Initial boundary options for Woodward study area are up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any really crazy travel times that folks have noticed for option #3? I feel like that's the main legitimate way folks will object to that one (although there will of course be the thinly or not-so-thinly veiled "I don't want my kids to go to a poorer school"/"I don't want more poor kids to come to my kid's school" stuff.). I can eyeball the distances on the map but don't have a good sense of the implications in traffic.

Farmland ES to Kennedy is going to be tough because of the train tracks on Randolph, but it will be in the opposite direction of most commuter traffic so there is that.

Not heavy traffic on train track there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like every single option except for #3 actually makes demographic disparities worse and benefits richer schools over poorer schools. And since the rich parents always seem to win in this county, I can't imagine we're actually going to get #3. This sucks.

Option 3 takes kids who currently live NEXT to Whitman and busses them to bcc. So no, you’re not going to get option 3. (And my kids don’t go there but it’s never going to happen).

Lots of people that live NEXT to Blair get bussed to Northwood. People are not entitled to go to any specific public school. They get to go to public school. You take what you get and you don't get upset.

dp.. but that doesn't make sense, especially if they are in a walkzone.

There are walkzones that overlap. There isn't the same protection if a kid can walk to school A or school B, even if the walk to A is two blocks and the walk to B is ten.

[Anonymous]

I think they actually did a decent job with the maps and data, although my eyes are bleeding after trying to look at everything. I like option 2 best. I think option 3 is by far the worst option.

[Anonymous]

Option 3 seems undoable, for lots of reasons. One strange thing I see in option 3 is it would move sligo creek kids to eastern. SSIMS and Sligo Creek literally share a campus -- that would be a very strange choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like every single option except for #3 actually makes demographic disparities worse and benefits richer schools over poorer schools. And since the rich parents always seem to win in this county, I can't imagine we're actually going to get #3. This sucks.

Option 3 takes kids who currently live NEXT to Whitman and busses them to bcc. So no, you’re not going to get option 3. (And my kids don’t go there but it’s never going to happen).

Lots of people that live NEXT to Blair get bussed to Northwood. People are not entitled to go to any specific public school. They get to go to public school. You take what you get and you don't get upset.

dp.. but that doesn't make sense, especially if they are in a walkzone.

It does make sense. Blair is very overcrowded. School space is limited. They have to distribute it somehow. The schools are not all perfectly distributed geographically.

Some of you really need to grow up.

+1. I don't know the rest of the county that well, but the school placement for Blair and Northwood pretty much force a distribution where people right by Blair go to Northwood.

[Anonymous]

We will see many more options in coming months. This is a good start. Hope MCPS does a good job.

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any smart ideas for tweaks that could make some of these options better? In particular I feel like option #3 could get a lot better with just a couple changes and would love to weigh in on the survey accordingly, but not sure of the details. (Maybe Farmland ES to Wheaton instead of Kennedy? But then not sure what the rest of the musical chairs would be.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot make heads or tails of these options. Clearly need to get to one of the boundary meetings cause it's hard to see the before and after of each option.

The interactive map is actually really helpful once you get the hang of it. You can put up the layer for current HS or MS boundaries and then toggle each of the new options on and off one by one. You can also click on any address and it will tell you the MS and HS for all 4 options: https://maulfoster.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=03a8d9fa2f3e4d30938bd4868af3d0cc

Ok. Thank you! This helped.

Option 3 has some wild consequences, particularly for Kennedy. How on earth would MCPS explain the logic of that boundary?

I think option 3 will be a dealbreaker because they can't afford the increased bus expenses.

We can only hope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like every single option except for #3 actually makes demographic disparities worse and benefits richer schools over poorer schools. And since the rich parents always seem to win in this county, I can't imagine we're actually going to get #3. This sucks.

Option 3 takes kids who currently live NEXT to Whitman and busses them to bcc. So no, you’re not going to get option 3. (And my kids don’t go there but it’s never going to happen).

Lots of people that live NEXT to Blair get bussed to Northwood. People are not entitled to go to any specific public school. They get to go to public school. You take what you get and you don't get upset.

dp.. but that doesn't make sense, especially if they are in a walkzone.

Walk zone shouldn't be touched, but whitman should come up near 20% in FARMS.

How would you propose doing that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot make heads or tails of these options. Clearly need to get to one of the boundary meetings cause it's hard to see the before and after of each option.

The interactive map is actually really helpful once you get the hang of it. You can put up the layer for current HS or MS boundaries and then toggle each of the new options on and off one by one. You can also click on any address and it will tell you the MS and HS for all 4 options: https://maulfoster.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=03a8d9fa2f3e4d30938bd4868af3d0cc

Ok. Thank you! This helped.

Option 3 has some wild consequences, particularly for Kennedy. How on earth would MCPS explain the logic of that boundary?

I think option 3 will be a dealbreaker because they can't afford the increased bus expenses.

We can only hope.

Can't ignore the expenses associated with failing to maximize facility utilization. Building out Edison won't be free. And Option 2 which does maximize utilization increases segregation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like every single option except for #3 actually makes demographic disparities worse and benefits richer schools over poorer schools. And since the rich parents always seem to win in this county, I can't imagine we're actually going to get #3. This sucks.

Option 3 takes kids who currently live NEXT to Whitman and busses them to bcc. So no, you’re not going to get option 3. (And my kids don’t go there but it’s never going to happen).

Lots of people that live NEXT to Blair get bussed to Northwood. People are not entitled to go to any specific public school. They get to go to public school. You take what you get and you don't get upset.

dp.. but that doesn't make sense, especially if they are in a walkzone.

It does make sense. Blair is very overcrowded. School space is limited. They have to distribute it somehow. The schools are not all perfectly distributed geographically.

Some of you really need to grow up.

+1 (DP) Yes, clearly this can and does happen already so I wouldn't count Option 3 out.

We're in a zone that remains Blair for all 4 options but I also like Option 3.

[Anonymous]

Neither option 1 nor option 4 use space efficiently. You can't "just" add another building. That takes a lot of time and money. And it's appalling to ask taxpayers to fund this given enrollment trends and the fact there is enough space in the current buildings for all the students. It's also incredibly disrespectful to the Latino community which comprises the majority of students at Wheaton.

Option 2 increases segregation. If they choose this, the BOE will be rightly called out for expending enormous amounts of time and energy talking about equity with regards to boundary studies, only for it all to be completely performative.

Option 3 will cause many people to lose their minds.

My guess is the BOE would rather underutilize schools and then screech for tax increases to pay for unnecessary new buildings than the other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot make heads or tails of these options. Clearly need to get to one of the boundary meetings cause it's hard to see the before and after of each option.

The interactive map is actually really helpful once you get the hang of it. You can put up the layer for current HS or MS boundaries and then toggle each of the new options on and off one by one. You can also click on any address and it will tell you the MS and HS for all 4 options: https://maulfoster.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=03a8d9fa2f3e4d30938bd4868af3d0cc

Ok. Thank you! This helped.

Option 3 has some wild consequences, particularly for Kennedy. How on earth would MCPS explain the logic of that boundary?

I think option 3 will be a dealbreaker because they can't afford the increased bus expenses.

We can only hope.

Can't ignore the expenses associated with failing to maximize facility utilization. Building out Edison won't be free. And Option 2 which does maximize utilization increases segregation.

Option 2 seems to be slightly better than Options 1 and 4 (and the current state) in terms of making FARMS rates more uniform. But honestly Option 3 doesn't do a great job at FARMS rates either, while also significantly increasing busing and making it impossible to walk to school for many kids that would otherwise be able to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot make heads or tails of these options. Clearly need to get to one of the boundary meetings cause it's hard to see the before and after of each option.

The interactive map is actually really helpful once you get the hang of it. You can put up the layer for current HS or MS boundaries and then toggle each of the new options on and off one by one. You can also click on any address and it will tell you the MS and HS for all 4 options: https://maulfoster.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=03a8d9fa2f3e4d30938bd4868af3d0cc

Ok. Thank you! This helped.

Option 3 has some wild consequences, particularly for Kennedy. How on earth would MCPS explain the logic of that boundary?

I think option 3 will be a dealbreaker because they can't afford the increased bus expenses.

We can only hope.

Can't ignore the expenses associated with failing to maximize facility utilization. Building out Edison won't be free. And Option 2 which does maximize utilization increases segregation.

Option 2 seems to be slightly better than Options 1 and 4 (and the current state) in terms of making FARMS rates more uniform. But honestly Option 3 doesn't do a great job at FARMS rates either, while also significantly increasing busing and making it impossible to walk to school for many kids that would otherwise be able to.

Under Option 2 FARMS rates basically stay the same except for Northwood and Einstein which kind of swap rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like every single option except for #3 actually makes demographic disparities worse and benefits richer schools over poorer schools. And since the rich parents always seem to win in this county, I can't imagine we're actually going to get #3. This sucks.

Option 3 takes kids who currently live NEXT to Whitman and busses them to bcc. So no, you’re not going to get option 3. (And my kids don’t go there but it’s never going to happen).

Option 3 takes us from BCC (where kids can walk) to Blair. Not to mention puts kids into the middle school at Takoma Park.