Initial boundary options for Woodward study area are up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maximizing walkers is the low hanging fruit. It doesn't cost extra money, it's (usually) popular with the neighboring areas, and it's good for sustainability. Obviously some schools' walk zones will need to be larger or smaller than others, based on the building capacity, nearby highways or other barriers considered hazardous, etc. But I would really like to see them come up with new options with this as a foundational goal, and show their work.

Increasing walking zones won’t help lower the absentee rate. Kids already skip school when it is actually raining or when it’s predicted to rain on their walk home.

+1
Also, how many kids at the 1.9.mile mark actually walk to school, especially inexpensive areas? I'd wager most carpool.

Carpooling only works if parents or other kids can drive them. I know many who walk that far. Or, bike or scooter.

It feels like there would be data on this.

Narrators voice: and yet, there was no data.

How would there be data?

Parent or student surveys?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maximizing walkers is the low hanging fruit. It doesn't cost extra money, it's (usually) popular with the neighboring areas, and it's good for sustainability. Obviously some schools' walk zones will need to be larger or smaller than others, based on the building capacity, nearby highways or other barriers considered hazardous, etc. But I would really like to see them come up with new options with this as a foundational goal, and show their work.

Increasing walking zones won’t help lower the absentee rate. Kids already skip school when it is actually raining or when it’s predicted to rain on their walk home.

+1
Also, how many kids at the 1.9.mile mark actually walk to school, especially inexpensive areas? I'd wager most carpool.

Carpooling only works if parents or other kids can drive them. I know many who walk that far. Or, bike or scooter.

What issue agaaure you raising wrt the boundary studies?

Read the previous post. Hs kids only get a bus if it’s past two miles. Some of the walks are dangerous. We don’t have sidewalks and busy streets.

+1 for HS it can easily be better to be bussed to a further school for kids without cars. I lived just within the 2 mile boundary for my W school. Approximately zero kids from my neighborhood walked to school.

O, because kids have after school activities and sports that may start late with late pick up. Not all parents have cars or can drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maximizing walkers is the low hanging fruit. It doesn't cost extra money, it's (usually) popular with the neighboring areas, and it's good for sustainability. Obviously some schools' walk zones will need to be larger or smaller than others, based on the building capacity, nearby highways or other barriers considered hazardous, etc. But I would really like to see them come up with new options with this as a foundational goal, and show their work.

Increasing walking zones won’t help lower the absentee rate. Kids already skip school when it is actually raining or when it’s predicted to rain on their walk home.

+1
Also, how many kids at the 1.9.mile mark actually walk to school, especially inexpensive areas? I'd wager most carpool.

Carpooling only works if parents or other kids can drive them. I know many who walk that far. Or, bike or scooter.

What issue are you raising wrt the boundary studies?

Read the previous post. Hs kids only get a bus if it’s past two miles. Some of the walks are dangerous. We don’t have sidewalks and busy streets.

That's not a hard and fast rule. Some closer neighborhoods get bus service if the kids would have to cross a highway for example.

No, our kids pass conn, Georgia and university. We have no sidewalks on most streets. No bus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maximizing walkers is the low hanging fruit. It doesn't cost extra money, it's (usually) popular with the neighboring areas, and it's good for sustainability. Obviously some schools' walk zones will need to be larger or smaller than others, based on the building capacity, nearby highways or other barriers considered hazardous, etc. But I would really like to see them come up with new options with this as a foundational goal, and show their work.

Increasing walking zones won’t help lower the absentee rate. Kids already skip school when it is actually raining or when it’s predicted to rain on their walk home.

+1
Also, how many kids at the 1.9.mile mark actually walk to school, especially inexpensive areas? I'd wager most carpool.

Carpooling only works if parents or other kids can drive them. I know many who walk that far. Or, bike or scooter.

What issue are you raising wrt the boundary studies?

Read the previous post. Hs kids only get a bus if it’s past two miles. Some of the walks are dangerous. We don’t have sidewalks and busy streets.

That's not a hard and fast rule. Some closer neighborhoods get bus service if the kids would have to cross a highway for example.

No, our kids pass conn, Georgia and university. We have no sidewalks on most streets. No bus.

It depends. Students that would have to cross the beltway or 270 often will get a bus.

[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.

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.

Does any student entering the lottery have the same chance of accessing APs as a student zoned to the high-number-of-APs school?

What? No? Because some of them don't get picked by the lottery?

You don't say...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Changing the FARMS rate isn't a great idea as Focus and Title One schools get (or used to) get additional gov't funding.

That’s a good point. I know it’s a big deal in DC if a school loses Title I status. Is the same true in MD?

Yes, it is a big deal as a lot of funding is lost, from extra staff to school lunches.

And that funding is federal, correct?

I try to keep up, but isn’t a lot of that being reduced and/or cancelled (or potentially cancelled) anyways?

Not yet at any rate. Pretty sure you need a law change for that. (Not just eliminating Dept of Education)

No one has proposed cutting educational funds for poor kids. Get a grip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maximizing walkers is the low hanging fruit. It doesn't cost extra money, it's (usually) popular with the neighboring areas, and it's good for sustainability. Obviously some schools' walk zones will need to be larger or smaller than others, based on the building capacity, nearby highways or other barriers considered hazardous, etc. But I would really like to see them come up with new options with this as a foundational goal, and show their work.

Increasing walking zones won’t help lower the absentee rate. Kids already skip school when it is actually raining or when it’s predicted to rain on their walk home.

+1
Also, how many kids at the 1.9.mile mark actually walk to school, especially inexpensive areas? I'd wager most carpool.

Carpooling only works if parents or other kids can drive them. I know many who walk that far. Or, bike or scooter.

What issue are you raising wrt the boundary studies?

Read the previous post. Hs kids only get a bus if it’s past two miles. Some of the walks are dangerous. We don’t have sidewalks and busy streets.

That's not a hard and fast rule. Some closer neighborhoods get bus service if the kids would have to cross a highway for example.

No, our kids pass conn, Georgia and university. We have no sidewalks on most streets. No bus.

It depends. Students that would have to cross the beltway or 270 often will get a bus.

That’s because they literally cannot cross it. But, they don’t for other unsafe situations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Does any student entering the lottery have the same chance of accessing APs as a student zoned to the high-number-of-APs school?

What? No? Because some of them don't get picked by the lottery?

You don't say...

We tried and were denied. Now told to go to Mc for math as school has no more math options. Cannot go to Mc due to schedule and transportation as both parents work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

In some cases they just can't. Or they can build a High school south of Blair. The county could also add a lot more ride on bus service to high schools to alleviate this.

They can, and probably should, build a high school south of Blair. They probably should have done that before or in conjunction with Woodward instead of just re-doing Northwood. But they seem rather deliberately to have followed those with the greatest political voice, choosing to dismiss poorly considered options for such a SS-TKPK-area facility to pursue Woodward, instead.

And because they did, they now need to handle the student populations with that which they have in hand. Boundaries will need to shift for at least as long as such a facility can be reconsidered, approved, funded and constructed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maximizing walkers is the low hanging fruit. It doesn't cost extra money, it's (usually) popular with the neighboring areas, and it's good for sustainability. Obviously some schools' walk zones will need to be larger or smaller than others, based on the building capacity, nearby highways or other barriers considered hazardous, etc. But I would really like to see them come up with new options with this as a foundational goal, and show their work.

Increasing walking zones won’t help lower the absentee rate. Kids already skip school when it is actually raining or when it’s predicted to rain on their walk home.

+1
Also, how many kids at the 1.9.mile mark actually walk to school, especially inexpensive areas? I'd wager most carpool.

Carpooling only works if parents or other kids can drive them. I know many who walk that far. Or, bike or scooter.

What issue are you raising wrt the boundary studies?

Read the previous post. Hs kids only get a bus if it’s past two miles. Some of the walks are dangerous. We don’t have sidewalks and busy streets.

That's not a hard and fast rule. Some closer neighborhoods get bus service if the kids would have to cross a highway for example.

No, our kids pass conn, Georgia and university. We have no sidewalks on most streets. No bus.

It depends. Students that would have to cross the beltway or 270 often will get a bus.

That’s because they literally cannot cross it. But, they don’t for other unsafe situations.

Um what? There is such thing as a walkable overpass over 270. Not saying it’s right to make kids walk that alone, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maximizing walkers is the low hanging fruit. It doesn't cost extra money, it's (usually) popular with the neighboring areas, and it's good for sustainability. Obviously some schools' walk zones will need to be larger or smaller than others, based on the building capacity, nearby highways or other barriers considered hazardous, etc. But I would really like to see them come up with new options with this as a foundational goal, and show their work.

Increasing walking zones won’t help lower the absentee rate. Kids already skip school when it is actually raining or when it’s predicted to rain on their walk home.

+1
Also, how many kids at the 1.9.mile mark actually walk to school, especially inexpensive areas? I'd wager most carpool.

Carpooling only works if parents or other kids can drive them. I know many who walk that far. Or, bike or scooter.

What issue are you raising wrt the boundary studies?

Read the previous post. Hs kids only get a bus if it’s past two miles. Some of the walks are dangerous. We don’t have sidewalks and busy streets.

That's not a hard and fast rule. Some closer neighborhoods get bus service if the kids would have to cross a highway for example.

No, our kids pass conn, Georgia and university. We have no sidewalks on most streets. No bus.

It depends. Students that would have to cross the beltway or 270 often will get a bus.

That’s because they literally cannot cross it. But, they don’t for other unsafe situations.

You are speaking in absolutes, but this is not consistently applied everywhere. It depends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like so many people here could have done it better. So I would suggest you all get together and develop some better maps with projected walk zones for every option. There's been a lot of talk here about all the volunteering folks are willing to do (unlike those lazy parents at other schools) so let's see it!

I suggest that MCPS take the online mapping tool that they have showing the HS/MS assignments for any address for each of the 4 options and expose the neighborhood polygons that are used in the construction of those options for any individual to create a "fifth" option of their own. Have the polygon-based population/student generation/demographic data they already are using for their own option construction linked so that those utilization & demographic distribution tables auto-populate for anyone's "Option 5." Let folks post the results with a unique URL so that others can see/comment. Crowdsource the darn thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Several of these maps do not take into account the reality of MoCo public transportation. For example, MoCo will soon open the Purple Line, and there are good bus routes e/w on East West Highway between Bethesda and Silver Spring.

Yet, Option 1 takes significant populations that will be within walking distance of a purple line stop (Connecticut avenue and Lyttonsville to Bethesda) and moves them away from BCC - a (wealthy) segment of NCC between East West Hwy and the Beltway is shifted to WJ and a lower income segment around Rosemary Hills is shifted to WJ. It would be nearly impossible for low income kids from the Rosemary Hills area to get to WJ outside of the public school bus transportation, which would really disconnect them from the HS experience. In addition, historically, this segment is already experiencing a split elementary busing situation in K-2 and 3-5. The trade off has always been to try to keep them close to a HS so that the impact of busing is not disproportionately placed on lower income people.

Something similar happens in Option 1 with the portion of kids who are sent to SSIMS but then re-districted back to BCC. These kids are also near Purple Line (bike and rail). The Western half of this MS redistricting to SSIMS is actually within bike distance along N/S Rock Creek Park routes.

Option 2 at least keeps kids along the purple line and East West Highway bus lines together at BCC, and keeps them in the current WEstland/Silver Creek split.

Option also splits kid who could take the Purple Line or the East West Highway bus to BCC away and puts them at Blair or Whitman, both of which would be really hard to get to outside of a school bus if you didn't have a car or parent to chauffeur. It's an even worse problem for the proposed Option 3 MS articulation -- kids who could take the Purple Line or EW Hwy bus to BCC would go instead to Takoma Park, Pyle or Sligo -- all impossible to get to outside of school bus hours unless you have your own car or a parent chauffeur.

It's like we're building a purple line and then structuring public school districting in a ways that prevent or discourage public school kids from taking advantage of public transportation to broaden their access to MS and HS activities and after school help.

This is a very good point

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like so many people here could have done it better. So I would suggest you all get together and develop some better maps with projected walk zones for every option. There's been a lot of talk here about all the volunteering folks are willing to do (unlike those lazy parents at other schools) so let's see it!

I suggest that MCPS take the online mapping tool that they have showing the HS/MS assignments for any address for each of the 4 options and expose the neighborhood polygons that are used in the construction of those options for any individual to create a "fifth" option of their own. Have the polygon-based population/student generation/demographic data they already are using for their own option construction linked so that those utilization & demographic distribution tables auto-populate for anyone's "Option 5." Let folks post the results with a unique URL so that others can see/comment. Crowdsource the darn thing.

This. 100% please lets do this. This is what we should have contracted for...someone to build this tool

[Anonymous]

Rosemary Hills illustrates the naive cruelty of option 3. Rosemary Hills already goes to a “good” school in BCC, but option 3 sends them 10 minutes further to Whitman. To what end?

If the answer is “to raise the FARMS rate at Whitman,” that’s sort of missing the forrest for the trees.