Starr announces Construction Plan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The population will keep growing, right? Will school districts eventually start building vertically? What's the alternative?

The alternative is building school additions and new schools. Which MCPS is planning to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The population will keep growing, right? Will school districts eventually start building vertically? What's the alternative?

The alternative is building school additions and new schools. Which MCPS is planning to do.

Which is exactly why boundaries are going to change. I don't think its going to happen overnight though. Our elem school is expecting to get an addition per this recent announcement - and it won't be completely til my kindergarten kid is practically out of elem school. So I don't think anyone should panic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will sit back and laugh at all those people who spent a freaking fortune to live in a particular school cluster. The boundaries are bound to change eventually.

I agree.

They are always being adjusted. fact of life

For now, the schools that remain untouched are those "far out there." I doubt Damascus HS will suffer through boundary changes - or Poolesville. Sherwood HS refused to join the NEC, which was a wise decision, as the NEC only pits neighbor against neighbor and creates an unfair competition among three schools. As it stands now, there's a bit of a split articulation with Farquhar, which doesn't make people happy.

The likelihood of rezoning increases when more and more areas become densely populated and the SES levels show a dramatic gap.

I agree; Bethesda in particular will become affected. And those who laughed at us for moving "far out" will not be laughing for long.[/quote]

How so? Please explain?

Any night that I can return home inside the beltway and don't have to sit in bumper to bumper traffic up 270, or drive far out River, or inch up 28...185N or 97N or 29N...is a good night.

[Anonymous]

Boundaries can very well change up county or downcounty. Many could be impacted.

[Anonymous]

What boundaries in Bethesda do you think are going to change that will markedly change the wealth of the area..It is not like the boundaries can move a few miles and Whitman will include a low income housing project.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What boundaries in Bethesda do you think are going to change that will markedly change the wealth of the area..It is not like the boundaries can move a few miles and Whitman will include a low income housing project.

The people most likely affected will be those on the edges who barely made it into the cluster.

[Anonymous]

SO they will end up at Churchill or BCC..ouch!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What boundaries in Bethesda do you think are going to change that will markedly change the wealth of the area..It is not like the boundaries can move a few miles and Whitman will include a low income housing project.

The people most likely affected will be those on the edges who barely made it into the cluster.

Exactly. We had to choose between a larger house on the outskirts of our target cluster (Silver Spring/Bethesda, very risky!), or a smaller house right bang in the middle of "good" school clusters. We chose the latter. That way if the boundaries change even though we're a block away from the elementary school - it's been known to happen - we're still in a "good" school district. "Good" is all relative of course, but at least property prices are stable and will go up .

[Anonymous]

Can you name one example where re districting across clusters would relieve overcrowding? The schools seem to be overcrowded everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What boundaries in Bethesda do you think are going to change that will markedly change the wealth of the area..It is not like the boundaries can move a few miles and Whitman will include a low income housing project.

The people most likely affected will be those on the edges who barely made it into the cluster.

Oh c'mon, that's not the way it would happen. Too much push back. No, MCPS would shroud this type of boundary shift in the new lingo of social justice in order to get buy-in for it. That would mean moving boundary lines in ways that are not just about shaving off a few blocks around the edges. Save your schadenfreude until you can be sure you wouldn't be affected. And, as always, be careful what you ask for (or, in this case, feel smug about).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Oh c'mon, that's not the way it would happen. Too much push back. No, MCPS would shroud this type of boundary shift in the new lingo of social justice in order to get buy-in for it. That would mean moving boundary lines in ways that are not just about shaving off a few blocks around the edges. Save your schadenfreude until you can be sure you wouldn't be affected. And, as always, be careful what you ask for (or, in this case, feel smug about).

Do you think that Starr invented this? I know for a fact that MCPS under Weast also considered demographics. As they should have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What boundaries in Bethesda do you think are going to change that will markedly change the wealth of the area..It is not like the boundaries can move a few miles and Whitman will include a low income housing project.

The people most likely affected will be those on the edges who barely made it into the cluster.

Oh c'mon, that's not the way it would happen. Too much push back. No, MCPS would shroud this type of boundary shift in the new lingo of social justice in order to get buy-in for it. That would mean moving boundary lines in ways that are not just about shaving off a few blocks around the edges. Save your schadenfreude until you can be sure you wouldn't be affected. And, as always, be careful what you ask for (or, in this case, feel smug about).

I live on the edge of a cluster which is why I'm mentioning it and it's nowhere near the awesome W schools. In our case, we live in germantown. The study says both of the high schools Seneca valley and Northwest will be overcrowded. There are no plans to do anything with our school Northwest but Seneca Valley will be both revitalized and expanded. It states overcrowded at NW will be relieved by the changes to Seneca which as I see it has to mean boundary changes. NW is considered the better of the two schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I live on the edge of a cluster which is why I'm mentioning it and it's nowhere near the awesome W schools. In our case, we live in germantown. The study says both of the high schools Seneca valley and Northwest will be overcrowded. There are no plans to do anything with our school Northwest but Seneca Valley will be both revitalized and expanded. It states overcrowded at NW will be relieved by the changes to Seneca which as I see it has to mean boundary changes. NW is considered the better of the two schools.

Northwest is considered the better of the two schools because

1. The student population of Northwest HS is less poor than the student population of Seneca Valley HS (44% ever FARMS vs. 59.6% ever FARMS), and
2. Unlike Seneca Valley HS, Northwest HS does not have leaking roofs, overheated/unheated rooms, asbestos ceiling tiles, and drinking fountains with lead.

MCPS has delayed the overhaul of Seneca Valley HS for several years in a row. I'm very glad to see that they've finally decided not to delay it any longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What boundaries in Bethesda do you think are going to change that will markedly change the wealth of the area..It is not like the boundaries can move a few miles and Whitman will include a low income housing project.

The people most likely affected will be those on the edges who barely made it into the cluster.

Oh c'mon, that's not the way it would happen. Too much push back. No, MCPS would shroud this type of boundary shift in the new lingo of social justice in order to get buy-in for it. That would mean moving boundary lines in ways that are not just about shaving off a few blocks around the edges. Save your schadenfreude until you can be sure you wouldn't be affected. And, as always, be careful what you ask for (or, in this case, feel smug about).

I live on the edge of a cluster which is why I'm mentioning it and it's nowhere near the awesome W schools. In our case, we live in germantown. The study says both of the high schools Seneca valley and Northwest will be overcrowded. There are no plans to do anything with our school Northwest but Seneca Valley will be both revitalized and expanded. It states overcrowded at NW will be relieved by the changes to Seneca which as I see it has to mean boundary changes. NW is considered the better of the two schools.

I don't disagree or doubt your statement. I simply think that in order to do this type of boundary shift it will be rolled into a larger, more wide-spread "social justice" based boundary shift. This way, theoretically, parents won't be able to effectively fight their individual changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't disagree or doubt your statement. I simply think that in order to do this type of boundary shift it will be rolled into a larger, more wide-spread "social justice" based boundary shift. This way, theoretically, parents won't be able to effectively fight their individual changes.

I have been involved in two boundary shifts. Both were before Starr. In both, MCPS considered demographics. In both, the affluent parents pushed against having poor kids go to their kids' schools. Of course they didn't say, "We don't want poor kids at our kids' school." They said things like, "It would be better for the kids from [over there] to go to a school that's closer to home and would help to strengthen their community."

When MCPS considers demographics, you apparently think of this as "social justice". I think of it as social justice.