New MCPS Elementary School times

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're at a Tier 2 school, and my kids will start at 925am, meaning about a 9am bus stop. It's awful - the school bus now comes later than the Metro buses in our neighborhood, which makes it impossible for anyone to use public transportation. And it puts many of us on the roads into DC after the rush hour protocols have ended, which will extend commute times considerably. Meanwhile, in the afternoon, the kids will be getting on the bus after rush hour has already begun in our area (near NIH.) So, much longer trips home. Thanks MCPS!

I'm all for pushing back bell times for older kids, BTW. But I doubt they get much benefit from a 20 minute AM reprieve. And there should have been much more careful consideration of the impact of simply randomly pushing back ALL bell times.

I live in the NIH neighborhood, although must be at a different school, because we are Tier 1. (Not really sure where you could live, because the Wyngate catch area circles around most of NIH -- maybe you're south of NIH?). At any rate, the metro buses and ride on run pretty regularly even after 9 -- I regularly go in after 9, and take either the metro bus or ride on. Or you can always walk to metro, which I also do if I just miss a bus. The only rush hour protocols I can think of are Connecticut Avenue, which run until 9:30, so if you leave after the school bus pickup, you'll be pretty far down CT by the time they stop the reversibles. And traffic gets pretty light at that time of day.
I agree that it's bad news for all those people that need to be at work by 9 or 9:30, but, if you think it will make it "impossible for anyone to use public transportation," I respectfully suggest that you double-check the bus times, because they do run pretty frequently even after 9. I am anxious to see how the evening commute will screw up the afternoon buses..but my observation is that the commuting tangle in our neighborhood starts around 3 (or earlier), so I'm not sure that the 3:25 end will make that much of a difference.

I'm the first poster in this, and we live east of NIH in the Rosemary Hills/CCES&NCC/BCC zone. I respectfully suggest that what works in your neighborhood doesn't necessarily work in every neighborhood, PP. You have a Tier 1 start time and can walk to the metro, good for you. Surprise surprise, that's not true for everyone.

If you want the specifics, the J1 was changed last year, so it's last AM time was already a bit of stretch (e.g., parents would leave the kid at the busstop with other parents and try to catch the last bus), but now the last J1 will arrive at least 1/2 hour before the MCPS bus. Taking the L8 on Conn Ave at the 9am hour is basically impossible; it can be an hour plus to get to Friendship Heights metro, by the time I could get to downtown it would 1030am.

And no, if I put my kid on the bus at 9/905am (since it's never on time) and head for downtown, I will not make it through Van Ness and Cleveland Park before the 930am switch from 4 open inbound lanes to 2 open inbound lanes. I've done this every day for 6 years now, so I know the traffic patterns all too well. With an 845/850 bus pickup, I used to be able to squeak into the office at 930am some days, and close enough on others. Now the baseline will be 10am.

But PP, if you'd like I'd be happy to switch - your elementary can start at 925 and then you can lecture me on how easy it is for working parents.

NP (no snark) but have you considered before care? I agree the new tier 2 time sucks ass and a lot of parents in this cluster will be in the same boat.

Not the PP but our tier 2 ES has a wait list of 34 kids for beforecare. Zero for aftercare.

Yikes! Where are you located?

[Anonymous]

Our school has a wait list for both before and after care. It's very difficult to find a before school sitter. It's wild the financial burden that was dumped on so many ES families.

[Anonymous]

Explain the logistics of this...our buses are running a half hour later this year with a 10 minute later start, and all 14 buses are currently scheduled to arrive at school at exactly the same time 8:50....explain to me how they are going to offload all 600+ kids and lined up in 5 minutes before the first bell or even in 10 minutes for the start of school....this is absurd, the 10 minutes extra "for lunch" will be taken up just by getting kids off the bus and into classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Explain the logistics of this...our buses are running a half hour later this year with a 10 minute later start, and all 14 buses are currently scheduled to arrive at school at exactly the same time 8:50....explain to me how they are going to offload all 600+ kids and lined up in 5 minutes before the first bell or even in 10 minutes for the start of school....this is absurd, the 10 minutes extra "for lunch" will be taken up just by getting kids off the bus and into classrooms.

The bus schedules are always this way. If that worked last year (which it did, in my kids' experience), there's no reason to assume it won't work this year.

[Anonymous]

Not for us, last year they were staggered over a 10-15 minutes period from 8:30 to close to 8:45

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not for us, last year they were staggered over a 10-15 minutes period from 8:30 to close to 8:45

On the bus schedule? Not actual arrival times -- what it said on the bus schedule.

[Anonymous]

yes on the bus schedule there were staggered arrival times, but even so with the much later start times for the routes, there is no possibility for early bus arrivals, they will all come either at 8:50 or later which starts to run into the school day

[Anonymous]

The before/after care situation in our ES is ridiculous. The contracted provider within school only has 60 slots. It's a 900 child school. Seventy-five percent of families in Montgomery County are two working parent families, and the in-school provider cannot even accommodate 10% of the children. The contract provider will not seek the additional license required to expand to more slots. Next time, the contracting process should take into account the population of the school likely to need care, and not award a contract to a provider who is so deficient in meeting that need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The before/after care situation in our ES is ridiculous. The contracted provider within school only has 60 slots. It's a 900 child school. Seventy-five percent of families in Montgomery County are two working parent families, and the in-school provider cannot even accommodate 10% of the children. The contract provider will not seek the additional license required to expand to more slots. Next time, the contracting process should take into account the population of the school likely to need care, and not award a contract to a provider who is so deficient in meeting that need.

Our ES had its on site child care review process a few years ago. I was on the committee. At the time, the school was around 840 kids. It is now 900.

Most of the providers bidding were only doing an option for 60 kids. As a working parent whose child used the onsite before/after care, I raised this to committee members and during interviews. Some of the providers basically said "We're limited by (the county/MCPS) and can't do more than 60." I knew that answer wasn't correct since more than 60 were in the current program.

The reviews are every 5 years. Hopefully you can be involved in the process as one of the stakeholders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school has a wait list for both before and after care. It's very difficult to find a before school sitter. It's wild the financial burden that was dumped on so many ES families.

+1

But those teens will get their 20 minutes of extra sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're at a Tier 2 school, and my kids will start at 925am, meaning about a 9am bus stop. It's awful - the school bus now comes later than the Metro buses in our neighborhood, which makes it impossible for anyone to use public transportation. And it puts many of us on the roads into DC after the rush hour protocols have ended, which will extend commute times considerably. Meanwhile, in the afternoon, the kids will be getting on the bus after rush hour has already begun in our area (near NIH.) So, much longer trips home. Thanks MCPS!

I'm all for pushing back bell times for older kids, BTW. But I doubt they get much benefit from a 20 minute AM reprieve. And there should have been much more careful consideration of the impact of simply randomly pushing back ALL bell times.

I live in the NIH neighborhood, although must be at a different school, because we are Tier 1. (Not really sure where you could live, because the Wyngate catch area circles around most of NIH -- maybe you're south of NIH?). At any rate, the metro buses and ride on run pretty regularly even after 9 -- I regularly go in after 9, and take either the metro bus or ride on. Or you can always walk to metro, which I also do if I just miss a bus. The only rush hour protocols I can think of are Connecticut Avenue, which run until 9:30, so if you leave after the school bus pickup, you'll be pretty far down CT by the time they stop the reversibles. And traffic gets pretty light at that time of day.
I agree that it's bad news for all those people that need to be at work by 9 or 9:30, but, if you think it will make it "impossible for anyone to use public transportation," I respectfully suggest that you double-check the bus times, because they do run pretty frequently even after 9. I am anxious to see how the evening commute will screw up the afternoon buses..but my observation is that the commuting tangle in our neighborhood starts around 3 (or earlier), so I'm not sure that the 3:25 end will make that much of a difference.

I'm the first poster in this, and we live east of NIH in the Rosemary Hills/CCES&NCC/BCC zone. I respectfully suggest that what works in your neighborhood doesn't necessarily work in every neighborhood, PP. You have a Tier 1 start time and can walk to the metro, good for you. Surprise surprise, that's not true for everyone.

If you want the specifics, the J1 was changed last year, so it's last AM time was already a bit of stretch (e.g., parents would leave the kid at the busstop with other parents and try to catch the last bus), but now the last J1 will arrive at least 1/2 hour before the MCPS bus. Taking the L8 on Conn Ave at the 9am hour is basically impossible; it can be an hour plus to get to Friendship Heights metro, by the time I could get to downtown it would 1030am.

And no, if I put my kid on the bus at 9/905am (since it's never on time) and head for downtown, I will not make it through Van Ness and Cleveland Park before the 930am switch from 4 open inbound lanes to 2 open inbound lanes. I've done this every day for 6 years now, so I know the traffic patterns all too well. With an 845/850 bus pickup, I used to be able to squeak into the office at 930am some days, and close enough on others. Now the baseline will be 10am.

But PP, if you'd like I'd be happy to switch - your elementary can start at 925 and then you can lecture me on how easy it is for working parents.

Yikes -- sorry! I wasn't lecturing you at all -- I said I agree it was bad news for anyone that needs to get into work by 9:30. I am absolutely the last person that would say anything is easy for working parents. We've totally re-shuffled our child care situation to deal with the earlier start times. You said the NIH neighborhood, and I know the commuting around there pretty well, so I was trying to be helpful. I don't really think of the RH are as the NIH neighborhood, so I misunderstood where you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The before/after care situation in our ES is ridiculous. The contracted provider within school only has 60 slots. It's a 900 child school. Seventy-five percent of families in Montgomery County are two working parent families, and the in-school provider cannot even accommodate 10% of the children. The contract provider will not seek the additional license required to expand to more slots. Next time, the contracting process should take into account the population of the school likely to need care, and not award a contract to a provider who is so deficient in meeting that need.

Our ES had its on site child care review process a few years ago. I was on the committee. At the time, the school was around 840 kids. It is now 900.

Most of the providers bidding were only doing an option for 60 kids. As a working parent whose child used the onsite before/after care, I raised this to committee members and during interviews. Some of the providers basically said "We're limited by (the county/MCPS) and can't do more than 60." I knew that answer wasn't correct since more than 60 were in the current program.

The reviews are every 5 years. Hopefully you can be involved in the process as one of the stakeholders.

I am glad to know that here is a committee and parent input is taken into account. I have never heard participation be solicited at our ES - Maybe hat means the contract will be up soon?

[Anonymous]

Last year when the school board had hearing on the issue, i suggested everyone who would be paying before care should vouce your concert, unforunately, the school board already made decision and would not let any other vouce be heard. What a joke! 15 min us going to save the lazy teen. Why dont they start the hs at 2 pm ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year when the school board had hearing on the issue, i suggested everyone who would be paying before care should vouce your concert, unforunately, the school board already made decision and would not let any other vouce be heard. What a joke! 15 min us going to save the lazy teen. Why dont they start the hs at 2 pm ?

I don't think that was true. Kauffman introduced an option to start ES first, followed by HS and MS. It had the support of O'Neil and (I think) Ortmon-Fouse. Some members were strongly against ES starting first due to the burden placed on ES families for the need for after care. There was quite the discussion... more than an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year when the school board had hearing on the issue, i suggested everyone who would be paying before care should vouce your concert, unforunately, the school board already made decision and would not let any other vouce be heard. What a joke! 15 min us going to save the lazy teen. Why dont they start the hs at 2 pm ?

I disagree that the school board had already made its decision, and I also disagree that the school board would not let any other vouce be heard. Plenty of vouces were heard. In fact, some of the vouces were very loud (specifically, the ones saying that teenage sleep was the ONLY factor anybody should be considering).