Sumner to Westland/BCC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

"Typically" may have worked in the past. At white Flint 2 we expect better. We don't want to wait for all the houses to be built first and then have our kids in trailers or office space. We are the taxpayers and we decide.

Maybe consider running for the Board of Education or the County Council, then.

Also, could you please finally explain why it's bad by definition to convert an office building to a school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should move those kids--Pyle is horribly overcrowded. Even if it means redistributing students between the high schools. As a future Whitman parent, I would be fine being redistricted to BCC and swapping middle schools if it meant smaller classes and more opportunities.

Westland is one of the most crowded middle schools in the country. I don't think you'd find smaller class sizes there. Maybe after the new middle school is built.

That's our hope. My kids will start Westland next year, and I figure that, by the time they are in 8th grade in 2017 (when the new middle school is finished), the school will be a bit less crowded.

I do worry a bit about the Westbard development. It would make sense for those kids to go to Westland MS since it is literally right next door. I know both Whitman and BCC are plenty crowded and probably neither cluster can easily absorb a lot of additional students. I think that the developer should be required to set aside land for at least an elementary if they plan to take land zoned for commercial and put 1700 dwelling units on it (which I believe is what was proposed, although I may not have the most current info.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should move those kids--Pyle is horribly overcrowded. Even if it means redistributing students between the high schools. As a future Whitman parent, I would be fine being redistricted to BCC and swapping middle schools if it meant smaller classes and more opportunities.

Westland is one of the most crowded middle schools in the country. I don't think you'd find smaller class sizes there. Maybe after the new middle school is built.

That's our hope. My kids will start Westland next year, and I figure that, by the time they are in 8th grade in 2017 (when the new middle school is finished), the school will be a bit less crowded.

I do worry a bit about the Westbard development. It would make sense for those kids to go to Westland MS since it is literally right next door. I know both Whitman and BCC are plenty crowded and probably neither cluster can easily absorb a lot of additional students. I think that the developer should be required to set aside land for at least an elementary if they plan to take land zoned for commercial and put 1700 dwelling units on it (which I believe is what was proposed, although I may not have the most current info.)

I think it's 1000 units, 1700 planned occupants. Much of that is going to be in apartment buildings, one proposed on the nursing home site and one on the Kenwood 2 site.

I don't think any of the developers parcels are big enough for an elementary school. Even when they were proposing to move the library into the development (now off the table) the whole library site was not large enough for an elem school and that's a pretty big site. Not even sure the entire Giant site, which is the largest of the parcels would be large enough.

[Anonymous]

It is irrelevant what you think about the size of the library site. Mr. Casey Anderson and Mr. Roger Berliner just want the development. They will tell you that you need to think differently and get on with the times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should move those kids--Pyle is horribly overcrowded. Even if it means redistributing students between the high schools. As a future Whitman parent, I would be fine being redistricted to BCC and swapping middle schools if it meant smaller classes and more opportunities.

Class size is standardized across the county. The exception is that some Title I schools (i.e., very high poverty rate elementaries) got extra money to reduce class size. not sure if that still happens, but in any case certainly doesn't apply to BCC or Whitman. No matter the overall total school population, individual class size will be the same. Of course that may very for unique reasons - can't find an extra teacher to spli knto 3 undersize classes, so stuck with 2 oversize, or only 20 people signed up for AP Macroeconomics, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is irrelevant what you think about the size of the library site. Mr. Casey Anderson and Mr. Roger Berliner just want the development. They will tell you that you need to think differently and get on with the times.

Sorry-didnt mean I had an opinion about the size of the library site-it just does not meet county requirements for an ES. And they've already said they aren't moving the library. That was the county's call since obviously the developer doesn't own the library site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi,

I have seen rumors about Ft Sumner and possibly Springfield moving to Westland/BCC after the new middle school opens. Is there any truth to this? We have been house hunting in west Bethesda/CC (for commuting/logistical reasons for both of us, going east of Wisc Ave isn't as feasible) that feeds to BCC (which we'd prefer to Whitman). There have been a number of homes of interest popping up in Sumner but we haden't been seriously considering them. Would love to know if anyone knows anything, and/or where we should be looking to stay on top of developments.

Many thanks!

They have said that middle schools will still tie to high schools and no high school areas will be affected. Don't think of this as load balancing living areas but as load balancing Westland middle specifically. They took one high occupancy middle school and are splitting it in two and will balance it with busing and SES considerations between it and the new one with all of those kids still going to BCC so it is a net gain of 0 for BCC but the middles will have theoretically have half the kids .

That said if in the future they make a high school change Brookmont, FT Sumner, Sumner and the like would be looked at being the southern most boundary of Whitman. That said it could also play out the in different ways where WestMoreland Hills come to Whitman and the northern border is sent to Potomac. Who Knows but it is a great area no matter how it plays out and while getting sent to BCC isn't ideal it isn't like it is Einstein

Wow, way to slam two high schools at once. You're a peach. There's nothing wrong with either of those schools. We picked BCC, deciding that it was ideal in our opinion. And we have friends who are happy with Einstein. Different people make different choices. Who are you to pass judgement?