Is anyone following the Bethesda/Somerset/Westbrook boundary study?

[Anonymous]

At what point does the "especially" diversity requirement of the four factors some posters seem so worried about come into play?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At what point does the "especially" diversity requirement of the four factors some posters seem so worried about come into play?

Never, because it doesn't mean what those obsessed people seem to believe it means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like poor timing to do this during COVID...

Why? Please explain.

Kids have already been disrupted and will continue to be so next year. Then they’ll get shifted around to new schools. The long term impact of COVID on enrollment are unknown at this point.

Also the proposals pretty much all take Westbrook and essentially double its population. That’s a dramatic shift in school identity.

Let me guess: you’re a Westbrook parent.

I am a Westbrook parent (well, former one) and of course this needs to be done. It is senseless to have empty seats at a school while immediately adjacent schools are overcrowded. And to the people talking about changign the identity of the school - that's utter nonsense. Please tell me how Westbrook, Somerset and Bethesda are so very different? Plus, all these kids will be together in middle school anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point does the "especially" diversity requirement of the four factors some posters seem so worried about come into play?

Never, because it doesn't mean what those obsessed people seem to believe it means.

And also because in these particular school areas, it's not really possible to dramatically increase diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point does the "especially" diversity requirement of the four factors some posters seem so worried about come into play?

Never, because it doesn't mean what those obsessed people seem to believe it means.

And also because in these particular school areas, it's not really possible to dramatically increase diversity.

NP. This is correct. The only schools in the study are the ones named in the OP and there are no changes on the table that would substantively change the demographics of any of the schools. Which goes to show that all of this hyperventilating about "diversity bussing" is nonsense. MCPS is doing exactly what they said they would do - looking at adjacent school boundaries to alleviate over/under utilization of the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point does the "especially" diversity requirement of the four factors some posters seem so worried about come into play?

Never, because it doesn't mean what those obsessed people seem to believe it means.

And also because in these particular school areas, it's not really possible to dramatically increase diversity.

+1. Within the context of this study, all it will mean is they will especially try not to have one school have a 1% FARMS rate and the adjacent school have a 10% FARMS rate. They would instead favor options where both schools had 5%.

[Anonymous]

I am a Westbrook parent (well, former one) and of course this needs to be done. It is senseless to have empty seats at a school while immediately adjacent schools are overcrowded. And to the people talking about changign the identity of the school - that's utter nonsense. Please tell me how Westbrook, Somerset and Bethesda are so very different? Plus, all these kids will be together in middle school anyway.

+1 If schools are bursting at the seams as Bethesda and Somerset are and there's a school that has lots of open space as Westbrook does, why wouldn't you shift kids around--especially since they will end up in the same MS anyway and you aren't asking people to commute massive distances to do so????

When is the shift scheduled to happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I am a Westbrook parent (well, former one) and of course this needs to be done. It is senseless to have empty seats at a school while immediately adjacent schools are overcrowded. And to the people talking about changign the identity of the school - that's utter nonsense. Please tell me how Westbrook, Somerset and Bethesda are so very different? Plus, all these kids will be together in middle school anyway.

+1 If schools are bursting at the seams as Bethesda and Somerset are and there's a school that has lots of open space as Westbrook does, why wouldn't you shift kids around--especially since they will end up in the same MS anyway and you aren't asking people to commute massive distances to do so????

When is the shift scheduled to happen?

The board will vote on the new boundaries in November 2021, and reassignments would begin to take effect in Fall 2022. Fifth-graders would typically be grandfathered in at their existing schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I am a Westbrook parent (well, former one) and of course this needs to be done. It is senseless to have empty seats at a school while immediately adjacent schools are overcrowded. And to the people talking about changign the identity of the school - that's utter nonsense. Please tell me how Westbrook, Somerset and Bethesda are so very different? Plus, all these kids will be together in middle school anyway.

+1 If schools are bursting at the seams as Bethesda and Somerset are and there's a school that has lots of open space as Westbrook does, why wouldn't you shift kids around--especially since they will end up in the same MS anyway and you aren't asking people to commute massive distances to do so????

When is the shift scheduled to happen?

The board will vote on the new boundaries in November 2021, and reassignments would begin to take effect in Fall 2022. Fifth-graders would typically be grandfathered in at their existing schools.

Anyone who is trying to get people twisted up about this is doing so in the service of a larger agenda. This is a large nothing burger.

[Anonymous]

When will they start looking to move some Pyle kids to Westland (especially those Pyle kids who live right next door to Westland)? Similar disparity in crowding/available space between the two schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When will they start looking to move some Pyle kids to Westland (especially those Pyle kids who live right next door to Westland)? Similar disparity in crowding/available space between the two schools.

That's a harder ask as Pyle doesn't feed to BCC....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When will they start looking to move some Pyle kids to Westland (especially those Pyle kids who live right next door to Westland)? Similar disparity in crowding/available space between the two schools.

I thought Pyle was getting an addition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will they start looking to move some Pyle kids to Westland (especially those Pyle kids who live right next door to Westland)? Similar disparity in crowding/available space between the two schools.

I thought Pyle was getting an addition?

It just got one.

[Anonymous]

I agree this is much to do about nothing. It shouldn't even increase class sizes instead just add a couple of classes to their spare capacity. Most of the other ares being considered to be pulled in are just as rich or richer too. Now if they only dump the apts that feed Somerset to Westbrook that would be targeted offloading even if it only raised Westbrook's FARMS rate to 3%. It isn't like we are talking about busing from silver spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree this is much to do about nothing. It shouldn't even increase class sizes instead just add a couple of classes to their spare capacity. Most of the other ares being considered to be pulled in are just as rich or richer too. Now if they only dump the apts that feed Somerset to Westbrook that would be targeted offloading even if it only raised Westbrook's FARMS rate to 3%. It isn't like we are talking about busing from silver spring.

We moved to Westbrook about 5 years ago. At the time, it was the *least* diverse school in all of Montgomery County, and while I haven't looked into it recently, I don't think much has changed. It would be make sense to move the S2 area (which includes those apartments) to Westbrook. It's contiguous,

I am sure the ninth option, recently introduced, will garner a lot of support from Somerset and BES parents - it doesn't add anything to Somerset (other than the Brookdale neighborhood) or BES, just moves portions of each to Westbrook. But in doing so, it creates an elementary school district that stretches from the corner of the DC/MD line in Westmorland Hills to the intersection of East-West Highway and Connecticut. Some of the other options are even sillier than that. To me, option 1 makes the most sense, and after that options 4/5.

Here are he current options under consideration:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BSW_OptionsRound2.pdf