PG is changing start and dismissal times with less than 6 months notice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The more people pay for aftercare, the less buses that they have to provide.

It’s “fewer” buses and that’s not at all how bussing works. SMH

They seem to be walking back the universal start times based on grade level so I wouldn't expect much of a change in the number of folks need before/after care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My elementary school start time is 9:30 AM (teacher report time 8:30 AM) so a switch to 7:30 AM would be crazy! But I won't deny, as a teacher, I would like to be able to leave work at 2 PM instead of 4 PM.

DCPS teacher spouse here. You have to report a full hour before kids show up? Wow!!

Just saw this... yes - late start schools, teachers report earlier. We have before school meetings, etc. But we leave right after the kids do! Early start schools, I guess it's usually the reverse. teachers arrive a little before, but they stay after and have staff meetings after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What PGCPS needs to do (and no one wants to talk about) is eliminate the specialty programs at elementary school level. That eliminates a ton of bussing and the county would have more than enough drivers.

As someone who works at one of these specialty programs, I 100% agree. These programs tend to perform higher academically that the regular public schools and its free! The least the parents can do is provide transportation.

Correct. Its INSANE to me that kids who attend their boundary school dont get transportation but "specialty program" kids do. It is "in the name of equity" but I would be really interested to see how many FARMS kids actually attend the specialty programs and furthermore, how many kids who are walkers are FARMS.

Removing the waivers means PGCPS would only provide transportation to 50% of the student population and I wonder what percentage of it is specialty program kids and how much impact they have on the routes/times/distance.

You can compare the FARMS rates on the Great Schools and the MD Report Card. There is a huge disparity.
The FARMS rate of elementary schools with no specialty programs is double the schools that are specialty programs with no comprehensive kids.
FARMS Rate:
PGCPS Elementary as a whole: 63.5%
Specialty Program only schools: 35%
Non-Specialty Program Elementary Schools - 70%

Wowwww thats some BS.

I'm a teacher at a specialty elementary school. If we required parents to transport their kids to school, our already low FARMS rate would plummet.

As it is, low income parents have a tendency to prefer neighborhood schools, just because of the difficulty of picking kids up from aftercare or after school activities, and a distrust of schools that are a further distance away. I mean, higher income parents also prefer neighborhood schools for the same reasons, but they generally are more willing to tolerate the difficulties of a far away school as a tradeoff for a program they like.

Be that as it may, I dont want to hear about transport issues when 50% of the student body is NOT going to be receiving transportation but the higher income lottery families are. The problem with your viewpoint is that the reality ALREADY isnt addressing equity and transportation is provided. But transportation for the system overall is not equitable. I would bet dollars to donuts that a majority of the walkers in most PG schools are FARMS. And its not safe to walk so how are they getting to school? These "leaders" need to walk these routes themselves and actually make real improvements in pedestrian safety. In my own higher income neighborhood, people wont stop for pedestrians, there are no crossing guards, and the pedestrian crossings dont have stop signs. So I can only imagine the lack of safety in lower-income, more urban settings.

I am not really sure what the purpose of the specialty programs are to begin with, its essentially a private school education funded by taxpayers. It is a liberal take on vouchers IMO.

OK but truthfully? Have you ever noticed that most of the specialty programs in our county are located in low income areas? The transportation is bringing students from wealthier areas to the less advantaged neighborhoods. One of the purposes of the specialty programs is to bus around richer kids to poorer schools, basically. If you dismantle the specialty schools, especially the TAG programs, you will be removing the well off children from the schools. Now all the kids at that school will be FARMS again. Congratulations, I guess?

[Anonymous]

I listened to part of the recorded meeting from last night. They said the bell times would be presented at the Board meeting on the 25th, and every school will be notified of their start times on the 26th. Each bell time will have a mix of ES/MS/HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What PGCPS needs to do (and no one wants to talk about) is eliminate the specialty programs at elementary school level. That eliminates a ton of bussing and the county would have more than enough drivers.

As someone who works at one of these specialty programs, I 100% agree. These programs tend to perform higher academically that the regular public schools and its free! The least the parents can do is provide transportation.

Correct. Its INSANE to me that kids who attend their boundary school dont get transportation but "specialty program" kids do. It is "in the name of equity" but I would be really interested to see how many FARMS kids actually attend the specialty programs and furthermore, how many kids who are walkers are FARMS.

Removing the waivers means PGCPS would only provide transportation to 50% of the student population and I wonder what percentage of it is specialty program kids and how much impact they have on the routes/times/distance.

You can compare the FARMS rates on the Great Schools and the MD Report Card. There is a huge disparity.
The FARMS rate of elementary schools with no specialty programs is double the schools that are specialty programs with no comprehensive kids.
FARMS Rate:
PGCPS Elementary as a whole: 63.5%
Specialty Program only schools: 35%
Non-Specialty Program Elementary Schools - 70%

Wowwww thats some BS.

I'm a teacher at a specialty elementary school. If we required parents to transport their kids to school, our already low FARMS rate would plummet.

As it is, low income parents have a tendency to prefer neighborhood schools, just because of the difficulty of picking kids up from aftercare or after school activities, and a distrust of schools that are a further distance away. I mean, higher income parents also prefer neighborhood schools for the same reasons, but they generally are more willing to tolerate the difficulties of a far away school as a tradeoff for a program they like.

Be that as it may, I dont want to hear about transport issues when 50% of the student body is NOT going to be receiving transportation but the higher income lottery families are. The problem with your viewpoint is that the reality ALREADY isnt addressing equity and transportation is provided. But transportation for the system overall is not equitable. I would bet dollars to donuts that a majority of the walkers in most PG schools are FARMS. And its not safe to walk so how are they getting to school? These "leaders" need to walk these routes themselves and actually make real improvements in pedestrian safety. In my own higher income neighborhood, people wont stop for pedestrians, there are no crossing guards, and the pedestrian crossings dont have stop signs. So I can only imagine the lack of safety in lower-income, more urban settings.

I am not really sure what the purpose of the specialty programs are to begin with, its essentially a private school education funded by taxpayers. It is a liberal take on vouchers IMO.

OK but truthfully? Have you ever noticed that most of the specialty programs in our county are located in low income areas? The transportation is bringing students from wealthier areas to the less advantaged neighborhoods. One of the purposes of the specialty programs is to bus around richer kids to poorer schools, basically. If you dismantle the specialty schools, especially the TAG programs, you will be removing the well off children from the schools. Now all the kids at that school will be FARMS again. Congratulations, I guess?

You have to get into the specialty programs- its a lottery. Congratulations on bussing rich kids to a poor neighborhood I guess since the specialty schools average a 35% FARMS rate? As provided above, the PG FARMS rate for all Elementary is 70%.

I would also love to see data showing that TAG schools in poor, underachieving schools actually helps poor underachieving kids because my experience is that they are completely separated and there is no crossover. It just boosts the average for the school as a whole.

My point is that if 50% of the county has to be responsible for getting their kids to school than either we need to provide 0 transport as a whole to save money or provide 100%. And if X number of students (majority non-FARMS) being bussed all over the county for a small subset of programs is taking a majority of the resources, then we have to ask- as taxpayers- who are we helping and hurting with that policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What PGCPS needs to do (and no one wants to talk about) is eliminate the specialty programs at elementary school level. That eliminates a ton of bussing and the county would have more than enough drivers.

As someone who works at one of these specialty programs, I 100% agree. These programs tend to perform higher academically that the regular public schools and its free! The least the parents can do is provide transportation.

Correct. Its INSANE to me that kids who attend their boundary school dont get transportation but "specialty program" kids do. It is "in the name of equity" but I would be really interested to see how many FARMS kids actually attend the specialty programs and furthermore, how many kids who are walkers are FARMS.

Removing the waivers means PGCPS would only provide transportation to 50% of the student population and I wonder what percentage of it is specialty program kids and how much impact they have on the routes/times/distance.

You can compare the FARMS rates on the Great Schools and the MD Report Card. There is a huge disparity.
The FARMS rate of elementary schools with no specialty programs is double the schools that are specialty programs with no comprehensive kids.
FARMS Rate:
PGCPS Elementary as a whole: 63.5%
Specialty Program only schools: 35%
Non-Specialty Program Elementary Schools - 70%

Wowwww thats some BS.

I'm a teacher at a specialty elementary school. If we required parents to transport their kids to school, our already low FARMS rate would plummet.

As it is, low income parents have a tendency to prefer neighborhood schools, just because of the difficulty of picking kids up from aftercare or after school activities, and a distrust of schools that are a further distance away. I mean, higher income parents also prefer neighborhood schools for the same reasons, but they generally are more willing to tolerate the difficulties of a far away school as a tradeoff for a program they like.

Be that as it may, I dont want to hear about transport issues when 50% of the student body is NOT going to be receiving transportation but the higher income lottery families are. The problem with your viewpoint is that the reality ALREADY isnt addressing equity and transportation is provided. But transportation for the system overall is not equitable. I would bet dollars to donuts that a majority of the walkers in most PG schools are FARMS. And its not safe to walk so how are they getting to school? These "leaders" need to walk these routes themselves and actually make real improvements in pedestrian safety. In my own higher income neighborhood, people wont stop for pedestrians, there are no crossing guards, and the pedestrian crossings dont have stop signs. So I can only imagine the lack of safety in lower-income, more urban settings.

I am not really sure what the purpose of the specialty programs are to begin with, its essentially a private school education funded by taxpayers. It is a liberal take on vouchers IMO.

OK but truthfully? Have you ever noticed that most of the specialty programs in our county are located in low income areas? The transportation is bringing students from wealthier areas to the less advantaged neighborhoods. One of the purposes of the specialty programs is to bus around richer kids to poorer schools, basically. If you dismantle the specialty schools, especially the TAG programs, you will be removing the well off children from the schools. Now all the kids at that school will be FARMS again. Congratulations, I guess?

So, two of my kids go to TAG centers that are in neighborhood schools. For one of the schools, the TAG kids make up about half the student body and the other school the TAG kids make up about 60% of the student body.
- The schools are able to provide some things to the non-TAG students that other schools might not offer. More affluent kids often have parents who have the bandwidth to volunteer and donate money so things like after school clubs and field trips. TAG parents are often squeaky wheels and they advocate for the schools to things like repairs, playgrounds etc.
- Both schools lost Title 1 status because of the TAG kids so the neighborhood kids do not get universal free breakfast and lunch like the Title 1 schools do. They also lost the other additional funding that Title 1 schools get.
-The language immersion schools and the Montessori programs do not have any comprehensive students so the neighborhood doesn't benefit from the school at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What PGCPS needs to do (and no one wants to talk about) is eliminate the specialty programs at elementary school level. That eliminates a ton of bussing and the county would have more than enough drivers.

As someone who works at one of these specialty programs, I 100% agree. These programs tend to perform higher academically that the regular public schools and its free! The least the parents can do is provide transportation.

Correct. Its INSANE to me that kids who attend their boundary school dont get transportation but "specialty program" kids do. It is "in the name of equity" but I would be really interested to see how many FARMS kids actually attend the specialty programs and furthermore, how many kids who are walkers are FARMS.

Removing the waivers means PGCPS would only provide transportation to 50% of the student population and I wonder what percentage of it is specialty program kids and how much impact they have on the routes/times/distance.

You can compare the FARMS rates on the Great Schools and the MD Report Card. There is a huge disparity.
The FARMS rate of elementary schools with no specialty programs is double the schools that are specialty programs with no comprehensive kids.
FARMS Rate:
PGCPS Elementary as a whole: 63.5%
Specialty Program only schools: 35%
Non-Specialty Program Elementary Schools - 70%

Wowwww thats some BS.

I'm a teacher at a specialty elementary school. If we required parents to transport their kids to school, our already low FARMS rate would plummet.

As it is, low income parents have a tendency to prefer neighborhood schools, just because of the difficulty of picking kids up from aftercare or after school activities, and a distrust of schools that are a further distance away. I mean, higher income parents also prefer neighborhood schools for the same reasons, but they generally are more willing to tolerate the difficulties of a far away school as a tradeoff for a program they like.

Be that as it may, I dont want to hear about transport issues when 50% of the student body is NOT going to be receiving transportation but the higher income lottery families are. The problem with your viewpoint is that the reality ALREADY isnt addressing equity and transportation is provided. But transportation for the system overall is not equitable. I would bet dollars to donuts that a majority of the walkers in most PG schools are FARMS. And its not safe to walk so how are they getting to school? These "leaders" need to walk these routes themselves and actually make real improvements in pedestrian safety. In my own higher income neighborhood, people wont stop for pedestrians, there are no crossing guards, and the pedestrian crossings dont have stop signs. So I can only imagine the lack of safety in lower-income, more urban settings.

I am not really sure what the purpose of the specialty programs are to begin with, its essentially a private school education funded by taxpayers. It is a liberal take on vouchers IMO.

OK but truthfully? Have you ever noticed that most of the specialty programs in our county are located in low income areas? The transportation is bringing students from wealthier areas to the less advantaged neighborhoods. One of the purposes of the specialty programs is to bus around richer kids to poorer schools, basically. If you dismantle the specialty schools, especially the TAG programs, you will be removing the well off children from the schools. Now all the kids at that school will be FARMS again. Congratulations, I guess?

So, two of my kids go to TAG centers that are in neighborhood schools. For one of the schools, the TAG kids make up about half the student body and the other school the TAG kids make up about 60% of the student body.
- The schools are able to provide some things to the non-TAG students that other schools might not offer. More affluent kids often have parents who have the bandwidth to volunteer and donate money so things like after school clubs and field trips. TAG parents are often squeaky wheels and they advocate for the schools to things like repairs, playgrounds etc.
- Both schools lost Title 1 status because of the TAG kids so the neighborhood kids do not get universal free breakfast and lunch like the Title 1 schools do. They also lost the other additional funding that Title 1 schools get.
-The language immersion schools and the Montessori programs do not have any comprehensive students so the neighborhood doesn't benefit from the school at all.

This is not PP, but an additional benefit would be that neighborhood students could enter the lottery and still be walkable to the lottery school (and also more likely to be aware of the school if it is local).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What PGCPS needs to do (and no one wants to talk about) is eliminate the specialty programs at elementary school level. That eliminates a ton of bussing and the county would have more than enough drivers.

As someone who works at one of these specialty programs, I 100% agree. These programs tend to perform higher academically that the regular public schools and its free! The least the parents can do is provide transportation.

Correct. Its INSANE to me that kids who attend their boundary school dont get transportation but "specialty program" kids do. It is "in the name of equity" but I would be really interested to see how many FARMS kids actually attend the specialty programs and furthermore, how many kids who are walkers are FARMS.

Removing the waivers means PGCPS would only provide transportation to 50% of the student population and I wonder what percentage of it is specialty program kids and how much impact they have on the routes/times/distance.

You can compare the FARMS rates on the Great Schools and the MD Report Card. There is a huge disparity.
The FARMS rate of elementary schools with no specialty programs is double the schools that are specialty programs with no comprehensive kids.
FARMS Rate:
PGCPS Elementary as a whole: 63.5%
Specialty Program only schools: 35%
Non-Specialty Program Elementary Schools - 70%

Wowwww thats some BS.

I'm a teacher at a specialty elementary school. If we required parents to transport their kids to school, our already low FARMS rate would plummet.

As it is, low income parents have a tendency to prefer neighborhood schools, just because of the difficulty of picking kids up from aftercare or after school activities, and a distrust of schools that are a further distance away. I mean, higher income parents also prefer neighborhood schools for the same reasons, but they generally are more willing to tolerate the difficulties of a far away school as a tradeoff for a program they like.

Be that as it may, I dont want to hear about transport issues when 50% of the student body is NOT going to be receiving transportation but the higher income lottery families are. The problem with your viewpoint is that the reality ALREADY isnt addressing equity and transportation is provided. But transportation for the system overall is not equitable. I would bet dollars to donuts that a majority of the walkers in most PG schools are FARMS. And its not safe to walk so how are they getting to school? These "leaders" need to walk these routes themselves and actually make real improvements in pedestrian safety. In my own higher income neighborhood, people wont stop for pedestrians, there are no crossing guards, and the pedestrian crossings dont have stop signs. So I can only imagine the lack of safety in lower-income, more urban settings.

I am not really sure what the purpose of the specialty programs are to begin with, its essentially a private school education funded by taxpayers. It is a liberal take on vouchers IMO.

OK but truthfully? Have you ever noticed that most of the specialty programs in our county are located in low income areas? The transportation is bringing students from wealthier areas to the less advantaged neighborhoods. One of the purposes of the specialty programs is to bus around richer kids to poorer schools, basically. If you dismantle the specialty schools, especially the TAG programs, you will be removing the well off children from the schools. Now all the kids at that school will be FARMS again. Congratulations, I guess?

So, two of my kids go to TAG centers that are in neighborhood schools. For one of the schools, the TAG kids make up about half the student body and the other school the TAG kids make up about 60% of the student body.
- The schools are able to provide some things to the non-TAG students that other schools might not offer. More affluent kids often have parents who have the bandwidth to volunteer and donate money so things like after school clubs and field trips. TAG parents are often squeaky wheels and they advocate for the schools to things like repairs, playgrounds etc.
- Both schools lost Title 1 status because of the TAG kids so the neighborhood kids do not get universal free breakfast and lunch like the Title 1 schools do. They also lost the other additional funding that Title 1 schools get.
-The language immersion schools and the Montessori programs do not have any comprehensive students so the neighborhood doesn't benefit from the school at all.

This is not PP, but an additional benefit would be that neighborhood students could enter the lottery and still be walkable to the lottery school (and also more likely to be aware of the school if it is local).

Im not connecting the dots here but okay. Walking is dangerous in most of the county. The lottery is county-wide and a numbers game (available slots:applications) so unless the neighborhood kids get priority then its a moot point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What PGCPS needs to do (and no one wants to talk about) is eliminate the specialty programs at elementary school level. That eliminates a ton of bussing and the county would have more than enough drivers.

As someone who works at one of these specialty programs, I 100% agree. These programs tend to perform higher academically that the regular public schools and its free! The least the parents can do is provide transportation.

Correct. Its INSANE to me that kids who attend their boundary school dont get transportation but "specialty program" kids do. It is "in the name of equity" but I would be really interested to see how many FARMS kids actually attend the specialty programs and furthermore, how many kids who are walkers are FARMS.

Removing the waivers means PGCPS would only provide transportation to 50% of the student population and I wonder what percentage of it is specialty program kids and how much impact they have on the routes/times/distance.

You can compare the FARMS rates on the Great Schools and the MD Report Card. There is a huge disparity.
The FARMS rate of elementary schools with no specialty programs is double the schools that are specialty programs with no comprehensive kids.
FARMS Rate:
PGCPS Elementary as a whole: 63.5%
Specialty Program only schools: 35%
Non-Specialty Program Elementary Schools - 70%

Wowwww thats some BS.

I'm a teacher at a specialty elementary school. If we required parents to transport their kids to school, our already low FARMS rate would plummet.

As it is, low income parents have a tendency to prefer neighborhood schools, just because of the difficulty of picking kids up from aftercare or after school activities, and a distrust of schools that are a further distance away. I mean, higher income parents also prefer neighborhood schools for the same reasons, but they generally are more willing to tolerate the difficulties of a far away school as a tradeoff for a program they like.

Be that as it may, I dont want to hear about transport issues when 50% of the student body is NOT going to be receiving transportation but the higher income lottery families are. The problem with your viewpoint is that the reality ALREADY isnt addressing equity and transportation is provided. But transportation for the system overall is not equitable. I would bet dollars to donuts that a majority of the walkers in most PG schools are FARMS. And its not safe to walk so how are they getting to school? These "leaders" need to walk these routes themselves and actually make real improvements in pedestrian safety. In my own higher income neighborhood, people wont stop for pedestrians, there are no crossing guards, and the pedestrian crossings dont have stop signs. So I can only imagine the lack of safety in lower-income, more urban settings.

I am not really sure what the purpose of the specialty programs are to begin with, its essentially a private school education funded by taxpayers. It is a liberal take on vouchers IMO.

OK but truthfully? Have you ever noticed that most of the specialty programs in our county are located in low income areas? The transportation is bringing students from wealthier areas to the less advantaged neighborhoods. One of the purposes of the specialty programs is to bus around richer kids to poorer schools, basically. If you dismantle the specialty schools, especially the TAG programs, you will be removing the well off children from the schools. Now all the kids at that school will be FARMS again. Congratulations, I guess?

So, two of my kids go to TAG centers that are in neighborhood schools. For one of the schools, the TAG kids make up about half the student body and the other school the TAG kids make up about 60% of the student body.
- The schools are able to provide some things to the non-TAG students that other schools might not offer. More affluent kids often have parents who have the bandwidth to volunteer and donate money so things like after school clubs and field trips. TAG parents are often squeaky wheels and they advocate for the schools to things like repairs, playgrounds etc.
- Both schools lost Title 1 status because of the TAG kids so the neighborhood kids do not get universal free breakfast and lunch like the Title 1 schools do. They also lost the other additional funding that Title 1 schools get.
-The language immersion schools and the Montessori programs do not have any comprehensive students so the neighborhood doesn't benefit from the school at all.

This is not PP, but an additional benefit would be that neighborhood students could enter the lottery and still be walkable to the lottery school (and also more likely to be aware of the school if it is local).

Im not connecting the dots here but okay. Walking is dangerous in most of the county. The lottery is county-wide and a numbers game (available slots:applications) so unless the neighborhood kids get priority then its a moot point.

I was thinking in terms of the specialty schools that aren't co-located in a neighborhood school. They could lottery into a "better" school and still be walking distance from home. I'm not really familiar with much of the county outside of the Rt. 1 corridor, but is it really dangerous to walk in most of the county? That is truly depressing.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been a teacher at six county elementary schools. Few children actually walk to school. Their parents drive them.

[Anonymous]

Two of the TAG schools don’t have any neighborhood kids at all. At the very least, Glenarden Woods and Tulip Grove should return to being a TAG program within a comprehensive. This was changed about 14 years ago. Make additional buildings that have TAG programs within a more walkable/drivable distance. Or end them (they are a holdover from 1970s bussing) and use the funds to improve TAG at all schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What PGCPS needs to do (and no one wants to talk about) is eliminate the specialty programs at elementary school level. That eliminates a ton of bussing and the county would have more than enough drivers.

As someone who works at one of these specialty programs, I 100% agree. These programs tend to perform higher academically that the regular public schools and its free! The least the parents can do is provide transportation.

Correct. Its INSANE to me that kids who attend their boundary school dont get transportation but "specialty program" kids do. It is "in the name of equity" but I would be really interested to see how many FARMS kids actually attend the specialty programs and furthermore, how many kids who are walkers are FARMS.

Removing the waivers means PGCPS would only provide transportation to 50% of the student population and I wonder what percentage of it is specialty program kids and how much impact they have on the routes/times/distance.

You can compare the FARMS rates on the Great Schools and the MD Report Card. There is a huge disparity.
The FARMS rate of elementary schools with no specialty programs is double the schools that are specialty programs with no comprehensive kids.
FARMS Rate:
PGCPS Elementary as a whole: 63.5%
Specialty Program only schools: 35%
Non-Specialty Program Elementary Schools - 70%

Wowwww thats some BS.

I'm a teacher at a specialty elementary school. If we required parents to transport their kids to school, our already low FARMS rate would plummet.

As it is, low income parents have a tendency to prefer neighborhood schools, just because of the difficulty of picking kids up from aftercare or after school activities, and a distrust of schools that are a further distance away. I mean, higher income parents also prefer neighborhood schools for the same reasons, but they generally are more willing to tolerate the difficulties of a far away school as a tradeoff for a program they like.

Be that as it may, I dont want to hear about transport issues when 50% of the student body is NOT going to be receiving transportation but the higher income lottery families are. The problem with your viewpoint is that the reality ALREADY isnt addressing equity and transportation is provided. But transportation for the system overall is not equitable. I would bet dollars to donuts that a majority of the walkers in most PG schools are FARMS. And its not safe to walk so how are they getting to school? These "leaders" need to walk these routes themselves and actually make real improvements in pedestrian safety. In my own higher income neighborhood, people wont stop for pedestrians, there are no crossing guards, and the pedestrian crossings dont have stop signs. So I can only imagine the lack of safety in lower-income, more urban settings.

I am not really sure what the purpose of the specialty programs are to begin with, its essentially a private school education funded by taxpayers. It is a liberal take on vouchers IMO.

OK but truthfully? Have you ever noticed that most of the specialty programs in our county are located in low income areas? The transportation is bringing students from wealthier areas to the less advantaged neighborhoods. One of the purposes of the specialty programs is to bus around richer kids to poorer schools, basically. If you dismantle the specialty schools, especially the TAG programs, you will be removing the well off children from the schools. Now all the kids at that school will be FARMS again. Congratulations, I guess?

So, two of my kids go to TAG centers that are in neighborhood schools. For one of the schools, the TAG kids make up about half the student body and the other school the TAG kids make up about 60% of the student body.
- The schools are able to provide some things to the non-TAG students that other schools might not offer. More affluent kids often have parents who have the bandwidth to volunteer and donate money so things like after school clubs and field trips. TAG parents are often squeaky wheels and they advocate for the schools to things like repairs, playgrounds etc.
- Both schools lost Title 1 status because of the TAG kids so the neighborhood kids do not get universal free breakfast and lunch like the Title 1 schools do. They also lost the other additional funding that Title 1 schools get.
-The language immersion schools and the Montessori programs do not have any comprehensive students so the neighborhood doesn't benefit from the school at all.

This is not PP, but an additional benefit would be that neighborhood students could enter the lottery and still be walkable to the lottery school (and also more likely to be aware of the school if it is local).

Im not connecting the dots here but okay. Walking is dangerous in most of the county. The lottery is county-wide and a numbers game (available slots:applications) so unless the neighborhood kids get priority then its a moot point.

I was thinking in terms of the specialty schools that aren't co-located in a neighborhood school. They could lottery into a "better" school and still be walking distance from home. I'm not really familiar with much of the county outside of the Rt. 1 corridor, but is it really dangerous to walk in most of the county? That is truly depressing.

Yes. It is. Being a pedestrian in this country is dangerous enough. Now be a small child in neighborhoods where cars regularly drive 40+ in a 25mph. They wont stop for pedestrians and the worst part is most of the cars driving at the walking times are parents who are picking up/dropping off their own kids. I see the same cars that wont stop for crossing set up in the pick up line day after day. There are not enough crossing guards to cover the 1.5 mile radius. All streets do not have sidewalks.

A huge problem is that lots of the traffic around schools- that make it more dangerous for bikers and walkers- are because a majority of students dont receive transportation in the form of buses. The pickup line at my kids' elementary school is 50-75 cars depending on the day and an additional 20-40 cars park within the neighborhood and walk to pickup but then drive? It' s a 400-450 student school with an aftercare on premise.

I also have to laugh at the idea of how many of yalls kids would walk 1.5 miles 2x a day. Like that isnt realistic. Go 1.5 miles away from any school in the county and see if youd feel safe having your kid under the age of 12 walk it. People are aghast that I walk my kid 0.6miles 2x day. Their backpacks are also too much of their bodyweight for most younger kids to be able to walk that distance.

The whole thing is just so short-sighted and not prioritizing kid safety and it really bugs me.

[Anonymous]

We live about 1 mile from our elementary school and our kids have walked to school a handful of times in 10 years. There is one fairly busy street that has to be crossed and there isn't a guard. The rest of the walk would be fine but I can't have my kids cross that street on their own.
It's a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. PGCPS won't put in a guard because not enough people walk, no one walks because there isn't a guard. I've asked our local law enforcement and they can't assign an officer there at arrival and dismissal.

Don't get me started about PG county governments unwillingness to put in traffic lights at school entrances. Northwestern High School is a nightmare and if it wasn't for the crossing guards it would be a blood bath. School and neighborhood groups have been advocating for years but instead of a light they put in a "smart" crosswalk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live about 1 mile from our elementary school and our kids have walked to school a handful of times in 10 years. There is one fairly busy street that has to be crossed and there isn't a guard. The rest of the walk would be fine but I can't have my kids cross that street on their own.
It's a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. PGCPS won't put in a guard because not enough people walk, no one walks because there isn't a guard. I've asked our local law enforcement and they can't assign an officer there at arrival and dismissal.

Don't get me started about PG county governments unwillingness to put in traffic lights at school entrances. Northwestern High School is a nightmare and if it wasn't for the crossing guards it would be a blood bath. School and neighborhood groups have been advocating for years but instead of a light they put in a "smart" crosswalk.

100% Ive complained to the city about the safety of our crossing and they were like yeah we will get to it. This main road cuts through a large section of the city and there should be a stop sign at every intersection. They put speed bumps in 1-1.5miles down the road when someone died and I guess thats what it will take for them to care.

Again, it woudnt be such a nightmare if there werent so many cars. They werent designed to handle 100-200 cars dropping off and picking up in 30 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Separate from what is an appropriate start and dismissal time, the notion that *six months* advance notice is insufficient is ludicrous.