Anonymous wrote:FARMS kids do not do better when they are bused.
That said, every child deserves to have fair access to a quality education. It looks bad when they have one school with a 1300 average SAT and one with a 950 SAT. But the kids with a 950 SAT would still score the same even if they moved to the 1300 average SAT school and vice versa.
I am a strong believer in the school within a school mindset that allows the ones that want to learn a separate peer group for their core classes.
People want stability in their schools. I hope the BOE doesn't go on a crusade to move kids around just because it's the "in thing to do"
Kids from poor families actually do do better when they attend low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools.
People are against change, period. But you can't have boundary changes without change.
This. The higher the poverty rate, the lower the performance. These need to be reduced:
When you move chronically absent students to a school farther away, will they suddenly show up for school?
No they won't, but the concern extends beyond them. In some ways, they're going to do what they want to do. It's really more about the ripple effect throughout the entire school. When a huge portion of the student body is plagued by chronic absenteeism the impact to the school is profound. For example, using Watkins Mills numbers- 1,715 students, 616 are chronically absent. Imagine what that does to the school. Teachers now have to dedicate significant time to help the absent students catch up, which disrupts classroom dynamics and affects the experience of the kids who consistently go to school and do want to learn. There's a high number of students who are disengaged and a high number of disciplinary issues. There's probably limited clubs and programs compared to the other schools that don't have this problem because the demand is low. There's probably very little to no school spirit. Very low parental engagement. A sense of apathy among a large number of students and staff. Higher than normal teacher turnover rates. What you end up with is a negative school culture that is not an ideal environment for learning. This is what MCPS cares about and why demographics is a big factor in boundary studies.
You move these kids to other schools so each school having 10-15% chronically absent is still causing issues, and more schools will have low moral. Possibly more Hispanic students will be absent due to the distance. The people who care about education will not accept their kids being bussed to poor performing schools so they will leave or go to private schools. Then none of the schools will be ideal environment for learning. It’s a lose lose situation. Seriously this is a problem that busing cannot solve.
In fact, Hispanic organizations have surveyed Hispanic students in MCPS and found that many immigrant Hispanic students don't go to school because they were poorly educated in their home countries and could not keep up with their grade-level work. You cannot solve this problem by bussing.
Again, the issue isn't so much the kids who don't want to go to school. I agree we can't fix that. The significant issue is the ripple effect that having a large number of chronically absent kids have on a school and the resulting environment that it causes. It negatively impacts the other students, the staff, and the overall culture of the school.
Again this problem is not solvable by bussing. Bussing will only make the ripple effect in a few schools be extended to more schools.
MCPS buses over 100,000 students, twice a day. This boundary study will almost certainly reduce busing by reassigning students in potential walk zones.
+1. All the kids who live near Crown who currently take the bus to Gaithersburg or Wootton will become walkers. That's a good thing.
Name a neighborhood in wootton that’s actually walkable to crown?
Most obviously: the Washingtonian area, which is literally across Fields Road from the Crown HS site.
There are also some areas south of 28 that look like they're within 2.0 miles walking distance of the Crown HS site, some of which are also within walking distance of Wootton.
South of 28 is really not walkable to crown. There may be some houses just within 2 miles but not the entire neighborhood so still need bus for the neighborhood.
Some of it is.
It's going to depend on how the MCPS transportation department determines the walk zone for Crown. If they don't think it's safe for students to cross 28, or Shady Grove, or Sam Eig, then they will remain bus riders even if less than 2 miles away from Crown.
Definitely not safe to walk 2 miles on highway 28 and cross it everyday for students.
28 isn't less safe than Georgia Ave, or Veirs Mill, or University, or Connecticut, or 355. MCPS expects high school students to walk along and cross those roads. MCPS even expects middle school students to walk along and cross those roads. So why not 28, too?
I agree, even though it may not be the most pedestrian friendly. And the county can always put up flashing school lights near where there’s a major school crossing. Parents with means will of course drop the kids off.
They don’t even clear the snow from some of the sidewalks adjoining state roads. Most of the sidewalks along falls rd 189 were never cleared in the last storms even 4 days later—this includes the pedestrian walkway path across 270.
Anonymous wrote:FARMS kids do not do better when they are bused.
That said, every child deserves to have fair access to a quality education. It looks bad when they have one school with a 1300 average SAT and one with a 950 SAT. But the kids with a 950 SAT would still score the same even if they moved to the 1300 average SAT school and vice versa.
I am a strong believer in the school within a school mindset that allows the ones that want to learn a separate peer group for their core classes.
People want stability in their schools. I hope the BOE doesn't go on a crusade to move kids around just because it's the "in thing to do"
Kids from poor families actually do do better when they attend low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools.
People are against change, period. But you can't have boundary changes without change.
This. The higher the poverty rate, the lower the performance. These need to be reduced:
When you move chronically absent students to a school farther away, will they suddenly show up for school?
No they won't, but the concern extends beyond them. In some ways, they're going to do what they want to do. It's really more about the ripple effect throughout the entire school. When a huge portion of the student body is plagued by chronic absenteeism the impact to the school is profound. For example, using Watkins Mills numbers- 1,715 students, 616 are chronically absent. Imagine what that does to the school. Teachers now have to dedicate significant time to help the absent students catch up, which disrupts classroom dynamics and affects the experience of the kids who consistently go to school and do want to learn. There's a high number of students who are disengaged and a high number of disciplinary issues. There's probably limited clubs and programs compared to the other schools that don't have this problem because the demand is low. There's probably very little to no school spirit. Very low parental engagement. A sense of apathy among a large number of students and staff. Higher than normal teacher turnover rates. What you end up with is a negative school culture that is not an ideal environment for learning. This is what MCPS cares about and why demographics is a big factor in boundary studies.
You move these kids to other schools so each school having 10-15% chronically absent is still causing issues, and more schools will have low moral. Possibly more Hispanic students will be absent due to the distance. The people who care about education will not accept their kids being bussed to poor performing schools so they will leave or go to private schools. Then none of the schools will be ideal environment for learning. It’s a lose lose situation. Seriously this is a problem that busing cannot solve.
In fact, Hispanic organizations have surveyed Hispanic students in MCPS and found that many immigrant Hispanic students don't go to school because they were poorly educated in their home countries and could not keep up with their grade-level work. You cannot solve this problem by bussing.
Again, the issue isn't so much the kids who don't want to go to school. I agree we can't fix that. The significant issue is the ripple effect that having a large number of chronically absent kids have on a school and the resulting environment that it causes. It negatively impacts the other students, the staff, and the overall culture of the school.
Again this problem is not solvable by bussing. Bussing will only make the ripple effect in a few schools be extended to more schools.
MCPS buses over 100,000 students, twice a day. This boundary study will almost certainly reduce busing by reassigning students in potential walk zones.
+1. All the kids who live near Crown who currently take the bus to Gaithersburg or Wootton will become walkers. That's a good thing.
Name a neighborhood in wootton that’s actually walkable to crown?
Most obviously: the Washingtonian area, which is literally across Fields Road from the Crown HS site.
There are also some areas south of 28 that look like they're within 2.0 miles walking distance of the Crown HS site, some of which are also within walking distance of Wootton.
South of 28 is really not walkable to crown. There may be some houses just within 2 miles but not the entire neighborhood so still need bus for the neighborhood.
Some of it is.
It's going to depend on how the MCPS transportation department determines the walk zone for Crown. If they don't think it's safe for students to cross 28, or Shady Grove, or Sam Eig, then they will remain bus riders even if less than 2 miles away from Crown.
Definitely not safe to walk 2 miles on highway 28 and cross it everyday for students.
28 isn't less safe than Georgia Ave, or Veirs Mill, or University, or Connecticut, or 355. MCPS expects high school students to walk along and cross those roads. MCPS even expects middle school students to walk along and cross those roads. So why not 28, too?
I agree, even though it may not be the most pedestrian friendly. And the county can always put up flashing school lights near where there’s a major school crossing. Parents with means will of course drop the kids off.
They don’t even clear the snow from some of the sidewalks adjoining state roads. Most of the sidewalks along falls rd 189 were never cleared in the last storms even 4 days later—this includes the pedestrian walkway path across 270.
This is the reality for lots of kids who are expected to walk to MCPS right now.
What "pedestrian walkway path across 270" are you talking about?
Anonymous wrote:FARMS kids do not do better when they are bused.
That said, every child deserves to have fair access to a quality education. It looks bad when they have one school with a 1300 average SAT and one with a 950 SAT. But the kids with a 950 SAT would still score the same even if they moved to the 1300 average SAT school and vice versa.
I am a strong believer in the school within a school mindset that allows the ones that want to learn a separate peer group for their core classes.
People want stability in their schools. I hope the BOE doesn't go on a crusade to move kids around just because it's the "in thing to do"
Kids from poor families actually do do better when they attend low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools.
People are against change, period. But you can't have boundary changes without change.
This. The higher the poverty rate, the lower the performance. These need to be reduced:
When you move chronically absent students to a school farther away, will they suddenly show up for school?
No they won't, but the concern extends beyond them. In some ways, they're going to do what they want to do. It's really more about the ripple effect throughout the entire school. When a huge portion of the student body is plagued by chronic absenteeism the impact to the school is profound. For example, using Watkins Mills numbers- 1,715 students, 616 are chronically absent. Imagine what that does to the school. Teachers now have to dedicate significant time to help the absent students catch up, which disrupts classroom dynamics and affects the experience of the kids who consistently go to school and do want to learn. There's a high number of students who are disengaged and a high number of disciplinary issues. There's probably limited clubs and programs compared to the other schools that don't have this problem because the demand is low. There's probably very little to no school spirit. Very low parental engagement. A sense of apathy among a large number of students and staff. Higher than normal teacher turnover rates. What you end up with is a negative school culture that is not an ideal environment for learning. This is what MCPS cares about and why demographics is a big factor in boundary studies.
You move these kids to other schools so each school having 10-15% chronically absent is still causing issues, and more schools will have low moral. Possibly more Hispanic students will be absent due to the distance. The people who care about education will not accept their kids being bussed to poor performing schools so they will leave or go to private schools. Then none of the schools will be ideal environment for learning. It’s a lose lose situation. Seriously this is a problem that busing cannot solve.
In fact, Hispanic organizations have surveyed Hispanic students in MCPS and found that many immigrant Hispanic students don't go to school because they were poorly educated in their home countries and could not keep up with their grade-level work. You cannot solve this problem by bussing.
Again, the issue isn't so much the kids who don't want to go to school. I agree we can't fix that. The significant issue is the ripple effect that having a large number of chronically absent kids have on a school and the resulting environment that it causes. It negatively impacts the other students, the staff, and the overall culture of the school.
Again this problem is not solvable by bussing. Bussing will only make the ripple effect in a few schools be extended to more schools.
MCPS buses over 100,000 students, twice a day. This boundary study will almost certainly reduce busing by reassigning students in potential walk zones.
+1. All the kids who live near Crown who currently take the bus to Gaithersburg or Wootton will become walkers. That's a good thing.
Name a neighborhood in wootton that’s actually walkable to crown?
Most obviously: the Washingtonian area, which is literally across Fields Road from the Crown HS site.
There are also some areas south of 28 that look like they're within 2.0 miles walking distance of the Crown HS site, some of which are also within walking distance of Wootton.
South of 28 is really not walkable to crown. There may be some houses just within 2 miles but not the entire neighborhood so still need bus for the neighborhood.
Some of it is.
It's going to depend on how the MCPS transportation department determines the walk zone for Crown. If they don't think it's safe for students to cross 28, or Shady Grove, or Sam Eig, then they will remain bus riders even if less than 2 miles away from Crown.
Definitely not safe to walk 2 miles on highway 28 and cross it everyday for students.
28 isn't less safe than Georgia Ave, or Veirs Mill, or University, or Connecticut, or 355. MCPS expects high school students to walk along and cross those roads. MCPS even expects middle school students to walk along and cross those roads. So why not 28, too?
Anonymous wrote:Many of these schools lack real diversity and need some busing.
Busing is a band-aid. I'd rather see MCPS invest in well thought-out programs at specific schools that are attractive and open to students in upcounty/midcounty.
You notice how the two HS magnet programs are in opposite corners of the county that's inconvenient for the majority of the county? There was another thread a few months back about Crown. The capacity at Crown wasn't even necessary if current boundaries were shifted?
I want to know how many overpaid MCPS Central Office / BOE staff at Hungerford send their kids to College Gardens ES or live in Kings Farm? Someone on the thread was pushing hard to insist that those areas would 100% certain be part of Crown.
That’s funny because the word on the street is that the rest of King Farm will be shifted from RM to Gaithersburg, not exactly a “win”.
Word on what street? Why wouldn’t all of KF go to Crown?
Anonymous wrote:Many of these schools lack real diversity and need some busing.
Busing is a band-aid. I'd rather see MCPS invest in well thought-out programs at specific schools that are attractive and open to students in upcounty/midcounty.
You notice how the two HS magnet programs are in opposite corners of the county that's inconvenient for the majority of the county? There was another thread a few months back about Crown. The capacity at Crown wasn't even necessary if current boundaries were shifted?
I want to know how many overpaid MCPS Central Office / BOE staff at Hungerford send their kids to College Gardens ES or live in Kings Farm? Someone on the thread was pushing hard to insist that those areas would 100% certain be part of Crown.
That’s funny because the word on the street is that the rest of King Farm will be shifted from RM to Gaithersburg, not exactly a “win”.
Word on what street? Why wouldn’t all of KF go to Crown?
For real. If you're going to bill taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for a school you might as well fill it with people who actually want to go there, FFS.
Anonymous wrote:FARMS kids do not do better when they are bused.
That said, every child deserves to have fair access to a quality education. It looks bad when they have one school with a 1300 average SAT and one with a 950 SAT. But the kids with a 950 SAT would still score the same even if they moved to the 1300 average SAT school and vice versa.
I am a strong believer in the school within a school mindset that allows the ones that want to learn a separate peer group for their core classes.
People want stability in their schools. I hope the BOE doesn't go on a crusade to move kids around just because it's the "in thing to do"
Kids from poor families actually do do better when they attend low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools.
People are against change, period. But you can't have boundary changes without change.
This. The higher the poverty rate, the lower the performance. These need to be reduced:
When you move chronically absent students to a school farther away, will they suddenly show up for school?
No they won't, but the concern extends beyond them. In some ways, they're going to do what they want to do. It's really more about the ripple effect throughout the entire school. When a huge portion of the student body is plagued by chronic absenteeism the impact to the school is profound. For example, using Watkins Mills numbers- 1,715 students, 616 are chronically absent. Imagine what that does to the school. Teachers now have to dedicate significant time to help the absent students catch up, which disrupts classroom dynamics and affects the experience of the kids who consistently go to school and do want to learn. There's a high number of students who are disengaged and a high number of disciplinary issues. There's probably limited clubs and programs compared to the other schools that don't have this problem because the demand is low. There's probably very little to no school spirit. Very low parental engagement. A sense of apathy among a large number of students and staff. Higher than normal teacher turnover rates. What you end up with is a negative school culture that is not an ideal environment for learning. This is what MCPS cares about and why demographics is a big factor in boundary studies.
You move these kids to other schools so each school having 10-15% chronically absent is still causing issues, and more schools will have low moral. Possibly more Hispanic students will be absent due to the distance. The people who care about education will not accept their kids being bussed to poor performing schools so they will leave or go to private schools. Then none of the schools will be ideal environment for learning. It’s a lose lose situation. Seriously this is a problem that busing cannot solve.
In fact, Hispanic organizations have surveyed Hispanic students in MCPS and found that many immigrant Hispanic students don't go to school because they were poorly educated in their home countries and could not keep up with their grade-level work. You cannot solve this problem by bussing.
Again, the issue isn't so much the kids who don't want to go to school. I agree we can't fix that. The significant issue is the ripple effect that having a large number of chronically absent kids have on a school and the resulting environment that it causes. It negatively impacts the other students, the staff, and the overall culture of the school.
Again this problem is not solvable by bussing. Bussing will only make the ripple effect in a few schools be extended to more schools.
MCPS buses over 100,000 students, twice a day. This boundary study will almost certainly reduce busing by reassigning students in potential walk zones.
+1. All the kids who live near Crown who currently take the bus to Gaithersburg or Wootton will become walkers. That's a good thing.
Name a neighborhood in wootton that’s actually walkable to crown?
Most obviously: the Washingtonian area, which is literally across Fields Road from the Crown HS site.
There are also some areas south of 28 that look like they're within 2.0 miles walking distance of the Crown HS site, some of which are also within walking distance of Wootton.
You would be introducing split articulation to remove people, who do not want to go to Crown, out of a school that is not over capacity. What's the point?
Anonymous wrote:FARMS kids do not do better when they are bused.
That said, every child deserves to have fair access to a quality education. It looks bad when they have one school with a 1300 average SAT and one with a 950 SAT. But the kids with a 950 SAT would still score the same even if they moved to the 1300 average SAT school and vice versa.
I am a strong believer in the school within a school mindset that allows the ones that want to learn a separate peer group for their core classes.
People want stability in their schools. I hope the BOE doesn't go on a crusade to move kids around just because it's the "in thing to do"
Kids from poor families actually do do better when they attend low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools.
People are against change, period. But you can't have boundary changes without change.
This. The higher the poverty rate, the lower the performance. These need to be reduced:
When you move chronically absent students to a school farther away, will they suddenly show up for school?
No they won't, but the concern extends beyond them. In some ways, they're going to do what they want to do. It's really more about the ripple effect throughout the entire school. When a huge portion of the student body is plagued by chronic absenteeism the impact to the school is profound. For example, using Watkins Mills numbers- 1,715 students, 616 are chronically absent. Imagine what that does to the school. Teachers now have to dedicate significant time to help the absent students catch up, which disrupts classroom dynamics and affects the experience of the kids who consistently go to school and do want to learn. There's a high number of students who are disengaged and a high number of disciplinary issues. There's probably limited clubs and programs compared to the other schools that don't have this problem because the demand is low. There's probably very little to no school spirit. Very low parental engagement. A sense of apathy among a large number of students and staff. Higher than normal teacher turnover rates. What you end up with is a negative school culture that is not an ideal environment for learning. This is what MCPS cares about and why demographics is a big factor in boundary studies.
You move these kids to other schools so each school having 10-15% chronically absent is still causing issues, and more schools will have low moral. Possibly more Hispanic students will be absent due to the distance. The people who care about education will not accept their kids being bussed to poor performing schools so they will leave or go to private schools. Then none of the schools will be ideal environment for learning. It’s a lose lose situation. Seriously this is a problem that busing cannot solve.
In fact, Hispanic organizations have surveyed Hispanic students in MCPS and found that many immigrant Hispanic students don't go to school because they were poorly educated in their home countries and could not keep up with their grade-level work. You cannot solve this problem by bussing.
Again, the issue isn't so much the kids who don't want to go to school. I agree we can't fix that. The significant issue is the ripple effect that having a large number of chronically absent kids have on a school and the resulting environment that it causes. It negatively impacts the other students, the staff, and the overall culture of the school.
Again this problem is not solvable by bussing. Bussing will only make the ripple effect in a few schools be extended to more schools.
MCPS buses over 100,000 students, twice a day. This boundary study will almost certainly reduce busing by reassigning students in potential walk zones.
+1. All the kids who live near Crown who currently take the bus to Gaithersburg or Wootton will become walkers. That's a good thing.
Name a neighborhood in wootton that’s actually walkable to crown?
Most obviously: the Washingtonian area, which is literally across Fields Road from the Crown HS site.
There are also some areas south of 28 that look like they're within 2.0 miles walking distance of the Crown HS site, some of which are also within walking distance of Wootton.
You would be introducing split articulation to remove people, who do not want to go to Crown, out of a school that is not over capacity. What's the point?
Anonymous wrote:Many of these schools lack real diversity and need some busing.
Busing is a band-aid. I'd rather see MCPS invest in well thought-out programs at specific schools that are attractive and open to students in upcounty/midcounty.
You notice how the two HS magnet programs are in opposite corners of the county that's inconvenient for the majority of the county? There was another thread a few months back about Crown. The capacity at Crown wasn't even necessary if current boundaries were shifted?
I want to know how many overpaid MCPS Central Office / BOE staff at Hungerford send their kids to College Gardens ES or live in Kings Farm? Someone on the thread was pushing hard to insist that those areas would 100% certain be part of Crown.
That’s funny because the word on the street is that the rest of King Farm will be shifted from RM to Gaithersburg, not exactly a “win”.
Word on what street? Why wouldn’t all of KF go to Crown?
For real. If you're going to bill taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for a school you might as well fill it with people who actually want to go there, FFS.
At some point folks are going to understand that school boundaries are not about individual persons or neighborhoods wants. It’s about logistics and creating a positive school experience for all students.
Anonymous wrote:Many of these schools lack real diversity and need some busing.
Busing is a band-aid. I'd rather see MCPS invest in well thought-out programs at specific schools that are attractive and open to students in upcounty/midcounty.
You notice how the two HS magnet programs are in opposite corners of the county that's inconvenient for the majority of the county? There was another thread a few months back about Crown. The capacity at Crown wasn't even necessary if current boundaries were shifted?
I want to know how many overpaid MCPS Central Office / BOE staff at Hungerford send their kids to College Gardens ES or live in Kings Farm? Someone on the thread was pushing hard to insist that those areas would 100% certain be part of Crown.
That’s funny because the word on the street is that the rest of King Farm will be shifted from RM to Gaithersburg, not exactly a “win”.
Word on what street? Why wouldn’t all of KF go to Crown?
If they're not doing split articulations, then all of College Gardens and all of Washington Grove would have to go to Crown. Not saying that won't happen, but then you also have the Crown-adjacent islands from Rosemont and Fallsmead to contend with. And obviously Fallsmead contains Wootton itself, so there they probably would need to split articulate.
Anonymous wrote:Many of these schools lack real diversity and need some busing.
Busing is a band-aid. I'd rather see MCPS invest in well thought-out programs at specific schools that are attractive and open to students in upcounty/midcounty.
You notice how the two HS magnet programs are in opposite corners of the county that's inconvenient for the majority of the county? There was another thread a few months back about Crown. The capacity at Crown wasn't even necessary if current boundaries were shifted?
I want to know how many overpaid MCPS Central Office / BOE staff at Hungerford send their kids to College Gardens ES or live in Kings Farm? Someone on the thread was pushing hard to insist that those areas would 100% certain be part of Crown.
That’s funny because the word on the street is that the rest of King Farm will be shifted from RM to Gaithersburg, not exactly a “win”.
Word on what street? Why wouldn’t all of KF go to Crown?
For real. If you're going to bill taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for a school you might as well fill it with people who actually want to go there, FFS.
At some point folks are going to understand that school boundaries are not about individual persons or neighborhoods wants. It’s about logistics and creating a positive school experience for all students.
Or it will just end up being negative experience for all students by bussing
Anonymous wrote:FARMS kids do not do better when they are bused.
That said, every child deserves to have fair access to a quality education. It looks bad when they have one school with a 1300 average SAT and one with a 950 SAT. But the kids with a 950 SAT would still score the same even if they moved to the 1300 average SAT school and vice versa.
I am a strong believer in the school within a school mindset that allows the ones that want to learn a separate peer group for their core classes.
People want stability in their schools. I hope the BOE doesn't go on a crusade to move kids around just because it's the "in thing to do"
Kids from poor families actually do do better when they attend low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools.
People are against change, period. But you can't have boundary changes without change.
This. The higher the poverty rate, the lower the performance. These need to be reduced:
When you move chronically absent students to a school farther away, will they suddenly show up for school?
No they won't, but the concern extends beyond them. In some ways, they're going to do what they want to do. It's really more about the ripple effect throughout the entire school. When a huge portion of the student body is plagued by chronic absenteeism the impact to the school is profound. For example, using Watkins Mills numbers- 1,715 students, 616 are chronically absent. Imagine what that does to the school. Teachers now have to dedicate significant time to help the absent students catch up, which disrupts classroom dynamics and affects the experience of the kids who consistently go to school and do want to learn. There's a high number of students who are disengaged and a high number of disciplinary issues. There's probably limited clubs and programs compared to the other schools that don't have this problem because the demand is low. There's probably very little to no school spirit. Very low parental engagement. A sense of apathy among a large number of students and staff. Higher than normal teacher turnover rates. What you end up with is a negative school culture that is not an ideal environment for learning. This is what MCPS cares about and why demographics is a big factor in boundary studies.
You move these kids to other schools so each school having 10-15% chronically absent is still causing issues, and more schools will have low moral. Possibly more Hispanic students will be absent due to the distance. The people who care about education will not accept their kids being bussed to poor performing schools so they will leave or go to private schools. Then none of the schools will be ideal environment for learning. It’s a lose lose situation. Seriously this is a problem that busing cannot solve.
In fact, Hispanic organizations have surveyed Hispanic students in MCPS and found that many immigrant Hispanic students don't go to school because they were poorly educated in their home countries and could not keep up with their grade-level work. You cannot solve this problem by bussing.
Again, the issue isn't so much the kids who don't want to go to school. I agree we can't fix that. The significant issue is the ripple effect that having a large number of chronically absent kids have on a school and the resulting environment that it causes. It negatively impacts the other students, the staff, and the overall culture of the school.
Again this problem is not solvable by bussing. Bussing will only make the ripple effect in a few schools be extended to more schools.
MCPS buses over 100,000 students, twice a day. This boundary study will almost certainly reduce busing by reassigning students in potential walk zones.
+1. All the kids who live near Crown who currently take the bus to Gaithersburg or Wootton will become walkers. That's a good thing.
Name a neighborhood in wootton that’s actually walkable to crown?
Most obviously: the Washingtonian area, which is literally across Fields Road from the Crown HS site.
There are also some areas south of 28 that look like they're within 2.0 miles walking distance of the Crown HS site, some of which are also within walking distance of Wootton.
You would be introducing split articulation to remove people, who do not want to go to Crown, out of a school that is not over capacity. What's the point?
The DEI folks don’t care.
Is this the latest fictional boogeyman for the far-right?
Anonymous wrote:Many of these schools lack real diversity and need some busing.
Busing is a band-aid. I'd rather see MCPS invest in well thought-out programs at specific schools that are attractive and open to students in upcounty/midcounty.
You notice how the two HS magnet programs are in opposite corners of the county that's inconvenient for the majority of the county? There was another thread a few months back about Crown. The capacity at Crown wasn't even necessary if current boundaries were shifted?
I want to know how many overpaid MCPS Central Office / BOE staff at Hungerford send their kids to College Gardens ES or live in Kings Farm? Someone on the thread was pushing hard to insist that those areas would 100% certain be part of Crown.
That’s funny because the word on the street is that the rest of King Farm will be shifted from RM to Gaithersburg, not exactly a “win”.
Word on what street? Why wouldn’t all of KF go to Crown?
For real. If you're going to bill taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for a school you might as well fill it with people who actually want to go there, FFS.
At some point folks are going to understand that school boundaries are not about individual persons or neighborhoods wants. It’s about logistics and creating a positive school experience for all students.
You're not solving logistical problems by shuffling around people who are like 2 miles away from the school their current school. You're spending unnecessary money for that capacity in Crown when the district is 90M short for capital improvements and have schools that over a decade overdue for renovation, putting kids' health and safety at risk. And for what?
Introducing unnecessary split articulations is not helping create a "positive school experience for all students", that is absurd and obviously false. Even the BOE recognizes this and has said they want to avoid it as much as possible.
Anonymous wrote:Many of these schools lack real diversity and need some busing.
Busing is a band-aid. I'd rather see MCPS invest in well thought-out programs at specific schools that are attractive and open to students in upcounty/midcounty.
You notice how the two HS magnet programs are in opposite corners of the county that's inconvenient for the majority of the county? There was another thread a few months back about Crown. The capacity at Crown wasn't even necessary if current boundaries were shifted?
I want to know how many overpaid MCPS Central Office / BOE staff at Hungerford send their kids to College Gardens ES or live in Kings Farm? Someone on the thread was pushing hard to insist that those areas would 100% certain be part of Crown.
That’s funny because the word on the street is that the rest of King Farm will be shifted from RM to Gaithersburg, not exactly a “win”.
Word on what street? Why wouldn’t all of KF go to Crown?
For real. If you're going to bill taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for a school you might as well fill it with people who actually want to go there, FFS.
At some point folks are going to understand that school boundaries are not about individual persons or neighborhoods wants. It’s about logistics and creating a positive school experience for all students.
Or it will just end up being negative experience for all students by bussing
Anonymous wrote:Many of these schools lack real diversity and need some busing.
Busing is a band-aid. I'd rather see MCPS invest in well thought-out programs at specific schools that are attractive and open to students in upcounty/midcounty.
You notice how the two HS magnet programs are in opposite corners of the county that's inconvenient for the majority of the county? There was another thread a few months back about Crown. The capacity at Crown wasn't even necessary if current boundaries were shifted?
I want to know how many overpaid MCPS Central Office / BOE staff at Hungerford send their kids to College Gardens ES or live in Kings Farm? Someone on the thread was pushing hard to insist that those areas would 100% certain be part of Crown.
That’s funny because the word on the street is that the rest of King Farm will be shifted from RM to Gaithersburg, not exactly a “win”.
Word on what street? Why wouldn’t all of KF go to Crown?
For real. If you're going to bill taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for a school you might as well fill it with people who actually want to go there, FFS.
At some point folks are going to understand that school boundaries are not about individual persons or neighborhoods wants. It’s about logistics and creating a positive school experience for all students.
Or it will just end up being negative experience for all students by bussing
Many kids might enjoy greater diversity.
You’re delusional. Kids already enjoy much more diversity than most of this country. They won’t enjoy additional diversity for being bussed away from their friends.
Anonymous wrote:FARMS kids do not do better when they are bused.
That said, every child deserves to have fair access to a quality education. It looks bad when they have one school with a 1300 average SAT and one with a 950 SAT. But the kids with a 950 SAT would still score the same even if they moved to the 1300 average SAT school and vice versa.
I am a strong believer in the school within a school mindset that allows the ones that want to learn a separate peer group for their core classes.
People want stability in their schools. I hope the BOE doesn't go on a crusade to move kids around just because it's the "in thing to do"
Kids from poor families actually do do better when they attend low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools.
People are against change, period. But you can't have boundary changes without change.
This. The higher the poverty rate, the lower the performance. These need to be reduced:
When you move chronically absent students to a school farther away, will they suddenly show up for school?
No they won't, but the concern extends beyond them. In some ways, they're going to do what they want to do. It's really more about the ripple effect throughout the entire school. When a huge portion of the student body is plagued by chronic absenteeism the impact to the school is profound. For example, using Watkins Mills numbers- 1,715 students, 616 are chronically absent. Imagine what that does to the school. Teachers now have to dedicate significant time to help the absent students catch up, which disrupts classroom dynamics and affects the experience of the kids who consistently go to school and do want to learn. There's a high number of students who are disengaged and a high number of disciplinary issues. There's probably limited clubs and programs compared to the other schools that don't have this problem because the demand is low. There's probably very little to no school spirit. Very low parental engagement. A sense of apathy among a large number of students and staff. Higher than normal teacher turnover rates. What you end up with is a negative school culture that is not an ideal environment for learning. This is what MCPS cares about and why demographics is a big factor in boundary studies.
You move these kids to other schools so each school having 10-15% chronically absent is still causing issues, and more schools will have low moral. Possibly more Hispanic students will be absent due to the distance. The people who care about education will not accept their kids being bussed to poor performing schools so they will leave or go to private schools. Then none of the schools will be ideal environment for learning. It’s a lose lose situation. Seriously this is a problem that busing cannot solve.
In fact, Hispanic organizations have surveyed Hispanic students in MCPS and found that many immigrant Hispanic students don't go to school because they were poorly educated in their home countries and could not keep up with their grade-level work. You cannot solve this problem by bussing.
Again, the issue isn't so much the kids who don't want to go to school. I agree we can't fix that. The significant issue is the ripple effect that having a large number of chronically absent kids have on a school and the resulting environment that it causes. It negatively impacts the other students, the staff, and the overall culture of the school.
Again this problem is not solvable by bussing. Bussing will only make the ripple effect in a few schools be extended to more schools.
MCPS buses over 100,000 students, twice a day. This boundary study will almost certainly reduce busing by reassigning students in potential walk zones.
+1. All the kids who live near Crown who currently take the bus to Gaithersburg or Wootton will become walkers. That's a good thing.
Name a neighborhood in wootton that’s actually walkable to crown?
Most obviously: the Washingtonian area, which is literally across Fields Road from the Crown HS site.
There are also some areas south of 28 that look like they're within 2.0 miles walking distance of the Crown HS site, some of which are also within walking distance of Wootton.
You would be introducing split articulation to remove people, who do not want to go to Crown, out of a school that is not over capacity. What's the point?
The DEI folks don’t care.
Is this the latest fictional boogeyman for the far-right?
That’s the reality. They don’t care what people think and just want bussing for equalized diversity in every school.
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