Bethesda/Somerset/Westbook ES Boundary Superintendent Rec

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to have posted last week: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BSW_SupplementB.pdf

Chose option 1, which still leaves Bethesda ES overutilized within two years and divided up East Bethesda which I know was a big concern. Notice too the discussion of the county wide analysis here and how they may approach boundary studies in the future.

We’re in Somerset zone and happy with this as it will significantly reduce school size, but curious what other folks think….

I'm in Somerset and bummed as it will reduce diversity. (After redistricting, percentage of students who are white will rise, percentage who are ESOL will fall, and percentage who are FARMS eligible will fall even more.) I don't see see that she had a better solution, though. Real problem here is residential segregation, and I'm the fool who bought into an overwhelmingly white neighborhood; if I had to do it again I'd move somewhere very different, where my (white) kids wouldn't be surrounded by other privileged white kids.

Reducing diversity (such as it is) at Somerset and BES was inevitable, when Westbrook is the underutilized school of the three, and is the whitest school in the entire county. Of course the Superintendent was going to try to increase diversity there, which meant decreasing it elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to have posted last week: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BSW_SupplementB.pdf

Chose option 1, which still leaves Bethesda ES overutilized within two years and divided up East Bethesda which I know was a big concern. Notice too the discussion of the county wide analysis here and how they may approach boundary studies in the future.

We’re in Somerset zone and happy with this as it will significantly reduce school size, but curious what other folks think….

I'm in Somerset and bummed as it will reduce diversity. (After redistricting, percentage of students who are white will rise, percentage who are ESOL will fall, and percentage who are FARMS eligible will fall even more.) I don't see see that she had a better solution, though. Real problem here is residential segregation, and I'm the fool who bought into an overwhelmingly white neighborhood; if I had to do it again I'd move somewhere very different, where my (white) kids wouldn't be surrounded by other privileged white kids.

I can't possibly believe you didn't know Somerset was overwhelmingly white and incredibly wealthy when you purchased your home. You sound ridiculous. I say that as someone who lives in a nearby neighborhood that's part of this study as well.

She’s a typical liberal hypocrite. But she’s got all the diversity signs on her front lawn. Lol.

This is so interesting. You'd rather someone NOT admit that they were wrong and regret something? You'd prefer all white people to be evil and easy to caricature, as opposed to imperfect and willing to do the work of realizing their mistakes?

Also, as a white person who used to live in an overwhelmingly AA neighborhood that was gentrifying, I can assure you that that driving up housing prices so that long time residents can't stay doesn't feel like a good person move either. Would you rather OP do that?

This stuff is complicated and hard and fixing it will require humility and effort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to have posted last week: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BSW_SupplementB.pdf

Chose option 1, which still leaves Bethesda ES overutilized within two years and divided up East Bethesda which I know was a big concern. Notice too the discussion of the county wide analysis here and how they may approach boundary studies in the future.

We’re in Somerset zone and happy with this as it will significantly reduce school size, but curious what other folks think….

I'm in Somerset and bummed as it will reduce diversity. (After redistricting, percentage of students who are white will rise, percentage who are ESOL will fall, and percentage who are FARMS eligible will fall even more.) I don't see see that she had a better solution, though. Real problem here is residential segregation, and I'm the fool who bought into an overwhelmingly white neighborhood; if I had to do it again I'd move somewhere very different, where my (white) kids wouldn't be surrounded by other privileged white kids.

I can't possibly believe you didn't know Somerset was overwhelmingly white and incredibly wealthy when you purchased your home. You sound ridiculous. I say that as someone who lives in a nearby neighborhood that's part of this study as well.

She didn't say she didn't know. She said she regretted the choice. Presumably diversity wasn't one of the factors that drove her choice and she wishes she'd prioritized it. (Or maybe she chose Somerset ES over Westbrook because it was more diverse.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to have posted last week: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BSW_SupplementB.pdf

Chose option 1, which still leaves Bethesda ES overutilized within two years and divided up East Bethesda which I know was a big concern. Notice too the discussion of the county wide analysis here and how they may approach boundary studies in the future.

We’re in Somerset zone and happy with this as it will significantly reduce school size, but curious what other folks think….

I'm in Somerset and bummed as it will reduce diversity. (After redistricting, percentage of students who are white will rise, percentage who are ESOL will fall, and percentage who are FARMS eligible will fall even more.) I don't see see that she had a better solution, though. Real problem here is residential segregation, and I'm the fool who bought into an overwhelmingly white neighborhood; if I had to do it again I'd move somewhere very different, where my (white) kids wouldn't be surrounded by other privileged white kids.

Reducing diversity (such as it is) at Somerset and BES was inevitable, when Westbrook is the underutilized school of the three, and is the whitest school in the entire county. Of course the Superintendent was going to try to increase diversity there, which meant decreasing it elsewhere.

Right. That's why we can't really fix this problem without making housing more affordable and more demographically mixed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to have posted last week: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BSW_SupplementB.pdf

Chose option 1, which still leaves Bethesda ES overutilized within two years and divided up East Bethesda which I know was a big concern. Notice too the discussion of the county wide analysis here and how they may approach boundary studies in the future.

We’re in Somerset zone and happy with this as it will significantly reduce school size, but curious what other folks think….

I'm in Somerset and bummed as it will reduce diversity. (After redistricting, percentage of students who are white will rise, percentage who are ESOL will fall, and percentage who are FARMS eligible will fall even more.) I don't see see that she had a better solution, though. Real problem here is residential segregation, and I'm the fool who bought into an overwhelmingly white neighborhood; if I had to do it again I'd move somewhere very different, where my (white) kids wouldn't be surrounded by other privileged white kids.

You can move now.

If she moves, how does that solve the larger problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to have posted last week: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BSW_SupplementB.pdf

Chose option 1, which still leaves Bethesda ES overutilized within two years and divided up East Bethesda which I know was a big concern. Notice too the discussion of the county wide analysis here and how they may approach boundary studies in the future.

We’re in Somerset zone and happy with this as it will significantly reduce school size, but curious what other folks think….

I'm in Somerset and bummed as it will reduce diversity. (After redistricting, percentage of students who are white will rise, percentage who are ESOL will fall, and percentage who are FARMS eligible will fall even more.) I don't see see that she had a better solution, though. Real problem here is residential segregation, and I'm the fool who bought into an overwhelmingly white neighborhood; if I had to do it again I'd move somewhere very different, where my (white) kids wouldn't be surrounded by other privileged white kids.

Like you, we were fools. I guess I'm glad to know someone else feels this way.

[Anonymous]

I'll never understand why it's a policy goal to increase "farms" and ESOL kids at certain schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll never understand why it's a policy goal to increase "farms" and ESOL kids at certain schools.

The goal is to reduce the disparities that exist between neighboring schools. Sometimes disparities are unavoidable, but when there are opportunities to make changes during boundary studies, I support that goal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to have posted last week: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BSW_SupplementB.pdf

Chose option 1, which still leaves Bethesda ES overutilized within two years and divided up East Bethesda which I know was a big concern. Notice too the discussion of the county wide analysis here and how they may approach boundary studies in the future.

We’re in Somerset zone and happy with this as it will significantly reduce school size, but curious what other folks think….

I'm in Somerset and bummed as it will reduce diversity. (After redistricting, percentage of students who are white will rise, percentage who are ESOL will fall, and percentage who are FARMS eligible will fall even more.) I don't see see that she had a better solution, though. Real problem here is residential segregation, and I'm the fool who bought into an overwhelmingly white neighborhood; if I had to do it again I'd move somewhere very different, where my (white) kids wouldn't be surrounded by other privileged white kids.

You can move now.

If she moves, how does that solve the larger problem?

She can sell her house to a pool black family below market rate or rent it to a black family with multiple kids. If enough white people in your or her neighborhoods do that, the schools would become diverse in a few years.

[Anonymous]

I can't imagine that the ESOL kids at Somerset are from low-income families. Even the rental apartments in the area are $$$. Are they kids of diplomat and World Bank families?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

She can sell her house to a pool black family below market rate or rent it to a black family with multiple kids. If enough white people in your or her neighborhoods do that, the schools would become diverse in a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine that the ESOL kids at Somerset are from low-income families. Even the rental apartments in the area are $$$. Are they kids of diplomat and World Bank families?

There are lots of ESOL kids at Somerset who aren't low income, and there are quite a few low-income families who aren't ESOL. Your biases are showing.

In any case there is actually a good bit of below market rate housing within the existing somerset boundary, see eg:
https://www.thefieldsbethesda.com/incomerequirements
https://barclayandfairfax.com/floorplans/
https://aldonishome.com/property/aldon-of-chevy-chase/

Many but of course not all of the kids who qualify for FARMS live in these complexes.

I sometimes do food deliveries to families in these buildings who are food insecure. You wouldn't know these complexes were there necessarily.... They're on side streets. if they're not on your radar it might be worth driving by / walking through them so that you have a better sense of the range of housing and means in our community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to have posted last week: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BSW_SupplementB.pdf

Chose option 1, which still leaves Bethesda ES overutilized within two years and divided up East Bethesda which I know was a big concern. Notice too the discussion of the county wide analysis here and how they may approach boundary studies in the future.

We’re in Somerset zone and happy with this as it will significantly reduce school size, but curious what other folks think….

I'm in Somerset and bummed as it will reduce diversity. (After redistricting, percentage of students who are white will rise, percentage who are ESOL will fall, and percentage who are FARMS eligible will fall even more.) I don't see see that she had a better solution, though. Real problem here is residential segregation, and I'm the fool who bought into an overwhelmingly white neighborhood; if I had to do it again I'd move somewhere very different, where my (white) kids wouldn't be surrounded by other privileged white kids.

You can move now.

If she moves, how does that solve the larger problem?

She can sell her house to a pool black family below market rate or rent it to a black family with multiple kids. If enough white people in your or her neighborhoods do that, the schools would become diverse in a few years.

PP here here. Honey, I wish I had these options, sounds like you are quite wealthy and are making interesting assumptions about other people's means.

My house, while costly by any normal standards, is a tear-down in Somerset, which we stretched to afford about a decade ago (it cost under a million at the time - still a ton, I know). We are still paying off interest on our mortgage and haven't made a dent on the principle. I have some retirement savings but haven't made a dent in college. My car is 10+ years old, and was used to start with. I have about $30k in reserves apart from retirement savings. My spouse and I work in the not for profit sector.

We are wildly lucky any way you look at it, but I'm struggling to know how you propose I pull off renting my house out to someone at below cost while also paying for a place for my family to live. (We are above the cutoff for below-market-rate housing.) Should I leave the DC area?

SMH. Affordable housing and residential desegregation will require HUGE reforms (and if I were queen, would include some reparations to Black peopl from the real estate industry that profited so handsomely off redlining etc over the course o the 20th century). I support aggressive reform, including an end to single family zoning, including in Somerset. I would love to convert my home to a duplex and rent half of it out. (Seriously.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to have posted last week: https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BSW_SupplementB.pdf

Chose option 1, which still leaves Bethesda ES overutilized within two years and divided up East Bethesda which I know was a big concern. Notice too the discussion of the county wide analysis here and how they may approach boundary studies in the future.

We’re in Somerset zone and happy with this as it will significantly reduce school size, but curious what other folks think….

I'm in Somerset and bummed as it will reduce diversity. (After redistricting, percentage of students who are white will rise, percentage who are ESOL will fall, and percentage who are FARMS eligible will fall even more.) I don't see see that she had a better solution, though. Real problem here is residential segregation, and I'm the fool who bought into an overwhelmingly white neighborhood; if I had to do it again I'd move somewhere very different, where my (white) kids wouldn't be surrounded by other privileged white kids.

You can move now.

If she moves, how does that solve the larger problem?

She can sell her house to a pool black family below market rate or rent it to a black family with multiple kids. If enough white people in your or her neighborhoods do that, the schools would become diverse in a few years.

PP here here. Honey, I wish I had these options, sounds like you are quite wealthy and are making interesting assumptions about other people's means.

My house, while costly by any normal standards, is a tear-down in Somerset, which we stretched to afford about a decade ago (it cost under a million at the time - still a ton, I know). We are still paying off interest on our mortgage and haven't made a dent on the principle. I have some retirement savings but haven't made a dent in college. My car is 10+ years old, and was used to start with. I have about $30k in reserves apart from retirement savings. My spouse and I work in the not for profit sector.

We are wildly lucky any way you look at it, but I'm struggling to know how you propose I pull off renting my house out to someone at below cost while also paying for a place for my family to live. (We are above the cutoff for below-market-rate housing.) Should I leave the DC area?

SMH. Affordable housing and residential desegregation will require HUGE reforms (and if I were queen, would include some reparations to Black peopl from the real estate industry that profited so handsomely off redlining etc over the course o the 20th century). I support aggressive reform, including an end to single family zoning, including in Somerset. I would love to convert my home to a duplex and rent half of it out. (Seriously.)

PP here with a PS - while you're considering where it is that I might be able to rent while I rent out my home below market rate (something I'll fund by ceasing our 401 k contributions) please make sure that I'm not gentrifying / driving up housing prices in the neighborhood I land in, thereby canceling out whatever good I'm doing with the below-market rental.

[Anonymous]

New boundaries for all three schools approved today:

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/C8UJQK4E0287/$file/Supp%20B%20Boundary%20Study%20Bethesda%20Somerset%20Westbrook%20ES%20211118.pdf