New Hyattsvillle School: Boundary Meeting

[Anonymous]

Has anyone heard about the boundary discussions for the new elementary school in Hyattsville. We are nearing the end of November and the school board has not released any information.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure they have decided what they are doing with it yet. I know someone on the PTA at a school that would potentially lose kids to the new school depending on those boundaries. They still claim the board is considering making a TAG center at the new school. I have no idea how they know this (or if it is accurate) but that's what I've heard - BOE still hasn't decided on use and they have to figure that out before boundaries. Again, take this with a huge shaker full of salt since this is well removed from an official statement.

[Anonymous]

I've heard early December for the meetings but they are finalizing dates and locations still so it hasn't been released.

[Anonymous]

I've heard early December for the meetings but they are finalizing dates and locations still so it hasn't been released.

[Anonymous]

The boundary meetings will be held at 7pm
Dec 17 at Nicholas Orem Middle School
Dec 18 at Kenmoor Middle School
Dec 19 at James Madison Middle

http://www1.pgcps.org/pasb/index.aspx?id=153333

In addition to boundaries for the new Hyattsville-area elementary school, the transition of more 6th graders to middle schools will be discussed along with "establishment and expansion of theme and specialty schools."

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

Based on the Dec. 17 meeting, boundaries for the new Hyattsville-area elementary school will not be formally proposed/released until the PGCPS CEO's recommendation is official presented on Jan. 17. There will be a public hearing on the recommendations on Feb. 4, and the Board of Education is slated to vote on boundary changes on Feb. 13.

The naming process is expected to take place in Spring 2014 after the boundary area is official.

The new school is proposed to have a Creative and Performing Arts theme, which means a specialty program that is open to in-boundary students only (as opposed to the lottery-based specialty programs).

Also mentioned was a proposal for three Spanish-immersion specialty programs. These would be lottery based and the proposed sites are Cesar Chavez ES, P.E. Williams ES, and Overlook Elementary. The immersion programs might be phased in starting with kindergarten, which would allow existing students to continue through the elementary school until immersion is fully phased in.

Final item was sixth grade to middle transition. Five schools were mentioned as likely to see their sixth grades shift to middle school for SY2014-15: Barack Obama (to James Madison and Kettering); Chillum (to Nicholas Orem and Hyattsville Middle); Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (to Buck Lodge); Mattaponi (to Gwynn Park): and Thomas Stone (to Hyattsville Middle). In some of these cases, such as Hyattsville Middle, the overcrowding at the elementary level is so great that PGCPS feels the only solution is to add seats at an already overcrowded middle school. There was mention of the need for facility expansion/construction, but that the CIP process does not move quickly.

The PowerPoint files for the public meetings should be posted here: http://www1.pgcps.org/pasb/index.aspx?id=153333 (the Spanish link has the PPT file up; the English one is currently the meeting announcement, not a PPT)

Comments can be made online at http://www1.pgcps.org/pasb/

[Anonymous]

Did they say what would happen to siblings if you have a child at one of the soon to be Spanish Immersion program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did they say what would happen to siblings if you have a child at one of the soon to be Spanish Immersion program?

You mean if Overlook ES phases in Spanish Immersion and you have a third grader who'd be allowed to continue on there and a new kindergartner who'd have to lottery in to Spanish Immersion? No, the didn't address that. Just speculating but since they'd have to have new boundaries for the kindergartner it would seem to be a reasonable accommodation to allow the older child to move to the new school, too, even if their class isn't being moved yet to make way for SI.

[Anonymous]

PGCPS Public Accounting and School Boundaries has posted the proposed boundaries for the new Hyattsville area elementary school -- http://www1.pgcps.org/pasb/index.aspx?id=153333. The new school encompasses most of West Hyattsville (between Ager Road, Queens Chapel, and the Northwest Branch, as well as some of the apartments north of East-West Highway.