Anonymous wrote:OMG, prioritize the commute to Arlington. Pretty much anywhere in MoCo would be a nightmare commute to Arlington. Where is the commute to in DC? Is the Arlington commute metro accessible? There must be some cluster in VA that has houses in that price range and an easier commute. Or, even areas of DC like Navy Yard. Or a condo in Crystal City. Almost anywhere would be better than MoCo.

OP we are AA and live and work in MoCo, however my in laws have a commute similar to yours and live near the area pp mentioned. FWIW, they seem thrilled with their school.

Sorry but there is no way I would choose MCPS! The commute will be terrible and the school system is less than ideal.

Maybe consider DC?

Anonymous wrote:I live in Bethesda and commute to Arlington. Depending on where in Arlington, the commute is not so bad if you start a little early. I would suggest you live very close to the Beltway exits: 41, 40, 39 or 36. If you can swing close to the River, the commute to DC won't be so bad. Your budget is a little low for the closest-in areas.

Silver Spring is probably fine for the DC commute, but Arlington would be a longer haul.

I agree that close to those exits would have a not completely horrible commute, but I don't think there are many apartments in that area and your budget is light for a SFH. Plus, the diver isn't all that great.

Anonymous wrote:Look out for drugs, truancy, bad teachers, unusual levels of beefing, vandalism, parental weirdness, long commutes, old gyms, dated curriculum, peer pressure, pressure to date too early, bad lunch menus, broken locker, rotted bleachers, asbestos, renovation merry-go-round (Swing Space), or wrong kind of homeroom

Wut?

Anonymous wrote:Look out for drugs, truancy, bad teachers, unusual levels of beefing, vandalism, parental weirdness, long commutes, old gyms, dated curriculum, peer pressure, pressure to date too early, bad lunch menus, broken locker, rotted bleachers, asbestos, renovation merry-go-round (Swing Space), or wrong kind of homeroom

Stop with the beefing!!!

Lakewood, Travilah, Stone Mill, Fallsmeed, and Dufief have about 11-9% students identifying as Black and and about 5-6% of students identifying as multi-race. Wootton is pretty international so most ES schools have around 40% white kids (but they come from all over), 40+% asian students (but they come from all over) and then 20% black, hispanic and multi race. There is a wide range of cultures and colors so kids don't feel as singled out for being different.

For Churchill, I'm surprised that there are so few black kid. Seven Locks and Beverly Farms are the only schools with a measurable % of black kids.

If you move into the Wootton cluster you take River Road or MacArthur to get over to VA. Its only one exit on the beltway over the bridge. The key is to leave early and miss the traffic windows. You can also take Clara barton toward Canal but cross over at Chain Bridge (though I'm not sure if that changes direction for the bridge in the morning). Its a far better commute than SS but not as good aa being in VA.

Have you considered Fairfax, Alexandria?

Look out for drugs, truancy, bad teachers, unusual levels of beefing, vandalism, parental weirdness, long commutes, old gyms, dated curriculum, peer pressure, pressure to date too early, bad lunch menus, broken locker, rotted bleachers, asbestos, renovation merry-go-round (Swing Space), or wrong kind of homeroom

I live in Bethesda and commute to Arlington. Depending on where in Arlington, the commute is not so bad if you start a little early. I would suggest you live very close to the Beltway exits: 41, 40, 39 or 36. If you can swing close to the River, the commute to DC won't be so bad. Your budget is a little low for the closest-in areas.

Silver Spring is probably fine for the DC commute, but Arlington would be a longer haul.

Check out this link, it allows you to see the demographics by school.

Potomac Elementary is a little more than half white but not a lot of AA families. In my experience most of the black families in Potomac are African but I'm assuming they would have a different cultural experience than your children - not sure how important that is to you.

http://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/rschool.aspx?K=15AAAA&WDATA=school

Western side of Silver Spring that goes to Rosemary Hills (and then onto Checy Chase or North Chevy Chase in 3rd). Diverse with many races and ethnicities represented. In the BCC feeder pattern. Strong academics.

Anonymous wrote:I would not go further East than Kensington if you are commuting to Arlington.

We are in North Kensington zoned to Rock View > Newport Mill > Einstein, and between higher income American families and first generation immigrants from Africa there is definitely a high achieving cohort of black kids.

I agree with others that it is unlikely for your kid to be the only black kid at Parkwood, Ashburton or Rosemary Hills if you want a less economically diverse cluster. I think you could find a house at your budget point for these ES, if you are patient.

We always lose a few higher income black families to private and the W clusters after ES. They aren't willing to roll the dice on friend groups in MS and HS. You wouldn't have to worry about that at the W's.

Not true if the W is WJ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed with East Silver Spring or Cannon Road ES come to mind. Cannon Road is right off the ICC and it has relatively little to no traffic to get to VA. Welcome to MCPS!

How in the world do you get from the ICC to virginia?? Don't you have to go all the way down 270 to 495? What a disaster!

Yeah, as someone who goes from Gaithersburg to McLean everyday, I can’t imagine going from East Silver Spring to Arlington. My commute sucks and that one would be so much worse.

The Catholic schools here are very diverse. We’re AA. My younger DD did Catholic for ES, but is now at TPMS and her classes are actually less racially diverse in MCPS than in private, though more religiously diverse, of course.

I recommend both St. John the Evangelist and St. Andrew Apostle in SS if you are interested still in Catholic.

Anonymous wrote:Agreed with East Silver Spring or Cannon Road ES come to mind. Cannon Road is right off the ICC and it has relatively little to no traffic to get to VA. Welcome to MCPS!

How in the world do you get from the ICC to virginia?? Don't you have to go all the way down 270 to 495? What a disaster!

Anonymous wrote:What about Cabin John?

commute would still be horrible, and the feeder schools aren't that diverse in terms of race or SES, at least not by MCPS standards.