MCPS has numerous schools off the CIP list because of no money, but MCPS is building a pool at Piney Branch ES

[Anonymous]

Is it possible county funds are being used. I seem to remember our ES got an enhanced gym for community use too.

[Anonymous]

The P.E. teacher does swim units throughout the year where students do use the pool. The parent community was very passionate about keeping the pool.

[Anonymous]

Other than running away from a perceived threat, swimming is the only sport that can legitimately save your life. We should be so lucky as to have pools in more schools, but if we are going to have even one, it should be in a community that needs it. PB serves a geographic area that does not otherwise have easy access to a public pool for kids to learn to be safe in the water - both the kids at the school and the kids from the surrounding neighborhoods. I think my only wish list would be that if there is MCPS money in the pool, water-safety classes should be required of all students at the ES (which I think historically might have been done?).

Other than being a taxpayer and an MCPS parent, I have no stake in PB - it's too far from my home for us to use it. But I know what a difference our local public pool has made in my family's life. It is an extremely important community resource.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And why are they spending money on building early childhood centers? Pre-K can be operated by high quality child care providers at lower cost and is much more convenient for working families. And the more Pre-K classes there are in schools, the more it destabilizes the child care market and leads to higher prices for families and child care program closures. It's one thing to go ahead with it despite that if you actually have the classroom space available. But it's just stupid to spend tens of millions of dollars on facilities cost for something that's not necessary and is arguably harmful to the county.

Blueprint requires and lack of high quality Pre-K. Go listen to the updated they’ve provided specifically on this area

The Blueprint requires that between 50-100% of each county's Pre-K slots be located at private child care providers. Montgomery County is at 5%, with only a couple hundred slots through private providers so far. Their focus absolutely should be on growing the private side, not wasting our tax dollars on unnecessary physical facilities for public early childhood centers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other than running away from a perceived threat, swimming is the only sport that can legitimately save your life. We should be so lucky as to have pools in more schools, but if we are going to have even one, it should be in a community that needs it. PB serves a geographic area that does not otherwise have easy access to a public pool for kids to learn to be safe in the water - both the kids at the school and the kids from the surrounding neighborhoods. I think my only wish list would be that if there is MCPS money in the pool, water-safety classes should be required of all students at the ES (which I think historically might have been done?).

Other than being a taxpayer and an MCPS parent, I have no stake in PB - it's too far from my home for us to use it. But I know what a difference our local public pool has made in my family's life. It is an extremely important community resource.

The county pool in DTSS is only a couple miles away and is accessible by public transit, actually. It's not like this is some isolated neighborhood.

I'm not against having more pools co-located with schools, on the contrary. My HS had one. However, when there are limited CIP funds, I do question why this pool project is being prioritized over other projects. Maybe we don't have a full picture of where the funding is coming from or they expect to recoup a lot of the costs through user fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And why are they spending money on building early childhood centers? Pre-K can be operated by high quality child care providers at lower cost and is much more convenient for working families. And the more Pre-K classes there are in schools, the more it destabilizes the child care market and leads to higher prices for families and child care program closures. It's one thing to go ahead with it despite that if you actually have the classroom space available. But it's just stupid to spend tens of millions of dollars on facilities cost for something that's not necessary and is arguably harmful to the county.

Blueprint requires and lack of high quality Pre-K. Go listen to the updated they’ve provided specifically on this area

The Blueprint requires that between 50-100% of each county's Pre-K slots be located at private child care providers. Montgomery County is at 5%, with only a couple hundred slots through private providers so far. Their focus absolutely should be on growing the private side, not wasting our tax dollars on unnecessary physical facilities for public early childhood centers.

Where do you think the other % has to be when not private child care providers? And do you believe all the infrastructure for that is already established? Also, did you determine why private is only at 5%? And who do you think is helping to get that % increased?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other than running away from a perceived threat, swimming is the only sport that can legitimately save your life. We should be so lucky as to have pools in more schools, but if we are going to have even one, it should be in a community that needs it. PB serves a geographic area that does not otherwise have easy access to a public pool for kids to learn to be safe in the water - both the kids at the school and the kids from the surrounding neighborhoods. I think my only wish list would be that if there is MCPS money in the pool, water-safety classes should be required of all students at the ES (which I think historically might have been done?).

Other than being a taxpayer and an MCPS parent, I have no stake in PB - it's too far from my home for us to use it. But I know what a difference our local public pool has made in my family's life. It is an extremely important community resource.

That is just incorrect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible county funds are being used. I seem to remember our ES got an enhanced gym for community use too.

This is what I'm thinking and wondering too. From what I could tell the few times I went in there a while back, the pool at Gaithersburg Middle School was run by Gaithersburg City staff.

So maybe the funding would be shared by the local city/government and some of the extra funding would go to the overall school too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than running away from a perceived threat, swimming is the only sport that can legitimately save your life. We should be so lucky as to have pools in more schools, but if we are going to have even one, it should be in a community that needs it. PB serves a geographic area that does not otherwise have easy access to a public pool for kids to learn to be safe in the water - both the kids at the school and the kids from the surrounding neighborhoods. I think my only wish list would be that if there is MCPS money in the pool, water-safety classes should be required of all students at the ES (which I think historically might have been done?).

Other than being a taxpayer and an MCPS parent, I have no stake in PB - it's too far from my home for us to use it. But I know what a difference our local public pool has made in my family's life. It is an extremely important community resource.

That is just incorrect.

Well, they admitted they don't live in the area.

Takoma Park parents were pretty organized on this though, if my kids ES had a pool I'd want to keep it too!

[Anonymous]

There already is a pool at piney branch. It’s probably falling apart. https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/rec/facilities/aquaticcenters/pineybranch.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible county funds are being used. I seem to remember our ES got an enhanced gym for community use too.

This is what I'm thinking and wondering too. From what I could tell the few times I went in there a while back, the pool at Gaithersburg Middle School was run by Gaithersburg City staff.

So maybe the funding would be shared by the local city/government and some of the extra funding would go to the overall school too.

The county runs the piney branch pool with limited hours. City of Rockville and city of Gaithersburg run their own pools. They share funding with the county.

[Anonymous]

Tear down SSIMS and give piney branch a new pool when they already have one… make it make sense. Perhaps a Cake video…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tear down SSIMS and give piney branch a new pool when they already have one… make it make sense. Perhaps a Cake video…

They're not tearing down SSIMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The P.E. teacher does swim units throughout the year where students do use the pool. The parent community was very passionate about keeping the pool.

The sensible thing to do would be to get rid of the pool because that building is already got a really bizarre layout that doesn't actually function very well and they could renovate the pool area into more functional space. But emotionally people are very attached to the pool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tear down SSIMS and give piney branch a new pool when they already have one… make it make sense. Perhaps a Cake video…

They're not tearing down SSIMS.

I think they're going to have to completely renovate Sims in order to make it into a holding school for Middle School students.