La_Luna ([info]la_luna) wrote in [info]bel_air,
@ 2005-06-09 23:44:00
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Current mood: curious

Schools in Harford County
Tell me about the high schools in the Harford County Public School System. If you were a teacher and you were thinking of teaching in one of the schools in the county, which one would you choose and why?

By the way, I am a teacher who is moving to Maryland and is scoping out schools in the various counties. I have friends in the Harford County area, so it would be easier to relocate there. I only know what the Chamber of Commerce pamphlets tell me about most of the areas in Maryland, so I would appreciate an insider's perspective.


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[info]mmmwafflehouse
2005-06-10 05:50 am UTC (link)
well, they say that the best school's in the harford county public school system are c. milton wright, bel air high, and fallston high. i attended c. milton, so i can say that it's a pretty decent school, though they have had a lot of issues this last school year. the school is really well off, with an excellent music, art, and drama program, along with everything else. if you have any specific questions about it, let me know.

what do you plan on teaching?

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[info]la_luna
2005-06-10 02:05 pm UTC (link)
What sorts of issues did C. Milton Wright High have?

Also, I'm curious about the English department. How would you rate the English teachers you had during your time there?

As if you hadn't guessed, I am an English teacher. I taught high school here in Texas for three years back in the 90s, and I've spent the past seven years running a writing center at a community college where I also teach developmental (remedial) English.

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[info]mmmwafflehouse
2005-06-10 04:29 pm UTC (link)
well, there was a bit of a scandal involving a teacher and some students, thefts were apparently really bad this year (though i wasn't there anymore to really experience that), and somebody tried to light the school on fire. thankfully all of these issues have blown over, and hopefully things will have settled down for next fall.

well, you've come to the right person when it comes to asking about the english teachers. though some of my personal favorites have left (retired or gotten a different job), the ones that are there right now, (for the most part) are excellent. there are a few that are really a disgrace to the english department, but i'd say that for the most part, it's a really great department.

the literary magazine that the english department puts out is always amazing. (i had the pleasure of working on the staff two years in a row.) i'll be honest though, i think the school could use one more awesome english teacher. :)

i wish you the best of luck, and let me know if you have any more questions about the school.

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[info]justpeachy047
2005-06-11 04:48 pm UTC (link)
The 12th grade AP English teacher at C. Milton was nominated for Teacher of the Year in Harford County and she is also the English department chair.

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[info]mmmwafflehouse
2005-06-10 06:05 am UTC (link)
*"schools", not "school's" haha...sorry, i'm a grammar nazi sometimes.

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[info]loveablechicky
2005-06-10 06:44 am UTC (link)
i went to fallston. i'd think it'd be a nice school to teach at. but like that other girl said, cmw and bel air are pretty nice also. i went to joppatowne for part of my senior year - i would NOT recommend teaching there. none of the teachers/principals/etc seemed to have any idea what they were doing and everything seemed really disorganized.

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[info]la_luna
2005-06-10 02:06 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for the feedback. Disorganized is never good. Were any of your schools or classes really overcrowded?

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[info]loveablechicky
2005-06-10 08:37 pm UTC (link)
yeah, fallston is pretty overcrowded. most of my classes had between 25-30 people in them. joppatowne was crowded as well.

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[info]justpeachy047
2005-06-10 10:40 am UTC (link)
I attended CMW currently and I agree with the other comments. Most of the high schools in Harford County are pretty well off. I would also recommend staying out of the Edgewood/Joppatowne area.

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[info]la_luna
2005-06-10 02:09 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for the comments.

May I ask why avoiding Edgewood/Joppatowne is a good idea? Is the school lacking in resources (poor)? Is the area high crime? What's the problem?

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[info]mmmwafflehouse
2005-06-10 04:32 pm UTC (link)
schools in those areas tend to be lacking in resources, yes, and the students have a reputation for being harder to control/tame than other schools. it's just a rough area, comparitively, and it shows in the crimes and low resources. :\

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[info]loveablechicky
2005-06-10 08:37 pm UTC (link)
yeah, i agree. edgewood isn't a good idea. no offense to anyone that lives there.

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[info]let_it_go
2005-06-13 06:53 pm UTC (link)
I sub at Edgewood Middle almost everyday of the week and I love it there! My husband is a 7th grade teacher and he also really enjoys working there. While the students can sometimes be a handful, the staff is great.

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[info]la_luna
2005-06-15 11:11 pm UTC (link)
Yes, I know someone who retired from Edgewood Middle School, and he LOVED it. I don't know much about the high schools or the rest of the area, though. Having a great staff can make all the difference. Kids, I've found, are kids no matter where you go--Outer Mongolia or nearby suburbia. Same issues, different outfits.

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[info]bethanyboo
2005-06-10 12:37 pm UTC (link)
Bel Air is a good school. However, as a new teacher there, you'll probably be one of the floater teachers (who has to drag a cart classroom to classroom) or get stuck in a portable classroom. The school is ridiculously overcrowded.

I also went to Joppatowne and felt very sorry for the teachers there. A lot of the kids don't give a shit about anything, and make it impossible for the teacher to even teach the ones who do care.

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[info]la_luna
2005-06-10 02:13 pm UTC (link)
I've been a floater before, and I've been in a portable before, so nothing new there. More important than school overcrowding is class size. How many students were in your classes, would you say?

Ahh. . .now I begin to get the picture about Joppatowne students. It's a "rough" crowd, would you say? Well, done that, too. It seems no matter where I end up, even if the students are normally really good ones, they pick out the hard cases and give them to me. They seem to think I enjoy that sort of thing. I taught juvenile offenders for a while. They were actually the best students I ever had. Of course, the armed guard in the back of the classroom might have had something to do with that. ;)

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[info]morganashkevron
2005-06-10 01:11 pm UTC (link)
North Harford is ok if you don't mind the cow smell. I agree with everyone else that C Milton and Bel Air are probably the nicest in the county. Aberdeen is ok, Edgewood and Joppa are sketchy at best. Havre de Grace is getting better since they closed the government housing neighborhood and in a few years most of that town is going to be pretty wealthy.

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[info]la_luna
2005-06-10 02:15 pm UTC (link)
*laughs*

Cow smell? I grew up on an 1100 acre cattle ranch in South Texas. I'd manage.

So am I to understand from everyone's posts that poor schools=bad schools and wealthy schools=good schools?

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[info]morganashkevron
2005-06-10 03:14 pm UTC (link)
It's not so much that schools are poor, it's that the kids in those areas are drug dealers/gang members/general asshats and that has a lot to do with the area being not as nice. The North Harford crowd and the Bel Air crowd aren't all wealthy, they just live in a cleaner area. The CMW and Fallston crowd, however, are mostly upper middle class and wealthy. You don't get school nicknames like C Milton White and Heroin High for being poor.

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MAN
(Anonymous)
2008-04-06 11:20 pm UTC (link)
WELL HAVRE DE GRACE HIGH, EDGEWOOD HIGH, ABERDEEN HIGH, AND JOPPATOWNE HIGH ALL HAVE ABOUT 33% FREE/REDUCED LUNCH STUDENTS, THAT'S ABOUT AVERAGE FOR MARYLAND SCHOOLS, AND ARE POORER THAN THE RSET OF HARFORD COUNTY. BUT I AGREE WITH WHOEVER SAID IT'S JUST ABOUT PEOPLE BEING ASSHOLES. HARFORD COUNTY IS FILLED WITH POSERS. HAVRE DE GRACE USED TO BE POOR AND NICE, FOR EXAMPLE, BUT THEN THE DUMBASS FUCKING CITY TORE DOWN ALL THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND STARTED SHIPPING RICH ASSHATS INTO MCMANSIONS SUCH AS BULLE ROCK AND GRACE HARBOR AND BAYVIEW AND GRACE MANOR. THE UPPER-CLASS RUNS MOST OF HARFORD COUNTY NOW. OUR ONLY HOPE TO STOP THEM IS TO UNITE IN EDGEWOOD AS I SEE IT, AND KEEP THEM FROM TEARING DOWN OUR HOUSING. STOP THIS MADNESS. THERE ARE PLENTY OF POOR GOOD SCHOOLS AND PLENTY OF RICH SHITTY SCHOOLS. IT'S ABOUT THE PEOPLE.

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MAN
(Anonymous)
2008-04-06 11:16 pm UTC (link)
MAN I WAS SO PISSED WHEN THEY TORE THOSE DOWN. I LIVED THERE. THEY TOLD EVERYBODY "YOU HAVE TWO WEEKS TO GET OUT BEFORE WE TEAR YOUR HOUSE DOWN." I WAS LIKE "WHAT? I'M PART OF THE WORKFORCE TOO." AND NOW THEY'RE MAKING ROOM FOR MORE MCMANSIONS! SURE THOSE 'GOVERNMENT FUNDED UNITS' WERE POOR, THAT'S WHAT THEY WERE MEANT FOR, AND A BIT ROUGH, BUT IT WAS HOME TO MANY. IT WAS PART OF HDG. IT WAS CULTURE. NOW WE HAVE A BUNCH OF HOMELESS PEOPLE RUNNING AROUND. IM PISSED MAN. I HATE HDG FOR THAT BULLSHIT. FUCK HAVRE DE GRACE. ILL SOONER GO TO EDGEWOOD. AND YOU KNOW WHAT, I HOPE HAVRE DE GRACE CITY COUNCIL GETS THEIR HANDS FILLED WITH CRIME FOR THA BULLSHIT THEY PULLED. THEY CARE ABOUT NOBODY BUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR RICH ASSHOLE BUDDIES THAT ARE MOVING IN. THE RICH PEOPLE IN THOSE NEW HOUSES AREN'T EVEN FROM GRACE. DON'T BELIEVE ME, ASK ANYBODY THAT GREW UP THERE! INSTEAD OF THE HARD-WORKING KIDS IN POOR DOWNTOWN HDG THAT MADE THAT TOWN THE NICE PLACE IT WAS, IT'S BEING FILLED WITH YUPPIES,SNOBS,SUBURBANITES,AND POSER WANNABE FAGGOTS THAT THINK THEY'RE TOUGH SHIT. DAMN. I RECOMMEND EDGEWOOD OR ABERDEEN HIGH BY THE WAY. ABERDEEN IS NICER THAN EDGEWOOD'S STUDENTS AND A BETTER BUILDING THAN HAVRE DE GRACE'S, AND MUCH MORE LIVELY.

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[info]foobarintel
2005-06-10 02:05 pm UTC (link)
WHERE IS MR. GUNTER

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[info]la_luna
2005-06-10 02:18 pm UTC (link)
Well, erm. . .you're asking the wrong person ;)


Did somebody put the body out in one of the many wooded areas I've noticed around Maryland. I've got to tell you, the trees make me nervous. South Texas doesn't have nearly so many trees (at least not ones so tall). How do you folks find anything at all? You can't see a damned thing from the highway. There's no friggin' horizon!

The trees! The trees! The trees are everywhere!

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[info]mmmwafflehouse
2005-06-10 04:20 pm UTC (link)
OH MAN, I MISS THAT GUY SO MUCH! we used to play chess during math class in 11th grade, hahaha.

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[info]anythinggold
2005-06-10 02:13 pm UTC (link)
if you're looking at various counties, pay attention to how much they pay...harford county is very low.

but to repeat, bel air and cmw are your best bets. my mother teaches at bel air and, despite various problems with the school and the county refusing to put them high on the list for fixing-up, it is a great school with some great teachers.

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[info]la_luna
2005-06-10 02:22 pm UTC (link)
This I have noticed. One of the things I'm taking into consideration is cost of living vs. rate of pay. It costs rather a lot to live in the Harford County area, at least relative to what I'm paying currently in San Antonio. The rent they want in Harford County for a two-bedroom apartment is what they ask for a decent little house or a REALLY nice duplex or very large apartment here in SA. I'd almost be forced to take work elsewhere where the pay is higher and live somewhere where the cost of living is lower.

Where is the cost of living lower? I haven't figured that out yet.

I'm looking all over MD--the eastern shore, the D.C. area, Baltimore, out Carroll County way. . .everywhere. Any clues on that one?

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[info]morganashkevron
2005-06-10 03:20 pm UTC (link)
Almost anything is Maryland is expensive, no matter what kind of area it is. We're just too close to all the expansion going on in DC thanks to Homeland Security. If you do end up in Harford County, I'd say look at some of the townhouses in Abingdon and Havre de Grace. Abingdon is essentially an extension of Bel Air and for the most part it's pretty nice and not terribly expensive. Havre de Grace is about to jump to much higher housing costs, so if you get in there quick, you might be able to turn a hefty profit in 5-10 years. They just closed down the government housing area and the town council is really trying to improve the standard of living. Plus it's cute, quaint, and right on the water. I would steer clear of Joppa, Edgewood and Aberdeen, particularly if the house is anywhere near route 40 or the traintracks.

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[info]xdreamsx
2005-06-10 03:45 pm UTC (link)
my mother works at havre de grace. it's not too bad but you do get a lot of trans students because of military nearby and having to move so much. the classes are relatively medium size and it's not too bad (as far as i know). i personally went to c milton wright and it wasn't too bad either. the english department is pretty good, although you should take into account the pay and such.
good luck!

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[info]monkeysontoast
2005-06-10 04:34 pm UTC (link)
I attended C. Milton. It's a decent school...but is often credited as being one of the most overcrowded schools in the state. I believe Bel Air also has this title...although both are good schools. Fallston is a pretty well off area, but I've never been to the school. I grew up in Joppa and Edgewood...and I agree with everyone else when they say avoid these schools. When I was younger, Edgewood had a REAL nasty reputation, with incidences including students pulling switchblades out on their teachers. The area isn't poor per say...expecially Joppa...just, bad news.

As far as C. Milton...I know there used to be a lot of racial issues back when I was a Freshman and Sophomore...I'm not sure where those issues stand now. Every school in Harford has something they are notorious for...you just have to choose the lesser of all evils.

As far as English teachers at C. Milton...for the most part, excellent. I had the same teacher in 9th and 10th grade, he was wonderful. My 12th grade English teacher was quite good too.

Maryland...no matter where you go, is expenisve. Cost of living is insane. A lot of people move to PA, and commute to work and school because the costs are so high. Bel Air and Fallston are probably the most expensive. I know a two bedroom apartment with a den in Bel Air is nearly $900 a month!

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[info]robotmechanic
2005-06-11 01:52 am UTC (link)
my step dad subs at bel air and a few other places. apparently, you should just stay away from the elementary schools.
haha.

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[info]la_luna
2005-06-15 11:16 pm UTC (link)
No problem! I'm not certified to teach the little ones. Besides, anything much shorter than me scares the crap outta me. I can usually cope with the hormone-driven, caffeine-and-nicotine charged drama queens one finds wandering the halls of most high schools, but the little ankle-biting carpet sharks. . .yikes!

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[info]leofeline
2005-06-14 08:01 pm UTC (link)
Hey, hope I'm not repeating too much that's already been said. I went to Bel Air schools all the way through. If you're looking for high schools I would say Bel Air is great.

I would agree staying away from the rt. 40 schools is wise, unless you're looking for extra frustration (every student deserves a chance, but seriously dear, Harford county doesn't pay enough for that hassle). I would also agree that C.Milton, Fallston, and Bel Air are the "best" (grades/attitudes and funding) schools in the county.

I would say stay away from Fallston because they just got a new principal (who used to be at Bel Air) and he is pretty much just a stuffed shirt. He did nothing positive for Bel Air while I was there and he made some of the teachers so miserable they left the school. But on the up side, I do know a few of the teachers and they seem to be very good.

The new principal at Bel Air seems to be doing a good job. I have relatives and friends that teach at Bel Air and also still go to Bel Air and it seems to be looking up. The English department there is great (and I think there might be an opening pretty soon....shhhh.....). I'm sure you know if you've worked in public schools before, that every specialization has those people you just think to yourself "how have they kept their job?" I'm happy to say that there are very few of those at Bel Air in general and even fewer in the English dept. Plus, I think they need teachers. They are overcrowded, but pretty much every high school in Harford County is. The new high school (Abingdon) is slated for construction as of 2007, which is pretty close coming, so that's good news as well....

wow, sorry to be so long winded...I'm just pretty involved/interested in harford county education... Good luck, and feel free to ask more questions!

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The "black belt"
[info]la_luna
2005-06-15 11:21 pm UTC (link)
I finally got to speak to my Edgewood connection, and I asked him about all this talk about the Edgewood/Joppatown/Rt. 40 schools and the problems there. He told me the dividing line was that those were the "black" schools in the Harford Public School System, and that is largely why they get such a bad reputation. Do you think this might be the case?

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[info]hppynddlboy
2005-06-22 01:23 am UTC (link)
its not that edgewood and aberdeen, ect. get a bad rep. because it's mostly blacks, they get bad reps becasue... well, they are very violent there.. in edgewood middle, some girl stabbed another girl in the head with scissors over a boy... in freakin middle school.... but you SHOULD come teach at bel air... its a nice school, and (mostly) nice people. the new prinicpal isn't too bad, and most of the sudents are there to honestly learn.

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(Anonymous)
2007-07-16 04:59 pm UTC (link)
I have grown up in Harford county and I attended all of the Fallston schools from elementary to high. I have also taught science at Aberdeen High for two years. I would not recommend teaching at any Harford county schools. The 'better' schools have administrators that will not support you. For instance, a friend of mine teaches at Bel Air High and he was almost fired by the principal for taking a discount on shoes that a student had sold him. If you teach at Fallston, Bel Air, or CMW, you will have lawyers present at your parent-teacher meetings. Parents there are insane and the kids are OCD. The majority of these teachers at the 'better' schools are worthless. I did not learn anything at Fallston other than to read out of a textbook. What a joke.

The rt. 40 schools (Aberdeen, Edgewood, Joppatowne) have an administration that supports teachers but are not tough enough on the kids. The majority of the students there don't care about their grades or education. For instance, I gave a final to a class of 30 and 2 of them passed! All of the questions were from previous tests and they could us their notes.

Aside from the schools, professional development is seriously lacking. It's pointless to go to them. Human Resources and Certification office need a lot of help too. They won't tell you what school you will be placed in if you have an open contract. Certification had only 1 person working there for the hundreds of teachers in the county.

Go to Baltimore County, that's where I teach and I love it.

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well
(Anonymous)
2007-11-28 12:18 am UTC (link)
Well, Havre de Grace used to be BAD like Edgewood bad, but then, like everybody has said, the council kicked out most the poor people and brought in a bunch of dammed yuppies, kicking all the problems down south; hey, Edgewood is down south! Blame them for that. Shit, Edgewood is a pretty cool community, but i can guarentee you in 5 years all the poor kids in hdg AND aberdeen will be in Edgewood. Dun dun dun. Bel air is REALLY nice though, but a bit racist in some parts and others are just expensive and/or snobby. I fear the same outcome for hdg. I hope the snobs don't take over. But you'd still probably like it there because it's small. If you want a much more hectic job though, you can always teach in Baltimore City ;)

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