BOE Spring Facilities and Boundaries Work Session #2

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Oh and the assumption that equal shares of kids from each school will leave for programs at other schools is laughable and embarrassing

OMG you must be kidding.

They've been saying this from the beginning. Their own historical data shows a lot more kids leave some schools than others, but they seem to think that will magically change. They still haven't bothered to survey 4th-7th grade families to see what programs their students are interested in. Supposedly the survey will come out next week. Obviously way too late to make program changes using actual data instead of fantasy projections. Please keep emailing the board with your concerns.

It's not too late to make program changes. I'm sure there will continue to be changes in programs long after the board votes.

With Mr. O there and the fact that Jessie and Mr. O are good friends, I think he can fine-tune the program allocation in the next year, making more sense of utilization and/or equity. I personally trust Mr. O. But I trusted Julie Yang before, so let's see how long he can sustain in CO without becoming part of the corrupted ones.

Who's Jessie?

Jessie Franklin, the female sitting on the right-hand side of Mr. O yesterday. She is the lead designer of the entire regional program, and the one told us that it's easy to change a game design program to fashion design program if the former fails.

Jeannie Franklin

So she is the one who, after facing the complaint from the Woodward community that the art magnet will make the school weak, quickly constructed the AI and data science magnet. I suggest also adding quantum physics and evolutionary biology magnet to sweeten the deal.

I was hopping that Mr. O will make a positive impact on the magnet model design. But it seems that they brought him in only for logistics and that they will go with their 'the more magnets with fancy names the better' philosophy full speed ahead.

Every time Jeannie Franklin pats herself on the back for making sure engineering is in all regions, I want to scream.

In the past couple of cycles, 160-200 DCC students were admitted to Wheaton via choice, and all of them have access to the engineering academy there. That's on top of the students who get into the engineering magnet.

In the new model, the engineering program at BCC will have up to 30 seats for non-BCC students per year.

So yes, engineering will be available, but it won't be "abundant" for Blair, Einstein and Northwood students. In fact, if will be dramatically LESS abundant than it is now.

To confirm will engineering be only at BCC? There was a set of slides that had it at both BCC and Northwood

True, according to the Feb 5 slides, Northwood has Engineering too.

I think it will be part of the Middle College program. Students would take engineering at MC.

[Anonymous]

If you feel like more information is needed before approving the regional program model, please consider signing here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1swf2VbkJGbQqjubU2SHx1WAFhmgk_v6V/edit#heading=h.bqrz7gd7x5p6

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh and the assumption that equal shares of kids from each school will leave for programs at other schools is laughable and embarrassing

OMG you must be kidding.

They've been saying this from the beginning. Their own historical data shows a lot more kids leave some schools than others, but they seem to think that will magically change. They still haven't bothered to survey 4th-7th grade families to see what programs their students are interested in. Supposedly the survey will come out next week. Obviously way too late to make program changes using actual data instead of fantasy projections. Please keep emailing the board with your concerns.

It's not too late to make program changes. I'm sure there will continue to be changes in programs long after the board votes.

With Mr. O there and the fact that Jessie and Mr. O are good friends, I think he can fine-tune the program allocation in the next year, making more sense of utilization and/or equity. I personally trust Mr. O. But I trusted Julie Yang before, so let's see how long he can sustain in CO without becoming part of the corrupted ones.

Who's Jessie?

Jessie Franklin, the female sitting on the right-hand side of Mr. O yesterday. She is the lead designer of the entire regional program, and the one told us that it's easy to change a game design program to fashion design program if the former fails.

Jeannie Franklin

So she is the one who, after facing the complaint from the Woodward community that the art magnet will make the school weak, quickly constructed the AI and data science magnet. I suggest also adding quantum physics and evolutionary biology magnet to sweeten the deal.

I was hopping that Mr. O will make a positive impact on the magnet model design. But it seems that they brought him in only for logistics and that they will go with their 'the more magnets with fancy names the better' philosophy full speed ahead.

Every time Jeannie Franklin pats herself on the back for making sure engineering is in all regions, I want to scream.

In the past couple of cycles, 160-200 DCC students were admitted to Wheaton via choice, and all of them have access to the engineering academy there. That's on top of the students who get into the engineering magnet.

In the new model, the engineering program at BCC will have up to 30 seats for non-BCC students per year.

So yes, engineering will be available, but it won't be "abundant" for Blair, Einstein and Northwood students. In fact, if will be dramatically LESS abundant than it is now.

To confirm will engineering be only at BCC? There was a set of slides that had it at both BCC and Northwood

True, according to the Feb 5 slides, Northwood has Engineering too.

I think it will be part of the Middle College program. Students would take engineering at MC.

Engineering is listed separately from MC on the slides.

[Anonymous]

Any changes to which schools are in which regions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any changes to which schools are in which regions?

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any changes to which schools are in which regions?

No, they can't change that, it's already baked into all of the boundary stuff.

(Hence why they couldn't tweak any of the Region 1 high schools to help with the capacity concerns at the Region 3 high schools-- they already decided where the borders are between all regions, so no elementary schools on the Region 3 side of the line could be sent in whole or in part to anywhere on the Region 1 side of the line, despite there being hundreds of spaces to spare at Northwood and other schools.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any changes to which schools are in which regions?

No, they can't change that, it's already baked into all of the boundary stuff.

(Hence why they couldn't tweak any of the Region 1 high schools to help with the capacity concerns at the Region 3 high schools-- they already decided where the borders are between all regions, so no elementary schools on the Region 3 side of the line could be sent in whole or in part to anywhere on the Region 1 side of the line, despite there being hundreds of spaces to spare at Northwood and other schools.)

Yup. They really shot themselves in the foot with that call...unless they were trying to protect the current assignments of the wealthiest neighborhoods, which that decision ensured with flying colors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any changes to which schools are in which regions?

No, they can't change that, it's already baked into all of the boundary stuff.

(Hence why they couldn't tweak any of the Region 1 high schools to help with the capacity concerns at the Region 3 high schools-- they already decided where the borders are between all regions, so no elementary schools on the Region 3 side of the line could be sent in whole or in part to anywhere on the Region 1 side of the line, despite there being hundreds of spaces to spare at Northwood and other schools.)

Yup. They really shot themselves in the foot with that call...unless they were trying to protect the current assignments of the wealthiest neighborhoods, which that decision ensured with flying colors.

Yeah that was obviously intentional. The decision to limit the boundary study in this way was obviously ridiculous and the justification is nonsensical. I can't believe the stuff these people get away with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any changes to which schools are in which regions?

No, they can't change that, it's already baked into all of the boundary stuff.

(Hence why they couldn't tweak any of the Region 1 high schools to help with the capacity concerns at the Region 3 high schools-- they already decided where the borders are between all regions, so no elementary schools on the Region 3 side of the line could be sent in whole or in part to anywhere on the Region 1 side of the line, despite there being hundreds of spaces to spare at Northwood and other schools.)

Yup. They really shot themselves in the foot with that call...unless they were trying to protect the current assignments of the wealthiest neighborhoods, which that decision ensured with flying colors.

Funny - they had no issues moving Fields Road Elementary from a region 5 high school to a region 4 high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any changes to which schools are in which regions?

No, they can't change that, it's already baked into all of the boundary stuff.

(Hence why they couldn't tweak any of the Region 1 high schools to help with the capacity concerns at the Region 3 high schools-- they already decided where the borders are between all regions, so no elementary schools on the Region 3 side of the line could be sent in whole or in part to anywhere on the Region 1 side of the line, despite there being hundreds of spaces to spare at Northwood and other schools.)

Yup. They really shot themselves in the foot with that call...unless they were trying to protect the current assignments of the wealthiest neighborhoods, which that decision ensured with flying colors.

Funny - they had no issues moving Fields Road Elementary from a region 5 high school to a region 4 high school.

Not in any of A through H. The contractor running the options was prohibited from doing that. The superintendent had the flexibility to change that in his recommendation, and did so to make the preferred option work a bit better, but, unlike that, which had the benefit of overwhelming admin focus drawn by the Wootton/Crown decision, there were so many possibilities that didn't get the benefit of being analyzed for consideration in the first place.

And Taylor/staff then had the benefit of the underlying data to play with. Not so for any of those members of the public -- or even the BOE -- trying to raise a suggestion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those who were anticipating that Peter Ostrander would improve the programming logic and thinking, tune in to the portion at 1 hour and 51 minutes in to see how he impresses you.

Geez, I hate to see Ostrander plopped down before the BOE to give the mid-manager happy talk. Having sat through way too many meetings with Jeannie Franklin, et al, I can tell you that Ostrander is already making an impact by shaping the regional program construct into something more intelligible than anyone before him.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:WOWZER--(Wootton) Parkway People took a beating from MCPS in that meeting. Looks like MCPS actually WAS listening to their concerns and had just the information to quell those anxious Abbies.

Of course MCPS made up what ever they wanted. None of it can be verified.

What on earth are you talking about? I think you watched the wrong meeting. They named all of the places they get all the data from and even entertained the Rockville dummies by using all the fake Rockville numbers to show that even if they were true, it wouldn't be too much for them to absorb.

Yeah. I will say, as someone who doesn't know the ins and outs of Rockville to challenge the presentation, MCPS did a good job making their case.

well, implementation is a b_tch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those who were anticipating that Peter Ostrander would improve the programming logic and thinking, tune in to the portion at 1 hour and 51 minutes in to see how he impresses you.

Geez, I hate to see Ostrander plopped down before the BOE to give the mid-manager happy talk. Having sat through way too many meetings with Jeannie Franklin, et al, I can tell you that Ostrander is already making an impact by shaping the regional program construct into something more intelligible than anyone before him.

Too little, too late. This is going to be be an utter failure. I feel bad for the kids who will be the guinea pigs for this in SY 27-28.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those who were anticipating that Peter Ostrander would improve the programming logic and thinking, tune in to the portion at 1 hour and 51 minutes in to see how he impresses you.

Geez, I hate to see Ostrander plopped down before the BOE to give the mid-manager happy talk. Having sat through way too many meetings with Jeannie Franklin, et al, I can tell you that Ostrander is already making an impact by shaping the regional program construct into something more intelligible than anyone before him.

Too little, too late. This is going to be be an utter failure. I feel bad for the kids who will be the guinea pigs for this in SY 27-28.

And they will likely do the same thing to the middle school magnet programs that they have done to the high school magnet programs. So, the current elementary school students will be the MD guinea pigs shortly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those who were anticipating that Peter Ostrander would improve the programming logic and thinking, tune in to the portion at 1 hour and 51 minutes in to see how he impresses you.

Just listened. What is impressive? Mr. O stressed the student population projection used a simple equal-partitioning model, added 20% uncertainty. That's about it. I also heard that they will make small adjustment by placing some expected popular program in another HS if the anticipated enrollment exceeds the capacity. Anything else about curriculum, teacher recruitment and retention, and transportation? I don't hear any. Jennie just reiterated that they would use central stop model.

Karla raises this around 2 hours and 40 minutes in and Taylor and an MCPS staffer respond. Taylor thinks this will allow MCPS to improve PD by subject area in the regions and supposed there's a PD plan being developed and finalized.

Thanks for saving me a ton of time listening to BSs. Karla did ask one question I have in mind, and 2 hour 42 min in, the answer is surprising to me: they still have a design team? The original design team? I thought that they were dismissed last October-ish -- some posters on this board and other channels who were actively involved the design team were so pissed-off that they were used simply as a puppet for "mcps is collecting community inputs".

I noted the mention of the design team as well and was surprised because I thought it was dissolved like you.

The design team was reconvened about a month ago and we've met maybe twice. The meetings have been recaps of what MCOS haas done so far. We have not been given any new information, nor have we been asked for feedback on what MCPS has presented in the four months since we previously met.

MCPS is pushing ahead with info meetings to grade 3-6 families, calling them "future fairs" or something. And they are gearing up for middle school kids to apply for programs in fall 2026, with the intention of kids starting the new programs in fall 2027.

Meanwhile, the plan has not been approved. MCPS hasn't presented staffing, curriculum, transportation, or budget plans to the BoE. There is only one work session left before the March 26 vote but they haven't shared the agenda yet. It may end up being all about boundaries.

I'm concerned that Taylor and McGuire don't intend to present cost estimates until they're doing FY28 budget a year from now. By that time, students will have already applied for programs. The BoE and County Council will be stuck approving any astronomical number, because the alternative is telling thousands of 8th graders that they can't go to the programs they were promised.

It's the most manipulative process I've ever seen and it's infuriating that the BoE isn't providing responsible oversight. Everyone should contact the BoE and tell them not to approve the program plan until there's at least a budget.

Thank you for contributing your time and effort and voice to this hopeless process! Please do keep on emailing BOE members and letting them know the situation and concerns of the design team. I have completely lost hope and interests in fighting with these BS, and having still a design team and Mr. O there in CO ignite my hope again that the regional model might still has a slim chance of hope to start off from a good position... I have no hope at all though that BOE will postpone or disapprove the regional model. They have no spine nor brain nor critical thinking skills.

BOE members Julie Yang is running for county council, district 1 and Karla Silvestre is running at-large for the county council. If you don't like their support of the ill-conceived regional programming effort, please vote accordingly. There are strong candidates who are a viable alternative to these two politicians.