‘W’ schools boundary study?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure how this thread got derailed, but yes, there is a boundary study underway.

I suggest you make your voice heard. Here are the upcoming community meetings:
https://mcpsweb.wufoo.com/forms/districtwide-boundary-analysis-public-meetings/

The past meetings, they did a pretty good job filling them with students compared to homeowners, and students are largely in favor of redistricting for "equity" reasons, ignoring the effects of busing and property values.

As for the W schools, they're gunning for them, especially Whitman which has the highest percentage of white students in of any high school in MoCo. You can bet they want to change that. At the very least, I can see them changing the edge boundaries, like near Westbard (BCC) and Carderock/Avenel (Churchill), and probably a bit in the Bradley Hills/NIH area too (mostly WJ).

WJ's gonna get hit for sure. If you look at their boundaries, there's a carve-out in Kensington so those kids end up at WJ instead of the nearest school (Einstein?). Then we have the Woodward thing as another poster mentioned.

Now is the time to get involved. Go to those meetings, write to your BOE members, etc.

Yesterday for example, the BOE voted on new boundaries for the Seneca Valley area. The vote was 7-1, with Smondrowski voting against the boundary changes.

I can't speak to the rest of it. But I live in the area near Westbard, and Westland Middle School, and I can say with absolute certainly that moving the boundary south of Little Falls (so into the Westbrook service area) will *not* make *any* school "less white."

Agree with above statement.

Avenel is more wealthy than Carderock.

Avenel has a whole section of low-income housing that was mandated when Avenel was built. There's incentive to shift all Avenel to Whitman to get them in there.

The at a glance numbers (a little out of date at this point) show Whitman and Churchill at less than 5% FARMS, WJ at 7.5% and BCC at 11.1. I am not sure what it would accomplish to move one bus of kids from Churchill to Whitman. In the Seneca Valley study, the Superintendent worked to reduce the FARMS disparity among the HS clusters in the cluster and not make transportation changes that would cost the district a lot of money. If the same criteria applied, they'd be trying to equalize the numbers in those 4 clusters at about 7.1% - hardly a problem number.

It's not just FARMS.. remember they're focused on race also.

Whitman: 67% white
Churchill: 40% white
BCC: 57% white
WJ: 54% white

So Whitman has a target on its back for being too white for MCPS.

Honestly, I think you are spouting paranoid White Supremecist propaganda - focusing on whites being replaced by minority groups.

Straight from MCPS's own site:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/evidence-of-learning-framework/equity-accountability-model.aspx

Look at the 5 "focus groups". They only care about Whites and Asians if they are FARMS. For every other race, they focus on both FARMS and non-FARMS.

DP.. yes, because they are trying to close the achievement gap.

On the one hand, people complain that BOE just wants to bring in wealthier kids to mask the achievement gap; here, on the other hand people complain that BOE is focusing and highlighting the achievement gap. Can't win.

If it was a color-blind SES model, I'd be fine with that. Their model seems to be that they care about any FARMS kids (which I agree with) and then any non-FARMS kids only if they are not white nor Asian. So they focus on what comprise the majority of students anyway, and leave out the minority of non-FARMS Asians and whites. At that point, why not just focus on the student body as a whole instead of excluding two specific races?

Because they are focusing on the group that needs more focus as that group has lower scores.

So again, I don't see BOE trying to mask anything in terms of the achievement gap by shifting the diversity.

But, now we've hijacked OP's thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to the question at hand?

Is it realistic for families currently zoned to Churchill, WJ, Whitman, etc to be concerned about redistricting? Does anyone have concrete info? (yes I know the study/hearings are upcoming, but someone must have some intel)

WJ: yes b/c of overcrowding
Whitman and Churchill: doubtful b/c of steady enrollment

The other factor is that it will be very hard to make changes to Whitman that have a meaningful impact on socioeconomic diversity without having significant busing, which the County may not want to do for a variety of reasons. Modest shifts in the boundaries would move people from one wealthy school to another. There is no easy answer on what to do given the geography and the inability to make meaningful changes with only modest increases in travel time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to the question at hand?

Is it realistic for families currently zoned to Churchill, WJ, Whitman, etc to be concerned about redistricting? Does anyone have concrete info? (yes I know the study/hearings are upcoming, but someone must have some intel)

WJ: yes b/c of overcrowding
Whitman and Churchill: doubtful b/c of steady enrollment

The other factor is that it will be very hard to make changes to Whitman that have a meaningful impact on socioeconomic diversity without having significant busing, which the County may not want to do for a variety of reasons. Modest shifts in the boundaries would move people from one wealthy school to another. There is no easy answer on what to do given the geography and the inability to make meaningful changes with only modest increases in travel time.

The boundary analysis will look at facility utilization as well as demographics.

And I think it's unlikely that people zoned for a wealthy/white school will be happy about any boundary changes, even to another wealthy/white school.

[Anonymous]

Just keep on talking, W parents on here. The more you say, the likelier it is that we’re finally going to get more equitable schools. Please just keep going to public meetings and complaining aloud that “those kids” are going to bring down your property values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is going to happen for W schools similar to what happened for cabin branch.

Pat O'Neill will never, ever let that happen. She protects her own at all costs. Always.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to the question at hand?

Is it realistic for families currently zoned to Churchill, WJ, Whitman, etc to be concerned about redistricting? Does anyone have concrete info? (yes I know the study/hearings are upcoming, but someone must have some intel)

WJ: yes b/c of overcrowding
Whitman and Churchill: doubtful b/c of steady enrollment

The other factor is that it will be very hard to make changes to Whitman that have a meaningful impact on socioeconomic diversity without having significant busing, which the County may not want to do for a variety of reasons. Modest shifts in the boundaries would move people from one wealthy school to another. There is no easy answer on what to do given the geography and the inability to make meaningful changes with only modest increases in travel time.

The boundary analysis will look at facility utilization as well as demographics.

And I think it's unlikely that people zoned for a wealthy/white school will be happy about any boundary changes, even to another wealthy/white school.

I don't know that that's true. If someone moves to a school of similar "quality," it presumably wouldn't have an impact on the educational experience or property values. That eliminates many of the concerns. If it is a longer commute people wouldn't be thrilled and some people won't like change just because they have always expected to go to X school, but I think the depth and breadth of the opposition would be different. Also, I think most people view facility utilization as a legitimate reason for rezoning; trying to balance based on equity is more controversial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just keep on talking, W parents on here. The more you say, the likelier it is that we’re finally going to get more equitable schools. Please just keep going to public meetings and complaining aloud that “those kids” are going to bring down your property values.

As we saw from HCPS's River Hill outcome versus Cabin Branch, the squeeky wheel gets oiled. The louder we are in defending our cinmunities, the better is our chance of keeping them intact.

Subtle threats like yours will get your movement nowhere, as well as create resentment against the very people you are trying to protect.

[Anonymous]

The schools are plenty diverse. This will not improve any child’s academic progress. This is just to please the editorial page of the NYT and win the pols a promotion. If the most radical plan goes through it is nothing but equity theft for no legitimate reason. (The whole diversity argument is based on specious research). Now if someone took even a small amount of 2.7 billion and offered private academic tutoring I would back that 100%. This is the only difference in a W school. Everyone has the same sub-optimal Curriculum and overcrowded schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to the question at hand?

Is it realistic for families currently zoned to Churchill, WJ, Whitman, etc to be concerned about redistricting? Does anyone have concrete info? (yes I know the study/hearings are upcoming, but someone must have some intel)

WJ: yes b/c of overcrowding
Whitman and Churchill: doubtful b/c of steady enrollment

Whitman is very white. So I won’t be surprised if they start bussing Whitman kids to SS/TP schools. Wootton/Churchill/WJ are much less white

Whitman kids are already bused to silver spring/TP schools to make them look better. What do you think the magnet is for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is going to happen for W schools similar to what happened for cabin branch.

Pat O'Neill will never, ever let that happen. She protects her own at all costs. Always.

She was the worst in the Seneca valley study. If she protects the W schools, she will be deemed a hypocrite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to the question at hand?

Is it realistic for families currently zoned to Churchill, WJ, Whitman, etc to be concerned about redistricting? Does anyone have concrete info? (yes I know the study/hearings are upcoming, but someone must have some intel)

WJ: yes b/c of overcrowding
Whitman and Churchill: doubtful b/c of steady enrollment

Whitman is very white. So I won’t be surprised if they start bussing Whitman kids to SS/TP schools. Wootton/Churchill/WJ are much less white

Whitman kids are already bused to silver spring/TP schools to make them look better. What do you think the magnet is for.

Wootton and Whitman are very unlikely to be touched, just based on geography and like another poster said, steady enrollment. However, Churchill is also very white...if you include the presence of Asian population (another target in this redistricting scheme).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Wootton and Whitman are very unlikely to be touched, just based on geography and like another poster said, steady enrollment. However, Churchill is also very white...if you include the presence of Asian population (another target in this redistricting scheme).

This post says a lot about your beliefs.

[Anonymous]

Having a wealthy local school in the wealthy side of town isn’t bad thing. Moving a few silver spring kids around will only end up lowering the price of pot at Churchill parties

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to the question at hand?

Is it realistic for families currently zoned to Churchill, WJ, Whitman, etc to be concerned about redistricting? Does anyone have concrete info? (yes I know the study/hearings are upcoming, but someone must have some intel)

WJ: yes b/c of overcrowding
Whitman and Churchill: doubtful b/c of steady enrollment

Whitman is very white. So I won’t be surprised if they start bussing Whitman kids to SS/TP schools. Wootton/Churchill/WJ are much less white

Whitman kids are already bused to silver spring/TP schools to make them look better. What do you think the magnet is for.

The difference is that's voluntary. If you don't want to be bused, don't apply to the magnet. I lived within walking distance of a W school and chose not to apply to Blair because I didn't want to sit on a bus every day.

Redistricting is different -- the choice to be bused is not voluntary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to the question at hand?

Is it realistic for families currently zoned to Churchill, WJ, Whitman, etc to be concerned about redistricting? Does anyone have concrete info? (yes I know the study/hearings are upcoming, but someone must have some intel)

WJ: yes b/c of overcrowding
Whitman and Churchill: doubtful b/c of steady enrollment

Whitman is very white. So I won’t be surprised if they start bussing Whitman kids to SS/TP schools. Wootton/Churchill/WJ are much less white

Whitman kids are already bused to silver spring/TP schools to make them look better. What do you think the magnet is for.

The difference is that's voluntary. If you don't want to be bused, don't apply to the magnet. I lived within walking distance of a W school and chose not to apply to Blair because I didn't want to sit on a bus every day.

Redistricting is different -- the choice to be bused is not voluntary.

Sure it is. You may choose (a) school bus transportation to your assigned public school (b) some other form of transportation to your assigned public school (c) private school (d) home school.