Continuity for current 6th and 7th graders in magnet programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the other thread about yesterday's meeting, there was a link to what people spoke about and many emphasized continuity and to keep StoneMill and Travilah together at Cabin John for continuity and to have same peer group.

My question - families with kids in magnet programs have invested a lot of time driving the kids, kids also have sacrificed their elementary school friendships and made new friends in these magnets. With the regional magnets, current 6th and 7th graders will lose those set of friends/peers/cohorts and no continuity for them - basically ES was a different group, MS a different group and now a different group for HS. It is hard for some nerdy kids to make friends as is and now they have to start over.

If continuity is allowed with boundary changes for current 10th and 11th graders, why not the same for the current 6th and 7th grader kids in the magnet programs? They need continuity too.

How can this be achieved?

How does the regional programming change this? Middle school magnet kids never articulated on to a specific high school. The only thing that changes now is that it's impossible for some of them to stay together, I guess. But how would you change that?

(And the lack of continuity is also basically what you actively sign up for when you decide to do a middle school magnet. Not at all like boundary changes where you are forced into it. When you pick a middle school magnet, you decide "the benefits of my kid being at this magnet outweigh the fact that it is not their neighborhood school so they will be with different groups of kids than in ES and HS.)

OP here. My kid is quite advanced and would have been with some of their peers in high school and we factored that in when we decided to stay with the magnet, in spite of logistic issues, 2 months in. We made our decision based on the benefits we saw at that time. Now we don't see any benefit and our sacrifice for 3 years will be worthless.

My kid will most likely will get into the high school magnet and most of their MS friends who are from same high school will go to one region, a few others to a different region, while my kid will be sent to a completely different high school.

Since we based our decision on information provided at the time we signed up for the magnet, I am wondering how my kid who most likely will get in to a magnet can be with their MS peers. I am not asking that MCPS plan this for all future magnet kids - just the current 6th graders and 7th graders who based their decision on previous information provided. We did not know 6 new regional magnets will pop up midway through disrupting the continuity we envisioned when we made our decision.

Maybe they should allow these current 6th and 7th grader kids to get a COSA if that is what the parent thinks is best for the kid? The parents who request this will be very few -there are 80 per grade in each magnet and not all parents whose kid gets into a magnet and belongs to a different regional magnet will want the change or be willing to drive their kid - just the ones who want continuity for their kids.

Lots of kids go off to different high schools, especially in the DCC and NEC currently. This is not new. You were very lucky to get a spot in a middle school magnet. If you think your 3 years there will be worthless, transfer back to your home school and free up a spot for someone who will value it.

OP. Are you that dense? The kids in DCC have some friends coming in with them to all the 3 Middle schools and they all live nearby and have after school activity buses- 8 schools get split up between the 3 middle schools in DCC. When we go to a criteria magnet or if out of bounds to DCC, there are very few kids going in from the elementary schools that these kids go to. So yes, parents and kids invest time when driving their kids around so their kids can get into a magnet with peers from that group.

Very easy for you to say free up a spot after the kids have spent 2 years in a new school, making new friends. Ho do you think they will fair in their assigned middle school where all the friend groups are already made.

You can't really have expected that all or even most of your kid's middle school friends were going to go to the same high school, did you? I truly don't understand this. What is the middle school you're at, and what was the high school you were so sure they were all going to apply to and get into?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the other thread about yesterday's meeting, there was a link to what people spoke about and many emphasized continuity and to keep StoneMill and Travilah together at Cabin John for continuity and to have same peer group.

My question - families with kids in magnet programs have invested a lot of time driving the kids, kids also have sacrificed their elementary school friendships and made new friends in these magnets. With the regional magnets, current 6th and 7th graders will lose those set of friends/peers/cohorts and no continuity for them - basically ES was a different group, MS a different group and now a different group for HS. It is hard for some nerdy kids to make friends as is and now they have to start over.

If continuity is allowed with boundary changes for current 10th and 11th graders, why not the same for the current 6th and 7th grader kids in the magnet programs? They need continuity too.

How can this be achieved?

So you want kids who had lottery luck in MS magnets to get that advantage through high school too? Nope. Not happening. If you want continuity, go to your local school.

Luck or not you have to be good enough and meet a certain criteria to get into that pool.

Yes, but lots of kids meet the criteria and are never offered a spot. It takes luck to get in.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, OP, your magnet middle schooler might not pick up where he left off with friends from ES even if he were reunited at your current zoned high school after 3 years. It’s a long time. Plus some of those kids might opt to go to different regional programs themselves instead of the home high school. Or they might move out of town. If social continuity is your top goal, you should return to your zoned school now to keep those relationships strong. I get that you feel like the rug was sort of pulled out from under you. But by choosing to leave your cluster, some of this was a known risk in terms of maintaining those relationships. At the end of the day, if your kid goes to your home high school, they will know some kids from your neighborhood. If they go to a magnet high school, many kids will come in without existing relationships or friend groups. They won’t be the only one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Huh? There aren't any changes currently planned to middle school magnets, are there?

There are not.

Parents are speculating and internet trolls are encouraging them to panic.

Stop social engineering your kids’ lives. Adolescents are capable of forming completely new friend groups even if they stay together and of maintaining old ones even if physically separated. They mostly need adults to stop hovering.

[Anonymous]

Have a 7th grader in a magnet and while it was a possibility a lot of them would have ended up at the same HS magnet, that was never a guarantee. My kid could end up back at their home school, and this is much more likely now based on what magnets will be there in the regional model. Some of their friends will be there too but plenty will be at others in other regions. So is life. Also they all have phones and email now and will keep in touch that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Huh? There aren't any changes currently planned to middle school magnets, are there?

As the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so shall Taylor take apart the middle school magnet programs. Why would he disassemble the high school magnet programs for "equity," and not do the same next year for the middle school magnets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have a 7th grader in a magnet and while it was a possibility a lot of them would have ended up at the same HS magnet, that was never a guarantee. My kid could end up back at their home school, and this is much more likely now based on what magnets will be there in the regional model. Some of their friends will be there too but plenty will be at others in other regions. So is life. Also they all have phones and email now and will keep in touch that way.

A sanguine view. You must be in a new region likely to have excellent programming in your home school.

[Anonymous]

OP, this issue affects non magnet kids as well. I have a rising 6th grader who could have to move schools 2 years in a row due to the boundary changes. We accepted a magnet spot just for the continuity of being in the same school for all of MS.

Nobody has a crystal ball. There are all kinds of reasons why families may end up at a different HS than they thought back when their kid was in grade 5. WW3 and the economy come to min immediately.

My parents divorced and I had to attend a completely different HS than any of my MS friends because I moved. My older child attended private school k-8 and is now in an MCPS HS in the DCC. Everyone in our neighborhood goes to a different school because of lotteries, choice and not enough spots in the current criteria based programs.

Your kid will be a different person heading into HS. Maybe they will care about more than just staying with their friend group. This is a good lesson to prep for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have a 7th grader in a magnet and while it was a possibility a lot of them would have ended up at the same HS magnet, that was never a guarantee. My kid could end up back at their home school, and this is much more likely now based on what magnets will be there in the regional model. Some of their friends will be there too but plenty will be at others in other regions. So is life. Also they all have phones and email now and will keep in touch that way.

A sanguine view. You must be in a new region likely to have excellent programming in your home school.

Stop complaining unless you’ve contacted the BOE demanding they adopt the policies and consequences outlined in OLO Report 2026-2.

People never complain when the scales tip in their favor but Heaven forbid they try to advocate for everyone to have good programs