Quote:
Originally Posted by KPC2010
I lived in Columbia, MD for two years and am currently living in Owings Mills, MD. I have lived in Owings Mills since October 2004. I have 2 daughters -- 6 yrs and 2 yrs.
In my opinion, the public schools in Ellicott City (Howard County schools) are much better than Owings Mills schools. In fact, we send our daughter to private school to avoid the local, public schools. Some may have great experiences with the public schools but I don't see it that way.
I hope this helps...
As an fyi, I grew up going to public schools and wish they were an option here. Unfortunately, not the best...
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Raju_y, I don't know if my opinion will matter since I moved out of Owings Mills in December 2002, but with my experience from those years, I have to completely disagree with KPC. In fact, one of the main reasons my family moved to Owings Mills in Dec 1997 was the public school system. Plus, out of the four elementary schools I've attended (maybe biased because I was at one for a year and a half and two others each for half of a year), Owings Mills Elementary gave me the best memories.
To start, the principal at Owings Mills, Mr. Scott, was a major reason I enjoyed Owings Mills. He was always a part of any school-related activity and overall, very close to the students, parents, and teachers. I remember him especially active during Snowball days/late spring events that involved the whole school and fundraisers. Speaking of fundraisers, I remember the school having some of the best ones. They ranged from raffle tickets (winning events like outings with teachers or toys) to selling really good chocolate or pizza and to book sales. There were definitely many more, but those three occurred almost every year when I was there.
Also, about the book sales, they were one of the methods to encourage reading-a major goal of OMES. The school also was involved in monthly/weekly trips to the school library, Scholastic book clubs and fairs, (as mentioned) reading nights, and Pizza Hut's BOOK-IT! program. Many of my classmates were excited about the Scholastic book clubs and fairs, and in my case, the magazines influenced my love of reading (especially the 99 cent deals). The BOOK-IT! program, besides just teaching me to read, gave me bonding time with my dad. I remember we always would sit next to the fire pit and laugh/talk while waiting for the food.
The school also promoted responsibility and involvement in the community. It would schedule food drives and clothing drives throughout the year (mitten tree around winter season) and set up music performances at the mall (back when it was more popular). Many classes even had a list of alternating responsibilities, like cleaning the board at the end of the day or bringing the attendance sheet up to the office. The school also set up many assemblies throughout the year to better awareness of our surroundings. Many times, parents would be allowed to go to the assembly, and to this day, my mother and I have an inside joke based on an assembly from 2nd/3rd grade.
While I had a lot of good memories at OMES, my opinion is also influenced by the gifted and talented program. I am a bit more biased just because I was
in it, but the program definitely put me on the right education track. I realize now that it was surprising I joined so soon as while I was in the program, I still was in ESOL (another great program with great teachers too). However, the program actually advanced my reading skills and math even more than a normal course would have. I became familiar with words and grammar sooner in the class than in ESOL, usually without difficulty too. My level of reading also developed with the little and very simple books used by the school. Those books seem so silly now but they were truly vital to my learning. The teachers also played a big role too in making everything fun and educational. One of the best examples was my second grade homeroom teacher, who was also my science teacher, and at some point, Spanish. Before school even started, she had my classmates and me bond at the preview night with a mummy-wrapping contest; and when school did start, we had a caterpillar in the classroom during the metamorphosis unit (ended before she became a butterfly) and a fiesta completed with a piñata at the end our Spanish unit. The Spanish unit had influenced me to take Spanish in middle school, and at this point, I may minor in it. But I had always had at least one(sometimes every) teacher like her from kindergarten to 5th grade at OMES.
Besides the main teachers, we had alternating classes throughout the week. From kindergarten to 3rd grade, we had music, art, gym, and technology (super beneficial these days). In 4th grade, music was split into half of the year being spent on introducing chorus and the other half on instrumental music. In fifth grade, we were allowed to choose which music to take. I think chorus was required since I remember more people in it, but we finally could pick an instrument to play in band. My only regret about the split was the timing. In the school I attended during the latter half of fifth grade, chorus and band began in 4th grade, so I was a little behind my new 5th grade orchestra classmates. Still, since we had the same teachers for alternating classes in OMES's program, the connection that grew benefited our creativity in the classroom due to increased comfort and the teacher's aid to improve our weaknesses.
The school I transferred into at the end of fifth grade was a nice school, but the math was a little behind the program at OMES and I just never...felt as connected to my classmates and teachers (I still feel a better connection with my OMES classmates and teachers these days).
I think that pretty much sums everything up since I can't say anything about Ellicott City schools. I know they do have a good system, but OMES is just as good if not better if my idea of Howard County schools is right. However, if you do stay here long enough for your children to go to middle school or high school, the later years in middle and all of high school in Owings Mills could be the complete opposite of OMES, in both safety and teaching. I have friends who went/go to OMHS and their opinions vary. But if you do plan on sending your children to Ellicott City for high school, then definitely have them attend an elementary school there so they can be stay with their friends up to high school. With them attending Owings Mills, they'll at least have more friends that live nearby/in the neighborhood who they could go play with. But OMES itself is still a
great school.
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