541 Mayo Rd
Edgewater, MD 21037

This school absolutely sucks. Get ready for your kids to get yelled at 24/7, not to mention the stem program here is bad. All the teachers are rude and there is rude and bad administration. Not to mention there was a student who was sexually assaulting girls for a while and nothing was done about it until parents were involved.

South River is an excellent school regardless of whether your children are in STEM or not. The STEM program admission (and all other magnet program admissions in AACPS) are purely lottery based. No school in AACPS is pulling high achieving students from other clusters to boost their test scores. It’s not like how magnet program admissions work in Montgomery County. It’s true that STEM students are required to take two AP classes in their curriculum to graduate and that that could be influencing the high AP participation rate at SRHS, but all students at the school have access to AP courses, not just STEM students. This school has very dedicated teachers and very welcoming community. I agree that SRHS not being racially or socio-economically diverse is a huge con, and that sometimes the product of that is a school where some instances of racism are more likely to go unchecked, but most of the students are friendly and not racist at all. There were some incidents at the school two decades ago that gave the school a reputation for being “racist,” but SRHS has come a long way since then.

We feel fortunate that our kids are able to attend such an excellent school. The leadership, staff, and teachers are amazing; they've created an environment that builds community and makes learning exciting for our children. Mayo Elementary is known locally as the public private school because of the high caliber teaching, student-teacher ratio, and extracurricular opportunities it fosters. As a parent, I feel informed and part of the school community, particularly through ongoing events and engagement programs such as WATCHDOGS. Thank you, Mayo Elementary!