Bingo. This is why these regional programs are not really going to work out without good transportation. I have said this before and will say it again - Watkins Mill IB program. The proposed 6 regional magnets is doomed for failure just like that. Providing better programs in home schools is the way to go. MCPS needs to learn from FCPS. Pretty much every high school there has an advanced STEM track. The kids do not have to go to TJ for a better education. Our county should have just kept the existing programs and added more programs in every high school. Whatever money they want to spend on transportation could be used to create programs in every school, and reduce traffic. The cream of the crop can go to the existing magnets (just like TJ). |
Also one of the programs at Whitman is Mandarin and only kids with Mandarin exposure will be eligible and within Region 1 I believe only Pyle MS offers Mandarin and that's the Whitman feeder MS. |
What do you think is happening now? This really isn’t much of a change. My kids want stem. They max out the 1-2 stem classes they want at their school and then fill in with other stuff. They promised Mc as an option but Mc refused acceptance for classes as they claim things like math you need to take calc with them to go to mvc and linear algebra so one ended up going backward in math taking lower classes as they’d have to start all over that MC and transportation and timing was an issue. The virtual class was after school and it conflicted with sports. The issue with going cross town to another school is in high school you go in some days late, no bus provided, and back and forth for sports and activities. Uber regularly is too costly. |
Yes, this sucks. I can understand you PP. But how do you picture the new model can improve the situation? It sounds like you are bounded to a mediocre or poor-performing HS right now which is already severely lacking resources. The new model will let the top ones with resource to escape faster, and leaving your current HS with even less peers and less resource, because all STEM programs locate in the good HSs while poor ones get those unpopular CTE-oriented ones. I think this is what some Einstein HS families concern about. |
| So it turns out if you don't want to travel to school then you have to live in a dense city. Sorry that the geometry of the planet is "inequitable". |
The school is not a bad school and what you are saying is offensive. It has a bad principal who refuses to balance the needs and wants of the students and fight for them. This is going to harm these schools and its going to force some of us to go private or move, which is what we will do for the younger kids. We cannot drive kids cross town nor do we want them at the schools offered as we moved to our area to avoid them. If we move, we'd target Wheaton. |
We are in densely populated areas. The issue is all schools don't have the same opportunities, and without transporation its impossible for many families. |
Well, in this scenario, I'd think your best choice is to fight together with our families to file complaints to CO and see if you can get a new principal. Or move or send kids to private as you suggested. Regional program won't help your case at all. Rather, with such kind of principal, your assigned HS cannot even build up programs that they are supposed to host, and meanwhile, the principal might use that as an excuse to further dilute or remove the existing opportunities (e.g., existing high-level courses). |
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Im confused
we are in the NE consortium right now Blake/ PB/Springbrook. I know that Sherwood is getting added to make our region. Are you saying that if I live in PB area but my kid goes to Blake, there will be no bus from close to my house? How do you all know this already. It hasnt even started? |
See the original post. There's a design team since last March-April-ish, which is formed by community members who understands their community needs and gaps deeply, who are activists mostly and volunteering themselves in helping shaping the regional program. Rather, central office and Taylor ignored their inputs and valid concerns, and just moved full-speed ahead with their disastrous layout. One testimonier identified this HS-only central stop model from Taylor's previous district document and brought this up for clarification last summer. Since then, numerous feedbacks (including from the design team) were sent to the central office to ask about the transportation model and associate cost estimate. Last November-ish, they were still considering something like the current DCC/NEC transportation model to branch out neighborhood stops. Now they officially told the design team that they will adopt the HS-only central bus stop model. |
The school is already diluted. There is little to cut sadly. |
Transportation is a bigger issue than just two and from school daily as kids have activities and sports. |
Yes, that is based on the CO plan that was recently shared. You will have to get your kid to PB and then there will be a magnet bus to get them to Blake. |
Look at Taylor's estimation of regional program cost: https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DNLJXC4F4A19/$file/Regional%20Program%20Model%20FY2027-2031%20Budget%20251120.pdf His estimate about transportation cost for all 6-regions is $1.3 million (Page 2, FY31 column as FY27-30 is transition years when both models run). Right now the transportation in DCC only costs about $1.5 million. For NEC, it's about $80 K/year for transportation. So you know what model is in his mind from the very beginning when he shared these numbers. |
Sorry, typo. NEC transportation cost is about $800K/year. These numbers come from the 2016 METIS report, multiplied by the inflation factor. |