Elementary school boundary studies

[Anonymous]

There's going to be a new elementary school built near my neighborhood. Does anyone know if MCPS determines who will be part of the boundary study based on neighborhoods or schools?

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure I understand your question, but you can find out about any boundary studies on this page:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/boundary.aspx

[Anonymous]

For new elementary schools, they will take the surrounding areas zoned to existing schools, and subdivide them into smaller areas. Then there will be a variety of options created, with different areas put together to form possible boundaries. The superintendent will recommend one of the options, and the board has the final vote yes or no (or they can ask for additional options, but they rarely do).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For new elementary schools, they will take the surrounding areas zoned to existing schools, and subdivide them into smaller areas. Then there will be a variety of options created, with different areas put together to form possible boundaries. The superintendent will recommend one of the options, and the board has the final vote yes or no (or they can ask for additional options, but they rarely do).

Thanks for this. How do they determine which high school or middle school the new elementary school will feed into?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For new elementary schools, they will take the surrounding areas zoned to existing schools, and subdivide them into smaller areas. Then there will be a variety of options created, with different areas put together to form possible boundaries. The superintendent will recommend one of the options, and the board has the final vote yes or no (or they can ask for additional options, but they rarely do).

Thanks for this. How do they determine which high school or middle school the new elementary school will feed into?

That is usually known ahead of time, if the new school sits squarely within one existing HS or MS boundary. But if the scope of the boundary study includes multiple possible feeder schools, then the superintendent's recommendation would also include a recommended feeder path.

In the current study for the new Gaithersburg school, the option maps each include an ES and an MS version, since there are two middle schools in scope. So the new school could end up feeding to either MS, and some of the existing ESs could end up changing to the other MS also. But all of the options would keep these ESs and MSs ultimately feeding to Gaithersburg HS.

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/GaithersburgES8_EnglishOptionsNovember11r.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For new elementary schools, they will take the surrounding areas zoned to existing schools, and subdivide them into smaller areas. Then there will be a variety of options created, with different areas put together to form possible boundaries. The superintendent will recommend one of the options, and the board has the final vote yes or no (or they can ask for additional options, but they rarely do).

Don't forget that the smallest unit of analysis is a census tract. So no matter what happens, people will always stay with their census tract.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For new elementary schools, they will take the surrounding areas zoned to existing schools, and subdivide them into smaller areas. Then there will be a variety of options created, with different areas put together to form possible boundaries. The superintendent will recommend one of the options, and the board has the final vote yes or no (or they can ask for additional options, but they rarely do).

Thanks for this. How do they determine which high school or middle school the new elementary school will feed into?

That is usually known ahead of time, if the new school sits squarely within one existing HS or MS boundary. But if the scope of the boundary study includes multiple possible feeder schools, then the superintendent's recommendation would also include a recommended feeder path.

In the current study for the new Gaithersburg school, the option maps each include an ES and an MS version, since there are two middle schools in scope. So the new school could end up feeding to either MS, and some of the existing ESs could end up changing to the other MS also. But all of the options would keep these ESs and MSs ultimately feeding to Gaithersburg HS.

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/GaithersburgES8_EnglishOptionsNovember11r.pdf

And actually in this study, each of the options also includes the possibility that Gaithersburg ES #8 will be split between Forest Oak and Gaithersburg MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For new elementary schools, they will take the surrounding areas zoned to existing schools, and subdivide them into smaller areas. Then there will be a variety of options created, with different areas put together to form possible boundaries. The superintendent will recommend one of the options, and the board has the final vote yes or no (or they can ask for additional options, but they rarely do).

Thanks for this. How do they determine which high school or middle school the new elementary school will feed into?

That is usually known ahead of time, if the new school sits squarely within one existing HS or MS boundary. But if the scope of the boundary study includes multiple possible feeder schools, then the superintendent's recommendation would also include a recommended feeder path.

In the current study for the new Gaithersburg school, the option maps each include an ES and an MS version, since there are two middle schools in scope. So the new school could end up feeding to either MS, and some of the existing ESs could end up changing to the other MS also. But all of the options would keep these ESs and MSs ultimately feeding to Gaithersburg HS.

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/GaithersburgES8_EnglishOptionsNovember11r.pdf

This is OP. Thanks. I was just starting to think what would happen with Clarksburg ES #9 which sits squarely on the Seneca Valley HS boundary (based on the upcounty boundary study redistricting), although the elementary school that it intends to alleviate (Clarksburg ES) feeds into both Seneca Valley and the Clarksburg clusters. So would the schools in the upcoming boundary study include both the SVHS and Clarksburg clusters or just SVHS only?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For new elementary schools, they will take the surrounding areas zoned to existing schools, and subdivide them into smaller areas. Then there will be a variety of options created, with different areas put together to form possible boundaries. The superintendent will recommend one of the options, and the board has the final vote yes or no (or they can ask for additional options, but they rarely do).

Thanks for this. How do they determine which high school or middle school the new elementary school will feed into?

That is usually known ahead of time, if the new school sits squarely within one existing HS or MS boundary. But if the scope of the boundary study includes multiple possible feeder schools, then the superintendent's recommendation would also include a recommended feeder path.

In the current study for the new Gaithersburg school, the option maps each include an ES and an MS version, since there are two middle schools in scope. So the new school could end up feeding to either MS, and some of the existing ESs could end up changing to the other MS also. But all of the options would keep these ESs and MSs ultimately feeding to Gaithersburg HS.

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/GaithersburgES8_EnglishOptionsNovember11r.pdf

This is OP. Thanks. I was just starting to think what would happen with Clarksburg ES #9 which sits squarely on the Seneca Valley HS boundary (based on the upcounty boundary study redistricting), although the elementary school that it intends to alleviate (Clarksburg ES) feeds into both Seneca Valley and the Clarksburg clusters. So would the schools in the upcoming boundary study include both the SVHS and Clarksburg clusters or just SVHS only?

In this particular case, I think the new school will be part of the Seneca Valley cluster. Since the Cabin Branch area was just reassigned to SVHS, and one of the factors is stability of school assignment, I don't see them re-reassigning that area back to CHS. Also, CHS is still very overcrowded, so there's another reason. But the new school's boundary study should be starting in the spring of 2022, so we'll find out soon whether the scope includes the middle and/or high schools too. (A final decision won't come until November 2022.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is OP. Thanks. I was just starting to think what would happen with Clarksburg ES #9 which sits squarely on the Seneca Valley HS boundary (based on the upcounty boundary study redistricting), although the elementary school that it intends to alleviate (Clarksburg ES) feeds into both Seneca Valley and the Clarksburg clusters. So would the schools in the upcoming boundary study include both the SVHS and Clarksburg clusters or just SVHS only?

Clarksburg ES has a split articulation, so I would expect the boundary study to involve elementary schools in the SV cluster and the Clarksburg cluster.

Now, if I were one of the families in Boyds who was horrified at being reassigned to Neelsville MS/SVHS, I would start lobbying to include the Poolesville cluster, too - with the goal of being reassigned to Monocacy ES, followed by John Poole MS and Poolesville HS. Or I would just petition the board directly for that boundary change, but they don't seem to have done that. Monocacy ES is closer than the Cabin Branch ES will be, but Poolesville is not closer than Germantown.

[Anonymous]

Back in 2018 the BOE made demographics/diversity the top factor in the boundary policy. So who knows what they'll do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back in 2018 the BOE made demographics/diversity the top factor in the boundary policy. So who knows what they'll do?

Sure, but it's still only one of four factors. The other factors still matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is OP. Thanks. I was just starting to think what would happen with Clarksburg ES #9 which sits squarely on the Seneca Valley HS boundary (based on the upcounty boundary study redistricting), although the elementary school that it intends to alleviate (Clarksburg ES) feeds into both Seneca Valley and the Clarksburg clusters. So would the schools in the upcoming boundary study include both the SVHS and Clarksburg clusters or just SVHS only?

Clarksburg ES has a split articulation, so I would expect the boundary study to involve elementary schools in the SV cluster and the Clarksburg cluster.

Now, if I were one of the families in Boyds who was horrified at being reassigned to Neelsville MS/SVHS, I would start lobbying to include the Poolesville cluster, too - with the goal of being reassigned to Monocacy ES, followed by John Poole MS and Poolesville HS. Or I would just petition the board directly for that boundary change, but they don't seem to have done that. Monocacy ES is closer than the Cabin Branch ES will be, but Poolesville is not closer than Germantown.

It will be interesting since in addition to Clarksburg ES #9 being projected to be done by Sept 2023, so will South Lake ES which also feeds into NEelsville MS (but Watkins Mill HS).

[Anonymous]

A teacher at Neelseville actually told the students that the kids from Cabin Branch were moved because there can't be too many black and brown students at the school. Something for you to look forward to, OP.

I hope they'll leave Clarksburg ES open for all of the Rocky Hill kids to attend instead of creating a split.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A teacher at Neelseville actually told the students that the kids from Cabin Branch were moved because there can't be too many black and brown students at the school. Something for you to look forward to, OP.

I hope they'll leave Clarksburg ES open for all of the Rocky Hill kids to attend instead of creating a split.

I wouldn't be surprised if they keep the split but let's see. At the first meeting, the Planning director said that they do not know yet which neighborhoods will feed the new school and that the neighborhood where the school is located doesn't necessarily mean that the particular neighborhood will be assigned to it.