Why isn't MCPS redistricting Rachel Carlson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Which is not fair. No offense but the school was built FOR the Kentands and Lakelands area. They knew there were going to be a lot of kids in that area when they built it. To add even more kids to make the SES numbers better and keep the school at double the capacity is insane. There are TWO under-capacity schools closer to them that they can go to. No one in walking distance to an elementary school should get moved because of SES numbers. MCPS has got to come up with a better plan.

No, that is not how school zoning works. Rachel Carson ES is not the school for Kentlands/Lakelands people only. The kids of people who live in the Government Square apartments are as legitimate at Rachel Carson as the kids of people who live in Kentlands/Lakelands.

I also don't know what the TWO under-capacity schools are that you're referring to. Brown Station is over capacity, Fields Road is at or over capacity, and Diamond is over capacity.

[Anonymous]

My kids are supposed to go to Ritchie Park in the upcoming years but I am going to put in a request for Cold Spring. We live in walking distance to that school and but would get a bus to Ritchie Park. Cold Spring is under capacity. Only 30 kids for the entire K class. Ritchie Park has 100. It is a no brainer for me. I can see them denying it though so I have to come up with a "reason."

This is stupid. Walking distance and the kids are bused to an overcrowded school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My kids are supposed to go to Ritchie Park in the upcoming years but I am going to put in a request for Cold Spring. We live in walking distance to that school and but would get a bus to Ritchie Park. Cold Spring is under capacity. Only 30 kids for the entire K class. Ritchie Park has 100. It is a no brainer for me. I can see them denying it though so I have to come up with a "reason."

This is stupid. Walking distance and the kids are bused to an overcrowded school?

I live in walking distance to Lakewood, yet my child is also bused to Ritchie Park...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every other school with that kind of overenrollment has some kind of plan. Some have capacity studies to determine what to do next.

My child's school was in an 18 month capacity study. Eleven out of 12 schools got additions, they decided to study our school for another 18 months and compare it to a different set of schools. It is over capacity. My child eats lunch at 1:05

Are you surprised? The BOE is spending taxpayer funds using their credit cards and no one cares. Starr is running the level of education down with C 2.0 and no one cares. Elect the same bozos back to the BOE for more of same or stop complaining and vote for change.

Actually, the issue is Legget and the County Council. For example, they are responsible for delaying funding for the 5th elementary school in Montgomery County being delayed. Around 2013, the Board of Education recommended that the 5th elementary school be built in 2015. Legget and the Council decided to delay it until 2017 (though to be clear 2017 was the original date). Then this year, the Council announced the project would be delayed another year to 2018. It's why I'm skeptical that it will ever be done.

So, you're right that elected officials are to blame. But it should be directed at the County Council that controls the money and decides who gets new schools, even if they are under capacity, like Beverly Farms was and still is, and which ones have to wait and wait and wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My kids are supposed to go to Ritchie Park in the upcoming years but I am going to put in a request for Cold Spring. We live in walking distance to that school and but would get a bus to Ritchie Park. Cold Spring is under capacity. Only 30 kids for the entire K class. Ritchie Park has 100. It is a no brainer for me. I can see them denying it though so I have to come up with a "reason."

This is stupid. Walking distance and the kids are bused to an overcrowded school?

Yes my development blends into the back of the neighboring development. All are walkers to Cold Spring. I live so close to that neighborhood that we can walk there in less than 7-10min. Yet we wait for a bus to come 35min before school starts. Very annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Which is not fair. No offense but the school was built FOR the Kentands and Lakelands area. They knew there were going to be a lot of kids in that area when they built it. To add even more kids to make the SES numbers better and keep the school at double the capacity is insane. There are TWO under-capacity schools closer to them that they can go to. No one in walking distance to an elementary school should get moved because of SES numbers. MCPS has got to come up with a better plan.

No, that is not how school zoning works. Rachel Carson ES is not the school for Kentlands/Lakelands people only. The kids of people who live in the Government Square apartments are as legitimate at Rachel Carson as the kids of people who live in Kentlands/Lakelands.

I also don't know what the TWO under-capacity schools are that you're referring to. Brown Station is over capacity, Fields Road is at or over capacity, and Diamond is over capacity.

Dufief is at 70% and Fields is not at capacity yet. Even still, they are 4 miles away from a school that is 160% at capacity and closer to multiple schools that are not. No is saying the school is only for Kentlands/Lakelands but it was built in their neighborhood for those neighborhoods being built. To be that overcrowded and still busing kids in from locations that far away is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is getting ridiculous. Dufief right across the street is 70% capacity. We are at 160% What gives? Can they not at least give parents the option to move their child.

You have the option. Apply for a Change of School Assignment (COSA). Here is the form:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/transfers/ChangeSchoolAssignment-English.pdf

Fields Road ES is also close and was under capacity last year; you could try for a COSA there, too.

Also, it would be rezoning. The school district is MCPS.

Sorry but you have to state a hardship for a COSA and most of them are not approved, at least the first time. I am talking about giving people in neighborhoods close to another school under capacity, the option to attend that other elementary school - deadline is June 1st for the following year. If it does not feed into the same middle school, you still have to go back to your assigned middle school unless you reapply. I just think doing this can temporarily ease some of the congestion at schools like College Gardens, Beall, Rachel Carlson, Ritchie Park etc...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Which is not fair. No offense but the school was built FOR the Kentands and Lakelands area. They knew there were going to be a lot of kids in that area when they built it. To add even more kids to make the SES numbers better and keep the school at double the capacity is insane. There are TWO under-capacity schools closer to them that they can go to. No one in walking distance to an elementary school should get moved because of SES numbers. MCPS has got to come up with a better plan.

No, that is not how school zoning works. Rachel Carson ES is not the school for Kentlands/Lakelands people only. The kids of people who live in the Government Square apartments are as legitimate at Rachel Carson as the kids of people who live in Kentlands/Lakelands.

I also don't know what the TWO under-capacity schools are that you're referring to. Brown Station is over capacity, Fields Road is at or over capacity, and Diamond is over capacity.

Dufief is at 70% and Fields is not at capacity yet. Even still, they are 4 miles away from a school that is 160% at capacity and closer to multiple schools that are not. No is saying the school is only for Kentlands/Lakelands but it was built in their neighborhood for those neighborhoods being built. To be that overcrowded and still busing kids in from locations that far away is insane.

Last year, enrollment at Fields Road was 489. The capacity at Fields Road is 491. Unless something very out of the ordinary happened this year, Fields Road is at capacity.

In any case, it doesn't matter what the distance is. You're saying that people who live closer have a better claim to the school than people who live further. MCPS doesn't work that way, and MCPS shouldn't work that way.

[Anonymous]

By the way, it's Rachel CARSON. Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring was about the damage of pesticides on the environment. It's one of the founding documents of environmental protection.

[Anonymous]

In any case, it doesn't matter what the distance is. You're saying that people who live closer have a better claim to the school than people who live further. MCPS doesn't work that way, and MCPS shouldn't work that way.

There is no logical reason why school assignment shouldn't be determined by distance. MCPS needs to stop playing social policy games and start running the schools. This is stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

In any case, it doesn't matter what the distance is. You're saying that people who live closer have a better claim to the school than people who live further. MCPS doesn't work that way, and MCPS shouldn't work that way.

There is no logical reason why school assignment shouldn't be determined by distance. MCPS needs to stop playing social policy games and start running the schools. This is stupid.

Of course there is a logical reason. In fact, there are at least three logical reasons.

1. It's mathematically impossible to set up school zones such that every student is zoned for their closest school.
2. Running public schools is social policy, by definition.
3. The educational outcomes of poor students at low-poverty schools are better than at high-poverty schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My kids are supposed to go to Ritchie Park in the upcoming years but I am going to put in a request for Cold Spring. We live in walking distance to that school and but would get a bus to Ritchie Park. Cold Spring is under capacity. Only 30 kids for the entire K class. Ritchie Park has 100. It is a no brainer for me. I can see them denying it though so I have to come up with a "reason."

This is stupid. Walking distance and the kids are bused to an overcrowded school?

I live in walking distance to Lakewood, yet my child is also bused to Ritchie Park...

RP is one of the weirdest zoned ES. There is a whole section of a neighborhood (Fallsgrove) not in any way connected to the rest of the zone. I really just do not get it.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/RitchieParkES.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My kids are supposed to go to Ritchie Park in the upcoming years but I am going to put in a request for Cold Spring. We live in walking distance to that school and but would get a bus to Ritchie Park. Cold Spring is under capacity. Only 30 kids for the entire K class. Ritchie Park has 100. It is a no brainer for me. I can see them denying it though so I have to come up with a "reason."

This is stupid. Walking distance and the kids are bused to an overcrowded school?

I live in walking distance to Lakewood, yet my child is also bused to Ritchie Park...

RP is one of the weirdest zoned ES. There is a whole section of a neighborhood (Fallsgrove) not in any way connected to the rest of the zone. I really just do not get it.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/RitchieParkES.pdf

Clopper Mill ES has that: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/ClopperMillES.pdf

So does Fairland ES: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/FairlandES.pdf

So does Garrett Park ES: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/GarrettParkES.pdf

I'm just clicking on schools semi-randomly from the list here: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps.html

so I don't think it's unusual in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My kids are supposed to go to Ritchie Park in the upcoming years but I am going to put in a request for Cold Spring. We live in walking distance to that school and but would get a bus to Ritchie Park. Cold Spring is under capacity. Only 30 kids for the entire K class. Ritchie Park has 100. It is a no brainer for me. I can see them denying it though so I have to come up with a "reason."

This is stupid. Walking distance and the kids are bused to an overcrowded school?

I live in walking distance to Lakewood, yet my child is also bused to Ritchie Park...

RP is one of the weirdest zoned ES. There is a whole section of a neighborhood (Fallsgrove) not in any way connected to the rest of the zone. I really just do not get it.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/RitchieParkES.pdf

Clopper Mill ES has that: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/ClopperMillES.pdf

So does Fairland ES: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/FairlandES.pdf

So does Garrett Park ES: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/GarrettParkES.pdf

I'm just clicking on schools semi-randomly from the list here: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps.html

so I don't think it's unusual in MCPS.

Maybe not, but it is around the RP area. None of the other local ES seems to have this issue. Not to say that it's ok for those other areas to have weird school zoning. I really don't get how the district figures out the zoning. Anyone have a clue? Is there a formula or something, or do they just pick out a piece of paper with some school name on it from a bowl?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Maybe not, but it is around the RP area. None of the other local ES seems to have this issue. Not to say that it's ok for those other areas to have weird school zoning. I really don't get how the district figures out the zoning. Anyone have a clue? Is there a formula or something, or do they just pick out a piece of paper with some school name on it from a bowl?

Here is a link to the boundary study process:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/planning/BoundProcessDescription.pdf

Here is a link to the policy:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/planning/faa.pdf

And here is a link to a recent boundary study, about where to send students whose families are at Walter Reed for rehab:

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/NSAB_SuperintendentsRecommendation022414.pdf