Do the recommendations re: BCC boundary study come out today?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a CCES, NCC, RHPS parent and you are OK with Option 7, you need to wake up!!!!!!! Option 1 is the most equitable. You are not only doing a disservice to your OWN children with 7, but think of the next two decades of kids you are selling short.

You are bequeathing them an overcrowded school from the moment it opens with a lopsided FARMS and overall diversity rate that essentially turns Westland into a "private school" (not my words but the words of friends of mine at the proposed Westland boundary who love to the new arrangement because their property values "jumped overnight!") It is board sanctioned segregation thanks to a weak BOE pandering to RCF. Why is the NAACP not involved in this? What about the achievement gap they are so desperate to close? Does it not matter that they are creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?

We have the real kids in need at RHPS. Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills. They get to stay local for three years and then are bused! Amazing that RCF pitches a fit and gets their way about proximity after having it so easy when RHPS has paved the way for equity and diversity through shared sacrifice by busing for over three decades and is expected to give even more! How about RCF participates in shared busing too for three years? They get a brand spanking new walkable neighborhood school for 6 whole years and then they get bused for only three in middle school? Amazingly, under that plan, they still get a better deal than RHPS/CCES/NCC!

This is not "overblown" or "hysteria". These are the facts. The people who have been holding up the Diversity and Equity bargain in Chevy Chase and NCC are tired of being railroaded.

CCES parent here-- no need to be rude-- I am awake. I support option 1; however, option 7 seems fine to me. I am happy to have the CCES kids not be split up as some of the options included AND I am ok with my kids going to a more diverse school. All the schools are overcrowded. Your comments about government housing and the apartments show your true colors-- this is about not wanting the lower income and minority kids as someone else said earlier. Embarrassing.

AI don't care about the diversity issue in Option 7, but whether you're a CCES parent or not, saying "all schools are overcrowded" is flat out wrong. Read the recommendation again. Under Option 7, Westland will be under capacity in 5 years (something like 80%), while MS #2 will be at 99% of capacity. The new school can't handle new students from the development in the surrounding area (also in the report) because the school was built on too small a site. There's no place to expand, and the neighborhood infrastructure can't handle expansion. They don't even have enough parking spaces for the teachers. They have less basketball courts, less tennis courts, and one overlay field.

You may remember that your neighborhood opposed siting the school on the 32+ acre site off Jones Bridge Road. Opponents kept trying to tell you there was going to be a problem here, but your PTAs were in bed with the BOE, and you wouldn't listen. Well, we're all reaping what you have sown.

I thus support option 1, but I could be convinced to accept splitting articulation in other schools to reduce the strain on the new school. If that means taking some CCES or SS or BE or WB kids and sending them to two different schools, works for me.

+1

[Anonymous]

I just posted a comment on the facility problem, but I agree with you. This issue discussion has taken a weird turn somewhere. For me, the issue boils down to capacity. When they were discussing where to put this school, both sides got into this "angels on the head of a pin" argument about whether the smaller new school would provide an equitable education to Westland. We're beyond that now. The superintendent has said that the smaller school will hit maximum capacity within five years, and the larger school (Westland) will be over-capacity. That's not fair to the kids attending the smaller school.

+1

This is a capacity issue. TBH, this won't really affect my kid all that much. She'll likely be through MS#2 by the time the overcrowding is becoming unbearable. So, I'm mainly looking at this from a longer term perspective. Why on earth draw boundaries that we know from the outset will be good for 5 years tops? In 5 years, either boundaries will have to be redrawn or they will have to "find" buildable space at MS#2 which everyone has said doesn't exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are a CCES, NCC, RHPS parent and you are OK with Option 7, you need to wake up!!!!!!! Option 1 is the most equitable. You are not only doing a disservice to your OWN children with 7, but think of the next two decades of kids you are selling short.

You are bequeathing them an overcrowded school from the moment it opens with a lopsided FARMS and overall diversity rate that essentially turns Westland into a "private school" (not my words but the words of friends of mine at the proposed Westland boundary who love to the new arrangement because their property values "jumped overnight!") It is board sanctioned segregation thanks to a weak BOE pandering to RCF. Why is the NAACP not involved in this? What about the achievement gap they are so desperate to close? Does it not matter that they are creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?

We have the real kids in need at RHPS. Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills. They get to stay local for three years and then are bused! Amazing that RCF pitches a fit and gets their way about proximity after having it so easy when RHPS has paved the way for equity and diversity through shared sacrifice by busing for over three decades and is expected to give even more! How about RCF participates in shared busing too for three years? They get a brand spanking new walkable neighborhood school for 6 whole years and then they get bused for only three in middle school? Amazingly, under that plan, they still get a better deal than RHPS/CCES/NCC!

This is not "overblown" or "hysteria". These are the facts. The people who have been holding up the Diversity and Equity bargain in Chevy Chase and NCC are tired of being railroaded.

So much in this to unpack, here goes:

"Creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?"
-Besides the overcrowding, what's the inequality exactly? So, Westland may end up with better test scores but that doesn't mean that high achieving kids at MS#2 will be any less high achieving. Amazing how people see a FARMs level of 15% and freak out

"Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills."
- The neighborhood program at RCF is mostly comprised of kids from the apartment buildings near the school- Rollingwood, Friendly Gardens and Round Hill. Most, if not all of these kids are low-income minorities. The percentage of white, upper-middle class kids in the English program is probably no more than 30%.
- Yes, RCF does have a brand new school, after years of fighting to replace one full of mold and rodent droppings. We were pushed back in the queue several times by schools with more forceful and wealthier PTAs. Now that we have the new school, MCPS decided to throw thee extra programs at the school, so it now houses 5 separate programs (English, Immersion, PEP, autism, pre-K) with no extra assistance for our amazing principal. The school is projected to be overcrowded in a year. But, that's par for the course in MCPS.

Option 7 has put the school in a real bind with the two programs at odds.

Moral of the story is that nothing is perfect. No one wins. We aren't paying $35K/year for school so we have to make some compromises.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Under the option selected, RCF is being split up (despite the success the school has had with integrating the two programs). Under the option you want, the RCF families would "get bused off and used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers."

I'm not sure that's accurate. I believe, but am not positive, that the Spanish Immersion program is not full of ESOLs, and would guess not as high on the FARMS list. Therefore the ESOL / FARMS are going to MS#2 and the Spanish Immersion are going to Westland. No token kids being moved to lilly-white Westland under option 7.

You are correct that the immersion program's ESOL and FARMs rates are lower than the neighborhood school's rates. But the immersion program's racial diversity,at least in the lower grades, more closely reflects Montgomery County than what the demographics of Westland will be under Option 7. The minority immersion kids attending Westland under option 1 will indeed be "used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers." They will be separated from the schoolmates they've befriended over six years and they will be the brown and black faces at Westland. Even for the children from upper-middle class and affluent black and Latino families, this will be really difficult for them.

So why not end the immersion program until it can be offered county-wide? 87% of the kids in the immersion program come from outside the cluster, and apparently, they are straining facilities and screwing up the demographics of the schools.

There is no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. What would you do with the kids who are currently in the immersion program, send them back to their home schools? That would really suck for the older kids.

While immersion kids may be "straining facilities and screwing up the demographics," their parents are actively supporting the schools with both tangible and intangible resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a CCES, NCC, RHPS parent and you are OK with Option 7, you need to wake up!!!!!!! Option 1 is the most equitable. You are not only doing a disservice to your OWN children with 7, but think of the next two decades of kids you are selling short.

You are bequeathing them an overcrowded school from the moment it opens with a lopsided FARMS and overall diversity rate that essentially turns Westland into a "private school" (not my words but the words of friends of mine at the proposed Westland boundary who love to the new arrangement because their property values "jumped overnight!") It is board sanctioned segregation thanks to a weak BOE pandering to RCF. Why is the NAACP not involved in this? What about the achievement gap they are so desperate to close? Does it not matter that they are creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?

We have the real kids in need at RHPS. Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills. They get to stay local for three years and then are bused! Amazing that RCF pitches a fit and gets their way about proximity after having it so easy when RHPS has paved the way for equity and diversity through shared sacrifice by busing for over three decades and is expected to give even more! How about RCF participates in shared busing too for three years? They get a brand spanking new walkable neighborhood school for 6 whole years and then they get bused for only three in middle school? Amazingly, under that plan, they still get a better deal than RHPS/CCES/NCC!

This is not "overblown" or "hysteria". These are the facts. The people who have been holding up the Diversity and Equity bargain in Chevy Chase and NCC are tired of being railroaded.

So much in this to unpack, here goes:

"Creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?"
-Besides the overcrowding, what's the inequality exactly? So, Westland may end up with better test scores but that doesn't mean that high achieving kids at MS#2 will be any less high achieving. Amazing how people see a FARMs level of 15% and freak out

"Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills."
- The neighborhood program at RCF is mostly comprised of kids from the apartment buildings near the school- Rollingwood, Friendly Gardens and Round Hill. Most, if not all of these kids are low-income minorities. The percentage of white, upper-middle class kids in the English program is probably no more than 30%.
- Yes, RCF does have a brand new school, after years of fighting to replace one full of mold and rodent droppings. We were pushed back in the queue several times by schools with more forceful and wealthier PTAs. Now that we have the new school, MCPS decided to throw thee extra programs at the school, so it now houses 5 separate programs (English, Immersion, PEP, autism, pre-K) with no extra assistance for our amazing principal. The school is projected to be overcrowded in a year. But, that's par for the course in MCPS.

Option 7 has put the school in a real bind with the two programs at odds.

Moral of the story is that nothing is perfect. No one wins. We aren't paying $35K/year for school so we have to make some compromises.

"Besides overcrowding, what's the inequality exactly?"

Putting the boundary decision aside, the school starts out with much less than Westland. Westland is twice the size of the new school. If the new school were on flat land, you could make additions. It's not. I have no problem with the diversity numbers in the abstract, but when you start out with a lesser school at 95% capacity, then diversity does kind of matter. Why is it that the school with more diversity shoulders that burden, while the white, affluent communities on the west side aren't asked to make a sacrifice? Where do we cross the line into an environmental microaggression for the communities of color?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Under the option selected, RCF is being split up (despite the success the school has had with integrating the two programs). Under the option you want, the RCF families would "get bused off and used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers."

I'm not sure that's accurate. I believe, but am not positive, that the Spanish Immersion program is not full of ESOLs, and would guess not as high on the FARMS list. Therefore the ESOL / FARMS are going to MS#2 and the Spanish Immersion are going to Westland. No token kids being moved to lilly-white Westland under option 7.

You are correct that the immersion program's ESOL and FARMs rates are lower than the neighborhood school's rates. But the immersion program's racial diversity,at least in the lower grades, more closely reflects Montgomery County than what the demographics of Westland will be under Option 7. The minority immersion kids attending Westland under option 1 will indeed be "used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers." They will be separated from the schoolmates they've befriended over six years and they will be the brown and black faces at Westland. Even for the children from upper-middle class and affluent black and Latino families, this will be really difficult for them.

But it's shifting populations around and messing up planning. 87% of the students come from outside the cluster. That's crazy.
So why not end the immersion program until it can be offered county-wide? 87% of the kids in the immersion program come from outside the cluster, and apparently, they are straining facilities and screwing up the demographics of the schools.

There is no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. What would you do with the kids who are currently in the immersion program, send them back to their home schools? That would really suck for the older kids.

While immersion kids may be "straining facilities and screwing up the demographics," their parents are actively supporting the schools with both tangible and intangible resources.

[Anonymous]

Does it seem possible to anyone else that this is part of a bigger plan on overcrowding by MCPS? The schools on the West side of the county are much more overcrowded than the schools on the East side or the North of the county. Some school population shifts seem like they would be helpful. For example, relieve some pressure on Pyle by shifting kids to Westland. Remove some pressure on BCC MS #2 by shifting population to SS. Remove some pressure on SS by shifting population farther East and North. I don't understand why the "overcrowding" camp on this thread thinks that this is the end of the process to address overcrowding instead of the beginning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it seem possible to anyone else that this is part of a bigger plan on overcrowding by MCPS? The schools on the West side of the county are much more overcrowded than the schools on the East side or the North of the county. Some school population shifts seem like they would be helpful. For example, relieve some pressure on Pyle by shifting kids to Westland. Remove some pressure on BCC MS #2 by shifting population to SS. Remove some pressure on SS by shifting population farther East and North. I don't understand why the "overcrowding" camp on this thread thinks that this is the end of the process to address overcrowding instead of the beginning.

I wish I believed that, but I've seen the overcrowding report and there are no big solutions. Paving the pool at Piney Branch. Shifting 100 kids from one ES to another. No big fixes, and no concern at all for the thousands of new, high-end, family-sized apartments/condos going into downtown Bethesda and Silver Spring. Those aren't even counted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does it seem possible to anyone else that this is part of a bigger plan on overcrowding by MCPS? The schools on the West side of the county are much more overcrowded than the schools on the East side or the North of the county. Some school population shifts seem like they would be helpful. For example, relieve some pressure on Pyle by shifting kids to Westland. Remove some pressure on BCC MS #2 by shifting population to SS. Remove some pressure on SS by shifting population farther East and North. I don't understand why the "overcrowding" camp on this thread thinks that this is the end of the process to address overcrowding instead of the beginning.

I wish I believed that, but I've seen the overcrowding report and there are no big solutions. Paving the pool at Piney Branch. Shifting 100 kids from one ES to another. No big fixes, and no concern at all for the thousands of new, high-end, family-sized apartments/condos going into downtown Bethesda and Silver Spring. Those aren't even counted.

Agree, there are no big fixes. As for the comment about the overcrowding of schools in the west, according the MCPS, the high schools are all above seat capacity. The superintendent also acknowledge Downtown Bethesda Development in his background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it seem possible to anyone else that this is part of a bigger plan on overcrowding by MCPS? The schools on the West side of the county are much more overcrowded than the schools on the East side or the North of the county. Some school population shifts seem like they would be helpful. For example, relieve some pressure on Pyle by shifting kids to Westland. Remove some pressure on BCC MS #2 by shifting population to SS. Remove some pressure on SS by shifting population farther East and North. I don't understand why the "overcrowding" camp on this thread thinks that this is the end of the process to address overcrowding instead of the beginning.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it seem possible to anyone else that this is part of a bigger plan on overcrowding by MCPS? The schools on the West side of the county are much more overcrowded than the schools on the East side or the North of the county. Some school population shifts seem like they would be helpful. For example, relieve some pressure on Pyle by shifting kids to Westland. Remove some pressure on BCC MS #2 by shifting population to SS. Remove some pressure on SS by shifting population farther East and North. I don't understand why the "overcrowding" camp on this thread thinks that this is the end of the process to address overcrowding instead of the beginning.

You need to go to the MCPS website and check the school capacity numbers and the enrollments. It's only as recent as 2014, but it doesn't support your statement that the schools on the west side of the county are much more overcrowded than the schools on the east side or in the north. Some high schools in the west drop in enrollment before picking up again, but don't strain their capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a CCES, NCC, RHPS parent and you are OK with Option 7, you need to wake up!!!!!!! Option 1 is the most equitable. You are not only doing a disservice to your OWN children with 7, but think of the next two decades of kids you are selling short.

You are bequeathing them an overcrowded school from the moment it opens with a lopsided FARMS and overall diversity rate that essentially turns Westland into a "private school" (not my words but the words of friends of mine at the proposed Westland boundary who love to the new arrangement because their property values "jumped overnight!") It is board sanctioned segregation thanks to a weak BOE pandering to RCF. Why is the NAACP not involved in this? What about the achievement gap they are so desperate to close? Does it not matter that they are creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?

We have the real kids in need at RHPS. Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills. They get to stay local for three years and then are bused! Amazing that RCF pitches a fit and gets their way about proximity after having it so easy when RHPS has paved the way for equity and diversity through shared sacrifice by busing for over three decades and is expected to give even more! How about RCF participates in shared busing too for three years? They get a brand spanking new walkable neighborhood school for 6 whole years and then they get bused for only three in middle school? Amazingly, under that plan, they still get a better deal than RHPS/CCES/NCC!

This is not "overblown" or "hysteria". These are the facts. The people who have been holding up the Diversity and Equity bargain in Chevy Chase and NCC are tired of being railroaded.

So much in this to unpack, here goes:

"Creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?"
-Besides the overcrowding, what's the inequality exactly? So, Westland may end up with better test scores but that doesn't mean that high achieving kids at MS#2 will be any less high achieving. Amazing how people see a FARMs level of 15% and freak out

"Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills."
- The neighborhood program at RCF is mostly comprised of kids from the apartment buildings near the school- Rollingwood, Friendly Gardens and Round Hill. Most, if not all of these kids are low-income minorities. The percentage of white, upper-middle class kids in the English program is probably no more than 30%.
- Yes, RCF does have a brand new school, after years of fighting to replace one full of mold and rodent droppings. We were pushed back in the queue several times by schools with more forceful and wealthier PTAs. Now that we have the new school, MCPS decided to throw thee extra programs at the school, so it now houses 5 separate programs (English, Immersion, PEP, autism, pre-K) with no extra assistance for our amazing principal. The school is projected to be overcrowded in a year. But, that's par for the course in MCPS.

Option 7 has put the school in a real bind with the two programs at odds.

Moral of the story is that nothing is perfect. No one wins. We aren't paying $35K/year for school so we have to make some compromises.

Yes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a CCES, NCC, RHPS parent and you are OK with Option 7, you need to wake up!!!!!!! Option 1 is the most equitable. You are not only doing a disservice to your OWN children with 7, but think of the next two decades of kids you are selling short.

You are bequeathing them an overcrowded school from the moment it opens with a lopsided FARMS and overall diversity rate that essentially turns Westland into a "private school" (not my words but the words of friends of mine at the proposed Westland boundary who love to the new arrangement because their property values "jumped overnight!") It is board sanctioned segregation thanks to a weak BOE pandering to RCF. Why is the NAACP not involved in this? What about the achievement gap they are so desperate to close? Does it not matter that they are creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?

We have the real kids in need at RHPS. Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills. They get to stay local for three years and then are bused! Amazing that RCF pitches a fit and gets their way about proximity after having it so easy when RHPS has paved the way for equity and diversity through shared sacrifice by busing for over three decades and is expected to give even more! How about RCF participates in shared busing too for three years? They get a brand spanking new walkable neighborhood school for 6 whole years and then they get bused for only three in middle school? Amazingly, under that plan, they still get a better deal than RHPS/CCES/NCC!

This is not "overblown" or "hysteria". These are the facts. The people who have been holding up the Diversity and Equity bargain in Chevy Chase and NCC are tired of being railroaded.

So much in this to unpack, here goes:

"Creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?"
-Besides the overcrowding, what's the inequality exactly? So, Westland may end up with better test scores but that doesn't mean that high achieving kids at MS#2 will be any less high achieving. Amazing how people see a FARMs level of 15% and freak out

"Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills."
- The neighborhood program at RCF is mostly comprised of kids from the apartment buildings near the school- Rollingwood, Friendly Gardens and Round Hill. Most, if not all of these kids are low-income minorities. The percentage of white, upper-middle class kids in the English program is probably no more than 30%.
- Yes, RCF does have a brand new school, after years of fighting to replace one full of mold and rodent droppings. We were pushed back in the queue several times by schools with more forceful and wealthier PTAs. Now that we have the new school, MCPS decided to throw thee extra programs at the school, so it now houses 5 separate programs (English, Immersion, PEP, autism, pre-K) with no extra assistance for our amazing principal. The school is projected to be overcrowded in a year. But, that's par for the course in MCPS.

Option 7 has put the school in a real bind with the two programs at odds.

Moral of the story is that nothing is perfect. No one wins. We aren't paying $35K/year for school so we have to make some compromises.

"Besides overcrowding, what's the inequality exactly?"

Putting the boundary decision aside, the school starts out with much less than Westland. Westland is twice the size of the new school. If the new school were on flat land, you could make additions. It's not. I have no problem with the diversity numbers in the abstract, but when you start out with a lesser school at 95% capacity, then diversity does kind of matter. Why is it that the school with more diversity shoulders that burden, while the white, affluent communities on the west side aren't asked to make a sacrifice? Where do we cross the line into an environmental microaggression for the communities of color?

+1

[Anonymous]

Moral of the story is two things, (1) be careful what you wish for and (2) that people need to take a bigger picture view.

1. MS#2 site selection: Two sites for MS#2 were proposed that made more logical sense than the current location.

The first was to co-locate at RHES. Amazingly, the RCF neighborhood opposed this option because at the time they believed that access to Westland was better for their property values. Now the parents at RCF want to be at the closer school, which for some reason pisses off CCES and NCC parents on this board.

A second option was a site off Jones Bridge that was opposed by Chevy Chase communities. Now the Chevy Chase parents are unhappy about capacity and overcrowding when a closer and larger site was available.

The site of MS#2 never made any sense to me, up in Kensington smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Personally, I always thought Lynnbrook School/Park was the most logical location, but it was oddly never even considered.

2. Capacity: First of all, it is important to note that limiting factor in all capacity questions for the cluster is what can be accommodated at BCC HS. There cannot be two MSs with a total of 3000 students, but BCC HS only having capacity for 2400 students (which is where it will be after its current and final expansion).

Second, it is important to note that while the projections say that Westland will be under capacity, everyone knows that MCPS projections are a joke. In response to the Chevy Chase Lake sector plan, the western half of BES was sent to Bradley Hills, BES was expanded, MS#2 was built and CCES and NCC will terminate at 5th grade. However the Chevy Chase Lake sector plan, also projected BES to have 517 students, it now has 599.

Current growth at BES is exceeding all expectations, there are over a thousand new multi-family units that have been built in boundary in the last 2 years and about 600 more units slated to open in the next year. Add to that the 8 million square feet called for under downtown Bethesda sector plan and it is easy to imagine that any spare capacity at Westland is already accounted for.

In addition, I am not sure people are aware that the Westbard sector plan also calls for changing boundaries to send more kids from that area to Westland. This proposal seems less likely to occur right now because the MCPS Capital Improvement Budget released today calls for expanding both Pyle and Whitman, likely to account for expected Westbard growth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a CCES, NCC, RHPS parent and you are OK with Option 7, you need to wake up!!!!!!! Option 1 is the most equitable. You are not only doing a disservice to your OWN children with 7, but think of the next two decades of kids you are selling short.

You are bequeathing them an overcrowded school from the moment it opens with a lopsided FARMS and overall diversity rate that essentially turns Westland into a "private school" (not my words but the words of friends of mine at the proposed Westland boundary who love to the new arrangement because their property values "jumped overnight!") It is board sanctioned segregation thanks to a weak BOE pandering to RCF. Why is the NAACP not involved in this? What about the achievement gap they are so desperate to close? Does it not matter that they are creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?

We have the real kids in need at RHPS. Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills. They get to stay local for three years and then are bused! Amazing that RCF pitches a fit and gets their way about proximity after having it so easy when RHPS has paved the way for equity and diversity through shared sacrifice by busing for over three decades and is expected to give even more! How about RCF participates in shared busing too for three years? They get a brand spanking new walkable neighborhood school for 6 whole years and then they get bused for only three in middle school? Amazingly, under that plan, they still get a better deal than RHPS/CCES/NCC!

This is not "overblown" or "hysteria". These are the facts. The people who have been holding up the Diversity and Equity bargain in Chevy Chase and NCC are tired of being railroaded.

So much in this to unpack, here goes:

"Creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?"
-Besides the overcrowding, what's the inequality exactly? So, Westland may end up with better test scores but that doesn't mean that high achieving kids at MS#2 will be any less high achieving. Amazing how people see a FARMs level of 15% and freak out

"Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills."
- The neighborhood program at RCF is mostly comprised of kids from the apartment buildings near the school- Rollingwood, Friendly Gardens and Round Hill. Most, if not all of these kids are low-income minorities. The percentage of white, upper-middle class kids in the English program is probably no more than 30%.
- Yes, RCF does have a brand new school, after years of fighting to replace one full of mold and rodent droppings. We were pushed back in the queue several times by schools with more forceful and wealthier PTAs. Now that we have the new school, MCPS decided to throw thee extra programs at the school, so it now houses 5 separate programs (English, Immersion, PEP, autism, pre-K) with no extra assistance for our amazing principal. The school is projected to be overcrowded in a year. But, that's par for the course in MCPS.

Option 7 has put the school in a real bind with the two programs at odds.

Moral of the story is that nothing is perfect. No one wins. We aren't paying $35K/year for school so we have to make some compromises.

"Besides overcrowding, what's the inequality exactly?"

Putting the boundary decision aside, the school starts out with much less than Westland. Westland is twice the size of the new school. If the new school were on flat land, you could make additions. It's not. I have no problem with the diversity numbers in the abstract, but when you start out with a lesser school at 95% capacity, then diversity does kind of matter. Why is it that the school with more diversity shoulders that burden, while the white, affluent communities on the west side aren't asked to make a sacrifice? Where do we cross the line into an environmental microaggression for the communities of color?

110%.