Woodward Boundary Study discussion at next BoE meeting

[Anonymous]

March 9th is the day of the meeting for community feedback on scope. Curious why they are not planning to look a elementary schools at all in the current proposed scope. There are a couple of wonky “islands” left over from decisions a long time ago (like the Rosemary Hills/NCC split). I guess that could be added to scope if people want it, but it might be even more contentious than the current discussion will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

They are trying to diversify Whitman not make it whiter.

Then please tell me where they expect to draw students from and with sufficient density? I can only assume they’d get some of those Class C apartments near downtown Bethesda (near battery lane or near Arlington/Bradley). Slice up a few blocks that currently go to BCC. BCC then pulls in more East from DCC and the game of musical chairs continues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:March 9th is the day of the meeting for community feedback on scope. Curious why they are not planning to look a elementary schools at all in the current proposed scope. There are a couple of wonky “islands” left over from decisions a long time ago (like the Rosemary Hills/NCC split). I guess that could be added to scope if people want it, but it might be even more contentious than the current discussion will be.

Are you saying you think they will change the split articulation where 1/2 of RHES goes to NCC and 1/2 to CCES, into three separate K-5 schools? I don't think they will ever do this. The split articulation/bussing is what creates more diverse schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

They are trying to diversify Whitman not make it whiter.

Then please tell me where they expect to draw students from and with sufficient density? I can only assume they’d get some of those Class C apartments near downtown Bethesda (near battery lane or near Arlington/Bradley). Slice up a few blocks that currently go to BCC. BCC then pulls in more East from DCC and the game of musical chairs continues.

You’re assuming they need to make tweaks to current borders when they can simply bus kids in from wherever they want

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

They are trying to diversify Whitman not make it whiter.

Then please tell me where they expect to draw students from and with sufficient density? I can only assume they’d get some of those Class C apartments near downtown Bethesda (near battery lane or near Arlington/Bradley). Slice up a few blocks that currently go to BCC. BCC then pulls in more East from DCC and the game of musical chairs continues.

That doesn’t make any sense. Arlington Road and Battery Lane are walking distance to BCC. BCC already pulls almost to 16th St in Silver Spring, it can’t pull any further east - it’s too far.

Sometimes I think people who make these suggestions have never looked at a map, don’t know the racial and economic mix of the areas, and definitely don’t know traffic/travel time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

They are trying to diversify Whitman not make it whiter.

Then please tell me where they expect to draw students from and with sufficient density? I can only assume they’d get some of those Class C apartments near downtown Bethesda (near battery lane or near Arlington/Bradley). Slice up a few blocks that currently go to BCC. BCC then pulls in more East from DCC and the game of musical chairs continues.

You’re assuming they need to make tweaks to current borders when they can simply bus kids in from wherever they want

I think that they will take kids from the apartments near Montgomery Mall. Those kids are currently zones for WJ. To increase the diversity at WJ, they will take kids from Einstein or Wheaton. Busing kids from Somerset is laughable,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

They are trying to diversify Whitman not make it whiter.

Then please tell me where they expect to draw students from and with sufficient density? I can only assume they’d get some of those Class C apartments near downtown Bethesda (near battery lane or near Arlington/Bradley). Slice up a few blocks that currently go to BCC. BCC then pulls in more East from DCC and the game of musical chairs continues.

You’re assuming they need to make tweaks to current borders when they can simply bus kids in from wherever they want

I think that they will take kids from the apartments near Montgomery Mall. Those kids are currently zones for WJ. To increase the diversity at WJ, they will take kids from Einstein or Wheaton. Busing kids from Somerset is laughable,

If they're currently walkers to WJ, they won't reassign them to be bus riders.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if the original boundary study that tax payers shelled out $700K for was ever released? The pre COVID one? Or did the BoE just not like the results and therefore have picked an entirely different consulting firm to tell them what they want to hear?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if the original boundary study that tax payers shelled out $700K for was ever released? The pre COVID one? Or did the BoE just not like the results and therefore have picked an entirely different consulting firm to tell them what they want to hear?

That was a boundary ANALYSIS and not a boundary study. Nope, nothing will happen with it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

They are trying to diversify Whitman not make it whiter.

Then please tell me where they expect to draw students from and with sufficient density? I can only assume they’d get some of those Class C apartments near downtown Bethesda (near battery lane or near Arlington/Bradley). Slice up a few blocks that currently go to BCC. BCC then pulls in more East from DCC and the game of musical chairs continues.

You’re assuming they need to make tweaks to current borders when they can simply bus kids in from wherever they want

I think that they will take kids from the apartments near Montgomery Mall. Those kids are currently zones for WJ. To increase the diversity at WJ, they will take kids from Einstein or Wheaton. Busing kids from Somerset is laughable,

If they're currently walkers to WJ, they won't reassign them to be bus riders.

Good point. I don’t know if they are or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if the original boundary study that tax payers shelled out $700K for was ever released? The pre COVID one? Or did the BoE just not like the results and therefore have picked an entirely different consulting firm to tell them what they want to hear?

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/publicinfo/boundary-analysis/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if the original boundary study that tax payers shelled out $700K for was ever released? The pre COVID one? Or did the BoE just not like the results and therefore have picked an entirely different consulting firm to tell them what they want to hear?

I remember seeing a couple of maps with various options (proximity, diversity, etc) that were favored. It wasn't all that earth-shattering. Mostly like now but got rid of some of the strangeness like people who live near one school and are being bussed elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

They are trying to diversify Whitman not make it whiter.

Then please tell me where they expect to draw students from and with sufficient density? I can only assume they’d get some of those Class C apartments near downtown Bethesda (near battery lane or near Arlington/Bradley). Slice up a few blocks that currently go to BCC. BCC then pulls in more East from DCC and the game of musical chairs continues.

That doesn’t make any sense. Arlington Road and Battery Lane are walking distance to BCC. BCC already pulls almost to 16th St in Silver Spring, it can’t pull any further east - it’s too far.

Sometimes I think people who make these suggestions have never looked at a map, don’t know the racial and economic mix of the areas, and definitely don’t know traffic/travel time.

Of course it can pull further east. Those Silver Spring kids are currently going to Einstein, which is farther away and essentially the same travel time. It would be different if they were going to Blair, which is closer, but that's not the current catchment, and it's already overcrowded with it's own farther-east catchment.

Sometimes I think people make up excuses for failing to consider holistic solutions out of ignorance of geography. Other times I think it's out of ignorance of the worth of their fellow human beings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

They are trying to diversify Whitman not make it whiter.

Then please tell me where they expect to draw students from and with sufficient density? I can only assume they’d get some of those Class C apartments near downtown Bethesda (near battery lane or near Arlington/Bradley). Slice up a few blocks that currently go to BCC. BCC then pulls in more East from DCC and the game of musical chairs continues.

That doesn’t make any sense. Arlington Road and Battery Lane are walking distance to BCC. BCC already pulls almost to 16th St in Silver Spring, it can’t pull any further east - it’s too far.

Sometimes I think people who make these suggestions have never looked at a map, don’t know the racial and economic mix of the areas, and definitely don’t know traffic/travel time.

Of course it can pull further east. Those Silver Spring kids are currently going to Einstein, which is farther away and essentially the same travel time. It would be different if they were going to Blair, which is closer, but that's not the current catchment, and it's already overcrowded with it's own farther-east catchment.

Sometimes I think people make up excuses for failing to consider holistic solutions out of ignorance of geography. Other times I think it's out of ignorance of the worth of their fellow human beings.

+1000 sensible

[Anonymous]

If anyone wants to educate themselves on the geography, here is the MCPS map page:

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps.html