Rosemary Hills/Bethesda/CC/NCC Boundry study - Superintendent's Recommendation

[Anonymous]

So they have released the superintendent's recommendation for these schools. Basically, after the reorganization, no longer will there be kids at Rosemary Hills that then go to Bethesda Elementary, coming in after most kids who have been there from the start at Kindergarten. Bethesda Elementary will end up with even less FARMS-eligible kids (down to 3%), while Rosemary Hills will end up with more (22% from 19%), but it will be more geographically consistent. NCC elementary will go from around 6% to around 9% FARMS, and CC Elementary will stay at 9% FARMS (estimates only). I've pasted the link to the whole plan below.

My personal feeling is that this makes sense geographically, but you do have to buy into the philosophy that kids going to their neighborhood school is more important than ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. As a parent whose kids will be going to Rosemary Hills, then NCC, I'm a little conflicted - is FARMS really a good surrogate for schools where there will be less parental involvement, more disruptive behavior? We picked this area of MoCo because we wanted to have diversity along with good schools, which we thought the east section of BCC afforded. Curious how other parents view this development . . .



http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/pdf/BCC_SupterintendentsRecommendation10142011.pdf

[Anonymous]

Honestly, even the higher FARMS rate is pretty low. You can't assume that every kid who falls under FARMS will be disruptive and have low parental involvement.

I have experience in two different MCPS ES, one with a higher FARMS rate in Silver Spring (much higher than 22%) and one with a lower rate in CC. Honestly, there's no difference in disruptive behavior. In each grade, there were a handful of kids who were disruptive, in each case because of an underlying issue like a learning disability.

I have heard many parents from the western side of MoCo that say they want diversity but what they really mean is people of all races with a college education and a high HHI. That's not really what diversity means. It also doesn't mean a school with a 40% FARMS rate that's 80% minority. Seems to me that what you will have is ideal.

What determines the outcome is the principal and teachers, for the most part. You wanted diversity -- you got diversity. It's a good thing. Your school will be fine.

[Anonymous]

If NCC will end up with the same FARMS rate as CC then it isn't exactly something to worry about.

[Anonymous]

I'm still trying to digest this, and curious to know what other parents think. My first instinct though is that the superintendant made a pretty sensible decision but didn't ignore the socioeconomic issues totally, which I appreciate. Frankly the 22% FARMS doesn't thrill me, but honestly I don't see how the school is currently 19% FARMS right now. I have a second grader, and it seems like most of my child's classmates have been kids of lawyers with many SAHMs. I sometimes wonder if the preK, which only includes low income families and autism classes, might somehow skew the stats

[Anonymous]

FARMS students aren't lepers and they don't wear the mark of the beast. it's possible that many of the clean, neat, respectful students are FARMS.

Autism, also, doesn't hit poor families more frequently than well-off families.

You are kind of making me sick.

[Anonymous]

Please don't let the FARMS rate be your only guide to define a school. You will really miss out.

[Anonymous]

I also used to be anxious when I heard about the percentage of children receiving FARMS at my son's elementary school. It is apparently about 35%, which is about average for the county. I am ashamed to say that I also worried they might be disruptive or ill-prepared children who would take up the teacher's time. Now that I have been coming to school to pick up my son for 2 months and have volunteered in his classroom, I have completely changed my perspective on this and I am sorry for what I used to think. All of the children I have interacted with have been enthusiastic, sweet, and, frankly, doing just fine in school -- some of them better than my little white kid. Apparently no one told them that they should be worse off because of what their parents do for a living. My son's new little best friends are kids whose parents immigrated from opposite sides of the world. Given my more homogenous childhood, I think that this is extraordinary, and I can't believe we might have missed this opportunity because we were worried about demographics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, even the higher FARMS rate is pretty low. You can't assume that every kid who falls under FARMS will be disruptive and have low parental involvement.

<snip>

And conversely, just because a child doesn't fall under FARMS, it doesn't mean he/she won't be disruptive or have more parental involvement.

[Anonymous]

I have to agree with the initial poster. The cluster is basically cut in half: East Bethesda goes to Bethesda Elementary K through 5, then to Westland. The rest of us go to racially diverse schools K-2, overcrowded NCC 3-5, then a new middle school which will take forever to be as efficient as Westland. In other words, East of Connecticut, forget Bethesda Elementary, forget Westland and say hello to schools with an uncertain future.

The initial concern for an neighborhood school is great, but what about the rest of us who still get bussed around and have to take on most of the ESOL and Farms who are no longer wanted in Bethesda?

Really, what's in it for us, the majority?

[Anonymous]

PP, what are your concerns about the new middle school for this area? I'll start a new thread, since this is not strictly what the OP queried, but I'm curious.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry, but the idea that you need to "take on ESOL and FARMS" is just repellant. What is wrong with you? What exactly do you think these kids will do to mess up your kid's education? You are sickening.

[Anonymous]

My concern is not with the new middle school, which I see as a direct extension of this dividing trend. What is happening with the split of B-CC in two is that our Middle School, on the let's call it "Eastern side of the divide":
- does not have a location agreed on
- will not immediately function at the level of Westland
- will inherit the demographics of its feeding schools.

This whole process is pretty obvious: order in the west, chaos in the east.

[Anonymous]

You can say it is about FARMs etc diversity etc but like a PP said, they want diversity but they want educated diversity. They don't want their kids going on play dates to apartments with parents that are blue color. God forbid you become friends with a woman who cleans houses for a living instead of wearing yoga clothes to go shopping. The school system screwed up many years ago and they have not recovered from it. RHPS is a great school, NCC, BE and CC are great schools. The new middle school is so far off it should not be in the discussion.

The main issue is the East Bethesda neighborhood. A lot of people have spent many many hours on this issue and there are always a few who chime in at the end to voice their opinion.

When this goes to the school board it will look like the community is split and the school board will probably keep it as is and those who spent years working on this issue to have a greater sense of community. Anyone who has gone to RHPS from that neighborhood has said they love it but it makes no sense to go all that way. Just like the people who don't want their kids to go to Westland from that part of Silver Spring. Forget FARMs, forget diversity, it is a great area with great schools and your kids will be just fine.

How come none of these people joined the education committee? How come you were not at the meetings? Showing up at the last minute with your own agenda is not helping the hard work this group has done for so long and many of them don't even have kids that will be impacted by it. They asked for help, they asked for responses to surveys but not many people stepped up. Hats off to them for doing what they have done. They are just doing it for the entire area, not themselves.

[Anonymous]

The trap on the internet is to focus on one tidbit of another poster's paragraph and shed on it a light which is exaggerated while drawing incorrect conclusions. ESOL and FARMS, may I remind you, is euphemized wording for diversity, they are used as criteria for diversity in the report itself.

[Anonymous]

I can assure the previous poster that I know very well these communities and that there are no people there of blue color, that our kids play together very well and add that house cleaners and blue collars is not really accurate.