Garfield Elementary in Springfield? [VA]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would avoid that particular school b/c its in in an industrial area and I think the air quality on the playground must be terrible. Plus the noise. It just seems unpleasant and not a good learning environment.

Industrial? It has neighborhoods on 2 sides and a park right next door.

NP. It's next door to 95, which is a concern for asthma. That was one reason we didn't buy there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would avoid that particular school b/c its in in an industrial area and I think the air quality on the playground must be terrible. Plus the noise. It just seems unpleasant and not a good learning environment.

Industrial? It has neighborhoods on 2 sides and a park right next door.

Not the PP, I suspect they are referring to the fact that 95 is a few blocks away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, middle school is a mess everywhere. Irving, right down the road and in WSHS pyramid, has been a constant mess of behaviors this year.

And I wouldn’t say the elementary schools in Lewis pyramid are undesirable. Some people like title 1 and smaller class sizes. And they all have good teachers.

Irving has been much better this year than last year, they are just communicating more about the bad behaviors. There's been much less drama at the plaza as well.

There is no comparison between Irving and Key. Yes, Irving has it's issues because all middle schools do, but it's a diverse group of good kids with overall supportive families of all races/cultures. Key is dangerous.

NP here. I don’t know…I still feel like Irving is struggling a lot, unfortunately. Read the post in the local moms’ group about boys going into the mattress store at the Plaza and performing fake sex acts in the window.

I have 7th and 9th graders, for reference.

Yeah…I feel like they communicated a lot last year too but this year doesn’t seem much better. If they are communicating more than it’s still pretty bad!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, middle school is a mess everywhere. Irving, right down the road and in WSHS pyramid, has been a constant mess of behaviors this year.

And I wouldn’t say the elementary schools in Lewis pyramid are undesirable. Some people like title 1 and smaller class sizes. And they all have good teachers.

Irving has been much better this year than last year, they are just communicating more about the bad behaviors. There's been much less drama at the plaza as well.

There is no comparison between Irving and Key. Yes, Irving has it's issues because all middle schools do, but it's a diverse group of good kids with overall supportive families of all races/cultures. Key is dangerous.

NP here. I don’t know…I still feel like Irving is struggling a lot, unfortunately. Read the post in the local moms’ group about boys going into the mattress store at the Plaza and performing fake sex acts in the window.

I have 7th and 9th graders, for reference.

As someone who has recent experience with both-- there is no comparison between the two. Key has lost something like 80% of its teaching staff in the past three years. The number of fights and poor behavior is through the roof. Irving may have it's issues, but it is no Key.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would avoid that particular school b/c its in in an industrial area and I think the air quality on the playground must be terrible. Plus the noise. It just seems unpleasant and not a good learning environment.

Industrial? It has neighborhoods on 2 sides and a park right next door.

Not the PP, I suspect they are referring to the fact that 95 is a few blocks away.

That's a weird issue to fixate on if Garfield is to be discounted. Carson MS and Oakton HS are two of the most desirable schools in the county and they are literally adjacent to 495 and 66, respectively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, middle school is a mess everywhere. Irving, right down the road and in WSHS pyramid, has been a constant mess of behaviors this year.

And I wouldn’t say the elementary schools in Lewis pyramid are undesirable. Some people like title 1 and smaller class sizes. And they all have good teachers.

Irving has been much better this year than last year, they are just communicating more about the bad behaviors. There's been much less drama at the plaza as well.

There is no comparison between Irving and Key. Yes, Irving has it's issues because all middle schools do, but it's a diverse group of good kids with overall supportive families of all races/cultures. Key is dangerous.

NP here. I don’t know…I still feel like Irving is struggling a lot, unfortunately. Read the post in the local moms’ group about boys going into the mattress store at the Plaza and performing fake sex acts in the window.

I have 7th and 9th graders, for reference.

As someone who has recent experience with both-- there is no comparison between the two. Key has lost something like 80% of its teaching staff in the past three years. The number of fights and poor behavior is through the roof. Irving may have it's issues, but it is no Key.

PP here. I wasn’t trying to say Irving has more problems than Key. I was responding to the poster who said Irving is much better this year. I don’t think it is, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, middle school is a mess everywhere. Irving, right down the road and in WSHS pyramid, has been a constant mess of behaviors this year.

And I wouldn’t say the elementary schools in Lewis pyramid are undesirable. Some people like title 1 and smaller class sizes. And they all have good teachers.

Irving has been much better this year than last year, they are just communicating more about the bad behaviors. There's been much less drama at the plaza as well.

There is no comparison between Irving and Key. Yes, Irving has it's issues because all middle schools do, but it's a diverse group of good kids with overall supportive families of all races/cultures. Key is dangerous.

NP here. I don’t know…I still feel like Irving is struggling a lot, unfortunately. Read the post in the local moms’ group about boys going into the mattress store at the Plaza and performing fake sex acts in the window.

I have 7th and 9th graders, for reference.

As someone who has recent experience with both-- there is no comparison between the two. Key has lost something like 80% of its teaching staff in the past three years. The number of fights and poor behavior is through the roof. Irving may have it's issues, but it is no Key.

PP here. I wasn’t trying to say Irving has more problems than Key. I was responding to the poster who said Irving is much better this year. I don’t think it is, unfortunately.

Haha, I'm the poster who thought Irving was doing better, and then I also just saw that post on facebook about the continuing problems at the plaza. I guess I was lulled into thinking things were pretty good because my son is doing well and staying out of trouble (even though I had my concerns because of his friend group!). Although, we also have never allowed him to go to the plaza.

Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread and talk so much about Irving when you asked about Garfield. I have one friend who's daughter went to Garfield from about 2014-2020. They said it was fine, but not great. Their kid went to Key but during covid so it worked out ok. And now she is at Edison in some sort of stem program that she placed into to get out of Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Garfield is in a very congested, high traffic area. It feels industrial and smoggy. Plus it is close to 95. Really, just not the nicest spot for a school. I wouldn't send my ES kid to that school in Falls Church right on 66 either. Some places are just very odd locations for school buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Garfield is in a very congested, high traffic area. It feels industrial and smoggy. Plus it is close to 95. Really, just not the nicest spot for a school. I wouldn't send my ES kid to that school in Falls Church right on 66 either. Some places are just very odd locations for school buildings.

If you want a school out in the woods, then move to the woods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Garfield is in a very congested, high traffic area. It feels industrial and smoggy. Plus it is close to 95. Really, just not the nicest spot for a school. I wouldn't send my ES kid to that school in Falls Church right on 66 either. Some places are just very odd locations for school buildings.

If you want a school out in the woods, then move to the woods.

OP asked for opinions and PP is giving them. Geez.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Garfield is in a very congested, high traffic area. It feels industrial and smoggy. Plus it is close to 95. Really, just not the nicest spot for a school. I wouldn't send my ES kid to that school in Falls Church right on 66 either. Some places are just very odd locations for school buildings.

If you want a school out in the woods, then move to the woods.

OP asked for opinions and PP is giving them. Geez.

Easy, snowflake. You’re in a major metropolitan area, in a county of over 1 million people; to expect a school to be completely removed from traffic, noise or similar is pretty unrealistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Garfield is in a very congested, high traffic area. It feels industrial and smoggy. Plus it is close to 95. Really, just not the nicest spot for a school. I wouldn't send my ES kid to that school in Falls Church right on 66 either. Some places are just very odd locations for school buildings.

If you want a school out in the woods, then move to the woods.

OP asked for opinions and PP is giving them. Geez.

Easy, snowflake. You’re in a major metropolitan area, in a county of over 1 million people; to expect a school to be completely removed from traffic, noise or similar is pretty unrealistic.

DP. No, most elementary schools are not adjacent to an interstate. Whether that's a significant factor for someone is for them to determine, but don't say that the location is the same as any other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Garfield is in a very congested, high traffic area. It feels industrial and smoggy. Plus it is close to 95. Really, just not the nicest spot for a school. I wouldn't send my ES kid to that school in Falls Church right on 66 either. Some places are just very odd locations for school buildings.

Just to note, Garfield was built in 1952. You can imagine that Old Keene Mill Road wasn't nearly as busy as it is now. It was probably a two-lane road. Springfield would have been out in the country.

This board has some really odd folks on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Garfield is in a very congested, high traffic area. It feels industrial and smoggy. Plus it is close to 95. Really, just not the nicest spot for a school. I wouldn't send my ES kid to that school in Falls Church right on 66 either. Some places are just very odd locations for school buildings.

Just to note, Garfield was built in 1952. You can imagine that Old Keene Mill Road wasn't nearly as busy as it is now. It was probably a two-lane road. Springfield would have been out in the country.

This board has some really odd folks on it.

Yes Springfield has a lot of history and some consider it the first real suburb of DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you planning to stay for middle school? Because Garfield feeds into Key, which has such poor behavior that they have to dismiss kids in shifts.

This. I taught at Key for years and would never send my kids there today. It's really sad what it has become.

Key feeds into Lewis, and Lewis is atrocious. Avoid Garfield.