What is going on at Blair?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP who is considering moving to Tak Pk and would actually like to know what is going on at Blair. Excited to know the principal got an award.

Unfortunately, it's hard to get that info on here because there's a total psychopath who haunts these boards and has some weird (though perversely fascinating) vendetta against Blair. Perhaps at some point she had a kid get rejected from Blair and it sent her into madness, like Miss Havisham.

But as someone who actually LIVES in Takoma Park, with a child at TPMS and another at Piney Branch ES, and surrounded by neighbors with kids at Blair, let me assure you the schools are great, the community is phenomenal, and you would never regret the move. I am certain anyone on here who also actually LIVES in Takoma Park would say the same.

[Anonymous]

Having recently bought a house inside the beltway in Silver Spring and been in several bidding wars in Takoma Park and SS all I have seen is white flight INTO these areas, not out. People love it here.

[Anonymous]

PP - OP is a moron who has started at least 2 threads on this same subject and keep feeding the fake fire. My guess is someone who moved far out and is mad at herself, or maybe she's just a s$%t-stirrer. Whatever it is, plenty of people have set the record straight here. And even if they haven't, simply look at home price appreciation in the Blair district and you can get a sense of what everyone except psycho OP is thinking.

[Anonymous]

The name calling makes me feel that there may be some truth to the criticism about Blair. I don't know about white flight from Silver Sparing and Takoma Park but have seen the statistics on the web that seem to indicate that is true. I saw the piece Dan Reed wrote in the Washington Post as well. MCPS data also seems to show white flight from the system. The white flight is real, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The name calling makes me feel that there may be some truth to the criticism about Blair. I don't know about white flight from Silver Sparing and Takoma Park but have seen the statistics on the web that seem to indicate that is true. I saw the piece Dan Reed wrote in the Washington Post as well. MCPS data also seems to show white flight from the system. The white flight is real, no?

No. What Dan Reed is saying is that residential segregation by income in Montgomery County causes school segregation by income.

http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/19285/de-facto-segregation-threatens-montgomery-public-schools/
http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/19285/de-facto-segregation-threatens-montgomery-public-schools/

And if white flight from Silver Spring and Takoma Park were real, I might be able to afford to buy a house there.

[Anonymous]

Someone in MCPS gets a bogus award even though they are doing a lackluster job yet they congratulate themselves over and over agin. OK..why is anyone surprised? This is what MCPS does. They screw up and then pat themselves on the back. Its the new way. You clearly have not been through 2.0 therefore you do not understand that performance doesn't matter anymore, only the perception of those who work in MCPS. They're led by a fool, what do you expect?

[Anonymous]

Good lord, the complainers are out in force this morning.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the MCPS trolls have their work cut out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone in MCPS gets a bogus award even though they are doing a lackluster job yet they congratulate themselves over and over agin. OK..why is anyone surprised? This is what MCPS does. They screw up and then pat themselves on the back. Its the new way. You clearly have not been through 2.0 therefore you do not understand that performance doesn't matter anymore, only the perception of those who work in MCPS. They're led by a fool, what do you expect?

I think that is what the poster was saying. When you see the self-congratulations you are generally assured there is a screwup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like the MCPS trolls have their work cut out.

Nice tinfoil hat you're wearing. Does it keep the rain off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like the MCPS trolls have their work cut out.

Nice tinfoil hat you're wearing. Does it keep the rain off?

Is that the shiny stuff you Silver Spring people have on your head?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The name calling makes me feel that there may be some truth to the criticism about Blair. I don't know about white flight from Silver Sparing and Takoma Park but have seen the statistics on the web that seem to indicate that is true. I saw the piece Dan Reed wrote in the Washington Post as well. MCPS data also seems to show white flight from the system. The white flight is real, no?

Statistics? Sigh. Check out the recent Bethesda Magazine table on 2013 college applications and acceptances (from which you can infer acceptance rates) from top MoCo publics. Here: http://bethesdamagazine.com/College_Chart.pdf.

Blair does as well with acceptances to very top universities, and in many cases it does better, than the W schools. (My kid got into a USNWR top 5 from Blair, and DC knows the other Blair kids accepted to that university, so I can vouch for the acceptance figure shown for that particular university.)

Honestly, the part I've bolded is laughable. You just wave your hand and imply you have actual statistics. Well, put up or shut up. Meanwhile, for the saner readers, the college table and the PP who suggested looking at property values both provide some quantifiable evidence that Blair, the magnet, CAP--and even Silver Spring writ large--are doing very well, thank you.

This is my first post here today. I agree with the PP who said there's a sort of peverse fascination to this thread. It's sort of like watching a train wreck and wondering what's going on (or not going on) in the Poolesville booster's mind. There are lots of great schools in MoCo, really! And just because your school is great doesn't mean you have to cut down every other MoCo school. I do think there's a weird racial aspect to the whole White Flight to Poolesville rant. Frankly, we're white, and we wouldn't touch all-white Poolesville with a ten-foot pole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, we're white, and we wouldn't touch all-white Poolesville with a ten-foot pole.

Poolesville the town? Poolesville the high school? Certainly both are whiter than Montgomery County as a whole, but describing them as "all-white" is flat-out inaccurate.

And just as there's no need to run down Takoma Park and Silver Spring, there's also no need to run down Poolesville (either the town or the high school). You like where you live; that's great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Been looking at Blair High School and noticed that the principal Renee Johnson is tweeting a lot about herself. She is tweeting that she was awarded best principal and then retweeting tweets from other people who congratulated her.

It is sad to see a principal who is so hell bent on self promotion.

See the tweets at https://twitter.com/blairprincipal.

I don't see other principals doing this much self promotion, at least my HS principal doesn't.

Maybe your principal wasn't awarded the best principal award...duh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The name calling makes me feel that there may be some truth to the criticism about Blair. I don't know about white flight from Silver Sparing and Takoma Park but have seen the statistics on the web that seem to indicate that is true. I saw the piece Dan Reed wrote in the Washington Post as well. MCPS data also seems to show white flight from the system. The white flight is real, no?

And if it is...I guess if all the white folk leave, all us coloreds are going to take down the system? Just hard to believe that having people of color around means that excellence could abound.
Can I carry yo' bags missy?