Woodward HS boundary study - BCC, Blair, Einstein, WJ, Kennedy, Northwood, Wheaton, Whitman impacts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest impact will be felt in the DCC w/ Einstein. They will probably lose an elementary school so that the Kensington Parkwood Elementary kids can be re-districted to Einstein.

From what I have been told from those in the know is that doing this helps improve a number of state measured metrics and that every potential model starts with this move.

I feel like there are people on this thread for whom the only goal of this entire process is to move kids in Kensington from WJ to Einstein. Don’t be shocked if this doesn’t happen.

I love Einstein the way it is! And I live a block from the KP line.

You love it overcrowded?

Come on now. The response was to the prior quote that “the goal of the entire process is to move kids from WJ to Einstein.” I meant that lots of Einstein families do not have this as their goal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest impact will be felt in the DCC w/ Einstein. They will probably lose an elementary school so that the Kensington Parkwood Elementary kids can be re-districted to Einstein.

From what I have been told from those in the know is that doing this helps improve a number of state measured metrics and that every potential model starts with this move.

Einstein is already 500 students overcapacity. There are 15 portables surrounding the school. To lose one elementary school only to gain another one would do nothing to address the ridiculous overcrowding.

They need to remodel Einstein and make it bigger. Moving one school will help but not as much as there is a lot of growth in the area and its is/was more affordable housing so its had a huge influx of families. Einstein needs to be torn down and rebuilt.

They don't need to do a whole rebuild, they just need a substantial addition built onto the back of the school. Which they looked into a few years back, but somehow decided against.

Not currently in the plans. Time to get the Einstein PTSA together to advocate.

I agree, but it's not going to even be considered until after the new boundaries are settled and we have new enrollment numbers and projections.

Speculation: Walter Johnson capacity is 2291 (573 ish per year) and it is projected to be 792 over capacity at the end of the '25-'26 school year when Woodward reopens for the cluster. North Bethesda has projected about 411 per year in 2026, so 1644 seats. Leaving 647 open at WJ or about 162 per year. Tilden projections show accounts for about 414 students per year, so about 1656 total. Woodward capacity is 2159, or about 540 per year. If, as we are guessing, Tilden goes to Woodward, that leaves about 126 per year. Please recall that ES boundaries are NOT in play in this boundary study. With these numbers, we are not looking at moving more than 2 ESes.

Why would WJ be split in half, and and two crowded DCC schools (Einstein and Wheaton) get little relief? I get that your plan sounds clean from an articulation perspective, but it does little to address crowding overall. What about sending two of WJ's elementaries to Woodward and then pulling two elementaries from the DCC there? Sure, that would mean some reshuffling for middle between Tilden and NB, but that would be more equitable overall.

The reality is that there are no easy answers, as much as everyone, myself included, wishes for those.

Blair, Einstein, Northwood and Wheaton are all over capacity in the DCC. BCC is essentially at capacity and Whitman has about 150-200 seats, but I don't think those projections account for the new choice program there. They can definitely move people around on the margins in Bethesda, but in terms of additional space, there's Northwood and Woodward. It is also important to recall that ESes have been expanded to over 700 kids. They're not addressing ES boundaries in this study, so chunking the possible moves of 100-200 kids per year is riddled with a lot of potentially unhappy split articulations. As a community, is it alright to have 25% of a middle school feeding to a different high school? Do we continue with our suburban expectations, or have to move to a more urban school district model?

Yes. And I don't understand why split articulations would be an inherently "urban school district model" thing. Suburban school districts can have split articulations and do have split articulations.

It happens in Clarksburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest impact will be felt in the DCC w/ Einstein. They will probably lose an elementary school so that the Kensington Parkwood Elementary kids can be re-districted to Einstein.

From what I have been told from those in the know is that doing this helps improve a number of state measured metrics and that every potential model starts with this move.

Einstein is already 500 students overcapacity. There are 15 portables surrounding the school. To lose one elementary school only to gain another one would do nothing to address the ridiculous overcrowding.

They need to remodel Einstein and make it bigger. Moving one school will help but not as much as there is a lot of growth in the area and its is/was more affordable housing so its had a huge influx of families. Einstein needs to be torn down and rebuilt.

They don't need to do a whole rebuild, they just need a substantial addition built onto the back of the school. Which they looked into a few years back, but somehow decided against.

Not currently in the plans. Time to get the Einstein PTSA together to advocate.

I agree, but it's not going to even be considered until after the new boundaries are settled and we have new enrollment numbers and projections.

Speculation: Walter Johnson capacity is 2291 (573 ish per year) and it is projected to be 792 over capacity at the end of the '25-'26 school year when Woodward reopens for the cluster. North Bethesda has projected about 411 per year in 2026, so 1644 seats. Leaving 647 open at WJ or about 162 per year. Tilden projections show accounts for about 414 students per year, so about 1656 total. Woodward capacity is 2159, or about 540 per year. If, as we are guessing, Tilden goes to Woodward, that leaves about 126 per year. Please recall that ES boundaries are NOT in play in this boundary study. With these numbers, we are not looking at moving more than 2 ESes.

Why would WJ be split in half, and and two crowded DCC schools (Einstein and Wheaton) get little relief? I get that your plan sounds clean from an articulation perspective, but it does little to address crowding overall. What about sending two of WJ's elementaries to Woodward and then pulling two elementaries from the DCC there? Sure, that would mean some reshuffling for middle between Tilden and NB, but that would be more equitable overall.

The reality is that there are no easy answers, as much as everyone, myself included, wishes for those.

Agree even with the added capacity from both Northwood and Woodward many of these schools will still be at capacotu. These things will let them get by but aren't a solution.

My speculative prediction (no insider knowledge):
WJ = North Bethesda MS + 1 Tilden ES (Garrett Park, likeliest as Woodward is actually in the Luxmanor cachement)
Woodward = 2 of the Tilden ESes (Probably Lux and Farmland) + 2 DCC Home ESes (Viers Mill, Rock View?). That adds up to about 1804 for the school, leaving some room for the rest of DCC to lottery, and/or for a special program if it is still on the table.

When they rejigger the ES assignments, I would hope that the KP island on Tuckerman would make its way to Woodward.

They've said they're not going to rejigger the ES assignments. Of course, they can always change their collective mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest impact will be felt in the DCC w/ Einstein. They will probably lose an elementary school so that the Kensington Parkwood Elementary kids can be re-districted to Einstein.

From what I have been told from those in the know is that doing this helps improve a number of state measured metrics and that every potential model starts with this move.

I feel like there are people on this thread for whom the only goal of this entire process is to move kids in Kensington from WJ to Einstein. Don’t be shocked if this doesn’t happen.

Lol, you are correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest impact will be felt in the DCC w/ Einstein. They will probably lose an elementary school so that the Kensington Parkwood Elementary kids can be re-districted to Einstein.

From what I have been told from those in the know is that doing this helps improve a number of state measured metrics and that every potential model starts with this move.

Einstein is already 500 students overcapacity. There are 15 portables surrounding the school. To lose one elementary school only to gain another one would do nothing to address the ridiculous overcrowding.

They need to remodel Einstein and make it bigger. Moving one school will help but not as much as there is a lot of growth in the area and its is/was more affordable housing so its had a huge influx of families. Einstein needs to be torn down and rebuilt.

They don't need to do a whole rebuild, they just need a substantial addition built onto the back of the school. Which they looked into a few years back, but somehow decided against.

Not currently in the plans. Time to get the Einstein PTSA together to advocate.

I agree, but it's not going to even be considered until after the new boundaries are settled and we have new enrollment numbers and projections.

Speculation: Walter Johnson capacity is 2291 (573 ish per year) and it is projected to be 792 over capacity at the end of the '25-'26 school year when Woodward reopens for the cluster. North Bethesda has projected about 411 per year in 2026, so 1644 seats. Leaving 647 open at WJ or about 162 per year. Tilden projections show accounts for about 414 students per year, so about 1656 total. Woodward capacity is 2159, or about 540 per year. If, as we are guessing, Tilden goes to Woodward, that leaves about 126 per year. Please recall that ES boundaries are NOT in play in this boundary study. With these numbers, we are not looking at moving more than 2 ESes.

Why would WJ be split in half, and and two crowded DCC schools (Einstein and Wheaton) get little relief? I get that your plan sounds clean from an articulation perspective, but it does little to address crowding overall. What about sending two of WJ's elementaries to Woodward and then pulling two elementaries from the DCC there? Sure, that would mean some reshuffling for middle between Tilden and NB, but that would be more equitable overall.

The reality is that there are no easy answers, as much as everyone, myself included, wishes for those.

Agree even with the added capacity from both Northwood and Woodward many of these schools will still be at capacotu. These things will let them get by but aren't a solution.

My speculative prediction (no insider knowledge):
WJ = North Bethesda MS + 1 Tilden ES (Garrett Park, likeliest as Woodward is actually in the Luxmanor cachement)
Woodward = 2 of the Tilden ESes (Probably Lux and Farmland) + 2 DCC Home ESes (Viers Mill, Rock View?). That adds up to about 1804 for the school, leaving some room for the rest of DCC to lottery, and/or for a special program if it is still on the table.

When they rejigger the ES assignments, I would hope that the KP island on Tuckerman would make its way to Woodward.

They've said they're not going to rejigger the ES assignments. Of course, they can always change their collective mind.

DP. Presumably "rejigger the ES assignments" means redoing the assignments of elementary schools to high schools, which is in scope for the boundary study. For example, students in the KP island on Tuckerman would continue to go to KP for elementary school, but would go to Woodward for high school instead of (currently) Walter Johnson.

In contrast, it would be out of scope for the boundary study to reassign students in the KP island on Tuckerman to Luxmanor for elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest impact will be felt in the DCC w/ Einstein. They will probably lose an elementary school so that the Kensington Parkwood Elementary kids can be re-districted to Einstein.

From what I have been told from those in the know is that doing this helps improve a number of state measured metrics and that every potential model starts with this move.

Einstein is already 500 students overcapacity. There are 15 portables surrounding the school. To lose one elementary school only to gain another one would do nothing to address the ridiculous overcrowding.

They need to remodel Einstein and make it bigger. Moving one school will help but not as much as there is a lot of growth in the area and its is/was more affordable housing so its had a huge influx of families. Einstein needs to be torn down and rebuilt.

They don't need to do a whole rebuild, they just need a substantial addition built onto the back of the school. Which they looked into a few years back, but somehow decided against.

Not currently in the plans. Time to get the Einstein PTSA together to advocate.

I agree, but it's not going to even be considered until after the new boundaries are settled and we have new enrollment numbers and projections.

Speculation: Walter Johnson capacity is 2291 (573 ish per year) and it is projected to be 792 over capacity at the end of the '25-'26 school year when Woodward reopens for the cluster. North Bethesda has projected about 411 per year in 2026, so 1644 seats. Leaving 647 open at WJ or about 162 per year. Tilden projections show accounts for about 414 students per year, so about 1656 total. Woodward capacity is 2159, or about 540 per year. If, as we are guessing, Tilden goes to Woodward, that leaves about 126 per year. Please recall that ES boundaries are NOT in play in this boundary study. With these numbers, we are not looking at moving more than 2 ESes.

Why would WJ be split in half, and and two crowded DCC schools (Einstein and Wheaton) get little relief? I get that your plan sounds clean from an articulation perspective, but it does little to address crowding overall. What about sending two of WJ's elementaries to Woodward and then pulling two elementaries from the DCC there? Sure, that would mean some reshuffling for middle between Tilden and NB, but that would be more equitable overall.

The reality is that there are no easy answers, as much as everyone, myself included, wishes for those.

Blair, Einstein, Northwood and Wheaton are all over capacity in the DCC. BCC is essentially at capacity and Whitman has about 150-200 seats, but I don't think those projections account for the new choice program there. They can definitely move people around on the margins in Bethesda, but in terms of additional space, there's Northwood and Woodward. It is also important to recall that ESes have been expanded to over 700 kids. They're not addressing ES boundaries in this study, so chunking the possible moves of 100-200 kids per year is riddled with a lot of potentially unhappy split articulations. As a community, is it alright to have 25% of a middle school feeding to a different high school? Do we continue with our suburban expectations, or have to move to a more urban school district model?

Yes. And I don't understand why split articulations would be an inherently "urban school district model" thing. Suburban school districts can have split articulations and do have split articulations.

It happens in Clarksburg.

Yes, and Clarksburg is in MCPS, which means MCPS has split articulations. Dunno whether that PP thinks MCPS is an "urban school district" or a "suburban school district," and it doesn't really matter anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to potentially reduce segregation or at least keep it flat is to move KP to Einstein. Also move two ESs out of Einstein to either Woodward, WJ or BCC. Probably Woodlin and maybe OTES or Highland. Some other shuffling would also need to happen. I have my doubts that MCPS will be willing to do this, but if they are prioritizing equity this would be one approach.

If KP moves into Einstein I can’t see them moving OTES out, that’s just trading one part of Kensington for another.

+1. Flora Singer and Woodlin are easier to rezone since their students are all bus riders already.

What do you base this on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to potentially reduce segregation or at least keep it flat is to move KP to Einstein. Also move two ESs out of Einstein to either Woodward, WJ or BCC. Probably Woodlin and maybe OTES or Highland. Some other shuffling would also need to happen. I have my doubts that MCPS will be willing to do this, but if they are prioritizing equity this would be one approach.

If KP moves into Einstein I can’t see them moving OTES out, that’s just trading one part of Kensington for another.

+1. Flora Singer and Woodlin are easier to rezone since their students are all bus riders already.

What do you base this on?

I’m a DP but it’s a fact that no part of those schools’ catchment zones are in the Einstein walk zone. The BOE has indicated a desire to keep walkers as walkers. Parts of OTES walk to Einstein, parts of Highland walk to Einstein, and all of Rock View walks to Einstein, so re-zoning any of those schools to a HS where the students will need to be bussed seems to go against the preference to keep walkers as walkers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to potentially reduce segregation or at least keep it flat is to move KP to Einstein. Also move two ESs out of Einstein to either Woodward, WJ or BCC. Probably Woodlin and maybe OTES or Highland. Some other shuffling would also need to happen. I have my doubts that MCPS will be willing to do this, but if they are prioritizing equity this would be one approach.

If KP moves into Einstein I can’t see them moving OTES out, that’s just trading one part of Kensington for another.

+1. Flora Singer and Woodlin are easier to rezone since their students are all bus riders already.

What do you base this on?

That actually makes sense. No one from Singer or Woodlin is a walker to Einstein. Sligo Middle school would have to go to Woodward too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest impact will be felt in the DCC w/ Einstein. They will probably lose an elementary school so that the Kensington Parkwood Elementary kids can be re-districted to Einstein.

From what I have been told from those in the know is that doing this helps improve a number of state measured metrics and that every potential model starts with this move.

I feel like there are people on this thread for whom the only goal of this entire process is to move kids in Kensington from WJ to Einstein. Don’t be shocked if this doesn’t happen.

Lol, you are correct.

Thank you. My sales/customer service background is telling me to manage these posters’ expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to potentially reduce segregation or at least keep it flat is to move KP to Einstein. Also move two ESs out of Einstein to either Woodward, WJ or BCC. Probably Woodlin and maybe OTES or Highland. Some other shuffling would also need to happen. I have my doubts that MCPS will be willing to do this, but if they are prioritizing equity this would be one approach.

If KP moves into Einstein I can’t see them moving OTES out, that’s just trading one part of Kensington for another.

+1. Flora Singer and Woodlin are easier to rezone since their students are all bus riders already.

What do you base this on?

That actually makes sense. No one from Singer or Woodlin is a walker to Einstein. Sligo Middle school would have to go to Woodward too.

Not necessarily. Especially because the eastern parts of Singer/Sligo are walkable to Northwood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to potentially reduce segregation or at least keep it flat is to move KP to Einstein. Also move two ESs out of Einstein to either Woodward, WJ or BCC. Probably Woodlin and maybe OTES or Highland. Some other shuffling would also need to happen. I have my doubts that MCPS will be willing to do this, but if they are prioritizing equity this would be one approach.

If KP moves into Einstein I can’t see them moving OTES out, that’s just trading one part of Kensington for another.

+1. Flora Singer and Woodlin are easier to rezone since their students are all bus riders already.

What do you base this on?

That actually makes sense. No one from Singer or Woodlin is a walker to Einstein. Sligo Middle school would have to go to Woodward too.

Not necessarily. Especially because the eastern parts of Singer/Sligo are walkable to Northwood.

The more this thread goes on, the more challenging this boundary study sounds. Maybe this is why WJ principal is retiring?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to potentially reduce segregation or at least keep it flat is to move KP to Einstein. Also move two ESs out of Einstein to either Woodward, WJ or BCC. Probably Woodlin and maybe OTES or Highland. Some other shuffling would also need to happen. I have my doubts that MCPS will be willing to do this, but if they are prioritizing equity this would be one approach.

If KP moves into Einstein I can’t see them moving OTES out, that’s just trading one part of Kensington for another.

+1. Flora Singer and Woodlin are easier to rezone since their students are all bus riders already.

What do you base this on?

That actually makes sense. No one from Singer or Woodlin is a walker to Einstein. Sligo Middle school would have to go to Woodward too.

Not necessarily. Especially because the eastern parts of Singer/Sligo are walkable to Northwood.

The more this thread goes on, the more challenging this boundary study sounds. Maybe this is why WJ principal is retiring?!?

Maybe but don't care. What I do care about is improving diversity across all schools. That should be the number 1 priority since it's what our board agreed upon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to potentially reduce segregation or at least keep it flat is to move KP to Einstein. Also move two ESs out of Einstein to either Woodward, WJ or BCC. Probably Woodlin and maybe OTES or Highland. Some other shuffling would also need to happen. I have my doubts that MCPS will be willing to do this, but if they are prioritizing equity this would be one approach.

If KP moves into Einstein I can’t see them moving OTES out, that’s just trading one part of Kensington for another.

+1. Flora Singer and Woodlin are easier to rezone since their students are all bus riders already.

What do you base this on?

That actually makes sense. No one from Singer or Woodlin is a walker to Einstein. Sligo Middle school would have to go to Woodward too.

Not necessarily. Especially because the eastern parts of Singer/Sligo are walkable to Northwood.

The more this thread goes on, the more challenging this boundary study sounds. Maybe this is why WJ principal is retiring?!?

Maybe but don't care. What I do care about is improving diversity across all schools. That should be the number 1 priority since it's what our board agreed upon.

No it's not, stop peddling disinformation from 2019.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only way to potentially reduce segregation or at least keep it flat is to move KP to Einstein. Also move two ESs out of Einstein to either Woodward, WJ or BCC. Probably Woodlin and maybe OTES or Highland. Some other shuffling would also need to happen. I have my doubts that MCPS will be willing to do this, but if they are prioritizing equity this would be one approach.

If KP moves into Einstein I can’t see them moving OTES out, that’s just trading one part of Kensington for another.

+1. Flora Singer and Woodlin are easier to rezone since their students are all bus riders already.

What do you base this on?

That actually makes sense. No one from Singer or Woodlin is a walker to Einstein. Sligo Middle school would have to go to Woodward too.

Not necessarily. Especially because the eastern parts of Singer/Sligo are walkable to Northwood.

The more this thread goes on, the more challenging this boundary study sounds. Maybe this is why WJ principal is retiring?!?

Maybe but don't care. What I do care about is improving diversity across all schools. That should be the number 1 priority since it's what our board agreed upon.

🙄 Will some schools become more diverse (namely WJ), and will Woodward be a relatively diverse school, yes. Are kids going to get bussed from the DCC to Whitman, no.