Initial boundary options for Woodward study area are up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people can agree that going from a 30 to a 40 minute bus ride is really not the end of the world.

But some of these contemplate going from zero bus to 45 min.

It has already been explained numerous times to you that high schools are not perfectly located across the county. Currently, many students are bussed to schools even though they could walk to another school nearby. That is not a crime. It is life. Life is hard sometimes.

Beyond the oft-cited example of Kensington and Einstein HS, where are the "many" other places this happens?

Lots of kids can walk to Blair but are bused to Northwood.

Blair and Northwood are a ~1 mile walk from each other, so which kids are you talking about?

Oh, the ones that are bussed to Woodward right now while Northwood is being rebuilt?

Honestly, you couldn't have picked a more dishonest example that perfectly illustrates the absurdity here. It sucks that those kids are bussed to Woodward and it will be awesome when they can go back to Northwood, which is what they all want!

"Senior Madison Riggs, however, said she’s seen a decline in student morale because of the bare walls and the long commute time from Silver Spring that can be exacerbated by traffic. The distance from Northwood to Woodward is 9 miles." - https://bethesdamagazine.com/2024/11/16/woodward-still-facing-challenges-northwood-moved-in/

Why you would wish busing on anyone is beyond me. Don't listen to us, listen to the kids. No situation is perfect, but why make it worse?

Actually I take your point. I have not commented heavily on this thread and I got that one wrong. Wasn’t trying to be dishonest. I am actually not advocating busing personally. Actually we are in takoma park and I wish we had a walkable school, I get it.

[Anonymous]

There are reasons why MCPS previously has made statement like they will prioritize walk zones and keep boundaries contiguous.

They also said at one point that only schools with a shared boundary would be subject to the flip flopping/islands. But Kennedy and WJ do not currently share a boundary nor will Woodward. Yet they are willing to trade Farmland kids and Kennedy kids (I think Aspen Hill).

They always go back on their word.

[Anonymous]

Every school should be required to have 20% farms. Logistically: set aside 20% of seats for low income moco kids. Low income Parents will apply and can be lotteried if necessary and busing will be handled. The remaining 80% can be walk zone. Done. No more playing favorites with rich-kid only schools. Will some schools still have more? sure. No more re-districting every few years. the fairness goes up and the burden is eased on the heavy farms schools. Moco only has 35% farms rate overall. This is a very wealthy county and easy to solve this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school should be required to have 20% farms. Logistically: set aside 20% of seats for low income moco kids. Low income Parents will apply and can be lotteried if necessary and busing will be handled. The remaining 80% can be walk zone. Done. No more playing favorites with rich-kid only schools. Will some schools still have more? sure. No more re-districting every few years. the fairness goes up and the burden is eased on the heavy farms schools. Moco only has 35% farms rate overall. This is a very wealthy county and easy to solve this issue.

I would actually agree with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school should be required to have 20% farms. Logistically: set aside 20% of seats for low income moco kids. Low income Parents will apply and can be lotteried if necessary and busing will be handled. The remaining 80% can be walk zone. Done. No more playing favorites with rich-kid only schools. Will some schools still have more? sure. No more re-districting every few years. the fairness goes up and the burden is eased on the heavy farms schools. Moco only has 35% farms rate overall. This is a very wealthy county and easy to solve this issue.

I don’t know if that’s the solution but it’s an interesting idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school should be required to have 20% farms. Logistically: set aside 20% of seats for low income moco kids. Low income Parents will apply and can be lotteried if necessary and busing will be handled. The remaining 80% can be walk zone. Done. No more playing favorites with rich-kid only schools. Will some schools still have more? sure. No more re-districting every few years. the fairness goes up and the burden is eased on the heavy farms schools. Moco only has 35% farms rate overall. This is a very wealthy county and easy to solve this issue.

I suspect this is oversimplifying but I agree with you in concept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people can agree that going from a 30 to a 40 minute bus ride is really not the end of the world.

But some of these contemplate going from zero bus to 45 min.

It has already been explained numerous times to you that high schools are not perfectly located across the county. Currently, many students are bussed to schools even though they could walk to another school nearby. That is not a crime. It is life. Life is hard sometimes.

Beyond the oft-cited example of Kensington and Einstein HS, where are the "many" other places this happens?

Lots of kids can walk to Blair but are bused to Northwood.

Blair and Northwood are a ~1 mile walk from each other, so which kids are you talking about?

Oh, the ones that are bussed to Woodward right now while Northwood is being rebuilt?

Honestly, you couldn't have picked a more dishonest example that perfectly illustrates the absurdity here. It sucks that those kids are bussed to Woodward and it will be awesome when they can go back to Northwood, which is what they all want!

"Senior Madison Riggs, however, said she’s seen a decline in student morale because of the bare walls and the long commute time from Silver Spring that can be exacerbated by traffic. The distance from Northwood to Woodward is 9 miles." - https://bethesdamagazine.com/2024/11/16/woodward-still-facing-challenges-northwood-moved-in/

Why you would wish busing on anyone is beyond me. Don't listen to us, listen to the kids. No situation is perfect, but why make it worse?

Actually I take your point. I have not commented heavily on this thread and I got that one wrong. Wasn’t trying to be dishonest. I am actually not advocating busing personally. Actually we are in takoma park and I wish we had a walkable school, I get it.

Thank you. I hope one day you get that school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people can agree that going from a 30 to a 40 minute bus ride is really not the end of the world.

But some of these contemplate going from zero bus to 45 min.

It has already been explained numerous times to you that high schools are not perfectly located across the county. Currently, many students are bussed to schools even though they could walk to another school nearby. That is not a crime. It is life. Life is hard sometimes.

Beyond the oft-cited example of Kensington and Einstein HS, where are the "many" other places this happens?

Lots of kids can walk to Blair but are bused to Northwood.

Blair and Northwood are a ~1 mile walk from each other, so which kids are you talking about?

Oh, the ones that are bussed to Woodward right now while Northwood is being rebuilt?

Honestly, you couldn't have picked a more dishonest example that perfectly illustrates the absurdity here. It sucks that those kids are bussed to Woodward and it will be awesome when they can go back to Northwood, which is what they all want!

"Senior Madison Riggs, however, said she’s seen a decline in student morale because of the bare walls and the long commute time from Silver Spring that can be exacerbated by traffic. The distance from Northwood to Woodward is 9 miles." - https://bethesdamagazine.com/2024/11/16/woodward-still-facing-challenges-northwood-moved-in/

Why you would wish busing on anyone is beyond me. Don't listen to us, listen to the kids. No situation is perfect, but why make it worse?

It's not hard to find. Look at the area zoned for Highland View ES, for example.

I agree the commute from the Northwood area to Woodward must be awful. It's nice to see that the commutes proposed in Option 3, while some not ideal (most are fine, btw), are not as long as that one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school should be required to have 20% farms. Logistically: set aside 20% of seats for low income moco kids. Low income Parents will apply and can be lotteried if necessary and busing will be handled. The remaining 80% can be walk zone. Done. No more playing favorites with rich-kid only schools. Will some schools still have more? sure. No more re-districting every few years. the fairness goes up and the burden is eased on the heavy farms schools. Moco only has 35% farms rate overall. This is a very wealthy county and easy to solve this issue.

The current MCPS system FARMS rate is 43% overall and rising (compare ES and MS to HS rates)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people can agree that going from a 30 to a 40 minute bus ride is really not the end of the world.

But some of these contemplate going from zero bus to 45 min.

It has already been explained numerous times to you that high schools are not perfectly located across the county. Currently, many students are bussed to schools even though they could walk to another school nearby. That is not a crime. It is life. Life is hard sometimes.

Beyond the oft-cited example of Kensington and Einstein HS, where are the "many" other places this happens?

DP. Here are some current examples that I know of, and while I don't think these are "crimes," I do think the options should be trying to fix these and other instances of unnecessary bussing, and not creating additional instances:

Students who could walk to Wheaton are bussed to Northwood
Students who could walk to Wootton are bussed to RM
Students who could walk to QO are bussed to Northwest
Students who could walk to Sligo are bussed to SSIMS
Students who could walk to Westland are bussed to Pyle
Students who could walk to Silver Creek are bussed to North Bethesda

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school should be required to have 20% farms. Logistically: set aside 20% of seats for low income moco kids. Low income Parents will apply and can be lotteried if necessary and busing will be handled. The remaining 80% can be walk zone. Done. No more playing favorites with rich-kid only schools. Will some schools still have more? sure. No more re-districting every few years. the fairness goes up and the burden is eased on the heavy farms schools. Moco only has 35% farms rate overall. This is a very wealthy county and easy to solve this issue.

I would actually agree with this.

DC does this but has public transportation (and no school buses). When you have individual kids lotterying into many schools it becomes much more logistically difficult to bus them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school should be required to have 20% farms. Logistically: set aside 20% of seats for low income moco kids. Low income Parents will apply and can be lotteried if necessary and busing will be handled. The remaining 80% can be walk zone. Done. No more playing favorites with rich-kid only schools. Will some schools still have more? sure. No more re-districting every few years. the fairness goes up and the burden is eased on the heavy farms schools. Moco only has 35% farms rate overall. This is a very wealthy county and easy to solve this issue.

That's not what MCPS has been doing. Howard County does redistrict every few years, as a routine thing.

[Anonymous]

At the same time, MCPS needs to stay within budget without raising property taxes. They had to borrow from the retiree health trust this year to do that.

They just can’t keep spending, spending, spending. The busing, where provided for WALK ZONE students, is nothing but wasteful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people can agree that going from a 30 to a 40 minute bus ride is really not the end of the world.

But some of these contemplate going from zero bus to 45 min.

It has already been explained numerous times to you that high schools are not perfectly located across the county. Currently, many students are bussed to schools even though they could walk to another school nearby. That is not a crime. It is life. Life is hard sometimes.

Beyond the oft-cited example of Kensington and Einstein HS, where are the "many" other places this happens?

DP. Here are some current examples that I know of, and while I don't think these are "crimes," I do think the options should be trying to fix these and other instances of unnecessary bussing, and not creating additional instances:

Students who could walk to Wheaton are bussed to Northwood
Students who could walk to Wootton are bussed to RM
Students who could walk to QO are bussed to Northwest
Students who could walk to Sligo are bussed to SSIMS
Students who could walk to Westland are bussed to Pyle
Students who could walk to Silver Creek are bussed to North Bethesda

Feel free to draw your own maps to make all the students that could possibly walk to a nearby HS assigned to that school. And no, you don't get $180 million + land costs to build a new high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school should be required to have 20% farms. Logistically: set aside 20% of seats for low income moco kids. Low income Parents will apply and can be lotteried if necessary and busing will be handled. The remaining 80% can be walk zone. Done. No more playing favorites with rich-kid only schools. Will some schools still have more? sure. No more re-districting every few years. the fairness goes up and the burden is eased on the heavy farms schools. Moco only has 35% farms rate overall. This is a very wealthy county and easy to solve this issue.

For over 15 years, DCPS has been adding empty seats at coveted schools to a lottery for any other kid in DCPS to attend.

In this way you are not patronizing and telling parents at a high farms rate schools what is best for their child.

Most people even, those that don’t make a lot of money want their child to attend a school close to the home and where they are not a minority in many ways more than one. If they really want to attend a school with lots of AP offerings they can enter the lottery. MCPS is already doing this in some ways with its special programs. This is not hard to implement.