Why can't we have more smaller high schools all over the MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Now that almost all MCPS HSs are huge, the small ones are complaining about not having the same course offerings/extracurriculars as the big ones. It’s a pretty significant difference in range of electives for 1200 v 2400 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because mcps gets more bang for its buck with a larger school. They don't have to staff two schools, two sets of principals two sets of Building Services two sets of teachers, versus one larger staff. It's much cheaper.

If that was the only way to do things, then one central school for 50 000 kids would be even less expensive
to run, having one principal and one set of staff, one building but is this what it is all about?

At the end of the day the best things are not the least expensive. It is about quality education so maybe
it needs to cost more? Smaller communities can be run more effectively and they are more kids friendly.

DP:

"More bang for the buck with larger schools" is not equal to "largest possible school will provide the best bang for the buck."
(For those who think it is equal, there is a wonderful book for you: "How not to be wrong: The power of mathematical thinking".)

Are there cons with larger schools? Sure. But when it comes to special ed services and number of courses offered, larger schools do have an advantage.

[Anonymous]

It would mean more buildings, double the administrators, and each would probably have to have it's own sports teams. Not affordable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because mcps gets more bang for its buck with a larger school. They don't have to staff two schools, two sets of principals two sets of Building Services two sets of teachers, versus one larger staff. It's much cheaper.

People say this, but I doubt it. There is so much bloat in the MCPS system. Useless cluster superintendents who truly serve no purpose, etc. Levels of admin that have no direct impact on students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a small (public) HS in a small town in MA, where schools are organized by town rather than county. Even in that kind of system there are a lot of big HS -- and they happen to be some of the best in the state. Newton North, Newton South, Brookline. Size is not an inherent problem, OP, and as some of the PPs have noted there are some distinct advantages to larger high schools.

Fellow Massachusetts native here. I work in MCPS and it doesn't hold a candle to the schools west of Boston. The town system makes it easier to effect change and harder to "pass the trash." Bad teachers get weeded out, corruption is more visible earlier in general, new initiatives can be piloted and accepted or rejected faster, elected officials are actually within the community they serve, there is a little less variation among students' needs, etc. That said, you end up with rich and poor school systems. So some towns benefit if they're wealthy, ie Newton, Weston, Wellesley, and some suffer.

This is my experience with a town based school system also. MCPS is just too. damn. big.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a small (public) HS in a small town in MA, where schools are organized by town rather than county. Even in that kind of system there are a lot of big HS -- and they happen to be some of the best in the state. Newton North, Newton South, Brookline. Size is not an inherent problem, OP, and as some of the PPs have noted there are some distinct advantages to larger high schools.

Fellow Massachusetts native here. I work in MCPS and it doesn't hold a candle to the schools west of Boston. The town system makes it easier to effect change and harder to "pass the trash." Bad teachers get weeded out, corruption is more visible earlier in general, new initiatives can be piloted and accepted or rejected faster, elected officials are actually within the community they serve, there is a little less variation among students' needs, etc. That said, you end up with rich and poor school systems. So some towns benefit if they're wealthy, ie Newton, Weston, Wellesley, and some suffer.

It's also forced some towns to effectively merge their schools with neighboring towns because otherwise they were too small to offer enough classes or even field some sports teams. This has happened on the Cape, for example. The downside is that the bus rides can be quite long for the kids in the town without a high school (or middle school for that matter, usually they still have town elementary schools).

[Anonymous]

I pointed out the why, that mcps gets more bang for its buck with larger schools, and that's why we can't have small high schools. I'm not saying that's what I want! My own child's HS is over crowded and too big. You may have more course offerings, but, more children who don't make it into the school play, on the football or soccer or basketball team, Etc. I wish we had smaller schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a small (public) HS in a small town in MA, where schools are organized by town rather than county. Even in that kind of system there are a lot of big HS -- and they happen to be some of the best in the state. Newton North, Newton South, Brookline. Size is not an inherent problem, OP, and as some of the PPs have noted there are some distinct advantages to larger high schools.

Fellow Massachusetts native here. I work in MCPS and it doesn't hold a candle to the schools west of Boston. The town system makes it easier to effect change and harder to "pass the trash." Bad teachers get weeded out, corruption is more visible earlier in general, new initiatives can be piloted and accepted or rejected faster, elected officials are actually within the community they serve, there is a little less variation among students' needs, etc. That said, you end up with rich and poor school systems. So some towns benefit if they're wealthy, ie Newton, Weston, Wellesley, and some suffer.

This is my experience with a town based school system also. MCPS is just too. damn. big.

Well, sure. Town-based school systems are great, if you're in a rich town. They're not so great if you're in a non-rich town.

[Anonymous]

I'm from a poor town, and my high school could not afford to have a band (including a marching band) or any music classes. Very few extracurricular activities besides a few sports, plus cheerleading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a small (public) HS in a small town in MA, where schools are organized by town rather than county. Even in that kind of system there are a lot of big HS -- and they happen to be some of the best in the state. Newton North, Newton South, Brookline. Size is not an inherent problem, OP, and as some of the PPs have noted there are some distinct advantages to larger high schools.

Fellow Massachusetts native here. I work in MCPS and it doesn't hold a candle to the schools west of Boston. The town system makes it easier to effect change and harder to "pass the trash." Bad teachers get weeded out, corruption is more visible earlier in general, new initiatives can be piloted and accepted or rejected faster, elected officials are actually within the community they serve, there is a little less variation among students' needs, etc. That said, you end up with rich and poor school systems. So some towns benefit if they're wealthy, ie Newton, Weston, Wellesley, and some suffer.

I grew up there too and in my experience the town system is incredibly wasteful by comparison to MCPS. If you people think the central office is bad imagine that but for every town.

[Anonymous]

These wacky fantasy posts about things like Potomac splintering off and becoming their own county and now this.

These ideas are half-baked and will never happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These wacky fantasy posts about things like Potomac splintering off and becoming their own county and now this.

These ideas are half-baked and will never happen.

OP seems to be the same poster who's going nuts over potential redistricting and its "effect" on SATs. Same broken English and crazy rants.

OP, wherever you're from, do you have a version of 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'? You're now in Montgomery County, MD, and no one cares if they run their public schools in Shenzhen, Seoul or Tomsk (which, I'm sure, they do!) so just drop it already. It's getting old fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These wacky fantasy posts about things like Potomac splintering off and becoming their own county and now this.

These ideas are half-baked and will never happen.

OP seems to be the same poster who's going nuts over potential redistricting and its "effect" on SATs. Same broken English and crazy rants.

OP, wherever you're from, do you have a version of 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'? You're now in Montgomery County, MD, and no one cares if they run their public schools in Shenzhen, Seoul or Tomsk (which, I'm sure, they do!) so just drop it already. It's getting old fast.

Not OP, but clearly whatever is going on in Montgomery County, MD is not working. When MCPS has a $2.8 billion budget and they still have run down schools with achievement issues, there is something wrong. Maybe it is time to look at Shenzhen, Seoul or Tomsk for different solutions. Maybe even within our borders, there might be effective solutions elsewhere that could be applied here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These wacky fantasy posts about things like Potomac splintering off and becoming their own county and now this.

These ideas are half-baked and will never happen.

OP seems to be the same poster who's going nuts over potential redistricting and its "effect" on SATs. Same broken English and crazy rants.

OP, wherever you're from, do you have a version of 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'? You're now in Montgomery County, MD, and no one cares if they run their public schools in Shenzhen, Seoul or Tomsk (which, I'm sure, they do!) so just drop it already. It's getting old fast.

Not OP, but clearly whatever is going on in Montgomery County, MD is not working. When MCPS has a $2.8 billion budget and they still have run down schools with achievement issues, there is something wrong. Maybe it is time to look at Shenzhen, Seoul or Tomsk for different solutions. Maybe even within our borders, there might be effective solutions elsewhere that could be applied here.

That's silly, PP. Some things are working, some things aren't.

[Anonymous]

More schools means more buildings, but also more land required to have the school itself plus various fields for sports. Don't even know where that excess land would come from, except for Crown Farm.