Initial boundary options for Woodward study area are up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To solve this problem, they really should be moving elementary school boundaries too. Start with that first. Otherwise, it’s all mess with so many split articulations.

# truth

[Anonymous]

Looking at the Option 3 map, it looks like Blair (the actual building) isn't even zoned for itself, which is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way Option 3 is a real option with the crazy pockets of HS zones that are 30-45 minute bus rides away, like the Blair zone near BCC and the Kennedy one near Farmland ES. It’s almost a joke it’s so insane.

I’m with PPs that Option 3 is almost a poison pill developed to ensure Options 1, 2, and 4 are picked.

NONE of them are "real" options. This is a step in the process, and MCPS did a bad job of explaining

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking at the Option 3 map, it looks like Blair (the actual building) isn't even zoned for itself, which is nuts.

I think what’s nuts is that MCPS didn’t decide to build in the SE part of the county.

[Anonymous]

I am looking for the video or slides of meetings held this week for Woodward. Does anyone have a link?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way Option 3 is a real option with the crazy pockets of HS zones that are 30-45 minute bus rides away, like the Blair zone near BCC and the Kennedy one near Farmland ES. It’s almost a joke it’s so insane.

I’m with PPs that Option 3 is almost a poison pill developed to ensure Options 1, 2, and 4 are picked.

NONE of them are "real" options. This is a step in the process, and MCPS did a bad job of explaining

“Let’s see how people react to the shittiest thing we can come up with.” Is that the goal here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at the Option 3 map, it looks like Blair (the actual building) isn't even zoned for itself, which is nuts.

I think what’s nuts is that MCPS didn’t decide to build in the SE part of the county.

The DCC needs more schools.

[Anonymous]

The middle class is kind of missing in this part of the county due to housing costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To solve this problem, they really should be moving elementary school boundaries too. Start with that first. Otherwise, it’s all mess with so many split articulations.

+2. I actually think they would have a cleaner easier map if they just did the whole thing.

[Anonymous]

I know where I grew up, with a 45 minute bus ride to middle school, that is where literally all of the behavioral issues took place. Bad stuff.

We drove a long way to the high school too. Lots of terrible accidents. It’s not a great combination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way Option 3 is a real option with the crazy pockets of HS zones that are 30-45 minute bus rides away, like the Blair zone near BCC and the Kennedy one near Farmland ES. It’s almost a joke it’s so insane.

I’m with PPs that Option 3 is almost a poison pill developed to ensure Options 1, 2, and 4 are picked.

NONE of them are "real" options. This is a step in the process, and MCPS did a bad job of explaining

I think you're right. I attended one of the zoom meetings this week. I read in the comments that none of these options are etched in stone and there would be a new set of options presented down the road. I didn't actually hear them say that, I just happened to catch it in the comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way Option 3 is a real option with the crazy pockets of HS zones that are 30-45 minute bus rides away, like the Blair zone near BCC and the Kennedy one near Farmland ES. It’s almost a joke it’s so insane.

I’m with PPs that Option 3 is almost a poison pill developed to ensure Options 1, 2, and 4 are picked.

NONE of them are "real" options. This is a step in the process, and MCPS did a bad job of explaining

“Let’s see how people react to the shittiest thing we can come up with.” Is that the goal here?

No, the goal was to demonstrate an option for each of the 4 points of the FAA policy. Next step will be the blended options (in past boundary studies these options were all presented at once, no idea why they didn't do that this time)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way Option 3 is a real option with the crazy pockets of HS zones that are 30-45 minute bus rides away, like the Blair zone near BCC and the Kennedy one near Farmland ES. It’s almost a joke it’s so insane.

I’m with PPs that Option 3 is almost a poison pill developed to ensure Options 1, 2, and 4 are picked.

NONE of them are "real" options. This is a step in the process, and MCPS did a bad job of explaining

You're surprised MCPS did a bad job of explaining its decision making? That's par for the course with them! I'd have been surprised if they actually HAD explained their logic well.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Especially since they said time and time again that they would not bus kids across county for diversity purposes. This is exactly that. We have plenty of diversity in Farmland already - FARMS and ESOL. Lots of MC people, single moms in apartments and rentals. They will struggle with the long distance to Kennedy. When they could simply walk to Woodward. Never more disappointed in MCPS.

I don’t think the boundary people are local or get it. It makes no sense.

Either Option 3 is a poison pill for any effort to address segregation, or these 4 options are just a complete waste of time.

Or, with all due respect, you are in denial about MCPS and the Board and their intentions. There was a time when this was exactly what they wanted. We’ll see what the current board says/does.

The board needs to read the room about DEI. There is a lot of appetite for DEI-based lawsuits right now and I can imagine the federal government trying to get involved.

I hope they don’t want to be the new test case for interpretations of what is permitted for DEI.

We can’t be Harvard here. They just spent a bunch of money on the lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court that, tbh, for all the good intentions we don’t stand a snow balls chance in you know where of winning. That’s our taxpayer dollars that could be better spent on things like … providing additional resources to Kennedy students.

As long as they don't explicitly use race as a tie-breaker or actively seek segregation, both SCOTUS precedent and other case law gives wide latitude to school districts to draw their own boundaries.

In fact, when the upcounty boundary folks tried to sue, they were forced to do so on the basis of an improper meeting.

Basically, I don't think the legal avenues would work out here, assuming MCPS does its due diligence in terms of public consultation.

The case law on consideration of racial factors (or in the case of MCPS, proxies for racial factors) is more nuanced than you suggest and is trending strongly against the boundary policy as it currently exists.

During the boundary study a few years ago, I remember people getting accused of using scare tactics when they said focusing boundaries on diversity would result in busing. Option 3 shows those people knew exactly what they were talking about. The east-west divide in this county is stark, and there aren’t a lot of good ways to get east and west, so when you elevate diversity above all other factors, you end up with busing. That’s Option 3. The problem is land use policy, which we should fix. Using school boundaries to fix what bad land use policy has caused just causes different problems.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Walking to B-CC is a good reason to oppose, but you can't complain about the commute to TPMS when two of the other options are commuting to Westland.

The traffic is a lot different going to TMPS from here than Westland! We are also currently zoned for Silver Creek, which is a very easy drive/bus ride. I'm not thrilled about the Westland switch -- especially because we were just pulled out of Westland a few years ago to open Silver Creek -- but I'm less horrified by that option than by going all the way up to Blair for HS. That is just not in our community. No easy public transportation option to get home. Can't imagine getting the kids from sports in the afternoon.

+1. I am a ChCh resident who sent kids to Takoma and Eastern MS magnets. I think Blair is a great school (magnet and CAP are super), but the commute by bus and the logistics of getting kids to/from for after school activities (which the afterschool activities bus doesn't well serve) is problematic. There also aren't great public transportation connections. Easier to get kids from WJ, which has a bus route that goes from Montgomery Mall to Bethesda metro. Some BCC families are wealthy enough that they would just give their kids cars to drive themselves but parking is an issue.