Taylor's Feb Rec for Crown Boundary Study

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great thoughtful perspective today from Brow Station ES. Basically Brown Station and Northwest High School are getting screwed by option H. https://moderatelymoco.com/brown-station-community-raises-segregation-concerns-over-mcps-boundary-proposal/ Increased FARMs, getting cut off from special programs, bussing longer distances. MCPS is segregating black and brown kids to Germantown.

The same way Darnestown got segregated to Northwest despite being so close to QO? And now Poolesville? Spare me.

Yeah I feel for Brown Station but I think this is really more of an issue of real segregation in neighborhoods than of MCPS manufacturing school based segregation. Diamond and Darnestown are both closer to QO than Brown Station is, so it’s certainly a bit odd that Darnestown and Diamond have been districted to Northwest and Brown Station to QO.

And the Clemente thing isn’t about concentrating lower income students - in fact Clemente’s FARMS % is going slightly down now - but is rather because of the new regional programming, where Brown Station needs to attend a region 6 MS and not a region 5 one.

I’ll give you Darnestown and, of course, housing segregation is at the root of so much of this. But Diamond and Brown Station are literally walking distance from each other and, even though Diamond is slightly closer distance-wise, drive times are nearly identical for at least some of the communities given how Diamond is tucked back in a neighborhood and Brown Station is on a main road. Half of Diamond is at Northwest now and the FARMS rate significantly decreases at QO and significantly increases at Northwest (and not solely due to the Brown Station move). I tend to agree with you that MCPS isn’t deliberately trying to concentrate poverty - I lean more toward thinking this is coming from their fixation on contiguous boundaries and what looks good on a map. But given the move is basically neutral on two of the FAA factors (proximity and utilization) and clear net negative on the other two (demographic balance and stability) this feels like dereliction of duty.

+1000

Taylor has shown us time and again in this process that demographics is not a factor for him, but pretty maps are. Pretty maps is not one of the FAA factors but he is the Superintendent and BOE is to afraid to question him

"Pretty maps" could be considered satisfying three of the four factors. Policy FAA has 4 different criteria for boundary studies.

1. Demographic characteristics of student population
2. Geography
3. Stability of school assignments over time
4. Facility Utilization

Geography and Stability of School Assignments (if kids are closer to their schools, it's probably more likely they'll stay in that boundary, instead of in an island) are satisfied by student blocks being close to their schools. Facility Utilization has a segment about "should be fiscally responsible to minimize capital and operating costs whenever possible), so closer bus rides also matches that.

Option 3 for the Crown / Damascus boundary study tried to emphasize Demographics and people HATED those maps. The problem is that the county residential areas have done a pretty good job of geographically sorting ourselves by income and wealth, so trying to make a nice, compact map ends up concentrating FARMS and EML to different schools.

P.S. As a legal matter (not moral or "ought to be"), all four of those factors are considered aspirational and not mandatory.

The policy doesn't say "if wealthy people who have benefited financially from structural racism want to ensure the persistence of structural racism, the BOE should ignore the demographic factor"

The thing I learned from reading up on COMAR and the Clarksburg lawsuit, is that essentially the BOE and MCPS can do whatever they want to do as long as they follow the policy and procedures in Policy FAA.

So, they won't ignore the demographic factor, but they will pay lip service to it.

If we want MCPS and the BOE to prioritize the Demographic factor, then we have to elect board members who prioritize it.

Tbh this is part of why this part of the map is so surprising to me. Because they are prioritizing it with moving Wootton in the face of such vocal opposition. So it feels really inconsistent that they’re overlooking it here. I can’t imagine dealing with diamond families would be worse than dealing with the Wootton crowd.

This is all they can afford to do. What did Wootton families expect?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who does everyone think is going to get moved out of Churchill and where will they go when they realize Churchill does actually end up at 112% capacity in Taylor's plan.

Wayside to Lakewood to Frost to Churchill

That makes no sense. To answer the prior poster, likely a few small parts of Seven Locks ES move to Whitman and WJ, some parts of the areas of Potomac ES and Wayside ES that were moving to Wootton in options C & D move to Travilah and Stone Mill/Lakewood respectively, possibly part of Cold Spring moves to Ritchie Park. Then within Potomac, Wayside, Bells Mill, Seven Locks and Beverly Farms you have intra cluster shuffling.

I think it’s pretty much going to be set that Elementary Schools do not change clusters, like Option H set those five schools plus Cold Spring as Churchill feeders. None of those will move from Churchill, however their own boundaries will shift and some areas could be moved from the elementary school and therefore moved from the high school.

Similar vein I don’t think Farmland is all the sudden being moved to WJ, or Wheaton Woods to Wheaton, but parts of those schools could be moved to different elementary schools resulting in new high schools for those parts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who does everyone think is going to get moved out of Churchill and where will they go when they realize Churchill does actually end up at 112% capacity in Taylor's plan.

Wayside to Lakewood to Frost to Churchill

That makes no sense. To answer the prior poster, likely a few small parts of Seven Locks ES move to Whitman and WJ, some parts of the areas of Potomac ES and Wayside ES that were moving to Wootton in options C & D move to Travilah and Stone Mill/Lakewood respectively, possibly part of Cold Spring moves to Ritchie Park. Then within Potomac, Wayside, Bells Mill, Seven Locks and Beverly Farms you have intra cluster shuffling.

I think it’s pretty much going to be set that Elementary Schools do not change clusters, like Option H set those five schools plus Cold Spring as Churchill feeders. None of those will move from Churchill, however their own boundaries will shift and some areas could be moved from the elementary school and therefore moved from the high school.

Similar vein I don’t think Farmland is all the sudden being moved to WJ, or Wheaton Woods to Wheaton, but parts of those schools could be moved to different elementary schools resulting in new high schools for those parts.

Sending all of Seven Locks ES to Whitman would be the easiest fix. The Cold Spring aspect is relevant, though. Since they’re trying to get rid of islands they will likely move Falls Grove out of Ritchie Park, which would likely move someone near Ritchie Park to move in. That said, given Cold Spring is projected to hover around 80% capacity, it probably wouldn’t get closed.

Going back to the idea of northern Wayside/Potomac areas moving into Wootton as an alternative to moving Seven Locks to Whitman, that would require someone to move out of Wootton at Crown, namely DuFief. But DuFief could only be moved out to QO if northern parts of Rachel Carson and the Diamond and Thurgood Marshall Islands are shifted to Gaithersburg HS. Theoretically that’s possible because GHS sits at 87% capacity, but it would probably be pretty unpopular and be seen as a way of further consolidating wealthy students at QO and FARMS at GHS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great thoughtful perspective today from Brow Station ES. Basically Brown Station and Northwest High School are getting screwed by option H. https://moderatelymoco.com/brown-station-community-raises-segregation-concerns-over-mcps-boundary-proposal/ Increased FARMs, getting cut off from special programs, bussing longer distances. MCPS is segregating black and brown kids to Germantown.

The same way Darnestown got segregated to Northwest despite being so close to QO? And now Poolesville? Spare me.

Yeah I feel for Brown Station but I think this is really more of an issue of real segregation in neighborhoods than of MCPS manufacturing school based segregation. Diamond and Darnestown are both closer to QO than Brown Station is, so it’s certainly a bit odd that Darnestown and Diamond have been districted to Northwest and Brown Station to QO.

And the Clemente thing isn’t about concentrating lower income students - in fact Clemente’s FARMS % is going slightly down now - but is rather because of the new regional programming, where Brown Station needs to attend a region 6 MS and not a region 5 one.

I’ll give you Darnestown and, of course, housing segregation is at the root of so much of this. But Diamond and Brown Station are literally walking distance from each other and, even though Diamond is slightly closer distance-wise, drive times are nearly identical for at least some of the communities given how Diamond is tucked back in a neighborhood and Brown Station is on a main road. Half of Diamond is at Northwest now and the FARMS rate significantly decreases at QO and significantly increases at Northwest (and not solely due to the Brown Station move). I tend to agree with you that MCPS isn’t deliberately trying to concentrate poverty - I lean more toward thinking this is coming from their fixation on contiguous boundaries and what looks good on a map. But given the move is basically neutral on two of the FAA factors (proximity and utilization) and clear net negative on the other two (demographic balance and stability) this feels like dereliction of duty.

+1000

Taylor has shown us time and again in this process that demographics is not a factor for him, but pretty maps are. Pretty maps is not one of the FAA factors but he is the Superintendent and BOE is to afraid to question him

"Pretty maps" could be considered satisfying three of the four factors. Policy FAA has 4 different criteria for boundary studies.

1. Demographic characteristics of student population
2. Geography
3. Stability of school assignments over time
4. Facility Utilization

Geography and Stability of School Assignments (if kids are closer to their schools, it's probably more likely they'll stay in that boundary, instead of in an island) are satisfied by student blocks being close to their schools. Facility Utilization has a segment about "should be fiscally responsible to minimize capital and operating costs whenever possible), so closer bus rides also matches that.

Option 3 for the Crown / Damascus boundary study tried to emphasize Demographics and people HATED those maps. The problem is that the county residential areas have done a pretty good job of geographically sorting ourselves by income and wealth, so trying to make a nice, compact map ends up concentrating FARMS and EML to different schools.

P.S. As a legal matter (not moral or "ought to be"), all four of those factors are considered aspirational and not mandatory.

This is kind of how the world works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who does everyone think is going to get moved out of Churchill and where will they go when they realize Churchill does actually end up at 112% capacity in Taylor's plan.

Wayside to Lakewood to Frost to Churchill

That makes no sense. To answer the prior poster, likely a few small parts of Seven Locks ES move to Whitman and WJ, some parts of the areas of Potomac ES and Wayside ES that were moving to Wootton in options C & D move to Travilah and Stone Mill/Lakewood respectively, possibly part of Cold Spring moves to Ritchie Park. Then within Potomac, Wayside, Bells Mill, Seven Locks and Beverly Farms you have intra cluster shuffling.

I think it’s pretty much going to be set that Elementary Schools do not change clusters, like Option H set those five schools plus Cold Spring as Churchill feeders. None of those will move from Churchill, however their own boundaries will shift and some areas could be moved from the elementary school and therefore moved from the high school.

Similar vein I don’t think Farmland is all the sudden being moved to WJ, or Wheaton Woods to Wheaton, but parts of those schools could be moved to different elementary schools resulting in new high schools for those parts.

Sending all of Seven Locks ES to Whitman would be the easiest fix. The Cold Spring aspect is relevant, though. Since they’re trying to get rid of islands they will likely move Falls Grove out of Ritchie Park, which would likely move someone near Ritchie Park to move in. That said, given Cold Spring is projected to hover around 80% capacity, it probably wouldn’t get closed.

Going back to the idea of northern Wayside/Potomac areas moving into Wootton as an alternative to moving Seven Locks to Whitman, that would require someone to move out of Wootton at Crown, namely DuFief. But DuFief could only be moved out to QO if northern parts of Rachel Carson and the Diamond and Thurgood Marshall Islands are shifted to Gaithersburg HS. Theoretically that’s possible because GHS sits at 87% capacity, but it would probably be pretty unpopular and be seen as a way of further consolidating wealthy students at QO and FARMS at GHS.

Cold Spring is at about 75% capacity currently, but that includes the CES kids. There’s a big unanswered question about what will happen to the specialty programs that are housed at these massively underenrolled schools (similar to the special education program at Dufief), but I do not see them moving any of the kids who are zoned for Cold Springs unless they are fully closing the school, which I have to imagine is very much on the table, given both the under enrollment and the fact that it is on the CIP and MCPS could immediately reallocate that funding to all the many other schools that need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who does everyone think is going to get moved out of Churchill and where will they go when they realize Churchill does actually end up at 112% capacity in Taylor's plan.

Wayside to Lakewood to Frost to Churchill

That makes no sense. To answer the prior poster, likely a few small parts of Seven Locks ES move to Whitman and WJ, some parts of the areas of Potomac ES and Wayside ES that were moving to Wootton in options C & D move to Travilah and Stone Mill/Lakewood respectively, possibly part of Cold Spring moves to Ritchie Park. Then within Potomac, Wayside, Bells Mill, Seven Locks and Beverly Farms you have intra cluster shuffling.

I think it’s pretty much going to be set that Elementary Schools do not change clusters, like Option H set those five schools plus Cold Spring as Churchill feeders. None of those will move from Churchill, however their own boundaries will shift and some areas could be moved from the elementary school and therefore moved from the high school.

Similar vein I don’t think Farmland is all the sudden being moved to WJ, or Wheaton Woods to Wheaton, but parts of those schools could be moved to different elementary schools resulting in new high schools for those parts.

Sending all of Seven Locks ES to Whitman would be the easiest fix. The Cold Spring aspect is relevant, though. Since they’re trying to get rid of islands they will likely move Falls Grove out of Ritchie Park, which would likely move someone near Ritchie Park to move in. That said, given Cold Spring is projected to hover around 80% capacity, it probably wouldn’t get closed.

Going back to the idea of northern Wayside/Potomac areas moving into Wootton as an alternative to moving Seven Locks to Whitman, that would require someone to move out of Wootton at Crown, namely DuFief. But DuFief could only be moved out to QO if northern parts of Rachel Carson and the Diamond and Thurgood Marshall Islands are shifted to Gaithersburg HS. Theoretically that’s possible because GHS sits at 87% capacity, but it would probably be pretty unpopular and be seen as a way of further consolidating wealthy students at QO and FARMS at GHS.

Cold Spring is at about 75% capacity currently, but that includes the CES kids. There’s a big unanswered question about what will happen to the specialty programs that are housed at these massively underenrolled schools (similar to the special education program at Dufief), but I do not see them moving any of the kids who are zoned for Cold Springs unless they are fully closing the school, which I have to imagine is very much on the table, given both the under enrollment and the fact that it is on the CIP and MCPS could immediately reallocate that funding to all the many other schools that need it.

Well if they do close Cold Spring I would imagine best bet is they’re redistricted to Ritchie Park, which is at 84% capacity currently and is also slated to lose the Fallsgrove portion of its community given that’s an island assignment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who does everyone think is going to get moved out of Churchill and where will they go when they realize Churchill does actually end up at 112% capacity in Taylor's plan.

Wayside to Lakewood to Frost to Churchill

That makes no sense. To answer the prior poster, likely a few small parts of Seven Locks ES move to Whitman and WJ, some parts of the areas of Potomac ES and Wayside ES that were moving to Wootton in options C & D move to Travilah and Stone Mill/Lakewood respectively, possibly part of Cold Spring moves to Ritchie Park. Then within Potomac, Wayside, Bells Mill, Seven Locks and Beverly Farms you have intra cluster shuffling.

I think it’s pretty much going to be set that Elementary Schools do not change clusters, like Option H set those five schools plus Cold Spring as Churchill feeders. None of those will move from Churchill, however their own boundaries will shift and some areas could be moved from the elementary school and therefore moved from the high school.

Similar vein I don’t think Farmland is all the sudden being moved to WJ, or Wheaton Woods to Wheaton, but parts of those schools could be moved to different elementary schools resulting in new high schools for those parts.

Sending all of Seven Locks ES to Whitman would be the easiest fix. The Cold Spring aspect is relevant, though. Since they’re trying to get rid of islands they will likely move Falls Grove out of Ritchie Park, which would likely move someone near Ritchie Park to move in. That said, given Cold Spring is projected to hover around 80% capacity, it probably wouldn’t get closed.

Going back to the idea of northern Wayside/Potomac areas moving into Wootton as an alternative to moving Seven Locks to Whitman, that would require someone to move out of Wootton at Crown, namely DuFief. But DuFief could only be moved out to QO if northern parts of Rachel Carson and the Diamond and Thurgood Marshall Islands are shifted to Gaithersburg HS. Theoretically that’s possible because GHS sits at 87% capacity, but it would probably be pretty unpopular and be seen as a way of further consolidating wealthy students at QO and FARMS at GHS.

Cold Spring is at about 75% capacity currently, but that includes the CES kids. There’s a big unanswered question about what will happen to the specialty programs that are housed at these massively underenrolled schools (similar to the special education program at Dufief), but I do not see them moving any of the kids who are zoned for Cold Springs unless they are fully closing the school, which I have to imagine is very much on the table, given both the under enrollment and the fact that it is on the CIP and MCPS could immediately reallocate that funding to all the many other schools that need it.

Yeah 100% Cold Spring is being closed. The resident students are under 200. They can move CES to a different Wootton or Churchill ES with space and move the Cold Spring resident kids to one or more of Beverly Farms, Wayside or Ritchie Park, 1.7, 2, and 1.1 miles away from Cold Spring respectively.

Zero chance all of Seven Locks moves to Whitman. Maybe part of it does but Whitman and Pyle can’t accommodate all of those kids without moving others to BCC or WJ. None of that is happening. If a neighborhood would move from Seven Locks it’d be something like the part of Avenel which is an island moving to Carderock and Whitman. Or the townhouse community by Montgomery Mall moves to Ashburton and WJ. But that is not likely given the crowding at Ashburton.

I could see see part of Beverly Farms moving to Wayside (Falls Reach), part of Wayside moving to Potomac or Bells Mill (less likely but possibly BF), part of Bells Mill to Seven Locks. Heck even parts of those could move the opposite direction.

IMO there is little to no chance an entire school is moved in the next study unless it’s closed or they try to fix a big mistake like Wheaton Woods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who does everyone think is going to get moved out of Churchill and where will they go when they realize Churchill does actually end up at 112% capacity in Taylor's plan.

Wayside to Lakewood to Frost to Churchill

That makes no sense. To answer the prior poster, likely a few small parts of Seven Locks ES move to Whitman and WJ, some parts of the areas of Potomac ES and Wayside ES that were moving to Wootton in options C & D move to Travilah and Stone Mill/Lakewood respectively, possibly part of Cold Spring moves to Ritchie Park. Then within Potomac, Wayside, Bells Mill, Seven Locks and Beverly Farms you have intra cluster shuffling.

I think it’s pretty much going to be set that Elementary Schools do not change clusters, like Option H set those five schools plus Cold Spring as Churchill feeders. None of those will move from Churchill, however their own boundaries will shift and some areas could be moved from the elementary school and therefore moved from the high school.

Similar vein I don’t think Farmland is all the sudden being moved to WJ, or Wheaton Woods to Wheaton, but parts of those schools could be moved to different elementary schools resulting in new high schools for those parts.

Sending all of Seven Locks ES to Whitman would be the easiest fix. The Cold Spring aspect is relevant, though. Since they’re trying to get rid of islands they will likely move Falls Grove out of Ritchie Park, which would likely move someone near Ritchie Park to move in. That said, given Cold Spring is projected to hover around 80% capacity, it probably wouldn’t get closed.

Going back to the idea of northern Wayside/Potomac areas moving into Wootton as an alternative to moving Seven Locks to Whitman, that would require someone to move out of Wootton at Crown, namely DuFief. But DuFief could only be moved out to QO if northern parts of Rachel Carson and the Diamond and Thurgood Marshall Islands are shifted to Gaithersburg HS. Theoretically that’s possible because GHS sits at 87% capacity, but it would probably be pretty unpopular and be seen as a way of further consolidating wealthy students at QO and FARMS at GHS.

Cold Spring is at about 75% capacity currently, but that includes the CES kids. There’s a big unanswered question about what will happen to the specialty programs that are housed at these massively underenrolled schools (similar to the special education program at Dufief), but I do not see them moving any of the kids who are zoned for Cold Springs unless they are fully closing the school, which I have to imagine is very much on the table, given both the under enrollment and the fact that it is on the CIP and MCPS could immediately reallocate that funding to all the many other schools that need it.

Well if they do close Cold Spring I would imagine best bet is they’re redistricted to Ritchie Park, which is at 84% capacity currently and is also slated to lose the Fallsgrove portion of its community given that’s an island assignment.

Funny I just commented below you and was thinking this is very likely as I mapped out the distances. I’m sure they considered it but that would have created more people against Option H. But geographically RP makes more sense, and capacity wise according to projections it does too. Probably helps make RM stronger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who does everyone think is going to get moved out of Churchill and where will they go when they realize Churchill does actually end up at 112% capacity in Taylor's plan.

Wayside to Lakewood to Frost to Churchill

That makes no sense. To answer the prior poster, likely a few small parts of Seven Locks ES move to Whitman and WJ, some parts of the areas of Potomac ES and Wayside ES that were moving to Wootton in options C & D move to Travilah and Stone Mill/Lakewood respectively, possibly part of Cold Spring moves to Ritchie Park. Then within Potomac, Wayside, Bells Mill, Seven Locks and Beverly Farms you have intra cluster shuffling.

I think it’s pretty much going to be set that Elementary Schools do not change clusters, like Option H set those five schools plus Cold Spring as Churchill feeders. None of those will move from Churchill, however their own boundaries will shift and some areas could be moved from the elementary school and therefore moved from the high school.

Similar vein I don’t think Farmland is all the sudden being moved to WJ, or Wheaton Woods to Wheaton, but parts of those schools could be moved to different elementary schools resulting in new high schools for those parts.

Sending all of Seven Locks ES to Whitman would be the easiest fix. The Cold Spring aspect is relevant, though. Since they’re trying to get rid of islands they will likely move Falls Grove out of Ritchie Park, which would likely move someone near Ritchie Park to move in. That said, given Cold Spring is projected to hover around 80% capacity, it probably wouldn’t get closed.

Going back to the idea of northern Wayside/Potomac areas moving into Wootton as an alternative to moving Seven Locks to Whitman, that would require someone to move out of Wootton at Crown, namely DuFief. But DuFief could only be moved out to QO if northern parts of Rachel Carson and the Diamond and Thurgood Marshall Islands are shifted to Gaithersburg HS. Theoretically that’s possible because GHS sits at 87% capacity, but it would probably be pretty unpopular and be seen as a way of further consolidating wealthy students at QO and FARMS at GHS.

Cold Spring is at about 75% capacity currently, but that includes the CES kids. There’s a big unanswered question about what will happen to the specialty programs that are housed at these massively underenrolled schools (similar to the special education program at Dufief), but I do not see them moving any of the kids who are zoned for Cold Springs unless they are fully closing the school, which I have to imagine is very much on the table, given both the under enrollment and the fact that it is on the CIP and MCPS could immediately reallocate that funding to all the many other schools that need it.

Well if they do close Cold Spring I would imagine best bet is they’re redistricted to Ritchie Park, which is at 84% capacity currently and is also slated to lose the Fallsgrove portion of its community given that’s an island assignment.

Funny I just commented below you and was thinking this is very likely as I mapped out the distances. I’m sure they considered it but that would have created more people against Option H. But geographically RP makes more sense, and capacity wise according to projections it does too. Probably helps make RM stronger.

Yes, exactly. They’ve “deferred” that issue/anger to when they redraw the ES (and hence HS) lines. I’ve seen a few people from Cold Spring voicing opposition online to Mod H, so maybe they see this coming and are worried about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great thoughtful perspective today from Brow Station ES. Basically Brown Station and Northwest High School are getting screwed by option H. https://moderatelymoco.com/brown-station-community-raises-segregation-concerns-over-mcps-boundary-proposal/ Increased FARMs, getting cut off from special programs, bussing longer distances. MCPS is segregating black and brown kids to Germantown.

The same way Darnestown got segregated to Northwest despite being so close to QO? And now Poolesville? Spare me.

Yeah I feel for Brown Station but I think this is really more of an issue of real segregation in neighborhoods than of MCPS manufacturing school based segregation. Diamond and Darnestown are both closer to QO than Brown Station is, so it’s certainly a bit odd that Darnestown and Diamond have been districted to Northwest and Brown Station to QO.

And the Clemente thing isn’t about concentrating lower income students - in fact Clemente’s FARMS % is going slightly down now - but is rather because of the new regional programming, where Brown Station needs to attend a region 6 MS and not a region 5 one.

I’ll give you Darnestown and, of course, housing segregation is at the root of so much of this. But Diamond and Brown Station are literally walking distance from each other and, even though Diamond is slightly closer distance-wise, drive times are nearly identical for at least some of the communities given how Diamond is tucked back in a neighborhood and Brown Station is on a main road. Half of Diamond is at Northwest now and the FARMS rate significantly decreases at QO and significantly increases at Northwest (and not solely due to the Brown Station move). I tend to agree with you that MCPS isn’t deliberately trying to concentrate poverty - I lean more toward thinking this is coming from their fixation on contiguous boundaries and what looks good on a map. But given the move is basically neutral on two of the FAA factors (proximity and utilization) and clear net negative on the other two (demographic balance and stability) this feels like dereliction of duty.

+1000

Taylor has shown us time and again in this process that demographics is not a factor for him, but pretty maps are. Pretty maps is not one of the FAA factors but he is the Superintendent and BOE is to afraid to question him

"Pretty maps" could be considered satisfying three of the four factors. Policy FAA has 4 different criteria for boundary studies.

1. Demographic characteristics of student population
2. Geography
3. Stability of school assignments over time
4. Facility Utilization

Geography and Stability of School Assignments (if kids are closer to their schools, it's probably more likely they'll stay in that boundary, instead of in an island) are satisfied by student blocks being close to their schools. Facility Utilization has a segment about "should be fiscally responsible to minimize capital and operating costs whenever possible), so closer bus rides also matches that.

Option 3 for the Crown / Damascus boundary study tried to emphasize Demographics and people HATED those maps. The problem is that the county residential areas have done a pretty good job of geographically sorting ourselves by income and wealth, so trying to make a nice, compact map ends up concentrating FARMS and EML to different schools.

P.S. As a legal matter (not moral or "ought to be"), all four of those factors are considered aspirational and not mandatory.

The policy doesn't say "if wealthy people who have benefited financially from structural racism want to ensure the persistence of structural racism, the BOE should ignore the demographic factor"

The thing I learned from reading up on COMAR and the Clarksburg lawsuit, is that essentially the BOE and MCPS can do whatever they want to do as long as they follow the policy and procedures in Policy FAA.

So, they won't ignore the demographic factor, but they will pay lip service to it.

If we want MCPS and the BOE to prioritize the Demographic factor, then we have to elect board members who prioritize it.

Tbh this is part of why this part of the map is so surprising to me. Because they are prioritizing it with moving Wootton in the face of such vocal opposition. So it feels really inconsistent that they’re overlooking it here. I can’t imagine dealing with diamond families would be worse than dealing with the Wootton crowd.

How much opposition is there really? It looks like the same handful of people all over social media and a random lot of people at the BOE meeting. That doesn't seem representative of the school. How about the families who want to move to a new clean, safer building?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great thoughtful perspective today from Brow Station ES. Basically Brown Station and Northwest High School are getting screwed by option H. https://moderatelymoco.com/brown-station-community-raises-segregation-concerns-over-mcps-boundary-proposal/ Increased FARMs, getting cut off from special programs, bussing longer distances. MCPS is segregating black and brown kids to Germantown.

The same way Darnestown got segregated to Northwest despite being so close to QO? And now Poolesville? Spare me.

Yeah I feel for Brown Station but I think this is really more of an issue of real segregation in neighborhoods than of MCPS manufacturing school based segregation. Diamond and Darnestown are both closer to QO than Brown Station is, so it’s certainly a bit odd that Darnestown and Diamond have been districted to Northwest and Brown Station to QO.

And the Clemente thing isn’t about concentrating lower income students - in fact Clemente’s FARMS % is going slightly down now - but is rather because of the new regional programming, where Brown Station needs to attend a region 6 MS and not a region 5 one.

I’ll give you Darnestown and, of course, housing segregation is at the root of so much of this. But Diamond and Brown Station are literally walking distance from each other and, even though Diamond is slightly closer distance-wise, drive times are nearly identical for at least some of the communities given how Diamond is tucked back in a neighborhood and Brown Station is on a main road. Half of Diamond is at Northwest now and the FARMS rate significantly decreases at QO and significantly increases at Northwest (and not solely due to the Brown Station move). I tend to agree with you that MCPS isn’t deliberately trying to concentrate poverty - I lean more toward thinking this is coming from their fixation on contiguous boundaries and what looks good on a map. But given the move is basically neutral on two of the FAA factors (proximity and utilization) and clear net negative on the other two (demographic balance and stability) this feels like dereliction of duty.

+1000

Taylor has shown us time and again in this process that demographics is not a factor for him, but pretty maps are. Pretty maps is not one of the FAA factors but he is the Superintendent and BOE is to afraid to question him

"Pretty maps" could be considered satisfying three of the four factors. Policy FAA has 4 different criteria for boundary studies.

1. Demographic characteristics of student population
2. Geography
3. Stability of school assignments over time
4. Facility Utilization

Geography and Stability of School Assignments (if kids are closer to their schools, it's probably more likely they'll stay in that boundary, instead of in an island) are satisfied by student blocks being close to their schools. Facility Utilization has a segment about "should be fiscally responsible to minimize capital and operating costs whenever possible), so closer bus rides also matches that.

Option 3 for the Crown / Damascus boundary study tried to emphasize Demographics and people HATED those maps. The problem is that the county residential areas have done a pretty good job of geographically sorting ourselves by income and wealth, so trying to make a nice, compact map ends up concentrating FARMS and EML to different schools.

P.S. As a legal matter (not moral or "ought to be"), all four of those factors are considered aspirational and not mandatory.

The policy doesn't say "if wealthy people who have benefited financially from structural racism want to ensure the persistence of structural racism, the BOE should ignore the demographic factor"

The thing I learned from reading up on COMAR and the Clarksburg lawsuit, is that essentially the BOE and MCPS can do whatever they want to do as long as they follow the policy and procedures in Policy FAA.

So, they won't ignore the demographic factor, but they will pay lip service to it.

If we want MCPS and the BOE to prioritize the Demographic factor, then we have to elect board members who prioritize it.

Tbh this is part of why this part of the map is so surprising to me. Because they are prioritizing it with moving Wootton in the face of such vocal opposition. So it feels really inconsistent that they’re overlooking it here. I can’t imagine dealing with diamond families would be worse than dealing with the Wootton crowd.

How much opposition is there really? It looks like the same handful of people all over social media and a random lot of people at the BOE meeting. That doesn't seem representative of the school. How about the families who want to move to a new clean, safer building?

I think it's a lot of people in certain neighborhoods like Fallsmead

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Anonymous wrote:great thoughtful perspective today from Brow Station ES. Basically Brown Station and Northwest High School are getting screwed by option H. https://moderatelymoco.com/brown-station-community-raises-segregation-concerns-over-mcps-boundary-proposal/ Increased FARMs, getting cut off from special programs, bussing longer distances. MCPS is segregating black and brown kids to Germantown.

The same way Darnestown got segregated to Northwest despite being so close to QO? And now Poolesville? Spare me.

Yeah I feel for Brown Station but I think this is really more of an issue of real segregation in neighborhoods than of MCPS manufacturing school based segregation. Diamond and Darnestown are both closer to QO than Brown Station is, so it’s certainly a bit odd that Darnestown and Diamond have been districted to Northwest and Brown Station to QO.

And the Clemente thing isn’t about concentrating lower income students - in fact Clemente’s FARMS % is going slightly down now - but is rather because of the new regional programming, where Brown Station needs to attend a region 6 MS and not a region 5 one.

I’ll give you Darnestown and, of course, housing segregation is at the root of so much of this. But Diamond and Brown Station are literally walking distance from each other and, even though Diamond is slightly closer distance-wise, drive times are nearly identical for at least some of the communities given how Diamond is tucked back in a neighborhood and Brown Station is on a main road. Half of Diamond is at Northwest now and the FARMS rate significantly decreases at QO and significantly increases at Northwest (and not solely due to the Brown Station move). I tend to agree with you that MCPS isn’t deliberately trying to concentrate poverty - I lean more toward thinking this is coming from their fixation on contiguous boundaries and what looks good on a map. But given the move is basically neutral on two of the FAA factors (proximity and utilization) and clear net negative on the other two (demographic balance and stability) this feels like dereliction of duty.

+1000

Taylor has shown us time and again in this process that demographics is not a factor for him, but pretty maps are. Pretty maps is not one of the FAA factors but he is the Superintendent and BOE is to afraid to question him

"Pretty maps" could be considered satisfying three of the four factors. Policy FAA has 4 different criteria for boundary studies.

1. Demographic characteristics of student population
2. Geography
3. Stability of school assignments over time
4. Facility Utilization

Geography and Stability of School Assignments (if kids are closer to their schools, it's probably more likely they'll stay in that boundary, instead of in an island) are satisfied by student blocks being close to their schools. Facility Utilization has a segment about "should be fiscally responsible to minimize capital and operating costs whenever possible), so closer bus rides also matches that.

Option 3 for the Crown / Damascus boundary study tried to emphasize Demographics and people HATED those maps. The problem is that the county residential areas have done a pretty good job of geographically sorting ourselves by income and wealth, so trying to make a nice, compact map ends up concentrating FARMS and EML to different schools.

P.S. As a legal matter (not moral or "ought to be"), all four of those factors are considered aspirational and not mandatory.

The policy doesn't say "if wealthy people who have benefited financially from structural racism want to ensure the persistence of structural racism, the BOE should ignore the demographic factor"

The thing I learned from reading up on COMAR and the Clarksburg lawsuit, is that essentially the BOE and MCPS can do whatever they want to do as long as they follow the policy and procedures in Policy FAA.

So, they won't ignore the demographic factor, but they will pay lip service to it.

If we want MCPS and the BOE to prioritize the Demographic factor, then we have to elect board members who prioritize it.

Tbh this is part of why this part of the map is so surprising to me. Because they are prioritizing it with moving Wootton in the face of such vocal opposition. So it feels really inconsistent that they’re overlooking it here. I can’t imagine dealing with diamond families would be worse than dealing with the Wootton crowd.

How much opposition is there really? It looks like the same handful of people all over social media and a random lot of people at the BOE meeting. That doesn't seem representative of the school. How about the families who want to move to a new clean, safer building?

Ding ding ding! You’re right, it’s the same 20 people posting on their site, Facebook page, WhatsApp, nextdoor and definitely on here! They had a last minute idea to actually claim they were fighting for equity which was laughable given all the crap they’ve spewed online about what they think they deserve!