Is Einstein getting totally screwed in the boundary and program study proposals?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This process should not leave any school worse off than it is now.

If MCPS can’t manage that, they need to scrap the whole plan and start over.

I think the reason that's tough to do is because with Woodward and the new Northwood buildings, some schools are going to lose enrollment. And with Einstein being over-capacity, it makes sense that they are one of the schools losing students. But I think more effort should be made to preserve programs and classes for the students remaining at Einstein.

It's understandable for Einstein to lose students. But it's way too much for them to be losing students while simultaneously also 1) having no criteria-based academic programs, meaning they will lose many of their more advanced kids to the other regional schools with few from others coming to Einstein to balance it out; 2) significantly weakening VAPA and probably VAC and IB as well, hollowing out their current strengths; and 3) being one of the few schools with a notable increase in FARMS rates, which is likely to further decrease the demand for advanced courses.

Yep, I totally agree. The easiest and most obvious adjustment to make, as mentioned upthread, would be to swap the education interest-based program with one of the criteria programs at BCC (either IB or humanities).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re in-bounds for Einstein and have kids in middle and elementary currently.

We need to speak up about the unfairness of these proposed changes. There are a lot of well-educated, articulate parents who could make a strong case why we need different options. I’ve already responded to the survey as such.

What else? Testimony to the BOE? Get media attention on the issue? I don’t know that it will ultimately change things, but I think we have to try hard.

Attend the County Council's Education and Culture Committee session tomorrow from 1:30-4:30pm at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville in the 3rd Floor Hearing Room and bring signs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have the same strong offerings at every school. Having speciality programs at different schools is silly if students don’t get school choose and each school doesn’t have equal strong offerings. Taylor and the BOE clearly ditched equity and student needs. How many kids want a teacher academy. They reduced the current program a few years ago. How about a poll asking parents, teachers and students what they want at these schools. People are going to bail from Einstein if they can and either move or go private. It and Kennedy will be the weak links.

+1

The DCC is what keeps wealthier kids in public schools. DH and I have just discussed upping our 529 contributions so we can afford private if need be.

Having a standardized base of strong offerings at all schools is part of the plan. Funny how most people are not asking questions or focused on that piece.

We don't buy it because MCPS has caveated it with saying they will offer courses "if there is interest" which is a circular way of saying they won't actually offer that strong base or will have it be virtual in the lower income schools, which will lead wealthy families to flee public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they’re going to do all these split articulations anyway they should pull Town of Kensington kids within the Einstein walk zone into the school. That might get people’s attention.

This!!! It is absurd that TOK within walking distance doesn’t go to Einstein!

But WJ's in a different region than Einstein, and I don't think they split-articulate across regions.

WTF are you even talking about? For decades white people in the TOK have insisted their kids get bussed to WJ rather than WALKING to Einstein. It is friggin absurd. Especially when those people put of Black Lives Matter signs in their front yards. So hypocritical.

I naively thought this might change with the boundary study. My DD has already graduated from Einstein so I don’t have much of a stake in this (except possibly property value), but it’s disappointing that when there a real opportunity to diversify socioeconomically it’s again being ignored.

It's not being ignored. It's a racist pattern that is being deliberately kept for political reasons to appease the rich white people of the Town of Kensington.

Can you explain more? Do Einstein families want all of Kensington zoned to it? Was that one of the options initially present th at has now changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they’re going to do all these split articulations anyway they should pull Town of Kensington kids within the Einstein walk zone into the school. That might get people’s attention.

This!!! It is absurd that TOK within walking distance doesn’t go to Einstein!

But WJ's in a different region than Einstein, and I don't think they split-articulate across regions.

WTF are you even talking about? For decades white people in the TOK have insisted their kids get bussed to WJ rather than WALKING to Einstein. It is friggin absurd. Especially when those people put of Black Lives Matter signs in their front yards. So hypocritical.

I naively thought this might change with the boundary study. My DD has already graduated from Einstein so I don’t have much of a stake in this (except possibly property value), but it’s disappointing that when there a real opportunity to diversify socioeconomically it’s again being ignored.

It's not being ignored. It's a racist pattern that is being deliberately kept for political reasons to appease the rich white people of the Town of Kensington.

Can you explain more? Do Einstein families want all of Kensington zoned to it? Was that one of the options initially present th at has now changed?

I don't think most Einstein families care that much but some don't love that the new options increase the FARMS rate at Einstein.

[Anonymous]

Has MCPS provided more info on what the edication magnet will look like? Is this an existing local or regional program they are modeling it after? What is the goal? To have people ready to be education majors in college? To target people who can serve as paraedicators eight after HS? To have people work in daycares right after HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have the resources to pay for private school and will be watching this closely. The DCC was a draw for us because it meant our kid could pursue her interests by choosing a specialized program. Now her options at Einstein may be very limited and apparently if something like precalc or calculus doesn't have enough interest she'll have to do it virtually. Those are just basic college prep courses and if MCPS can't offer basic college prep courses in person of course we'll look at other options.

We are a DC family who was planning to move to MoCo for MS/HS and was looking at Einstein as an option depending on where we found housing, specifically because of the IB option as well as their speciality programming.

This whole thing is upending our plans. We may still try to buy IB for Blair but even that looks less appealing if they are eliminating the magnet, which I understood enabled IB students to take classes they might not otherwise as well. The western schools are way less convenient for us in terms of work commute. I don't know. We might stay in DC, start looking at VA, or maybe even explore Howard County.

I really feel for people who already bought in MoCo based on existing education magnets, lottery, and programming options, and whose plans are being completely upended.

Schools are not conveyed with the house. At some point that notion is going to stick for people.

I mean, this is a ridiculous comment in this context because people aren't even complaining about being rezoned for a different school, but about how changing the magnet system is fundamentally changing the offerings and opportunities at their existing school. Or about the loss of opportunity to send their kid to a magnet program at another school outside their zone.

But even beyond that, it's an absurd statement as long as schools have boundaries. Some schools will always be better than other schools, largely due to socioeconomic factors, and the homes zoned for those schools will always cost more as a result. Which means people are paying a premium for access to a school boundary, and will be angry if not only their access to that school but the value of their property is altered by re-zoning.

The only way to change that is to get rid of school boundaries entirely, make the whole thing a pure lottery system. Which will never happen, which means, yes, people will continue to believe that schools convey with the house because in the vast majority of cases and with the exception of periodic rezoning, they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re in-bounds for Einstein and have kids in middle and elementary currently.

We need to speak up about the unfairness of these proposed changes. There are a lot of well-educated, articulate parents who could make a strong case why we need different options. I’ve already responded to the survey as such.

What else? Testimony to the BOE? Get media attention on the issue? I don’t know that it will ultimately change things, but I think we have to try hard.

Attend the County Council's Education and Culture Committee session tomorrow from 1:30-4:30pm at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville in the 3rd Floor Hearing Room and bring signs

Here is the link to the agenda for this public meeting occurring tomorrow. The third item relates to the regional program proposal https://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=169&event_id=16606

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has MCPS provided more info on what the edication magnet will look like? Is this an existing local or regional program they are modeling it after? What is the goal? To have people ready to be education majors in college? To target people who can serve as paraedicators eight after HS? To have people work in daycares right after HS?

Is education program ever a criteria-based magnet program? Based on the discussion shared on another thread titled "What If I Told You The Regional Model Isn’t About Advanced Academics?", I'd think the new education program is a CTE program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re in-bounds for Einstein and have kids in middle and elementary currently.

We need to speak up about the unfairness of these proposed changes. There are a lot of well-educated, articulate parents who could make a strong case why we need different options. I’ve already responded to the survey as such.

What else? Testimony to the BOE? Get media attention on the issue? I don’t know that it will ultimately change things, but I think we have to try hard.

Attend the County Council's Education and Culture Committee session tomorrow from 1:30-4:30pm at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville in the 3rd Floor Hearing Room and bring signs

I agree with MCCPTA that there is no reason for these massive changes to need to be passed in December.

The proposed changes will have significant impact on MCPS’s nationally renown and successful programs and there are too many unintended consequences. Therefore there should be a proper amount of public input, to the same degree as the Boundary Study that is being conducted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re in-bounds for Einstein and have kids in middle and elementary currently.

We need to speak up about the unfairness of these proposed changes. There are a lot of well-educated, articulate parents who could make a strong case why we need different options. I’ve already responded to the survey as such.

What else? Testimony to the BOE? Get media attention on the issue? I don’t know that it will ultimately change things, but I think we have to try hard.

Attend the County Council's Education and Culture Committee session tomorrow from 1:30-4:30pm at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville in the 3rd Floor Hearing Room and bring signs

Here is the link to the agenda for this public meeting occurring tomorrow. The third item relates to the regional program proposal https://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=169&event_id=16606

Thank you for this suggestion and the link!

Because this agenda item is about the regional program proposal, and not the boundary study, what’s the ask for Einstein? Ensure we have robust AP offerings or a regional IB program? Don’t support the regional program at all so the DCC is preserved? I don’t think it’s tenable to implement or even propose a new regional program concurrently with boundary changes. We need to see what the new schools look like before suggesting further changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re in-bounds for Einstein and have kids in middle and elementary currently.

We need to speak up about the unfairness of these proposed changes. There are a lot of well-educated, articulate parents who could make a strong case why we need different options. I’ve already responded to the survey as such.

What else? Testimony to the BOE? Get media attention on the issue? I don’t know that it will ultimately change things, but I think we have to try hard.

Attend the County Council's Education and Culture Committee session tomorrow from 1:30-4:30pm at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville in the 3rd Floor Hearing Room and bring signs

Here is the link to the agenda for this public meeting occurring tomorrow. The third item relates to the regional program proposal https://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=169&event_id=16606

Thanks for sharing! I just quickly went through the document attached to the 3rd item using keyword search, and didn't find their plan for middle school program layout. Didn't they promise to share their plan in Oct. meeting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re in-bounds for Einstein and have kids in middle and elementary currently.

We need to speak up about the unfairness of these proposed changes. There are a lot of well-educated, articulate parents who could make a strong case why we need different options. I’ve already responded to the survey as such.

What else? Testimony to the BOE? Get media attention on the issue? I don’t know that it will ultimately change things, but I think we have to try hard.

Attend the County Council's Education and Culture Committee session tomorrow from 1:30-4:30pm at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville in the 3rd Floor Hearing Room and bring signs

Here is the link to the agenda for this public meeting occurring tomorrow. The third item relates to the regional program proposal https://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=169&event_id=16606

Thank you for this suggestion and the link!

Because this agenda item is about the regional program proposal, and not the boundary study, what’s the ask for Einstein? Ensure we have robust AP offerings or a regional IB program? Don’t support the regional program at all so the DCC is preserved? I don’t think it’s tenable to implement or even propose a new regional program concurrently with boundary changes. We need to see what the new schools look like before suggesting further changes.

I agree with you. I think they need to stop moving forward with this and think through the impacts more. They need to have a budget and a lot more public engagement. I guess an alternative would be to move the Humanities program to Einstein.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have the resources to pay for private school and will be watching this closely. The DCC was a draw for us because it meant our kid could pursue her interests by choosing a specialized program. Now her options at Einstein may be very limited and apparently if something like precalc or calculus doesn't have enough interest she'll have to do it virtually. Those are just basic college prep courses and if MCPS can't offer basic college prep courses in person of course we'll look at other options.

You're not the only ones, unfortunately! All of these changes that MCPS is pushing through will lead to so many families like you abandoning the public school system.

Which is so unfortunate, because in order to have a strong school system, there needs to be buy-in from middle-class and UMC families. Those families who have the means to afford private school will bail on MCPS as soon as all this pans out. As a supporter of public schools, this is so disheartening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they’re going to do all these split articulations anyway they should pull Town of Kensington kids within the Einstein walk zone into the school. That might get people’s attention.

This!!! It is absurd that TOK within walking distance doesn’t go to Einstein!

But WJ's in a different region than Einstein, and I don't think they split-articulate across regions.

WTF are you even talking about? For decades white people in the TOK have insisted their kids get bussed to WJ rather than WALKING to Einstein. It is friggin absurd. Especially when those people put of Black Lives Matter signs in their front yards. So hypocritical.

I naively thought this might change with the boundary study. My DD has already graduated from Einstein so I don’t have much of a stake in this (except possibly property value), but it’s disappointing that when there a real opportunity to diversify socioeconomically it’s again being ignored.

It's not being ignored. It's a racist pattern that is being deliberately kept for political reasons to appease the rich white people of the Town of Kensington.

Can you explain more? Do Einstein families want all of Kensington zoned to it? Was that one of the options initially present th at has now changed?

I don't think most Einstein families care and some of us picked our homes for Einstein over WJ or BCC. Its just a talking point as the town is a huge divide for Kensington. And the two Kensingtons are very different (not good or bad, just different).