Downcounty middle school magnet location
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Anonymous
Right. That must be why Poolesville, an underutilized school with lots of open seats needed 330 more seats. Wait.. wha?? https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/school-board-approves-preliminary-plans-for-burnt-mills-elementary-poolesville-high-projects/ |
Anonymous
On the contrary, Blair is very accessible to DC communities. The high-school servers mostly families living inside the beltway and frankly if you really valued your child's education you'd live closer to the good schools. |
Anonymous
If you live in Gaithersburg, Rockville, etc. neither program is really accessible. Public education is meant to serve, oh, I don't know - the Public? "2019 – 2020 Official Enrollment as of September 30, 2019 was 1,205 students" https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/publicinfo/Boundary_Analysis/interim-report/01_Introduction.pdf "Poolesville High will also undergo a major building project. [..] The project is estimated to cost about $60 million, according to school district documents. It will increase Poolesville High’s capacity from 1,170 students to about 1,500 students." https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/school-board-approves-preliminary-plans-for-burnt-mills-elementary-poolesville-high-projects/ https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/publicinfo/Boundary_Analysis/interim-report/02b_Utilization.pdf "the new Poolesville High School transforms its educational campus into a series of collaborative learning environments for 1,800 students." https://www.vmdo.com/poolesville-high-school.html The school was only slightly overcapacity by 3% in 2019, but the boundary analysis utilization report shows it wasn't the highest nail in terms of capacity issues. Also, according to VMDO (the contractor?), Poolesville HS will have a 630 student higher capacity, not just 330. So on one side of the mouth, MCPS is saying the magnet was moved to Poolesville because there were a lot of empty seats up there, but on the other side of the mouth, the school needs a $60M upgrade to add 630 student seats? Ooops. If MCPS wanted to save money, they could just move the magnet program to Crown where more families could access it, and boom, could pay $60M for more critical renovations needed at other schools. |
Anonymous
I don't see the problem there. Both can be and is true. One is past, one is future. |
Anonymous
You must work for the MCPS Central Office or board, since you're totally oblivious to the $60M dollar spend that didn't need to happen. If a school with a magnet is overcrowded, just move the magnet to another school. In this case, Crown is opening soon and the boundaries have yet to be drawn (unless, of course, MCPS Central Office and board is pulling another fast one on parents?) and could accept the Magnet program from Poolesville. Same goes for Blair, that has a high number of relocatable classrooms Why are kids sitting in trailers when you could just move the magnet to another location? The perfect spot would be to relocate the Blair magnet closer to the beltway split, to serve parents commuting in all directions (DC, MD, VA). The $60M of taxpayer money could have been used to address issues elsewhere. This is why when MCPS keeps demanding more and more funding every year to build a house of cards and fund foolish programs, someone will question it sooner or later. |
Anonymous
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Both Woodward and Crown are opening soon. If both were turned into magnet schools (serviceable for the entire county), it would reduce the numbers at Poolesville and Blair. That would free up tens of millions to renovate the schools that are crumbling or terribly overcrowded (Wootton, Gaithersburg, etc.)
Woodward is perfectly accessible from all directions of down county, and Crown is similarly accessible for mid and upcounty. The question is why McKnight and Wolff don't want to do that? Wouldn't they want to save tens of millions in taxpayer money? What's the issue? If you want to argue that there is some logical reason (aside from a conspiracy, of course), then now is the time to speak up! |
Anonymous
Do you actually know where Blair is located? |
Anonymous
Yes, I do. Do you know where the rest of Montgomery County is located? Ever think of the child who has to commute from Gaithersburg or Rockville to Blair because someone made a shady deal to put the magnet schools in the furthest corners of the county instead of the middle? Selfish B. |
Anonymous
Gaithersburg students would be going to Poolesville, not Blair. |
Anonymous
Perhaps, but people chose where they live and those who prioritize their children's education live closer to the good schools. Both my children went through the magnet and we choose to live in boundary for Blair because their education is a high priority for us. |
Anonymous
Gaithersburg would go to Poolesville Ignorant B. |
Anonymous
It's about 20 mins from where we live in SS. Maybe 5 minutes further than say BCC but still very convenient. So compared to most boundaries it's one of the worst but there are not many HS inside the beltway. |
Anonymous
We refused to send our kid to Eastern for just this reason. They should take up the spare capacity at Westland by adding a magnet there and should have added a magnet at Tilden instead of the other programs they added there. |
Anonymous
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Note how the Silver Spring parent finds Blair so convenient? If a family isn't close to the highway, and it's rush hour, there's no way most parents would be able to pick up their child quickly in an emergency (ex. sick with covid or urgent medical care required). What about a Downcounty parent who doesn't live in Silver Spring but works in Virginia? Woodward would be an extra 5 for the Silver Spring Parent, but others are SOL.
What kind of arrogant a$$ says if you value your child's education you should move? A true educator would treat children equally, provide equal education and make it available to all. MCPS should post that on their website if that's a requirement for a good education from them. Once they make that clear to all parents, I'm sure we can all help them find new careers outside of the educational field. |
Anonymous
| What fascinates me is how much it incenses the TPSS crowd that Poolesville should get anything from the county. The same crowd that wants to “protect the Ag reserve” doesn’t want to give the residents there any public services. While most people who live in the Ag reserve want to be able to use it for more economic activity because news flash: small scale farming is just not profitable. Absolutely awful people who would complain about the county spending a measly amount of money to upgrade school facilities in Poolesville that haven’t seen a dollar from the county in 40 years. |