B-CC/WJ capacity cluster meeting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should send all of Kensington to Einstein. And all of Rosemary hills to Northwood.

That would help BCC crowding, WJ crowding and add middle class families to those two lower performing clusters

The reason why there are middle class families in Rosemary Hills is because it feeds into BCC. You take that away and the neighborhood gets less middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should send all of Kensington to Einstein. And all of Rosemary hills to Northwood.

That would help BCC crowding, WJ crowding and add middle class families to those two lower performing clusters

The reason why there are middle class families in Rosemary Hills is because it feeds into BCC. You take that away and the neighborhood gets less middle class.

Ha now even the diversity loving lower end middle class families are saying they will move away if they had to go to school with more kids from silver spring. If you don’t want to why do you think someone who doesn’t even live in silver spring wants to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should send all of Kensington to Einstein. And all of Rosemary hills to Northwood.

That would help BCC crowding, WJ crowding and add middle class families to those two lower performing clusters

and make BCC and WJ even less diverse.

But all 4 schools would get better, isn’t that what’s important?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should send all of Kensington to Einstein. And all of Rosemary hills to Northwood.

That would help BCC crowding, WJ crowding and add middle class families to those two lower performing clusters

and make BCC and WJ even less diverse.

But all 4 schools would get better, isn’t that what’s important?

None of the families zoned to WJ or BCC in Kensington are particularly diverse. They are white people for the most part that couldn’t quite afford / or afford as much in Bethesda. BCC would get less SES diverse but it would still lag behind Whitman and Churchill in terms of wealth concentration. Many of the richest parts of BCC don’t send many kids to BCC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should send all of Kensington to Einstein. And all of Rosemary hills to Northwood.

That would help BCC crowding, WJ crowding and add middle class families to those two lower performing clusters

and make BCC and WJ even less diverse.

But all 4 schools would get better, isn’t that what’s important?

"Better"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should send all of Kensington to Einstein. And all of Rosemary hills to Northwood.

That would help BCC crowding, WJ crowding and add middle class families to those two lower performing clusters

and make BCC and WJ even less diverse.

But all 4 schools would get better, isn’t that what’s important?

"Better"

Better test scores and thus better reputation, less low performing kids as a percentage

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should send all of Kensington to Einstein. And all of Rosemary hills to Northwood.

That would help BCC crowding, WJ crowding and add middle class families to those two lower performing clusters

and make BCC and WJ even less diverse.

But all 4 schools would get better, isn’t that what’s important?

"Better"

Better test scores and thus better reputation, less low performing kids as a percentage

Right. Not better teachers, or better administrators, or better facilities, or better curriculum. But hey, better test scores and better reputation!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should send all of Kensington to Einstein. And all of Rosemary hills to Northwood.

That would help BCC crowding, WJ crowding and add middle class families to those two lower performing clusters

and make BCC and WJ even less diverse.

But all 4 schools would get better, isn’t that what’s important?

"Better"

Better test scores and thus better reputation, less low performing kids as a percentage

Right. Not better teachers, or better administrators, or better facilities, or better curriculum. But hey, better test scores and better reputation!

What would be accomplished from any diversity reshuffle, same-same

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should send all of Kensington to Einstein. And all of Rosemary hills to Northwood.

That would help BCC crowding, WJ crowding and add middle class families to those two lower performing clusters

and make BCC and WJ even less diverse.

But all 4 schools would get better, isn’t that what’s important?

"Better"

Better test scores and thus better reputation, less low performing kids as a percentage

That may or may not be the case, but what is more definite - IMO - is this would chop off the areas providing some racial/SES diversity to BCC and WJ without much of impact on Einstein/Northwood. This would make MCPS even more segregated, and likely a nonstarter. Check out how school clusters can reduce or increase segregation: https://www.vox.com/2018/1/8/16822374/school-segregation-gerrymander-map

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see why they're even talking about since both BCC and WJ will off-load significant numbers to Woodward in just a few years.

No, not BCC...DCC and WJ.

There seem to be some people on DCUM who believe that if they just say often enough that Woodward is for BCC and WJ, that will make it true.

People are saying it because it makes sense. There is such a scarcity mentality among parents who are looking at the problems of countywide overcrowding. We should not be bickering about which schools should get space at Woodward when it’s built and arguing that it can only be the schools currently on the table. The problem with building Woodward for WJ and the DCC is that it only partially solves part of the problem. So many high schools are oversubscribed and Woodward itself will be at capacity before all the overcrowding is relieved. That doesn’t even address the ridiculously low population growth projections for Bethesda that are almost certainly underplaying the problem in the West of the county.

Parents should, rather than fighting for one new high school, be demanding two, planned together with Woodward, so that smart boundary decisions can be made, even if that decision is to start with one boundary to alleviate immediate overcrowding and then shift it East when the second high school in the DCC area is finished.

Just because one proposal has been put forward by MCPS doesn’t mean that we can’t advocate for more comprehensive change. We don’t have to fight over where a few new seats are created. We can demand that they create more seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see why they're even talking about since both BCC and WJ will off-load significant numbers to Woodward in just a few years.

No, not BCC...DCC and WJ.

There seem to be some people on DCUM who believe that if they just say often enough that Woodward is for BCC and WJ, that will make it true.

People are saying it because it makes sense. There is such a scarcity mentality among parents who are looking at the problems of countywide overcrowding. We should not be bickering about which schools should get space at Woodward when it’s built and arguing that it can only be the schools currently on the table. The problem with building Woodward for WJ and the DCC is that it only partially solves part of the problem. So many high schools are oversubscribed and Woodward itself will be at capacity before all the overcrowding is relieved. That doesn’t even address the ridiculously low population growth projections for Bethesda that are almost certainly underplaying the problem in the West of the county.

Parents should, rather than fighting for one new high school, be demanding two, planned together with Woodward, so that smart boundary decisions can be made, even if that decision is to start with one boundary to alleviate immediate overcrowding and then shift it East when the second high school in the DCC area is finished.

Just because one proposal has been put forward by MCPS doesn’t mean that we can’t advocate for more comprehensive change. We don’t have to fight over where a few new seats are created. We can demand that they create more seats.

1. Seneca Valley
2. Woodward
3. Northwood
4. Crown

How many new high school buildings do you think MCPS can build in a decade? Where is the money going to come from to pay for any more?

[Anonymous]

To the PP who wants multiple new HS downcounty, have you even looked at the Woodward study? Woodward will go a long way to relieving overcrowding at WJ & in the DCC.

There are multiple PPs here who seem insistent on creating or anticipating problems rather than solving existing issues. I assume you have some parochial interest to advance here, but get over it. As it is you've completely hijacked a thread that originally was focused on the elementary school capacity study, not HS.

[Anonymous]

Woodward will open and relieve crowding from several local schools.

Crown will open and relieve crowding from several local schools.

Both will likely be high performing schools. Higher than DCC and NEC but lower than W schools. Everyone will be fine. The sky will not fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they are considering expanding current schools in both clusters to have 740 students each? How does that work in the Rosemary Hills area - it would have 740 students, and then half the students would go to CCES and the other half to NCC, but each of those schools would need to have 740 students? The math does not work.

The WJ elementary schools are already all built (or in the midst of being built) to 715-770. They are looking at taking more of the B-CC cluster elementary schools to that size but a parameter of this capacity study was that they are not considering de-coupling RH, NCC and CC. So they are not looking at taking those 3 up to 740. For example, the NCC site is relatively large and relatively flat with good bus access and could pretty easily accommodate a larger school, but they did not consider that option due to the priority for keeping the RH/NCC/CC grouping intact.

In other words, you are correct that the math doesn't work for those three schools to remain linked but each go to 740.

Thanks. I'm surprised they are not even considering decoupling.

Undoing the pairing with RHPS - "decoupling" - would essentially re-segregate the cluster. I doubt they could do it.

I live in the cluster. I went to the school in the cluster when it was desegregated. I certainly wouldn't support re-segregation, and I think that many parents feel the same. I also don't think legally it would be viable to uncouple schools. There would likely be law suits to oppose.

+1 from someone else who went to these schools and has kids who went to them also. I’ve suspected that something was up since the RH renovation renamed it from RHPS to RHES, but there’s no way they could do it.

But as long as CCES and Rosemary Hills stay coupled, I would think they could move NCC out without much issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Somerset is so severely under capacity?

It's great for the kids/parents who live/attend that school, it's just such a different dynamic than all of the other schools on this list.

Sorry, meant to type Westbrook!

It’s catchment area is all SFHs, so there is very low density in that part of the cluster. It would make sense to move some of the high rise buildings in Friendship Heights that are now in Somerset into Westbrook. Then you could move some of the crowding in the Bethesda ES catchment into Somerset.

Why does Westbrook even go to BCC? It should go to Whitman based on geography.