Board of Education 9/4/2025 Board Work Session thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Christine just set the stage for a nice class action lawsuit.

How so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 6th testimony unveiled some interesting motivation from Taylor’s past in pushing the the secondary program analysis. Interesting…

I have been wondering what the deal is with Taylor - he is this extreme change agent, trying to push this system into massive changes when the quality of these changes is hurried and poor quality. Maybe he thinks he can do whatever he wants, with dismissiveness to the board, because of the chaos that resulted from McKnight and her firing. He may find that he is wrong.

I support all of his proposals. MCPS needs radical change, and people will complain no matter what is proposed. I think doing it all at once, with the boundary changes, is actually a good strategy. Everyone should give it a chance; the new model cannot be worse than what we have.

[Anonymous]

It is not true that Blair will reflect the neighborhood. We live in a neighborhood that can WALK to Blair. It’s our closest high school. Yet none of the boundary studies assigned us to Blair - instead we literally pass Blair on the way to Northwood. It’s madness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not true that Blair will reflect the neighborhood. We live in a neighborhood that can WALK to Blair. It’s our closest high school. Yet none of the boundary studies assigned us to Blair - instead we literally pass Blair on the way to Northwood. It’s madness.

There are kids that live NEXT DOOR (not even a block away, but literally next door) to Summit Hall Elementary and they are districted for Rosemont Elementary. Tell me how this makes sense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m always curious how folks believe we can expand access without creating new programs and populating them elsewhere. Blair already has over 3K students. It’s not like we can just add more magnet seats there. And once we create a similar program elsewhere what is the purpose keeping them countywide?

If only it was that simple. Once the Taylor regional system is implemented, Wooten will become the new magnet program. Who knows what Blair educators will follow them there. We don't have that many highly specialized teachers - even Taylor admitted he doesn't know how many teachers want to highly specialize in magnet programming. And what, we are going to turn this on a dime, beginning in 2027? In a school district that is our size?

Wooten Cluster currently provides ~30% of Blair's SCSM magnet student cohort. They will be gone. Blair's Communications Arts Program will be downgraded from a criteria-based program to an interest-based program.

What does all this do to Blair? We likely will be moving Blair back towards the 1980s, when it was the most troubled high school in the county, with the lowest outcomes. And it will remain the largest high school in the system.

Wooten has advanced classes. Removing them from Blair will hurt many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m always curious how folks believe we can expand access without creating new programs and populating them elsewhere. Blair already has over 3K students. It’s not like we can just add more magnet seats there. And once we create a similar program elsewhere what is the purpose keeping them countywide?

If only it was that simple. Once the Taylor regional system is implemented, Wooten will become the new magnet program. Who knows what Blair educators will follow them there. We don't have that many highly specialized teachers - even Taylor admitted he doesn't know how many teachers want to highly specialize in magnet programming. And what, we are going to turn this on a dime, beginning in 2027? In a school district that is our size?

Wooten Cluster currently provides ~30% of Blair's SCSM magnet student cohort. They will be gone. Blair's Communications Arts Program will be downgraded from a criteria-based program to an interest-based program.

What does all this do to Blair? We likely will be moving Blair back towards the 1980s, when it was the most troubled high school in the county, with the lowest outcomes. And it will remain the largest high school in the system.

They are stripping down several schools - Blair, Einstein, etc. The DCC will suffer. It will make things worse and less equitable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not true that Blair will reflect the neighborhood. We live in a neighborhood that can WALK to Blair. It’s our closest high school. Yet none of the boundary studies assigned us to Blair - instead we literally pass Blair on the way to Northwood. It’s madness.

There are kids that live NEXT DOOR (not even a block away, but literally next door) to Summit Hall Elementary and they are districted for Rosemont Elementary. Tell me how this makes sense?

That doesn't seem to be true:

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/SummitHallES.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not true that Blair will reflect the neighborhood. We live in a neighborhood that can WALK to Blair. It’s our closest high school. Yet none of the boundary studies assigned us to Blair - instead we literally pass Blair on the way to Northwood. It’s madness.

I am so tired of geographically-challenged families in the Blair walk zone complaining about how them not being a sign of MCPS incompetence. Look at a map sometime, guys. There are huge numbers of students inside the Beltway whose closest school is Blair. There's also a lot of DCC schools near each other in a relatively small area. There is no way that everyone who could walk to Blair is going to get assigned to Blair-- some will and some won't. You can be disappointed that you're not in the group that is, but don't act like they're missing some easy solution that assigns all y'all to Blair-- it doesn't exist.

MCPS does a lot of things that are actually wrong-- but when folks on here blame them for everything under the sun, it actually makes it easier for them to conclude that their critics are uninformed and that they're right to just dismiss criticism. Save your criticism for the many, many things they actually do screw up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not true that Blair will reflect the neighborhood. We live in a neighborhood that can WALK to Blair. It’s our closest high school. Yet none of the boundary studies assigned us to Blair - instead we literally pass Blair on the way to Northwood. It’s madness.

I am so tired of geographically-challenged families in the Blair walk zone complaining about how them not being a sign of MCPS incompetence. Look at a map sometime, guys. There are huge numbers of students inside the Beltway whose closest school is Blair. There's also a lot of DCC schools near each other in a relatively small area. There is no way that everyone who could walk to Blair is going to get assigned to Blair-- some will and some won't. You can be disappointed that you're not in the group that is, but don't act like they're missing some easy solution that assigns all y'all to Blair-- it doesn't exist.

MCPS does a lot of things that are actually wrong-- but when folks on here blame them for everything under the sun, it actually makes it easier for them to conclude that their critics are uninformed and that they're right to just dismiss criticism. Save your criticism for the many, many things they actually do screw up.

The problem with high school is activity buses are very limited and not available for most things. Lower income kids aren’t taking uber. Most aren’t getting cars either so it’s walking, parents or public transportation.

[Anonymous]

I don't like the plan because I don't want them spending any additional money on busses and bus drivers - it should be spent on teachers. Speaking of which, no way will they find enough teachers for 6 advanced programs in (foreign languages, science, math, etc).

This half-baked plan, not thought through, will fail spectacularly and will not do what they say (equity for all)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not true that Blair will reflect the neighborhood. We live in a neighborhood that can WALK to Blair. It’s our closest high school. Yet none of the boundary studies assigned us to Blair - instead we literally pass Blair on the way to Northwood. It’s madness.

I am so tired of geographically-challenged families in the Blair walk zone complaining about how them not being a sign of MCPS incompetence. Look at a map sometime, guys. There are huge numbers of students inside the Beltway whose closest school is Blair. There's also a lot of DCC schools near each other in a relatively small area. There is no way that everyone who could walk to Blair is going to get assigned to Blair-- some will and some won't. You can be disappointed that you're not in the group that is, but don't act like they're missing some easy solution that assigns all y'all to Blair-- it doesn't exist.

MCPS does a lot of things that are actually wrong-- but when folks on here blame them for everything under the sun, it actually makes it easier for them to conclude that their critics are uninformed and that they're right to just dismiss criticism. Save your criticism for the many, many things they actually do screw up.

..like setting up strawman options for an inside-the-beltway, east county HS, where none remained but population density and overall insufficiency were highest, such that they were bound to be rejected in favor of the new Woodward so that, instead of shifting populations east [gasps, clutches pearls], the hoi polloi of WJ demographics could be removed to a very close but conveniently separate school, where they, then, could argue against the possibility of a westward population shift from the DCC, with a predictable level of continuing neglect put forth as options, such as dissolution of the consortium and suggesting unfunded buildout of shell space in a neighboring building to allow for continued Wheaton overcrowding, all while refusing academic relief that would keep students from continuing in a scarcity model by ensuring that the same set of non-magnet, high-level classes available at, say, Whitman or Churchill, is made available across the system while resources to address differential EML need are distributed proportionately enough to ensure not only a reasonable possibility of academic uptake for those populations, no matter the relative prevalence, but also a similar academic experience for the non-EML populations across schools?

[Anonymous]

The solution is bus Takoma kids 5 extra minutes to Northwood since they are already on a bus. I’ll wait while the “geographically challenged” families of Takoma Park lose it. The more obvious solution was to build another high school with proximity to DTSS 15 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The solution is bus Takoma kids 5 extra minutes to Northwood since they are already on a bus. I’ll wait while the “geographically challenged” families of Takoma Park lose it. The more obvious solution was to build another high school with proximity to DTSS 15 years ago.

💯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't like the plan because I don't want them spending any additional money on busses and bus drivers - it should be spent on teachers. Speaking of which, no way will they find enough teachers for 6 advanced programs in (foreign languages, science, math, etc).

This half-baked plan, not thought through, will fail spectacularly and will not do what they say (equity for all)

exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't like the plan because I don't want them spending any additional money on busses and bus drivers - it should be spent on teachers. Speaking of which, no way will they find enough teachers for 6 advanced programs in (foreign languages, science, math, etc).

This half-baked plan, not thought through, will fail spectacularly and will not do what they say (equity for all)

W schools unite! Preserve our Blair pipeline! Keep things as they are by scaring people!