Superintendent's Recommendation for Richard Montgomery ES #5 Boundaries

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Wow PP. You are losing it. Same posts over and over. We get it non-cluster mom with too much time on her hands. Calm down step away from the screen. Try and be a normal person for a few minutes. Deep breaths.

[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......

Agree. Trying to be a troll when they are looking out for their own equity, oh I mean well being. Hi Hungerford mom trying to act like she cares. OptionE gives them them a school with a farms rate on the teens. So tempting! Lol.

[Anonymous]

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.

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.

Stop feeding the HCA troll

[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.

Please post all the MCPS elementary schools that bus walkable kids to a further school “as MCPS sees fit.” The BOE couldn’t come up with one. So I am curious of your list. Patiently waiting....

[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.

Please post all the MCPS elementary schools that bus walkable kids to a further school “as MCPS sees fit.” The BOE couldn’t come up with one. So I am curious of your list. Patiently waiting....

Your don't have to patibly wait for anyone. Some one posted in this thread itself. Here is one example in nearby neighborhood.


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


Walking distance to Cold Spring is 0.5 miles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Testimony is jut one way to collect input and not even the most effective one due to time limitations. Why are you assuming that no one has asked for TB renovation?

[Anonymous]

Woodley Gardens has support of Mark Pierzchala. He already showed that he can get lots of older folks to testify to avoid having CG going to Beall. People like Mark Pierzchala are champions who will keep neighborhoods safe. Let's keep neighborhoods together and safe.

[Anonymous]

De facto segregation threatens Montgomery public schools

If administrators seriously want to help their low-income and minority students, they can’t continue to ghettoize them in a handful of schools. Otherwise, MCPS will become a two-tier system, with a small group of highly-ranked, predominantly white and affluent schools, and another group of lower-ranked, predominantly poor and minority schools.

https://ggwash.org/view/31601/de-facto-segregation-threatens-montgomery-public-schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Woodley Gardens has support of Mark Pierzchala. He already showed that he can get lots of older folks to testify to avoid having CG going to Beall. People like Mark Pierzchala are champions who will keep neighborhoods safe. Let's keep neighborhoods together and safe.

Mark made a mistake and it will bite him one way or another.

Ironically he did not help the WG cause.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Woodley Gardens has support of Mark Pierzchala. He already showed that he can get lots of older folks to testify to avoid having CG going to Beall. People like Mark Pierzchala are champions who will keep neighborhoods safe. Let's keep neighborhoods together and safe.

Mark made a mistake and it will bite him one way or another.

Ironically he did not help the WG cause.

But you need to applaud his efforts to protect WG. Not sure what protection means here, but he used those words.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Woodley Gardens has support of Mark Pierzchala. He already showed that he can get lots of older folks to testify to avoid having CG going to Beall. People like Mark Pierzchala are champions who will keep neighborhoods safe. Let's keep neighborhoods together and safe.

Mark made a mistake and it will bite him one way or another.

Ironically he did not help the WG cause.

Agree here. His unethical use of official position has come under fire. BOE was not likely to leave WG in CG due to being 100%. With all this , BOE is even less likely to keep WG in CG. He could have done things differently to help WG cause.

[Anonymous]

At least two council members in Rockville are furious at his behavior.

Mayor does live in B5 and she may have supported Mark to avoid B5 changing schools. But Mayor didn't sent any rally call.

Mark's attempt to trivialize FARMs number has also raised many eyebrows.

His attempt is simply going to hurt any chance of WG remaining in CG. Chance would have been higher without his involvement. Hopefully, WG remains in CG even though I am being selfish here due to IB for my younger one.

[Anonymous]

Office of Legislative Oversight had produced a good report describing achievement gaps. An interesting read,

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/olo/resources/files/olo%20report%202014-7%20final.pdf

It's not for elementary schools, but for high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At least two council members in Rockville are furious at his behavior.

Mayor does live in B5 and she may have supported Mark to avoid B5 changing schools. But Mayor didn't sent any rally call.

Mark's attempt to trivialize FARMs number has also raised many eyebrows.

His attempt is simply going to hurt any chance of WG remaining in CG. Chance would have been higher without his involvement. Hopefully, WG remains in CG even though I am being selfish here due to IB for my younger one.

I wish the other councilmembers would make their voices heard. I have respect for Mark actually stating his opinion. He has been the only councilmember who actually seems to care about this issue. He has attended all of the boundary committee meetings and I have seen him at most of the BOE sessions. I can't say the same for the other councilmembers.

The mayor and council inserted themselves when they proposed that the BOE should consider including option 6 (Alternative A) for further exploration and discussion. It would be nice to know what their thoughts are on this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Woodley Gardens has support of Mark Pierzchala. He already showed that he can get lots of older folks to testify to avoid having CG going to Beall. People like Mark Pierzchala are champions who will keep neighborhoods safe. Let's keep neighborhoods together and safe.

Mark made a mistake and it will bite him one way or another.

Ironically he did not help the WG cause.

Doubt it, Mark and option A have a lot of local community support. There is one neighborhood and outside groups that are pushing option E.