Initial boundary options for Woodward study area are up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we’ve lost the thread again.

I think option 2 is probably the betting favorite.

How do we feel about split articulations?

I’m more concerned that the kids who had online kindergarten will get screwed again in MS. They’ll go to one building for 6th grade and then have to move for 7th grade.

Most kids don’t remember k. In the dcc it’s normal to have those transitions. Your kids will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, I don’t even know why DCC schools want W kids in their schools so badly. The kids are quite nice but can be entitled and anxious at the same time, without even realizing it. Many are very rich, some just regular rich, and think everyone else is too.

Many of the parents are cut throat and will take over PTSA/booster etc. They will not tolerate poor behavior/bullying from other students or poor teaching and their definition of that is different than yours. Many of them won’t stop until your kid is shipped off to another school.

I could go on and on but I know this is stereotyping. It’s just that I’ve seen it a lot over the years.

All of those things are at the w schools as well. No, they will not take over the PTAs and if they want to, great. Google the w schools. They also have lots of issues. Not all families in the dcc are poor. Shocker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard people here say that these are just initial options, each focused on meeting just one of the four factors, and that we could get completely different maps come fall. But it seems to me that they won't be compeltely different -- maybe they will remove option 3 that so many dislike, but then they'll try to add more diversity into options 1, 2, and 4. It doesn't feel like we're going to get something wholly different. That means that people who don't like any of these maps aren't going to be happy come fall either.

+1

MCPS is not going to magically come up with totally different options. It will be silght variations of options 1-4. MCPS has already said that these 4 options and any future options can be approved by BOE. So even if more options are thrown in next round, hardly means that something close to option 3 won't be approved.

You are correct in concluding that any option is not going to be a happy ending for most who are unhappy right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard people here say that these are just initial options, each focused on meeting just one of the four factors, and that we could get completely different maps come fall. But it seems to me that they won't be compeltely different -- maybe they will remove option 3 that so many dislike, but then they'll try to add more diversity into options 1, 2, and 4. It doesn't feel like we're going to get something wholly different. That means that people who don't like any of these maps aren't going to be happy come fall either.

+1

MCPS is not going to magically come up with totally different options. It will be silght variations of options 1-4. MCPS has already said that these 4 options and any future options can be approved by BOE. So even if more options are thrown in next round, hardly means that something close to option 3 won't be approved.

You are correct in concluding that any option is not going to be a happy ending for most who are unhappy right now.

Option 3 is too expensive and they aren’t going to fund it. Plus it won’t magically solve all of the issues that it is supposed to.

[Anonymous]

Every time someone says option 3 is a possibility I go take the survey again, using a different vpn.

[Anonymous]

I hope that every person who gives feedback asks them to get rid of split articulation - not necessary, and not good for most kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope that every person who gives feedback asks them to get rid of split articulation - not necessary, and not good for most kids

Totally agree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope that every person who gives feedback asks them to get rid of split articulation - not necessary, and not good for most kids

Which is the option that is supposed to minimize it? For our school all 4 options have split articulation, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, I don’t even know why DCC schools want W kids in their schools so badly. The kids are quite nice but can be entitled and anxious at the same time, without even realizing it. Many are very rich, some just regular rich, and think everyone else is too.

Many of the parents are cut throat and will take over PTSA/booster etc. They will not tolerate poor behavior/bullying from other students or poor teaching and their definition of that is different than yours. Many of them won’t stop until your kid is shipped off to another school.

I could go on and on but I know this is stereotyping. It’s just that I’ve seen it a lot over the years.

I do not think it is the parents pushing for this. It is BOE members who see the disparities in the high school experience because of the concentration of poverty in certain schools, which exacerbates the achievement gap (yes, school conditions impact academic achievement, who knew?) and that makes them look bad. Pumping money into those schools can only achieve so much.

Part of the achievement gap is not all kids have access to all classes, including AP. Our school actively discourages advanced math and science and it's frustrating as some of the feeder schools start Algebra in 6th, so kids are out of math options come 11/12th grades and it's a graduation requirement. They cannot stay competitive. They claim not enough kids want to take it. Kids don't have the option so if they can they lottery to other schools. They could offer it, but the principals choose not to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we’ve lost the thread again.

I think option 2 is probably the betting favorite.

How do we feel about split articulations?

I’m more concerned that the kids who had online kindergarten will get screwed again in MS. They’ll go to one building for 6th grade and then have to move for 7th grade.

Most kids don’t remember k. In the dcc it’s normal to have those transitions. Your kids will be fine.

I agree. I have one of those virtual kindergarten kids. K was a tough year for us, but she has built plenty of social skills since then. She handle changing schools in 7th grade. It will also be easier because she will change schools with her whole elementary school cohort. That includes all of her neighborhood friends. Options 1, 2 and 4 are fine. Option 3 would send her to a very inconveniently located middle and high school. That would be much more frustrating, but I’m hopeful that my kid could handle it too. Convenience is an important part of the public school experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we’ve lost the thread again.

I think option 2 is probably the betting favorite.

How do we feel about split articulations?

I’m more concerned that the kids who had online kindergarten will get screwed again in MS. They’ll go to one building for 6th grade and then have to move for 7th grade.

Most kids don’t remember k. In the dcc it’s normal to have those transitions. Your kids will be fine.

In the dcc, kids move to a different school in 7th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, I don’t even know why DCC schools want W kids in their schools so badly. The kids are quite nice but can be entitled and anxious at the same time, without even realizing it. Many are very rich, some just regular rich, and think everyone else is too.

Many of the parents are cut throat and will take over PTSA/booster etc. They will not tolerate poor behavior/bullying from other students or poor teaching and their definition of that is different than yours. Many of them won’t stop until your kid is shipped off to another school.

I could go on and on but I know this is stereotyping. It’s just that I’ve seen it a lot over the years.

What? Where did you get that idea?

Yeah, I’m not hearing any DCC parents say that IRL and DCC teachers certainly aren’t jonesing for W students or their parents.

What makes you think we are all poor and want to be at W schools?

If you’re in the DCC odds are you are a poor. I would definitely send my kid to private if I lived in one of the nicer DCC areas like Woodside, Woodside Park or certain areas of Takoma Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we’ve lost the thread again.

I think option 2 is probably the betting favorite.

How do we feel about split articulations?

I’m more concerned that the kids who had online kindergarten will get screwed again in MS. They’ll go to one building for 6th grade and then have to move for 7th grade.

Most kids don’t remember k. In the dcc it’s normal to have those transitions. Your kids will be fine.

I agree. I have one of those virtual kindergarten kids. K was a tough year for us, but she has built plenty of social skills since then. She handle changing schools in 7th grade. It will also be easier because she will change schools with her whole elementary school cohort. That includes all of her neighborhood friends. Options 1, 2 and 4 are fine. Option 3 would send her to a very inconveniently located middle and high school. That would be much more frustrating, but I’m hopeful that my kid could handle it too. Convenience is an important part of the public school experience.

That's a good way to go about it. My kids can take change in shcools for all options as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

They should necessarily raise farms and remove it from other schools as those schools loose extra funding.

They should do this by punishing the very kids this should purportedly help?

They aren’t helping kids by bussing them across town. Instead strengthen their schools. Give our kids the same opportunities as yours.

Yes, those specific kids already go to BCC and get the desired same opportunities. Why send them 10 minutes farther? Who is that helping?

And the rest of the student population? If DCUM is leaning heavily into "no bussing" and "it's unjust to subject higher-poverty populations to long bus rides" then DCUM needs to get behind making enormously differential funding per stident available so that those same opportunities are offered to all. Only 3 at Northwood interested in AP Econ? A teacher for that would need to be funded if one is funded for the 25 interested at WJ -- as we know, virtual and MC don't provide a similar enough experience.

And that might mean even higher class sizes at Whitman.

And/or higher taxes.

Or the populations can be evened out, but that generally means...bussing.

Pick your poison.

You’re creating a false choice by speaking for the people you’re purportedly trying to help and also making a weird hierarchy of their needs.

In my personal hierarchy (yours may vary), having a safe local school that isp a part of my community is priority #1. Access to AP Econ is maybe priority #250?

To this day, I get a warm feeling whenever I drive by my high school. Do I remember AP Econ? Nope, I remember endless afternoons with my friends on the outdoor basketball court. Afternoons that wouldn’t have been possible if I had to take the bus 45 minutes away.

Do those Northwood kids value AP Econ enough to ride the bus everyday from Wheaton to Whitman and give up those long afternoons? Maybe! But maybe not? I don’t know and neither do you.

If they do, then by all means, let’s pay for it.

That’s why the county sent out this survey.

It works for all sorts of needs, not just availability of AP Econ. Would the experience of a student needing accommodation at Whitman be better than that of a student with similar need at Wheaton, or would facility overutilization and relative plethora of high-needs students at the latter degrade that school's ability to provide the accommodation?

Safety first, of course, but does Wheaton provide as safe an environment as Whitman?

The remaining heirarchy? Well, at least one other poster has been noting, possibly repeatedly, the lack of advanced classes that their DC experienced and the brick wall they ran into when asking for access.

The 45-minute commute or no change is the false choice, here, when MCPS might avoid the former yet still provide reasonably equivalent educational experiences with gentler boundary shifts to address utilization while at the same time providing the greater differential funding suggested.

Regional survey responses, just like the "community pull" MCPS cites when explaining the lack of offerings at certain schools, suffers from the bias of differential exposure to and understanding of curricular programming among the communities surveyed.

Indeed, by all means, let's pay for it.

Whitman has lots of issues. Don’t kid yourself to think it’s better. Better is getting good teachers vs the actual school. Most dcc don’t want Whitman. If we did some of us would move there. Boundaries are separate issues to the course and activity offerings.

Ah the old “the people on the poor side of town are really the rich ones and they chose not to move there sour grapes argument”.

Sure some of the nicest homes in the DCC stretch into Whitman starter home prices but it would take quite a bit of humility to go from the richest person on a block to the poorest which I’m guessing the type of person who feels the need to respond on anonymous forum and establish they aren’t poor doesn’t possess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, I don’t even know why DCC schools want W kids in their schools so badly. The kids are quite nice but can be entitled and anxious at the same time, without even realizing it. Many are very rich, some just regular rich, and think everyone else is too.

Many of the parents are cut throat and will take over PTSA/booster etc. They will not tolerate poor behavior/bullying from other students or poor teaching and their definition of that is different than yours. Many of them won’t stop until your kid is shipped off to another school.

I could go on and on but I know this is stereotyping. It’s just that I’ve seen it a lot over the years.

What? Where did you get that idea?

Yeah, I’m not hearing any DCC parents say that IRL and DCC teachers certainly aren’t jonesing for W students or their parents.

What makes you think we are all poor and want to be at W schools?

If you’re in the DCC odds are you are a poor. I would definitely send my kid to private if I lived in one of the nicer DCC areas like Woodside, Woodside Park or certain areas of Takoma Park.

Basically no one on this website is poor. There are definitely poor families in the DCC, but none of them are in this conversation. You're talking to middle class parents of which the DCC also has a lot.