Woodward and Crown boundary timeline talk at BOE

[Anonymous]

Wasn't the thing about Woodward reducing overcrowding in the DCC reduced to just whatever magnet program (arts?) that Woodward would have would draw from DCC as well as from other nearby areas? A hundred students, maybe? Some study that showed Northwood expansion would be enough? No shift of DCC general catchments to Woodward?

The county really needs better growth policies and regular boundary studies with well-reasoned changes. I'm not advocating gerrymandered, far-from-home school assignments, but the assumption of a particular home's/neighborhood's invariate school assignment has got to stop. What terrible inefficiency it causes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wasn't the thing about Woodward reducing overcrowding in the DCC reduced to just whatever magnet program (arts?) that Woodward would have would draw from DCC as well as from other nearby areas? A hundred students, maybe? Some study that showed Northwood expansion would be enough? No shift of DCC general catchments to Woodward?

The county really needs better growth policies and regular boundary studies with well-reasoned changes. I'm not advocating gerrymandered, far-from-home school assignments, but the assumption of a particular home's/neighborhood's invariate school assignment has got to stop. What terrible inefficiency it causes!

Exactly and that's why schools that aren't overcrowded like BCC whose boundary are adjacent to these overcrowded schools, is part of the solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wasn't the thing about Woodward reducing overcrowding in the DCC reduced to just whatever magnet program (arts?) that Woodward would have would draw from DCC as well as from other nearby areas? A hundred students, maybe? Some study that showed Northwood expansion would be enough? No shift of DCC general catchments to Woodward?

The county really needs better growth policies and regular boundary studies with well-reasoned changes. I'm not advocating gerrymandered, far-from-home school assignments, but the assumption of a particular home's/neighborhood's invariate school assignment has got to stop. What terrible inefficiency it causes!

Not sure where you heard that, but no, the projected numbers do not show that at all. After Northwood's expansion, it will end up with ~400 available seats. But Blair will already be overcapacity by 600+, Einstein by 500+, and Wheaton by 400+. Kennedy will have filled up its recent addition and will be slightly overcapacity too. That is why Woodward is needed for the DCC schools as well as WJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wasn't the thing about Woodward reducing overcrowding in the DCC reduced to just whatever magnet program (arts?) that Woodward would have would draw from DCC as well as from other nearby areas? A hundred students, maybe? Some study that showed Northwood expansion would be enough? No shift of DCC general catchments to Woodward?

The county really needs better growth policies and regular boundary studies with well-reasoned changes. I'm not advocating gerrymandered, far-from-home school assignments, but the assumption of a particular home's/neighborhood's invariate school assignment has got to stop. What terrible inefficiency it causes!

Not sure where you heard that, but no, the projected numbers do not show that at all. After Northwood's expansion, it will end up with ~400 available seats. But Blair will already be overcapacity by 600+, Einstein by 500+, and Wheaton by 400+. Kennedy will have filled up its recent addition and will be slightly overcapacity too. That is why Woodward is needed for the DCC schools as well as WJ.

And they will offload kids to adjacent schools to make room in overcrowded boundaries. It's like that tile game that kids play. As they make room in one school near Woodward they can move more kids from adjacent schools and so on and so on...

[Anonymous]

Oakland Terrace is way over capacity and KP is now under post-renovation. That might be a long term plan to shift some of those kids eastward into KP and then ultimately either WJ or Woodward. But that would be bad for families who chose the immersion program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oakland Terrace is way over capacity and KP is now under post-renovation. That might be a long term plan to shift some of those kids eastward into KP and then ultimately either WJ or Woodward. But that would be bad for families who chose the immersion program.

OTES isn’t over capacity, especially not “way” over. Are you serious? OTES used to have all the kids currently there now AND those currently at Flora Singer. We’re fine.

Now, we still may be moved to Woodward, but whatever. I have zero interest in KP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oakland Terrace is way over capacity and KP is now under post-renovation. That might be a long term plan to shift some of those kids eastward into KP and then ultimately either WJ or Woodward. But that would be bad for families who chose the immersion program.

OTES isn’t over capacity, especially not “way” over. Are you serious? OTES used to have all the kids currently there now AND those currently at Flora Singer. We’re fine.

Now, we still may be moved to Woodward, but whatever. I have zero interest in KP.

Should of specified based on projections. Those projections show Oakland Terrace to be the second highest overcapacity ES in the district in 2028, two years after Woodward is likely to open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oakland Terrace is way over capacity and KP is now under post-renovation. That might be a long term plan to shift some of those kids eastward into KP and then ultimately either WJ or Woodward. But that would be bad for families who chose the immersion program.

OTES isn’t over capacity, especially not “way” over. Are you serious? OTES used to have all the kids currently there now AND those currently at Flora Singer. We’re fine.

Now, we still may be moved to Woodward, but whatever. I have zero interest in KP.

Should of specified based on projections. Those projections show Oakland Terrace to be the second highest overcapacity ES in the district in 2028, two years after Woodward is likely to open.

Is OTES slated for an expansion/renovation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wasn't the thing about Woodward reducing overcrowding in the DCC reduced to just whatever magnet program (arts?) that Woodward would have would draw from DCC as well as from other nearby areas? A hundred students, maybe? Some study that showed Northwood expansion would be enough? No shift of DCC general catchments to Woodward?

The county really needs better growth policies and regular boundary studies with well-reasoned changes. I'm not advocating gerrymandered, far-from-home school assignments, but the assumption of a particular home's/neighborhood's invariate school assignment has got to stop. What terrible inefficiency it causes!

Not sure where you heard that, but no, the projected numbers do not show that at all. After Northwood's expansion, it will end up with ~400 available seats. But Blair will already be overcapacity by 600+, Einstein by 500+, and Wheaton by 400+. Kennedy will have filled up its recent addition and will be slightly overcapacity too. That is why Woodward is needed for the DCC schools as well as WJ.

Sure, DCC will need more space, but before covid they had already shifted thinking at community and board meetings to not changing DCC bondaries to shift to Woodward, but, instead, having some of the Woodward magnet seats be available to DCC, somehow finding arithmetic that worked for them. The WJ & B-CC folks liked that. I haven't seen anything official that says this isn't the case and they've gone back to DCC/Woodward boundary changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oakland Terrace is way over capacity and KP is now under post-renovation. That might be a long term plan to shift some of those kids eastward into KP and then ultimately either WJ or Woodward. But that would be bad for families who chose the immersion program.

OTES isn’t over capacity, especially not “way” over. Are you serious? OTES used to have all the kids currently there now AND those currently at Flora Singer. We’re fine.

Now, we still may be moved to Woodward, but whatever. I have zero interest in KP.

Should of specified based on projections. Those projections show Oakland Terrace to be the second highest overcapacity ES in the district in 2028, two years after Woodward is likely to open.

Is OTES slated for an expansion/renovation?

This is what it says in the new CIP:

Oakland Terrace Elementary School Planning Study: This school has been approved for a feasibility study for a major capital project. The Key Facilities Indicators (KFI) is utilized to identify schools for possible major capital projects. The scope for the project will be identified based on the individual building system and programmatic and capacity needs for each school. Once the feasibility study is complete, a recommendation regarding scope, timeline and funding will be considered in a future CIP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wasn't the thing about Woodward reducing overcrowding in the DCC reduced to just whatever magnet program (arts?) that Woodward would have would draw from DCC as well as from other nearby areas? A hundred students, maybe? Some study that showed Northwood expansion would be enough? No shift of DCC general catchments to Woodward?

The county really needs better growth policies and regular boundary studies with well-reasoned changes. I'm not advocating gerrymandered, far-from-home school assignments, but the assumption of a particular home's/neighborhood's invariate school assignment has got to stop. What terrible inefficiency it causes!

Not sure where you heard that, but no, the projected numbers do not show that at all. After Northwood's expansion, it will end up with ~400 available seats. But Blair will already be overcapacity by 600+, Einstein by 500+, and Wheaton by 400+. Kennedy will have filled up its recent addition and will be slightly overcapacity too. That is why Woodward is needed for the DCC schools as well as WJ.

Sure, DCC will need more space, but before covid they had already shifted thinking at community and board meetings to not changing DCC bondaries to shift to Woodward, but, instead, having some of the Woodward magnet seats be available to DCC, somehow finding arithmetic that worked for them. The WJ & B-CC folks liked that. I haven't seen anything official that says this isn't the case and they've gone back to DCC/Woodward boundary changes.

And there also isn't anything official that says this is the case. Thus all the speculating on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oakland Terrace is way over capacity and KP is now under post-renovation. That might be a long term plan to shift some of those kids eastward into KP and then ultimately either WJ or Woodward. But that would be bad for families who chose the immersion program.

OTES isn’t over capacity, especially not “way” over. Are you serious? OTES used to have all the kids currently there now AND those currently at Flora Singer. We’re fine.

Now, we still may be moved to Woodward, but whatever. I have zero interest in KP.

OTES is currently very slightly over capacity, by 19 students. Projected to 153 over by 2028.

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP24_AppendixE.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wasn't the thing about Woodward reducing overcrowding in the DCC reduced to just whatever magnet program (arts?) that Woodward would have would draw from DCC as well as from other nearby areas? A hundred students, maybe? Some study that showed Northwood expansion would be enough? No shift of DCC general catchments to Woodward?

The county really needs better growth policies and regular boundary studies with well-reasoned changes. I'm not advocating gerrymandered, far-from-home school assignments, but the assumption of a particular home's/neighborhood's invariate school assignment has got to stop. What terrible inefficiency it causes!

Not sure where you heard that, but no, the projected numbers do not show that at all. After Northwood's expansion, it will end up with ~400 available seats. But Blair will already be overcapacity by 600+, Einstein by 500+, and Wheaton by 400+. Kennedy will have filled up its recent addition and will be slightly overcapacity too. That is why Woodward is needed for the DCC schools as well as WJ.

Sure, DCC will need more space, but before covid they had already shifted thinking at community and board meetings to not changing DCC bondaries to shift to Woodward, but, instead, having some of the Woodward magnet seats be available to DCC, somehow finding arithmetic that worked for them. The WJ & B-CC folks liked that. I haven't seen anything official that says this isn't the case and they've gone back to DCC/Woodward boundary changes.

Not sure if many people care about an arts magnet. People want their kids to be employable. Maybe another STEM magnet or three would help, though.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:There was a preliminary discussion at the BOE meeting today about planning for the upcoming boundary studies relating to the opening of new Woodward and Crown high schools, and the significant expansions at Northwood and Damascus. They presented two possible timelines for when all three studies could happen.

The scope for the Woodward study could be determined soon, in February/March 2023, with the board's final boundary decisions coming in March 2025. Or, the scope could be determined later, in February/March 2024, with the final decision in November 2025. The school is set to open in August 2026. (The scope would include things like which schools/clusters would be looked at, whether only high schools or also middle schools, etc.)

The Crown study would be one year later in both scenarios, so Feb/Mar 2024 through March 2026, or Feb/Mar 2025 through November 2026, with an August 2027 opening.

The Damascus study would be February/March 2024 through November 2025, with an August 2026 opening.


They also showed a color-coded map of all the clusters currently connected to these projects, consistent with the CIP:
The Damascus project: the Damascus and Clarksburg clusters.
The Crown project: the Northwest, Quince Orchard, Wootton, Richard Montgomery, and Gaithersburg clusters.
The Woodward and Northwood projects: the Walter Johnson, Wheaton, Einstein, Northwood, Kennedy, and Blair clusters.

But they did make the point that in the process of determining the study scopes, they could end up different than the above. And board members also asked about the feasibility of combining all 13 clusters into one mammoth study. No real discussion of if or how that would work. They said they did not know yet how either of the new schools would be populated, with one, two, or three grades starting there the first year.

I'd heard Woodward mostly involved WJ, Einstein and BCC.

MCPS has said for several years now that Woodward was to help with overcrowding at WJ and the schools in the DCC. BCC has not been on the table - they just did an addition and aren't expected to be overcrowded for a long time.

Here come the protesting BCC parents again. Just like they did when BCC was first part of Woodward, in a Lyttonsville master plan. Then it came out. It might stay out, or might go back in. We won't know for a while yet, but you should keep on protesting, because, you know, it's a good look

This is an odd take. The PP you're responding to was accurate. (And no, I am not a BCC parent.)

No they really weren't but I can see how they'd like to spin things that way. In the end schools adjacent to Woodward's boundary, like BCC, will be affected.

BCC isn't adjacent to Woodward. WJ is between. But keep trying to drag BCC into it and maybe the BoE will listen. Might work even better if you testify and get the PTAs involved.

It sure is. Seriously, stop trying to pretend it isn't. Most of the people don't he north end of BCC's boundary are much closer to Woodward.

Are you also the person who keeps saying einstein to wj is half-way across the county?

Not the PP but I am curious why they bus kids who live a short walk from Einstein halfway across the county to an overcrowded W.

Ah, another geography-challenged DCUMer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wasn't the thing about Woodward reducing overcrowding in the DCC reduced to just whatever magnet program (arts?) that Woodward would have would draw from DCC as well as from other nearby areas? A hundred students, maybe? Some study that showed Northwood expansion would be enough? No shift of DCC general catchments to Woodward?

The county really needs better growth policies and regular boundary studies with well-reasoned changes. I'm not advocating gerrymandered, far-from-home school assignments, but the assumption of a particular home's/neighborhood's invariate school assignment has got to stop. What terrible inefficiency it causes!

Not sure where you heard that, but no, the projected numbers do not show that at all. After Northwood's expansion, it will end up with ~400 available seats. But Blair will already be overcapacity by 600+, Einstein by 500+, and Wheaton by 400+. Kennedy will have filled up its recent addition and will be slightly overcapacity too. That is why Woodward is needed for the DCC schools as well as WJ.

They should have made Wheaton bigger.