Wootton boundaries

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very true. If you are in Potomac -- Cold Spring, Wayside, Potomac Elementary area, you are pretty much protected from ending up somewhere bad. That is why we pay so much for our houses people!!

You're tempting fate.

LOL...I am not worried in the least.

If they can bus Kensington kids all the way from Einstein to WJ, they can bus anyone anywhere.

That's just 4 miles. The county is 500 square miles.

what's the point comparing distance to area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very true. If you are in Potomac -- Cold Spring, Wayside, Potomac Elementary area, you are pretty much protected from ending up somewhere bad. That is why we pay so much for our houses people!!

You're tempting fate.

LOL...I am not worried in the least.

If they can bus Kensington kids all the way from Einstein to WJ, they can bus anyone anywhere.

That's just 4 miles. The county is 500 square miles.

That seems irrelevant. Distances are a linear measurement. A square that is around 22 miles across is also 500 sq miles. Point being is 4 miles is significant in terms of moco busing.

It's about 33 miles east-west and 28-29 miles north-south, at its maximum width/length.

4 miles isn't significant in terms of bus distance to MCPS schools, at least not for high schools.

If you live off Montrose Rd in the City of Rockville, your nearest high schools are Churchill (3.3 miles), Walter Johnson (2.9 miles), and Richard Montgomery (2.6 miles). The neighborhood is zoned for Walter Johnson.

Right. This is the point, that you could be zoned to any HS within a 0-5 mile radius (and perhaps there are some distances even a bit more than that), but MCPS isn't going to "bus anyone anywhere."

[Anonymous]

Its stupid to claim that something is only 4 or 5 miles. You can live out in western Potomac and only be a few miles from Dulles but guess what -it takes 90 to 120 minutes to get there because there is a river between you and Dulles. 4-5 unnecessary miles in traffic can create substantial time problems. I guess the high school students can just leave earlier since they don't need sleep. The busses are not always reliable too. We had several instances when the MS bus just didn't show up or was so late that no one knew whether to wait or not. Parents would fill their cars with kids and drive them in. At least it was close and on the way to where most people would be commuting. Bus the kids 20 minutes away in a different direction and now the parents have 40 minutes to drop off and back track.

Plus the people who love to happily re-assign others always pick the 4-5 miles from the existing high school location not the neighborhood that feed it. You would then be bussing kids 10 miles away. They happy re-assigners would never tolerate this for their own kids but they have no problem rationalizing it for others.

It is asinine to bus people pass closer schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very true. If you are in Potomac -- Cold Spring, Wayside, Potomac Elementary area, you are pretty much protected from ending up somewhere bad. That is why we pay so much for our houses people!!

You're tempting fate.

LOL...I am not worried in the least.

If they can bus Kensington kids all the way from Einstein to WJ, they can bus anyone anywhere.

That's just 4 miles. The county is 500 square miles.

That seems irrelevant. Distances are a linear measurement. A square that is around 22 miles across is also 500 sq miles. Point being is 4 miles is significant in terms of moco busing.

It's about 33 miles east-west and 28-29 miles north-south, at its maximum width/length.

4 miles isn't significant in terms of bus distance to MCPS schools, at least not for high schools.

If you live off Montrose Rd in the City of Rockville, your nearest high schools are Churchill (3.3 miles), Walter Johnson (2.9 miles), and Richard Montgomery (2.6 miles). The neighborhood is zoned for Walter Johnson.

Right. This is the point, that you could be zoned to any HS within a 0-5 mile radius (and perhaps there are some distances even a bit more than that), but MCPS isn't going to "bus anyone anywhere."

When people talk about "busing" on here, they usually mean from one side of the county to another, not 2 or 3 miles further. Or, maybe they do consider that to be busing, in which case, MCPS does this now - bus kids to a school that is not the closest. It's done all over the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its stupid to claim that something is only 4 or 5 miles. You can live out in western Potomac and only be a few miles from Dulles but guess what -it takes 90 to 120 minutes to get there because there is a river between you and Dulles. 4-5 unnecessary miles in traffic can create substantial time problems. I guess the high school students can just leave earlier since they don't need sleep. The busses are not always reliable too. We had several instances when the MS bus just didn't show up or was so late that no one knew whether to wait or not. Parents would fill their cars with kids and drive them in. At least it was close and on the way to where most people would be commuting. Bus the kids 20 minutes away in a different direction and now the parents have 40 minutes to drop off and back track.

Plus the people who love to happily re-assign others always pick the 4-5 miles from the existing high school location not the neighborhood that feed it. You would then be bussing kids 10 miles away. They happy re-assigners would never tolerate this for their own kids but they have no problem rationalizing it for others.

It is asinine to bus people pass closer schools.

The fact that this is already happening is WHY we are having a boundary study. But let's not pretend everyone is zoned to the closest school right now. There are Northood and Einstein-zoned kids who are closer to BCC than their zoned high schools. I'm not saying those kids will be rezoned, but the status quo is not some platonic ideal of logistics and transportation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its stupid to claim that something is only 4 or 5 miles. You can live out in western Potomac and only be a few miles from Dulles but guess what -it takes 90 to 120 minutes to get there because there is a river between you and Dulles. 4-5 unnecessary miles in traffic can create substantial time problems. I guess the high school students can just leave earlier since they don't need sleep. The busses are not always reliable too. We had several instances when the MS bus just didn't show up or was so late that no one knew whether to wait or not. Parents would fill their cars with kids and drive them in. At least it was close and on the way to where most people would be commuting. Bus the kids 20 minutes away in a different direction and now the parents have 40 minutes to drop off and back track.

Plus the people who love to happily re-assign others always pick the 4-5 miles from the existing high school location not the neighborhood that feed it. You would then be bussing kids 10 miles away. They happy re-assigners would never tolerate this for their own kids but they have no problem rationalizing it for others.

It is asinine to bus people pass closer schools.

good thing mcps does not have any schools around dulles. My DC currently rides a bus an extra few minutes to a HS further away than the nearest HS. MCPS is not going to rezone such that the bus ride we be an extra 90min. At most, extra 5 min maybe 10min each way.

[Anonymous]

When people talk about "busing" on here, they usually mean from one side of the county to another, not 2 or 3 miles further. Or, maybe they do consider that to be busing, in which case, MCPS does this now - bus kids to a school that is not the closest. It's done all over the county.

No- when people talk about bussing they are talking about selecting kids based on their demographics and bussing them past a closer to school to a different one. This is bussing. Plain and simple, don't pretend it is anything different.

No one likes it. For lower income families -believe it or not- they may like their neighborhood and neighborhood school. Not everyone is thrilled at the idea of being blessed by being in the presence of more white kids as a reason to bus your kids away. For parents that do not have their own cars and rely on public transportation, having your kids bussed further away means those kids will miss more school because if they miss the bus there is no other way to get them there or home. These parents don't have carpools set up or money for Ubers. These kids can't go to after school or evening activities unless there is school bus service. Low income families also depend heavily on the wrap around services available at low income schools. Getting bussed to a school and losing access to their services can be a hard hit for many families. They don't have the money to move so they are stuck in a bad situation.

For higher income families. they will not sit happily by and watch their kids get bussed off to a lower performing school to make MCPS happy. They'll just move or go private. In the DMV there are plenty of other options that are now more appealing than MoCo. They have the money to move. You need to look into the history of bussing. It destroyed many public school systems. It has been universally viewed as one of the biggest failures in public education. It was also a contributor to more segregation and completely failed to ever achieve the goals that were intended.

Its a bad policy that will do more damage to the system than 2.0, not holding employees that prey upon kids accountable, bad capacity planning, getting rid of final exams, poor teacher morale or any of the other ill conceived fiascos that MCPS has done despite all warnings and data showing that they were in the wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

When people talk about "busing" on here, they usually mean from one side of the county to another, not 2 or 3 miles further. Or, maybe they do consider that to be busing, in which case, MCPS does this now - bus kids to a school that is not the closest. It's done all over the county.

No- when people talk about bussing they are talking about selecting kids based on their demographics and bussing them past a closer to school to a different one. This is bussing. Plain and simple, don't pretend it is anything different.

No one likes it. For lower income families -believe it or not- they may like their neighborhood and neighborhood school. Not everyone is thrilled at the idea of being blessed by being in the presence of more white kids as a reason to bus your kids away. For parents that do not have their own cars and rely on public transportation, having your kids bussed further away means those kids will miss more school because if they miss the bus there is no other way to get them there or home. These parents don't have carpools set up or money for Ubers. These kids can't go to after school or evening activities unless there is school bus service. Low income families also depend heavily on the wrap around services available at low income schools. Getting bussed to a school and losing access to their services can be a hard hit for many families. They don't have the money to move so they are stuck in a bad situation.

For higher income families. they will not sit happily by and watch their kids get bussed off to a lower performing school to make MCPS happy. They'll just move or go private. In the DMV there are plenty of other options that are now more appealing than MoCo. They have the money to move. You need to look into the history of bussing. It destroyed many public school systems. It has been universally viewed as one of the biggest failures in public education. It was also a contributor to more segregation and completely failed to ever achieve the goals that were intended.

Its a bad policy that will do more damage to the system than 2.0, not holding employees that prey upon kids accountable, bad capacity planning, getting rid of final exams, poor teacher morale or any of the other ill conceived fiascos that MCPS has done despite all warnings and data showing that they were in the wrong.

Nicely said. Decision making at MCPS has and will continue to be extremely short sighted. Unfortunately, this is not unusual when it comes to anything the government runs. If the government ran Coca Cola, we'd have "New Coke" introduced every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

When people talk about "busing" on here, they usually mean from one side of the county to another, not 2 or 3 miles further. Or, maybe they do consider that to be busing, in which case, MCPS does this now - bus kids to a school that is not the closest. It's done all over the county.

No- when people talk about bussing they are talking about selecting kids based on their demographics and bussing them past a closer to school to a different one. This is bussing. Plain and simple, don't pretend it is anything different.

No one likes it. For lower income families -believe it or not- they may like their neighborhood and neighborhood school. Not everyone is thrilled at the idea of being blessed by being in the presence of more white kids as a reason to bus your kids away. For parents that do not have their own cars and rely on public transportation, having your kids bussed further away means those kids will miss more school because if they miss the bus there is no other way to get them there or home. These parents don't have carpools set up or money for Ubers. These kids can't go to after school or evening activities unless there is school bus service. Low income families also depend heavily on the wrap around services available at low income schools. Getting bussed to a school and losing access to their services can be a hard hit for many families. They don't have the money to move so they are stuck in a bad situation.

For higher income families. they will not sit happily by and watch their kids get bussed off to a lower performing school to make MCPS happy. They'll just move or go private. In the DMV there are plenty of other options that are now more appealing than MoCo. They have the money to move. You need to look into the history of bussing. It destroyed many public school systems. It has been universally viewed as one of the biggest failures in public education. It was also a contributor to more segregation and completely failed to ever achieve the goals that were intended.

Its a bad policy that will do more damage to the system than 2.0, not holding employees that prey upon kids accountable, bad capacity planning, getting rid of final exams, poor teacher morale or any of the other ill conceived fiascos that MCPS has done despite all warnings and data showing that they were in the wrong.

actually, some families don't mind "busing" a few minutes away to not have one school with a huge FARMs rate while the neighboring has almost zero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

When people talk about "busing" on here, they usually mean from one side of the county to another, not 2 or 3 miles further. Or, maybe they do consider that to be busing, in which case, MCPS does this now - bus kids to a school that is not the closest. It's done all over the county.

No- when people talk about bussing they are talking about selecting kids based on their demographics and bussing them past a closer to school to a different one. This is bussing. Plain and simple, don't pretend it is anything different.

No one likes it. For lower income families -believe it or not- they may like their neighborhood and neighborhood school. Not everyone is thrilled at the idea of being blessed by being in the presence of more white kids as a reason to bus your kids away. For parents that do not have their own cars and rely on public transportation, having your kids bussed further away means those kids will miss more school because if they miss the bus there is no other way to get them there or home. These parents don't have carpools set up or money for Ubers. These kids can't go to after school or evening activities unless there is school bus service. Low income families also depend heavily on the wrap around services available at low income schools. Getting bussed to a school and losing access to their services can be a hard hit for many families. They don't have the money to move so they are stuck in a bad situation.

For higher income families. they will not sit happily by and watch their kids get bussed off to a lower performing school to make MCPS happy. They'll just move or go private. In the DMV there are plenty of other options that are now more appealing than MoCo. They have the money to move. You need to look into the history of bussing. It destroyed many public school systems. It has been universally viewed as one of the biggest failures in public education. It was also a contributor to more segregation and completely failed to ever achieve the goals that were intended.

Its a bad policy that will do more damage to the system than 2.0, not holding employees that prey upon kids accountable, bad capacity planning, getting rid of final exams, poor teacher morale or any of the other ill conceived fiascos that MCPS has done despite all warnings and data showing that they were in the wrong.

I think this is a good point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No- when people talk about bussing they are talking about selecting kids based on their demographics and bussing them past a closer to school to a different one. This is bussing. Plain and simple, don't pretend it is anything different.

When people talk about "busing", they mean "that thing that if I say it, everyone will say they're against it.'

The reality is

1. MCPS has used demographics to establish boundaries for decades
2. lots of places in Montgomery County are zoned for the geographically-nearest school, for various reasons (including but not limited to #1).

In some cases, people who say they want to keep the status quo and oppose busing are actually being bused in the status quo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No- when people talk about bussing they are talking about selecting kids based on their demographics and bussing them past a closer to school to a different one. This is bussing. Plain and simple, don't pretend it is anything different.

When people talk about "busing", they mean "that thing that if I say it, everyone will say they're against it.'

The reality is

1. MCPS has used demographics to establish boundaries for decades
2. lots of places in Montgomery County are zoned for the geographically-nearest school, for various reasons (including but not limited to #1).

In some cases, people who say they want to keep the status quo and oppose busing are actually being bused in the status quo.

DP.. yes, this is what I keep saying.. this is happening right now. But I guess some people are upset because they think now it will happen to them.

When MCPS redraws the boundaries they won't be sending buses of kids from one side of the county to the other. It will be a few minutes. So, saying it's too long for kids to be on the bus for 5min extra is ridiculous. It's not going to be 90min. Gimme a break. They will try to even out FARMS rate as much as they can between *NEIGHBORING* clusters so that it's not so lopsided. Why is that such a horrible thing?

Are people thinking that your kids might have to go from a school with <5% FARMs to a school with a 70% FARMS rate or something? You realize that if they redraw the boundaries those schools will have a very different looking demographic, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No- when people talk about bussing they are talking about selecting kids based on their demographics and bussing them past a closer to school to a different one. This is bussing. Plain and simple, don't pretend it is anything different.

When people talk about "busing", they mean "that thing that if I say it, everyone will say they're against it.'

The reality is

1. MCPS has used demographics to establish boundaries for decades
2. lots of places in Montgomery County are zoned for the geographically-nearest school, for various reasons (including but not limited to #1).

In some cases, people who say they want to keep the status quo and oppose busing are actually being bused in the status quo.

DP.. yes, this is what I keep saying.. this is happening right now. But I guess some people are upset because they think now it will happen to them.

When MCPS redraws the boundaries they won't be sending buses of kids from one side of the county to the other. It will be a few minutes. So, saying it's too long for kids to be on the bus for 5min extra is ridiculous. It's not going to be 90min. Gimme a break. They will try to even out FARMS rate as much as they can between *NEIGHBORING* clusters so that it's not so lopsided. Why is that such a horrible thing?

Are people thinking that your kids might have to go from a school with <5% FARMs to a school with a 70% FARMS rate or something? You realize that if they redraw the boundaries those schools will have a very different looking demographic, right?

How do you know what BOE and MCPS will do? I dont think even they know what will happen. If you listen to MoCo for Change and attended the boundary onformation inn SS kast werk, you could find what those people want. It is very different from your wishful thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No- when people talk about bussing they are talking about selecting kids based on their demographics and bussing them past a closer to school to a different one. This is bussing. Plain and simple, don't pretend it is anything different.

When people talk about "busing", they mean "that thing that if I say it, everyone will say they're against it.'

The reality is

1. MCPS has used demographics to establish boundaries for decades
2. lots of places in Montgomery County are zoned for the geographically-nearest school, for various reasons (including but not limited to #1).

In some cases, people who say they want to keep the status quo and oppose busing are actually being bused in the status quo.

DP.. yes, this is what I keep saying.. this is happening right now. But I guess some people are upset because they think now it will happen to them.

When MCPS redraws the boundaries they won't be sending buses of kids from one side of the county to the other. It will be a few minutes. So, saying it's too long for kids to be on the bus for 5min extra is ridiculous. It's not going to be 90min. Gimme a break. They will try to even out FARMS rate as much as they can between *NEIGHBORING* clusters so that it's not so lopsided. Why is that such a horrible thing?

Are people thinking that your kids might have to go from a school with <5% FARMs to a school with a 70% FARMS rate or something? You realize that if they redraw the boundaries those schools will have a very different looking demographic, right?

How do you know what BOE and MCPS will do? I dont think even they know what will happen. If you listen to MoCo for Change and attended the boundary onformation inn SS kast werk, you could find what those people want. It is very different from your wishful thinking.

Because BOE has repeatedly said they aren't interested in busing kids from one side of the county to the other. And the MCPS policy has four factors, one of which is geography.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

How do you know what BOE and MCPS will do? I dont think even they know what will happen. If you listen to MoCo for Change and attended the boundary onformation inn SS kast werk, you could find what those people want. It is very different from your wishful thinking.

"Those people"? Really?

MoCo for Change is high school students. They advocate for their viewpoints. They get to do that. Just like you get to advocate for your viewpoint. They aren't on the BoE, and neither are you. And the BoE is who will decide.