Blair SMCS Program October 23 info session

[Anonymous]

What are the 4 schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the 4 schools?

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DJVQ56678E2B/$file/Attachment%20D%20SY2025%20Student%20Enrollment%20Countywide%20Programs%20250724.pdf

[Anonymous]

MCPS sent one email last month about the Blair SMCS HS info session. Meanwhile I got 6 emails from Jostens encouraging me to buy my kid's yearbook. Priorities!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would imagine the in person demand is part of getting people to grapple with the time and distance. If you can’t show up for a single info session, is this Bery demanding commute going to be something you can manage for your family every weekday?

The "bery" demanding commute isn't as much of an issue since Blair SMCS offers bus service to kids every day. But if you think that part of MCPS admissions to a magnet should be the ability to drive 40 minutes each way for a single hour on a single school night, well, that's your vision of what equity and merit looks like.

+1 They have so many calls that are streamed out--why couldn't they do that for the RMIB and Blair SMCS ones unless they were trying to make it harder for people to get the information? It was particularly striking because they offered the Poolesville info session via email with a virtual link in the same email where they said the Blair session was only in person at Blair.

I don't get why people only seem to be whining about Blair SMCS not having a virtual option. Other than Poolesville, none of the other schools did to my knowledge. We live in East County and my kid is interested in the Whitman program - and the open house would have been a hike for us - but I'm not complaining. We did attend the Blair SMCS OH and honestly most of the time was spent going through those Q&As. If you didn't attend, I don't think you missed much in terms of information for parents. The kids were split into 3 groups and left to have mini-sessions with Blair students where they talked about electives, after-school activities, and stuff 8th graders would be interested in. So, if you didn't go in person, your kid missed that, but in terms of the Q&As there wasn't much substance outside of the slides (he did go into more depth, but again, nothing significant that I can recall).

What is this, demonstrated interest? What if student and/or family sick evening of this gathering?

This was like a kindergarten orientation where prospective students and parents in different rooms

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the 4 schools?

I know three are Blair, Wootton, and Churchill. It was in some slides presented at one of the BOE meetings. I don’t know the fourth.

It’s not like Wootton and Churchill are the closest schools to Blair, suggesting proximity isn’t the main driver of who utilizes the program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the 4 schools?

I know three are Blair, Wootton, and Churchill. It was in some slides presented at one of the BOE meetings. I don’t know the fourth.

It’s not like Wootton and Churchill are the closest schools to Blair, suggesting proximity isn’t the main driver of who utilizes the program.

Ah someone posted the data above. The fourth is WJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the 4 schools?

I know three are Blair, Wootton, and Churchill. It was in some slides presented at one of the BOE meetings. I don’t know the fourth.

It’s not like Wootton and Churchill are the closest schools to Blair, suggesting proximity isn’t the main driver of who utilizes the program.

Ah someone posted the data above. The fourth is WJ.

Yet Whitman and BCC are further away and send relatively few kids to the program. BCC and Whitman have more NMSF than the above schools, so it's hard to argue that they're lacking in talent there.

[Anonymous]

So you have three of the richest schools utilizing a majority of spots, at a program meant to draw economic diversity not just to the school but to the area (and diversity I here mean richer people). Perfect, well done, no notes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS sent one email last month about the Blair SMCS HS info session. Meanwhile I got 6 emails from Jostens encouraging me to buy my kid's yearbook. Priorities!

Communications needs overhaul.
But Jostens wants you to buy buy buy, the other thinks if it's a priority for your kid, you'll open that ONE email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would imagine the in person demand is part of getting people to grapple with the time and distance. If you can’t show up for a single info session, is this Bery demanding commute going to be something you can manage for your family every weekday?

The "bery" demanding commute isn't as much of an issue since Blair SMCS offers bus service to kids every day. But if you think that part of MCPS admissions to a magnet should be the ability to drive 40 minutes each way for a single hour on a single school night, well, that's your vision of what equity and merit looks like.

+1 They have so many calls that are streamed out--why couldn't they do that for the RMIB and Blair SMCS ones unless they were trying to make it harder for people to get the information? It was particularly striking because they offered the Poolesville info session via email with a virtual link in the same email where they said the Blair session was only in person at Blair.

I don't get why people only seem to be whining about Blair SMCS not having a virtual option. Other than Poolesville, none of the other schools did to my knowledge. We live in East County and my kid is interested in the Whitman program - and the open house would have been a hike for us - but I'm not complaining. We did attend the Blair SMCS OH and honestly most of the time was spent going through those Q&As. If you didn't attend, I don't think you missed much in terms of information for parents. The kids were split into 3 groups and left to have mini-sessions with Blair students where they talked about electives, after-school activities, and stuff 8th graders would be interested in. So, if you didn't go in person, your kid missed that, but in terms of the Q&As there wasn't much substance outside of the slides (he did go into more depth, but again, nothing significant that I can recall).

What is this, demonstrated interest? What if student and/or family sick evening of this gathering?

This was like a kindergarten orientation where prospective students and parents in different rooms

I don't understand your point. Again, almost all the schools did in-person sessions so if the student and/or parent couldn't attend, they would miss it, but at least there was a slide presentation.

I thought separating the kids was a good idea. It was a huge turnout and everyone could barely fit in the auditorium at the beginning. The kids then went to presentations in different rooms which gave them the opportunity to tour the school and see some classrooms. Meanwhile, the parents got to hear from the program director.

Honestly though if you missed this it's NO BIG DEAL at all. We missed a few open houses due to other conflicts (e.g., Montgomery IB). Your kid can still apply to all the programs, and there are open houses in the spring for admitted students.

[Anonymous]

People complain that MCPS sends too many messages and yet here we are also complaining about not enough messages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So you have three of the richest schools utilizing a majority of spots, at a program meant to draw economic diversity not just to the school but to the area (and diversity I here mean richer people). Perfect, well done, no notes.

This has never been a secret. That's why many want regional programs so ALL students have that choice for a magnet..people saying can't replicate Blair SMCS if regionals opened. But others say give more students a chance for it closer to where they live. WJ kid can go to a SMCS close to Democracy Blvd instead of trying to commute across town

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the 4 schools?

I know three are Blair, Wootton, and Churchill. It was in some slides presented at one of the BOE meetings. I don’t know the fourth.

It’s not like Wootton and Churchill are the closest schools to Blair, suggesting proximity isn’t the main driver of who utilizes the program.

Ah someone posted the data above. The fourth is WJ.

Yet Whitman and BCC are further away and send relatively few kids to the program. BCC and Whitman have more NMSF than the above schools, so it's hard to argue that they're lacking in talent there.

Whitman and BCC are both closer to Blair than Wootton and Churchill (and similar to WJ). Makes it hard to argue that commute time is why they send less students.

[Anonymous]

Given that the magnet serves mostly kids from wealthy schools that presumably have advance coursework at their home schools, this seems….like a bad use of taxpayer dollars.

[Anonymous]

Wooton, WJ, Blair and other DCC schools. Some but not a lot from Churchill.
Very few from Whitman and BCC as others noted.