Initial boundary options for Crown/Damascus study

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given the current financial environment/MCPS budget, I think they are going to prioritize the option that is the best for facility utilization.

Maybe they need to make walkers go to their HS within 2 miles instead of busing them past 1-3 HS to change around some FARMS numbers. It’s expensive and wasteful and it’s takes the neighborhood feel out for schools. Split MS is also a terrible idea. The maps are so messed up looking

Well said.... What a shame to bus walkers who live across the street from QO to go to Gaithersburg (or even Crowne)? We can literally hear the announcer at football games on Friday nights from my house... so much so that my 3 year old can't fall asleep. And you want to bus us away from this?? So frustrating!! Do better MCPS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After a few clicks, I see that we are zoned for RM now, and under no option is that changing. Being in walk zone that makes sense. So, my only responsibility is to pop some popcorn and season it right and watch the school board members try to out-woke each other for the next 6 months changing up the school zones. I cant wait to hear the feedback on Woodward-3. To be honest even some of the RM options are islanding and nonsensical. But I dont have a dog in this hunt.

Same here. I have a student in RM now and the school is totally overcrowded, none of the options really address that. IMHO splitting Ritchie Park makes the most sense for RM cluster (Options 2 and 4).
On a separate note, it is impossible to actually believe MCPS tables, when you look at utilization and and other percentages in HS impact tables, RM has exactly the same numbers of students and utilization percentages as Gaithersburg HS, despite being different sizes. Something is off there. As a veteran of Bayard Rustin study, in my experience MCPS numbers/tables are only correct or look at right data about only half of the time.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My bad, i read the table wrong. Yes, the numbers are all about the same.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 1&3: Churchill Asian increased from 33% to 37%, FARMS decreased from 10.9% to 9.9%. Wootton Asian increased from 37.4% to 43.2% and FARMS decreased from 13.4% to 11.9%.

I'm pretty sure the current options will exacerbate educational inequality, but I amsatisfied. I wonder can we reduce the FARMS to 5% or even lower for Churchill?

Are we looking at different data set? For all 4 options, Churchill Asian decrease from 37% to34.7% and farm from 9.9% to 9.8%.

So why even mess with Wootton families and force them to move out to QO and crown? There are only losers and the ones being moved out are the relatively poorer ones. Financial hit on them will be devastating. What’s even worse is that their kids will have to be separated from their friends. This kind of double whammy is too much.

Every school is going to experience change when a new school opens. They are not going to leave Wootton and Churchill as is in a boundary study. Can you imagine the backlash? And at least for Wootton there are definitely neighborhoods in the Wootton cluster close to Crown, some even walking distance like part of Fallsmead's boundary. And DuFief area is nowhere near Wootton. Ridgeview or Lakelands Park and QO makes much more sense for DuFief.

Every option has at least two Wootton elementary school impacted. What’s even worse in option 2 and 4 are small neighborhoods in both Lakewood and stone mill gets split. Who has empathy on these few kids who will have to be separated from their friends since 5 to a new high school with nobody else???

Kids are resilient. They will make new friends, especially when they are younger.

No my kids are not resilient. I hope your kids get the same change and be resilient

They have. My one kid moved ES 2x. They are now in college, at an oos internship making good money.

Moving in ES is totally different from being forced to move in HS. If you don’t wear my shoes, then don’t tell me kids are resilient

My kid also went to a different MS. But, there are kids today who go to a different HS due to split articulation from MS. They are fine.

Kids are resilient if you teach them to be. They won't be resilient if you push the "your world is going to fall apart" attitude onto your kids.

If it’s split 50/50 or close to that it’s fine. Now it’s the 5-10% gets split out. You can keep talking your kids are resilient crap but have some empathy on these kids.

Sure, I can have empathy, but it doesn't change the fact that the boundaries need to address the four factors, and split articulation is not one of them.

We currently have weird boundaries where we have islands, and everyone agrees that such boundaries make no sense. Those options that have the least split articulation continue to have islands. Those options also don't address capacity issues for some of the MS in the long run.

So, while I sympathize with the kids about their friend groups, when creating boundaries, friend groups aren't part of the factor.

Having stated that, who knows.. for some of the kids, maybe going to a different HS is a positive.

One could argue that split articulation is covered under stability of assignments. Creating complex and complicated maps that split and return or resplit student groups makes it significantly more complicated to address future boundary issues on a smaller scope, since it would make them much more likely to cascase.

Here's MCPS definition of "stability of assignment"

MCPS attempts to minimize the number of times the same student(s) are impacted by reassignments leading to changing schools during their time in a particular school level.

The policy states:
“student reassignments should consider recent boundary or geographic student choice assignment plan changes, and/or school closings and consolidations that may have affected the same students.”

The way I read it, stability of assignment has to do with being reassigned more than once for boundary changes and/or school choice (special programs) changes "during their time in a particular school level", for example, during their time in ES. I don't read that as split articulation.

[Anonymous]

Ate property values really going to change or are people just being dramatic? That development of fancy townhomes being built right behind Crown showed them as being zoned to Wootton in the listings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given the current financial environment/MCPS budget, I think they are going to prioritize the option that is the best for facility utilization.

Maybe they need to make walkers go to their HS within 2 miles instead of busing them past 1-3 HS to change around some FARMS numbers. It’s expensive and wasteful and it’s takes the neighborhood feel out for schools. Split MS is also a terrible idea. The maps are so messed up looking

Well said.... What a shame to bus walkers who live across the street from QO to go to Gaithersburg (or even Crowne)? We can literally hear the announcer at football games on Friday nights from my house... so much so that my 3 year old can't fall asleep. And you want to bus us away from this?? So frustrating!! Do better MCPS!

eh..I can hear the Friday night games at Wootton very clearly, but we are zoned for RM. We are also walking distance to Wootton, but none of the options have our neighborhood going back to Wootton.

Unfortunately, some of the HS are so close together that some neighborhoods will end up going to the school further away. Woodward and WJ are super close together, too, and they will have the same issues.

[Anonymous]

Stonemill passes Frost and Hoover to go to cabin John then to Crown.

None of these possibilities make sense
QO to Gaithersburg when they can walk now what idiot thought that was cost effective

Dufief being moved is about the only move that sort of makes sense . They should have always gone up to. QO

Popcorn time the racists are out in Next Door about this and it’s ugly

My kids are grown guess it’s time to move . Shame I love MOCO but this is just absurd. Like no one did a cost analysis of busing .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After a few clicks, I see that we are zoned for RM now, and under no option is that changing. Being in walk zone that makes sense. So, my only responsibility is to pop some popcorn and season it right and watch the school board members try to out-woke each other for the next 6 months changing up the school zones. I cant wait to hear the feedback on Woodward-3. To be honest even some of the RM options are islanding and nonsensical. But I dont have a dog in this hunt.

Same here. I have a student in RM now and the school is totally overcrowded, none of the options really address that. IMHO splitting Ritchie Park makes the most sense for RM cluster (Options 2 and 4).
On a separate note, it is impossible to actually believe MCPS tables, when you look at utilization and and other percentages in HS impact tables, RM has exactly the same numbers of students and utilization percentages as Gaithersburg HS, despite being different sizes. Something is off there. As a veteran of Bayard Rustin study, in my experience MCPS numbers/tables are only correct or look at right data about only half of the time.

haha.. yea, I remember during the Bayard Rustin boundary study, they had to redo the numbers AFTER they put out the options because they forgot to include a new development in the numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After a few clicks, I see that we are zoned for RM now, and under no option is that changing. Being in walk zone that makes sense. So, my only responsibility is to pop some popcorn and season it right and watch the school board members try to out-woke each other for the next 6 months changing up the school zones. I cant wait to hear the feedback on Woodward-3. To be honest even some of the RM options are islanding and nonsensical. But I dont have a dog in this hunt.

Same here. I have a student in RM now and the school is totally overcrowded, none of the options really address that. IMHO splitting Ritchie Park makes the most sense for RM cluster (Options 2 and 4).
On a separate note, it is impossible to actually believe MCPS tables, when you look at utilization and and other percentages in HS impact tables, RM has exactly the same numbers of students and utilization percentages as Gaithersburg HS, despite being different sizes. Something is off there. As a veteran of Bayard Rustin study, in my experience MCPS numbers/tables are only correct or look at right data about only half of the time.

A fellow RMHS #5 / BRES study veteran. We are right on the border, older kid went to another one and younger ones to BRES. That study process proved to me one thing: they do whatever they frickin' want. Same with the naming process. They do what they frickin' want. Geography is a lot with me, not race or FARMS. Just being able to walk to a place is huge.

Honestly reworking schools makes sense, but they kind of need to go all the way to the ES level and build it up from the bottom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given the current financial environment/MCPS budget, I think they are going to prioritize the option that is the best for facility utilization.

Maybe they need to make walkers go to their HS within 2 miles instead of busing them past 1-3 HS to change around some FARMS numbers. It’s expensive and wasteful and it’s takes the neighborhood feel out for schools. Split MS is also a terrible idea. The maps are so messed up looking

Well said.... What a shame to bus walkers who live across the street from QO to go to Gaithersburg (or even Crowne)? We can literally hear the announcer at football games on Friday nights from my house... so much so that my 3 year old can't fall asleep. And you want to bus us away from this?? So frustrating!! Do better MCPS!

eh..I can hear the Friday night games at Wootton very clearly, but we are zoned for RM. We are also walking distance to Wootton, but none of the options have our neighborhood going back to Wootton.

Unfortunately, some of the HS are so close together that some neighborhoods will end up going to the school further away. Woodward and WJ are super close together, too, and they will have the same issues.

yeah i've always wondered why horizon hills is set off like that, its kind of an outlier

[Anonymous]

brightwood wrote:

moving kentlands to gaithersburg wouldnt rebalance farms. literally everyone in the neighborhood would either move or go private.

Moving Kentlands/Lakelands to G'burg makes zero sense. The kids would be passing up three high schools (NW, QOHS, and Crown) that are closer to go to a high school across town. Every kid would need to be bused. And yes, many would probably move or go private. It would destroy that neighborhood's property values. Given that they are (supposedly) taking public feedback into account, my hunch is that this option was thrown out there for people to vote against, then MCPS could say that they tried to balance things demographically/socioeconomically and people voted against it. No way are they going to send Kentlands to G'burg.

It’s possible all these options were put out there to troll us…each one is pretty bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Option 4
Gaithersburg HS’s FARM rate increases from 53.7% to 57.5%
And it put Crown HS to the highest FARM rate of 45.6%, other 3 options are lower.

How are you seeing these changes? What do Option 2 FARMs rates look like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After a few clicks, I see that we are zoned for RM now, and under no option is that changing. Being in walk zone that makes sense. So, my only responsibility is to pop some popcorn and season it right and watch the school board members try to out-woke each other for the next 6 months changing up the school zones. I cant wait to hear the feedback on Woodward-3. To be honest even some of the RM options are islanding and nonsensical. But I dont have a dog in this hunt.

Same here. I have a student in RM now and the school is totally overcrowded, none of the options really address that. IMHO splitting Ritchie Park makes the most sense for RM cluster (Options 2 and 4).
On a separate note, it is impossible to actually believe MCPS tables, when you look at utilization and and other percentages in HS impact tables, RM has exactly the same numbers of students and utilization percentages as Gaithersburg HS, despite being different sizes. Something is off there. As a veteran of Bayard Rustin study, in my experience MCPS numbers/tables are only correct or look at right data about only half of the time.

.Your opinion is pretty terrible. Splitting Ritchie Park is absolutely the worst, especially Option 2! The school doesn't even have 400 kids. It's like 60 per grade. When you split it, the southern portion probably has about half the students, so, 30 per grade. You take those 30 kids and put them in Cabin John MS, where they only know the 60 kids from the older grades that came in from RPES. SO they don't even know 10% of their schoolmates. Then they get to know them over a couple years only to be moved out again as a group of 30 to RM, where they join the rest of the current cluster that has a close-knit relationship with each other. In that group of 2000, they only know 120 of the kids, 6%!

The cabin john assignment of option 2 for RPES will lead to the exclusion of RPES-boundary students from many community activities and clubs that were already formed from neighborhood kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All four options have QO likely becoming a better performing school.

As someone currently zoned for QO who’d remain at QO under any of these options, I agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ate property values really going to change or are people just being dramatic? That development of fancy townhomes being built right behind Crown showed them as being zoned to Wootton in the listings.

Yes. You can chart the school zones by property values. Schools are a major reason why people will pay more. It’s silly to think they wouldn’t change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After a few clicks, I see that we are zoned for RM now, and under no option is that changing. Being in walk zone that makes sense. So, my only responsibility is to pop some popcorn and season it right and watch the school board members try to out-woke each other for the next 6 months changing up the school zones. I cant wait to hear the feedback on Woodward-3. To be honest even some of the RM options are islanding and nonsensical. But I dont have a dog in this hunt.

Same here. I have a student in RM now and the school is totally overcrowded, none of the options really address that. IMHO splitting Ritchie Park makes the most sense for RM cluster (Options 2 and 4).
On a separate note, it is impossible to actually believe MCPS tables, when you look at utilization and and other percentages in HS impact tables, RM has exactly the same numbers of students and utilization percentages as Gaithersburg HS, despite being different sizes. Something is off there. As a veteran of Bayard Rustin study, in my experience MCPS numbers/tables are only correct or look at right data about only half of the time.

A fellow RMHS #5 / BRES study veteran. We are right on the border, older kid went to another one and younger ones to BRES. That study process proved to me one thing: they do whatever they frickin' want. Same with the naming process. They do what they frickin' want. Geography is a lot with me, not race or FARMS. Just being able to walk to a place is huge.

Honestly reworking schools makes sense, but they kind of need to go all the way to the ES level and build it up from the bottom.

*this* ALL boundary studies should be re-drawing elementary schools to have better geographic and demographic factors and then the middle and high school articulation is much more straighforward. For example, instead of splitting up Ritchie Park by its crazy boundaries, re-do boundaries to change Ritchie Park (INCLUDING looking at neighborhing cluster elementary schools like Cold Spring, Lakewood, Stonemill and Fallsmead) so that kids in Fallsgrove go to Lakewood or Stone Mill and then bring in other neighboring kids to Ritchie Park to make up for it, and send the kids to the middle and high schools that correspond. Trying to reverse engineer middle and high school articulation without looking at elementary schools leads to these weird and complex split articulations in middle and high schools. This is what they *said* would happen after the RM #5 boundary study, but it doesn't work when just looking at neighboring middle and high schools, you have to start from the bottom (elementary) up and re-do everything.

Another example - a section of Rio goes to Fallsmead because those are the boundaries for that school from 30+ years ago (when *I* was in elementary school at Fallsmead) but there's an entire new development there that didn't exist when the boundary was drawn - those kids should get moved to a different elementary school and obviously should go to Crown HS since it's walking distance. But it makes more sense to reconfigure things at the elementary level first.