Is Einstein getting totally screwed in the boundary and program study proposals?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should have the same strong offerings at every school. Having speciality programs at different schools is silly if students don’t get school choose and each school doesn’t have equal strong offerings. Taylor and the BOE clearly ditched equity and student needs. How many kids want a teacher academy. They reduced the current program a few years ago. How about a poll asking parents, teachers and students what they want at these schools. People are going to bail from Einstein if they can and either move or go private. It and Kennedy will be the weak links.

+1

The DCC is what keeps wealthier kids in public schools. DH and I have just discussed upping our 529 contributions so we can afford private if need be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they’re going to do all these split articulations anyway they should pull Town of Kensington kids within the Einstein walk zone into the school. That might get people’s attention.

Yes, Kensington portion should be going to Einstein.

[Anonymous]

This process should not leave any school worse off than it is now.

If MCPS can’t manage that, they need to scrap the whole plan and start over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This process should not leave any school worse off than it is now.

If MCPS can’t manage that, they need to scrap the whole plan and start over.

I think they are intentionally taking programs away from the DCC because they feel it is deeply unfair that the DCC has so many programs and other school clusters do not. They don't understand that different schools serve different populations with different needs and assets. The DCC works for the population it serves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This process should not leave any school worse off than it is now.

If MCPS can’t manage that, they need to scrap the whole plan and start over.

I think they are intentionally taking programs away from the DCC because they feel it is deeply unfair that the DCC has so many programs and other school clusters do not. They don't understand that different schools serve different populations with different needs and assets. The DCC works for the population it serves.

Does it though? The notion of school choice is nice in theory but in reality it's been very difficult to get a spot at the most popular schools, and they have never balanced the enrollment. And there are a few good academy programs but most are nothing much. I don't know if it all justifies the extra transportation and logistics costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Seems like it. Thoughts? What should we do about this?

What’s gonna happen to Einstein?

Boundary study options all pull lower FARMS schools out of Einstein/higher FARMS schools into it and the regional magnet program will pull higher achieving kids into magnets placed at other schools within the region leaving existing programs at Einstein without students and therefore without funding. MCPS is taking a school with a diverse socioeconomic population and good programs, which has been a relative success story, and cutting it off at the knees (and uniquely so among all the rest of the schools at issue). Parents in boundary need to speak up!

Einstein gets no regional program? What about IB, VAPA, or VAC?

Regional IB goes to BCC. Regional performing arts go to Northwood. Einstein keeps regional visual arts only plus education which as I understand it is low interest. BCC also gets humanities magnet. Someone on another thread suggested as a minimum advocating for humanities magnet at Einstein and education at BCC since they have some sort of preschool training piece.

What is the difference between IB and humanities? I know there are IB science and math classes, but there seems to be a lot of overlap between humanities and IB. Anyway, I definitely agree ... if we are going to have 2 (non-STEM) academic magnet programs in each region, putting them both in the 2nd richest school in Region 1 is quite inequitable.

Humanities at einstein is a good idea, and you are right that BCC has long had a preschool on site for early childhood classes that HS students take. I don't know why you'd put Humanities AND IB at the same school -- it is an overlap. Einstein needs a draw to maintain that neighborhood and the quality of education -- and I say that as a BCC parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have the resources to pay for private school and will be watching this closely. The DCC was a draw for us because it meant our kid could pursue her interests by choosing a specialized program. Now her options at Einstein may be very limited and apparently if something like precalc or calculus doesn't have enough interest she'll have to do it virtually. Those are just basic college prep courses and if MCPS can't offer basic college prep courses in person of course we'll look at other options.

We are a DC family who was planning to move to MoCo for MS/HS and was looking at Einstein as an option depending on where we found housing, specifically because of the IB option as well as their speciality programming.

This whole thing is upending our plans. We may still try to buy IB for Blair but even that looks less appealing if they are eliminating the magnet, which I understood enabled IB students to take classes they might not otherwise as well. The western schools are way less convenient for us in terms of work commute. I don't know. We might stay in DC, start looking at VA, or maybe even explore Howard County.

I really feel for people who already bought in MoCo based on existing education magnets, lottery, and programming options, and whose plans are being completely upended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This process should not leave any school worse off than it is now.

If MCPS can’t manage that, they need to scrap the whole plan and start over.

I think they are intentionally taking programs away from the DCC because they feel it is deeply unfair that the DCC has so many programs and other school clusters do not. They don't understand that different schools serve different populations with different needs and assets. The DCC works for the population it serves.

So somehow the other clusters just don’t have different populations with differing needs? Ya’ll sound crazy when you make statements like this. Yes for you but No for thee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This process should not leave any school worse off than it is now.

If MCPS can’t manage that, they need to scrap the whole plan and start over.

I think the reason that's tough to do is because with Woodward and the new Northwood buildings, some schools are going to lose enrollment. And with Einstein being over-capacity, it makes sense that they are one of the schools losing students. But I think more effort should be made to preserve programs and classes for the students remaining at Einstein.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they’re going to do all these split articulations anyway they should pull Town of Kensington kids within the Einstein walk zone into the school. That might get people’s attention.

Yes, Kensington portion should be going to Einstein.

Exactly. Until that's on the table, everything else boundary change is disingenuous. But that would split the ES into two districts which is their excuse I'm assuming. And putting special programs in schools that already have high rigor course offerings is just obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have the same strong offerings at every school. Having speciality programs at different schools is silly if students don’t get school choose and each school doesn’t have equal strong offerings. Taylor and the BOE clearly ditched equity and student needs. How many kids want a teacher academy. They reduced the current program a few years ago. How about a poll asking parents, teachers and students what they want at these schools. People are going to bail from Einstein if they can and either move or go private. It and Kennedy will be the weak links.

+1

The DCC is what keeps wealthier kids in public schools. DH and I have just discussed upping our 529 contributions so we can afford private if need be.

Having a standardized base of strong offerings at all schools is part of the plan. Funny how most people are not asking questions or focused on that piece.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have the resources to pay for private school and will be watching this closely. The DCC was a draw for us because it meant our kid could pursue her interests by choosing a specialized program. Now her options at Einstein may be very limited and apparently if something like precalc or calculus doesn't have enough interest she'll have to do it virtually. Those are just basic college prep courses and if MCPS can't offer basic college prep courses in person of course we'll look at other options.

We are a DC family who was planning to move to MoCo for MS/HS and was looking at Einstein as an option depending on where we found housing, specifically because of the IB option as well as their speciality programming.

This whole thing is upending our plans. We may still try to buy IB for Blair but even that looks less appealing if they are eliminating the magnet, which I understood enabled IB students to take classes they might not otherwise as well. The western schools are way less convenient for us in terms of work commute. I don't know. We might stay in DC, start looking at VA, or maybe even explore Howard County.

I really feel for people who already bought in MoCo based on existing education magnets, lottery, and programming options, and whose plans are being completely upended.

Blair is keeping their STEM magnet. It just will only be available to the 5 high schools in Region 1 (1/6 of the county) instead of half of the county currently. There have been a lot of threads with debate on the extent to which that will water it down, but a STEM magnet program will remain at Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have the resources to pay for private school and will be watching this closely. The DCC was a draw for us because it meant our kid could pursue her interests by choosing a specialized program. Now her options at Einstein may be very limited and apparently if something like precalc or calculus doesn't have enough interest she'll have to do it virtually. Those are just basic college prep courses and if MCPS can't offer basic college prep courses in person of course we'll look at other options.

We are a DC family who was planning to move to MoCo for MS/HS and was looking at Einstein as an option depending on where we found housing, specifically because of the IB option as well as their speciality programming.

This whole thing is upending our plans. We may still try to buy IB for Blair but even that looks less appealing if they are eliminating the magnet, which I understood enabled IB students to take classes they might not otherwise as well. The western schools are way less convenient for us in terms of work commute. I don't know. We might stay in DC, start looking at VA, or maybe even explore Howard County.

I really feel for people who already bought in MoCo based on existing education magnets, lottery, and programming options, and whose plans are being completely upended.

Schools are not conveyed with the house. At some point that notion is going to stick for people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This process should not leave any school worse off than it is now.

If MCPS can’t manage that, they need to scrap the whole plan and start over.

I think the reason that's tough to do is because with Woodward and the new Northwood buildings, some schools are going to lose enrollment. And with Einstein being over-capacity, it makes sense that they are one of the schools losing students. But I think more effort should be made to preserve programs and classes for the students remaining at Einstein.

It's understandable for Einstein to lose students. But it's way too much for them to be losing students while simultaneously also 1) having no criteria-based academic programs, meaning they will lose many of their more advanced kids to the other regional schools with few from others coming to Einstein to balance it out; 2) significantly weakening VAPA and probably VAC and IB as well, hollowing out their current strengths; and 3) being one of the few schools with a notable increase in FARMS rates, which is likely to further decrease the demand for advanced courses.

[Anonymous]

We’re in-bounds for Einstein and have kids in middle and elementary currently.

We need to speak up about the unfairness of these proposed changes. There are a lot of well-educated, articulate parents who could make a strong case why we need different options. I’ve already responded to the survey as such.

What else? Testimony to the BOE? Get media attention on the issue? I don’t know that it will ultimately change things, but I think we have to try hard.