanks for the advice!

Anonymous wrote:Thank you! For the poster that lives in Burtonsville, how diverse is your neighborhood?

I live in Burtonsville, and this is what my street is like:

5 White families
1 Asian family
2 mixed race families
1 Hispanic (White) family
2 Hispanic (Black) families
1 Black family

Thank you! For the poster that lives in Burtonsville, how diverse is your neighborhood?

Anonymous wrote:Stay away from Burtonsville. You might as well be in pg County.

Blanket stereotypes generally reflect poorly on the person who makes them.

There are some decent/good schools in PG county. So many people believe the blanket statement that PG County schools are bad. While there are a number of poor schools in the County, there are select good schools around. Just as anywhere else, do your research to know where the good schools are.

Stop painting the entire county as having bad schools because it just isn't true.

Anonymous wrote:The key in Burtonsville is to live on the West side of route 29
We live here and love it.
DD is not school age yet but will go to Burtonsville elem. We have friends that have gone there and they say it is a wonderful school and has a great Principal.
A lot of our neighbors are teachers in the area, The only 'bad' school I have heard about is Greencastle elem, it gets a lot of kids from Castle Blvd. However, a friend has a kid in 1st grade there now and says its a great school and the people who dont like it are racist because its a predominantly black school.

Burtonsville in general is a great place to live, Been here 4 years and love it.

I'm glad to hear someone likes Greencastle Elem! We live on the west side of 29 but are zoned for Greencastle. My child is mixed race (Bl, Wh), but I'd prefer more diversity. If it's a great school though, I'll send her when it's time!