MCPS BOE petition re: making student demographics the primary factor in redistricting decisions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Check out the beautiful "garden apartments" at Scotland.

I wonder how much you know about the history of Scotland.

I think that PP was being sarcastic.

I think that PP doesn't know much about the buildings at Scotland and why they're there.

[Anonymous]

The world will end by the end of century due to climate change so why are we bothering with educating the masses? Who even cares?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Forest Oak MS is completely surrounded by a neighborhood that is bused to another MS and all the students that attend Forest Oak are bused in. There are 3 middle schools in close proximity along Midcounty/Watkins Mill, plus two others that feed three high schools that end up with a full demographic range of students. If the BOE is willing to look broadly at those three clusters, I'm sure something with more even diversity and fewer long bus rides could be worked out.

Forest Oak MS: 57% FARMs, 74% ever FARMs, 6% Asian, 26% black, 54% Hispanic, 10% white
Montgomery Village MS: 67% FARMs, 85% ever FARMs, 7% Asian, 33% black, 53% Hispanic, <5% white
Gaithersburg MS (which, famously, includes kids who take the bus from Laytonsville): 47% FARMs, 63% ever FARMs, 7% Asian, 21% black, 49% Hispanic, 19% white

plus

Shady Grove MS: 43% FARMs, 59% ever FARMs, 11% Asian, 21% black, 42% Hispanic, 22% white

and I don't know what the second other middle school is that you had in mind.

Arguably you could rezone so that Forest Oak MS could have lots of poor kids who walk, rather than lots of poor kids who arrive by bus. But I don't think there's any way to rezone Forest Oak MS so that there are more kids who walk AND it's a lower-poverty school.

I think that part of what has been missed in all the broohahah over the wording change is that there is a serious need to redistrict in order to balance enrollments, and if you balance enrollment and improve walkability, you don't want to decrease diversity.

The other middle school I was thinking of was Neelsville, which has split articulation.
http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/NeelsvilleMS.pdf

And I realized that I forgot to include Redland MS.
http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/RedlandMS.pdf

Here are the maps for the other middle schools.
http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/ForestOakMS.pdf
http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/GaithersburgMS.pdf
http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/MontgomeryVillageMS.pdf
http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/ShadyGroveMS.pdf
Some of those boundaries look semi-reasonable based on original neighborhoods, and some are a hodge-podge trying to pair up more newly built higher and lower SES neighborhoods into newer schools. It's easy to see that there could be improved walkability and less busing at the MS level, but diversity and capacity impacts are greater at the HS level.

Gaithersburg 40% FARMs, 70% ever FARMs, 8% Asian, 24% black, 50% Hispanic, 15% white (currently at capacity but projected to be over enrolled by 300 in 5 years)
Watkins Mill 50% FARMs, 79% ever FARMs, 8% Asian, 30% black, 50% Hispanic, 7% white (currently under-enrolled by 200)
Magruder 33% FARMs, 55% ever FARMs, 12% Asian, 18% black, 39% Hispanic, 26% white (currently under-enrolled by 350)

To solve capacity issues, we could shift population from Gaithersburg to Watkins Mill and Magruder, and could likely be strategic about which neighborhoods to balance out diversity too. But wait - Rockville HS cluster borders Magruder and Rockville is projected to be over capacity, maybe there is a better neighborhood to shift away from Rockville to Magruder instead. Oh, let's not forget about Crown HS - it could pull from Wooton, RM, Gaithersburg, and QO, and that could have a ripple effect.

The county has to take a step back and look at all of the school boundaries across the whole county. The pace of development (and patchiness of it) in the past 20 years has vastly outraced any sort of sensibility that may have previously existed in the out-dated cluster model. I think the most important effect of emphasizing diversity in the new policy is to ensure that we don't increase SES isolation, while trying to solve capacity problems and improve geographic considerations. People are also very concerned about boundary changes, but I don't think that is the only way to shift student population around. Expansion of consortia models or choice programs may be one way to move students between schools. There could also be a prioritized COSA process for people who want to attend an under-enrolled school. I'm sure other people can brainstorm other ideas.

It's time to stop being reactive and just resistant to change. This is not a simple problem to solve, but there are a lot of very creative people in the county who I'm sure can find creative solutions. We need to start working on those now, so that when the board begins to tackle redistricting in different areas, we have something constructive to contribute.