Chevy Chase 4 school system- Rosemary Hills, CC Elementary

[Anonymous]

Hi, We are moving just south of EW Highway, just east of Connecticut. My understanding is that we have the Rosemary Hills/CC Elementary School situation. Can any moms or dads tell us their impressions of how they like this situation? Seems kind of young to be sending such a young child on a schoolbus (before 3rd grade)
Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Rosemary Hills is the primary k-2 then the kids have a choice to go to BE, NCC, CC, a lot of kids go to NCC and CC because they have 6th grade but that is going away in the next few years. So all the 6th graders will be at Westland.

Not too young to ride a bus, why do you say that?

[Anonymous]

We just finished K at RH and had a great experience. I understand how weird it feels to put your child on a schoolbus at age 5, but that is the norm for almost every elementary school in MoCo and other suburban systems. RH is a huge school (8 K classes last year) but has a passionately involved parent community, many of whom love the school because the kids are with a relatively narrow group of ages (as opposed to the standarnd MCPS system in which they would be wandering the hallways among 5th graders on down.) I had an active boy who loved school and came out of K performing above grade levels, which wouldn't have been my assumption. Like all other MCPS schools in higher income areas, the school does have large classes (20-25) but there are lots of aides and literally tons of parent volunteers. I was a skeptic until we started, but have only good things to say based on one year.

[Anonymous]

PS, not sure if 11:16 has it right - the county hasn't announced any decision on how to handle 6th grade for this cohort. Lots of parents continue to prefer keeping the 6th graders at NCC or CC rather than moving them to Westland; there are some downsides in terms of the curriculum that's available, but the upside of keeping your 6th grader away from the toxicity that can come with middle school seems to be a selling point for the parents I hear from. There's also talk of building a new middle school entirely, but that seems unlikely given the economy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PS, not sure if 11:16 has it right - the county hasn't announced any decision on how to handle 6th grade for this cohort. Lots of parents continue to prefer keeping the 6th graders at NCC or CC rather than moving them to Westland; there are some downsides in terms of the curriculum that's available, but the upside of keeping your 6th grader away from the toxicity that can come with middle school seems to be a selling point for the parents I hear from. There's also talk of building a new middle school entirely, but that seems unlikely given the economy.

It is pretty much done, all the comment periods are closed and they the BOE, did not get many comments on that issue. The sad thing is, along with the entire cluster, is that many parents say this and that but when it comes time to go to hearings, joining a committee etc, they don't until after the fact and say how can we help.

Not sure if you attended the meeting at BE for the presentation but they pretty much said how it was going to play out. Without any money, the County can't build the new school or obtain the land needed. The least expensive option of the 3 is to add on to Westland. Chevy Chase Land Company is sitting on the perfect spot and they will never give that up in hopes of the Purple Line

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rosemary Hills is the primary k-2 then the kids have a choice to go to BE, NCC, CC, a lot of kids go to NCC and CC because they have 6th grade but that is going away in the next few years. So all the 6th graders will be at Westland.

Not too young to ride a bus, why do you say that?

Just to be clear, kids who proceed from RHPS to NCC, BE or CC do so on the basis of geographic boundaries. If, however, you finish 2nd grade at RHPS and live in, say, NCC boundary but would rather have your child go to BE or CC, this can be requested through a special transfer process. There is no need to prove any "reason" for the transfer (like hardship, sibiling, etc.), such as there is under the county-wide transfer policy.

I just want to be clear that most kids go to their geographically assigned upper elementary school, after RHPS even though there is this matter of right transfer process, and making this "choice" is a special right that came as a result of the institution of the pairings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS, not sure if 11:16 has it right - the county hasn't announced any decision on how to handle 6th grade for this cohort. Lots of parents continue to prefer keeping the 6th graders at NCC or CC rather than moving them to Westland; there are some downsides in terms of the curriculum that's available, but the upside of keeping your 6th grader away from the toxicity that can come with middle school seems to be a selling point for the parents I hear from. There's also talk of building a new middle school entirely, but that seems unlikely given the economy.

It is pretty much done, all the comment periods are closed and they the BOE, did not get many comments on that issue. The sad thing is, along with the entire cluster, is that many parents say this and that but when it comes time to go to hearings, joining a committee etc, they don't until after the fact and say how can we help.

Not sure if you attended the meeting at BE for the presentation but they pretty much said how it was going to play out. Without any money, the County can't build the new school or obtain the land needed. The least expensive option of the 3 is to add on to Westland. Chevy Chase Land Company is sitting on the perfect spot and they will never give that up in hopes of the Purple Line

I don't think this is entirely correct. The process, as far as I understood is still at the Superintendant level. Roundtables were to give feedback to the Super about CCES and NCC position on retention of 6th grade at the elementary. CCES parent community overwhelming responded to internal surveys saying that they wanted 6th grade to be retained. Many parents also were unhappy and rejected the Super/MCPS position that voting to retain the 6th grade would mean that parents would have to accept continually deteriorating quality of academics in exchange for retention of 6th grade. For example, these 2 6th grades do not offer foreign language opportunities commensurate with Westland, and do not have access to the advanced middle school classes being rolled out. Parents at CCES were outraged about this.

But, most understood the process to be that school reps would give feedback thru the roundtables to the Super who would make recommendations about options to the BOE in the fall, at which time the BOE would seek more public comments. 6th grade retention and support has been a fight in the past and is likely to be one again right before election season.

MCPS reps from long term planning repeatedly said that now was a good time to build and that money is available in the capital budget. But did say that a new middle school was likely to be split in articulation from one of the northern middle schools like Tilden or N. Bethesda. MCPS reps did acknowledge that with an increasingly urban south MoCo, it would be hard to find a site big enough for a new middle school, and that a new school might have to differ in some traditional aspects of planning (like parking availability).

Ilaya Hopkins, running for County Council, had an op-ed in the Gazette recently in support of building a new middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS, not sure if 11:16 has it right - the county hasn't announced any decision on how to handle 6th grade for this cohort. Lots of parents continue to prefer keeping the 6th graders at NCC or CC rather than moving them to Westland; there are some downsides in terms of the curriculum that's available, but the upside of keeping your 6th grader away from the toxicity that can come with middle school seems to be a selling point for the parents I hear from. There's also talk of building a new middle school entirely, but that seems unlikely given the economy.

It is pretty much done, all the comment periods are closed and they the BOE, did not get many comments on that issue. The sad thing is, along with the entire cluster, is that many parents say this and that but when it comes time to go to hearings, joining a committee etc, they don't until after the fact and say how can we help.

Not sure if you attended the meeting at BE for the presentation but they pretty much said how it was going to play out. Without any money, the County can't build the new school or obtain the land needed. The least expensive option of the 3 is to add on to Westland. Chevy Chase Land Company is sitting on the perfect spot and they will never give that up in hopes of the Purple Line

I don't think this is entirely correct. The process, as far as I understood is still at the Superintendant level. Roundtables were to give feedback to the Super about CCES and NCC position on retention of 6th grade at the elementary. CCES parent community overwhelming responded to internal surveys saying that they wanted 6th grade to be retained. Many parents also were unhappy and rejected the Super/MCPS position that voting to retain the 6th grade would mean that parents would have to accept continually deteriorating quality of academics in exchange for retention of 6th grade. For example, these 2 6th grades do not offer foreign language opportunities commensurate with Westland, and do not have access to the advanced middle school classes being rolled out. Parents at CCES were outraged about this.

But, most understood the process to be that school reps would give feedback thru the roundtables to the Super who would make recommendations about options to the BOE in the fall, at which time the BOE would seek more public comments. 6th grade retention and support has been a fight in the past and is likely to be one again right before election season.

MCPS reps from long term planning repeatedly said that now was a good time to build and that money is available in the capital budget. But did say that a new middle school was likely to be split in articulation from one of the northern middle schools like Tilden or N. Bethesda. MCPS reps did acknowledge that with an increasingly urban south MoCo, it would be hard to find a site big enough for a new middle school, and that a new school might have to differ in some traditional aspects of planning (like parking availability).

Ilaya Hopkins, running for County Council, had an op-ed in the Gazette recently in support of building a new middle school.

So you were not at the meeting at BE, there is not money, there are other areas of the county that need the money as well. I am on the same education committee as her for our neighborhood and everythign is pretty much done. Weast takes the info from his staff and thier suggestion, and he is a lame duck now that his contract is running out. The middle school, if built, it needs to be south of Ct ave, and Tilden is not overcrowded because it is a high school building not a middle school. It won;t be a traditional school either, it will have to be several floors tall due to the lack of space.

[Anonymous]

New poster here, my daughter just finished K at RHPS and I was at the meeting at NCC. I want to correct the person who said that students attend the upper grade elementary school in their neighborhood only. That is NOT correct and as part of the system you can choose which one to send your child to - CC, NCC or Bethesda.

Nothing has been decided yet about keeping 6th at CC/NCC, building a new middle school, etc. The results from the RHPS parent survey are here: http://www.rhpspta.org/specialnotices.html

I also want to echo what a PP said about Rosemary Hills. Our experience was fantastic - it is a big school but there is TONS of parent involvement and great teachers and staff from what we saw. And my daughter LOVED the bus.

Also, all three schools have fantastic, accredited before- and after-school care programs run by Wonders Child Care, if that's something that you need.

Whatever happens with the school articulation situation, all these schools are very well run and historically strong.

[Anonymous]

PP here. From what I heard at the meeting at NCC, this poster

Not sure if you attended the meeting at BE for the presentation but they pretty much said how it was going to play out. Without any money, the County can't build the new school or obtain the land needed.

is totally wrong. There is precious little money in the operating budget right now but there is plenty of money in the capital budget which is where funds for a project like this need to come.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. From what I heard at the meeting at NCC, this poster

Not sure if you attended the meeting at BE for the presentation but they pretty much said how it was going to play out. Without any money, the County can't build the new school or obtain the land needed.

is totally wrong. There is precious little money in the operating budget right now but there is plenty of money in the capital budget which is where funds for a project like this need to come.

The County is broke and they are already having the deparments made mid year cuts and the fiscal year begins tomorrow.

All the schools are great, they all end up at Westland and if your kid is in school now, the new middle school, if built, will not be built until the youngest in school now are in 7th grade.

[Anonymous]

The County is broke and they are already having the deparments made mid year cuts and the fiscal year begins tomorrow.

Again, OPERATING budget. The MCPS capital budget can only be tapped for construction/renovation/addition projects and is fine. I agree that it makes it totally ridiculous to talk about A) building a new middle school (capital budget) in the same meeting as B) cutting Spanish classes for 6th graders (operating budget) but that is the reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The County is broke and they are already having the deparments made mid year cuts and the fiscal year begins tomorrow.

Again, OPERATING budget. The MCPS capital budget can only be tapped for construction/renovation/addition projects and is fine. I agree that it makes it totally ridiculous to talk about A) building a new middle school (capital budget) in the same meeting as B) cutting Spanish classes for 6th graders (operating budget) but that is the reality.

At the end of the day, there is one big bucket, the way things are going, that bucket, no matter what is in it, is going to be empty, the money will be moved to other areas as it has in the past. Have you ever saved for a home imporvemnt project and had to use the moeny for something else? Welcome to your county council's thinking vote them out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

MCPS reps from long term planning repeatedly said that now was a good time to build and that money is available in the capital budget. But did say that a new middle school was likely to be split in articulation from one of the northern middle schools like Tilden or N. Bethesda. MCPS reps did acknowledge that with an increasingly urban south MoCo, it would be hard to find a site big enough for a new middle school, and that a new school might have to differ in some traditional aspects of planning (like parking availability).

Ilaya Hopkins, running for County Council, had an op-ed in the Gazette recently in support of building a new middle school.

I am poster of above. I misspoke when I reported that the MCPS rep raised the possibility of split articulation of a new middle school with Tilden. I believe it was Pyle that she spoke about sharing split articulation, not Tilden. Sorry for the confusion. I remember being surprised when she said it because, although Pyle is the largest middle school in the county, I've always heard that most parents are happy with it, and I would have thought that articulating children away from Pyle would cause headaches for MCPS. But, since I don't live in that cluster, I don't know what parents really think about Pyle.

[Anonymous]

Pyle is overcrowded as well. Westland will end up being 1250 students and with an addition will have the capacity to have 1450. That woudl make Pyle and Westland the same size. They made a huge mistake in the 80's by closing Whittier Woods, Radnor, Lynbrook, Clara Barton, North Bethesda, (which is now open again)

But hey Pyle has great texters