Rosemary Hills/Bethesda/CC/NCC Boundry study - Superintendent's Recommendation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the PP who bought in CCDC to avoid Rosemary Hills - I bet you're really going enjoy your child's future educational options in DCPS.

I'm an RHPS parent and have posted here previously. The attitudes here are so depressing and over-the-top - all because of 1 or 2 miles on the bus? Honestly I just never see or hear any of this from other RHPS parents, most of whom qualify as "high SES white people." Are the horrible snooty racists self-selecting out of Rosemary Hills? Or is this somewhere under the surface among many of them, only to come out in debates like this?

Another RHPS parent here. Agree entirely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a lot of resentment and bad feelings on the part of the neighborhood parents against the Spanish immersion program. This was reasonable. But the school held an "encounter group" type meeting where people were encouraged to discuss their feelings about the issue.

Instead of real issues (which I agree there are), many parents stood up and said they were tired of defending themselves to their CC neighbors who couldn't understand why anyone would send a kid to Rock Creek Forest, which has a much higher % of lower SES kids than other CC cluster schools. And there was just this underlying feeling of "we pay a lot of taxes, why should our kids go to school with poor kids" kind of thing. I found it ugly and upsetting.

As one of the parents who was there and is in the neighborhood and sends their child to the school in the English program, I have to say that you have it all wrong. We are only annoyed with defending ourselves to our immediate neighbors - those who live in RCF who don't send their kids to the school or refused to once they didn't get into the immersion program. It is from those people that we get the looks of pity. This has nothing to do with the rest of Chevy Chase - we know we are out of their league!

And really, let's face it, if you look in the school directory 95% of the immersion kids come from Silver Spring/Takoma Park and the OTES/Einstein part of Kensington so clearly most of those parents are escaping high FARMS schools as well.

I'm another parent who attended that meeting. I completely disagree with the poster who is claiming that there was a feeling of why should our kids go to school with poor kids. I didn't hear anything like that from any parent and I'm not sure why you want to mischaracterize the attitudes of my neighbors on this board. It's totally irresponsible of you.

[Anonymous]

It's what I heard at the meeting, loud and clear. "We are tired of defending ourselves to the other parents in the neighborhood." As if that were somehow the immersion kids' fault.

As for escaping high FARMS elsewhere, I suppose that may be true for some. It wasn't for me or for my kids' friends' parents. That long bus ride, all that homework that you can't help with, the extra help you have to give your kids for English spelling and grammar .... to do all that you really have to be committed to the idea of language immersion.

Just to test your theory, I took a quick look at the directory from last year. THere are a lot of Silver Spring kids there, but that's not surprising given the size of SS, its proximity to RCF and the level of interest in immersion. I"m thinking there are 225 immersion kids all together, and here are the non-Silver Spring locations they came from:

Chevy Chase 30
Potomac 2
Kensington 16
Rockville 13
Takoma Park 8
Germantown 3
Gaithersburg 5
Bethesda 11
Burtonsville 3
Olney 2
Wheaton 1
Clarksburg 2
Boyds 2
Laytonsville 2
Damascus 2


So that's 102 kids from places other than Silver Spring, and the further-away locations send fewer kids, which makes sense given the long bus ride. Maybe some are fleeing bad schools but many are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's what I heard at the meeting, loud and clear. "We are tired of defending ourselves to the other parents in the neighborhood." As if that were somehow the immersion kids' fault.

As for escaping high FARMS elsewhere, I suppose that may be true for some. It wasn't for me or for my kids' friends' parents. That long bus ride, all that homework that you can't help with, the extra help you have to give your kids for English spelling and grammar .... to do all that you really have to be committed to the idea of language immersion.

Just to test your theory, I took a quick look at the directory from last year. THere are a lot of Silver Spring kids there, but that's not surprising given the size of SS, its proximity to RCF and the level of interest in immersion. I"m thinking there are 225 immersion kids all together, and here are the non-Silver Spring locations they came from:

Chevy Chase 30 Potomac 2 Kensington 16 Rockville 13 Takoma Park 8 Germantown 3 Gaithersburg 5 Bethesda 11 Burtonsville 3 Olney 2 Wheaton 1 Clarksburg 2 Boyds 2 Laytonsville 2 Damascus 2

So that's 102 kids from places other than Silver Spring, and the further-away locations send fewer kids, which makes sense given the long bus ride. Maybe some are fleeing bad schools but many are not.

"We are tired of defending ourselves to the other parents in the neighborhood" is nothing like "why should our kids go to school with poor kids". I'm not interested in any further discussion with you, though, since you're only out here to slander parents you probably don't even know. Go do something productive, rather than whiling your time away on DCUM stirring up trouble.

[Anonymous]

Rock Creek Forest isn't part of the boundary debate, but it should be. I was a RCF Spanish Immersion parent who moved from Rockville to Rosemary Hills when my son got into the program. I personally think the program is a failure for this area and it's time to move it to Silver Spring International. The socioeconomic and racial divide in the school makes it more like 2 segregated schools in one with a lot of animosity.

By the way, not all the immersion parents are wealthy. I was a struggling single mom in one of the apartment complexes - a rare bird in the immersion program.

The Board of Education should re-open Lynnbrook Elementary (an old MCPS facility still standing in the East Bethesda neighborhood and still MCPS-owned) to truly give them the walking school they want, send RCF's "community program" kids to Lynnbrook, and turn the RCF building into the new middle school by building up. They could perhaps offer to buy out an adjacent property to expand the lot - would be millions cheaper than trying to obtain and convert Rock Creek Hills into a proper site for a middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rock Creek Forest isn't part of the boundary debate, but it should be. I was a RCF Spanish Immersion parent who moved from Rockville to Rosemary Hills when my son got into the program. I personally think the program is a failure for this area and it's time to move it to Silver Spring International. The socioeconomic and racial divide in the school makes it more like 2 segregated schools in one with a lot of animosity.

By the way, not all the immersion parents are wealthy. I was a struggling single mom in one of the apartment complexes - a rare bird in the immersion program.

The Board of Education should re-open Lynnbrook Elementary (an old MCPS facility still standing in the East Bethesda neighborhood and still MCPS-owned) to truly give them the walking school they want, send RCF's "community program" kids to Lynnbrook, and turn the RCF building into the new middle school by building up. They could perhaps offer to buy out an adjacent property to expand the lot - would be millions cheaper than trying to obtain and convert Rock Creek Hills into a proper site for a middle school.

Interesting proposal. I don't think that space qualified for consideration for a middle school because the acreage is too small. I believe it's under 8 and they were trying to find a 16 acre site. There was no discussion of trying to expand the acreage through buying out adjacent property, you're talking about trying to buy quite a few acres. That's why the Coffield site was attractive since it was sufficient acreage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: That's why the Coffield site was attractive since it was sufficient acreage.

Not really ... when you look closely at the site, only about 4 acres were buildable, and that's right on top of the soccer field. You have to take the total of 17 acres and subtract some 3 acres of un-buildable land on the east side of the community center (steep slope and cut off from the rest of the property by the center), the 4-acre footprint of the community center, and about 7 acres that are set-aside green space through a state program through which the plots for the baseball field and lower playground were purchased. Due to the dense population of lower income people surrounding the park, this "set-aside" was deemed protected green space for the community. It was questionable whether MCPS could even use it as their ball fields.

Or maybe planning to either bulldoze the center or incorporate it into the design of the school, which would have been devastating to the community since it's used as an after-school program to keep at-risk kids off the streets. Of course, we would have lost our playground, tennis court and basketball court too...

Kids need parks and schools. Anyway, off topic.

[Anonymous]

To the white RH Silver Spring Non-FARMs parents who are screaming and kicking to tag along with the BCC families, unbury your fat heads from the mud pit and just admit that you are hiding behind fostering "diversity". For many of us, we simply want what the majority of the country has, which is to have our kids in a school relatively close to our homes, allow our 4th grader to go to school with our second grader, not have to drive in rush hour afterwork to pick up young kids at two separate schools. We don't want to have to miss the the 9 year old's Halloween parade because we are in another town attending the 7 year old's Halloween party. I will be frank. You are narrow minded and lacking in common sense to jump to your conconclusions about us wanting to separate from those who are demographically different. Most of us are plain and simple fighting for quality time with our kids and be able to fulfill our job responsibilities. It is that plain and simple. nothing more. got it???????? Shame on you for projecting your hatred of your FARMs neighbors on others. You are the ones with the problem. shame on you.

[Anonymous]

"Tag along with the BCC families"

That shows right there what the issue is.

This is Montgomery County -- with a single school system. We all pay into it, we all get to use it. It's PUBLIC SCHOOL.

I understand your desire for a school close to home. I have that same desire, which is why I'm taking my kid out of his magnet and putting him in a close middle school.

However, no one in RH or other ES areas is "tagging along" with BCC families. It's their school. They have a right to an opinion and input into its future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Tag along with the BCC families"

That shows right there what the issue is.

This is Montgomery County -- with a single school system. We all pay into it, we all get to use it. It's PUBLIC SCHOOL.

I understand your desire for a school close to home. I have that same desire, which is why I'm taking my kid out of his magnet and putting him in a close middle school.

However, no one in RH or other ES areas is "tagging along" with BCC families. It's their school. They have a right to an opinion and input into its future.

Blah, Blah, Blah. "Let me make up a soap box to push my selfish cause, even if everyone can seeeeeeeee thru meeee!"[i]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the white RH Silver Spring Non-FARMs parents who are screaming and kicking to tag along with the BCC families, unbury your fat heads from the mud pit and just admit that you are hiding behind fostering "diversity". For many of us, we simply want what the majority of the country has, which is to have our kids in a school relatively close to our homes, allow our 4th grader to go to school with our second grader, not have to drive in rush hour afterwork to pick up young kids at two separate schools. We don't want to have to miss the the 9 year old's Halloween parade because we are in another town attending the 7 year old's Halloween party. I will be frank. You are narrow minded and lacking in common sense to jump to your conconclusions about us wanting to separate from those who are demographically different. Most of us are plain and simple fighting for quality time with our kids and be able to fulfill our job responsibilities. It is that plain and simple. nothing more. got it???????? Shame on you for projecting your hatred of your FARMs neighbors on others. You are the ones with the problem. shame on you.

Hatred of FARMS neighbors? This is so over the top I'm not sure you can be helped but maybe a good psychiatrist would be willing to try. Sorry about you missing the 9 year old's Halloween party though, that's pretty tragic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the white RH Silver Spring Non-FARMs parents who are screaming and kicking to tag along with the BCC families, unbury your fat heads from the mud pit and just admit that you are hiding behind fostering "diversity". For many of us, we simply want what the majority of the country has, which is to have our kids in a school relatively close to our homes, allow our 4th grader to go to school with our second grader, not have to drive in rush hour afterwork to pick up young kids at two separate schools. We don't want to have to miss the the 9 year old's Halloween parade because we are in another town attending the 7 year old's Halloween party. I will be frank. You are narrow minded and lacking in common sense to jump to your conconclusions about us wanting to separate from those who are demographically different. Most of us are plain and simple fighting for quality time with our kids and be able to fulfill our job responsibilities. It is that plain and simple. nothing more. got it???????? Shame on you for projecting your hatred of your FARMs neighbors on others. You are the ones with the problem. shame on you.

amen....how many times have you heard of k-2, and 3-6? None, Nada, Zilch; at least not in properly organized communities. Thank you for posting this.

[Anonymous]

Here's a scenario that you can perhaps wrap your brains around - You're shown a list of nearby schools for your little kids, and you find out that they will not be going to the closest one. Okay, fine you say, perhaps it'll be number 2? You understand that some schools are crowded, and that there are often REASONABLE exceptions to many common sense boundary rules. Nope, they tell you. You're then given the realization that your kid will be going to a school that's literally twice as far as the #1 closest school and that there are 4 other elementary schools that are literally *MILES* closer. Why you ask are the kids going to the 5th closest school and forced to commute TWICE as far? Oh, because we want to maintain the success of FARMS and ESOL integration at this #5 school. You do a little math and realize each of your little kids will be bused nearly 1000 extra miles per school year (nearly 3000 unnecessary toddler commuting miles over k-2) to help out in this involuntary social experiment. By no sensible measure is this a reasonable proposal.

Sorry, overtly touting diversity and demographics as an excuse (as has been done here in this thread) to unnecessarily bus little children ADDITIONAL 1000s of miles on county roads, outside of their home communities under the veil of your novel social experiments doesn't cut it. It didn't cut it in the 50s and 60s when blacks were forced to ride those extra miles for the sake of segregation and separation. Second, it's long since been determined under the law as unacceptable, and through statistical analysis, as an EDUCATIONAL FAILURE when it was done in the 70s for the sake of integration. Lastly, it doesn't cut the mustard today under the auspices of using "FARM" and "ESOL" percentages as a workaround metric to the illegal practice of using racial demographics as a boundary criterion. In keeping with the principles of "It takes a village" that liberals so dearly espouse, do children not deserve to go to a school that's nearer to said village, instead of involuntarily busing them to a school that's literally a distant of 5th or 6th down on the list away from and outside of said village. I guess "it takes a village" only applies as long as you're towing the progressive line, never mind the actual needs and benefits to childhood development, and common sense commuting patterns, as well as the taxpayer and environmental costs of school busing. So much for consistency of liberalism, eh? It only makes sense when it suits YOUR particular needs.

In reality, I think you're deeply misguided and inconsistent in the application of your purported beliefs. You need to take the liberal goggles you so proudly espouse off to understand the best interests of the children. Yours is an example of radical, out of control, BIG GOVERNMENT, interceding into our communities and families under the auspices of thinking you know what's best for the personal lives of families and kids other than your own. It's because of this type of overreach into American's lives that we'll thankfully be experiencing a backlash that moves us further away from your mentality after the 2012 elections (even if not in MC, then at least on a national level).

Let's be clear here, it is disgusting and repulsive that residents in the county think it's okay to overtly flout their politics, and liberal "progressivism" in hanging on to an outdated social experiment at the expense of common sense, the true best interests of these children, and what amounts to nearly SIX THOUSAND additional and unnecessary miles for my kids (over a 3 year period) by way of doubling their commuting distance to get an early elementary education. To get on here and suppose to minimize this burden you put on the kids and other families reeks of an arrogance unbecoming the ideals that you purport to espouse.

As JP Morgan once said, there are "There are usually two reasons people do things – a good one and the real one." 10/27 @ 23:51 hit the nail on the head. Rosemary Hills Elementary in Montgomery County, MD can continue to build upon their reputation with this selfish, covertly racist practice of school busing under the guise of some misguided progressive ideal, but the public is not fooled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
As the saying goes, "It takes a village..." We need our whole village to maintain our excellent schools. Starr's recommendation moves us in the wrong direction.

"It takes a village", only applies when the child is on the proper side of the debate.

If that's not the case, then it's okay to bus that little child out of their village, over and across an additional, unnecessary 3000 miles (over a 3 year period) to another village.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the PP who bought in CCDC to avoid Rosemary Hills - I bet you're really going enjoy your child's future educational options in DCPS.

I'm an RHPS parent and have posted here previously. The attitudes here are so depressing and over-the-top - all because of 1 or 2 miles on the bus? Honestly I just never see or hear any of this from other RHPS parents, most of whom qualify as "high SES white people." Are the horrible snooty racists self-selecting out of Rosemary Hills? Or is this somewhere under the surface among many of them, only to come out in debates like this?

It's actually more than extra 2 miles (less than 3), and adds up to nearly 3000 unnecessary miles on county roads per child (not teenager, but CHILD) over K-2 for the sake of "the experiment." How could any self-styled community organizer that legitimately wishes to maintain consistency between their arguments and ideals not do this simple math? Answer - they didn't, because consistency is irrelevant, and they don't really have the "greater good of the children" at heart.

Quit minimizing (or at least open your eyes and RECOGNIZE) the impact of busing these little children thousands of additional miles out of their way to facilitate some hidden agenda.