Starr announces Construction Plan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I live on the edge of a cluster which is why I'm mentioning it and it's nowhere near the awesome W schools. In our case, we live in germantown. The study says both of the high schools Seneca valley and Northwest will be overcrowded. There are no plans to do anything with our school Northwest but Seneca Valley will be both revitalized and expanded. It states overcrowded at NW will be relieved by the changes to Seneca which as I see it has to mean boundary changes. NW is considered the better of the two schools.

Northwest is considered the better of the two schools because

1. The student population of Northwest HS is less poor than the student population of Seneca Valley HS (44% ever FARMS vs. 59.6% ever FARMS), and
2. Unlike Seneca Valley HS, Northwest HS does not have leaking roofs, overheated/unheated rooms, asbestos ceiling tiles, and drinking fountains with lead.

MCPS has delayed the overhaul of Seneca Valley HS for several years in a row. I'm very glad to see that they've finally decided not to delay it any longer.

NW is better for more than that.. You mentioned the campus, Seneca Valley is downright scary in appearance while NW is beautiful. NW has the Ulysses program and was top 50 schools in Maryland. It's also safer.

In terms of boundary studies. I guarantee they will not be busing any kids from the Matsunaga zone over to Seneca. All that's left are the blue collar neighborhoods that border the Seneca zone. Hopefully the will do justice and not pull the Clopper Mill kids over to Seneca.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What boundaries in Bethesda do you think are going to change that will markedly change the wealth of the area..It is not like the boundaries can move a few miles and Whitman will include a low income housing project.

The people most likely affected will be those on the edges who barely made it into the cluster.

Exactly. We had to choose between a larger house on the outskirts of our target cluster (Silver Spring/Bethesda, very risky!), or a smaller house right bang in the middle of "good" school clusters. We chose the latter. That way if the boundaries change even though we're a block away from the elementary school - it's been known to happen - we're still in a "good" school district. "Good" is all relative of course, but at least property prices are stable and will go up .

I love how people think their boundaries are "safe."

Look at the boundaries for the NEC. Kids living by Rte. 29 and NH are zoned for Blake. That's b/c Blake had a higher SES.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/BlakeHS.pdf
lol

No one is "safe." Quit thinking your kids will be surrounded by rich white kids from K-12.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The gazillion references to "Dr. Starr's" this and "Dr. Starr's" that creep me out. It seems like such a personality cult, or at least some serious egomania at work.

he is a total wack job. he is in way over his head, he won't last long

I'm no fan of Starr, and I STILL think you're an idiot.

Areas grow. Schools become overpopulated - a one size fits all b/c SES is the same. So they rezone.

Look at Howard County. Check out the boundaries around River Hill and Reservoir. lots of changes there . . .

You think Mo Co will remain untouched - and you blame Starr, who's just a figurehead doing as he's told?

[Anonymous]

My kids go to a great school in a solid cluster.

My commute is 25 minutes, and I don't need the beltway or 270!

And yes, we live "far out" on 2 acres.

Life is good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will sit back and laugh at all those people who spent a freaking fortune to live in a particular school cluster. The boundaries are bound to change eventually.

I agree.

They are always being adjusted. fact of life

For now, the schools that remain untouched are those "far out there." I doubt Damascus HS will suffer through boundary changes - or Poolesville. Sherwood HS refused to join the NEC, which was a wise decision, as the NEC only pits neighbor against neighbor and creates an unfair competition among three schools. As it stands now, there's a bit of a split articulation with Farquhar, which doesn't make people happy.

The likelihood of rezoning increases when more and more areas become densely populated and the SES levels show a dramatic gap.

I agree; Bethesda in particular will become affected. And those who laughed at us for moving "far out" will not be laughing for long.[/quote]

How so? Please explain?

Any night that I can return home inside the beltway and don't have to sit in bumper to bumper traffic up 270, or drive far out River, or inch up 28...185N or 97N or 29N...is a good night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

NW is better for more than that.. You mentioned the campus, Seneca Valley is downright scary in appearance while NW is beautiful. NW has the Ulysses program and was top 50 schools in Maryland. It's also safer.

In terms of boundary studies. I guarantee they will not be busing any kids from the Matsunaga zone over to Seneca. All that's left are the blue collar neighborhoods that border the Seneca zone. Hopefully the will do justice and not pull the Clopper Mill kids over to Seneca.

Northwest looks like what it is -- a very large high school from the 1990s. Seneca Valley, in contrast, looks like what it is -- a smaller high school from the 1970s. If you want to call one beautiful and the other scary, well, ok.

(And do you suppose that Northwest is safer than Seneca Valley (if it is; I don't know what data you're looking at) because it's a lower-poverty school?)

I don't know why there would be any rezoning anyway, given that neither is currently over capacity (or anyway, not much).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NW is better for more than that.. You mentioned the campus, Seneca Valley is downright scary in appearance while NW is beautiful. NW has the Ulysses program and was top 50 schools in Maryland. It's also safer.

In terms of boundary studies. I guarantee they will not be busing any kids from the Matsunaga zone over to Seneca. All that's left are the blue collar neighborhoods that border the Seneca zone. Hopefully the will do justice and not pull the Clopper Mill kids over to Seneca.

Northwest looks like what it is -- a very large high school from the 1990s. Seneca Valley, in contrast, looks like what it is -- a smaller high school from the 1970s. If you want to call one beautiful and the other scary, well, ok.

(And do you suppose that Northwest is safer than Seneca Valley (if it is; I don't know what data you're looking at) because it's a lower-poverty school?)

I don't know why there would be any rezoning anyway, given that neither is currently over capacity (or anyway, not much).

Because the study specifically says overcrowding ay NW will be relieved by updates to Seneca Valley. This could only happen through changing boundaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Because the study specifically says overcrowding ay NW will be relieved by updates to Seneca Valley. This could only happen through changing boundaries.

It says: "Projections indicate enrollment at Northwest High School will exceed capacity by almost 200 seats by the end of the six-year CIP planning period. Enrollment will continue to be monitored to determine if space is needed in the future. The revitalization/expansion project of Seneca Valley High School, scheduled for completion in August 2018, provides the opportunity to construct enough capacity to address the projected overutilization at Northwest High School in the future."

I suppose that people can worry if they want to worry. It doesn't sound to me like anything's happening anytime soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Because the study specifically says overcrowding ay NW will be relieved by updates to Seneca Valley. This could only happen through changing boundaries.

It says: "Projections indicate enrollment at Northwest High School will exceed capacity by almost 200 seats by the end of the six-year CIP planning period. Enrollment will continue to be monitored to determine if space is needed in the future. The revitalization/expansion project of Seneca Valley High School, scheduled for completion in August 2018, provides the opportunity to construct enough capacity to address the projected overutilization at Northwest High School in the future."

I suppose that people can worry if they want to worry. It doesn't sound to me like anything's happening anytime soon.

Strange that it doesn't occur to you that posters are concerned because they've seen projected dates and realize they will be impacted. Time is relative... If your child is in K in that cluster it's inevitable that they will be impacted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Because the study specifically says overcrowding ay NW will be relieved by updates to Seneca Valley. This could only happen through changing boundaries.

It says: "Projections indicate enrollment at Northwest High School will exceed capacity by almost 200 seats by the end of the six-year CIP planning period. Enrollment will continue to be monitored to determine if space is needed in the future. The revitalization/expansion project of Seneca Valley High School, scheduled for completion in August 2018, provides the opportunity to construct enough capacity to address the projected overutilization at Northwest High School in the future."

I suppose that people can worry if they want to worry. It doesn't sound to me like anything's happening anytime soon.

Strange that it doesn't occur to you that posters are concerned because they've seen projected dates and realize they will be impacted. Time is relative... If your child is in K in that cluster it's inevitable that they will be impacted.

No, no, it did occur to me! But inevitable? I don't think so. This is the FY 2015-2020 Capital Improvement Plan. It's for $1.549 billion. And that's with the delay of 20 previously-approved modernizations. They would like a $2.2 billion CIP. But I'll be very surprised if they even get $1.549 billion.

So, as I said, if you want to worry that some day MCPS might rezone your Northwest neighborhood to send your kids to Seneca Valley, at some point, if Northwest becomes overcrowded -- well, go ahead. It's not impossible. All kinds of things can happen. But MCPS has an awful lot of much more immediate capacity and facility problems to worry about.

You can read the superintendent's letter to the school board here: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP15FrontMatter.pdf

(You can also help push for more state funding for capital improvement for MCPS: http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/Apps/News/press/PR_details.asp?PrID=13088 )