New Woodward High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who believes something written by the current board, I would remind everyone about the ES boundary changes passed last year for Gaithersburg #8 and Clarksburg.

My guess is the current board will do any boundary change short-notice and with superficial talk-to-the-hand parent engagement.

Since their legal warchest seems bottomless, I doubt there is any motivation to do otherwise?

That's good news. I'm glad to see they're finally after 40 years going to do something other than capitulate to the Karens.

Is this because they want to achieve equity goals at the cost of excellence as many say on dcum?

No. It's because people hate change, and because home ownership is the primary source of wealth for most Americans. Anything that threatens property values, even a little bit, is seen as an existential threat to a family's well-being.

But the thing is that economically and racially diverse schools only threaten property values when we collectively decide that they should. The property loss isn't inherent, it's a manifestation of broader racial and class bias.

At any rate, MCPS is not doing a boundary study to pursue equity goals. They are doing a boundary study because there are too many children in too few schools, and new schools have been built. As a result, MCPS needs to set boundaries for those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've not seen anyone mention a very logistically simple answer.

There are two middle schools that feed WJ, Tilden and NB. The boundary of the 2 is roughly 270. Tilden is the north half of WJ and NB the south half.

WJ will be split into two - NB will feed WJ, Tilden will feed Woodward. The "old" WJ will effectively "seed" 2 news schools at about 60-70% capacity (based on 2028-2029 projected WJ enrollment of 3100, WJ capacity of 2250, Woodward Capacity of 2150).

Viers Mill ES, which currently feeds Wheaton, is very close to Woodward and fits nicely geographically. It's about about 2/3 Hispanic. This will round out Woodward for capacity, diversity, and proximity. It will also help alleviate overcrowding at Wheaton.

There are no simple answers to "round out" the new WJ since the Einstein bordering ES's are all within its walk zone. What would make the most sense is to add Woodlin to BCC and WJ would pull one ES from BCC, possibly North Chevy Chase. Yes, this "new" WJ would probably not be as "diverse", but Woodward would, BCC would, AND Wheaton and Einstein would be less over crowded. In the big-picture it's a net-win and the boundaries won't have any Islands.

The alternative would be to add Woodlin directly to WJ. It would create an island and be further then Einstein, but it would resolve some of the other issues mentioned above. It would also be a horrible bus ride in beltway traffic, if I were a parent there I wouldn't be very happy.

One problem with just sending Tilden to Woodward and keeping NB at WJ is that the island north of Tuckerman and adjacent to Woodward itself is zoned for NB too. That island should certainly be rezoned for Woodward. But then you would have split articulations at both the ES and MS levels.

Also part of Viers Mill is within the Wheaton HS walk zone.

Like you said, no simple answers.

DP - Also, the Einstein feeding elementaries are not all within its walk zone (Singer, Woodlin, parts of Oakland Terrace). Adding Woodlin to WJ would do little to alter its diversity, let alone BCC.

So, yeah. No simple answers.