Cold Spring Kindergarten

[Anonymous]

The underenrollment at CSES and other places, like DuFief, is a real slap in the face to students and families at other overcrowded schools. Simply put, Starr and his cronies never cared about the RM cluster and only protected Wootton, Churchill and WJ. The other schools were left to rot. The interim superintendent is not going to do anything about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, there are some people that sadly think that 1970s style busing works. It doesn't and was a disaster in the 70s. However, regardless of whether you want to engage in a large social experiment that failed once, there is no approved ecumenic and racial busing program in place at MCPS. The voters have never voted for this. People moving into the area have no knowledge that this is part of the program.

It only being done as a hidden opportunity in some random areas which is unfair to those students effected. It wastes money and more importantly is done under the table.

If you and your MCPS buddies think 1970s busing is the way to go then campaign on it. Bring forward a proposal to be voted on! Be hones and upfront

You can add it to your lets protect pedophiles program to keep administrators who allow offenders in schools from being fired in schools platform. Better yet, add it to the we embrace mediocrity and its all about the bureaucrat slogan.

You are a moron PP for equating the idea of busing and MCPS protecting pedophiles.

MCPS is already busing kids. Fallsgrove to RP ES. Just because the area is well to do doesn't mean it's not busing. This isn't about social experiment. This is about making things equitable for kids - getting kids out of portables and spreading out resources. When you have one school with more lower income kids than another, but the school doesn't get anymore funding because it's not a Title 1 school, then the resources at the first school is spread thinner because the lower income kids may need more services. When you have busing going on at non wealthy schools but none at wealthy schools, then it's not equitable and leads one to suspect that the W schools have more political clout.

I'm starting to think the conspiracy theorist about the W schools might be on to something now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, there are some people that sadly think that 1970s style busing works. It doesn't and was a disaster in the 70s. However, regardless of whether you want to engage in a large social experiment that failed once, there is no approved ecumenic and racial busing program in place at MCPS. The voters have never voted for this. People moving into the area have no knowledge that this is part of the program.

It only being done as a hidden opportunity in some random areas which is unfair to those students effected. It wastes money and more importantly is done under the table.

If you and your MCPS buddies think 1970s busing is the way to go then campaign on it. Bring forward a proposal to be voted on! Be hones and upfront

You can add it to your lets protect pedophiles program to keep administrators who allow offenders in schools from being fired in schools platform. Better yet, add it to the we embrace mediocrity and its all about the bureaucrat slogan.

Evidently you have never been part of a boundary study.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/ClarksburgDamascusMS_Meeting2.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The underenrollment at CSES and other places, like DuFief, is a real slap in the face to students and families at other overcrowded schools. Simply put, Starr and his cronies never cared about the RM cluster and only protected Wootton, Churchill and WJ. The other schools were left to rot. The interim superintendent is not going to do anything about this.

The other schools were left to ROT! Damn you, Starr!

Well, except for the part where that wasn't true.

[Anonymous]

12:12, you are clearly a CSES apologist and a selfish jerk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:12, you are clearly a CSES apologist and a selfish jerk.

12:12 here. I may be a selfish jerk, but I don't live in Potomac and have never even laid eyes on Cold Spring ES.

[Anonymous]

I'm a parent in this cluster and I would welcome COSA students from RM or Rachel Carson or wherever! Its not the actual parents in the elementary schools who block COSAs. Starr wasn't protecting us at all.

Its a waste that our school enrollment keeps dropping. Its bad for retaining good teachers. Its bad for the kids to have a huge number of kids in a class but only 1 or 2 classes. Its bad for community activities.

Starr and MCPS create these stupid obstacles. Just let parents do COSAs.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I still don't understand why the county allows this if it has been a consistent issue. For those who have lived in the area for awhile--how many years has it been like this? I'm relatively new to the area so I don't really know the history.

I actually work at another school in the county and our classrooms are more than full. Some years it's a struggle to find enough desks for all of the students. I was aware that Cold Spring is a small school, but I didn't realize that the class sizes would be so low when schools in surrounding neighborhoods are overcrowded. I guess it's a good thing for Cold Spring students, but it doesn't seem to follow the "rules" that other schools have to follow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I still don't understand why the county allows this if it has been a consistent issue. For those who have lived in the area for awhile--how many years has it been like this? I'm relatively new to the area so I don't really know the history.

I actually work at another school in the county and our classrooms are more than full. Some years it's a struggle to find enough desks for all of the students. I was aware that Cold Spring is a small school, but I didn't realize that the class sizes would be so low when schools in surrounding neighborhoods are overcrowded. I guess it's a good thing for Cold Spring students, but it doesn't seem to follow the "rules" that other schools have to follow.

Which is why some people think MCPS is protecting that cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I still don't understand why the county allows this if it has been a consistent issue. For those who have lived in the area for awhile--how many years has it been like this? I'm relatively new to the area so I don't really know the history.

I actually work at another school in the county and our classrooms are more than full. Some years it's a struggle to find enough desks for all of the students. I was aware that Cold Spring is a small school, but I didn't realize that the class sizes would be so low when schools in surrounding neighborhoods are overcrowded. I guess it's a good thing for Cold Spring students, but it doesn't seem to follow the "rules" that other schools have to follow.

What rules are those? The caps on class sizes are the same for all non-Title I schools. If the cap for kindergarten class size was 24 this year, and the whole school has 32 kindergarteners (as Cold Spring did this year), then there will be two classes with 16 kindergarteners each. That's not special rules. It's just math.

At my child's elementary school (not in Potomac), there are 56 first-graders this year, so there are two classes with 19 first-graders and one class with 18 first-graders -- small classes. The cap for second grade next year is 28, so if all 56 first-graders come back for second grade next year at this school, and nobody else is expected to move to the school, there will be two classes with 28 second-graders each -- large classes.

[Anonymous]

It's quite clear that MCPS has a vendetta, for some reason, against schools other than those in the Churchill or Wootton cluster. While other schools are overcrowded or using aging facilities, CSES remains a school serving like 100 kids, and Beverly Farms, Farmland, Hoover and Cabin John have gleaming new facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that MCPS has a vendetta, for some reason, against schools other than those in the Churchill or Wootton cluster. While other schools are overcrowded or using aging facilities, CSES remains a school serving like 100 kids, and Beverly Farms, Farmland, Hoover and Cabin John have gleaming new facilities.

PP have you stepped foot inside Cold Spring. It's a dump. It's an open concept school which is distracting for students. The attempts to divide classrooms lend a cluttered feel to the rooms. The school is dark inside. I suspect it's quite moldy too.

[Anonymous]

CSES parent here. While my kids have benefitted from small class sizes, there are downsides. Some kids have trouble finding a place socially. It's also tough to get enough kids of a gender from a grade to form sports team and the extracurriculars are limited because the pool of participants is small. We would like to see the school grow.

But the school community is friendly and the teachers are great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that MCPS has a vendetta, for some reason, against schools other than those in the Churchill or Wootton cluster. While other schools are overcrowded or using aging facilities, CSES remains a school serving like 100 kids, and Beverly Farms, Farmland, Hoover and Cabin John have gleaming new facilities.

335 kids, actually. Also, the building was built in 1972 and has never been renovated or modernized.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02238.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that MCPS has a vendetta, for some reason, against schools other than those in the Churchill or Wootton cluster. While other schools are overcrowded or using aging facilities, CSES remains a school serving like 100 kids, and Beverly Farms, Farmland, Hoover and Cabin John have gleaming new facilities.

"Vendetta" is probably too strong. Anyone ever give MCPS the benefit of the doubt? There are so many entrenched interests fighting over each school cache meant. Who among us (anonymous posters) would like to take over the school planning department for the County? There are no quick fixes.