Rosemary Hills/Bethesda/CC/NCC Boundry study - Superintendent's Recommendation

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the typos. I'm in a bit of a hurry. I need to get to bed so that I have time in the morning to get the kids up early to catch that bus.

[Anonymous]

22:52 - Your post was hilarious. I hope that you're up at this hour getting your kids ready to take the bus!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Give me a break. Everyone in MCPS is bussed - it is not unique to RHPS. If you live in Bethesda, presumably you know this already since public school buses are all over the roads. So please find a new argument with some basis in reality! Or just concede that you have an irrational hysteria surrounding a school that happens to be 10 feet over the line into Silver Spring and has a relatively small proportion of kids of color and/or kids from less well-off households.

This comment was posted in response to my observation that Mont. Co. should either bus everyone or bus nobody, and that meaningful integration happens through magnets, not busing. I'm sure you mean well, but I am not one of the Bethesda parents. I live in the heart of Silver Spring and my daughter's elementary school has >60% FARMS. The notion that I'm experiencing "irrational hysteria" about a Silver Spring school and the population that feeds into that school makes me smile, because you've got it all wrong. I get it that you think the Bethesda parents are just turned off by a little diversity, and maybe you're right. I don't know them and I wasn't involved in the boundary study and all that it entailed. But let's be clear. NOT everyone in Montgomery County is bused. In fact, very very few kids in Mont. Co. are bused. Busing is a term of art and does not refer to taking the bus. It refers to being transported away from your in-boundary school, something that poses a very real and seemingly unnecessary inconvenience to parents/families, whether rich or poor. And if it's going to be MCPS's policy to bus, then MCPS needs to implement that policy in an evenhanded and county-wide manner, and it needs to do so in a manner that will actually achieve diversity, not in a way that merges mostly rich with 100% rich schools. If you are really committed to integration through busing, maybe you need to acknowledge that Rosemary Hills' projected FARMS rate of just over 22% means that it will continue to be one of the most affluent elementary schools in the county. There are numerous Downcounty schools with FARMS rates in excess of 70, 80, and even 90%. Real integration through busing would require busing from Bethesda, Rosemary Hills etc. and pretty much from the entire Green Zone into these less-affluent neighborhoods. Do I think that's a good idea? No. Because there are more effective approaches than busing and split elementary schools. But at least under an all-out busing approach we wouldn't have to pretend that blending mostly rich with totally rich neighborhoods is accomplishing the type of integration our county still lacks. I don't think wanting the basic conveniences associated with an in-boundary school assignment makes a person a foe of diversity. I intuitively "get" what the Bethesda parents are saying, even though our circumstances and the demographics of our communities are much much different. I wish the parents of both schools well, and I get that all of you are just fighting for what is most important to you.

[Anonymous]

PP, I think a lot of the posts in this thread demonstrate some parents' irrational fear of poorer students and their effect on the school as a whole. These parents think going from 19% to 22% FARMS is going to negatively affect their children. There is no reasoning with them.

[Anonymous]

I have no stake in this cluster or boundary change. I was at the BOE meeting on 11/14, supporting my own cluster, but stayed to hear the public comments/testimony at the end of the meeting, as I saw one name was from RH and I knew there'd be a lot of interesting comments made - from members on both sides of the debate regarding Option 5.

RH's FARMS rate and "percent minority" will increase; whereas both will decrease for BE. It was kind of sickening to hear the new numbers for BE. I didn't think we lived in a "lily white" world anymore, but it seems pretty close to it at the "new" BE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no stake in this cluster or boundary change. I was at the BOE meeting on 11/14, supporting my own cluster, but stayed to hear the public comments/testimony at the end of the meeting, as I saw one name was from RH and I knew there'd be a lot of interesting comments made - from members on both sides of the debate regarding Option 5.

RH's FARMS rate and "percent minority" will increase; whereas both will decrease for BE. It was kind of sickening to hear the new numbers for BE. I didn't think we lived in a "lily white" world anymore, but it seems pretty close to it at the "new" BE.

Have you been to BE? Take a look and see what the classes look like. Try looking at Somerset for lily white school. BE is very diverse but i think the meaning of diverse is misued becuase people wasnt it to mean poor black kids from Silver Spring make a school diverse. Over 30 countries are represented at BE, the % of kids in ESOL are the same if not more than RMPS so come over someday and take a look

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no stake in this cluster or boundary change. I was at the BOE meeting on 11/14, supporting my own cluster, but stayed to hear the public comments/testimony at the end of the meeting, as I saw one name was from RH and I knew there'd be a lot of interesting comments made - from members on both sides of the debate regarding Option 5.

RH's FARMS rate and "percent minority" will increase; whereas both will decrease for BE. It was kind of sickening to hear the new numbers for BE. I didn't think we lived in a "lily white" world anymore, but it seems pretty close to it at the "new" BE.

It was also sickening to hear those opposed to plan trying to argue that they are opposed to it for BE's sake when really they don't want a higher percentage of FARMS kids at RH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give me a break. Everyone in MCPS is bussed - it is not unique to RHPS. If you live in Bethesda, presumably you know this already since public school buses are all over the roads. So please find a new argument with some basis in reality! Or just concede that you have an irrational hysteria surrounding a school that happens to be 10 feet over the line into Silver Spring and has a relatively small proportion of kids of color and/or kids from less well-off households.

This comment was posted in response to my observation that Mont. Co. should either bus everyone or bus nobody, and that meaningful integration happens through magnets, not busing. I'm sure you mean well, but I am not one of the Bethesda parents. I live in the heart of Silver Spring and my daughter's elementary school has >60% FARMS. The notion that I'm experiencing "irrational hysteria" about a Silver Spring school and the population that feeds into that school makes me smile, because you've got it all wrong. I get it that you think the Bethesda parents are just turned off by a little diversity, and maybe you're right. I don't know them and I wasn't involved in the boundary study and all that it entailed. But let's be clear. NOT everyone in Montgomery County is bused. In fact, very very few kids in Mont. Co. are bused. Busing is a term of art and does not refer to taking the bus. It refers to being transported away from your in-boundary school, something that poses a very real and seemingly unnecessary inconvenience to parents/families, whether rich or poor. And if it's going to be MCPS's policy to bus, then MCPS needs to implement that policy in an evenhanded and county-wide manner, and it needs to do so in a manner that will actually achieve diversity, not in a way that merges mostly rich with 100% rich schools. If you are really committed to integration through busing, maybe you need to acknowledge that Rosemary Hills' projected FARMS rate of just over 22% means that it will continue to be one of the most affluent elementary schools in the county. There are numerous Downcounty schools with FARMS rates in excess of 70, 80, and even 90%. Real integration through busing would require busing from Bethesda, Rosemary Hills etc. and pretty much from the entire Green Zone into these less-affluent neighborhoods. Do I think that's a good idea? No. Because there are more effective approaches than busing and split elementary schools. But at least under an all-out busing approach we wouldn't have to pretend that blending mostly rich with totally rich neighborhoods is accomplishing the type of integration our county still lacks. I don't think wanting the basic conveniences associated with an in-boundary school assignment makes a person a foe of diversity. I intuitively "get" what the Bethesda parents are saying, even though our circumstances and the demographics of our communities are much much different. I wish the parents of both schools well, and I get that all of you are just fighting for what is most important to you.

Actually, here in the eastern part of MoCo, many kids are effectively bused by your definition. We, e.g., live in the Woodside neighborhood, with at least two high schools quite close by (Blair and Northwood). Despite this, our "home" school is Einstein, which is about a mile or two past Wheaton Plaza, quite far from where we live. It takes awhile to get there.

The only reason Einstein is our home school is because MCPS wants socioeconomic diversity there. That is the ONLY reason.

If that is not busing, I don't know what is.

There is no comparable "home" school assignment to create socioeconomic diversity for those in the western part of MoCo. I'd be interested to know why not.

[Anonymous]

Did you know the boundaries when you moved in?

[Anonymous]

17:15, I'm from East Bethesda and have posted several messages here. If what you say is true about your kids being bused very very far out of their community to Einstein HS that's absurd and wrong as what's happening at RH (save for the fact that RH adds in the additional stressors of involuntarily dragging along VERY young children at the K-2 level, and the unnecessary division of siblings).

These 1970s style regressive projects that involve big-government nosing into our families lives need to end regardless of WHERE they're happening. PERIOD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you know the boundaries when you moved in?

Irrelevant.

1) It's time for hope and change of these regressive (towards our children/families/communities) and wasteful (of money and natural resources) busing patterns.
2) The problem if you hadn't noticed is that, for some folks, the boundaries are changing after they've already "moved in."
------This illustrates that point 1 is reasonable for all (even for those who "knew the boundaries" as you say). Yes, fine tuning the system to eliminate these intrusive, and financially costly projects is reasonable in a democracy/republic.

[Anonymous]

It is not true that the Woodside neighborhood is bused very very far out of their community to Einstein. It is about 3.5 miles from that area to Einstein, and more like 3 miles from them to Montgomery Blair. Kennedy is even further than Einstein. It's true that 3 miles is closer than 3.5 but really, they have to draw the lines somewhere. I may have taken that post a little personally because the poster said the Woodside kids were being brought in to provide economic diversity to what I am presuming she thinks is a poor school. It's actually kind of nice up here in Kensington -- she should take a look.

Anonymous wrote:17:15, I'm from East Bethesda and have posted several messages here. If what you say is true about your kids being bused very very far out of their community to Einstein HS that's absurd and wrong as what's happening at RH (save for the fact that RH adds in the additional stressors of involuntarily dragging along VERY young children at the K-2 level, and the unnecessary division of siblings).

These 1970s style regressive projects that involve big-government nosing into our families lives need to end regardless of WHERE they're happening. PERIOD.

[Anonymous]

Oops, me again. I see the poster was talking about Northwood and not Kennedy. Anyway, Einstein is still closer to her house than Northwood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oops, me again. I see the poster was talking about Northwood and not Kennedy. Anyway, Einstein is still closer to her house than Northwood.

Interesting, well without getting into "bus envy" my (and a number of other East Bethesda) elementary kids are to be bused over 5 miles to RH, when there are closer elementary schools 2.4 and 2.5 miles away.

Moreover, being elementary children they're about 10 years younger than HS kids, and will endure separation from their siblings. In fact there ages are such that they will NEVER attend the same elementary school, whereas practically ANYWHERE else in the county they would be going to elementary school together.

This regressive, costly, and illogical project needs to end, though the board, through the general elections, or through the courts if need be.

[Anonymous]

For the poster who likes to use the words "regressive" and "Illogical", you don't fool me. You may have traded in the white hood and tried to drape Yourself in words like "community" and "walkable" and "environment", but you don't fool me. Why don't you just come out and say you don't want my brown kids at your school? Come on, say it, admit it, at least on an anon forum!