Silver Spring ES question-- what is DCC ES #29?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:since your DS won't be in K until next year you wouldn't have gotten the mailer. But, actually, there's no way for MCPS to know you're there with a kid unless you tell them (or am I wrong on that?).

Which is why it would make sense for them to just send it to everybody in the zone. Did they have public hearings about the new school? My baby is only 1, but I would have liked to have known about it, too, since we will likely still be in the neighborhood when he starts K.

[Anonymous]

Yes, there were public hearings about the location, public hearings about cutting down trees in the decided upon location, public hearings about the boundaries ... it was all in the Gazette and on the local TV news the school year before last and a little bit this school year (but most of it was decided by this past fall).

It would be a waste of paper to send a mailing to all households in a neighborhood where maybe 20% of the houses have affected families. It could easily be higher than 20%, but anyone with kids already in school knows about it, people with grown kids only cared because trees were cut down, and people with young kids pay attention when they pay attention ... we paid attention before DD was in K so we knew it was coming for next year when we enrolled her at OTES in K this year.

[Anonymous]

The hearings actually started a long time ago. My oldest is in 2nd grade now and I remember when he was a baby or toddler that there were meetings.

[Anonymous]

You are right, the boundary for DCC #29 is totally enclosed in the current OTES boundary. Here are some highlights...

OTES is at double capacity and about 1/2 the kids will be "rerouted" to DCC #29 based on a boundary study completed last year.
The new school is being built immediately adjacent to McKenney Hill Park. Another school/learning center used to stand on the site.
The school will open this fall (2012) with students in Kindergarten through 4th grade. 5th grade students will, for this coming year remain at OTES.
When kids at DCC #29 move to middle school, they will all matriculate to Sligo Middle School and OTES will all matriculate to Newport Mill (previously OTES had split matriculation).
There is a complex naming process that has been started. The final step is the School Board's official selection of a name which will hopefully happen at their next meeting.
Mr. Kyle Heatwole is the new Principal of DCC #29. He has an office at OTES. You can follow him on Twitter (Kyle heatwole@Heatwole29), email him at [e-mail], or call OTES (301-929-2161) to reach him. Keep in mind that he is in the process of hiring staff for the school so be patient with the response time.

As for letting the community know this was happening, there were a number of public meetings at the time the boundaries were being debated/drawn for the new school with multiple means of attempting to raise awareness and invite participation. It is likely that those of us at OTES and Woodlin ES (which doesn't end up being involved in the new boundaries) probably were more aware of it than others because we saw so much about it blazing through our email and listserves but the word was "out on the street." My guess would be that with a limited budget for the school system, mass mailings just wasn't in the budget.

I for one am excited about the new school and for having all of the kids IN the building (no portables, no space in another school...) together. I've spoken with Mr. Heatwole a couple of times as well as with teachers who have worked for him at his previous assignment (Rock View Elementary) and I'm pretty excited about him as the Principal of DCC #29.