East Bethesda School Guide

said on May 4th, 2010 filed under: Bethesda, Information for Buyers, Neighborhoods

East Bethesda School Guide

Note: Beginning in September 2013, Bethesda Elementary School will be the permanent assignment for all East Bethesda students, eliminating the complicated scenario below. I’ll leave this up, however, until the school year concludes, as there may be folks out there wishing to request a transfer. Unlikely, but you never know.

For those new to the neighborhood, or just entering the East Bethesda school maze, here’s a little cheat sheet to help you figure out your options. For more in-depth information, go to www.ebca.org/Education.

East Bethesda is unique within Montgomery County for its choice of schools. Many years back, when Lynbrook Elementary closed, the county offered up some concessions. As it stands now, the current school track is as follows:

K – 2nd grade                       Rosemary Hills
3rd – 5th grade                    Bethesda Elementary School
6th – 8th grade                    Westland Middle School
9th – 12th grade                  Bethesda-Chevy Chase H.S.

East Bethesda Options:

Option A: At the K – 2nd level, you can petition to attend Bethesda Elementary School (B.E.). This has been done on a case-by-case basis with very few new families getting into the school. Children with older siblings already attending used to get in pretty easily, but with overcrowding, that’s no longer the case. If you are successful in gaining early entry, your school track would look like:

K - 5th grade                        Bethesda Elementary School
6th – 8th grade                    Westland Middle School
9th – 12th grade                  Bethesda-Chevy Chase H.S.

Option B: At the 3rd – 5th/6th level, you can petition to attend either Chevy Chase Elementary School (CCES) or North Chevy Chase Elementary School (NCC). A large portion of the neighborhood opts not to attend B.E. (as entering 3rd graders), largely because students from Rosemary Hills feed into CCES or NCC. Unlike B.E., both of these schools go through the 6th grade. All three of these schools feed into Westland Middle School/BCC (though some B.E. students feed into Pyle/Whitman). For the past several years it has not been difficult to obtain a transfer, but this could become more difficult as schools grapple with overcrowding (currently the hot issue). If you are successful in gaining entry, your school track would look like:

K – 2nd grade                       Rosemary Hills
3rd – 6th grade                    CCES or NCC
7th – 8th grade                    Westland Middle School
9th – 12th grade                  Bethesda-Chevy Chase H.S.

Applications for transfers are due during “transfer season” which takes place February 1 – April 1 of each year.

For more information on East Bethesda real estate, call me. I also know a lot about the school situation, having done my time served as PTA co-president for a number of years at CCES ;-)

UPDATE – November 2011: A permanent school assignment for East Bethesda has just been announced (effectively eliminating the current options available to the neighborhood). Beginning in 2013 all of East Bethesda students will attend Bethesda Elementary K-5, Westland Middle School 6-8, and BCC High School 9-12. Read my East Bethesda Elementary School Update for more details. Also, as of this writing, a new middle school for the BCC cluster will open in 2017.

posted by Marcie Sandalow

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 10:45 am and is filed under Bethesda, Information for Buyers, Neighborhoods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.