BCC/WJ Joint New ES Study

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking at these maps, I realize that the problem is really that somehow, at some point in the past, a big part of Kennsington became deluded to think that they were "North Chevy Chase" or "Chevy Chase View" and probably with some political will forced themselves into the BCC cluster. If those kids just got moved to the WJ cluster like they should be, then East Bethesda can get moved back to Rosemary Hills/North Chevy Chase ES and Bethesda ES is no longer crowded.

North Chevy Chase is an incorporated municipality. So is Chevy Chase View. Why the scare quotes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at these maps, I realize that the problem is really that somehow, at some point in the past, a big part of Kennsington became deluded to think that they were "North Chevy Chase" or "Chevy Chase View" and probably with some political will forced themselves into the BCC cluster. If those kids just got moved to the WJ cluster like they should be, then East Bethesda can get moved back to Rosemary Hills/North Chevy Chase ES and Bethesda ES is no longer crowded.

North Chevy Chase and Chevy Chase View have been going to B-CC since those neighborhoods and B-CC existed. They never “forced themselves into” anything. And East Bethesda was thrilled when they changed it so they all could go to Bethesda Elementary instead of the split. But of course you’ve been “looking at maps” so you know everything.

I believe Chevy Chase View went to Parkwood ES before it was Kensington-Parkwood and was re-assigned in the late 1970s or early 1980s. But I don’t think it was a neighborhood initiative to leave WJ and switch to BCC. I think it was just one of the changes when they closed all those schools in the 80s.

You’re correct that the neighborhood school for that area - Larchmont Elementary - was closed in 1976 and is now Grace Episcopal School. But that school was part of the Rosemary Hills pairing and always went to B-CC.

[Anonymous]

And Arylawn’s off the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And Arylawn’s off the list.

What’s the source for that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are promoting Grosvenor because they already went through a site selection and the entire community agreed on Grosvenor. It has nothing to do with getting 100% of the seats, so stop making sh*t up! Doing another study is a waste of MCPS time and $$

Exactly, the W cluster did that site selection. It had nothing to do with the BCC cluster. And the WJ cluster may not all agree with this pat solution when they figure out they'll be moving some percentage of Wyngate students out to the new school - perhaps the entire Alta Vista side of the neighborhood. Because Grosvenor is not a location for a split BCC/WJ school. It is a fine location for a WJ school.

No one will find out who'll be attending the new school until long after the site has been selected, and a new boundary study is established for that school, typically a year and a half before its opening date.

Right now, MCPS has said there are 2 clusters projected to have 370 extra elementary students each: BCC (particularly Bethesda ES) and WJ (all schools are maxed out at 740 and over/fully enrolled the minute Lux reopens). If the opening of this new school happens in connection with the Woodward opening, all bets are off. But if this is its own BCC/WJ thing it is pretty obvious that opening a school deeply in WJ land will take kids from WJ and push BCC kids to the outside edge school - Wyngate. (Bradley Hills, very close to Wyngate and Bethesda is in the Whitman cluster)

Ayrlawn in a nonstarter. Nearby residents of Oakmont and Bethesda lining Ayrlawn with their McMansions don’t want to deal with loss of their Park or more school bus traffic. Who blames them? They have the money to fight.

But Bethesda ES is already scheduled to be expanded to 765 students in 2023, which will cover their overcrowding. According to the CIP, that leaves Rock Creek Forest as the only overcapacity BCC ES, since Somerset's will be covered by the boundary study with Westbrook. Within WJ, Ashburton and Farmland will still be overc
apacity and Garrett Park and Luxmanor will be basically at capacity. So that's an argument for Grosvenor. I don't know how any of the proposed sites will provide relief to RCF.

Kensignton is closest to RCF. But this argument for Grosvenor ihere s the same as WJ cluster gets all the seats called sh^t above.

[Anonymous]

From someone at the meeting:
Ayrlawn, Alta Vista, Montrose and Rocking horse are no longer being considered.

I wasn't there, so second hand. But Rocking Horse never should have been there in the first place! It is in DCC and is just MCPS trying to pit parent communities against each other. Glad the parents figured that one out for once!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at these maps, I realize that the problem is really that somehow, at some point in the past, a big part of Kennsington became deluded to think that they were "North Chevy Chase" or "Chevy Chase View" and probably with some political will forced themselves into the BCC cluster. If those kids just got moved to the WJ cluster like they should be, then East Bethesda can get moved back to Rosemary Hills/North Chevy Chase ES and Bethesda ES is no longer crowded.

North Chevy Chase and Chevy Chase View have been going to B-CC since those neighborhoods and B-CC existed. They never “forced themselves into” anything. And East Bethesda was thrilled when they changed it so they all could go to Bethesda Elementary instead of the split. But of course you’ve been “looking at maps” so you know everything.

Not just thrilled -- the East Bethesda Citizens Association lobbied for this change for years. When we moved to East Bethesda 12 years ago, we were zoned to Rosemary Hills for K-2, then Bethesda for 3-5. That changed at some point before we had kids 6 years ago.

RH is a fine school by all accounts but I love being able to walk my kindergartener to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From someone at the meeting:
Ayrlawn, Alta Vista, Montrose and Rocking horse are no longer being considered.

I wasn't there, so second hand. But Rocking Horse never should have been there in the first place! It is in DCC and is just MCPS trying to pit parent communities against each other. Glad the parents figured that one out for once!

So, what are the next steps?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From someone at the meeting:
Ayrlawn, Alta Vista, Montrose and Rocking horse are no longer being considered.

I wasn't there, so second hand. But Rocking Horse never should have been there in the first place! It is in DCC and is just MCPS trying to pit parent communities against each other. Glad the parents figured that one out for once!

The Rocking Horse Road Center is 2 miles from Luxmanor ES, and people have to stop thinking that school boundaries were handed down in engraved stone tablets on Mt Sinai and will never change.

[Anonymous]

Rocking Horse will be needed as a secondary school in the DCC soon enough. They have overcrowding too, it is only the developers and the Planning Board who want to use Rocking Horse now for other clusters, but that is robbing Peter to pay Paul. The site will be needed sooner rather than later for the DCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rocking Horse will be needed as a secondary school in the DCC soon enough. They have overcrowding too, it is only the developers and the Planning Board who want to use Rocking Horse now for other clusters, but that is robbing Peter to pay Paul. The site will be needed sooner rather than later for the DCC.

The Planning Board? Wait, what? And you want to put a middle school there, or something, because why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are promoting Grosvenor because they already went through a site selection and the entire community agreed on Grosvenor. It has nothing to do with getting 100% of the seats, so stop making sh*t up! Doing another study is a waste of MCPS time and $$

Exactly, the W cluster did that site selection. It had nothing to do with the BCC cluster. And the WJ cluster may not all agree with this pat solution when they figure out they'll be moving some percentage of Wyngate students out to the new school - perhaps the entire Alta Vista side of the neighborhood. Because Grosvenor is not a location for a split BCC/WJ school. It is a fine location for a WJ school.

No one will find out who'll be attending the new school until long after the site has been selected, and a new boundary study is established for that school, typically a year and a half before its opening date.

Right now, MCPS has said there are 2 clusters projected to have 370 extra elementary students each: BCC (particularly Bethesda ES) and WJ (all schools are maxed out at 740 and over/fully enrolled the minute Lux reopens). If the opening of this new school happens in connection with the Woodward opening, all bets are off. But if this is its own BCC/WJ thing it is pretty obvious that opening a school deeply in WJ land will take kids from WJ and push BCC kids to the outside edge school - Wyngate. (Bradley Hills, very close to Wyngate and Bethesda is in the Whitman cluster)

Ayrlawn in a nonstarter. Nearby residents of Oakmont and Bethesda lining Ayrlawn with their McMansions don’t want to deal with loss of their Park or more school bus traffic. Who blames them? They have the money to fight.

But Bethesda ES is already scheduled to be expanded to 765 students in 2023, which will cover their overcrowding. According to the CIP, that leaves Rock Creek Forest as the only overcapacity BCC ES, since Somerset's will be covered by the boundary study with Westbrook. Within WJ, Ashburton and Farmland will still be overcapacity and Garrett Park and Luxmanor will be basically at capacity. So that's an argument for Grosvenor. I don't know how any of the proposed sites will provide relief to RCF.

Kensington is closest to RCF. But this argument for Grosvenor ihere s the same as WJ cluster gets all the seats called sh^t above.

Yeah, Kensington is the perfect location for solving an actual BCC/WJ problem since it’s exactly at the border of the two clusters. However, the site is too small. I wonder if it could be a good holding school option if they make Grosvenor a regular school. One year with limited fields would be much better than K-5 with limited fields.

And, how is RCF overcrowded when they JUST GOT a new building? Can’t they move the immersion program somewhere else? My son’s former PEP program got (rightly IMO) kicked out of Ashburton when it got too crowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at these maps, I realize that the problem is really that somehow, at some point in the past, a big part of Kennsington became deluded to think that they were "North Chevy Chase" or "Chevy Chase View" and probably with some political will forced themselves into the BCC cluster. If those kids just got moved to the WJ cluster like they should be, then East Bethesda can get moved back to Rosemary Hills/North Chevy Chase ES and Bethesda ES is no longer crowded.

North Chevy Chase is an incorporated municipality. So is Chevy Chase View. Why the scare quotes?

Isn't Einstein the home school for most of Kensington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at these maps, I realize that the problem is really that somehow, at some point in the past, a big part of Kennsington became deluded to think that they were "North Chevy Chase" or "Chevy Chase View" and probably with some political will forced themselves into the BCC cluster. If those kids just got moved to the WJ cluster like they should be, then East Bethesda can get moved back to Rosemary Hills/North Chevy Chase ES and Bethesda ES is no longer crowded.

North Chevy Chase is an incorporated municipality. So is Chevy Chase View. Why the scare quotes?

Isn't Einstein the home school for most of Kensington?

No. Kensington is pretty evenly split between Einstein, Walter Johnson and B-CC. And North Chevy Chase is not in Kensington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at these maps, I realize that the problem is really that somehow, at some point in the past, a big part of Kennsington became deluded to think that they were "North Chevy Chase" or "Chevy Chase View" and probably with some political will forced themselves into the BCC cluster. If those kids just got moved to the WJ cluster like they should be, then East Bethesda can get moved back to Rosemary Hills/North Chevy Chase ES and Bethesda ES is no longer crowded.

North Chevy Chase is an incorporated municipality. So is Chevy Chase View. Why the scare quotes?

Isn't Einstein the home school for most of Kensington?

No.

Kensington: https://tok.md.gov/do-i-live-here/

Einstein: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/EinsteinHS.pdf

Walter Johnson: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/WalterJohnsonHS.pdf