Superintendent's Recommendation for Richard Montgomery ES #5 Boundaries

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the current families are still basing their school decisions on the way RM was in 1990?

I live in HH and no observations about the other areas. However, the new families in HH appear to have chosen this district (RM) purposely over others (e.g., Wootton). They have cited the IB program and more preferred racial and SES diversity levels as reasons for moving to HH. Many are mixed-race or minority families with younger children. They seem to all choose the public route for school. The older families are sore about the 1987 decision still.

+1 Another HH resident. These were the exact reasons we chose this area.

Exactly! If you like the RM diversity, have a $700k-$850k budget, and want the driving commutability to VA/DC that living west of I-270 gives, HH is a ideal. Potomac Woods, Falls Ridge, etc., on the other side of Falls are also good choices, but all still RP.

YOU ARE STILL GETTING THE RM DIVERSITY. Last time I checked you aren't being rezoned out of JW/RM.

And please stop your BS of wanting an 800K house to hang out with those that make less than 39K a year at Ritchie Park. Just stop because that wasn't happening even now. The Fallsgrove moms with their yoga everyday wear and their $500 handbags would have never allowed that. There are cliques in RP and the kids in RP2 and 6 are lucky to get a brand new school with a healthy local community. RP is and still will be the worst school with the worst principal in the cluster.

Agree. RP has always been the school that sucks. This won't change it. The areas leaving (especially the zone in walking distance) will be much happier. The principal, special services, and ESOL are just terrible. We have had high teacher turnover and a not so involved PTA. It is just stale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Agree. RP has always been the school that sucks. This won't change it. The areas leaving (especially the zone in walking distance) will be much happier. The principal, special services, and ESOL are just terrible. We have had high teacher turnover and a not so involved PTA. It is just stale.

This should be troubling for everyone in RM cluster. If Principal, special services, and ESOL is failing all kids in RP then they should be replaced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This situation is really ridiculous. The diversity in RP is not changing that much. 22% to 11% FARMS does not change color or socioeconomic. There are still many families of color and SES from 40K to high 5 figures. RP used to be all white and prodimately Jewish. That is not the case anymore even with the boundary changes as the entire area and new families are from various cultures, religions, and races. The FARMS was 9% Hispanic. 6% Black and 7% White/Asian. It is for those that make under 40K.

People coming on here crying about a difference of SES between making $30K on FARMS vs 40K not on FARMS (and technically losing more of their money not being on help) while you are all making 100K plus is the irony.

1 in 5 kids poor to 1 in 10 kids poor is a meaningful difference, I think.

So you think total family income of $40K means middle class? I sure don't.

How do you know the true SES? It is either below 39K or over. That is it. No inbetween.

What I do know is the FARMS is spread evenly over all races at RP if the above percentages are accurate.

I think that perhaps you're not familiar with the income eligibility requirements for FARMS. It's based on the size of the household. For a household of 2, the maximum income is $30,044. For a household of 3, the maximum income is $37,777. For a household of 4, the maximum income is $45,510. And so on: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-04-10/pdf/2017-07043.pdf

Now, it's possible that everybody not on FARMS at Ritchie Park is just over the income eligibility limit. I think it's unlikely, but it's possible. So FARMS at Ritchie Park is probably a good indicator of poverty, even if it's not perfect.

Last year, 23.1% of students at Ritchie Park was on FARMS. With an enrollment of 510, that's 118 students. 6.3% of students at Ritchie Park were black students on FARMS, or 32 students. 9.2% of students at Ritchie Park were Hispanic students on FARMS, or 47 students. 47+32 = 75, so 64% of students on FARMS at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students. Overall, 30.5% of students at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students.

What are the equivalent numbers projected to be, after the rezoning?

I can't say that, but I did calculate that the RP2 and RP6 zones are together about 66% FARMs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Last year, 23.1% of students at Ritchie Park was on FARMS. With an enrollment of 510, that's 118 students. 6.3% of students at Ritchie Park were black students on FARMS, or 32 students. 9.2% of students at Ritchie Park were Hispanic students on FARMS, or 47 students. 47+32 = 75, so 64% of students on FARMS at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students. Overall, 30.5% of students at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students.

What are the equivalent numbers projected to be, after the rezoning?

If we look at Superintended recommendation, RP will have 379 kids in 2019-2020. 10% FARMs, 12% African American and 14% Hispanic.

RP is going from 118 FARMs kids to 38 FARMs kids. I have not seen any break up FAMRs in terms of race, but over all it's huge drop. It's weird to see a claim earlier in this thread that FARMs going down is not making a significant impact in RP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Last year, 23.1% of students at Ritchie Park was on FARMS. With an enrollment of 510, that's 118 students. 6.3% of students at Ritchie Park were black students on FARMS, or 32 students. 9.2% of students at Ritchie Park were Hispanic students on FARMS, or 47 students. 47+32 = 75, so 64% of students on FARMS at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students. Overall, 30.5% of students at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students.

What are the equivalent numbers projected to be, after the rezoning?

If we look at Superintended recommendation, RP will have 379 kids in 2019-2020. 10% FARMs, 12% African American and 14% Hispanic.

RP is going from 118 FARMs kids to 38 FARMs kids. I have not seen any break up FAMRs in terms of race, but over all it's huge drop. It's weird to see a claim earlier in this thread that FARMs going down is not making a significant impact in RP.

So how do you suggest changing that (increasing FARMS at RP) without bussing children past their (perfectly wonderful) neighborhood schools to come to RP? Asking families to bus their children to RP, going past a brand new elementary school that was built in their neighborhood within walking distance to their house so that you can have the diversity you want at your school is the height of elitism. There isn't a good solution for keeping the FARMS rate more stable that doesn't put the burden on the lower income families. When there wasn't another school closer than RP, bussing students from RP2 made sense. Now it does not. Which neighborhoods do you suggest to move to create more diversity at RP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So how do you suggest changing that (increasing FARMS at RP) without bussing children past their (perfectly wonderful) neighborhood schools to come to RP? Asking families to bus their children to RP, going past a brand new elementary school that was built in their neighborhood within walking distance to their house so that you can have the diversity you want at your school is the height of elitism. There isn't a good solution for keeping the FARMS rate more stable that doesn't put the burden on the lower income families. When there wasn't another school closer than RP, bussing students from RP2 made sense. Now it does not. Which neighborhoods do you suggest to move to create more diversity at RP?

One could, of course, bus kids from RP to other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Last year, 23.1% of students at Ritchie Park was on FARMS. With an enrollment of 510, that's 118 students. 6.3% of students at Ritchie Park were black students on FARMS, or 32 students. 9.2% of students at Ritchie Park were Hispanic students on FARMS, or 47 students. 47+32 = 75, so 64% of students on FARMS at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students. Overall, 30.5% of students at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students.

What are the equivalent numbers projected to be, after the rezoning?

If we look at Superintended recommendation, RP will have 379 kids in 2019-2020. 10% FARMs, 12% African American and 14% Hispanic.

RP is going from 118 FARMs kids to 38 FARMs kids. I have not seen any break up FAMRs in terms of race, but over all it's huge drop. It's weird to see a claim earlier in this thread that FARMs going down is not making a significant impact in RP.

Based on the system of equations, I calculated that RP2 + RP6 has roughly 80 FARMs students, RP5 has roughly 20 FARMs students, and all other RP areas combined have roughly 20 FARMs students. Please then find a way to keep the SES diversity while maintaining reasonable proximity. It cannot be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So how do you suggest changing that (increasing FARMS at RP) without bussing children past their (perfectly wonderful) neighborhood schools to come to RP? Asking families to bus their children to RP, going past a brand new elementary school that was built in their neighborhood within walking distance to their house so that you can have the diversity you want at your school is the height of elitism. There isn't a good solution for keeping the FARMS rate more stable that doesn't put the burden on the lower income families. When there wasn't another school closer than RP, bussing students from RP2 made sense. Now it does not. Which neighborhoods do you suggest to move to create more diversity at RP?

One could, of course, bus kids from RP to other schools.

Bussing out higher income kids won't bring up the number of FARMS kids at RP unless you just keep the school underenrolled (it will bring up the percentage because there will be fewer total children) - bussing out higher income students also means bussing in to keep the school adequately enrolled....That's part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So how do you suggest changing that (increasing FARMS at RP) without bussing children past their (perfectly wonderful) neighborhood schools to come to RP? Asking families to bus their children to RP, going past a brand new elementary school that was built in their neighborhood within walking distance to their house so that you can have the diversity you want at your school is the height of elitism. There isn't a good solution for keeping the FARMS rate more stable that doesn't put the burden on the lower income families. When there wasn't another school closer than RP, bussing students from RP2 made sense. Now it does not. Which neighborhoods do you suggest to move to create more diversity at RP?

One could, of course, bus kids from RP to other schools.

Bussing out higher income kids won't bring up the number of FARMS kids at RP unless you just keep the school underenrolled (it will bring up the percentage because there will be fewer total children) - bussing out higher income students also means bussing in to keep the school adequately enrolled....That's part of the problem.

The heart of the problem is socioeconomic geographic segregation. RP is on the edge of the RM map. The entire area around it is upper middle class. Most of that area was built a long time ago and zoned only for single-family units.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Last year, 23.1% of students at Ritchie Park was on FARMS. With an enrollment of 510, that's 118 students. 6.3% of students at Ritchie Park were black students on FARMS, or 32 students. 9.2% of students at Ritchie Park were Hispanic students on FARMS, or 47 students. 47+32 = 75, so 64% of students on FARMS at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students. Overall, 30.5% of students at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students.

What are the equivalent numbers projected to be, after the rezoning?

If we look at Superintended recommendation, RP will have 379 kids in 2019-2020. 10% FARMs, 12% African American and 14% Hispanic.

RP is going from 118 FARMs kids to 38 FARMs kids. I have not seen any break up FAMRs in terms of race, but over all it's huge drop. It's weird to see a claim earlier in this thread that FARMs going down is not making a significant impact in RP.

Well RP currently has 13% AA and 18% Hispanic. So if it ends up being 12% AA and 14% Hispanic after, most of the Asian and White FARM kids are moving to RM#5 and RP will still have almost identical racial diversity.

And ironically, if you pulled Fallsgrove out to RM#5 and kept RP2/RP6 in RP, we would still lose almost half of FARMS too. Because I can guarantee that other 10% is from the 60 Fallsgrove apartments and MPDU's. And that would mean kids walkable to RM#5 would be bussed to RP and Fallsgrove would be bussed even further. And it wouldn't change a bit of FARMS rate for RP.

So the only solution to make FARMS perfect in all 5 schools is to move around all other sections in each school all around. And the closest ones to RP from Beall do not have high or any FARMS. So you would be talking about pulling from Twinbrook across 355 or further out to Lincoln Park, also on 355 to make that happen. Those families can not afford to be that far away from their home schools. There is transportation issues and it pulls their kid's away from the neighborhood community. I truly feel there are just a few outliers on here that are pushing this FARMS perfect agenda and have no clue how disruptive it would be to all 5 schools and their neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So how do you suggest changing that (increasing FARMS at RP) without bussing children past their (perfectly wonderful) neighborhood schools to come to RP? Asking families to bus their children to RP, going past a brand new elementary school that was built in their neighborhood within walking distance to their house so that you can have the diversity you want at your school is the height of elitism. There isn't a good solution for keeping the FARMS rate more stable that doesn't put the burden on the lower income families. When there wasn't another school closer than RP, bussing students from RP2 made sense. Now it does not. Which neighborhoods do you suggest to move to create more diversity at RP?

One could, of course, bus kids from RP to other schools.

Which ones? RP1 and sections of RP3 are walkable to RM. RP#4 is literally across the street and some kids walk thru the park to school as well. RP5 is far from everything, equally distant to RP, Beall, and CG, but further away to RM#5, and Twinbrook. RP5 probably has the other half of RP's FARMS from the MPDU Fallsgrove was required to build.

So you think moving TB4 and bussing them to RP and moving RP4 and bussing them away to TB makes sense? You have busses going all over which costs more money. TB would lose their funding and lower ratios, and RP would have boundaries scattered from the entire city with the FARMS kids from RP5 and TB4 still struggling to get to the school. Twinbrook subdivision would have kids going to 3 different ES. The county has looked at this. RP is in on the edge of Rockville with only single family homes similar to all the other Potomac schools. Bussing kids across from 355 to that school is pretty crazy.

[Anonymous]

Remember if The Superintendent get his way..we will be redoing this again in 5ish years. Fallsgrove will move to the new HS and RP will probably pick up some kids from #5 which will raise its FARMS rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember if The Superintendent get his way..we will be redoing this again in 5ish years. Fallsgrove will move to the new HS and RP will probably pick up some kids from #5 which will raise its FARMS rate.

I sincerely doubt that the boundary study for the Crown high school will involve rezoning elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Last year, 23.1% of students at Ritchie Park was on FARMS. With an enrollment of 510, that's 118 students. 6.3% of students at Ritchie Park were black students on FARMS, or 32 students. 9.2% of students at Ritchie Park were Hispanic students on FARMS, or 47 students. 47+32 = 75, so 64% of students on FARMS at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students. Overall, 30.5% of students at Ritchie Park are black or Hispanic students.

What are the equivalent numbers projected to be, after the rezoning?

If we look at Superintended recommendation, RP will have 379 kids in 2019-2020. 10% FARMs, 12% African American and 14% Hispanic.

RP is going from 118 FARMs kids to 38 FARMs kids. I have not seen any break up FAMRs in terms of race, but over all it's huge drop. It's weird to see a claim earlier in this thread that FARMs going down is not making a significant impact in RP.

Well RP currently has 13% AA and 18% Hispanic. So if it ends up being 12% AA and 14% Hispanic after, most of the Asian and White FARM kids are moving to RM#5 and RP will still have almost identical racial diversity.

And ironically, if you pulled Fallsgrove out to RM#5 and kept RP2/RP6 in RP, we would still lose almost half of FARMS too. Because I can guarantee that other 10% is from the 60 Fallsgrove apartments and MPDU's. And that would mean kids walkable to RM#5 would be bussed to RP and Fallsgrove would be bussed even further. And it wouldn't change a bit of FARMS rate for RP.

So the only solution to make FARMS perfect in all 5 schools is to move around all other sections in each school all around. And the closest ones to RP from Beall do not have high or any FARMS. So you would be talking about pulling from Twinbrook across 355 or further out to Lincoln Park, also on 355 to make that happen. Those families can not afford to be that far away from their home schools. There is transportation issues and it pulls their kid's away from the neighborhood community. I truly feel there are just a few outliers on here that are pushing this FARMS perfect agenda and have no clue how disruptive it would be to all 5 schools and their neighborhoods.

No. I sated in my previous post how many FARMS students are in each section:

RP2+RP6 = 80 FARMS students
RP5 = 20 FARMS students
All other RP = 20 FARMS students.

I am pretty sure that 80 is a lot more than 20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember if The Superintendent get his way..we will be redoing this again in 5ish years. Fallsgrove will move to the new HS and RP will probably pick up some kids from #5 which will raise its FARMS rate.

I sincerely doubt that the boundary study for the Crown high school will involve rezoning elementary schools.

If RP loses Fallsgrove, it will be way under capacity.