Superintendent's Recommendation for Richard Montgomery ES #5 Boundaries

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you think the students at TBES haven't received good education? They have small classes comparing to non title one school, they have dedicated teachers and pronciples, and they have very supprtive PTA . Are you sure the FARM and ESOL would receive same level of support?

TBES students received a good education? Why do you think the school is rated as 2/10? Read the school progress report here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, actually. It has been mentioned on this board before. There are families in RP2 without cars and a few parents who DO have cars volunteer to drive these parents to school events. Otherwise, they cannot participate in school meetings, events, etc. The PTA is even considering following the lead of Jones Lane and implementing the Lyft program to help these families.

And you think participation in school meetings and events is more important than getting a better education? You must be kidding me.

Keeping the families involved in conferences, volunteering, education update meetings, family school functions, indeed gives the child a better education. You aren’t that naive. Are you kidding me?

We aren’t talking 80% FARMS to 10%. We are talking less than 7% difference to walk or not? Come on now.

You are on some strange agenda - complete outsider of the cluster thinking you know best.

Parents can go to as many the school activities they want, but staying engaged at home is the most important. We are not talking a difference from 0% to 8% or 14%. We are talking about a difference from 24% to 32% or 38%, exactly at the border of being efficient to not being efficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many outside parties are watching this development closely to see what direction MCPS takes here.

A neighborhood argument goes hand in hand with segregation.

MCPS can either integrate more, leave it unchanged or make it more segregated.

MCPS always goes for integration whenever possible. They have stated goal to bridge the achievement gaps and one tool in their hand is to provide the best conditions for FARMs students as long as no one faces hardship.

Which is C, D, and E options. All hardships for RP5 FARMS, T2 FARMS, T5 FARMS, RP2 FARMS, and B5 FARMS

Let's face it, RP5 FARMS face hardship in all alternatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you think the students at TBES haven't received good education? They have small classes comparing to non title one school, they have dedicated teachers and pronciples, and they have very supprtive PTA . Are you sure the FARM and ESOL would receive same level of support?

TBES students received a good education? Why do you think the school is rated as 2/10? Read the school progress report here.

Why do you think it’s a 2? It’s not. It’s rated a 4. They puts it in the middle of the pack for maryland

[Anonymous]

Yes, actually. It has been mentioned on this board before. There are families in RP2 without cars and a few parents who DO have cars volunteer to drive these parents to school events. Otherwise, they cannot participate in school meetings, events, etc. The PTA is even considering following the lead of Jones Lane and implementing the Lyft program to help these families.

What PTA is considering this? The SAHMs in HH don't want RP2 FARMs parents at their PTA meeting.

[Anonymous]

Walking or taking a bus has no impact on bridging the achievement gaps.

Providing FARMS kids a school with less poverty does have an impact on achievements.

RP shouldn't be made a haven for rich folks here. It's a part of RM cluster. MCPS should continue using RP to provide good environment for FARMs kids .

There are lots of schools where kids take bus to another school rather than walking as long as MCPS sees fit. MCPS needs to focus on bridging the achievement gaps and not take this protecting neighborhood of Woodley garden seriously. Woodley Garden doesn't need any protection and Beall has a bit higher FARMs, but WG will be fine even in Beall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Walking or taking a bus has no impact on bridging the achievement gaps.

Providing FARMS kids a school with less poverty does have an impact on achievements.

RP shouldn't be made a haven for rich folks here. It's a part of RM cluster. MCPS should continue using RP to provide good environment for FARMs kids .

There are lots of schools where kids take bus to another school rather than walking as long as MCPS sees fit. MCPS needs to focus on bridging the achievement gaps and not take this protecting neighborhood of Woodley garden seriously. Woodley Garden doesn't need any protection and Beall has a bit higher FARMs, but WG will be fine even in Beall.

No mention of twinbrook and their 70% farms ? Or other clusters with much lower farms? So you are advocating busing children from the W schools and BCC to Gaithersburg to lower acheviement gaps ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walking or taking a bus has no impact on bridging the achievement gaps.

Providing FARMS kids a school with less poverty does have an impact on achievements.

RP shouldn't be made a haven for rich folks here. It's a part of RM cluster. MCPS should continue using RP to provide good environment for FARMs kids .

There are lots of schools where kids take bus to another school rather than walking as long as MCPS sees fit. MCPS needs to focus on bridging the achievement gaps and not take this protecting neighborhood of Woodley garden seriously. Woodley Garden doesn't need any protection and Beall has a bit higher FARMs, but WG will be fine even in Beall.

No mention of twinbrook and their 70% farms ? Or other clusters with much lower farms? So you are advocating busing children from the W schools and BCC to Gaithersburg to lower acheviement gaps ?

This is called reductio ad absurdum fallacy. Read about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Walking or taking a bus has no impact on bridging the achievement gaps.

Providing FARMS kids a school with less poverty does have an impact on achievements.

RP shouldn't be made a haven for rich folks here. It's a part of RM cluster. MCPS should continue using RP to provide good environment for FARMs kids .

There are lots of schools where kids take bus to another school rather than walking as long as MCPS sees fit. MCPS needs to focus on bridging the achievement gaps and not take this protecting neighborhood of Woodley garden seriously. Woodley Garden doesn't need any protection and Beall has a bit higher FARMs, but WG will be fine even in Beall.

Oddly specific in attempt to point out RP and by inference an option (not really about farms or you would be also looking at the other boundary studies occurring in Maryland) pretty clear which neighborhood this poster is advocating for......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you think the students at TBES haven't received good education? They have small classes comparing to non title one school, they have dedicated teachers and pronciples, and they have very supprtive PTA . Are you sure the FARM and ESOL would receive same level of support?

TBES students received a good education? Why do you think the school is rated as 2/10? Read the school progress report here.

Why do you think it’s a 2? It’s not. It’s rated a 4. They puts it in the middle of the pack for maryland

You are right, it is a 4/10 now. Last year was 2/10. We don't know what the rating is going to have next year. School Digger has it at 523/850. It might be in the middle of the pack in Maryland, but it is at the end of the pack in Montgomery County. With all the small classes and special programs, it is still not a well-performing school. Just look at the progress report.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walking or taking a bus has no impact on bridging the achievement gaps.

Providing FARMS kids a school with less poverty does have an impact on achievements.

RP shouldn't be made a haven for rich folks here. It's a part of RM cluster. MCPS should continue using RP to provide good environment for FARMs kids .

There are lots of schools where kids take bus to another school rather than walking as long as MCPS sees fit. MCPS needs to focus on bridging the achievement gaps and not take this protecting neighborhood of Woodley garden seriously. Woodley Garden doesn't need any protection and Beall has a bit higher FARMs, but WG will be fine even in Beall.

Oddly specific in attempt to point out RP and by inference an option (not really about farms or you would be also looking at the other boundary studies occurring in Maryland) pretty clear which neighborhood this poster is advocating for......

Not sure what neighborhood the poster is advocating for. Is it RP2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Stop # 3 TRAILRIDGE DR AND BENTRIDGE AVE - Buses kids to Beverly Farms elementary.



Walking distance to Cold Spring is 0.5 miles.

Rich kids taking bus even if they have to walk only 0.5 miles is fine.

FARMs kids taking bus to avoid walking 0.7 - 0.9 miles is not fine.


MCPS doesn't bus anyone if you can walk is an absurd assumption.

There are many examples of this. Walking 0.9 miles is much harder than 0.5 miles when you take account of conditions of these two walk paths and yet argument is pushed for walking citing that MCPS doesn't have anyone in bus when they can walk. Point to note is that RP2 is not really 0.1 miles from Rm#5. That would be a different case.

MCPS does may things for various reasons to strike a balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, actually. It has been mentioned on this board before. There are families in RP2 without cars and a few parents who DO have cars volunteer to drive these parents to school events. Otherwise, they cannot participate in school meetings, events, etc. The PTA is even considering following the lead of Jones Lane and implementing the Lyft program to help these families.

What PTA is considering this? The SAHMs in HH don't want RP2 FARMs parents at their PTA meeting.

Not even true. There are not so many HH SAHMs we live in HH... no SAHM. At bus stops, many families have two working parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, actually. It has been mentioned on this board before. There are families in RP2 without cars and a few parents who DO have cars volunteer to drive these parents to school events. Otherwise, they cannot participate in school meetings, events, etc. The PTA is even considering following the lead of Jones Lane and implementing the Lyft program to help these families.

What PTA is considering this? The SAHMs in HH don't want RP2 FARMs parents at their PTA meeting.

What are you even talking about? SAHMs do not make up the majority of families in HH or in the PTA. The president of the PTA is a single mother who lives in RP5. The PTA meetings which you obviously do not attend regularly are attended by people from all of our neighborhoods, there is no one neighborhood who is in charge. Furthermore there are many working dads on the board (the board is comprised mainly of working dads). I live in HH and I do not usually see a lot of HH residents at meetings (although they are involved many do not attend PTA meetings.)

Shame on you for lying and spreading mistruths due to your own prejudices and insecurities. Perhaps if you were more involved you would actually see what happens at PTA meetings. Do not use an important boundary discussion to spread idiotic lies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: MCPS BOE members also need to read everything. That way they can focus on narrowing the achievement gaps.

So in D

What about the 400+ kids who remain at Twinbrook in a school with identified infrastructure needs that will still be over 50% FARMS. The remaining kids loose Title I funding and the after and summer care that provides. Where are the studies for those kids?

Also, what about the 100+ kids that will be bused into Twinbrook from the towncenter and other areas east of the pike. Those kids go from a school with a rate of 25% to one of 50%. How will they be affected?

FARMs kids have an out sized impact on them . Non-FARMs kids don't have the same impact. We won't worry about non-FARMs kids here when it comes to performance, but we will still not want them to travel too much extra. I don't think that TB is that far from the Town center. I am looking at MCPS estimated travel time right now. B5 is 12 minutes for current school. TB for B5 zone will be 15 minutes. Not a huge increase.

Yes, D does leave TB with 50% FARMs and it's not ideal. We already saw that C takes it to a bit lower level , but causes too much hardship in terms of travel times. So C is not a viable option. D is viable, and the best option. MCPS doesn't think that TB will be without support at 50%.

If you are talking about D still not solving everything, then yes it doesn't solve everything, but it does the best job. You got to take whatever best you can get.

E is not really helping with narrowing the achievement gaps, but keeping it the same.

A and B are simply widening the achievement gaps by pulling RP2 kids out of an affluent school. We saw many speakers supporting A or B. That will be taking a back step by MCPS. MCPS needs to move forward and not backward. Support for A or B is coming due to various reasons and MCPS needs to decide where it wants t

Won't Twinbrook lose title I in C and D. The federally provided funds for before and aftercare as well as free or subsidized summer programs in the Twinbrrook community won't be lost? MCPS does not provide this support for Focus schools.

Those questions do worry us and we want to make sure that we don't put TB at disadvantage. We are not likely to support C anyway because it's adding lots of extra commute for lots of kids. You have to strike some balance. D looks a good option. Some more clarification from MCPS is needed, but based on initial feedback, it looked a good option. We totally oppose A and B because neighborhood argument is simply a code word for keeping community segregated and A/B is simply a neighborhood argument. We neither support or oppose E. E just keeps the current status when it comes to achievement gaps.

How exactly do YOU plan to make sure that you do not put the Twinbrook community at a disadvantage? Their residents have repeatedly said that they WILL be at a disadvantage if they have to be bused farther away from their homes. Will YOU pay for before and after care at the more expensive options that they will be forced to use?

You seem to have very strong opinions about the options. I did not hear ONE person advocate for option C or D at the hearings. Why didn't you testify if YOU have all of these opinions and want to throw your support around certain options. Perhaps you should have supported a renovation for Twinbrook. Have you done that?