Anonymous wrote:People call it Singer. Not Flora.

Or we call it Flora M Singer. I've never heard parents refer to it as Flora.

People call it Singer. Not Flora.

Fwiw, lots of people refer to olneys middle school as Rosa, and no one bats an eye. Are we really arguing over how folks refer to a school? Isn't it obvious that different people might refer to a school in different ways, and who really cares? Let's let this thread die already.

Fortunately, no one at the schol actually refers to it as "Flora."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a handful of teachers there, and a handful at OT. They all call it Flora.

That is incredibly disrespectful to the woman the school was named after.

??

Why would you refer to someone by their first name? She was a holocaust survivor, author and well-regarded MCPS educator. And now you are referring to her by her first name?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a handful of teachers there, and a handful at OT. They all call it Flora.

That is incredibly disrespectful to the woman the school was named after.

??

I am glad that my kids go to a school where many mothers work. I think that they are good role models. Also, since the class sizes are so small, there is probably less of a need than in Bethesda/Potomac where the classes are much larger.

Anonymous wrote:I know a handful of teachers there, and a handful at OT. They all call it Flora.

That is incredibly disrespectful to the woman the school was named after.

To respond to the PP who indicated why she prefers a FARMS/ESOL rate that is lower (because it indicates a certain level of community involvement), I would like to confirm that OTES and FSES both have tight communities. Parents walk their kids to school and pick up friends on the way - parents chat while walking home to either stay home/home office/go to work. Faces are familiar and play dates are regular.

Parents work (from all incomes) so not all kids participate in the playdates. There are regular volunteers in the school (I work and take vacation to volunteer and many SAHM can't volunteer because they have little ones at home). There is a culture of learning. The kids in the high groups motivate each other and the kids who need help are part of a small class size who can get attention.

I would not say the stereotype that FARMS/ESOL kids have less involved parents is completely dispelled. However, my husband was a FARMS kid growing up and his mom stayed home, trading a higher income for more involvement. I also have a friend in Potomac that complains that she gets calls asking for playdates at her house whenever a classmate's nanny is sick or on vacation.

For middle school and high school, there is a split between parents who expect to send their kids to magnets/IB and those who will go the regular route and are intent on improving the schools before they get there. It is discussed at PTA meetings and given the level of involvement, we all expect the schools to improve. Speaking for myself, I bought here thinking I may move after ES. However, I fell in love with the area and plan to stay. I could hop the line into Walter Johnson and some parents do, but I think the consensus is that people plan to stay. I like the freedom a less expensive house gives my family, I like my neighbors, commute is good, school is great.

One thing you should check is each individual community. FSES draws from east and west of Georgia and I think north and south of Forest Glen (do not recall exactly where the lines are) and each of these areas may have a different feel.

Can we stop the petty arguing, please? You disagree with each other. We get it. The school is a great school. It has a high percentage of kids who qualify for FARMS. I've never heard anyone refer to it as Flora, but that doesn't mean there aren't people who do. Different people have different opinions about what the impact is of a school with a high percentage of FARMS, some based on first hand experience, some based on research, which don't always match up (and both are valid).

I know a handful of teachers there, and a handful at OT. They all call it Flora.

Anonymous wrote:I've said a million times that my posts were meant to explain why folks bother to look at farms and ESOL rates atvANY school. I've said many times that I think Flora is a good school. How do I know? I know a couple teachers and a couple families there. FYI, several mcps teachers and admins I know call the school Flora.

PS - I know OT very well, and I am from MoCo (born and raised).

No one calls it Flora but nice try. Why don't you start limiting your responses to the neighborhoods you know?

I've said a million times that my posts were meant to explain why folks bother to look at farms and ESOL rates atvANY school. I've said many times that I think Flora is a good school. How do I know? I know a couple teachers and a couple families there. FYI, several mcps teachers and admins I know call the school Flora.

PS - I know OT very well, and I am from MoCo (born and raised).

Anonymous wrote:You sound really immature, pp. Your entire argument was based on the false premise that I'm a rich, white, yuppie mom living in Bethesda, and I am none of these things (well I am white). My kids are friends with classmates who at white, AA, Hispanic, and middle eastern. There are plenty of diverse schools that don't have high levels of farms and ESOL. And I don't think a school can be considered diverse if there are only one or two white kids in a class (like my nephew's class at a title I in SS). Having said all of this, Flora isn't a title I, so I'm not attributing my comments directly at Flora. Rather, my original post aimed to explain why some people care about farms and ESOL...and to point out that it isn't for some nefarious, racist purpose. I give up, too. You sound very narrow minded and unwilling to accept that many well educated, liberal, kind hearted people simply use such info when evaluating potential schools....especially if they are striving to buy a forever home and hope to establish a nice network of friends for themselves and their children. My neighbors have lived here for twenty years and know everyone in the neighborhood as well as the handful of other neighborhoods that feed into our schools. When I hit Starbucks or the grocery store I run into lots of families I know...do you? We chat about the latest news from school, church, and sports....do you? Maybe you don't care about such things, but many of us do. Life is so crazy nowadays that it's nice to create a small village-like feel.

You know nothing about the school. Why are you responding? No one calls it Flora...you obviously live no where near here.

To those worried about the future (me included), the group of parents coming up from OTES and FSES are very involved and very dedicated to making sure their children's MS & HS experiences are solid academically, socially, and in a safe environment. I think it is a group that is committed to not running away from the problem and, as a result, I think that the MS & HS options after FSES and OTES will continue to improve in the coming years.