MCPS Boundary Study Meeting Tonight (12/11) at Julius West @ 7pm

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think the student activists are convinced that if you aren’t for their leader Matt Post’s plan, you are a segregationist. (Check Twitter.) There are other ways to do that than swapping out kids all over the county. The activists clearly wanted boundary change recommendations as part of this analysis and are angry they aren’t getting that.

I saw video of parents engaging in their own civil disobedience over government that apparently (1) failed to give proper notice and comment to the public before making a huge policy change (weighting demographics more heavily), and (2) failed to be transparent about what they were seeking in the analysis (asking for recommendations)

You may not like what these parents had to say, but BOE has to follow the rules. No exceptions to that in a democracy.


Shouting and booing at a public meeting - that's not civil disobedience. That's just parents behaving badly in public.


No, that’s civil disobedience. Are students the only ones who can engage in civil disobedience?


How is it civil disobedience? What laws were they disobeying? Did police come and haul them off to jail?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Tonight is the second time I heard about Garrett Park likely being on the chopping block. Anyone else hear this?


Who is proposing to close Garrett Park ES?


Yep they are right on the line and good FARMS. redistricting them to einstein or wheaton is Low hanging fruit. Then of course the ES may close because everyone leaves town but that’s a problem for another day lol.


My daughter lives in there and at Thanksgiving she said they are worried. Their current HS is very overcrowded too.


MCPS will be reopening Woodward HS to relieve their current HS, among others. Garrett Park is likely to be reassigned there. Which is not the same thing as "being on the chopping block."

Yeah, along with Luxmanor and Farmland. Middle school is still Tilden.

And that was the plan long before any 'boundary studies' came in the picture!




After upcountry moves...GP and Kensington Parkwood could shift easy to Einstein while OTES comes West to Woodward.


Yep that’s my guess. Will it be enough to turn Einstein around? Depends on how many parents bolt to privates I guess.


Einstein non-FARMs neighborhoods also get shifted to the East under this plan. So does that help Einstein? Don’t know. Seems like shifting around the deck chairs. I think what they really would like to do is bus Whitman to Kennedy but they can’t get there directly so they have to move adjacent cluster to adjacent cluster until they get the right number of nonFARMs kids to the schools in need.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think the student activists are convinced that if you aren’t for their leader Matt Post’s plan, you are a segregationist. (Check Twitter.) There are other ways to do that than swapping out kids all over the county. The activists clearly wanted boundary change recommendations as part of this analysis and are angry they aren’t getting that.

I saw video of parents engaging in their own civil disobedience over government that apparently (1) failed to give proper notice and comment to the public before making a huge policy change (weighting demographics more heavily), and (2) failed to be transparent about what they were seeking in the analysis (asking for recommendations)

You may not like what these parents had to say, but BOE has to follow the rules. No exceptions to that in a democracy.


PP is posting from 2017.


But he laid this plan in place, didn’t he?


Sure he did. With the three words (especially for diversity) that they added without notice and comment.

No.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:At the meeting tonight, there's a poster on Students Not Assigned To Closest School -

ES: 37% of students in MCPS do not attend their closest school
MS: 45% of students in MCPS do not attend their closest school
HS: 38% of students in MCPS do not attend their closest school

That's CURRENTLY in MCPS.

Those are the boundaries that people want to maintain because they want "neighborhood schools."

How is this even possible? I call BS.
Kids who are bussed away from their closest school are special ed and magnet students, I'll give you that, but, looking at our catchment area, there's no way almost half of my child's middle school schoolmates live closer to another middle school. No way.


It's not nearly as alarming as it sounds. For example, Westland Middle School isn't actually in its own catchment area - it is in Pyle's. In other words, a kid who lives next door to Westland goes to Pyle. Less dramatic examples exist all over the place, where kids who live on the border of one catchment ares are actually closer to a school different than the one to which they are assigned. It's a combination of where there was space to build schools at the time they were build and boundary adjustments over time.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Tonight is the second time I heard about Garrett Park likely being on the chopping block. Anyone else hear this?


Who is proposing to close Garrett Park ES?


Yep they are right on the line and good FARMS. redistricting them to einstein or wheaton is Low hanging fruit. Then of course the ES may close because everyone leaves town but that’s a problem for another day lol.


My daughter lives in there and at Thanksgiving she said they are worried. Their current HS is very overcrowded too.


MCPS will be reopening Woodward HS to relieve their current HS, among others. Garrett Park is likely to be reassigned there. Which is not the same thing as "being on the chopping block."

Yeah, along with Luxmanor and Farmland. Middle school is still Tilden.

And that was the plan long before any 'boundary studies' came in the picture!




After upcountry moves...GP and Kensington Parkwood could shift easy to Einstein while OTES comes West to Woodward.


Yep that’s my guess. Will it be enough to turn Einstein around? Depends on how many parents bolt to privates I guess.


Einstein non-FARMs neighborhoods also get shifted to the East under this plan. So does that help Einstein? Don’t know. Seems like shifting around the deck chairs. I think what they really would like to do is bus Whitman to Kennedy but they can’t get there directly so they have to move adjacent cluster to adjacent cluster until they get the right number of nonFARMs kids to the schools in need.


Why would OTES go west to woodward? That doesn't make sense geographically, as you'd have the OTES kids driving past KP/GP area to get to woodward, and the GP/KP kids driving past OT to get to Einstein. It is the opposite of geographical sense - why not leave GP and OT where they are to avoid the meaningless extra distance? Similarly, why not send all of Tilden to Woodword and move Silver Creek to Einstein?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think the student activists are convinced that if you aren’t for their leader Matt Post’s plan, you are a segregationist. (Check Twitter.) There are other ways to do that than swapping out kids all over the county. The activists clearly wanted boundary change recommendations as part of this analysis and are angry they aren’t getting that.

I saw video of parents engaging in their own civil disobedience over government that apparently (1) failed to give proper notice and comment to the public before making a huge policy change (weighting demographics more heavily), and (2) failed to be transparent about what they were seeking in the analysis (asking for recommendations)

You may not like what these parents had to say, but BOE has to follow the rules. No exceptions to that in a democracy.


PP is posting from 2017.


But he laid this plan in place, didn’t he?


No.


Sure he did. With the three words (especially for diversity) that they added without notice and comment.


No. If you're going to attack a SMOB, at least attack the correct SMOB.
Anonymous
You know, instead of tossing words like racist and segregationist around, you might consider sitting down and working collaboratively with the parent groups. They aren’t so bad and might have ideas - other than county wide redestricting - that adds diversity.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:You know, instead of tossing words like racist and segregationist around, you might consider sitting down and working collaboratively with the parent groups. They aren’t so bad and might have ideas - other than county wide redestricting - that adds diversity.


I guess you weren't at the meeting last night.

Do they represent all opponents of the boundary analysis? Surely not. But they did represent themselves, and sitting down and collaborating seems to have been the last thing on their minds.
Anonymous
Give it a try.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You know, instead of tossing words like racist and segregationist around, you might consider sitting down and working collaboratively with the parent groups. They aren’t so bad and might have ideas - other than county wide redestricting - that adds diversity.


I guess you weren't at the meeting last night.

Do they represent all opponents of the boundary analysis? Surely not. But they did represent themselves, and sitting down and collaborating seems to have been the last thing on their minds.

DP.. I get the sense that some people would rather stay in their overcrowded schools than be rezoned out to the neighboring not so great school.

Fact is many of the schools are over capacity while the neighboring ones are under. School boundaries needs/must be redrawn. Someone is going to have to move, and yes, that will also mean that some might have to get bused 5 min further out.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Give it a try.


The consultants were trying to do just that, last night. Parents interrupted, heckled, and booed them.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Tonight is the second time I heard about Garrett Park likely being on the chopping block. Anyone else hear this?


Who is proposing to close Garrett Park ES?


Yep they are right on the line and good FARMS. redistricting them to einstein or wheaton is Low hanging fruit. Then of course the ES may close because everyone leaves town but that’s a problem for another day lol.


My daughter lives in there and at Thanksgiving she said they are worried. Their current HS is very overcrowded too.


MCPS will be reopening Woodward HS to relieve their current HS, among others. Garrett Park is likely to be reassigned there. Which is not the same thing as "being on the chopping block."

Yeah, along with Luxmanor and Farmland. Middle school is still Tilden.

And that was the plan long before any 'boundary studies' came in the picture!




After upcountry moves...GP and Kensington Parkwood could shift easy to Einstein while OTES comes West to Woodward.


Yep that’s my guess. Will it be enough to turn Einstein around? Depends on how many parents bolt to privates I guess.


Einstein non-FARMs neighborhoods also get shifted to the East under this plan. So does that help Einstein? Don’t know. Seems like shifting around the deck chairs. I think what they really would like to do is bus Whitman to Kennedy but they can’t get there directly so they have to move adjacent cluster to adjacent cluster until they get the right number of nonFARMs kids to the schools in need.


The DCC was created to shift non-Farms students around. Coupled with the creation of DCC only magnets, I'd say it has done a pretty good job. The reality is, there are a lot more farms than non-farms students in these high schools. There is only so much shifting within the current boundaries that can be done at this point. We need some new non-farms areas to feed into the DCC. Originally BCC was supposed to be part of the DCC. It would be interesting to see what the DCC high schools would look like today demographically with BCC included in the mix. It was a real lack of moral courage that allowed MCPS to drop BCC cluster from the Downcounty Consortium back in the day.

Here is percentage of FARMS at each DCC HS as reported from 2017-2018 schools at a glance
Einstein 39.7
Kennedy 46.9
Blair 36.3
Northwood 52.5
Wheaton 49.7

The distribution is is already pretty good within the cluster. We could get everyone to under 50%, Kennedy is adding a regional IB magnet which should increase their non-farms a bit over the next few years. The best we'd do with current numbers is 45%. It seems to me, to make any meaningful change to these numbers, there needs to be an influx of non-farms students from outside the current consortium boundaries. We're also just a recession away from seeing current FARMS rates be much higher. Most of these schools have 70+ ever-FARMS percentage rates. Even Blair is at over 50%. I think Einstein is around 60+
Anonymous
I feel like we’re having the wrong conversation. We need economic development so we can find better jobs for these families.

Also, it really isn’t fair to look at “ever-FARMS”. I was once very poor without enough to eat. Today, I’m solidly UMC. I wouldn’t expect to be counted among those in actual need.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I feel like we’re having the wrong conversation. We need economic development so we can find better jobs for these families.

Also, it really isn’t fair to look at “ever-FARMS”. I was once very poor without enough to eat. Today, I’m solidly UMC. I wouldn’t expect to be counted among those in actual need.


Unless you were very poor without enough to eat while you were an MCPS student, and you are now a MCPS student who is solidly UMC, you are not included in the ever-FARMS numbers.
Anonymous
Understood. But aren’t there others like me, who were once poor but worked their way through school to get out of that?
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