Option H is permanent and the old Wootton HS campus will be closed for good?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:to put it simply. School performance will go down. School ratings will go down. This directly affects property values. It always has and always will. I’m not sure what’s so hard to understand about this?

When you take a low performing school and just move the students to a different school it doesn’t actually change the way those students perform in any way shape or form.

But when you mix them with high performing students it can help

The biggest issue these kids face is lack of parent involvement. It’s the literal number 1 reason these kids fail. Their parents are working sometimes multiple jobs and they are often home alone for extended periods of time. School is simply not the priority. This will not change when their school changes-their family stays the same. I work in a MS in the Gaithersburg district.

as a teacher, you should know that it can help when a school does not have a huge FARMs rate. It's about resources. Sure, some kids will not do well irrespective of whether they go to GHS or Crown or even Churchill, but for some, it will help.

-former low income student

What is the threshold for the FARMS rate, where there's is a notable difference in a school's performance?

When some other school districts were trying to rebalance, they were targetting the high 20s. In the initial round of proposals, posters were saying that it was perfectly fine that Crown was projected to have a 35 to 45 percent FARMS rate because the county's average is 60 percent. (which it's not)

Part of the issue is the way that MCPS does things. Where instead of trying to raise the bottom, they try to slow down the higher performers. We saw this in our child's math class. Where they'd stop instruction several weeks early each marking period because the teacher told the class that they were ahead compared to the rest of the county.

Then you have posters on here that keep trying to gaslight people saying that no one needs to take MV Calculus in high school.

Just because the majority of the school system has issues in scoring proficient in the standardized state assessments, don't hold back the students that are able to perform on or ahead of level.

Same thing with removing/changing the countywide magnet and IB programs.

And one of the selling points that administrators at private schools would say, is that a class will move at the pace of the slowest students in the class.

-also a former low income student who's parents chose to be house poor to live in a good school district, and understand that there is more to being success at a school than just sitting in the same class with high performers and somehow hoping to gain their peers traits through osmosis or something. So realized how important it was to find a place/environment where my kids would fit in demographically, academically and economically

Also one of the things I often point out in the choices that people (my parents) make is comments like Jalen Rose said about his childhood. Where he said something along the lines of, growing up he and his friends didn't even know they were poor because everyone around them was poor.

So is something I've reflected about in my own childhood and seeing others with my own family background grow up in environments among other families with similar backgrounds. And is why it's important for me that my kids are in an environment where they can fit in.

This can be a diverse environment, which was one of our earlier criterias when we were searching for a home. Where we automatically ruled out any areas with more then a fifty percent population of any group and our own demographic had less then twenty percent.

I'm not saying it's okay to segregate populations by income and not to provide resources to groups that need them.

But also mixing up demographics isn't really fixing the root of the problems.

And you think that by moving Wootton to Crown and adding in some more kids to fill it up you run this risk? Have you looked at the Wootton demographics already? It may add some poor kids but that is the only demographic that will change. Race, English speakers etc percentages will likely stay pretty comparable

I personally don't have any issues with Option H other than ensuring safe walking zones.

Maybe the size of the school because it means more competition for fewer spots.

But I've been advocating that Fields Road ES should be assigned to the Crown location or stay with QO since first seeing Option H.

I also have no issues if they put in more feeder schools from more lower income areas. Because like I've been saying it might help one or two students who benefits from the exposure to the peer groups and access to the resources. Which is one of the only benefits I see of the six regional model. But also like I said, it's not really doing anything to help the struggling students and just mix in their numbers with the overall numbers and end hiding them.

As long as the school doesn't do anything crazy like trying to reduce the rigors or offerings, saying something like, "well the majority of the school isn't on level, so we'll slow things down and take away some offerings" Which we did see at our elementary school when the new principal came in. But given the majority of the area that the school would be pulling from, would hope that it wouldn't be an issue.

I'm only speaking for myself though and not for other Wootton families though.

Thank you - nice to see that at least one other Wootton family is posting here on the side of Option H being a good thing. I think there are plenty of us out there but likely just not on this board.

To be clear the post above is not me and an entirely diffferent Wootton parent - signed Cold Spring/Cabin John/Wootton parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:to put it simply. School performance will go down. School ratings will go down. This directly affects property values. It always has and always will. I’m not sure what’s so hard to understand about this?

When you take a low performing school and just move the students to a different school it doesn’t actually change the way those students perform in any way shape or form.

But when you mix them with high performing students it can help

The biggest issue these kids face is lack of parent involvement. It’s the literal number 1 reason these kids fail. Their parents are working sometimes multiple jobs and they are often home alone for extended periods of time. School is simply not the priority. This will not change when their school changes-their family stays the same. I work in a MS in the Gaithersburg district.

as a teacher, you should know that it can help when a school does not have a huge FARMs rate. It's about resources. Sure, some kids will not do well irrespective of whether they go to GHS or Crown or even Churchill, but for some, it will help.

-former low income student

What is the threshold for the FARMS rate, where there's is a notable difference in a school's performance?

When some other school districts were trying to rebalance, they were targetting the high 20s. In the initial round of proposals, posters were saying that it was perfectly fine that Crown was projected to have a 35 to 45 percent FARMS rate because the county's average is 60 percent. (which it's not)

Part of the issue is the way that MCPS does things. Where instead of trying to raise the bottom, they try to slow down the higher performers. We saw this in our child's math class. Where they'd stop instruction several weeks early each marking period because the teacher told the class that they were ahead compared to the rest of the county.

Then you have posters on here that keep trying to gaslight people saying that no one needs to take MV Calculus in high school.

Just because the majority of the school system has issues in scoring proficient in the standardized state assessments, don't hold back the students that are able to perform on or ahead of level.

Same thing with removing/changing the countywide magnet and IB programs.

And one of the selling points that administrators at private schools would say, is that a class will move at the pace of the slowest students in the class.

-also a former low income student who's parents chose to be house poor to live in a good school district, and understand that there is more to being success at a school than just sitting in the same class with high performers and somehow hoping to gain their peers traits through osmosis or something. So realized how important it was to find a place/environment where my kids would fit in demographically, academically and economically

Also one of the things I often point out in the choices that people (my parents) make is comments like Jalen Rose said about his childhood. Where he said something along the lines of, growing up he and his friends didn't even know they were poor because everyone around them was poor.

So is something I've reflected about in my own childhood and seeing others with my own family background grow up in environments among other families with similar backgrounds. And is why it's important for me that my kids are in an environment where they can fit in.

This can be a diverse environment, which was one of our earlier criterias when we were searching for a home. Where we automatically ruled out any areas with more then a fifty percent population of any group and our own demographic had less then twenty percent.

I'm not saying it's okay to segregate populations by income and not to provide resources to groups that need them.

But also mixing up demographics isn't really fixing the root of the problems.

And you think that by moving Wootton to Crown and adding in some more kids to fill it up you run this risk? Have you looked at the Wootton demographics already? It may add some poor kids but that is the only demographic that will change. Race, English speakers etc percentages will likely stay pretty comparable

I personally don't have any issues with Option H other than ensuring safe walking zones.

Maybe the size of the school because it means more competition for fewer spots.

But I've been advocating that Fields Road ES should be assigned to the Crown location or stay with QO since first seeing Option H.

I also have no issues if they put in more feeder schools from more lower income areas. Because like I've been saying it might help one or two students who benefits from the exposure to the peer groups and access to the resources. Which is one of the only benefits I see of the six regional model. But also like I said, it's not really doing anything to help the struggling students and just mix in their numbers with the overall numbers and end hiding them.

As long as the school doesn't do anything crazy like trying to reduce the rigors or offerings, saying something like, "well the majority of the school isn't on level, so we'll slow things down and take away some offerings" Which we did see at our elementary school when the new principal came in. But given the majority of the area that the school would be pulling from, would hope that it wouldn't be an issue.

I'm only speaking for myself though and not for other Wootton families though.

Thank you - nice to see that at least one other Wootton family is posting here on the side of Option H being a good thing. I think there are plenty of us out there but likely just not on this board.

To be clear the post above is not me and an entirely diffferent Wootton parent - signed Cold Spring/Cabin John/Wootton parent

Apparently this is the council member that held the neighborhood meeting in Rockshire:

https://www.rockvillemd.gov/government/mayor-and-council/adam-van-grack/

He's a resident of the community as well and sounds like he's onboard with option H. Although I think the news that Crown would also take 1000 students from the Gaithersburg area came from him too.

If I was a resident near the school, I'd be unhappy with Option H as well.

So am not sure if he truly supports option and if so, maybe he doesn't realize what it may mean for his neighbhorhood. Or if he purposely tried to upset the community by feeding them this information that looks like it might be possible but hasn't been substantiated yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People affected by this who currently are zoned for Wootton will lose a considerable amount of their property value I would assume? So they will just sell, move to much cheaper areas and then send to private (which they will now be able to afford since they are no longer paying for a house in the Wootton district). That’s how I see this playing out if H goes forward.

Selling at a loss, people are going to go bankrupt.

So much hysteria. Why would the value of your house go precipitously down when your high school changes from a crumbling building 1 mile from your house to a new building 3 miles from your house, with all of the same students?

Have you not been reading? Its not going to be all the same students. It will pull from Gaithersburg HS feeding schools with option H. It shows one in the initial option but plans include pulling around 1000 student from Gaithersburg HS zones.

Can you post a link to the plan that proposes adding 1000 Gaithersburg students + all of Wootton to Crown?

There is no link for adding the 1000 students yet but that was discussed by one of the school board members at a local HOS meeting last night. That being said just look up option H and you will see Rosemont Elementary is listed as being part of the plan. That’s a Gaithersburg HS feeder elementary. Then the plan is to increase from there. But it doesn’t matter, even the one school being in the plan will cause the problems.

So Wootton is so high and mighty that a poor school cannot join them? GTFO.

I really hope Fields Rd, Rosemont and maybe part of Brown Station also goes to Crown along with Wootton. They deserve a good learning environment too.

How is that a good learning environment when the school is overcrowded from the beginning and will only get worse?

What are you talking about? What school is overcrowded? Crown? They haven't even decided the boundaries yet? How is it overcrowded??? More hysteria....smh

You want to send rosemont fields road and brown station to crown while Wootton moves there. How is that not overcrowded? I guess you have no logic

I have no logic? You are spewing rumors about what elementary schools are going... the truth is that we do not know that yet.

You’re the one suggesting sending fields road and brown station, not me

more than one person posting here buddy - i have not mentioned what schools are going where - I have no idea what elementary schools will be included in Crown - all I care is that if Wootton gets to go I do not care who else comes with us. As long as it is an apprpriate capacity, not under and not over I am happy as a parent and taxpayer.

I'm the poster who said Brown Station should also go there along with Fields road.

There are many of us here who think some Wootton parents are creating hysteria just because some lower performing ES may join them.

[Anonymous]

The real winners here are FLO analytics.
Mcps loves to spend taxpayer money. That’s why so many people in central office don’t live in moco.

[Anonymous]

We are in a 700k townhouse in Crown. While Rosemont has been fine, I welcome the change. I have found that being in a title 1 school, you don't get the same resources. The PTA is not quite running so there are way less events. The school caters to those with behaviors versus those who are well behaved. There are less birthday parties. However, my child has done well academically and has had great teachers, made friends and there have been high flyers in every class. Sending all of those kids to Crown wouldn't change the experience for the Wootton families because they already have all the resources in place to set their kids and the school up on a good path. And from what I see, Option H is only calling for part of Rosemont, which is the "wealthy side".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in a 700k townhouse in Crown. While Rosemont has been fine, I welcome the change. I have found that being in a title 1 school, you don't get the same resources. The PTA is not quite running so there are way less events. The school caters to those with behaviors versus those who are well behaved. There are less birthday parties. However, my child has done well academically and has had great teachers, made friends and there have been high flyers in every class. Sending all of those kids to Crown wouldn't change the experience for the Wootton families because they already have all the resources in place to set their kids and the school up on a good path. And from what I see, Option H is only calling for part of Rosemont, which is the "wealthy side".

We used to know people who rave about their Title I and Focus schools. I think part of it is just that they don't know what they're missing though.

So you could potentially have it good going from a Title I school, with the extra funding and smaller K-2 class sizes, and go to a school like Wootton for high school.

But just a warning though, Wootton has been going through some changes. Where it sounds like they had a lot of staff turnover around the same time they got a new principal. So everyone from the counseling department left. And some classes like a Calculus class, started off the year with no teacher.

Hopefully they're just ironing out the kinks with the change in administration. But it's not all smooth sailing at the school too:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1294242.page

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1276267.page

[Anonymous]

if this does go through when is this to happen? Crown opens in 2027 still?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if this does go through when is this to happen? Crown opens in 2027 still?

Yeah it sounds like according to the agreement to get the free land, MCPS has to open the school at the Crown location in Fall 2027 (the 2027-2028 school year).

So the question is what will be at the school when it opens then. ie will it be a local school for Gaithersburg residents, a holding school, the new building for Wootton, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if this does go through when is this to happen? Crown opens in 2027 still?

Yeah it sounds like according to the agreement to get the free land, MCPS has to open the school at the Crown location in Fall 2027 (the 2027-2028 school year).

So the question is what will be at the school when it opens then. ie will it be a local school for Gaithersburg residents, a holding school, the new building for Wootton, etc.

No the agreement is that MCPS must start construction by 2026. Nothing about must open school in 2027.

[Anonymous]

Option H is awesome! It really shows the forward thinking! I think it will be the fastest school-to-jail pipeline EVER!!! Just imagine the Gaithersburg HS gang-bangers tearing up the brand spanking new Crown HS, surrounding Downtown Crown, and Rio shops and stores, while beating up Wootton nerds - all at lunchtime! I can't wait for the headlines... lol.

The MCPS CO and MC Council really are a bunch of clowns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Option H is awesome! It really shows the forward thinking! I think it will be the fastest school-to-jail pipeline EVER!!! Just imagine the Gaithersburg HS gang-bangers tearing up the brand spanking new Crown HS, surrounding Downtown Crown, and Rio shops and stores, while beating up Wootton nerds - all at lunchtime! I can't wait for the headlines... lol.

The MCPS CO and MC Council really are a bunch of clowns.

Lol, I know you're trolling but this is too far fetched - gangbangers beating up nerds..

I do agree on Rio losing it's shine with high schoolers at lunch time and after school - any and all high schoolers. You may also find more kids doing drugs there. That's what the shopping center near our high school faces every day. Kids in stairwells in medical buildings which are walkable from the school. They had to put a security guard in one entrance to chase these kids out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in a 700k townhouse in Crown. While Rosemont has been fine, I welcome the change. I have found that being in a title 1 school, you don't get the same resources. The PTA is not quite running so there are way less events. The school caters to those with behaviors versus those who are well behaved. There are less birthday parties. However, my child has done well academically and has had great teachers, made friends and there have been high flyers in every class. Sending all of those kids to Crown wouldn't change the experience for the Wootton families because they already have all the resources in place to set their kids and the school up on a good path. And from what I see, Option H is only calling for part of Rosemont, which is the "wealthy side".

We used to know people who rave about their Title I and Focus schools. I think part of it is just that they don't know what they're missing though.

So you could potentially have it good going from a Title I school, with the extra funding and smaller K-2 class sizes, and go to a school like Wootton for high school.

But just a warning though, Wootton has been going through some changes. Where it sounds like they had a lot of staff turnover around the same time they got a new principal. So everyone from the counseling department left. And some classes like a Calculus class, started off the year with no teacher.

Hopefully they're just ironing out the kinks with the change in administration. But it's not all smooth sailing at the school too:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1294242.page

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1276267.page

I have two kids at two different HS's and we have math teachers for Calc. What's goign on at Wootton if there are not enough teachers.

[Anonymous]

I really can’t believe so many Wootton parents are fine with this happening. Do you not see how absolutely crazy this is????? Once and if this gets approved MCPS can add/change the plan however they want to and there will be literally no recourse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t believe so many Wootton parents are fine with this happening. Do you not see how absolutely crazy this is????? Once and if this gets approved MCPS can add/change the plan however they want to and there will be literally no recourse.

That's their rights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t believe so many Wootton parents are fine with this happening. Do you not see how absolutely crazy this is????? Once and if this gets approved MCPS can add/change the plan however they want to and there will be literally no recourse.

I don't think they are.

Some posters on this form were surprised that the petition ( https://www.change.org/p/save-wootton-and-crown-high-school-say-no-to-option-h-and-modified-h ) got more than a 1000 signers. It looks like it's close to 2000 now.

It's always been the case but the posts/opinions of some on this board is not a reflection of the actual population out there.