W Cluster and BluePrint for Maryland

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing is changing. They continue to get the best courses and resources and the other schools get the minimum.

What resources do the Ws get that other schools don't? I think the biggest difference in the schools is the parent community/cohort. And, lower income schools receive additional resources from the federal government

Yeah, WJ has for years been the most overcrowded school. And they didn’t advertise it but when they were having all those problems with bathroom access it was because McPS only gave them about half their allotment of security guards. Admin had to go back mid year and make a big stink just to get th usual per student allotment and I’m not even sure they go that.

Poverty few high schools have bathroom access.

Oops, very

I understand it's an issue everywhere but it was particularly bad at WJ a year or two ago. There were days that they had one boys room open -- for a school that has 1500 boys. One day my kid spent 20 minutes walking from hall to hall and up and down stairs looking for an unlocked bathroom. That's when I went to complain and they told me that they were pushing to get additional security officers. They told me the numbers at that point but I don't remember them -- but they had something like half of their supposed allotment.
And they've had things like dead rats in the hallway as well.
I think some parents think it's all shangri-la at the W schools, but they have a lot of the same under-resource issues.

That’s normal. My kids have each called me in desperation to get them as they couldn’t find an open bathroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing is changing. They continue to get the best courses and resources and the other schools get the minimum.

What resources do the Ws get that other schools don't? I think the biggest difference in the schools is the parent community/cohort. And, lower income schools receive additional resources from the federal government

No, they don’t get additional resources for high school. The course offerings, clubs, sports.

I can tell you for NBMS that feeds into WJ - most of the extracurriculars are organized by parent volunteers. We just finished our ScienceOlympiad run and you cannot even imagine how many hours were spent by parents. School contributed maybe 1%. The rest is on us.

Again, it still takes resources and a willing principal. Our principal says no to most things.

Parents are the RESOURCES. Principal has not spent a minute on this. We had to approach the science teacher to be our sponsor (she filled some paperwork + did some admin stuff.) The actual coaching was done outside of school, in libraries, at our houses. That is why I live in a W cluster. Community is very active.

Ultimately the principal has to agree. Our community is active but it’s still school sponsored.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing is changing. They continue to get the best courses and resources and the other schools get the minimum.

What resources do the Ws get that other schools don't? I think the biggest difference in the schools is the parent community/cohort. And, lower income schools receive additional resources from the federal government

No, they don’t get additional resources for high school. The course offerings, clubs, sports.

I can tell you for NBMS that feeds into WJ - most of the extracurriculars are organized by parent volunteers. We just finished our ScienceOlympiad run and you cannot even imagine how many hours were spent by parents. School contributed maybe 1%. The rest is on us.

Again, it still takes resources and a willing principal. Our principal says no to most things.

Parents are the RESOURCES. Principal has not spent a minute on this. We had to approach the science teacher to be our sponsor (she filled some paperwork + did some admin stuff.) The actual coaching was done outside of school, in libraries, at our houses. That is why I live in a W cluster. Community is very active.

Ultimately the principal has to agree. Our community is active but it’s still school sponsored.

Your community is not active then.
At some point a principal at our ES had to step down because she was not a very good fit. We approached her with requests that she kept denying. Parents began using networks and eventually she was forced to leave.

Leaving in a W cluster exposes you to a very wonderful circle of educated people. This is like going to a private school but free of charge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing is changing. They continue to get the best courses and resources and the other schools get the minimum.

What resources do the Ws get that other schools don't? I think the biggest difference in the schools is the parent community/cohort. And, lower income schools receive additional resources from the federal government

No, they don’t get additional resources for high school. The course offerings, clubs, sports.

I can tell you for NBMS that feeds into WJ - most of the extracurriculars are organized by parent volunteers. We just finished our ScienceOlympiad run and you cannot even imagine how many hours were spent by parents. School contributed maybe 1%. The rest is on us.

Again, it still takes resources and a willing principal. Our principal says no to most things.

Parents are the RESOURCES. Principal has not spent a minute on this. We had to approach the science teacher to be our sponsor (she filled some paperwork + did some admin stuff.) The actual coaching was done outside of school, in libraries, at our houses. That is why I live in a W cluster. Community is very active.

Ultimately the principal has to agree. Our community is active but it’s still school sponsored.

Your community is not active then.
At some point a principal at our ES had to step down because she was not a very good fit. We approached her with requests that she kept denying. Parents began using networks and eventually she was forced to leave.

Leaving in a W cluster exposes you to a very wonderful circle of educated people. This is like going to a private school but free of charge.

In our experience, kind of. We came from a DCC cluster and moved to the W cluster. The lack of socioeconomic diversity in the W cluster and the affluence is stunning. Expected, but was shocking. Not everyone but just so so much of it. There is more political diversity (a little of it) and it's been a benefit to my kid to meet like two republican families and work through how they feel about friends (or "friends") who do not share their beliefs and values: that's an important thing to navigate. I will say that the ethnic and racial diversity is dynamic and my kid has a more diverse circle of friends and activities than before, which is interesting and positive. As far as educated people, yes, there is a lot of value of education and dedication and commitment and all that. Living here has actually motivated my kid to achieve in a way that they weren't before, so that's a net positive. They found a community of striver kids which may have negative connotations, but that's who they are on their own. As far as "wonderful circle" that's everywhere. Let's not elevate wealthy people as better humans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing is changing. They continue to get the best courses and resources and the other schools get the minimum.

What resources do the Ws get that other schools don't? I think the biggest difference in the schools is the parent community/cohort. And, lower income schools receive additional resources from the federal government

Yeah, WJ has for years been the most overcrowded school. And they didn’t advertise it but when they were having all those problems with bathroom access it was because McPS only gave them about half their allotment of security guards. Admin had to go back mid year and make a big stink just to get th usual per student allotment and I’m not even sure they go that.

Poverty few high schools have bathroom access.

Oops, very

I understand it's an issue everywhere but it was particularly bad at WJ a year or two ago. There were days that they had one boys room open -- for a school that has 1500 boys. One day my kid spent 20 minutes walking from hall to hall and up and down stairs looking for an unlocked bathroom. That's when I went to complain and they told me that they were pushing to get additional security officers. They told me the numbers at that point but I don't remember them -- but they had something like half of their supposed allotment.
And they've had things like dead rats in the hallway as well.
I think some parents think it's all shangri-la at the W schools, but they have a lot of the same under-resource issues.

That’s normal. My kids have each called me in desperation to get them as they couldn’t find an open bathroom.

best way to fight this kind of crazyness is leaving bottles full of pee all over the place... if that doesn't work, forget the bottles