Don't buy in MoCo until the school redistricting is setled?

[Anonymous]

Highly unlikely they’d rezone the Somerset neighborhood away from Somerset elementary (possible that west cc or the parts of kenwood that feed will be rezoned), but they aren’t going to take a neighborhood out of its neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Highly unlikely they’d rezone the Somerset neighborhood away from Somerset elementary (possible that west cc or the parts of kenwood that feed will be rezoned), but they aren’t going to take a neighborhood out of its neighborhood school.

Sure, but then you need $1.2 million for a tear down house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Highly unlikely they’d rezone the Somerset neighborhood away from Somerset elementary (possible that west cc or the parts of kenwood that feed will be rezoned), but they aren’t going to take a neighborhood out of its neighborhood school.

Sure, but then you need $1.2 million for a tear down house.

The OP asked where things will be stable. Not my problem if they don’t have the budget for it...

[Anonymous]

I think you should focus on the elementary school. Highly unlikely MCPS is going to put small kids on long bus rides for PR reasons. Then you have five years to figure it out - and my sense is these folks are going to go to a lottery system for middle and high school - when all but Tiger parents care less. (That’s why they picked a firm that worked on NYC’s system) So your neighbor in a W school may go to a W school but your Larla is going somewhere else. Then you can decide what to do. All the research shows you will want a small middle school not the vast prison like structures this place builds....

[Anonymous]

I would not buy in MOCO. The schools have gone mad. Complete free fall...

[Anonymous]

*all but Tiger parents care. (Sorry on a phone)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spouse and I were considering moving up houses in Bethesda next year, but the brewing school redistricting mess has us a little spooked. Are there areas of Bethesda that are more likely to emerge unscathed? We would be fine with Whitman or BCC but wouldn't want to buy an expensive home only to have our kids riding a bus to some school that is farther away than that.

Should we just wait it out and buy only when the new boundaries are set and final?

If you mean most likely to remain in their current cluster, then those would be the areas along the river and the DC line (furthest away from adjacent clusters), and also the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the school buildings themselves.

PP, you missed the point of the question, OP is probably wondering if any school will be immune to boundary
changes and if so, the answer is NO because even if the residents of the immediate areas won't be moved
form the boundary of the given school, many kids from poor neighborhoods will be bussed into the very
school and so most likely the character of the school will loose luster to the people who are not looking
for diversity. OP, if you embrace the diversity then any school will be fine. But my feel is that if you
were to embraced it then you probably would do it already and then Bethesda or not would not make
any difference. Right?

OP here.

Actually the previous PP's comment about areas that are less likely to be affected was helpful. We are not opposed to more diverse schools, we just want to be able to attend the nearby local schools. If they want to change the mix of these schools and address overcrowding by shifting boundaries at the margins, that seems understandable. But we don't want to invest in a house whose price is based on attending the local schools only to find that our kids will no longer be zoned for them in the next year or two.

[Anonymous]

^ op, you sounds like a good open minded liberal. Your views will change as your kids get older and you better understand how it affects your kids college choice and beyond

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't touch real estate with a 39.5ft pole until it's settled. You wanna lose $100-200k overnight?

Well, if you can’t afford to lose $200k, I do feel for you. It’s hard being LMC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't touch real estate with a 39.5ft pole until it's settled. You wanna lose $100-200k overnight?

This post has been brought to you by a Virginia Real Estate Agent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't touch real estate with a 39.5ft pole until it's settled. You wanna lose $100-200k overnight?

Well, if you can’t afford to lose $200k, I do feel for you. It’s hard being LMC.

That is a truly idiotic post. Seriously PP?

-dp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you're actually serious, here's a serious response: if you wait until the school boundaries are fully settled, you'll never buy anything anywhere. School boundaries are always in play. The biggest changes in MoCo will come from the new high schools currently budgeted to open in 5-6 years. MCPS does not determine boundaries until 18 months before they open, so you'd have to wait for at least 3 and maybe 4 years if you want to know for sure.

The boundary analysis underway is examining overall approach, not specific boundaries. My own guess (and that's all any of us have now) is that it may lead to some tweaks to actual school boundaries to address specific cases where an overcrowded school borders an underutilized school. It may also lead to longer-term efforts to redress the stark race and income differentials at different ends of the county. My guess is that this will not lead to massive disruption of existing school zones nor will it lead to bussing kids far from their existing neighborhoods or schools, simply because it's too expensive.

Fwiw I'm in Bethesda but presume the county will take a hard look at ways to promote greater diversity in the schools like Whitman and Churchill that serve the fewest low income areas. Same goes for those schools that serve the fewest high income areas. I don't know how they would accomplish that and I don't think anyone does, but they can't go about some big rethink around segregation without at least cosmetic measures to include the extremes at either end of the spectrum. That's just my guess, and lots of other people have different expectations.

Bottom line: buy when you're ready to buy. Assume there may be some changes over the next decade to your school zone, no matter where in the area you buy. If you're really invested in a particular neighborhood or school, pay attention to the status of the new HS being constructed and their proximity to your preferred location.

OP here. Thank you! This is very helpful. Definitely don't want to wait years to buy. We need more space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't touch real estate with a 39.5ft pole until it's settled. You wanna lose $100-200k overnight?

This post has been brought to you by a Virginia Real Estate Agent.

Bingo.

[Anonymous]

Don’t buy moco. Why would you want to buy here knowing it has significant issues and you are uncomfortable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you should focus on the elementary school. Highly unlikely MCPS is going to put small kids on long bus rides for PR reasons. Then you have five years to figure it out - and my sense is these folks are going to go to a lottery system for middle and high school - when all but Tiger parents care less. (That’s why they picked a firm that worked on NYC’s system) So your neighbor in a W school may go to a W school but your Larla is going somewhere else. Then you can decide what to do. All the research shows you will want a small middle school not the vast prison like structures this place builds....

OP here. Hadn't considered that a lottery system might be one outcome here. Unless there are restrictions on how far our kids would have to travel to the middle or high school they get assigned to, this would give us pause. Thanks for the insight.