Boundary study (2025 )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any trusted data (not anecdotes) that demonstrate this correlation (and controls for other factors) in past re-boundary-ings?

Yes. Check out the most recent boundary study done by MCPS, which was opening a new ES in Clarksburg. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/clarksburges9boundarystudy/

You can see that there were six options. Of those, Option 4 did the most to increase diversity but the Superintendent recommended a slightly amended Option 1 that minimized disruption and maximized walkers.

With the new anti-DEI order that is coming from Trump, I wonder if diversity will be removed as one of the boundary study factors.

I don't think it will be removed but I think the leaders of this study are tone deaf and perhaps asking for increased scrutiny if they don't downplay it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any trusted data (not anecdotes) that demonstrate this correlation (and controls for other factors) in past re-boundary-ings?

Yes. Check out the most recent boundary study done by MCPS, which was opening a new ES in Clarksburg. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/clarksburges9boundarystudy/

You can see that there were six options. Of those, Option 4 did the most to increase diversity but the Superintendent recommended a slightly amended Option 1 that minimized disruption and maximized walkers.

With the new anti-DEI order that is coming from Trump, I wonder if diversity will be removed as one of the boundary study factors.

Diversity isn't a factor, demographics is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The neighborhood schools Facebook group is saying that Demographics was the “first guiding principle” that the presentation laid out for what will drive decisions. The post didn’t specify whether this was simply because it was the first of the four factors that will all be considered equally, or if it was “first” because someone in the presentation stated it would be more important. Which is it?

It was just the first of four factors listed. Not the most important.

I’ve heard from several people who listened or are more involved, that DEI is the most important factor to them. I guess we should get clarity on this.

they are wrong and have been shouting about this since 2019. they are my neighbors and otherwise good people but frankly they are wrong and just make themselves look horribly unkind throughout the process. it is eye opening though to see how your neighbors behave in these scenarios.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The neighborhood schools Facebook group is saying that Demographics was the “first guiding principle” that the presentation laid out for what will drive decisions. The post didn’t specify whether this was simply because it was the first of the four factors that will all be considered equally, or if it was “first” because someone in the presentation stated it would be more important. Which is it?

It was just the first of four factors listed. Not the most important.

I’ve heard from several people who listened or are more involved, that DEI is the most important factor to them. I guess we should get clarity on this.

Trolololol. This whole "Many people are saying..." nonsense does not hold up to reality. There have been several boundary studies in recent years. All of them have resulted in normal boundaries that left some people happy and some people sad, but none have been driven by diversity. In each case, there were options under consideration that maximized diversity and those options were never selected, because other factors outweighed them.

this!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS will do what they want with this. They’ll pretend to care about the communities opinion but they already have an agenda, and will plan to see it through. That is how MCPS has always operated.

Their agenda is opening two new schools and assigning students to attend them.

But my Facebook feed says this is all about woke busing!

bussing is already happening! these people are crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any trusted data (not anecdotes) that demonstrate this correlation (and controls for other factors) in past re-boundary-ings?

Yes. Check out the most recent boundary study done by MCPS, which was opening a new ES in Clarksburg. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/clarksburges9boundarystudy/

You can see that there were six options. Of those, Option 4 did the most to increase diversity but the Superintendent recommended a slightly amended Option 1 that minimized disruption and maximized walkers.

Shout out to you posting facts with links. People need to do this in those Facebook groups!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly curious, given the demographics of MC, why anyone is anti-diversity in the context of this thread. This isn't a red state, this isn't the south. What is going on here? I appreciate and embrace the diversity in my kids' ES.

MoCo is one of the most racially diverse counties in the nation. Our schools are already incredibly diverse. Most people living here prioritize diversity already. So for MCPS to prioritize diversity over other goals in this study (when we already live in one of our nation’s most diverse counties) seems a little nuts.

What about also ensuring we have community schools, ensuring kids can go to school K-12 with their neighborhood friends and not be split up in middle or high school, and keeping commutes to school short so we aren’t bussing kids an hour across the county each day, twice a day (and contributing to traffic, pollution, obesity, social isolation, parental stress, etc) because the boundary lines got gerrymandered in the name of greater equity?

My neighbors kids go to Magnet schools and have long bus rides and no neighborhood friends anymore because they chose a magnet over the local HS. They told me all their friends at the Magnet live far away so they can’t socialize like normal teens on nights and weekends. Kids and teens in schools through and after Covid now already have been through so much, their mental health is in the tank, and smart phones and social media have been severely detrimental to their well being. The erosion of community is a huge problem for them and society more broadly.

Having neighborhood schools that people feel invested in and engaged in is important for so many reasons, transportation, community engagement, connection, etc.

In addition - Regardless of how you feel about the present administration, they are going after DEI programs and schools that have them. I for one don’t want our schools to lose federal funding that is desperately needed, we already have major budget issues here in the county.

You want to put more stress and mental health issues on our kids? Send them to a high school or middle school that none of their friends from K-8 or K-5 are going to because our district didn’t make keeping cohorts together a priority.

There’s a lot of factors that matter here, not just one, or even four.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly curious, given the demographics of MC, why anyone is anti-diversity in the context of this thread. This isn't a red state, this isn't the south. What is going on here? I appreciate and embrace the diversity in my kids' ES.

MoCo is one of the most racially diverse counties in the nation. Our schools are already incredibly diverse. Most people living here prioritize diversity already. So for MCPS to prioritize diversity over other goals in this study (when we already live in one of our nation’s most diverse counties) seems a little nuts.

Yeah, well, they aren't doing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly curious, given the demographics of MC, why anyone is anti-diversity in the context of this thread. This isn't a red state, this isn't the south. What is going on here? I appreciate and embrace the diversity in my kids' ES.

MoCo is one of the most racially diverse counties in the nation. Our schools are already incredibly diverse. Most people living here prioritize diversity already. So for MCPS to prioritize diversity over other goals in this study (when we already live in one of our nation’s most diverse counties) seems a little nuts.

Yeah, well, they aren't doing that.

I went to the meeting, and I don’t agree with you. There are 4 stated priorities. The first one is demographics, which they define as percent FARMS, percent EML, and percent race/ethnicity. See slide 51.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly curious, given the demographics of MC, why anyone is anti-diversity in the context of this thread. This isn't a red state, this isn't the south. What is going on here? I appreciate and embrace the diversity in my kids' ES.

MoCo is one of the most racially diverse counties in the nation. Our schools are already incredibly diverse. Most people living here prioritize diversity already. So for MCPS to prioritize diversity over other goals in this study (when we already live in one of our nation’s most diverse counties) seems a little nuts.

Yeah, well, they aren't doing that.

I went to the meeting, and I don’t agree with you. There are 4 stated priorities. The first one is demographics, which they define as percent FARMS, percent EML, and percent race/ethnicity. See slide 51.

Yes, it was the first in the list of four but they said they were all weighted the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly curious, given the demographics of MC, why anyone is anti-diversity in the context of this thread. This isn't a red state, this isn't the south. What is going on here? I appreciate and embrace the diversity in my kids' ES.

MoCo is one of the most racially diverse counties in the nation. Our schools are already incredibly diverse. Most people living here prioritize diversity already. So for MCPS to prioritize diversity over other goals in this study (when we already live in one of our nation’s most diverse counties) seems a little nuts.

Yeah, well, they aren't doing that.

I went to the meeting, and I don’t agree with you. There are 4 stated priorities. The first one is demographics, which they define as percent FARMS, percent EML, and percent race/ethnicity. See slide 51.

I also went to the meeting. They said the four factors would be given equal weight, so it's not accurate to say that MCPS is prioritizing diversity over other goals in this study, as stated above. They are prioritizing diversity equally with the other three goals.

[Anonymous]

"Robin O’Hara, senior facilities planner in the MCPS Office of Facilities Management, said the priorities are treated equally."

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/04/03/mcps-debuts-first-community-survey-boundary-study/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly curious, given the demographics of MC, why anyone is anti-diversity in the context of this thread. This isn't a red state, this isn't the south. What is going on here? I appreciate and embrace the diversity in my kids' ES.

Because DCUM is not real life. DCUM is out of touch with the real world.
The vast majority of MCPS/MoCo residents are for diversity.
It always the loud minority, right wingers, MAGA who shouted the loudest.
The metal detectors in schools petition should have told you how out of touch DCUM is with the real residents of this county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly curious, given the demographics of MC, why anyone is anti-diversity in the context of this thread. This isn't a red state, this isn't the south. What is going on here? I appreciate and embrace the diversity in my kids' ES.

MoCo is one of the most racially diverse counties in the nation. Our schools are already incredibly diverse. Most people living here prioritize diversity already. So for MCPS to prioritize diversity over other goals in this study (when we already live in one of our nation’s most diverse counties) seems a little nuts.

Yeah, well, they aren't doing that.

I went to the meeting, and I don’t agree with you. There are 4 stated priorities. The first one is demographics, which they define as percent FARMS, percent EML, and percent race/ethnicity. See slide 51.

Where are the slides posted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly curious, given the demographics of MC, why anyone is anti-diversity in the context of this thread. This isn't a red state, this isn't the south. What is going on here? I appreciate and embrace the diversity in my kids' ES.

MoCo is one of the most racially diverse counties in the nation. Our schools are already incredibly diverse. Most people living here prioritize diversity already. So for MCPS to prioritize diversity over other goals in this study (when we already live in one of our nation’s most diverse counties) seems a little nuts.

Yeah, well, they aren't doing that.

I went to the meeting, and I don’t agree with you. There are 4 stated priorities. The first one is demographics, which they define as percent FARMS, percent EML, and percent race/ethnicity. See slide 51.

I also went to the meeting. They said the four factors would be given equal weight, so it's not accurate to say that MCPS is prioritizing diversity over other goals in this study, as stated above. They are prioritizing diversity equally with the other three goals.

Right, but they decided the 4 priority areas at the exclusion of many other considerations .