Bethesda/South Kensington Public Schools: Need a Lay of the Land!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of variability in size of the school which can be pretty important. Wood Acres in Bethesda is large][/b]

I've been a Bethesda realtor for almost 30 years and while my kids went to Churchill, I definitely have a lot of experience with the families of Bethesda.

I'd agree with this PP, you can't go wrong with any of the schools in Bethesda.
In my opinion, I'd say that the schools that feed into WJ (Ashburton & Wyngate) are very, very family friendly neighborhoods. Folks are always out walking their dogs, walking, jogging, playing at the park, shooting hoops, stopping and talking to their neighbors, much, much more family friendly than Whitman.

That is NOT a knock on Whitman, whatsoever.
Whitman's houses tend to be much more farther apart, like 2 house lengths and it's much harder to get to know your neighbors that way (not ALL neighborhoods, think Burning Tree).

I see a lot more of the kids from WJ lifeguarding, babysitting, tutoring, offering lawn work, etc.

Again, this isn't an insult to Whitman.
In my opinion though, I just find that the families in WJ neighborhoods are very, very close knit with their families and their neighbors and I see them out and about together, much more than I see Whitman families (and I'm not only shopping, going to restaurants, working, etc in Bethesda & Rockville, I'm in DC a lot too).

As this pp said, you can't go wrong with any of the elementary's that feed into Wj or Whitman.

Just my 2 cents, good luck.

No but you made it sound like it is. You clearly look down on people who engage themselves in something you
clearly frown upon.. "paid labor". It feels like you are trying to spell "p a u p e r "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The RHES boundary includes several large apartment buildings that have low-income families in them of a wide range of racial and ethnic background. Most of these are close to the school.

This makes a lot more sense, thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Got it, thanks!

Bear with me here, but I thought that the point of pairing Chevy Chase schools with a school in Silver Spring, was in fact to desegregate those two schools and add more diversity to them?

I would have hought that in addition to the kids from NCC & CC, MCPS would also have included kids from other parts of Silver Spring that are farther away?

Correct me if I'm wrong... but isn't the area around RH/Woodside JUST as white as where we are (off of Jones Bridge Rd)?

If this program was created to desegregate in the first place, why isn't MCPS drawing/bussing kids from elementary's that are further into Silver Spring to attend RH and NCC/CC also?

I apologize if I'm failing to see the big picture here, but it seems to me that if you're going to go through all of the trouble of having your entire student body change schools midway through elementary school, shouldn't a far greater effort have been made to TRULY desegregate and increase the diversity?

Please tell me if I'm missing something here, because it almost looks like a bait and switch occurred?

I wouldn't think so. Those areas are more diverse. Read about the history of Lyttonsville: https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/neighborhood-profile-lyttonsville/2012/07/25/gJQAfgNICX_story.html

Great article, thanks for posting it.

I love reading about the history of neighborhoods .

Here's another regarding the positive impact that the purple line will have on Lyttonsville.

https://ggwash.org/view/42962/scarred-by-urban-renewal-silver-springs-lyttonsville-neighborhood-gets-a-second-chance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Got it, thanks!

Bear with me here, but I thought that the point of pairing Chevy Chase schools with a school in Silver Spring, was in fact to desegregate those two schools and add more diversity to them?

I would have hought that in addition to the kids from NCC & CC, MCPS would also have included kids from other parts of Silver Spring that are farther away?

Correct me if I'm wrong... but isn't the area around RH/Woodside JUST as white as where we are (off of Jones Bridge Rd)?

If this program was created to desegregate in the first place, why isn't MCPS drawing/bussing kids from elementary's that are further into Silver Spring to attend RH and NCC/CC also?

I apologize if I'm failing to see the big picture here, but it seems to me that if you're going to go through all of the trouble of having your entire student body change schools midway through elementary school, shouldn't a far greater effort have been made to TRULY desegregate and increase the diversity?

Please tell me if I'm missing something here, because it almost looks like a bait and switch occurred?

All this was a long time ago. From the one Post article from 1983 that's on its website, the split articulation was first put into place around 1976, was reversed in 1981, and then was put back into place in 1983 (including NCC). Not clear whether NCC was involved in the original split articulation. You'd have to look at what happened with NCC/CC/RH in the context of desegregation efforts generally to decide whether this was symbolic, or as much as could be accomplished in the face of opposition from some quarters, or something else. Busing, for lack of a better term, is no less controversial today. I'm not making a political judgment here, I'm just saying it's still very controversial. Personally, I'm surprised that the split articulation has lasted as long as it did, and perhaps here, as may be in other cases in MoCo, justifications other than diversity are used to support its continuance. But I'm not surprised at all that it is not more extensive.

NCC was closed for a while due to low enrollment, but IIRC when it was open it was always included in the split. Some neighborhoods in East Bethesda now assigned just to Bethesda ES were also involved in the split but that was changed between 5 and 10 years ago.
- RHPS/NCCES/Westland/BCC parent who went to CCES back in the day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Got it, thanks!

Bear with me here, but I thought that the point of pairing Chevy Chase schools with a school in Silver Spring, was in fact to desegregate those two schools and add more diversity to them?

I would have hought that in addition to the kids from NCC & CC, MCPS would also have included kids from other parts of Silver Spring that are farther away?

Correct me if I'm wrong... but isn't the area around RH/Woodside JUST as white as where we are (off of Jones Bridge Rd)?

If this program was created to desegregate in the first place, why isn't MCPS drawing/bussing kids from elementary's that are further into Silver Spring to attend RH and NCC/CC also?

I apologize if I'm failing to see the big picture here, but it seems to me that if you're going to go through all of the trouble of having your entire student body change schools midway through elementary school, shouldn't a far greater effort have been made to TRULY desegregate and increase the diversity?

Please tell me if I'm missing something here, because it almost looks like a bait and switch occurred?

All this was a long time ago. From the one Post article from 1983 that's on its website, the split articulation was first put into place around 1976, was reversed in 1981, and then was put back into place in 1983 (including NCC). Not clear whether NCC was involved in the original split articulation. You'd have to look at what happened with NCC/CC/RH in the context of desegregation efforts generally to decide whether this was symbolic, or as much as could be accomplished in the face of opposition from some quarters, or something else. Busing, for lack of a better term, is no less controversial today. I'm not making a political judgment here, I'm just saying it's still very controversial. Personally, I'm surprised that the split articulation has lasted as long as it did, and perhaps here, as may be in other cases in MoCo, justifications other than diversity are used to support its continuance. But I'm not surprised at all that it is not more extensive.

NCC was closed for a while due to low enrollment, but IIRC when it was open it was always included in the split. Some neighborhoods in East Bethesda now assigned just to Bethesda ES were also involved in the split but that was changed between 5 and 10 years ago.

- RHPS/NCCES/Westland/BCC parent who went to CCES back in the day

Good to know there are more of us on here (I'm on Kenilworth Dr).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of variability in size of the school which can be pretty important. Wood Acres in Bethesda is large][/b]

I've been a Bethesda realtor for almost 30 years and while my kids went to Churchill, I definitely have a lot of experience with the families of Bethesda.

I'd agree with this PP, you can't go wrong with any of the schools in Bethesda.
In my opinion, I'd say that the schools that feed into WJ (Ashburton & Wyngate) are very, very family friendly neighborhoods. Folks are always out walking their dogs, walking, jogging, playing at the park, shooting hoops, stopping and talking to their neighbors, much, much more family friendly than Whitman.

That is NOT a knock on Whitman, whatsoever.
Whitman's houses tend to be much more farther apart, like 2 house lengths and it's much harder to get to know your neighbors that way (not ALL neighborhoods, think Burning Tree).

I see a lot more of the kids from WJ lifeguarding, babysitting, tutoring, offering lawn work, etc.

Again, this isn't an insult to Whitman.
In my opinion though, I just find that the families in WJ neighborhoods are very, very close knit with their families and their neighbors and I see them out and about together, much more than I see Whitman families (and I'm not only shopping, going to restaurants, working, etc in Bethesda & Rockville, I'm in DC a lot too).

As this pp said, you can't go wrong with any of the elementary's that feed into Wj or Whitman.

Just my 2 cents, good luck.

No but you made it sound like it is. You clearly look down on people who engage themselves in something you
clearly frown upon.. "paid labor". It feels like you are trying to spell "p a u p e r "

Oh, you're back yaaaaay.

Seriously though, what in the hell are you talking about?

You definitely need to take a step back, because your distorted, jaded, skewed views are definitely clouding any rational mindset you may have.

If you read my post again, you'll see that I'm actually giving *CREDIT* to those kids who get a job in high school lifeguarding, babysitting, snow removal, etc. I couldn't say enough what great families these kids come from... good lord.

These kids make their own money and don't rely on mommy and daddy soley for it and I've always had a great respect for ANYONE who starts working at a young age, no matter what they do!

How on earth could you possibly come to such a RIDICULOUS conclusion based on what I wrote?
Maybe stop looking at everything from a defensive stand point, your thought process is warped.


Btw PP, Welcome to Maryland!
I hope you'll like it here as much as NYC.

[Anonymous]

Getting back on track, ignoring the prior troll.

The split elementary schools were also done at a time when the traffic was much less bad than it is now in the DC area. I for one would support re-thinking it if it would reduce congestion, which it clearly would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Getting back on track, ignoring the prior troll.

The split elementary schools were also done at a time when the traffic was much less bad than it is now in the DC area. I for one would support re-thinking it if it would reduce congestion, which it clearly would.

I don’t think this argument holds water. Buses aren’t even going in the height of rush hour. My kid’s bus to Rosemary Hills takes 10-15 minutes each way.