Initial boundary options for Woodward study area are up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 3 has got to be the throw away option.

It has united DCUM in opposition to it.

Do you think those lower income clusters are going to benefit from being shipped across town? Do you think their parents want the extra commuting time and costs, much less to be surrounded by a bunch of affluent families who most definitely don't want it? I think the universal feedback is people want to attend local schools in their neighborhoods that aren't overcrowded. If they can enhance diversity and minimize overcrowding around the edges, then great! Anything else is an exercise in social engineering and will make just about everyone unhappy.

This! Even many students in lower socio economic schools don’t want to be bussed away, they want equality in resources. This should be the focus!

I'd nuance that by saying the focus should be reasonable equivalence of educational service levels instead of equality in resources, and I hope that's more what was meant. Some might interpret "equality in resources" as "the same funding" for each school and that would not allow the system to provide equivalent services across schools while there are considerably different conditions/populations among them.

Your first explanation is what I meant. totally happy to have more dollars allocated to other schools if it would mean helping to boost achievement and success for the students at those schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 3 has got to be the throw away option.

It has united DCUM in opposition to it.

Do you think those lower income clusters are going to benefit from being shipped across town? Do you think their parents want the extra commuting time and costs, much less to be surrounded by a bunch of affluent families who most definitely don't want it? I think the universal feedback is people want to attend local schools in their neighborhoods that aren't overcrowded. If they can enhance diversity and minimize overcrowding around the edges, then great! Anything else is an exercise in social engineering and will make just about everyone unhappy.

This! Even many students in lower socio economic schools don’t want to be bussed away, they want equality in resources. This should be the focus!

This. I don’t want my kids bused and I am fine with a lower income school. I do care w don’t have the same classes and opportunities.

You gotta make your voice heard. The BOE apparently doesn’t get this idea and thinks bussing is fine it seems. It’s one thing to shift the edge of a boundary over to another school if not in the walk zone. Say moving the edge of Wheaton to Woodward or the edge of Gaithersburg HS to Crown. Especially when the old school isn’t significantly closer than the new school. But don’t go sending kids to a further school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 3 is the only one that addressed diversity/demographics. Not perfect but with some tweaks they can make it work.

They should definitely do option 3 with some tweaks. It's the only option that can add real diversity to Whitman.

DCUrbanmom has some crazy diversity people. I guess parents can sue and with current administration let’s see how DEI policy at MCPS plays well.

Do you mean DCUM has crazy pro diversity people? I’m new around here but my understanding was I thought this site was more of the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What will happen to property values of those in WJ rezoned to Woodward?

I think these are largely baked in at this point. Everyone who has bought in the last ten years has known that WJ was overcrowded, Woodward was opening to relieve that overcrowding, that the two schools are very close to each other, and anything in the general area would be fair game to go to the new school instead of the old overcrowded one. And if you bought more than ten years ago I’m not listening to your complaints about property values.
- agent

I don’t think that’s right. You’d have to be paying a ton of attention to things to know about that anywhere near 10 years ago. Most people know the zoned school and not a ton more.

Plus, even people aware of Woodward wouldn’t know what being in Woodward would mean, and we still don’t. If Woodward is districted in a way to make it a “good school,” there probably won’t be a big impact. But if the ultimate zoning makes it a meaningful “worse” school than current WJ, it will definitely impact property values.

Option 3 would be devasting for those in the Farmland district. Who would buy a house there knowing that your kid is going to be bused across the county to a school with just 13% white students and close to 50% FARMs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should just have the Tilden MS kids matriculate to Woodward and add some kids from Einstein and Wheaton to fill the seats. Leave everything else alone.

This is my thought!

Same goes for Crown, take kids from the four overcrowded nearby schools, Gaithersburg, Northwest, QO, and RM to Crown and call it a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please.. you just don’t want black and brown students at your Lily white school. MCPS is all about diversity so get over it. #3 is most likeky their top choice.

If mcps even tries to actually make 3 happen they will find themselves neck deep in a lawsuit. This admin is looking for reasons to litigate against DEI fueled discrimination. I am not at all a supporter of this administration and their ideology but there is no way 3 will ever happen without causing a lawsuit that bogs this down for years (and makes them drop any diversity based change off the agenda).

I was thinking the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids were in public schools until Covid and the never ending MCPS shutdown. We saw the writing on the wall and left for private but with major regret not sending my oldest to BCC which still weighs heavy.

To see this happening is horrible and so disheartening. These kids deserve neighborhood schools with strong communities where they can get to and from activities and home easily. Putting a wealthier kid in a poorer school and vice versa isn’t going to change outcomes for the poor kids because it starts at home.

This is just a way for MCPS to better hide the exploding number of FARMs students at the underperforming schools without giving them what they really need in serious substantial support. It’s insulting and unfair to those kids.

The wealthy kids won’t mingle with the FARMs kids and vice versa no matter what and it will cause students to self segregate in the schools. I saw this first hand at Rosemary Hills where kids played with other kids only inside their own neighborhoods. Even little kids gravitate onlt to people they identity with. Middle school and high school it’s even worse. Social engineering is not going to work.

Meanwhile, Most anyone with means will pull their kid for private rather than send their kid cross county. This is a disaster and I am grateful my kids werent caught up in this. Montgomery county will see serious flight to other counties and a major loss in tax revenue and school support as the wealthy flee to private and to live elsewhere. What a mess they are creating. So sorry for all of you affected.

This is just icing on the cake for this exodus. The tax and spend policies of MD have always made MD less financially attractive for upper middle class and wealthy, but the latest changes will hammer families with $300k incomes and higher. It’s going to create further incentive to move to NOVA. Lower tax revenues and the spiral will continue.

This is coming from a center left moderate who has voted exclusively Democrat since 2008.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really wish there was a way to make people read all the information. NONE of these options are actually going to be options. This is just a step in the process to show what would happen if they weighted only one of each of the 4 FAA factors.

The next step will show multiple options that hopefully balance out each of the 4, and be actual options.

In the meantime, instead of shouting on an anonymouswebsite, please make your feelings known to the Board amd to MCPS.

Don't want your kid to drive passed zz school on the way too yy school? Tell them

Don't want split articulation? Tell them

Whatever it is you want or don't want, tell them loud and proud, sign your name as a Montgomery County taxpayer

It's not clear to me why they put any of these out if they are not options. I don't trust MCPS at all. I think 3 is definitely something they are considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 3 has got to be the throw away option.

It has united DCUM in opposition to it.

Do you think those lower income clusters are going to benefit from being shipped across town? Do you think their parents want the extra commuting time and costs, much less to be surrounded by a bunch of affluent families who most definitely don't want it? I think the universal feedback is people want to attend local schools in their neighborhoods that aren't overcrowded. If they can enhance diversity and minimize overcrowding around the edges, then great! Anything else is an exercise in social engineering and will make just about everyone unhappy.

This! Even many students in lower socio economic schools don’t want to be bussed away, they want equality in resources. This should be the focus!

This. I don’t want my kids bused and I am fine with a lower income school. I do care w don’t have the same classes and opportunities.

You gotta make your voice heard. The BOE apparently doesn’t get this idea and thinks bussing is fine it seems. It’s one thing to shift the edge of a boundary over to another school if not in the walk zone. Say moving the edge of Wheaton to Woodward or the edge of Gaithersburg HS to Crown. Especially when the old school isn’t significantly closer than the new school. But don’t go sending kids to a further school!

I’d be thrilled if we were switched to Wheaton as our DCC does not have the classes my kids need. I cannot imagine we’ll move and I don’t fully care as my youngest is in hs so it will not impact us. You want it, you fight. BOE does not care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids were in public schools until Covid and the never ending MCPS shutdown. We saw the writing on the wall and left for private but with major regret not sending my oldest to BCC which still weighs heavy.

To see this happening is horrible and so disheartening. These kids deserve neighborhood schools with strong communities where they can get to and from activities and home easily. Putting a wealthier kid in a poorer school and vice versa isn’t going to change outcomes for the poor kids because it starts at home.

This is just a way for MCPS to better hide the exploding number of FARMs students at the underperforming schools without giving them what they really need in serious substantial support. It’s insulting and unfair to those kids.

The wealthy kids won’t mingle with the FARMs kids and vice versa no matter what and it will cause students to self segregate in the schools. I saw this first hand at Rosemary Hills where kids played with other kids only inside their own neighborhoods. Even little kids gravitate onlt to people they identity with. Middle school and high school it’s even worse. Social engineering is not going to work.

Meanwhile, Most anyone with means will pull their kid for private rather than send their kid cross county. This is a disaster and I am grateful my kids werent caught up in this. Montgomery county will see serious flight to other counties and a major loss in tax revenue and school support as the wealthy flee to private and to live elsewhere. What a mess they are creating. So sorry for all of you affected.

This is just icing on the cake for this exodus. The tax and spend policies of MD have always made MD less financially attractive for upper middle class and wealthy, but the latest changes will hammer families with $300k incomes and higher. It’s going to create further incentive to move to NOVA. Lower tax revenues and the spiral will continue.

This is coming from a center left moderate who has voted exclusively Democrat since 2008.

Then move. It’s not so simple for many of us with jobs and activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Option 3 has got to be the throw away option.

It has united DCUM in opposition to it.

Do you think those lower income clusters are going to benefit from being shipped across town? Do you think their parents want the extra commuting time and costs, much less to be surrounded by a bunch of affluent families who most definitely don't want it? I think the universal feedback is people want to attend local schools in their neighborhoods that aren't overcrowded. If they can enhance diversity and minimize overcrowding around the edges, then great! Anything else is an exercise in social engineering and will make just about everyone unhappy.

This! Even many students in lower socio economic schools don’t want to be bussed away, they want equality in resources. This should be the focus!

I'd nuance that by saying the focus should be reasonable equivalence of educational service levels instead of equality in resources, and I hope that's more what was meant. Some might interpret "equality in resources" as "the same funding" for each school and that would not allow the system to provide equivalent services across schools while there are considerably different conditions/populations among them.

Your first explanation is what I meant. totally happy to have more dollars allocated to other schools if it would mean helping to boost achievement and success for the students at those schools

Our kids in DCC cannot achieve as much as we don’t have the classes and the smarter kids get into Wheaton and Blair and those who don’t go without.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should just have the Tilden MS kids matriculate to Woodward and add some kids from Einstein and Wheaton to fill the seats. Leave everything else alone.

Agree! That’s what I thought they were going to do all along. I mean, what demographics were these maps based off of to begin with? MoCo is still suffering the consequences of the second Trump administration. Uprooting everyone would be a moot point if half the county moves out of state to find new jobs.

Agree with all of this. They should open this new school with the least amount of disruptions possible, especially considering how so many kids were impacted by COVID. Let’s give the majority of kids stability in their lives.

But if the status quo is suboptimal, we shouldn’t stick with it just because change will cause disruption for a couple of years. Leaders should look beyond only the short term.

Suboptimal for whom? One of the difficulties I had when reviewing the options is that I truly am only truly familiar with the schools in my cluster. The current situation is actually optimal for the schools in my cluster. Every option is less favorable than what we currently have.

With all the new building in Rockville and north Bethesda wj and Woodward will be full soon enough again and back at over capacity. Especially if they put more apartments in.

[Anonymous]

This was posted on our neighborhood listserve by someone who attended the in-person meeting.

Needless to say, I heard a lot of complaints about option 3; someone from the company contracted to do the study said that they needed to at least present option three because it addresses one of the four criteria — demographics. But she acknowledged it would require extensive busing and crazy “islands” of students who would be sent far from their original middle and high schools. Unfortunately there’s no quick fix to our school system’s demographic issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was posted on our neighborhood listserve by someone who attended the in-person meeting.

Needless to say, I heard a lot of complaints about option 3; someone from the company contracted to do the study said that they needed to at least present option three because it addresses one of the four criteria — demographics. But she acknowledged it would require extensive busing and crazy “islands” of students who would be sent far from their original middle and high schools. Unfortunately there’s no quick fix to our school system’s demographic issues.

Thanks for sharing- my kids would be in one of those islands and I'm not thrilled about that idea. AGreed that there is no quick fix and perhaps it's good that the option was presented to illustrate that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was posted on our neighborhood listserve by someone who attended the in-person meeting.

Needless to say, I heard a lot of complaints about option 3; someone from the company contracted to do the study said that they needed to at least present option three because it addresses one of the four criteria — demographics. But she acknowledged it would require extensive busing and crazy “islands” of students who would be sent far from their original middle and high schools. Unfortunately there’s no quick fix to our school system’s demographic issues.

Thanks for sharing- my kids would be in one of those islands and I'm not thrilled about that idea. AGreed that there is no quick fix and perhaps it's good that the option was presented to illustrate that.

There will be board members very much in support of those islands and trying for a quick fix by bussing from west to east. The survey takes some work and thought. However, if people don’t object to option 3, they will do it.

It seems to me that their goal is to break up the so-called problem areas. Kind of like how they will move seats for kids who get it into trouble. They don’t deal with the underlying issues, just move the chairs around and separate kids. That is option 3 and that is what they did with Neelesville MS in the Clarksburg boundary study. Here, that is Kennedy and Wheaton. They don’t seem to really care about the overcrowding or the bus budget. You can expect this in the final version, no matter what the nice consultant acknowledged.