Woodward HS boundary study - BCC, Blair, Einstein, WJ, Kennedy, Northwood, Wheaton, Whitman impacts

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Strange take about the system catering to Silver Spring. If that were the case, you'd see resources going there instead of, say, to the brand new elementary in Potomac and the upcoming brand new high school in Bethesda, the subject of this thread.

Instead, we see no high school options pursued inside the beltway where one is desperately needed, SSIMS/SCES treated like a redheaded stepchild, HVES given the three-card Monty and Eastern downright ignored. TPMS, Pinecrest and Woodlin, you say? Well, shucks, it helps to have some wealthy folks in certain catchments...

Hey, waaaaaiit a minute...could it be that politicians pay lip service to the bulk of the electorate to garner the popular vote but bend to monied interests when it comes to brass tacks? Nah, couldn't be!

Then you don't have a problem moving the Blair magnet closer to mid-county where all students can access them? Same distance from every corner of MC?

And schools like Wootton crumbing? Schools with asbestos? You don't care about them?

Please. Save it for someone who's a bit more naive.

Wootton is fine and the Blair magnet is not movable.

Everything is movable. If it means it's equitable bus ride for entire county, then it should move.

It's easy to determine.

Average bus ride time per students to Magnet if it's in Blair vs if it's in Woodward. That data should clearly show which is better for average students who have attended magnet in the last 2 years. For this calculation, 25 reserved seats shouldn't be counted because they are not county wide, that will anyway go to wherever magnet is.

Blair mostly serves students near it so it makes the most sense to keep it there.

It would be better to add a vocational magnet to Woodward or Wootton to help diversify that part of the county.

Agree, Blair magnet is situated ideally now, but West county really needs a vocational magnet to help diversify the segregated school.

Woodward should have a vocational magnet? Have you been by the Woodward site lately? The building project is well underway. It has to be ready for Northwood in 14 months. Whatever you might think should happen, it's not going to happen.

+1 and the vocational magnet is currently at Wheaton which is pretty close to Woodward.

It would be best if it were at one of the least diverse schools like Churchill or Whitman because they have so many chronic issues with racism. Greater diversity would greatly help improve the climate in that community.

Yes, vocational magnets at the segregated schools would be one way to help shore up the lack of diversity there.

The boundary analysis showed that schools aren't segregated. People live where they want to live and 90-95% of them prefer sending their kids to a neighborhood school. "Segregated schools" is a progressive scare tactic used to dupe normal Democrats into accepting busing.

True. MCPS schools are more diverse than most public schools in this country. Still, progressives are not satisfied.

I don’t know a ton about this as I’m fairly new to the county but I don’t think it’s about diversity as in “there are students of color who go here” so much as it is about public education needing to serve all students equally, and the fact that some districts are clearly much richer than others. Some schools have a better reputation than others and the biggest difference is the wealth and racial makeup of the student population. I’m not advocating for complicated busing but I’m guessing some boundaries could be re-examined.

My kids are zoned for East Silver Spring elementary and the ES boundaries here are weird. ESS is fairly intuitive, a neighborhood school, but it is the highest FARMS school in the region, and all the other elementary schools have weird boundaries. We are less than a mile from Sligo Creek which is extremely white and wealthy for the area. And for some reason it hosts and immersion program, making it even wealthier. This does not seem good to me.

Yes, there are many issues with the ES boundaries. However, the Woodward study will not be redrawing any ES boundary lines.*

*probably, as far as we know, to date

To change this, they would have to authorize a whole new study. The Woodward study scope has already been approved by the board, and it specifically includes high and middle schools and excludes elementary schools:

"...Resolved, That no elementary schools be included in the boundary study..."

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/WoodwardHS_BoundaryStudyScope.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strange take about the system catering to Silver Spring. If that were the case, you'd see resources going there instead of, say, to the brand new elementary in Potomac and the upcoming brand new high school in Bethesda, the subject of this thread.

Instead, we see no high school options pursued inside the beltway where one is desperately needed, SSIMS/SCES treated like a redheaded stepchild, HVES given the three-card Monty and Eastern downright ignored. TPMS, Pinecrest and Woodlin, you say? Well, shucks, it helps to have some wealthy folks in certain catchments...

Hey, waaaaaiit a minute...could it be that politicians pay lip service to the bulk of the electorate to garner the popular vote but bend to monied interests when it comes to brass tacks? Nah, couldn't be!

Then you don't have a problem moving the Blair magnet closer to mid-county where all students can access them? Same distance from every corner of MC?

And schools like Wootton crumbing? Schools with asbestos? You don't care about them?

Please. Save it for someone who's a bit more naive.

Wootton is fine and the Blair magnet is not movable.

Everything is movable. If it means it's equitable bus ride for entire county, then it should move.

It's easy to determine.

Average bus ride time per students to Magnet if it's in Blair vs if it's in Woodward. That data should clearly show which is better for average students who have attended magnet in the last 2 years. For this calculation, 25 reserved seats shouldn't be counted because they are not county wide, that will anyway go to wherever magnet is.

Blair mostly serves students near it so it makes the most sense to keep it there.

It would be better to add a vocational magnet to Woodward or Wootton to help diversify that part of the county.

Agree, Blair magnet is situated ideally now, but West county really needs a vocational magnet to help diversify the segregated school.

Woodward should have a vocational magnet? Have you been by the Woodward site lately? The building project is well underway. It has to be ready for Northwood in 14 months. Whatever you might think should happen, it's not going to happen.

+1 and the vocational magnet is currently at Wheaton which is pretty close to Woodward.

It would be best if it were at one of the least diverse schools like Churchill or Whitman because they have so many chronic issues with racism. Greater diversity would greatly help improve the climate in that community.

Yes, vocational magnets at the segregated schools would be one way to help shore up the lack of diversity there.

The boundary analysis showed that schools aren't segregated. People live where they want to live and 90-95% of them prefer sending their kids to a neighborhood school. "Segregated schools" is a progressive scare tactic used to dupe normal Democrats into accepting busing.

True. MCPS schools are more diverse than most public schools in this country. Still, progressives are not satisfied.

I don’t know a ton about this as I’m fairly new to the county but I don’t think it’s about diversity as in “there are students of color who go here” so much as it is about public education needing to serve all students equally, and the fact that some districts are clearly much richer than others. Some schools have a better reputation than others and the biggest difference is the wealth and racial makeup of the student population. I’m not advocating for complicated busing but I’m guessing some boundaries could be re-examined.

My kids are zoned for East Silver Spring elementary and the ES boundaries here are weird. ESS is fairly intuitive, a neighborhood school, but it is the highest FARMS school in the region, and all the other elementary schools have weird boundaries. We are less than a mile from Sligo Creek which is extremely white and wealthy for the area. And for some reason it hosts and immersion program, making it even wealthier. This does not seem good to me.

We are zoned for ESS (my kids have graduated) but it's not really true that it has the highest FARMS in the region. New Hampshire Estates, Oak View, and Rolling Terrace are all within a couple of miles and all have much higher FARMS rates.

The French immersion program used to be at Oak View, for what it is worth, and Sligo Creek would be very very small without it. Now, you can make the argument that MCPS should move the immersion program out of Sligo Creek to balance demographics but they would need to backfill because otherwise they are down to a handful of classes per grade.

At any rate, we know changes to the ES boundaries are not in the cards, so what we have is what we have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strange take about the system catering to Silver Spring. If that were the case, you'd see resources going there instead of, say, to the brand new elementary in Potomac and the upcoming brand new high school in Bethesda, the subject of this thread.

Instead, we see no high school options pursued inside the beltway where one is desperately needed, SSIMS/SCES treated like a redheaded stepchild, HVES given the three-card Monty and Eastern downright ignored. TPMS, Pinecrest and Woodlin, you say? Well, shucks, it helps to have some wealthy folks in certain catchments...

Hey, waaaaaiit a minute...could it be that politicians pay lip service to the bulk of the electorate to garner the popular vote but bend to monied interests when it comes to brass tacks? Nah, couldn't be!

Then you don't have a problem moving the Blair magnet closer to mid-county where all students can access them? Same distance from every corner of MC?

And schools like Wootton crumbing? Schools with asbestos? You don't care about them?

Please. Save it for someone who's a bit more naive.

Wootton is fine and the Blair magnet is not movable.

Everything is movable. If it means it's equitable bus ride for entire county, then it should move.

It's easy to determine.

Average bus ride time per students to Magnet if it's in Blair vs if it's in Woodward. That data should clearly show which is better for average students who have attended magnet in the last 2 years. For this calculation, 25 reserved seats shouldn't be counted because they are not county wide, that will anyway go to wherever magnet is.

Blair mostly serves students near it so it makes the most sense to keep it there.

It would be better to add a vocational magnet to Woodward or Wootton to help diversify that part of the county.

Agree, Blair magnet is situated ideally now, but West county really needs a vocational magnet to help diversify the segregated school.

Woodward should have a vocational magnet? Have you been by the Woodward site lately? The building project is well underway. It has to be ready for Northwood in 14 months. Whatever you might think should happen, it's not going to happen.

+1 and the vocational magnet is currently at Wheaton which is pretty close to Woodward.

It would be best if it were at one of the least diverse schools like Churchill or Whitman because they have so many chronic issues with racism. Greater diversity would greatly help improve the climate in that community.

Yes, vocational magnets at the segregated schools would be one way to help shore up the lack of diversity there.

The boundary analysis showed that schools aren't segregated. People live where they want to live and 90-95% of them prefer sending their kids to a neighborhood school. "Segregated schools" is a progressive scare tactic used to dupe normal Democrats into accepting busing.

True. MCPS schools are more diverse than most public schools in this country. Still, progressives are not satisfied.

I don’t know a ton about this as I’m fairly new to the county but I don’t think it’s about diversity as in “there are students of color who go here” so much as it is about public education needing to serve all students equally, and the fact that some districts are clearly much richer than others. Some schools have a better reputation than others and the biggest difference is the wealth and racial makeup of the student population. I’m not advocating for complicated busing but I’m guessing some boundaries could be re-examined.

My kids are zoned for East Silver Spring elementary and the ES boundaries here are weird. ESS is fairly intuitive, a neighborhood school, but it is the highest FARMS school in the region, and all the other elementary schools have weird boundaries. We are less than a mile from Sligo Creek which is extremely white and wealthy for the area. And for some reason it hosts and immersion program, making it even wealthier. This does not seem good to me.

Yes, there are many issues with the ES boundaries. However, the Woodward study will not be redrawing any ES boundary lines.*

*probably, as far as we know, to date

To change this, they would have to authorize a whole new study. The Woodward study scope has already been approved by the board, and it specifically includes high and middle schools and excludes elementary schools:

"...Resolved, That no elementary schools be included in the boundary study..."

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/WoodwardHS_BoundaryStudyScope.pdf

No, they can amend the scope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much of this is because of poor planning. Some of that is on MCPS, but most of that is on the county (M-NCPPC/Planning Board/County Council). It only takes one period of time where development-favorable policies are enacted -- increased density allowances, reprieve of impact taxes, exceptions to land set-asides for municipal needs (schools among them) -- and developers jump, with there really being no way to unwind it later. Throw in some short-sighted school closures that came with long-term, giveaway leases to favored special interests by the county executive/council. Then cook that up with 25 years of chronic council underfunding of capital projects ("Hey, let's just ask them to push these out a few years..."), and you get too many students and not enough school spaces.

This has happened in many areas of the county, but down-county, most especially Wheaton & below, was particularly affected because of the relative scarcity of undeveloped land combined with relatively high density. And when Blair got moved to its current outside-the-beltway location, it was during that facility closure period, so they weren't attending to back-filling to cover the deeper inside-the-beltway area. West of the tracks still had Whitman & BCC, and they got insulated (what a shock!).

Similarly shocking is that MCPS, when faced with the cost of provisioning a new HS closer to downtown SS/Takoma Park, elected to turn their efforts towards relief of WJ, instead -- the Woodward solution was less expensive and posed far fewer problems, despite the community complaints (that happens no matter the location/configuration -- can't please 'em all). They had to sell that with the nod to some kind of relief for DCC -- more crowded, in general, than anything to the west of the tracks, with more coming from demographics and the differential effects of the noted development-friendly policies; however, the nature of that might be just from the marginal pull of a Woodward magnet.

If that ends up being the case, and if more holistic boundary shifts are avoided, it will be because of the fine efforts of the W-area contingent, those here and elsewhere. Like it or not, the Federal government delegates school administration to the states (or, perhaps more Constitutionally precise, it is reserved to the states, despite any Federal funding/regulation), and MD delegates it to county-level districts, not town. MCPS, then, has the responsibility to provide reasonably equivalent educational services to all of its students (equal protection). Neighborhood schools, sensible boundaries and easily-accessible magnets are great ideas, but only if you're making sure to get your county decision-makers in line to pony up to provide that to everybody, not just ensure/preserve that for yourself.

There's no land in SS for a high school, and MoCo doesn't have the stomach to spend the tens of million to acquire (and still more to deal with all the lawsuits when they use adverse possession to assemble a property) when the Woodward property was already in the portfolio.

As to WJ - this year it's 650 students over capacity. That's more than half the entire DCC overage across all 5 high schools.

That's part of the point. As noted above, inner SS/down-county has suffered more from poor planning decisions. Making up for that might be difficult cost more, but it doesn't mean it's the wrong thing, given equal protection requiring reasonably equivalent education service levels, of which facilities/overcrowding is a part. That would mean either holding off on projects elsewhere or having the County Council add a lot more funding (and tax $). Or you could try to get the conservative-majority court to overturn Brown, as they did with Roe...

As with others, no problem relieving WJ. There's nearby capacity, though, especially in a relative sense, and the objective should be not to have overcapacity anywhere. Or, at minimum, doing our best to keep overcapacity from affecting one group/area more than others. That means relieving DCC, and a Woodward magnet just won't do a good enough job. Neither will moving 200 magnet students from Blair. It's got to be more holistic. Or unjust. You get to choose which you support.

I choose not to support people who want the Supreme Court to overturn Brown vs. Board of Education.

This is how people form judgments about conservatives. They read some stupid hyperbolic rant on a forum that has nothing to do with anything. Lots of conservatives don't like how the 14th Amendment has been applied, but I have seen exactly zero people calling for the Court to overturn Brown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much of this is because of poor planning. Some of that is on MCPS, but most of that is on the county (M-NCPPC/Planning Board/County Council). It only takes one period of time where development-favorable policies are enacted -- increased density allowances, reprieve of impact taxes, exceptions to land set-asides for municipal needs (schools among them) -- and developers jump, with there really being no way to unwind it later. Throw in some short-sighted school closures that came with long-term, giveaway leases to favored special interests by the county executive/council. Then cook that up with 25 years of chronic council underfunding of capital projects ("Hey, let's just ask them to push these out a few years..."), and you get too many students and not enough school spaces.

This has happened in many areas of the county, but down-county, most especially Wheaton & below, was particularly affected because of the relative scarcity of undeveloped land combined with relatively high density. And when Blair got moved to its current outside-the-beltway location, it was during that facility closure period, so they weren't attending to back-filling to cover the deeper inside-the-beltway area. West of the tracks still had Whitman & BCC, and they got insulated (what a shock!).

Similarly shocking is that MCPS, when faced with the cost of provisioning a new HS closer to downtown SS/Takoma Park, elected to turn their efforts towards relief of WJ, instead -- the Woodward solution was less expensive and posed far fewer problems, despite the community complaints (that happens no matter the location/configuration -- can't please 'em all). They had to sell that with the nod to some kind of relief for DCC -- more crowded, in general, than anything to the west of the tracks, with more coming from demographics and the differential effects of the noted development-friendly policies; however, the nature of that might be just from the marginal pull of a Woodward magnet.

If that ends up being the case, and if more holistic boundary shifts are avoided, it will be because of the fine efforts of the W-area contingent, those here and elsewhere. Like it or not, the Federal government delegates school administration to the states (or, perhaps more Constitutionally precise, it is reserved to the states, despite any Federal funding/regulation), and MD delegates it to county-level districts, not town. MCPS, then, has the responsibility to provide reasonably equivalent educational services to all of its students (equal protection). Neighborhood schools, sensible boundaries and easily-accessible magnets are great ideas, but only if you're making sure to get your county decision-makers in line to pony up to provide that to everybody, not just ensure/preserve that for yourself.

There's no land in SS for a high school, and MoCo doesn't have the stomach to spend the tens of million to acquire (and still more to deal with all the lawsuits when they use adverse possession to assemble a property) when the Woodward property was already in the portfolio.

As to WJ - this year it's 650 students over capacity. That's more than half the entire DCC overage across all 5 high schools.

That's part of the point. As noted above, inner SS/down-county has suffered more from poor planning decisions. Making up for that might be difficult cost more, but it doesn't mean it's the wrong thing, given equal protection requiring reasonably equivalent education service levels, of which facilities/overcrowding is a part. That would mean either holding off on projects elsewhere or having the County Council add a lot more funding (and tax $). Or you could try to get the conservative-majority court to overturn Brown, as they did with Roe...

As with others, no problem relieving WJ. There's nearby capacity, though, especially in a relative sense, and the objective should be not to have overcapacity anywhere. Or, at minimum, doing our best to keep overcapacity from affecting one group/area more than others. That means relieving DCC, and a Woodward magnet just won't do a good enough job. Neither will moving 200 magnet students from Blair. It's got to be more holistic. Or unjust. You get to choose which you support.

I choose not to support people who want the Supreme Court to overturn Brown vs. Board of Education.

This is how people form judgments about conservatives. They read some stupid hyperbolic rant on a forum that has nothing to do with anything. Lots of conservatives don't like how the 14th Amendment has been applied, but I have seen exactly zero people calling for the Court to overturn Brown.

First paragraph from the post above:

That's part of the point. As noted above, inner SS/down-county has suffered more from poor planning decisions. Making up for that might be difficult cost more, but it doesn't mean it's the wrong thing, given equal protection requiring reasonably equivalent education service levels, of which facilities/overcrowding is a part. That would mean either holding off on projects elsewhere or having the County Council add a lot more funding (and tax $). Or you could try to get the conservative-majority court to overturn Brown, as they did with Roe...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much of this is because of poor planning. Some of that is on MCPS, but most of that is on the county (M-NCPPC/Planning Board/County Council). It only takes one period of time where development-favorable policies are enacted -- increased density allowances, reprieve of impact taxes, exceptions to land set-asides for municipal needs (schools among them) -- and developers jump, with there really being no way to unwind it later. Throw in some short-sighted school closures that came with long-term, giveaway leases to favored special interests by the county executive/council. Then cook that up with 25 years of chronic council underfunding of capital projects ("Hey, let's just ask them to push these out a few years..."), and you get too many students and not enough school spaces.

This has happened in many areas of the county, but down-county, most especially Wheaton & below, was particularly affected because of the relative scarcity of undeveloped land combined with relatively high density. And when Blair got moved to its current outside-the-beltway location, it was during that facility closure period, so they weren't attending to back-filling to cover the deeper inside-the-beltway area. West of the tracks still had Whitman & BCC, and they got insulated (what a shock!).

Similarly shocking is that MCPS, when faced with the cost of provisioning a new HS closer to downtown SS/Takoma Park, elected to turn their efforts towards relief of WJ, instead -- the Woodward solution was less expensive and posed far fewer problems, despite the community complaints (that happens no matter the location/configuration -- can't please 'em all). They had to sell that with the nod to some kind of relief for DCC -- more crowded, in general, than anything to the west of the tracks, with more coming from demographics and the differential effects of the noted development-friendly policies; however, the nature of that might be just from the marginal pull of a Woodward magnet.

If that ends up being the case, and if more holistic boundary shifts are avoided, it will be because of the fine efforts of the W-area contingent, those here and elsewhere. Like it or not, the Federal government delegates school administration to the states (or, perhaps more Constitutionally precise, it is reserved to the states, despite any Federal funding/regulation), and MD delegates it to county-level districts, not town. MCPS, then, has the responsibility to provide reasonably equivalent educational services to all of its students (equal protection). Neighborhood schools, sensible boundaries and easily-accessible magnets are great ideas, but only if you're making sure to get your county decision-makers in line to pony up to provide that to everybody, not just ensure/preserve that for yourself.

There's no land in SS for a high school, and MoCo doesn't have the stomach to spend the tens of million to acquire (and still more to deal with all the lawsuits when they use adverse possession to assemble a property) when the Woodward property was already in the portfolio.

As to WJ - this year it's 650 students over capacity. That's more than half the entire DCC overage across all 5 high schools.

That's part of the point. As noted above, inner SS/down-county has suffered more from poor planning decisions. Making up for that might be difficult cost more, but it doesn't mean it's the wrong thing, given equal protection requiring reasonably equivalent education service levels, of which facilities/overcrowding is a part. That would mean either holding off on projects elsewhere or having the County Council add a lot more funding (and tax $). Or you could try to get the conservative-majority court to overturn Brown, as they did with Roe...

As with others, no problem relieving WJ. There's nearby capacity, though, especially in a relative sense, and the objective should be not to have overcapacity anywhere. Or, at minimum, doing our best to keep overcapacity from affecting one group/area more than others. That means relieving DCC, and a Woodward magnet just won't do a good enough job. Neither will moving 200 magnet students from Blair. It's got to be more holistic. Or unjust. You get to choose which you support.

I choose not to support people who want the Supreme Court to overturn Brown vs. Board of Education.

This is how people form judgments about conservatives. They read some stupid hyperbolic rant on a forum that has nothing to do with anything. Lots of conservatives don't like how the 14th Amendment has been applied, but I have seen exactly zero people calling for the Court to overturn Brown.

First paragraph from the post above:

That's part of the point. As noted above, inner SS/down-county has suffered more from poor planning decisions. Making up for that might be difficult cost more, but it doesn't mean it's the wrong thing, given equal protection requiring reasonably equivalent education service levels, of which facilities/overcrowding is a part. That would mean either holding off on projects elsewhere or having the County Council add a lot more funding (and tax $). Or you could try to get the conservative-majority court to overturn Brown, as they did with Roe...

DP that was clearly NOT someone actually advocating for that and you know it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strange take about the system catering to Silver Spring. If that were the case, you'd see resources going there instead of, say, to the brand new elementary in Potomac and the upcoming brand new high school in Bethesda, the subject of this thread.

Instead, we see no high school options pursued inside the beltway where one is desperately needed, SSIMS/SCES treated like a redheaded stepchild, HVES given the three-card Monty and Eastern downright ignored. TPMS, Pinecrest and Woodlin, you say? Well, shucks, it helps to have some wealthy folks in certain catchments...

Hey, waaaaaiit a minute...could it be that politicians pay lip service to the bulk of the electorate to garner the popular vote but bend to monied interests when it comes to brass tacks? Nah, couldn't be!

Then you don't have a problem moving the Blair magnet closer to mid-county where all students can access them? Same distance from every corner of MC?

And schools like Wootton crumbing? Schools with asbestos? You don't care about them?

Please. Save it for someone who's a bit more naive.

Wootton is fine and the Blair magnet is not movable.

Everything is movable. If it means it's equitable bus ride for entire county, then it should move.

It's easy to determine.

Average bus ride time per students to Magnet if it's in Blair vs if it's in Woodward. That data should clearly show which is better for average students who have attended magnet in the last 2 years. For this calculation, 25 reserved seats shouldn't be counted because they are not county wide, that will anyway go to wherever magnet is.

Blair mostly serves students near it so it makes the most sense to keep it there.

It would be better to add a vocational magnet to Woodward or Wootton to help diversify that part of the county.

Agree, Blair magnet is situated ideally now, but West county really needs a vocational magnet to help diversify the segregated school.

Woodward should have a vocational magnet? Have you been by the Woodward site lately? The building project is well underway. It has to be ready for Northwood in 14 months. Whatever you might think should happen, it's not going to happen.

+1 and the vocational magnet is currently at Wheaton which is pretty close to Woodward.

It would be best if it were at one of the least diverse schools like Churchill or Whitman because they have so many chronic issues with racism. Greater diversity would greatly help improve the climate in that community.

Yes, vocational magnets at the segregated schools would be one way to help shore up the lack of diversity there.

The boundary analysis showed that schools aren't segregated. People live where they want to live and 90-95% of them prefer sending their kids to a neighborhood school. "Segregated schools" is a progressive scare tactic used to dupe normal Democrats into accepting busing.

True. MCPS schools are more diverse than most public schools in this country. Still, progressives are not satisfied.

I don’t know a ton about this as I’m fairly new to the county but I don’t think it’s about diversity as in “there are students of color who go here” so much as it is about public education needing to serve all students equally, and the fact that some districts are clearly much richer than others. Some schools have a better reputation than others and the biggest difference is the wealth and racial makeup of the student population. I’m not advocating for complicated busing but I’m guessing some boundaries could be re-examined.

My kids are zoned for East Silver Spring elementary and the ES boundaries here are weird. ESS is fairly intuitive, a neighborhood school, but it is the highest FARMS school in the region, and all the other elementary schools have weird boundaries. We are less than a mile from Sligo Creek which is extremely white and wealthy for the area. And for some reason it hosts and immersion program, making it even wealthier. This does not seem good to me.

Yes, there are many issues with the ES boundaries. However, the Woodward study will not be redrawing any ES boundary lines.*

*probably, as far as we know, to date

To change this, they would have to authorize a whole new study. The Woodward study scope has already been approved by the board, and it specifically includes high and middle schools and excludes elementary schools:

"...Resolved, That no elementary schools be included in the boundary study..."

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/WoodwardHS_BoundaryStudyScope.pdf

No, they can amend the scope.

This is going to be convoluted enough with just the 22 schools already in scope, and they need to have the new boundaries done well in advance of Woodward's opening to figure out a host of logistics. And they also plan to begin the Crown and Damascus studies before the Woodward study is finished. It seems highly unlikely that they would opt to bring in the elementary schools too, especially after having already decided not to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strange take about the system catering to Silver Spring. If that were the case, you'd see resources going there instead of, say, to the brand new elementary in Potomac and the upcoming brand new high school in Bethesda, the subject of this thread.

Instead, we see no high school options pursued inside the beltway where one is desperately needed, SSIMS/SCES treated like a redheaded stepchild, HVES given the three-card Monty and Eastern downright ignored. TPMS, Pinecrest and Woodlin, you say? Well, shucks, it helps to have some wealthy folks in certain catchments...

Hey, waaaaaiit a minute...could it be that politicians pay lip service to the bulk of the electorate to garner the popular vote but bend to monied interests when it comes to brass tacks? Nah, couldn't be!

Then you don't have a problem moving the Blair magnet closer to mid-county where all students can access them? Same distance from every corner of MC?

And schools like Wootton crumbing? Schools with asbestos? You don't care about them?

Please. Save it for someone who's a bit more naive.

Wootton is fine and the Blair magnet is not movable.

Everything is movable. If it means it's equitable bus ride for entire county, then it should move.

It's easy to determine.

Average bus ride time per students to Magnet if it's in Blair vs if it's in Woodward. That data should clearly show which is better for average students who have attended magnet in the last 2 years. For this calculation, 25 reserved seats shouldn't be counted because they are not county wide, that will anyway go to wherever magnet is.

Blair mostly serves students near it so it makes the most sense to keep it there.

It would be better to add a vocational magnet to Woodward or Wootton to help diversify that part of the county.

Agree, Blair magnet is situated ideally now, but West county really needs a vocational magnet to help diversify the segregated school.

Woodward should have a vocational magnet? Have you been by the Woodward site lately? The building project is well underway. It has to be ready for Northwood in 14 months. Whatever you might think should happen, it's not going to happen.

+1 and the vocational magnet is currently at Wheaton which is pretty close to Woodward.

It would be best if it were at one of the least diverse schools like Churchill or Whitman because they have so many chronic issues with racism. Greater diversity would greatly help improve the climate in that community.

Yes, vocational magnets at the segregated schools would be one way to help shore up the lack of diversity there.

The boundary analysis showed that schools aren't segregated. People live where they want to live and 90-95% of them prefer sending their kids to a neighborhood school. "Segregated schools" is a progressive scare tactic used to dupe normal Democrats into accepting busing.

True. MCPS schools are more diverse than most public schools in this country. Still, progressives are not satisfied.

I don’t know a ton about this as I’m fairly new to the county but I don’t think it’s about diversity as in “there are students of color who go here” so much as it is about public education needing to serve all students equally, and the fact that some districts are clearly much richer than others. Some schools have a better reputation than others and the biggest difference is the wealth and racial makeup of the student population. I’m not advocating for complicated busing but I’m guessing some boundaries could be re-examined.

My kids are zoned for East Silver Spring elementary and the ES boundaries here are weird. ESS is fairly intuitive, a neighborhood school, but it is the highest FARMS school in the region, and all the other elementary schools have weird boundaries. We are less than a mile from Sligo Creek which is extremely white and wealthy for the area. And for some reason it hosts and immersion program, making it even wealthier. This does not seem good to me.

Yes, there are many issues with the ES boundaries. However, the Woodward study will not be redrawing any ES boundary lines.*

*probably, as far as we know, to date

To change this, they would have to authorize a whole new study. The Woodward study scope has already been approved by the board, and it specifically includes high and middle schools and excludes elementary schools:

"...Resolved, That no elementary schools be included in the boundary study..."

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/WoodwardHS_BoundaryStudyScope.pdf

Split articulation or boundary changes? Pick your poison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much of this is because of poor planning. Some of that is on MCPS, but most of that is on the county (M-NCPPC/Planning Board/County Council). It only takes one period of time where development-favorable policies are enacted -- increased density allowances, reprieve of impact taxes, exceptions to land set-asides for municipal needs (schools among them) -- and developers jump, with there really being no way to unwind it later. Throw in some short-sighted school closures that came with long-term, giveaway leases to favored special interests by the county executive/council. Then cook that up with 25 years of chronic council underfunding of capital projects ("Hey, let's just ask them to push these out a few years..."), and you get too many students and not enough school spaces.

This has happened in many areas of the county, but down-county, most especially Wheaton & below, was particularly affected because of the relative scarcity of undeveloped land combined with relatively high density. And when Blair got moved to its current outside-the-beltway location, it was during that facility closure period, so they weren't attending to back-filling to cover the deeper inside-the-beltway area. West of the tracks still had Whitman & BCC, and they got insulated (what a shock!).

Similarly shocking is that MCPS, when faced with the cost of provisioning a new HS closer to downtown SS/Takoma Park, elected to turn their efforts towards relief of WJ, instead -- the Woodward solution was less expensive and posed far fewer problems, despite the community complaints (that happens no matter the location/configuration -- can't please 'em all). They had to sell that with the nod to some kind of relief for DCC -- more crowded, in general, than anything to the west of the tracks, with more coming from demographics and the differential effects of the noted development-friendly policies; however, the nature of that might be just from the marginal pull of a Woodward magnet.

If that ends up being the case, and if more holistic boundary shifts are avoided, it will be because of the fine efforts of the W-area contingent, those here and elsewhere. Like it or not, the Federal government delegates school administration to the states (or, perhaps more Constitutionally precise, it is reserved to the states, despite any Federal funding/regulation), and MD delegates it to county-level districts, not town. MCPS, then, has the responsibility to provide reasonably equivalent educational services to all of its students (equal protection). Neighborhood schools, sensible boundaries and easily-accessible magnets are great ideas, but only if you're making sure to get your county decision-makers in line to pony up to provide that to everybody, not just ensure/preserve that for yourself.

There's no land in SS for a high school, and MoCo doesn't have the stomach to spend the tens of million to acquire (and still more to deal with all the lawsuits when they use adverse possession to assemble a property) when the Woodward property was already in the portfolio.

As to WJ - this year it's 650 students over capacity. That's more than half the entire DCC overage across all 5 high schools.

That's part of the point. As noted above, inner SS/down-county has suffered more from poor planning decisions. Making up for that might be difficult cost more, but it doesn't mean it's the wrong thing, given equal protection requiring reasonably equivalent education service levels, of which facilities/overcrowding is a part. That would mean either holding off on projects elsewhere or having the County Council add a lot more funding (and tax $). Or you could try to get the conservative-majority court to overturn Brown, as they did with Roe...

As with others, no problem relieving WJ. There's nearby capacity, though, especially in a relative sense, and the objective should be not to have overcapacity anywhere. Or, at minimum, doing our best to keep overcapacity from affecting one group/area more than others. That means relieving DCC, and a Woodward magnet just won't do a good enough job. Neither will moving 200 magnet students from Blair. It's got to be more holistic. Or unjust. You get to choose which you support.

I choose not to support people who want the Supreme Court to overturn Brown vs. Board of Education.

This is how people form judgments about conservatives. They read some stupid hyperbolic rant on a forum that has nothing to do with anything. Lots of conservatives don't like how the 14th Amendment has been applied, but I have seen exactly zero people calling for the Court to overturn Brown.

First paragraph from the post above:

That's part of the point. As noted above, inner SS/down-county has suffered more from poor planning decisions. Making up for that might be difficult cost more, but it doesn't mean it's the wrong thing, given equal protection requiring reasonably equivalent education service levels, of which facilities/overcrowding is a part. That would mean either holding off on projects elsewhere or having the County Council add a lot more funding (and tax $). Or you could try to get the conservative-majority court to overturn Brown, as they did with Roe...

DP that was clearly NOT someone actually advocating for that and you know it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strange take about the system catering to Silver Spring. If that were the case, you'd see resources going there instead of, say, to the brand new elementary in Potomac and the upcoming brand new high school in Bethesda, the subject of this thread.

Instead, we see no high school options pursued inside the beltway where one is desperately needed, SSIMS/SCES treated like a redheaded stepchild, HVES given the three-card Monty and Eastern downright ignored. TPMS, Pinecrest and Woodlin, you say? Well, shucks, it helps to have some wealthy folks in certain catchments...

Hey, waaaaaiit a minute...could it be that politicians pay lip service to the bulk of the electorate to garner the popular vote but bend to monied interests when it comes to brass tacks? Nah, couldn't be!

Then you don't have a problem moving the Blair magnet closer to mid-county where all students can access them? Same distance from every corner of MC?

And schools like Wootton crumbing? Schools with asbestos? You don't care about them?

Please. Save it for someone who's a bit more naive.

Wootton is fine and the Blair magnet is not movable.

Everything is movable. If it means it's equitable bus ride for entire county, then it should move.

It's easy to determine.

Average bus ride time per students to Magnet if it's in Blair vs if it's in Woodward. That data should clearly show which is better for average students who have attended magnet in the last 2 years. For this calculation, 25 reserved seats shouldn't be counted because they are not county wide, that will anyway go to wherever magnet is.

Blair mostly serves students near it so it makes the most sense to keep it there.

It would be better to add a vocational magnet to Woodward or Wootton to help diversify that part of the county.

Agree, Blair magnet is situated ideally now, but West county really needs a vocational magnet to help diversify the segregated school.

Woodward should have a vocational magnet? Have you been by the Woodward site lately? The building project is well underway. It has to be ready for Northwood in 14 months. Whatever you might think should happen, it's not going to happen.

+1 and the vocational magnet is currently at Wheaton which is pretty close to Woodward.

It would be best if it were at one of the least diverse schools like Churchill or Whitman because they have so many chronic issues with racism. Greater diversity would greatly help improve the climate in that community.

Yes, vocational magnets at the segregated schools would be one way to help shore up the lack of diversity there.

The boundary analysis showed that schools aren't segregated. People live where they want to live and 90-95% of them prefer sending their kids to a neighborhood school. "Segregated schools" is a progressive scare tactic used to dupe normal Democrats into accepting busing.

True. MCPS schools are more diverse than most public schools in this country. Still, progressives are not satisfied.

I don’t know a ton about this as I’m fairly new to the county but I don’t think it’s about diversity as in “there are students of color who go here” so much as it is about public education needing to serve all students equally, and the fact that some districts are clearly much richer than others. Some schools have a better reputation than others and the biggest difference is the wealth and racial makeup of the student population. I’m not advocating for complicated busing but I’m guessing some boundaries could be re-examined.

My kids are zoned for East Silver Spring elementary and the ES boundaries here are weird. ESS is fairly intuitive, a neighborhood school, but it is the highest FARMS school in the region, and all the other elementary schools have weird boundaries. We are less than a mile from Sligo Creek which is extremely white and wealthy for the area. And for some reason it hosts and immersion program, making it even wealthier. This does not seem good to me.

Yes, there are many issues with the ES boundaries. However, the Woodward study will not be redrawing any ES boundary lines.*

*probably, as far as we know, to date

To change this, they would have to authorize a whole new study. The Woodward study scope has already been approved by the board, and it specifically includes high and middle schools and excludes elementary schools:

"...Resolved, That no elementary schools be included in the boundary study..."

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/WoodwardHS_BoundaryStudyScope.pdf

No, they can amend the scope.

This is going to be convoluted enough with just the 22 schools already in scope, and they need to have the new boundaries done well in advance of Woodward's opening to figure out a host of logistics. And they also plan to begin the Crown and Damascus studies before the Woodward study is finished. It seems highly unlikely that they would opt to bring in the elementary schools too, especially after having already decided not to.

CAN they? Yes, they can. WILL they? Probably not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much of this is because of poor planning. Some of that is on MCPS, but most of that is on the county (M-NCPPC/Planning Board/County Council). It only takes one period of time where development-favorable policies are enacted -- increased density allowances, reprieve of impact taxes, exceptions to land set-asides for municipal needs (schools among them) -- and developers jump, with there really being no way to unwind it later. Throw in some short-sighted school closures that came with long-term, giveaway leases to favored special interests by the county executive/council. Then cook that up with 25 years of chronic council underfunding of capital projects ("Hey, let's just ask them to push these out a few years..."), and you get too many students and not enough school spaces.

This has happened in many areas of the county, but down-county, most especially Wheaton & below, was particularly affected because of the relative scarcity of undeveloped land combined with relatively high density. And when Blair got moved to its current outside-the-beltway location, it was during that facility closure period, so they weren't attending to back-filling to cover the deeper inside-the-beltway area. West of the tracks still had Whitman & BCC, and they got insulated (what a shock!).

Similarly shocking is that MCPS, when faced with the cost of provisioning a new HS closer to downtown SS/Takoma Park, elected to turn their efforts towards relief of WJ, instead -- the Woodward solution was less expensive and posed far fewer problems, despite the community complaints (that happens no matter the location/configuration -- can't please 'em all). They had to sell that with the nod to some kind of relief for DCC -- more crowded, in general, than anything to the west of the tracks, with more coming from demographics and the differential effects of the noted development-friendly policies; however, the nature of that might be just from the marginal pull of a Woodward magnet.

If that ends up being the case, and if more holistic boundary shifts are avoided, it will be because of the fine efforts of the W-area contingent, those here and elsewhere. Like it or not, the Federal government delegates school administration to the states (or, perhaps more Constitutionally precise, it is reserved to the states, despite any Federal funding/regulation), and MD delegates it to county-level districts, not town. MCPS, then, has the responsibility to provide reasonably equivalent educational services to all of its students (equal protection). Neighborhood schools, sensible boundaries and easily-accessible magnets are great ideas, but only if you're making sure to get your county decision-makers in line to pony up to provide that to everybody, not just ensure/preserve that for yourself.

There's no land in SS for a high school, and MoCo doesn't have the stomach to spend the tens of million to acquire (and still more to deal with all the lawsuits when they use adverse possession to assemble a property) when the Woodward property was already in the portfolio.

As to WJ - this year it's 650 students over capacity. That's more than half the entire DCC overage across all 5 high schools.

That's part of the point. As noted above, inner SS/down-county has suffered more from poor planning decisions. Making up for that might be difficult cost more, but it doesn't mean it's the wrong thing, given equal protection requiring reasonably equivalent education service levels, of which facilities/overcrowding is a part. That would mean either holding off on projects elsewhere or having the County Council add a lot more funding (and tax $). Or you could try to get the conservative-majority court to overturn Brown, as they did with Roe...

As with others, no problem relieving WJ. There's nearby capacity, though, especially in a relative sense, and the objective should be not to have overcapacity anywhere. Or, at minimum, doing our best to keep overcapacity from affecting one group/area more than others. That means relieving DCC, and a Woodward magnet just won't do a good enough job. Neither will moving 200 magnet students from Blair. It's got to be more holistic. Or unjust. You get to choose which you support.

I choose not to support people who want the Supreme Court to overturn Brown vs. Board of Education.

This is how people form judgments about conservatives. They read some stupid hyperbolic rant on a forum that has nothing to do with anything. Lots of conservatives don't like how the 14th Amendment has been applied, but I have seen exactly zero people calling for the Court to overturn Brown.

First paragraph from the post above:

That's part of the point. As noted above, inner SS/down-county has suffered more from poor planning decisions. Making up for that might be difficult cost more, but it doesn't mean it's the wrong thing, given equal protection requiring reasonably equivalent education service levels, of which facilities/overcrowding is a part. That would mean either holding off on projects elsewhere or having the County Council add a lot more funding (and tax $). Or you could try to get the conservative-majority court to overturn Brown, as they did with Roe...

DP that was clearly NOT someone actually advocating for that and you know it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

They did explicitly state their intent in a subsequent post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strange take about the system catering to Silver Spring. If that were the case, you'd see resources going there instead of, say, to the brand new elementary in Potomac and the upcoming brand new high school in Bethesda, the subject of this thread.

Instead, we see no high school options pursued inside the beltway where one is desperately needed, SSIMS/SCES treated like a redheaded stepchild, HVES given the three-card Monty and Eastern downright ignored. TPMS, Pinecrest and Woodlin, you say? Well, shucks, it helps to have some wealthy folks in certain catchments...

Hey, waaaaaiit a minute...could it be that politicians pay lip service to the bulk of the electorate to garner the popular vote but bend to monied interests when it comes to brass tacks? Nah, couldn't be!

Then you don't have a problem moving the Blair magnet closer to mid-county where all students can access them? Same distance from every corner of MC?

And schools like Wootton crumbing? Schools with asbestos? You don't care about them?

Please. Save it for someone who's a bit more naive.

Wootton is fine and the Blair magnet is not movable.

Everything is movable. If it means it's equitable bus ride for entire county, then it should move.

It's easy to determine.

Average bus ride time per students to Magnet if it's in Blair vs if it's in Woodward. That data should clearly show which is better for average students who have attended magnet in the last 2 years. For this calculation, 25 reserved seats shouldn't be counted because they are not county wide, that will anyway go to wherever magnet is.

Blair mostly serves students near it so it makes the most sense to keep it there.

It would be better to add a vocational magnet to Woodward or Wootton to help diversify that part of the county.

Agree, Blair magnet is situated ideally now, but West county really needs a vocational magnet to help diversify the segregated school.

Woodward should have a vocational magnet? Have you been by the Woodward site lately? The building project is well underway. It has to be ready for Northwood in 14 months. Whatever you might think should happen, it's not going to happen.

+1 and the vocational magnet is currently at Wheaton which is pretty close to Woodward.

It would be best if it were at one of the least diverse schools like Churchill or Whitman because they have so many chronic issues with racism. Greater diversity would greatly help improve the climate in that community.

Yes, vocational magnets at the segregated schools would be one way to help shore up the lack of diversity there.

The boundary analysis showed that schools aren't segregated. People live where they want to live and 90-95% of them prefer sending their kids to a neighborhood school. "Segregated schools" is a progressive scare tactic used to dupe normal Democrats into accepting busing.

True. MCPS schools are more diverse than most public schools in this country. Still, progressives are not satisfied.

I don’t know a ton about this as I’m fairly new to the county but I don’t think it’s about diversity as in “there are students of color who go here” so much as it is about public education needing to serve all students equally, and the fact that some districts are clearly much richer than others. Some schools have a better reputation than others and the biggest difference is the wealth and racial makeup of the student population. I’m not advocating for complicated busing but I’m guessing some boundaries could be re-examined.

My kids are zoned for East Silver Spring elementary and the ES boundaries here are weird. ESS is fairly intuitive, a neighborhood school, but it is the highest FARMS school in the region, and all the other elementary schools have weird boundaries. We are less than a mile from Sligo Creek which is extremely white and wealthy for the area. And for some reason it hosts and immersion program, making it even wealthier. This does not seem good to me.

Yes, there are many issues with the ES boundaries. However, the Woodward study will not be redrawing any ES boundary lines.*

*probably, as far as we know, to date

To change this, they would have to authorize a whole new study. The Woodward study scope has already been approved by the board, and it specifically includes high and middle schools and excludes elementary schools:

"...Resolved, That no elementary schools be included in the boundary study..."

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/WoodwardHS_BoundaryStudyScope.pdf

No, they can amend the scope.

This is going to be convoluted enough with just the 22 schools already in scope, and they need to have the new boundaries done well in advance of Woodward's opening to figure out a host of logistics. And they also plan to begin the Crown and Damascus studies before the Woodward study is finished. It seems highly unlikely that they would opt to bring in the elementary schools too, especially after having already decided not to.

CAN they? Yes, they can. WILL they? Probably not.

They also CAN rename Woodward "Boaty McBoatface High School," but they probably will not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strange take about the system catering to Silver Spring. If that were the case, you'd see resources going there instead of, say, to the brand new elementary in Potomac and the upcoming brand new high school in Bethesda, the subject of this thread.

Instead, we see no high school options pursued inside the beltway where one is desperately needed, SSIMS/SCES treated like a redheaded stepchild, HVES given the three-card Monty and Eastern downright ignored. TPMS, Pinecrest and Woodlin, you say? Well, shucks, it helps to have some wealthy folks in certain catchments...

Hey, waaaaaiit a minute...could it be that politicians pay lip service to the bulk of the electorate to garner the popular vote but bend to monied interests when it comes to brass tacks? Nah, couldn't be!

Then you don't have a problem moving the Blair magnet closer to mid-county where all students can access them? Same distance from every corner of MC?

And schools like Wootton crumbing? Schools with asbestos? You don't care about them?

Please. Save it for someone who's a bit more naive.

Wootton is fine and the Blair magnet is not movable.

Everything is movable. If it means it's equitable bus ride for entire county, then it should move.

It's easy to determine.

Average bus ride time per students to Magnet if it's in Blair vs if it's in Woodward. That data should clearly show which is better for average students who have attended magnet in the last 2 years. For this calculation, 25 reserved seats shouldn't be counted because they are not county wide, that will anyway go to wherever magnet is.

Blair mostly serves students near it so it makes the most sense to keep it there.

It would be better to add a vocational magnet to Woodward or Wootton to help diversify that part of the county.

Agree, Blair magnet is situated ideally now, but West county really needs a vocational magnet to help diversify the segregated school.

Woodward should have a vocational magnet? Have you been by the Woodward site lately? The building project is well underway. It has to be ready for Northwood in 14 months. Whatever you might think should happen, it's not going to happen.

+1 and the vocational magnet is currently at Wheaton which is pretty close to Woodward.

It would be best if it were at one of the least diverse schools like Churchill or Whitman because they have so many chronic issues with racism. Greater diversity would greatly help improve the climate in that community.

Yes, vocational magnets at the segregated schools would be one way to help shore up the lack of diversity there.

The boundary analysis showed that schools aren't segregated. People live where they want to live and 90-95% of them prefer sending their kids to a neighborhood school. "Segregated schools" is a progressive scare tactic used to dupe normal Democrats into accepting busing.

True. MCPS schools are more diverse than most public schools in this country. Still, progressives are not satisfied.

I don’t know a ton about this as I’m fairly new to the county but I don’t think it’s about diversity as in “there are students of color who go here” so much as it is about public education needing to serve all students equally, and the fact that some districts are clearly much richer than others. Some schools have a better reputation than others and the biggest difference is the wealth and racial makeup of the student population. I’m not advocating for complicated busing but I’m guessing some boundaries could be re-examined.

My kids are zoned for East Silver Spring elementary and the ES boundaries here are weird. ESS is fairly intuitive, a neighborhood school, but it is the highest FARMS school in the region, and all the other elementary schools have weird boundaries. We are less than a mile from Sligo Creek which is extremely white and wealthy for the area. And for some reason it hosts and immersion program, making it even wealthier. This does not seem good to me.

Yes, there are many issues with the ES boundaries. However, the Woodward study will not be redrawing any ES boundary lines.*

*probably, as far as we know, to date

To change this, they would have to authorize a whole new study. The Woodward study scope has already been approved by the board, and it specifically includes high and middle schools and excludes elementary schools:

"...Resolved, That no elementary schools be included in the boundary study..."

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/WoodwardHS_BoundaryStudyScope.pdf

No, they can amend the scope.

This is going to be convoluted enough with just the 22 schools already in scope, and they need to have the new boundaries done well in advance of Woodward's opening to figure out a host of logistics. And they also plan to begin the Crown and Damascus studies before the Woodward study is finished. It seems highly unlikely that they would opt to bring in the elementary schools too, especially after having already decided not to.

CAN they? Yes, they can. WILL they? Probably not.

They also CAN rename Woodward "Boaty McBoatface High School," but they probably will not.

Tweet! False equivalency foul.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strange take about the system catering to Silver Spring. If that were the case, you'd see resources going there instead of, say, to the brand new elementary in Potomac and the upcoming brand new high school in Bethesda, the subject of this thread.

Instead, we see no high school options pursued inside the beltway where one is desperately needed, SSIMS/SCES treated like a redheaded stepchild, HVES given the three-card Monty and Eastern downright ignored. TPMS, Pinecrest and Woodlin, you say? Well, shucks, it helps to have some wealthy folks in certain catchments...

Hey, waaaaaiit a minute...could it be that politicians pay lip service to the bulk of the electorate to garner the popular vote but bend to monied interests when it comes to brass tacks? Nah, couldn't be!

Then you don't have a problem moving the Blair magnet closer to mid-county where all students can access them? Same distance from every corner of MC?

And schools like Wootton crumbing? Schools with asbestos? You don't care about them?

Please. Save it for someone who's a bit more naive.

All red herrings, there. The point was that Silver Spring isn't getting the dough any more than other places. The Potomac example, and others, were thown in for color. Wooton might not be having their problems addressed, either, but significant $ differentials going to less-well-off communities to provide reasonably equivalent educational experiences just isn't happening.

The magnet doesn't need to be at Blair, but what makes more sense than moving it or Poolesville is to create many more. There's a higher number of kids than when the magnets were created, and the seats were too few back then. A Whitman magnet of another sort. -- one that would tend to draw more from overcrowded DCC than other, less crowded schools -- also makes sense. Stopping the gravy train for developers by re-establishing burdens to fund, fully, proper school and other infrastructure makes even more sense.

As for naivete, I'd place that squarely on the one(s) suggesting that politicians (and others with authority) don't end up nodding to wealth more often than to poverty.

"but significant $ differentials going to less-well-off communities to provide reasonably equivalent educational experiences just isn't happening"

This is false. Schools in poor neighborhoods receive millions more per year than schools in welfare neighborhoods. This was per a report from the county council several years ago.

Context is important. That report was about operations -- things like extra staff/smaller class sizes for Title I schools.

This thread, and specifically the portions of the discussion that led to the text you quote as false,
is about facilities/capital budget, not operations. If it were false, and if significant $ were being funneled to SS over other areas (Wooton's plight was mentioned) we wouldn't be seeing the noted poor facility conditions in that area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strange take about the system catering to Silver Spring. If that were the case, you'd see resources going there instead of, say, to the brand new elementary in Potomac and the upcoming brand new high school in Bethesda, the subject of this thread.

Instead, we see no high school options pursued inside the beltway where one is desperately needed, SSIMS/SCES treated like a redheaded stepchild, HVES given the three-card Monty and Eastern downright ignored. TPMS, Pinecrest and Woodlin, you say? Well, shucks, it helps to have some wealthy folks in certain catchments...

Hey, waaaaaiit a minute...could it be that politicians pay lip service to the bulk of the electorate to garner the popular vote but bend to monied interests when it comes to brass tacks? Nah, couldn't be!

Then you don't have a problem moving the Blair magnet closer to mid-county where all students can access them? Same distance from every corner of MC?

And schools like Wootton crumbing? Schools with asbestos? You don't care about them?

Please. Save it for someone who's a bit more naive.

All red herrings, there. The point was that Silver Spring isn't getting the dough any more than other places. The Potomac example, and others, were thown in for color. Wooton might not be having their problems addressed, either, but significant $ differentials going to less-well-off communities to provide reasonably equivalent educational experiences just isn't happening.

The magnet doesn't need to be at Blair, but what makes more sense than moving it or Poolesville is to create many more. There's a higher number of kids than when the magnets were created, and the seats were too few back then. A Whitman magnet of another sort. -- one that would tend to draw more from overcrowded DCC than other, less crowded schools -- also makes sense. Stopping the gravy train for developers by re-establishing burdens to fund, fully, proper school and other infrastructure makes even more sense.

As for naivete, I'd place that squarely on the one(s) suggesting that politicians (and others with authority) don't end up nodding to wealth more often than to poverty.

"but significant $ differentials going to less-well-off communities to provide reasonably equivalent educational experiences just isn't happening"

This is false. Schools in poor neighborhoods receive millions more per year than schools in welfare neighborhoods. This was per a report from the county council several years ago.

Context is important. That report was about operations -- things like extra staff/smaller class sizes for Title I schools.

This thread, and specifically the portions of the discussion that led to the text you quote as false,
is about facilities/capital budget, not operations. If it were false, and if significant $ were being funneled to SS over other areas (Wooton's plight was mentioned) we wouldn't be seeing the noted poor facility conditions in that area.

It is also false that schools in wealthier neighborhoods are prioritized for facilities/capital budget over schools in poorer neighborhoods. We see poor facility conditions all over the county.