Superintendent's Recommendation for Richard Montgomery ES #5 Boundaries

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yah, I remember him attending many advisory meetings. I may not agree with his views, but he was at least involved from the start.

I am not from WG, but I know why Mayor and council members pushed to include Alternate A. Mayor lives in B5 and several of her friends in that area didn't want to change schools. Only Alternate A does ensures that entire B5 gets no school change. It also had backing of Mark because it keeps WG in CG. So that made it possible to have Alternate A as an option.

Let's see how much BOE listens to Mayor and Council members here. Many BOE members have expressed concern over CG being 100% and it's a valid concern. In two days, we will know the outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

There are two neighborhoods( Hungerford and NMC) for option E. I don't know anything about outside groups.

Anyway, I think BOE is not going to decide based on what popular. They have duty to consider all factors and then make a call to balance everything as much as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Problem with all those local community support is that it's coming due to unwillingness to change schools. No one wants to change school, but I am not sure if BOE is simply going to do whatever is popular.

[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.

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.

Incorrect.

That area is not deemed walkable because they go thru the major electric towers. It is not considered a neighborhood at that point and is a danger. They would have to be bussed in and Cold Spring does not have busses. The entire school is walkable.

So instead of being bussed 0.7 miles to Cold Spring, they are bussed 0.9 miles to Beverly Farms across the street. Always have been.

Both schools are less than a mile away, both are under 80% capacity and both have less than 3% FARMS. Beverly Farms is a much bigger brand new school. But again, those kids are not walkable. I am less than a mile from my school but not walkable because of a major road.

Still patiently waiting for all of these schools that the BOE moved walkable kids to schools further away. Can you post a list? Thanks. Oh and tell me which ones remove FARMS kids from walking to a school purposely to get bussed a few miles away instead. You know, to even out FARMS rates, right? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Problem with all those local community support is that it's coming due to unwillingness to change schools. No one wants to change school, but I am not sure if BOE is simply going to do whatever is popular.

I think the only showing actual unwillingness is CG3. I do see their pints with Option A and I do think the new numbers that addressed the missed Tower Oaks development increase RM5 in the low 90’s in just 5 years is something to closely consider. We really don’t want another boundary zoning issue in the next 5-10 years.

That said, I understand why some TB, RP, and Beall families are asking not to be moved. They are being moved further and in many cases out on an island alone surrounding by neighbors all going to the local school. RP5 has been screwed from the beginning and now being told if they don’t move further, they are elitists. B5 and 6 with these N and S cut ups for no reason than Hungerford liked them. RP4 going miles away instead of the school across their street. RP5 thinking they are going to walk to a brand new school may have to be the only neighborhood moved and bussed. And of course T 2 and T5 are really the ones with the most to lose. Only 1 from their school and community center and they might be on busses 30min to TWO separate schools they know no one, many who don’t speak their language and FARMS parents struggling to even to be part of a community 5 miles away.

So while I think WG just doesn’t want to move because they like their community and IB, (and not that they are anti-Beall) they raised very valid points with new developments and not pushing everyone down county when that is where 90% of the new housing units are going. I absolutely do not want to go thru this again and my section isn’t even involved. I can’t imagine how stressful this has been. Not to mention how idiotic amCPS and the BOE are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read Schwartz's paper. As has been pointed out on this board repeatedly, the study is not relevant to the situation of the cluster; it is about the placement of public housing. Additionally, poverty ? FARMS, and Schwartz further states, "The differences suggest the shortcoming of the free and reduced-price meal metric as a single indicator of school need." Even if the study were relevant, it did not consider the influence of ESOL. Only 16% of the children living in public housing in the study were Hispanic.

You can say that "the study is not relevant" as many times as you want, that won't make it true. It still gives us a lot of guidance on what are the FARMS levels that offer academic advantages. You think that there were no FARMS kids bused in the study? What difference would it make if you simply bus the FARMS kids to a more affluent school? There would be no advantages because the kids don't live in an integrated neighborhood?

Really? You don’t see a difference in the FARMS kids integrated in Fallsgrove, Town Center, etc.. compared to bussing a section of lower income kids in a few miles away from their own neighborhood school to increase another schools FARMS rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Incorrect.

That area is not deemed walkable because they go thru the major electric towers. It is not considered a neighborhood at that point and is a danger. They would have to be bussed in and Cold Spring does not have busses. The entire school is walkable.

So instead of being bussed 0.7 miles to Cold Spring, they are bussed 0.9 miles to Beverly Farms across the street. Always have been.

Both schools are less than a mile away, both are under 80% capacity and both have less than 3% FARMS. Beverly Farms is a much bigger brand new school. But again, those kids are not walkable. I am less than a mile from my school but not walkable because of a major road.

Still patiently waiting for all of these schools that the BOE moved walkable kids to schools further away. Can you post a list? Thanks. Oh and tell me which ones remove FARMS kids from walking to a school purposely to get bussed a few miles away instead. You know, to even out FARMS rates, right? Thanks!

I am not the poster, but if you underi impression that SES level mix is not in BOE mind then I have a moon to sell you. Just look at all weird boundaries all across MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Problem with all those local community support is that it's coming due to unwillingness to change schools. No one wants to change school, but I am not sure if BOE is simply going to do whatever is popular.

I think the only showing actual unwillingness is CG3. I do see their pints with Option A and I do think the new numbers that addressed the missed Tower Oaks development increase RM5 in the low 90’s in just 5 years is something to closely consider. We really don’t want another boundary zoning issue in the next 5-10 years.

CG3 is surely the most vocal here and has the least ground for not moving. BOE may not care about IB access for CG3. CG also has 80+ townhouses coming in the area and housing turnover was in mind of few BOE members. I don't think that leaving CG at 100% is a good argument to make when CG can't be expanded. I have understood that Beall can be expanded, but CG can't be expanded. Listening to all the testimony of all schools, I don't think that BOE will leave CG at 100. Just my hunch here.

RM#5 will have lots of room for the next 5 years. Tower oaks will make RM#5 at 100% in 6-8 years only in option E. In other option , it won't be 100%. To avoid RM getting closer to 100, I think BOE should move less kids from Beall to RM#5. I think Hunger ford or anyone proposing any idea is irrelevant. If idea has merit then BOE should take it otherwise drop it. They didn't have any data and simply gave input because one of the BOE member asked them. It was during Mayor+BOE meeting.

I will take CG3 in Beall to not have CG 100%. Then I will move portion of B5 or B6 to RM#5 rather than moving the entire B5 to keep room in RM#5. May be just move B6S because it has 50-60 kids. I don't care much about RP5 vs RP2/6 , because both have similar numbers of kids. Also, when you move all houses in your streets and streets around , I don't really get this concern about losing friends. Kids make friends quickly anyway. MCPS should have anyway made those polygons smaller to start with.

Twinbrook is still over 100, but it looks like no TB zone will be moved. TB should be renovated for sure. I visited it and it's very old. I don't have any dog in this fight here, because I am in Beall in all options. I will put capacity as top of my concern and like to see no portables in any RM schools in coming years. I am sure that after 10 years, we will be having portables, but let's not have it for the next 10 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
That area is not deemed walkable because they go thru the major electric towers. It is not considered a neighborhood at that point and is a danger.

I bike with my kids all the time to go to the park and it's perfectly safe. Electric wires are not blocking anyone there. You should take a walk there some time. Some parents were even paranoid about having electric wires behind schools. I don't think it's an issue at all.

I don't think that busing kids to BF had anything to do with FARMs. I anyway prefer going to BF than CS. CS has so few kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You don’t see a difference in the FARMS kids integrated in Fallsgrove, Town Center, etc.. compared to bussing a section of lower income kids in a few miles away from their own neighborhood school to increase another schools FARMS rate?

Not the same PP, but I will chime in here. I finally read the entire research quoted here.

Research done in MCPS had many FARMs students taking bus and many walking. So that's a non-issue. Only thing it showed that their reading and math scores got better each year in affluent schools with less than 20% FARMs.

If you are saying that it's better to walk and still have 20% FARMs then no one will argue. Off course that will be better. Here , BOE has to make choice between RP2 taking bus or walk.

It takes 15-20 minutes of walk from RP2 to RM#5 if you have a young kid with you. I will personally walk than take bus, but that just me. Many parents don't want to walk 30-40 minutes round trip. I don't have any idea about preference of RP2 parents. RP2 is not 0.1-0.2 miles walk and many of us need to be careful in assuming that it's a very short walk. I actually went and tried to walk one day after all debate here. Current time of bus ride is 15 minutes or less from all stops in RP2. So BOE has all data and hopefully they also got many inputs from RP2 families. I didn't hear many voices from that zone to be honest. Other zones are just talking about them for their own benefits to support whatever outcome they want to see.

I will always walk even if it's 1-1.5 miles, but that's just me. My kid has ADHD and he does much better with walk.

[Anonymous]

You guys are wasting time to debate finer points here.

Mark Pierzchala is going to protect WG neighborhood. He already asked residents to rally for protecting neighborhoods.

Everyone should listen to him and keep neighborhoods together to protect it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys are wasting time to debate finer points here.

Mark Pierzchala is going to protect WG neighborhood. He already asked residents to rally for protecting neighborhoods.

Everyone should listen to him and keep neighborhoods together to protect it.

Bunch of baloney. Neighborhood talk was just a talk used by racists 50 years back. Now the same crap is used by many to have economic segregation.

[Anonymous]

When is the decision made again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When is the decision made again?

I think on Monday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When is the decision made again?

Monday night at 6 p.m. You can go to the BoE to watch (no public comments), or watch via livestream online.