Taylor's Feb. Rec for Woodward Boundary Study

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t this talk of which students will attend and how poor they will be a little premature, given that the new 6-region model will mean that students can select another school in their region for one of its programs? So, a couple of hundred “poor” kids from Einstein or Northwood or Blair will be going to BCC or Whitman every year, for example.

Except that there will be very limited bus service, so unless you have a car or parents who can drive you (i.e. not most poor kids), you will not be going anywhere except your home school. (Or maybe some of the Einstein/Northwood/Blair kids can walk or bike to one of the others since they're close together. But no one's walking to Whitman.)

[Anonymous]

Until that big black line across Kensington separating Einstein and WJ is removed and kids who can walk to Einstein actually are zoned there, it's a ridiculous exercise rooted in keeping the wealthy MCPS parents content and the rest have to scramble and keep changing their little boundaries to tweak +-5% FARMS rates above the median.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly the loss of diversity is a big loss for WJ. That is part of what makes it such a special place. I’m sorry for them.

It’s massively over crowded and over rated.

Feel sorry because less diversity? It’s about the same. Just less kids total.

Black goes UP from 15.9 to 16.2
Asian goes down from 14.5 to 12.5
Hispanic goes down from 18.5 to 15
2 or more races goes UP from 6.6 to 7.3

It is essentially the same.

But it’s a weird thing to feel sorry about even if it weren’t it essentially the same diversity.

Woodward people are just annoyed more poor kids go to their school than WJ.

WJ FARMS stays essentially the same as it is now. Maybe it will stay “special”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly the loss of diversity is a big loss for WJ. That is part of what makes it such a special place. I’m sorry for them.

It’s massively over crowded and over rated.

Feel sorry because less diversity? It’s about the same. Just less kids total.

Black goes UP from 15.9 to 16.2
Asian goes down from 14.5 to 12.5
Hispanic goes down from 18.5 to 15
2 or more races goes UP from 6.6 to 7.3

It is essentially the same.

But it’s a weird thing to feel sorry about even if it weren’t it essentially the same diversity.

Woodward people are just annoyed more poor kids go to their school than WJ.

WJ FARMS stays essentially the same as it is now. Maybe it will stay “special”.

With 77% capacity? To make room for all the new multimillion dollar homes going up in Bethesda and GP.

[Anonymous]

More people selected Option B than any other option.

3490 of 6462 responses selected B.
998 of the 3490 selected only B.

Taylor gave the people what they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly the loss of diversity is a big loss for WJ. That is part of what makes it such a special place. I’m sorry for them.

It’s massively over crowded and over rated.

Feel sorry because less diversity? It’s about the same. Just less kids total.

Black goes UP from 15.9 to 16.2
Asian goes down from 14.5 to 12.5
Hispanic goes down from 18.5 to 15
2 or more races goes UP from 6.6 to 7.3

It is essentially the same.

But it’s a weird thing to feel sorry about even if it weren’t it essentially the same diversity.

Woodward people are just annoyed more poor kids go to their school than WJ.

WJ FARMS stays essentially the same as it is now. Maybe it will stay “special”.

With 77% capacity? To make room for all the new multimillion dollar homes going up in Bethesda and GP.

Multi family homes in GP off Strathmore. Hundreds of townhomes where Holy Cross Academy is.

Feel free to move there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More people selected Option B than any other option.

3490 of 6462 responses selected B.
998 of the 3490 selected only B.

Taylor gave the people what they want.

The people who understood there was a SECOND survey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Until that big black line across Kensington separating Einstein and WJ is removed and kids who can walk to Einstein actually are zoned there, it's a ridiculous exercise rooted in keeping the wealthy MCPS parents content and the rest have to scramble and keep changing their little boundaries to tweak +-5% FARMS rates above the median.

I don't think moving the WJ part of Kensington to Einstein would make much difference. But it's telling that it was not even considered in a meaningful way given such a move would advance both proximity and demographics. They just put this in Option 3 with a bunch of poison pills and said whelp can't do this too bad so sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly the loss of diversity is a big loss for WJ. That is part of what makes it such a special place. I’m sorry for them.

It’s massively over crowded and over rated.

Feel sorry because less diversity? It’s about the same. Just less kids total.

Black goes UP from 15.9 to 16.2
Asian goes down from 14.5 to 12.5
Hispanic goes down from 18.5 to 15
2 or more races goes UP from 6.6 to 7.3

It is essentially the same.

But it’s a weird thing to feel sorry about even if it weren’t it essentially the same diversity.

Woodward people are just annoyed more poor kids go to their school than WJ.

WJ FARMS stays essentially the same as it is now. Maybe it will stay “special”.

With 77% capacity? To make room for all the new multimillion dollar homes going up in Bethesda and GP.

Multi family homes in GP off Strathmore. Hundreds of townhomes where Holy Cross Academy is.

Feel free to move there.

I do like those places so maybe

But you see how the families who move there ($1M+ homes) will drive those diversity percentages down.

[Anonymous]

Taylor promises that all students who meet the criteria and apply will be able to move to these programs. That’s what I think his projected enrollment charts are bogus. We know what schools kids will move to based on the school’s demographics and programs offerings. Any current 5th grader in compacted math only has Wheaton as a HS option until MCPS adds new HS courses after IM

Can you elaborate on that? When did he say that? Is it on charts?

Are criteria for different criteria magnets already established? This statement is a bit too good to be true. It sounds that if you a kid is a good student (almost all As, good MAP scores) they can move to any criteria magnet of their choosing within their region. What if vast majority of all good students in a region want to move to the same school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly the loss of diversity is a big loss for WJ. That is part of what makes it such a special place. I’m sorry for them.

It’s massively over crowded and over rated.

Feel sorry because less diversity? It’s about the same. Just less kids total.

Black goes UP from 15.9 to 16.2
Asian goes down from 14.5 to 12.5
Hispanic goes down from 18.5 to 15
2 or more races goes UP from 6.6 to 7.3

It is essentially the same.

But it’s a weird thing to feel sorry about even if it weren’t it essentially the same diversity.

Woodward people are just annoyed more poor kids go to their school than WJ.

WJ FARMS stays essentially the same as it is now. Maybe it will stay “special”.

And you are just happy to shed 5% (one third of current numbers) of undesirable high FARMS from your WJ. So spare me "it is essentially the same".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MS to HS articulation remain the same based on where you're enrolled at the time of the change, or does it change based on home address?

Our neighborhood is currently zoned to SSIMS and Northwood, but will become Eastern and Blair if this recommendation is accepted.

DC will finish at SSIMS in June 2029. Would they remain with Northwood, or follow the "new" neighborhood boundary to Blair?

I could be wrong, but I believe they'd switch to Eastern in Fall 2027 and then go on to Blair.

PP here. I thought they were doing no transfers in OR out of SSIMS before the closure. That's why it makes the HS issue more confusing.

Keeping SSIMS elementary assignments stable was the plan when they were moving forward with the closure, with options E-G. Then when the decision got delayed, there wasn't really any advocacy to keep SSIMS together through the boundary study (I think it was mostly SCES and Highland View families who figured they'd get to stay no matter what so it wasn't a priority for them) so it looks like MCPS just went with what was easiest for them. (There's no good way to keep all the middle school assignments the same for a few more years without keeping Arcola ES at Odessa Shannon MS, but those are on opposite sides of their beloved big black Regional Boundary Line, so of course that was unthinkable.)

And yes, boundaries go into effect immediately in the 2027-28 year based on where your address falls on these maps-- unless a kid is going into 8th, 11th or 12th grade in which case they can stay at their old school. Your child is a 5th grader, correct? They will go to SSIMS next year, then switch to Eastern in 7th with the new boundaries, and then move on to Blair when it's time for high school.

Ah, well that is disappointing. Thanks for clarifying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly the loss of diversity is a big loss for WJ. That is part of what makes it such a special place. I’m sorry for them.

It’s massively over crowded and over rated.

Feel sorry because less diversity? It’s about the same. Just less kids total.

Black goes UP from 15.9 to 16.2
Asian goes down from 14.5 to 12.5
Hispanic goes down from 18.5 to 15
2 or more races goes UP from 6.6 to 7.3

It is essentially the same.

But it’s a weird thing to feel sorry about even if it weren’t it essentially the same diversity.

Woodward people are just annoyed more poor kids go to their school than WJ.

WJ FARMS stays essentially the same as it is now. Maybe it will stay “special”.

And you are just happy to shed 5% (one third of current numbers) of undesirable high FARMS from your WJ. So spare me "it is essentially the same".

While they fill in that empty 25% capacity with families living in brand new multimillion dollar homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t this talk of which students will attend and how poor they will be a little premature, given that the new 6-region model will mean that students can select another school in their region for one of its programs? So, a couple of hundred “poor” kids from Einstein or Northwood or Blair will be going to BCC or Whitman every year, for example.

Except that there will be very limited bus service, so unless you have a car or parents who can drive you (i.e. not most poor kids), you will not be going anywhere except your home school. (Or maybe some of the Einstein/Northwood/Blair kids can walk or bike to one of the others since they're close together. But no one's walking to Whitman.)

That is not true. The limited bus service will obviously not be comprehensive, but if those kids can get to their home high school, there will likely be a school bus to take them to the regional program school. This does not require a car, parent, or wealth for a lot of students in those zones. Also, news flash but lots of people you consider poor do in fact own cars and also do transport their children places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t this talk of which students will attend and how poor they will be a little premature, given that the new 6-region model will mean that students can select another school in their region for one of its programs? So, a couple of hundred “poor” kids from Einstein or Northwood or Blair will be going to BCC or Whitman every year, for example.

Except that there will be very limited bus service, so unless you have a car or parents who can drive you (i.e. not most poor kids), you will not be going anywhere except your home school. (Or maybe some of the Einstein/Northwood/Blair kids can walk or bike to one of the others since they're close together. But no one's walking to Whitman.)

That is not true. The limited bus service will obviously not be comprehensive, but if those kids can get to their home high school, there will likely be a school bus to take them to the regional program school. This does not require a car, parent, or wealth for a lot of students in those zones. Also, news flash but lots of people you consider poor do in fact own cars and also do transport their children places.

"If they can get to their home school" is carrying a lot of weight there. It's hard or impossible for most kids to get to their home high school without a car, and even if they can, it often means a 30-40 minute journey before catching a bus that will probably leave around 6:15-6:30. Sure, if folks are deeply motivated, they may be able to cobble together some way to make it work. But unless MCPS provides real transportation from bus stops kids can reasonably walk to, the regional programs will primarily be for the better-off kids.