Bierce Aly
Silver spring, MD 20906

We love ESS. It is a focus school so class sizes are small, and it’s a smaller school with mostly walkers. Two of our teachers have been fantastic, one was not and resigned but the administration communicated well with parents and ensured a smooth transition. I like how families are so engaged with the school and practically everyone comes to school events. The school also has a magical atrium garden that grows tons of food for students, including grapes, strawberries, paw paws, and salad. The school is diverse and always communicates in 3 languages (English SpaniSh and Amharic). If you want a school with engaged families, good teachers, and diversity, come here!

Administration doesn't really care if your child learns. They only care if your child passes and graduates, so their numbers do not decline. My child a few teachers who weren't very well at teaching, but instead of allowing our child to retake classes, they offered online classes thT did not cover the material in the syllabus and served only to pass the course. Many students have caught on and opt to fail classes and take the easy way out. Just let at state-wide and nationwide tests scores along with the number of our students enrolled in remedial classes in college. Tells the true story of how well Montgomery Blair students are prepared. When reaching out to about half the teachers about my child's performance, about half do not bother to respond. I do not want my other children to attend this school.

My child has had some caring teachers at this school that have gone the extra mile for them, and to those people I am grateful. However, the education is not an 8/10. We moved here for the schools. We were happy with the elementary schools. Maybe 1 underwhelming teacher out of 8. Solid administration. True 0 tolerance for bullying, and caring staff. But, something has to come forward about the culture of the middle school, because I know kids now in their mid-20s who suffered here, and now it's my child. I've spoken with a lot of different parents, and anyone, regardless of style, who had to take on the school regarding a violation of the law or policy became an enemy. This is not a place where one feels that the administration and counseling offices, in particular, are there for the love of children. Bullying is not addressed seriously whether relational, discriminatory, or threats of violence. And teachers and students are both guilty. In 6th grade, my child reported their friends were depressed, by 7th/8th grade their friends became the bullies or went silent, because that is what it is to survive here when you know adults will not have your back, at home or school. So many kids feel this way and speak of it to each other, but the adults at home remain ignorant as children think mine is odd for speaking to their parent, and the school is worse - even when they know, they don't act, and they mandate silence, so other parents do not know what threats exist. Schools are rated partially on how much they use suspension, but when their "creative solutions" are not creating a safe atmosphere, stepping up their game may be needed to show kids that 0 tolerance is 0 tolerance when it comes to bullies. Here, children know that bullying IS tolerated, and it's the way to stay safe. There should not be this many middle schoolers considering whether it is worth it to keep living, and there should not be this many middle schoolers turning to brutality towards each other as a result of that hopelessness. The brutality is desperation. Lack of early intervention leads to more serious problems. Children are driven into medical and mental crises from stress. I am personally exhausted by fighting for what are literally bare minimum laws and policies. MCPS relies on the fact that it is expensive and difficult to win litigation against schools, and many would not see private school tuition as a win in this area. Simply wanting schools that follow the law is too much to ask.