Oak View and New Hampshire Estates- separating into two different schools?
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Anonymous
| So, now Starr is recommending a boundary study for MCPS elementary schools in a certain area EXCEPT NHE and OV, because it would "complicate" things. I really feel bad for the families that live in these two communities. |
Anonymous
I know. It's really awful. Seems pretty obvious that someone is pressuring him to not open the floodgates of the high-poverty schools into the more coveted and demographically balanced schools within the Downcounty. He's not being very subtle about it. Maybe he's actually tempting the BOE to go against his recommendations, and that way he can tell his people "Well, I tried." ? |
Anonymous
This is disgraceful. Whatever his motivations, not to face this issue head on is reflective of terrible leadership and calls into question MCPS' dedication to providing high quality education to ALL children, regardless of SES. These "island" schools are doomed. |
Anonymous
Is there anything that parents can do? This issue is dire for NHE and OV, but it's a problem elsewhere in the county. How can parents call Starr on this failure to address these isssues? |
Anonymous
I may not be understanding this correctly but what is the dire issue you refer to? The failure of MCPS to unpair OV and NHE? Or poverty in general? I'm not a big Starr fan but even I'll admit that poverty is something MCPS can't solve alone. Poverty tends to concentrate in certain geographic areas, no doubt, but short of bussing kids across the county (which lets face it, would face a lot of backlash) I'm not sure how you get around that. |
Anonymous
I'm not the poster who called it dire. Dire is probably the wrong word. I think a better way to phrase it is to say that it's sealing the fate of two schools that could be so much more, and if the BOE doesn't intervene, are pretty much doomed never to come close to living up to their potential. It's not geography that's driving up the FARMS rate at OV. Yes, it's a high-FARMS community and will retain its Title I status even if unpaired, but there are enough middle class families in-boundary that they could at least make a dent in the FARMS number. Middle class families mostly don't send their kids because the bussing arrangement is awkward and inconvenient and they know MCPS gave up on making this pairing successful years ago. So yes, geography is geography, but if MCPS is going to stick to that, it should let communities work with their geography. And now on top of having to deal with bussing, NHE and OV are being singled out as excluded from the local boundary study even though the surrounding schools are all part of it, because the paired configuration would "complicate" the study. This just puts the last nail in the coffin. The endless cycle of under-investing in these schools and treating them differently than the rest of the county appears to be on track to continue indefinitely. |
Anonymous
| What schools are being studied? |
Anonymous
| Bumping this thread to see if there has been any updates on this Oak View/NHE issue. Hubby and I are currently looking to buy a house zoned for these schools. NHE would be really, far away and it makes zero sense to me. |
Anonymous
Do yoursel a favor, and buy the other side of Flower Ave or north of Franklin. A few blocks will make a world of difference in your school environment. |
Anonymous
| Yeah I love my home and the neighborhood but I have no idea what I'm going to do when my kids are in kindergarten, ie if I will send them to NHE or try to do magnets or immersion or out of boundary. |
Anonymous
I don't know. I think that side isn't zoned for Blair and if you're in the DCC, Blair is where you want your kids (the choice thing is mostly a fiction). |
Anonymous
| Blair is good but it's very large. It isn't the right choice for all students. |
Anonymous
I definitely agree. If I had to choose which zone to live in though, I'd want to live in Blair so that I at least have the option. I imagine it's a lot easier to "choice" into Northwood or other DCC schools from the Blair cluster than it is to choice in to Blair from Northwood. I have no numbers on that, so can't say for certain, but my impression is that Blair is by far the most popular and hardest to choice into of the DCC high schools. |
Anonymous
This is an opinion, not a fact. Maybe YOU want your kids at Blair. Many of us want/wanted our kids elsewhere. I have a kid at Blair and another at Einstein, and vastly prefer Einstein. |
Anonymous
| Einstein is also a good choice of where to live because it is also hard to get into in the choice process. |