Why does the B-CC cluster have such tortured boundaries for elementary?

[Anonymous]

The eastern half of the cluster doesn't make any sense to a newcomer in town. One neighborhood gets its own local elementary (Rock Creek Forest), but all the others have to bus their 5 yr olds to a gigantic K-2 school with seven (?) kindergartens.

Meanwhile, the western half of the cluster has no such nonsensical groupings (see, eg., Somerset, Bethesda elem, Westbrook).

Is there an intentional schematic here, or some historical quirk? It looks like a residual result of a desegregation map from the 1970s, but I didn't live in the area then so I don't know ....

[Anonymous]

I don't know the history, but we hate it too. Thought we were moving to Chevy Chase for the schools, then come to discover our dd would be bused to Silver Spring with over a hundred other kindergartners. So now we're planning on private schools, or maybe moving before the time comes. Plus they'd have her in one place k-2, another 306, another 7-8, and then to BCC. Way too much transition.

[Anonymous]

pp, did you mean 3-6? Or were you referring to 3-5?
Many kids from the west used to go to Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Sorry - I meant 3-6. My understanding is that everyone but CC elementary goes to Westlake at 6, but we would at 7th. Another very odd piece of the equation we don't like.

[Anonymous]

My understanding is that both Rosemary Hills and Westland (combination of the old Leland and Western middle schools) are the way they are because of desegregation. The Rosemary Hills website gives a pretty good history.

FWIW, my DC went to Rosemary Hills for speech as a preschooler and I was impressed. Every class has an aide as well as a teacher. And despite the size, everyone in the office (where I would hang out during DC's speech class) seemed to know every child by name. The principal (not the current one, many principals ago) was quite impressive in the meetings I had with him. If things had not worked out so well at DC's current school, I would not have hesitated to send DC there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know the history, but we hate it too. Thought we were moving to Chevy Chase for the schools, then come to discover our dd would be bused to Silver Spring with over a hundred other kindergartners. So now we're planning on private schools, or maybe moving before the time comes. Plus they'd have her in one place k-2, another 306, another 7-8, and then to BCC. Way too much transition.

This post could have been me a couple of years ago, but I have to say that I am really impressed with Rosemary Hills, and happy with the k-2 vs 3-5/6 split. I'm still not wild about the size of RH, but it's a great school community (and I do think a lot of that is due to the size, not in spite of it) and I think it's good for the kids that neither they nor anyone else has to deal with older kids at the school.

[Anonymous]

OP again -- I didn't find the historical info on the boundaries that 21:56 mentioned?

I'm still interested in why the east half of the cluster is treated differently, if you will, than the western half of the same cluster. ie, why can't Rosemary Hills be K-5, and CC elementary also be K-5? Just like Rock Creek Forest and Somerset.

(ie, am less interested right now in the quality of RH). tx!

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised that the history is no longer on the Rosemary Hills site, but obviously I didn't check! In any case here's another account. It was apparently quite the saga. My DCs attend GEDS, which bought the former Larchmont Elementary, and I had no idea all the drama that led up to the County deciding to close it.

Www.townofchevychase.org/assets/documents/pdfs/history/11.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that both Rosemary Hills and Westland (combination of the old Leland and Western middle schools) are the way they are because of desegregation. The Rosemary Hills website gives a pretty good history.

FWIW, my DC went to Rosemary Hills for speech as a preschooler and I was impressed. Every class has an aide as well as a teacher. And despite the size, everyone in the office (where I would hang out during DC's speech class) seemed to know every child by name. The principal (not the current one, many principals ago) was quite impressive in the meetings I had with him. If things had not worked out so well at DC's current school, I would not have hesitated to send DC there.

My family lived in Chevy Chase from the 60s to 80s. I can confirm the above poster's info about the school district boundaries being a result of desegregation. Rosemary Hills used to be the "black" elementary; ultimately, Chevy Chase, N. Chevy Chase and Bethesda areas were paired with Rosemary Hills in order to introduce integration. I say "ultimately" because the area school closing story is way more complicated than that. See http://www.townofchevychase.org/assets/documents/pdfs/history/11.pdf if you want a more detailed history of the back and forth, including other local schools that are now closed.

[Anonymous]

perfect. this makes more sense to me now. OP

[Anonymous]

It is crazy. I looked at the boundary map once and was floored - esp. for the folks in the Silver Spring part. There are parts where on one street the kids go to RH then CC, the next street over they go RH then to Bethesda Elem. and then half a block over it's RH to NCC. Makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Chevy Chase resident just on the cusp of a child starting at RH, and I'm a fan of the setup. I like that my child's first few years of schooling will not involve sharing the hallways with 5th graders, and one less year at Westland (note to PP, not Westlake) is also a big plus. Every year is a transition for kids - I don't see the need to move to a new school at 3rd grade as a problem in and of itself. I'd prefer that RH was smaller in overall size, but I've literally never heard anyone with anything bad to say about the school, either here or in real life, so I guess the size really isn't an issue.

But to the PP who is so horrified that her child will be bused to Silver Spring - even though the school gets raves - that she's sending her kids to private, well, that's your prerogative. If you're more concerned with the street address (RH is steps away from being in Chevy Chase, albeit the lower-rent part of town) than with the substance and quality of your child's education, you won't be missed.

[Anonymous]

20:12, that last sentence was mean.

[Anonymous]

This is the internet, no one should be allowed to be mean!

Please. I haven't posted before but I wanted to sincerely thank the poster who linked to the article on the Town of Chevy Chase website. I knew one of the authors of the article, plus I went to Chevy Chase ES while this was happening (Rollingwood students arrived when I was in 5th grade) but I never really knew what was going on. I do remember that Somerset and Rock Creek Forest used to have a similar arrangement but for some reason that was discontinued.

Anyway, my child will attend RH for K in the fall and I'm excited about the K-2 environment, plus my 3-6 school is super easy walking distance which will be nice. The weird system is hard to explain to newcomers but I know a lot of families who have gone through it and loved the school. What's annoying is that even if you have kids as close as two years apart, they are almost never at the same school in the same year, and that Westland is really far (6+ miles in some cases, through horrendous traffic) from some of the neighborhoods that feed to it so that's lots of time on the bus in middle school (yuck and yuck).

[Anonymous]

Thanks, 22:11. I was trying to not respond to the flaming, as my concerns about RH have nothing to do with a less tony street address and more about my young child being farther away from home than I'd like and in a very large setting. The large setting, at least, DOES contribute to the "substance and quality of education" and I think is a legitimate concern; and I'm sure I'm not alone. But I'm glad to hear others think RH is a strong program, so we'll take a look when the time comes, hopefully avoiding contact with anyone who doesn't think I should voice concerns about my child's education.

The history is fascinating - I'm really glad to have seen this. Thanks for posting.