2nd round options for Crown/Damascus HS?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:To be honest, I think this round is much better. I’m not saying there’s no articulation, but it’s definitely much less.

I agree. The options in this round are way more reasonable. I hope they only fine tune these options and no surprises for next round.

Agree very much overall this is much better than the first time. I remember the first set of options had quite a few one school to three or four split articulations. There were also some double splits with 3+ in one of the two splits. Very few islands that I could see in these whereas previously there were a ton around crown.

Things I’ve noticed in this set of options that could use fixing include;
- Ritchie Park elementary school would go to Frost and then RM and be the only school from frost going there
- I think one option has a ridiculously large and oddly shaped boundary for Churchill, which goes all the way up to near Darnestown meanwhile removing some pockets down nearby the school
- seems like a lot of split articulations in the Churchill Wootten and Richard Montgomery clusters at the middle school level when it seems like a lot of times the entire school could just stay together through the whole time.
- there’s a little pocket that looks like it belongs at Wooton, but is at RM. I think I thought to myself if that’s the area that’s going to frost and then back to RM why not just send those people to Wootten

The solution is to also change the ES boundaries

That's coming up next.

Ineffective. If you have separate processes, they will not be able to change them because it is no stability of boundaries

After the new HS and MS boundaries are in place, they'll move on to the elementary schools to try eliminating split articulations and relieving overcrowding.

Violates the boundary stability clauses. I’d seek resignation of the board

No it doesn’t as the ES boundaries are not part of the current study.

Except that it does. Stability of boundaries are a factor. If you make a change now and then a different change later, that’s two changes, which is instability. It also would cascade back to the HS. Students would get reassigned ES and that would impact MS and HS boundaries

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be honest, I think this round is much better. I’m not saying there’s no articulation, but it’s definitely much less.

I agree. The options in this round are way more reasonable. I hope they only fine tune these options and no surprises for next round.

Agree very much overall this is much better than the first time. I remember the first set of options had quite a few one school to three or four split articulations. There were also some double splits with 3+ in one of the two splits. Very few islands that I could see in these whereas previously there were a ton around crown.

Things I’ve noticed in this set of options that could use fixing include;
- Ritchie Park elementary school would go to Frost and then RM and be the only school from frost going there
- I think one option has a ridiculously large and oddly shaped boundary for Churchill, which goes all the way up to near Darnestown meanwhile removing some pockets down nearby the school
- seems like a lot of split articulations in the Churchill Wootten and Richard Montgomery clusters at the middle school level when it seems like a lot of times the entire school could just stay together through the whole time.
- there’s a little pocket that looks like it belongs at Wooton, but is at RM. I think I thought to myself if that’s the area that’s going to frost and then back to RM why not just send those people to Wootten

How’d Ritchie Park think about staying entirely to Frost then Wootton, so (1) RM won’t be overutilized as the current RMIB students are not included in the calculation nor future projection; (2) that Wayside and Potomac ES can stay unchanged? In this way you may get the broad support as Wayside and Potomac ES doesn’t need to fight each other?

The only issue is that Churchill is overcrowded. They should’ve just combine the two studies and switch some Churchill students to Whitman then everyone is happy.

Yes I think the prior idea makes sense but this problem arises.

Agreed seems like areas near Montgomery Mall should go to WJ, especially with them leaving WJ under crowded and Avenel makes no sense when it should go to Whitman.

Most homes in the Montgomery Mall vicinity are already zoned for WJ (we are one of them). Unfortunately for us, it takes up to 30 minutes with traffic to get from our home to our zoned middle school (North Bethesda MS), whereas we could easily get to Cabin John MS in 6-7 minutes. I wish they had combined the two boundary studies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Region 4 is so strong with many strong academic kids and programs. There are a ton of Asians and whites there. It is quite unfair in terms of equity compared to other regions.

More Asian than white. Wootton is now majority Asian and has been experiencing white flight in the recent years to the point where it will have less white students than even many DCC schools. I know a lot of white peoples who have complained “Wootton is too competitive” (read: Asian) and moved to other areas.

There are only a few schools in this county where Asians are not a minority. Why can’t Asian families simply enjoy living in communities they choose naturally, without being penalized for it? Forcing every school to limit Asian enrollment through boundary redistricting feels like a form of racial discrimination.

It is true that schools with large Asian populations tend to be uber competitive, so if you are a smart kid (any race, even Asian) who doesn't push the limit with over a dozen APs, your chances for matriculating to a T20 college diminish significantly. We moved our kid out of public years ago into a very strong private with 20% of students matriculating to T20 schools. She will certainly be one of them with her GPA and test scores, despite the fact she will have taken a total of 6 APs by the end of HS. She would not have as high of a chance at Wootton.

dp... I don't follow... sounds like the private school also has a lot of high achieving kids - 20% of kids matriculating into T20. How is that private any easier than Wootton for getting into T20 with so many high achieving kids? It seems to me there's something else going on. Money? Connections?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be honest, I think this round is much better. I’m not saying there’s no articulation, but it’s definitely much less.

I agree. The options in this round are way more reasonable. I hope they only fine tune these options and no surprises for next round.

Agree very much overall this is much better than the first time. I remember the first set of options had quite a few one school to three or four split articulations. There were also some double splits with 3+ in one of the two splits. Very few islands that I could see in these whereas previously there were a ton around crown.

Things I’ve noticed in this set of options that could use fixing include;
- Ritchie Park elementary school would go to Frost and then RM and be the only school from frost going there
- I think one option has a ridiculously large and oddly shaped boundary for Churchill, which goes all the way up to near Darnestown meanwhile removing some pockets down nearby the school
- seems like a lot of split articulations in the Churchill Wootten and Richard Montgomery clusters at the middle school level when it seems like a lot of times the entire school could just stay together through the whole time.
- there’s a little pocket that looks like it belongs at Wooton, but is at RM. I think I thought to myself if that’s the area that’s going to frost and then back to RM why not just send those people to Wootten

The solution is to also change the ES boundaries

That's coming up next.

Ineffective. If you have separate processes, they will not be able to change them because it is no stability of boundaries

After the new HS and MS boundaries are in place, they'll move on to the elementary schools to try eliminating split articulations and relieving overcrowding.

Violates the boundary stability clauses. I’d seek resignation of the board

No it doesn’t as the ES boundaries are not part of the current study.

Except that it does. Stability of boundaries are a factor. If you make a change now and then a different change later, that’s two changes, which is instability. It also would cascade back to the HS. Students would get reassigned ES and that would impact MS and HS boundaries

It wouldn't need to cascade back to the HS or MS, whose boundaries are set geographically, even though they envision a feeder pattern. Remember, the current boundary study options are allowed to contain split articulations in the first place. It is likely that just the ES assignments would change at that later time.

Of course, they always could construct a study to cover more, as they should have with the Crown & Woodward ones. A systemwide/holistic approach -- all of the county, at all levels and with no segmentation -- was the way to go after decades of radical development/population change with steadfast resistance to most boundary adjustments left the current untenable situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:QO sees a massive decline in FARMS.

I haven't really taken a look at the new maps or charts closely.

But there wasn't really any way that the QO's FARMS numbers wouldn't go down.

The areas pretty close to where Crown High, in particular the Fields Road Elementary area and areas further up Muddy Branch Road by NIST, have more affordable townhomes and apartments. This includes the area behind Festival Shopping Center, which looks like it currently is an island that goes to Jones Lane ES and QO.

It's a reason why most of the options has Crown HS starting at 35 percent FARMS, because it takes a lot of the high FARMS area from QO.

They might've been able to try to balance it more by spreading out some areas between Crown HS, Northwest HS and QO HS, in particular that area around Festival Shopping Center. Where the current commute times aren't that different from the Festival Shopping Center to each of the high schools:

QO
4.5 miles 12 minutes

Crown
2.9 miles 11 minutes

Northwest
6.6 miles 14 minutes

But based on distance, Crown HS is still the closest. Which goes back to that location may not have been the best location to put a school but guess it was a matter of the free land.

The current proposals is still better than the initial. Where in two of the initial proposals, it had QO having it's FARMS rate go down to around 13 and 15 percent. So it looks like they did try to balance it a bit better than they did the first time around.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know why Darnestown went from all Options 1-4 in the spring going to Quince Orchard, to now all Options A-D going to Northwest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:QO sees a massive decline in FARMS.

I haven't really taken a look at the new maps or charts closely.

But there wasn't really any way that the QO's FARMS numbers wouldn't go down.

The areas pretty close to where Crown High, in particular the Fields Road Elementary area and areas further up Muddy Branch Road by NIST, have more affordable townhomes and apartments. This includes the area behind Festival Shopping Center, which looks like it currently is an island that goes to Jones Lane ES and QO.

It's a reason why most of the options has Crown HS starting at 35 percent FARMS, because it takes a lot of the high FARMS area from QO.

They might've been able to try to balance it more by spreading out some areas between Crown HS, Northwest HS and QO HS, in particular that area around Festival Shopping Center. Where the current commute times aren't that different from the Festival Shopping Center to each of the high schools:

QO
4.5 miles 12 minutes

Crown
2.9 miles 11 minutes

Northwest
6.6 miles 14 minutes

But based on distance, Crown HS is still the closest. Which goes back to that location may not have been the best location to put a school but guess it was a matter of the free land.

The current proposals is still better than the initial. Where in two of the initial proposals, it had QO having its FARMS rate go down to around 13 and 15 percent. So it looks like they did try to balance it a bit better than they did the first time around.

QO’s own FARMs rate will go down, but being switched to Region 5 means our cohorts in the new special programs will be coming from schools with higher FARMs rates than if we had stayed in Region 6. QO itself will be fine, but students who want to attend special programs no longer have access to Poolesville. It’s a huge disappointment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Darnestown went from all Options 1-4 in the spring going to Quince Orchard, to now all Options A-D going to Northwest?

Doesn't D split articulate into Poolesville?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Region 4 is so strong with many strong academic kids and programs. There are a ton of Asians and whites there. It is quite unfair in terms of equity compared to other regions.

More Asian than white. Wootton is now majority Asian and has been experiencing white flight in the recent years to the point where it will have less white students than even many DCC schools. I know a lot of white peoples who have complained “Wootton is too competitive” (read: Asian) and moved to other areas.

There are only a few schools in this county where Asians are not a minority. Why can’t Asian families simply enjoy living in communities they choose naturally, without being penalized for it? Forcing every school to limit Asian enrollment through boundary redistricting feels like a form of racial discrimination.

Exactly correct. Trying to engineer this sort of thing is a fool's errand, and I'm glad MCPS went with common sense here instead of driving people out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Darnestown went from all Options 1-4 in the spring going to Quince Orchard, to now all Options A-D going to Northwest?

Doesn't D split articulate into Poolesville?

For some yes, for others no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well as a family in the Wayside district, I am pleased with these options. It made no sense to put these kids on buses and drive them to Wootton every day. My house will keep its value!!

You must not know that currently a significant number of kids at Wayside are doing the reverse commute over the one lane bridge each day. It's been that way for over 20 years. People who say that Wayside families are too far from Wootton don't realize that half their school population is already closer to Wootton. Not that I'm suggesting they move Wayside families to Frost/Wootton vs. Hoover/Churchill but that argument about putting kids on buses really doesn't hold water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Options C& D do make more sense geographically for Churchill
Option B has kids from Bells Mill - who live literally next to or across street from Cabin John, moving to Hoover, while kids from Travilah bus past Hoover (& Frost?) to get to cabin John. Why not just leave all of bells mill at cabin John - the entire elementary school zone surrounds cabin John!

quote=Anonymous] strongly agree!

[Anonymous]

Options A & B force kids from Bells Mill away from Cabin John --- which is *literally* next door to Bells Mill -- and send them to Hoover. That will require them to cross Tuckerman, when they could otherwise walk to Cabin John without crossing a single road.

At the same time, those same Options A & B will bus kids from Potomac and Travilah, past Hoover(!), and send them to fill Cabin John.

I think the person preparing that part of the Options was either drunk or high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Options A & B force kids from Bells Mill away from Cabin John --- which is *literally* next door to Bells Mill -- and send them to Hoover. That will require them to cross Tuckerman, when they could otherwise walk to Cabin John without crossing a single road.

At the same time, those same Options A & B will bus kids from Potomac and Travilah, past Hoover(!), and send them to fill Cabin John.

I think the person preparing that part of the Options was either drunk or high.

I'm really hoping they either fix this or go with C or D for this reason. Especially given recent MoCo traffic tragedies, we should avoid having MS kids not just cross, but walk along Tuckerman, just to get to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Options A & B force kids from Bells Mill away from Cabin John --- which is *literally* next door to Bells Mill -- and send them to Hoover. That will require them to cross Tuckerman, when they could otherwise walk to Cabin John without crossing a single road.

At the same time, those same Options A & B will bus kids from Potomac and Travilah, past Hoover(!), and send them to fill Cabin John.

I think the person preparing that part of the Options was either drunk or high.

I'm really hoping they either fix this or go with C or D for this reason. Especially given recent MoCo traffic tragedies, we should avoid having MS kids not just cross, but walk along Tuckerman, just to get to school.

The answer to this one is SIDEWALKS. It's absurd that they have kids walk along Tuckerman--it's so dangerous in the morning when cars drive on the same shoulder where the kids are walking so they can scoot around the many cars trying to turn left.

But I think that's solvable (with sidewalks) in a way that is separate from the boundary issue.

I hate all of these options because of the split articulation. They're proposing special programs in each region. So they can assign kids to schools in a way with zero (or almost zero) split articulation. Yes, it will end up with uneven capacity utilization of schools. But then all they have to do is set the maximum enrollment in those special programs to match. I'd much rather our school not be awarded a 'special program' (and have a nearby school get it) if it means that none in the county need to have split articulation.