Why is the area around Washingtonian/Rio (exit 9 off 270) an island in school boundaries (Wootton)

[Anonymous]

At first I thought it might be to balance FARMS but there are some really nice houses there so it is something more than that. I looked at the Fallsmead Elementary bus routes and 3 of the 7 buses come from that neighborhood. It seems odd to have an area in one HS cluster completely surrounded by other HS. (That's odd as in more odd than MCPS weird boundary shapes in general).

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

To my knowledge, the school boundaries have not changed in that area for quite some time, and are based on how things were before the growth in around there that has taken place in the past 15-20 years.

[Anonymous]

My kids go to Fallsmead ES- and that area is closer than you think. There is a "back" way to that neighborhood where I believe the bus only has to travel about 10 minutes. I don't know why it is zoned for our school though.

[Anonymous]

When new developments are built, they are often zoned for the school district that is the least crowded, not always the closest one.

[Anonymous]

I don't know, OP... but I do wonder why the only middle school for BCC (at present anyway) is an island in the Whitman school district. MCPS is weird. I'm sure there were originally reasons for all these oddities, and then they get hard to change...

[Anonymous]

I wondered that myself too. However, in crown farm's master plan, there is a new high school slated to be built in that neighborhood so most likely, this entire area will be re-zoned in the next 10-15 years.