Forest Knolls/Montgomery Knolls/Pine Crest boundary study

[Anonymous]

Interesting. I have friends who live in the FKES neighborhood and they thought their son would not be affected since he's starting kindergarten this coming year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach at Eastern. We already have 4 lunches with sixth graders eating at 10:30 AM. Hallways are used as work space for 15 or so students from multiple classrooms. We can’t absorb rezoned SSIMS students.

Eastern badly needs an upgrade it hasn't been remodeled in 40 years.

So with boundary redraw will this only affect kindergarten students or all Forest Knolls kids?

Not only Kindergarten. It will affect all grades of the Forest Knolls kids living within the reassigned zones only, with the likely exception of 2020-21 5th graders who'd be grandfathered in. And there was discussion of also grandfathering in 2nd graders, otherwise they'd go to three schools in three years (1st at FK, 2nd at MK, 3rd at PC).

So the 2nd graders would stay at FK and then go to 3rd at PC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach at Eastern. We already have 4 lunches with sixth graders eating at 10:30 AM. Hallways are used as work space for 15 or so students from multiple classrooms. We can’t absorb rezoned SSIMS students.

Wow. Meanwhile, I hear that Sligo Middle School is under capacity by 200 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach at Eastern. We already have 4 lunches with sixth graders eating at 10:30 AM. Hallways are used as work space for 15 or so students from multiple classrooms. We can’t absorb rezoned SSIMS students.

Eastern badly needs an upgrade it hasn't been remodeled in 40 years.

So with boundary redraw will this only affect kindergarten students or all Forest Knolls kids?

Not only Kindergarten. It will affect all grades of the Forest Knolls kids living within the reassigned zones only, with the likely exception of 2020-21 5th graders who'd be grandfathered in. And there was discussion of also grandfathering in 2nd graders, otherwise they'd go to three schools in three years (1st at FK, 2nd at MK, 3rd at PC).

So the 2nd graders would stay at FK and then go to 3rd at PC?

If they get grandfathered in, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach at Eastern. We already have 4 lunches with sixth graders eating at 10:30 AM. Hallways are used as work space for 15 or so students from multiple classrooms. We can’t absorb rezoned SSIMS students.

Wow. Meanwhile, I hear that Sligo Middle School is under capacity by 200 students.

Yes. Actually Eastern is a bit under capacity too. SSIMS is just over capacity but will have more after the impending construction.

Eastern's capacity is 1012, with 970 enrolled.
SSIMS' capacity is 1107, with 1125 enrolled.
Sligo's capacity is 920, with 657 enrolled.
(Sligo was not part of this boundary study, but situations like this are what the countywide boundary analysis is meant to assess.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach at Eastern. We already have 4 lunches with sixth graders eating at 10:30 AM. Hallways are used as work space for 15 or so students from multiple classrooms. We can’t absorb rezoned SSIMS students.

Wow. Meanwhile, I hear that Sligo Middle School is under capacity by 200 students.

Yes. Actually Eastern is a bit under capacity too. SSIMS is just over capacity but will have more after the impending construction.

Eastern's capacity is 1012, with 970 enrolled.
SSIMS' capacity is 1107, with 1125 enrolled.
Sligo's capacity is 920, with 657 enrolled.
(Sligo was not part of this boundary study, but situations like this are what the countywide boundary analysis is meant to assess.)

It's weird how nothing MCPS has on paper about Eastern fits the reality of the actual school. That facility assessment they published recently may as well have been describing a different school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach at Eastern. We already have 4 lunches with sixth graders eating at 10:30 AM. Hallways are used as work space for 15 or so students from multiple classrooms. We can’t absorb rezoned SSIMS students.

Wow. Meanwhile, I hear that Sligo Middle School is under capacity by 200 students.

Yes. Actually Eastern is a bit under capacity too. SSIMS is just over capacity but will have more after the impending construction.

Eastern's capacity is 1012, with 970 enrolled.
SSIMS' capacity is 1107, with 1125 enrolled.
Sligo's capacity is 920, with 657 enrolled.
(Sligo was not part of this boundary study, but situations like this are what the countywide boundary analysis is meant to assess.)

It's weird how nothing MCPS has on paper about Eastern fits the reality of the actual school. That facility assessment they published recently may as well have been describing a different school.

With respect to capacity, there are issues at schools that have had additions that have added classrooms but not added to the "core space" of the building. You can have enough space in classrooms but still have wacky lunch periods because the size of the cafeteria is not commensurate with the classroom capacity. Core space is cafeteria, gym, media center, size of hallways and stairwells, stuff like that.

[Anonymous]

The June presentation's timeline had "August - Boundary Report Released" as a next step. Has that happened yet? Will the report be made public?

[Anonymous]

Nothing new on the website yet. Your MCCPTA cluster coordinators might have more info.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/DownCountyESBoundaryStudy.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing new on the website yet. Your MCCPTA cluster coordinators might have more info.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/DownCountyESBoundaryStudy.aspx

The boundary study report is now posted on the site.

[Anonymous]

No clue what they're going to do with the ES assignments, but I don't see how they could change the MS assignments. Every option overutilizes Eastern while leaving SSIMS significantly underutilized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No clue what they're going to do with the ES assignments, but I don't see how they could change the MS assignments. Every option overutilizes Eastern while leaving SSIMS significantly underutilized.

Yup. This was discussed during several of the meetings. No good reason to move anyone from SSIMS to Eastern. But they were asked to develop the options showing both ES and MS reassignments. Hope Jack Smith recommends that the MS assignments stay as is.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have an educated guess about what the superintendent's recommendation will be? Option 3 seems to check the most boxes, but who knows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have an educated guess about what the superintendent's recommendation will be? Option 3 seems to check the most boxes, but who knows.

I agree, Option 3 seems like what will be recommended, but I think for the ESs only, leaving middle schools unchanged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have an educated guess about what the superintendent's recommendation will be? Option 3 seems to check the most boxes, but who knows.

I agree, Option 3 seems like what will be recommended, but I think for the ESs only, leaving middle schools unchanged.

I hope so. Really not happy at the prospect of child having to get used to a new middle school in 7th grade.