Third round options on Woodward Boundary study

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option F clearly balances facility utilization, proximity and demographics quite well. And without doing anything completely insane. I love it but I wish there was an Option H to keep SSIMS open but everything else the same.

Option F flips two elementary schools (Wood Acres and Bethesda Elementary) to the others middle and high school for no apparent reason. Neither school population benefits from the switch. Both populations have a further distance for high school and Bethesda Elementary kids lose walkability to BCC in a downtown core. It increases bus, car traffic, and safety issues.

I mean I don't care if they switch them back as it doesn't affect me, but it is important to balance demographics as having a high needs population makes it harder to manage a school and they don't get extra funding for this. And neither Wood Acres nor Bethesda would be buses very far - Bethesda ES wouldn't require busing at all. And Wood Acres kids will get a bus instead of being driven by their parents/friends which will reduce traffic and increase safety. I get people will be upset but there are real benefits to this.

What? The Bethesda Elementary zone is definitely not all walkable to Whitman. I’m not certain any of it is.

Bethesda Elementary School is 1.7 miles from Whitman which is in the walk zone.

There are also Rideon buses (29 and 32, I believe) that stop right at Whitman and take people into downtown Bethesda that people could use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else notice that none of the three new options send SSIMS students to Sligo? In all three, current SSIMS students go to either Eastern or TPMS. Begs the question of the size they are going to make eastern (presumably huge, which is terrible) and also puts in question the future of ms magnets. The only way they will have enough room to accommodate all those kids at eastern and TPMS is if they do away with the magnets. What a disaster this plan is. Why would they spend all that money to renovate Sligo if it won’t be taking on more kids? What will happen to language immersion if they close SSIMS? Did they come up with this entire plan —after— releasing the first two rounds of options? Taylor is ruining east county with this half baked idiotic plan.

SSIMS will split between Eastern, and then TPMS instead of Sligo?

It's too bad that Taylor can't take the considered advice of experienced staff before he announces his sweeping changes. It would keep his impulsiveness in better check if he developed that habit. There is a lot of whipsaw going on with major changes being announced every time there is a new version of the boundaries. PP said it correctly: it's a carnival show.

What are you talking about? All three of the new options contemplate adding hundreds of students to Sligo once SSIMS closes. See, e.g., option F (where Sligo’s student body goes from 699 in 2025 to 1065 in 2031).

But none of the areas being proposed to add to Sligo are from SSIMS.

Does that matter? If they're being assigned more kids than they can currently fit then they need an expansion, regardless of where those kids come from.

It's just odd, since the reason the Sligo expansion is even in the CIP is because of the proposed SSIMS closing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else notice that none of the three new options send SSIMS students to Sligo? In all three, current SSIMS students go to either Eastern or TPMS. Begs the question of the size they are going to make eastern (presumably huge, which is terrible) and also puts in question the future of ms magnets. The only way they will have enough room to accommodate all those kids at eastern and TPMS is if they do away with the magnets. What a disaster this plan is. Why would they spend all that money to renovate Sligo if it won’t be taking on more kids? What will happen to language immersion if they close SSIMS? Did they come up with this entire plan —after— releasing the first two rounds of options? Taylor is ruining east county with this half baked idiotic plan.

SSIMS will split between Eastern, and then TPMS instead of Sligo?

It's too bad that Taylor can't take the considered advice of experienced staff before he announces his sweeping changes. It would keep his impulsiveness in better check if he developed that habit. There is a lot of whipsaw going on with major changes being announced every time there is a new version of the boundaries. PP said it correctly: it's a carnival show.

What are you talking about? All three of the new options contemplate adding hundreds of students to Sligo once SSIMS closes. See, e.g., option F (where Sligo’s student body goes from 699 in 2025 to 1065 in 2031).

But none of the areas being proposed to add to Sligo are from SSIMS.

Does that matter? If they're being assigned more kids than they can currently fit then they need an expansion, regardless of where those kids come from.

It's just odd, since the reason the Sligo expansion is even in the CIP is because of the proposed SSIMS closing.

If SSIMS wasn't closing, they could send some of the current Sligo kids to SSiMS and then they wouldn't need to expand it to fit the Arcola kids. But because SSIMS is (likely) closing, they do need to expand Sligo. It doesn't matter whether the actual SSIMS kids physically go to Sligo or not (presumably it's better for them all to go to one place for immersion purposes anyway)... it shouldn't be left overcrowded just because no SSIMS kids are sent there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to recognize that sending Wood Acres to BCC is not insane in the way that sending Farmland to Kennedy was. That was insane and pointless.

That was definitely insane and pointless but this is just pointless. Why irritate and inconvenience extra people, run more buses and increase cost, with nearly zero gain other than to silence east county people who want to stick it to the west county schools? The point of the boundary study was to fill Woodward and fix overcrowding. This swap has nothing to do with either of those things.

The Superintendent and the BOE are required to consider demographics, which is currently the biggest predictor of student achievement. Doesn't that bother you?

Bethesda Elementary has 100 kids per grade with about 20 FARMS kids per grade. Wood Acres has about 100 kids per grade and about 8 FARMS kids per grade. If you are only sending 9th and 10th graders in 2027 to the new HS, that’s 40 FARMS kids heading to Whitman from BCC, but 16 FARMS kids heading away from Whitman and to BCC. You think out of the over 2000 kids who attend Whitman the extra 24 kids are going to make a significant difference from a demographic standpoint? These schools have that many kids enroll/unroll on a regular basis.

It's significantly fewer high needs kids for BCC to serve. Is it huge? No, but it will benefit BCC to my have a lower needs student body. Just a few weeks ago people were talking about a FARMS rate tipping point of 20% in the literature. While I don't think 20% is necessarily the only number that matters, this change would put BCC just below that number.

This supposed slight benefit (a few more/less FARMS kids) in exchange for inconveniencing hundreds of families by sending them to a school double the distance and driving time. FARMS kids don’t want to attend schools further away because it decreases their ability to participate in after school activities. The cost / benefit analysis doesn’t work here. The goal of the boundary study should have been addressing overcrowding at the two schools at focus in the study, not how can we rejigger the whole county to make everyone miserable (in the name of equity).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to recognize that sending Wood Acres to BCC is not insane in the way that sending Farmland to Kennedy was. That was insane and pointless.

That was definitely insane and pointless but this is just pointless. Why irritate and inconvenience extra people, run more buses and increase cost, with nearly zero gain other than to silence east county people who want to stick it to the west county schools? The point of the boundary study was to fill Woodward and fix overcrowding. This swap has nothing to do with either of those things.

The Superintendent and the BOE are required to consider demographics, which is currently the biggest predictor of student achievement. Doesn't that bother you?

Bethesda Elementary has 100 kids per grade with about 20 FARMS kids per grade. Wood Acres has about 100 kids per grade and about 8 FARMS kids per grade. If you are only sending 9th and 10th graders in 2027 to the new HS, that’s 40 FARMS kids heading to Whitman from BCC, but 16 FARMS kids heading away from Whitman and to BCC. You think out of the over 2000 kids who attend Whitman the extra 24 kids are going to make a significant difference from a demographic standpoint? These schools have that many kids enroll/unroll on a regular basis.

It's significantly fewer high needs kids for BCC to serve. Is it huge? No, but it will benefit BCC to my have a lower needs student body. Just a few weeks ago people were talking about a FARMS rate tipping point of 20% in the literature. While I don't think 20% is necessarily the only number that matters, this change would put BCC just below that number.

This supposed slight benefit (a few more/less FARMS kids) in exchange for inconveniencing hundreds of families by sending them to a school double the distance and driving time. FARMS kids don’t want to attend schools further away because it decreases their ability to participate in after school activities. The cost / benefit analysis doesn’t work here. The goal of the boundary study should have been addressing overcrowding at the two schools at focus in the study, not how can we rejigger the whole county to make everyone miserable (in the name of equity).

This sentence is insane and disconnected from reality but I think it will work for you. That's what MCPS has always done is bend over backwards to the most hysterical parents with the most time to complain. Also pretending you can speak for low income families, that's disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to recognize that sending Wood Acres to BCC is not insane in the way that sending Farmland to Kennedy was. That was insane and pointless.

That was definitely insane and pointless but this is just pointless. Why irritate and inconvenience extra people, run more buses and increase cost, with nearly zero gain other than to silence east county people who want to stick it to the west county schools? The point of the boundary study was to fill Woodward and fix overcrowding. This swap has nothing to do with either of those things.

The Superintendent and the BOE are required to consider demographics, which is currently the biggest predictor of student achievement. Doesn't that bother you?

Bethesda Elementary has 100 kids per grade with about 20 FARMS kids per grade. Wood Acres has about 100 kids per grade and about 8 FARMS kids per grade. If you are only sending 9th and 10th graders in 2027 to the new HS, that’s 40 FARMS kids heading to Whitman from BCC, but 16 FARMS kids heading away from Whitman and to BCC. You think out of the over 2000 kids who attend Whitman the extra 24 kids are going to make a significant difference from a demographic standpoint? These schools have that many kids enroll/unroll on a regular basis.

It's significantly fewer high needs kids for BCC to serve. Is it huge? No, but it will benefit BCC to my have a lower needs student body. Just a few weeks ago people were talking about a FARMS rate tipping point of 20% in the literature. While I don't think 20% is necessarily the only number that matters, this change would put BCC just below that number.

This supposed slight benefit (a few more/less FARMS kids) in exchange for inconveniencing hundreds of families by sending them to a school double the distance and driving time. FARMS kids don’t want to attend schools further away because it decreases their ability to participate in after school activities. The cost / benefit analysis doesn’t work here. The goal of the boundary study should have been addressing overcrowding at the two schools at focus in the study, not how can we rejigger the whole county to make everyone miserable (in the name of equity).

This sentence is insane and disconnected from reality but I think it will work for you. That's what MCPS has always done is bend over backwards to the most hysterical parents with the most time to complain. Also pretending you can speak for low income families, that's disgusting.

Oh stop with the gaslighting. Families have been surveyed repeatedly and families of all incomes and backgrounds want to attend schools close to home in their own communities.

Also, MCPS has never bent over backward for parents in my decade with them. They are pros at ignoring parents. I can’t tell you how many of my emails have gone into the MCPS void. What other work organization allows employees to just ignore emails?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to recognize that sending Wood Acres to BCC is not insane in the way that sending Farmland to Kennedy was. That was insane and pointless.

That was definitely insane and pointless but this is just pointless. Why irritate and inconvenience extra people, run more buses and increase cost, with nearly zero gain other than to silence east county people who want to stick it to the west county schools? The point of the boundary study was to fill Woodward and fix overcrowding. This swap has nothing to do with either of those things.

The Superintendent and the BOE are required to consider demographics, which is currently the biggest predictor of student achievement. Doesn't that bother you?

Bethesda Elementary has 100 kids per grade with about 20 FARMS kids per grade. Wood Acres has about 100 kids per grade and about 8 FARMS kids per grade. If you are only sending 9th and 10th graders in 2027 to the new HS, that’s 40 FARMS kids heading to Whitman from BCC, but 16 FARMS kids heading away from Whitman and to BCC. You think out of the over 2000 kids who attend Whitman the extra 24 kids are going to make a significant difference from a demographic standpoint? These schools have that many kids enroll/unroll on a regular basis.

It's significantly fewer high needs kids for BCC to serve. Is it huge? No, but it will benefit BCC to my have a lower needs student body. Just a few weeks ago people were talking about a FARMS rate tipping point of 20% in the literature. While I don't think 20% is necessarily the only number that matters, this change would put BCC just below that number.

This supposed slight benefit (a few more/less FARMS kids) in exchange for inconveniencing hundreds of families by sending them to a school double the distance and driving time. FARMS kids don’t want to attend schools further away because it decreases their ability to participate in after school activities. The cost / benefit analysis doesn’t work here. The goal of the boundary study should have been addressing overcrowding at the two schools at focus in the study, not how can we rejigger the whole county to make everyone miserable (in the name of equity).

This sentence is insane and disconnected from reality but I think it will work for you. That's what MCPS has always done is bend over backwards to the most hysterical parents with the most time to complain. Also pretending you can speak for low income families, that's disgusting.

Oh stop with the gaslighting. Families have been surveyed repeatedly and families of all incomes and backgrounds want to attend schools close to home in their own communities.

Also, MCPS has never bent over backward for parents in my decade with them. They are pros at ignoring parents. I can’t tell you how many of my emails have gone into the MCPS void. What other work organization allows employees to just ignore emails?

It's completely gross for you to use low income families to advance your own interests. You haven't spoken with any of them, they were underrepresented in the survey and we have no idea what folks with low income zoned for Bethesda ES want. Stop being disgusting and speak for your own damned self.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to recognize that sending Wood Acres to BCC is not insane in the way that sending Farmland to Kennedy was. That was insane and pointless.

That was definitely insane and pointless but this is just pointless. Why irritate and inconvenience extra people, run more buses and increase cost, with nearly zero gain other than to silence east county people who want to stick it to the west county schools? The point of the boundary study was to fill Woodward and fix overcrowding. This swap has nothing to do with either of those things.

The Superintendent and the BOE are required to consider demographics, which is currently the biggest predictor of student achievement. Doesn't that bother you?

Bethesda Elementary has 100 kids per grade with about 20 FARMS kids per grade. Wood Acres has about 100 kids per grade and about 8 FARMS kids per grade. If you are only sending 9th and 10th graders in 2027 to the new HS, that’s 40 FARMS kids heading to Whitman from BCC, but 16 FARMS kids heading away from Whitman and to BCC. You think out of the over 2000 kids who attend Whitman the extra 24 kids are going to make a significant difference from a demographic standpoint? These schools have that many kids enroll/unroll on a regular basis.

It's significantly fewer high needs kids for BCC to serve. Is it huge? No, but it will benefit BCC to my have a lower needs student body. Just a few weeks ago people were talking about a FARMS rate tipping point of 20% in the literature. While I don't think 20% is necessarily the only number that matters, this change would put BCC just below that number.

This supposed slight benefit (a few more/less FARMS kids) in exchange for inconveniencing hundreds of families by sending them to a school double the distance and driving time. FARMS kids don’t want to attend schools further away because it decreases their ability to participate in after school activities. The cost / benefit analysis doesn’t work here. The goal of the boundary study should have been addressing overcrowding at the two schools at focus in the study, not how can we rejigger the whole county to make everyone miserable (in the name of equity).

This sentence is insane and disconnected from reality but I think it will work for you. That's what MCPS has always done is bend over backwards to the most hysterical parents with the most time to complain. Also pretending you can speak for low income families, that's disgusting.

Oh stop with the gaslighting. Families have been surveyed repeatedly and families of all incomes and backgrounds want to attend schools close to home in their own communities.

Also, MCPS has never bent over backward for parents in my decade with them. They are pros at ignoring parents. I can’t tell you how many of my emails have gone into the MCPS void. What other work organization allows employees to just ignore emails?

It's completely gross for you to use low income families to advance your own interests. You haven't spoken with any of them, they were underrepresented in the survey and we have no idea what folks with low income zoned for Bethesda ES want. Stop being disgusting and speak for your own damned self.

PP is using research and facts, both of which are completely absent from your post. So maybe discover for yourself what the research says, and come up with some adjectives other than “gross” and “disgusting.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to recognize that sending Wood Acres to BCC is not insane in the way that sending Farmland to Kennedy was. That was insane and pointless.

That was definitely insane and pointless but this is just pointless. Why irritate and inconvenience extra people, run more buses and increase cost, with nearly zero gain other than to silence east county people who want to stick it to the west county schools? The point of the boundary study was to fill Woodward and fix overcrowding. This swap has nothing to do with either of those things.

The Superintendent and the BOE are required to consider demographics, which is currently the biggest predictor of student achievement. Doesn't that bother you?

Bethesda Elementary has 100 kids per grade with about 20 FARMS kids per grade. Wood Acres has about 100 kids per grade and about 8 FARMS kids per grade. If you are only sending 9th and 10th graders in 2027 to the new HS, that’s 40 FARMS kids heading to Whitman from BCC, but 16 FARMS kids heading away from Whitman and to BCC. You think out of the over 2000 kids who attend Whitman the extra 24 kids are going to make a significant difference from a demographic standpoint? These schools have that many kids enroll/unroll on a regular basis.

It's significantly fewer high needs kids for BCC to serve. Is it huge? No, but it will benefit BCC to my have a lower needs student body. Just a few weeks ago people were talking about a FARMS rate tipping point of 20% in the literature. While I don't think 20% is necessarily the only number that matters, this change would put BCC just below that number.

This supposed slight benefit (a few more/less FARMS kids) in exchange for inconveniencing hundreds of families by sending them to a school double the distance and driving time. FARMS kids don’t want to attend schools further away because it decreases their ability to participate in after school activities. The cost / benefit analysis doesn’t work here. The goal of the boundary study should have been addressing overcrowding at the two schools at focus in the study, not how can we rejigger the whole county to make everyone miserable (in the name of equity).

This sentence is insane and disconnected from reality but I think it will work for you. That's what MCPS has always done is bend over backwards to the most hysterical parents with the most time to complain. Also pretending you can speak for low income families, that's disgusting.

Oh stop with the gaslighting. Families have been surveyed repeatedly and families of all incomes and backgrounds want to attend schools close to home in their own communities.

Also, MCPS has never bent over backward for parents in my decade with them. They are pros at ignoring parents. I can’t tell you how many of my emails have gone into the MCPS void. What other work organization allows employees to just ignore emails?

It's completely gross for you to use low income families to advance your own interests. You haven't spoken with any of them, they were underrepresented in the survey and we have no idea what folks with low income zoned for Bethesda ES want. Stop being disgusting and speak for your own damned self.

PP is using research and facts, both of which are completely absent from your post. So maybe discover for yourself what the research says, and come up with some adjectives other than “gross” and “disgusting.”

No you are just choosing to ignore the facts I described and pretend it is ok to trot out "low income families" to try to get what YOU want.

[Anonymous]

No point in going to the Einstein session tonight. It was a canned speech with no Q&A. Maps around the room with reps to ask questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No point in going to the Einstein session tonight. It was a canned speech with no Q&A. Maps around the room with reps to ask questions.

Did they say anything about how the SSIMS transition would work? Is it that everyone else will move to the new boundaries in 2027 except that SSIMS kids will stay at SSIMS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option F clearly balances facility utilization, proximity and demographics quite well. And without doing anything completely insane. I love it but I wish there was an Option H to keep SSIMS open but everything else the same.

Option F flips two elementary schools (Wood Acres and Bethesda Elementary) to the others middle and high school for no apparent reason. Neither school population benefits from the switch. Both populations have a further distance for high school and Bethesda Elementary kids lose walkability to BCC in a downtown core. It increases bus, car traffic, and safety issues.

I mean I don't care if they switch them back as it doesn't affect me, but it is important to balance demographics as having a high needs population makes it harder to manage a school and they don't get extra funding for this. And neither Wood Acres nor Bethesda would be buses very far - Bethesda ES wouldn't require busing at all. And Wood Acres kids will get a bus instead of being driven by their parents/friends which will reduce traffic and increase safety. I get people will be upset but there are real benefits to this.

I have no stake here (I’m in the other study area), but have you ever been in downtown Bethesda between 7-9AM or 3-6PM? The last thing we need is more cars/buses on the road in Bethesda!

[Anonymous]

Could be worse for Woodacres, they could get sent to a silver spring HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option F clearly balances facility utilization, proximity and demographics quite well. And without doing anything completely insane. I love it but I wish there was an Option H to keep SSIMS open but everything else the same.

Option F flips two elementary schools (Wood Acres and Bethesda Elementary) to the others middle and high school for no apparent reason. Neither school population benefits from the switch. Both populations have a further distance for high school and Bethesda Elementary kids lose walkability to BCC in a downtown core. It increases bus, car traffic, and safety issues.

I mean I don't care if they switch them back as it doesn't affect me, but it is important to balance demographics as having a high needs population makes it harder to manage a school and they don't get extra funding for this. And neither Wood Acres nor Bethesda would be buses very far - Bethesda ES wouldn't require busing at all. And Wood Acres kids will get a bus instead of being driven by their parents/friends which will reduce traffic and increase safety. I get people will be upset but there are real benefits to this.

I have no stake here (I’m in the other study area), but have you ever been in downtown Bethesda between 7-9AM or 3-6PM? The last thing we need is more cars/buses on the road in Bethesda!

While the distance may not initially sound terrible, when you factor in the time for bus stops and travel on major roads during rush hour, the bus commute could easily be 30-40 minutes. More travel time equals less sleep for teenagers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option F clearly balances facility utilization, proximity and demographics quite well. And without doing anything completely insane. I love it but I wish there was an Option H to keep SSIMS open but everything else the same.

Option F flips two elementary schools (Wood Acres and Bethesda Elementary) to the others middle and high school for no apparent reason. Neither school population benefits from the switch. Both populations have a further distance for high school and Bethesda Elementary kids lose walkability to BCC in a downtown core. It increases bus, car traffic, and safety issues.

I mean I don't care if they switch them back as it doesn't affect me, but it is important to balance demographics as having a high needs population makes it harder to manage a school and they don't get extra funding for this. And neither Wood Acres nor Bethesda would be buses very far - Bethesda ES wouldn't require busing at all. And Wood Acres kids will get a bus instead of being driven by their parents/friends which will reduce traffic and increase safety. I get people will be upset but there are real benefits to this.

I have no stake here (I’m in the other study area), but have you ever been in downtown Bethesda between 7-9AM or 3-6PM? The last thing we need is more cars/buses on the road in Bethesda!

While the distance may not initially sound terrible, when you factor in the time for bus stops and travel on major roads during rush hour, the bus commute could easily be 30-40 minutes. More travel time equals less sleep for teenagers.

Or, parents make sure their kids go to bed earlier. You clearly have a stake as you are commenting.