Haycock Elementary School

Parents are kidding themselves if they think the bad reviews are entirely because of the AAP realignment. Look at them, they are not all from AAP parents. The school is a good school, but not the mecca that everyone claims. It's riding on reputation at this point. It's certainly not much (if at all) better than surrounding FCPS schools.
—Submitted by a parent

My oldest child started at Haycock in Kindergarten and will graduate this year. My youngest child attends Haycock as well. The school is severely overcrowded, which often results in large class sizes. As a result, I have considered sending my children to private school, but after careful assessment based on 7 years of experience at the school, I cannot find fault with the outstanding education they receive that would warrant such a change. The teachers are incredibly dedicated & talented. I have taken an active role in parent participation at the school and have always found everyone from the janitorial staff up to the Principal to be welcoming, warm, appreciative and proud of the school they serve so well. I do agree with the previous reviewer that as a result of the recent School Board decision to send the majority of Cluster 2 students to Lemon Road next year, there is some resentment that has colored some of these negative reviews. Our family is truly indebted to the Teachers, Staff & Administration for giving our children a superior elementary school education.
—Submitted by a parent

I have finished reading the reviews here and am shocked by what I see. Haycock is a wonderful school with educated and caring teachers and administrators. I've been a Haycock parent for eight years and find these comments to be ridiculous and misleading. They are obviously the result of a realignment that occurred within the pyramid that caused some children to be moved to another school next year in order to ease overcrowding and enable the renovation to proceed safely. It seems that some of the understandable frustration has been misdirected at the parents and administrators. Please don't let this color your opinion of a fantastic school. The parent community is very inviting and supportive of the school community and students are challenged at every level. We may have some difficult years ahead with the upcoming renovation, but I am thrilled that we will soon have a beautiful new school to house our students.
—Submitted by a parent

Not all parents at Haycock agree with the way the administration has deteriorated what used to be a great school. A shame that high calibre teachers and staff are also affected. Some justify the school's unmanageable overcrowding, as victim of its own success. Victims, all right, but of an inexperienced principal who lacks education on community building and conflict resolution. Also, the school could hire more janitors, provide diverse training for teachers besides AAP that would be more in tune with the real needs of a grossly overcrowded school. This is my child's last year at Haycock, but I worry about the sanitary conditions at the school, no to mention the safety of the students. Let's hope the administration will address these and other relevant and pressing issues to the current school year and to the needs of all. The school needs a more representative task force that will look after the interests of all students as plans for restructuring and remodeling are about to begin and it is not responsible to leave all of that in the hands of a few, not to say only one. For such a large and diverse school, that is way too much power.
—Submitted by a parent

The experience we have had at Haycock is the absolute best! I have a Kindergartener and 2nd grader and moved to Virginia this past year. The staff, school and administration as well as the students create a great experience. Our jobs moved us from New Mexico where the school system did not even rate compared to Haycock. We felt welcomed from day one! If anything the staff and PTA over communicate so busy parents will never miss an important announcement. Yes there are 25 students or so in each class. This could be seen as a negative but from my perspective in NM the classes had only 14-18 students and they did a horrible horrible job teaching and communicating. My daughters have done much better here despite the class size! Haycock deserves much praise!
—Submitted by a parent

When something is good there will be a crowd. This explains the overcrowding at Haycock. FCPS recently addressed this issue by realigning the AAP program that was funneling too many students to the school. Although some parents are upset with the realignment as noted in the recent reviews, this should not detract from the quality education that is provided at Haycock. We have two children at the school - one in AAP and the other in the general -- and are 100% satisfied with the school. Specifically, the administration and teacher are very nurturing and caring. Both curriculums challenge our daughters, and in turn, we feel their academic and social needs are being met. The teachers strictly adhere to the 24-hour response rule and always respond to our emails in a timely manner. In addition to the constant updates and newsletters, we feel engaged and aware of everything happening in our daughter's class. We cannot say enough about the wonderful experience we have had the past 2 years with Haycock Elementary.
—Submitted by a parent

FCPS has done a realignment of AAP boundaries and that requires Cluster 2 families to go to the new center at Lemon Rd. This boundary realignment helps draw down the population at Haycock. Haycock has become increasingly overcrowded and a reduction had to be done for the safety and educational benefits of all students and teachers. This was a very difficult process for the community and it did cause different groups of parents to advocate for different things. The process that FCPS has in place to address redistricting forces parents to take sides. There was no possible solution that could be pain free and please everyone. Teachers, staff, PTA and parents agonized over this situation. School Board vote was overwhelmingly in support or new center at Lemon Rd. Negativity has no role in rebuilding community. Parents and teachers are determined to heal and continue their positive efforts to keep the community strong---one of the very reasons everyone loves to come to Haycock.
—Submitted by a parent

Haycock is a great school in terms of challenging academics and amazing teachers. They offer a variety of creative in-school activities and extracurricular programs. However, the parent community here leaves alot to be desired: PTA cliques, entitled helicopter parents and a nasty attitude about families of lower social status. If you simply send your child for a great education, volunteer in the classroom, and stay out of the way, you'll be pleased.
—Submitted by a parent

Haycock has one of the nastiest parent bodies I've ever seen. They are in the process of kicking out some of the AAP kids because the school is overcrowded, which is entirely the fault of FCPS' faulty projections. Instead of banding together to ask the county to make this work for all of us, these parents have started an all out campaign to force our kids out of the school. They have absolutely no sense of empathy for how changing schools will impact our children. If the parents had been willing to work together, we could have gotten the county to find a solution that works for all of us. Instead, they focused their energy negatively and ran a negative campaign against our children. The education is good here, but the sense of community is entirely lacking unless you are part of the "in" crowd.
—Submitted by a parent

Haycock is a good school. Not a great school. But, if you want a good school and you are currently in a less than good school, it will do the trick. The good points are: the parents have to pay enough to live in the school district that they really care about their kids and tend to really care about the school. The less than good points are: the principal and majority of the teachers are immature, less than appropriately experienced or professional, and basically make bad decisions when under pressure (or no decisions). They also say inappropriate things to children and around children (apparently they don't realize children go home and tell their parents stuff like that). There is little security at the school, you will wind up teaching your child a lot of what they are not getting in class (even in the AAP classes), and if you have an issue, it gets overly dramatic for no reason. BTW, the nurse is the best of the bunch. Nancy has been the only person at the entire school who has ever gone one inch out of her way to do something for my child she didn't have to do. And, yes, the school is overcrowded, and no, the staff and PTA don't really care.
—Submitted by a parent

They've literally been talking about addressing the capacity concerns for over 6 or 7 years. In all this time the enrollments have been increasing and so have the trailers. The class sizes are indeed smaller this year-- but the size of the actual school has not changed; so this year there are even more students spending their school daze in trailers without any plumbing. The PTA is now trying to delay the poorly thought-out renovation plans that will result in a new available capacity that is less than the current enrollment by about 100 students. FCPS is likely taking away Haycock's shining star of being a AAP center school as it is simply not feasible. The school is too far over capacity to take any new students this year. FCPS needs to come out with real plans to bring down the overall enrollment at Haycock
—Submitted by a parent

Haycock is great school. We moved from another Fairfax county scholl to Haycock, and we did not regret for a singe moment. Although overcrowded, the school is able handle the challenge. Kindergarten class size now is 20-22 students and no grades have over 25 this year. The school will be renovated/rebuilt by 2015, FCPS has approved the budget. Let's face it most of FCPS schools have trailers. So, Haycock is excellent school with amazing and dedicated staff, and outstanding PTA. We are all part of that community and we work very hard to support it and make it wonderful place for our kids.
—Submitted by a parent

We just joined Haycock and it is as fabulous as we thought it would be. The teachers and principal are excellent. Kindergarten class size is 21-22 students and no grades have over 25 this year. The parents are very involved, and fellow students are super intelligent and respectful. The reason the school is overcrowded is that it really is that good. Do your research, talk to parents themselves, and go see for yourself! To the ill-informed poster, FCPS is focused on the school and is fixing the overcapacity issue. Haycock is a top notch school and we couldn't be more pleased.
—Submitted by a parent

We're up to 968 kids total enrolled this year. This is well above the planned renovated capacity of 800 something. As a result the school has now stopped taking on new AAP students.
—Submitted by a parent

I'm very disappointed with this school. We had to move to this area last year, unfortunately the school is overrated when compared to another schools.
—Submitted by a parent

Greatschools says Haycock has 677 enrolled. That's wrong. Actual enrollment now is 858. The school's capacity is 570. The entire 5th & 6th grade classes are spent in trailers. Current 1st grade classes have 28 kids with no teaching assistant. Next year they'll have 30+ kids in the 1st grade classes. Haycock will easily be 300+ over capacity next year. In a couple years it'll also be a live construction zone. Public schools all over Northern VA have been pushed beyond the capacity of their old, un-renovated facilities. As well the key to Haycock's perceived greatness has been that it is an AAP (gifted and talented) hub. Fairfax Public Schools has recently implemented a plan to have all schools in the McLean HS feeder triangle utilize the AAP curriculum. FCPS has to do this because of the overcrowding at Haycock. Haycock will no longer be unique for its AAP hub. Many parents will swear that Haycock is the best blindly ignoring the school being 50% over capacity and that their kids spend most of their days in modular trailers. You should Google Haycock overcrowding & do your own research.
—Submitted by a parent

Haycock is a great school with good teachers and a very good learning environment. The parents are encouraged to get involved although the school is really crowded being one of the best everybody moves to this school district. The buildings are old and some classes are still held in trailers and quads. Wish FCPS would provide more money to the school to help the students, teachers and the community
—Submitted by a parent

Haycock is an excellent school and it provides a wonderful learning environment for the students! The teachers are great and their students really respect them.
—Submitted by a parent

Haycock is an excellent school. We moved into the Mclean school cluster from nearby Arlington specifically for the schools, and I am now sure this was the right move. The kindergarten teacher Ms Waterston's style of teaching is a wonderful blend of caring and structured discipline in her class. The parent body is very involved as well.
—Submitted by a parent

Haycock is the best overall. My son loves his school, teachers and friends. The class size is okay and hopefully it won't get too big next year.
—Submitted by a parent