latest updates on Woodward

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any reason why are people assuming that DCC students will be rezoned only to Woodward, and not to WJ as well? They are going to try to reduce disparities in FARMS rates between neighboring schools as well as they reasonably can, right?

I suppose they could do that but given WJs overcrowded state already the most they could take even if all of Tilden was sent to Woodward would be one DCC feeder. I would think it would be pretty crappy for that one feeder to be sent to a school that perhaps has a less than stellar reputation when it comes to how they perceive and treat people outside of their Bethesda bubble. That would also create the same problem at Woodward. Sticking one higher FARMs feeder into a sea of WJ students is not equity and doesn’t create a welcome environment for those kids.

[Anonymous]

I thought there was a new elementary school going in somewhere between BCC and WJ that would probably feed to WJ. BCC and Whitman are pretty maxed out too and could potentially feed some students to WJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any reason why are people assuming that DCC students will be rezoned only to Woodward, and not to WJ as well? They are going to try to reduce disparities in FARMS rates between neighboring schools as well as they reasonably can, right?

This doesn't make sense as it would be a terrible commute for DCC. It makes more sense to pull from BCC, WJ, and and some of the other local W schools, and maybe parts of Einstein. I don't want my kids making that commute.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Not sure why they are ramming through a performing arts space. Who's agenda is this, now that Smith is gone, and besides, it is going to cost a fortune.

Einstein has Visual Arts, Northwood has performing arts, and the community didn't ask for this. We live in one of the catchment area schools that will be relieved of overcrowding once Woodward opens/after Northwood leaves.

I personally am a supporter of the arts, but our community always wanted a traditional HS, not a performing arts magnet!

Actually the community did ask for it. I thought Einstein had the preforming arts? What is the difference between the two programs?

Woodward is not part of the DCC.

Woodward is planned to relieve overcrowding in the DCC. Whether it's part of the DCC or not is to be seen.

This makes no sense when Woodward is not close to downcountry. I wouldn't want my child commuting the far.

It's really not that far from Wheaton and Einstein.

This. Plus, Northwood is actually going to be temporarily housed there while it’s expansion is completed. I would not be surprised if Woodward becomes part of the DCC since it will certainly absorb some existing DCC students when it re-opens, in addition to being a temporary placement for a DCC HS prior to re-opening as Woodward.

Potomac ES was temporarily housed at Radnor. I’m not sure that means much.

I think a lot of DCC parents are going to end up disappointed if they think Woodward will take a lot of DCC students. Particularly since they have now downsized the school.

Priority will be relieving WJ. After that, who knows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought there was a new elementary school going in somewhere between BCC and WJ that would probably feed to WJ. BCC and Whitman are pretty maxed out too and could potentially feed some students to WJ.

That’s uncertain now that they completed the boundary study for Bethesda/Somerset/Westbrook.

But the idea was to convert Lycee Rochambeau once they move to their new schools to an ES that feeds both clusters.

They cannot do anything with Whitman right now because everything is pending enrollment growth from Westbard development. Looks like they are holding capacity at Westland for that purpose at MS level but there is no ES capacity so maybe the joint WJ-BCC ES comes back into play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any reason why are people assuming that DCC students will be rezoned only to Woodward, and not to WJ as well? They are going to try to reduce disparities in FARMS rates between neighboring schools as well as they reasonably can, right?

The idea is that they are trying to take students out of WJ, not add them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought there was a new elementary school going in somewhere between BCC and WJ that would probably feed to WJ. BCC and Whitman are pretty maxed out too and could potentially feed some students to WJ.

MCPS pretended that for a while (Bethesda Beat should do a story on wasted MCPS money on site selections and capacity studies and this would would a great example), but instead relieved overcrowding at some BCC ESs and left WJ ESs an overcrowded mess. The WJ parents have been pushing to resolve overcrowding in their ESs for years (originally just Ashburton, now Ashburton, Farmland, and soon to be Luxmanor), but MCPS ignores them, and allows their schools to be overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Is it pretty much assumed that the WJ kids moving will be the kids from Tilden feeder, and maybe some of the KP kids out of NB? Just wondering what is the likely outcome.

I have pretty much zero interest in the performing arts magnet. I feel like it just makes it that much harder for "normal" kids to participate in arts programs--and I feel like the main purpose of arts in public schools is to provide a fun and enriching experience to the widest range of kids. I view arts like I view sports. But I appreciate that my view is not shared by all.

With these "magnets" they provide more teachers and classes for all students.

I think we really need to wait for the 2023 and 2024 enrollment numbers at WJ and Wheaton and Einstein in order to assess whether there would even be room in the Woodward building to add a magnet program there. Remember, they recently had to reduce the overall building capacity down to 2160.

WJ is expected to be about 600 students over capacity and the DCC about 200 over. There'll be a lot of room for a magnet if MCPS wants to do it.

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP23_Chapter4JohnsonW.pdf
https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP23_Chapter4DowncountyConsortium.pdf

Einstein alone is about 300 students over capacity this year, and is estimated to be about 500 over capacity by the time Woodward opens in 2025.

And their goal will be to get all of the overcapacity schools further down to 80-90% if possible, not to leave them at 100% without any room to grow. So they will likely rezone more than the bare minimum number of students.

Right now, the "wisdom" is that they'll take the Tilden feeders and send to Woodward and leave the NB feeders at WJ. But that means neither will have a full HS complement -- WJ will have about 1600 and Woodward about 1300. If they're doing a magnet at Woodward, of say 100 per year (so 400 total) that leaves about 500 seats. But then what about WJ? At 1600, they're about 250 short of 80% capacity.

And that doesn’t address the overcrowding issues at Einstein in particular. I don’t think it’s likely that they will send an entire WJ middle school because WJ doesn’t need to halve it’s student body, and Woodward also needs to accommodate some DCC feeders in addition to this potential magnet.

They would be more likely to send all of Tilden than split articulation. Each of WJ and Woodward would need a low FARMs base enrollment in any case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it pretty much assumed that the WJ kids moving will be the kids from Tilden feeder, and maybe some of the KP kids out of NB? Just wondering what is the likely outcome.

I have pretty much zero interest in the performing arts magnet. I feel like it just makes it that much harder for "normal" kids to participate in arts programs--and I feel like the main purpose of arts in public schools is to provide a fun and enriching experience to the widest range of kids. I view arts like I view sports. But I appreciate that my view is not shared by all.

With these "magnets" they provide more teachers and classes for all students.

I think we really need to wait for the 2023 and 2024 enrollment numbers at WJ and Wheaton and Einstein in order to assess whether there would even be room in the Woodward building to add a magnet program there. Remember, they recently had to reduce the overall building capacity down to 2160.

The alternative is that it will be Tilden (1600) + Magnet (500) and no DCC. Perhaps they shift more Einstein boundaries around Kensington to WJ?

[Anonymous]

There is no way that school is built like those drawings show.

Once they value engineer that project. That’s all someone’s imagination.

Balconies in the auditorium. Haha. Those photos are all from major university and major performing arts venues.

Having seen how mcps builds schools there not getting any of that fancy stuff. The privates don’t even look that nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no way that school is built like those drawings show.

Once they value engineer that project. That’s all someone’s imagination.

Balconies in the auditorium. Haha. Those photos are all from major university and major performing arts venues.

Having seen how mcps builds schools there not getting any of that fancy stuff. The privates don’t even look that nice.

On a facility level, the quality of many MCPS buildings rivals and in many cases bests the most expensive privates in the area. If you don’t believe me, visit Whitman or BCC and then go take a tour of the Sidwell Upper School. You’ll be shocked.

Also, MCPS has paid for a site plan and is in the process of completing design on Phase 2. So yes, once they complete the design what you see is what will go for procurement and will be built so long as the county funds it in the CIP.

In terms of funding, I highly doubt that the county will prioritize Phase 2. But what we do know about MCPS is that once they pay for site plans and designs they will use them if it’s eventually funded. So while I severely doubt Phase 2 will be constructed on the deadline presented, it will probably get constructed eventually even if it takes a decade to get funded.

And yes, it will come with all the design features that you see, because it goes from design to procurement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought there was a new elementary school going in somewhere between BCC and WJ that would probably feed to WJ. BCC and Whitman are pretty maxed out too and could potentially feed some students to WJ.

That’s uncertain now that they completed the boundary study for Bethesda/Somerset/Westbrook.

But the idea was to convert Lycee Rochambeau once they move to their new schools to an ES that feeds both clusters.

They cannot do anything with Whitman right now because everything is pending enrollment growth from Westbard development. Looks like they are holding capacity at Westland for that purpose at MS level but there is no ES capacity so maybe the joint WJ-BCC ES comes back into play.

When was that one of the sites under review? In the February 2020 report they had narrowed it down to these six sites. Then the pandemic happened and no updates since.

Grosvenor Elementary
Kensington Elementary
Lynnbrook Center
White Flint North Site
White Flint South Site
WMAL site

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/facilities/construction/project/BCCWJClusterStudyNewSitePresentation.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any reason why are people assuming that DCC students will be rezoned only to Woodward, and not to WJ as well? They are going to try to reduce disparities in FARMS rates between neighboring schools as well as they reasonably can, right?

The idea is that they are trying to take students out of WJ, not add them.

Yes, but if Tilden feeders go to Woodward and NBMS feeders stay at WJ, then each high school would have too many empty seats remaining so they'd have room for another ES or two to be rezoned there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no way that school is built like those drawings show.

Once they value engineer that project. That’s all someone’s imagination.

Balconies in the auditorium. Haha. Those photos are all from major university and major performing arts venues.

Having seen how mcps builds schools there not getting any of that fancy stuff. The privates don’t even look that nice.

On a facility level, the quality of many MCPS buildings rivals and in many cases bests the most expensive privates in the area. If you don’t believe me, visit Whitman or BCC and then go take a tour of the Sidwell Upper School. You’ll be shocked.

Also, MCPS has paid for a site plan and is in the process of completing design on Phase 2. So yes, once they complete the design what you see is what will go for procurement and will be built so long as the county funds it in the CIP.

In terms of funding, I highly doubt that the county will prioritize Phase 2. But what we do know about MCPS is that once they pay for site plans and designs they will use them if it’s eventually funded. So while I severely doubt Phase 2 will be constructed on the deadline presented, it will probably get constructed eventually even if it takes a decade to get funded.

And yes, it will come with all the design features that you see, because it goes from design to procurement.

When they rebuilt RM, they made it look like a prison, on both the inside and the outside. Not too confident of anything they come up with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought there was a new elementary school going in somewhere between BCC and WJ that would probably feed to WJ. BCC and Whitman are pretty maxed out too and could potentially feed some students to WJ.

That’s uncertain now that they completed the boundary study for Bethesda/Somerset/Westbrook.

But the idea was to convert Lycee Rochambeau once they move to their new schools to an ES that feeds both clusters.

They cannot do anything with Whitman right now because everything is pending enrollment growth from Westbard development. Looks like they are holding capacity at Westland for that purpose at MS level but there is no ES capacity so maybe the joint WJ-BCC ES comes back into play.

9600 Forest is in the WJ Cluster, so there's that ...