Share your experience with Beall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard from many people who love Beall but I believe overcrowding is a huge issue and will get worse before the county does anything about it. A 5th elementary school for that cluster will not be built until 2017. And then, I'm told by school officials, that will only pull about 150 kids out of Beall, and it will still be overcrowded.

This is not really accurate. See http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/PDF/MP14CH4_MontgomeryR.pdf

First of all, to my knowledge there has been no redistricting decision yet for how RM school #5 will be zoned. When you're told that the new school will "pull about 150" from Beall, they are likely just using that number because that's how much Beall is projected to be overcapacity in 2017. Based on projections, school #5 will have more capacity than the total projected overcapacity from the other 4 schools combined, so once it opens, no elementary schools will be overcapacity if current projections hold. They are likely just waiting to announce rezoning because, among other reasons, they will want to use more current data so everything balances out appropriately and nothing is left overcrowded.

The main capacity issue going forward is really at the middle school level IMHO, as Julius West will be a massive MS after its new addition is finished. Not an ideal MS size to me. Way too big.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard from many people who love Beall but I believe overcrowding is a huge issue and will get worse before the county does anything about it. A 5th elementary school for that cluster will not be built until 2017. And then, I'm told by school officials, that will only pull about 150 kids out of Beall, and it will still be overcrowded.

This is not really accurate. See http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/PDF/MP14CH4_MontgomeryR.pdf

First of all, to my knowledge there has been no redistricting decision yet for how RM school #5 will be zoned. When you're told that the new school will "pull about 150" from Beall, they are likely just using that number because that's how much Beall is projected to be overcapacity in 2017. Based on projections, school #5 will have more capacity than the total projected overcapacity from the other 4 schools combined, so once it opens, no elementary schools will be overcapacity if current projections hold. They are likely just waiting to announce rezoning because, among other reasons, they will want to use more current data so everything balances out appropriately and nothing is left overcrowded.

The main capacity issue going forward is really at the middle school level IMHO, as Julius West will be a massive MS after its new addition is finished. Not an ideal MS size to me. Way too big.

Thanks for the correction. When I first talked to officials there was a proposal by the school board to build the 5th elementary school in 2015. At that time Beall would still be overcrowded even minus the 150 (though not by much). I got my numbers a bit confused. I blame Curriculum 2.0 (kidding). The Council, in its infinite wisdom (not) voted to delay construction until 2017. And you're right about Julius West being a problem.