BOE Memer is proposing to study school boundary in MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Which W isn’t crowded?

Wootton, if you count Wootton, and maybe Churchill. There’s a lot of talk about Wootton, which shares a boundary with Gaithersburg, being chronically not overcrowded. But that is the outlier in the County. I don’t think there’s any other cluster in the same situation. And when the BOE proposed re districting between Gaithersburg and Wootton, the Gaithersburg families didn’t want it. But that doesn’t fit some people’s narrative.

Magruder cluster is very underutilized. Mostly smaller single family homes built in the 60s and 70s with a lot of retirees.

I could see a consortium of Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Magruder, and possibly Damascus with all of the schools offering different specialties. Expand Gaithersburg's PLTW more like Wheaton, Watkins Mill has IB, Magruder could have business or something similar or put another high school magnet there because this quadrant of the county can't get to Poolesville easily. There's plenty of middle area that would have similar bus rides to all three/four schools where letting people choose could even out utilization.

People are talking like changing fixed boundaries is the only solution. The purpose of hiring a consultant is not only to look at MCPS, but to look at practices of other districts and suggest other methods of populating schools. One possibility would be to give up the "cluster" model and just "zone" every neighborhood to its nearest 2 or 3 schools at each level (ES, MS, HS). When a kid enters a new level they participate in a choice lottery, which allocates on choice AND space available. That method would allow school utilization to remain balanced across the county over time, even as neighborhood demographics change.

Are you sure? There has been a crap ton of condos and townhouses put in recently along Norbeck Road, that most likely feed into Magruder. We're talking hundreds of units, plus more being built. Give it about 5 years, and it'll be overcrowded, just like all the other MCPS HSs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
? What is the topic of this thread... it's about school overcrowding, so yes, over development makes schools even more crowded. You really need a study to show this?

The topic of this thread is a proposed study of the possibility of doing a district-wide boundary study.

Also, nobody is in favor of [b]overdevelopment. [/b]But your "overdevelopment" might be my just plain "development", or even "underdevelopment".

Not true.

Developers want to develop as much as they can, as quickly as they can. That's been the case in MoCo for the last decade. Without any regard to school overcrowding.

Overdevelopment occurs when the schools/libraries/parks/facilities can't keep up with the number of people moving into the thousands of new units being built every year. If the schools weren't as overcrowded, then it would not be an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Which W isn’t crowded?

Wootton, if you count Wootton, and maybe Churchill. There’s a lot of talk about Wootton, which shares a boundary with Gaithersburg, being chronically not overcrowded. But that is the outlier in the County. I don’t think there’s any other cluster in the same situation. And when the BOE proposed re districting between Gaithersburg and Wootton, the Gaithersburg families didn’t want it. But that doesn’t fit some people’s narrative.

Magruder cluster is very underutilized. Mostly smaller single family homes built in the 60s and 70s with a lot of retirees.

I could see a consortium of Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Magruder, and possibly Damascus with all of the schools offering different specialties. Expand Gaithersburg's PLTW more like Wheaton, Watkins Mill has IB, Magruder could have business or something similar or put another high school magnet there because this quadrant of the county can't get to Poolesville easily. There's plenty of middle area that would have similar bus rides to all three/four schools where letting people choose could even out utilization.

People are talking like changing fixed boundaries is the only solution. The purpose of hiring a consultant is not only to look at MCPS, but to look at practices of other districts and suggest other methods of populating schools. One possibility would be to give up the "cluster" model and just "zone" every neighborhood to its nearest 2 or 3 schools at each level (ES, MS, HS). When a kid enters a new level they participate in a choice lottery, which allocates on choice AND space available. That method would allow school utilization to remain balanced across the county over time, even as neighborhood demographics change.

I mean, yeah, you could do this but there is a real loss of “community” in such a model. I grew up near a boundary, and I did not know any of the neighborhood kids who didn’t go to my schools. I like that we know a much larger percentage of the kids that live within walking distance because we see each other at school, school events, bus stop, PTA stuff. I think community suffers when kids in the neighborhood are going to lots of different schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
? What is the topic of this thread... it's about school overcrowding, so yes, over development makes schools even more crowded. You really need a study to show this?

The topic of this thread is a proposed study of the possibility of doing a district-wide boundary study.

Also, nobody is in favor of [b]overdevelopment. [/b]But your "overdevelopment" might be my just plain "development", or even "underdevelopment".

Not true.

Developers want to develop as much as they can, as quickly as they can. That's been the case in MoCo for the last decade. Without any regard to school overcrowding.

Overdevelopment occurs when the schools/libraries/parks/facilities can't keep up with the number of people moving into the thousands of new units being built every year. If the schools weren't as overcrowded, then it would not be an issue.

MoCo doesn’t even keep up with the parks and community centers for older established neighborhoods, never mind for the new builds. Bethesda is just a paved over high rise mess with more high rises being built every day with features like ‘parking lots’ and ‘still more shopping’.


Virginia gets amazon and job growth, educational growth , and good public transportation. MoCo gets more housing and shopping, no tech jobs or tech community but lots of new laborers, high taxes, traffic and special interest groups all with their hands out - but no economy except higher and higher taxes.

[Anonymous]

Can MCPS not put a go$da$mned school on the SCHOOL PROPERTY on Brickyard road? That would alleviate a lot of crowding and busing kids everywhere. Do Lotomac kids HAVE to go to Pyle and Whitman in Bethesda? Can’t you name a new Potomac school Lil Whitman or Whitman II and just get on with life?
Talk about people being ready to spontaneously combust..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Which W isn’t crowded?

Wootton, if you count Wootton, and maybe Churchill. There’s a lot of talk about Wootton, which shares a boundary with Gaithersburg, being chronically not overcrowded. But that is the outlier in the County. I don’t think there’s any other cluster in the same situation. And when the BOE proposed re districting between Gaithersburg and Wootton, the Gaithersburg families didn’t want it. But that doesn’t fit some people’s narrative.

Magruder cluster is very underutilized. Mostly smaller single family homes built in the 60s and 70s with a lot of retirees.

I could see a consortium of Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Magruder, and possibly Damascus with all of the schools offering different specialties. Expand Gaithersburg's PLTW more like Wheaton, Watkins Mill has IB, Magruder could have business or something similar or put another high school magnet there because this quadrant of the county can't get to Poolesville easily. There's plenty of middle area that would have similar bus rides to all three/four schools where letting people choose could even out utilization.

People are talking like changing fixed boundaries is the only solution. The purpose of hiring a consultant is not only to look at MCPS, but to look at practices of other districts and suggest other methods of populating schools. One possibility would be to give up the "cluster" model and just "zone" every neighborhood to its nearest 2 or 3 schools at each level (ES, MS, HS). When a kid enters a new level they participate in a choice lottery, which allocates on choice AND space available. That method would allow school utilization to remain balanced across the county over time, even as neighborhood demographics change.

Are you sure? There has been a crap ton of condos and townhouses put in recently along Norbeck Road, that most likely feed into Magruder. We're talking hundreds of units, plus more being built. Give it about 5 years, and it'll be overcrowded, just like all the other MCPS HSs.

Norbeck Road is not in the Magruder zone. http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/MagruderHS.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can MCPS not put a go$da$mned school on the SCHOOL PROPERTY on Brickyard road? That would alleviate a lot of crowding and busing kids everywhere. Do Lotomac kids HAVE to go to Pyle and Whitman in Bethesda? Can’t you name a new Potomac school Lil Whitman or Whitman II and just get on with life?
Talk about people being ready to spontaneously combust..

Because the schools near the Brickyard site are not the schools that are overcrowded....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
? What is the topic of this thread... it's about school overcrowding, so yes, over development makes schools even more crowded. You really need a study to show this?

The topic of this thread is a proposed study of the possibility of doing a district-wide boundary study.

Also, nobody is in favor of [b]overdevelopment. [/b]But your "overdevelopment" might be my just plain "development", or even "underdevelopment".

Not true.

Developers want to develop as much as they can, as quickly as they can. That's been the case in MoCo for the last decade. Without any regard to school overcrowding.

Overdevelopment occurs when the schools/libraries/parks/facilities can't keep up with the number of people moving into the thousands of new units being built every year. If the schools weren't as overcrowded, then it would not be an issue.

Developers are also against overdevelopment, because then they can't sell what they build.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can MCPS not put a go$da$mned school on the SCHOOL PROPERTY on Brickyard road? That would alleviate a lot of crowding and busing kids everywhere. Do Lotomac kids HAVE to go to Pyle and Whitman in Bethesda? Can’t you name a new Potomac school Lil Whitman or Whitman II and just get on with life?
Talk about people being ready to spontaneously combust..

Because the schools near the Brickyard site are not the schools that are overcrowded....

That's what rezoning is for. Build a high school at Brickyard and call it West Potomac (so that it starts with a W). Rezone western Churchill to West Potomac. Rezone western Whitman to Churchill. Rezone southern Walter Johnson to Whitman. Everyone stays at a W school, everyone's happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

MoCo doesn’t even keep up with the parks and community centers for older established neighborhoods, never mind for the new builds. Bethesda is just a paved over high rise mess with more high rises being built every day with features like ‘parking lots’ and ‘still more shopping’.


Virginia gets amazon and job growth, educational growth , and good public transportation. MoCo gets more housing and shopping, no tech jobs or tech community but lots of new laborers, high taxes, traffic and special interest groups all with their hands out - but no economy except higher and higher taxes.

It's so crowded, nobody goes there anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it hypocritical when Consortium residents get so excited about the prospects of rezoneing the W’s to the DCC. As if they are like; yah that will show them how miserable we are and help offload the oppressive amount of problem kids our communities are burdened with!!

But they they turn around and say how great their schools are and poor kids aren’t a problem. Which way is it?

I don't find it hypocritical. DCC schools are overcrowded and some of the W schools are not. The school can still be "good" and overcrowded, but it would be better for the students if the school was less overcrowded.

I live in the RM cluster.

Which W isn’t crowded?

Most of Wootton cluster is under utilized.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP20_Chap4_Wootton.pdf

[Anonymous]

BCC is also under capacity. It may not have a W in it, but it's still considered part of the W schools as it is wealthier and whiter than most clusters.

Churchill HS is over crowded, but the rest of the schools within the cluster are not.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP20_Chap4_BCC.pdf

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP20_Chap4_Churchill.pdf

Churchill and Wootton are surrounded by clusters that are over capacity by a lot - RM, QO, WJ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it hypocritical when Consortium residents get so excited about the prospects of rezoneing the W’s to the DCC. As if they are like; yah that will show them how miserable we are and help offload the oppressive amount of problem kids our communities are burdened with!!

But they they turn around and say how great their schools are and poor kids aren’t a problem. Which way is it?

I don't find it hypocritical. DCC schools are overcrowded and some of the W schools are not. The school can still be "good" and overcrowded, but it would be better for the students if the school was less overcrowded.

I live in the RM cluster.

If there is capacity in the Wootton cluster because most people don't want to live that far out any longer, of course they should send more kids there from other areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly -- I think they need to at least consider this option. Some schools are massively overcrowded while other are under-utilized. Why build new schools when they could potentially solve the problem with redistricting. Isn't that a more cost effective solution?

Where is MCPS building a new school where they could solve the problem with boundary changes? Could you provide one specific example, please?

The recent expansion to Westbrook could be used to reduce Wood Acres overcrowding. Note that this would move kids from the Pyle/Whitman feeder track to the Westland/BCC feeder track, which would make many Wood Acres parents spontaneously combust.

And of course you feel they would spontaneously combust because they would be upset about a school with more brown people? That's the only reason people act, right?

I'd be opposed to that because we are a 10 minute walk to Whitman, whereas it would be at least a 20 minute bus ride to get to BCC. Would you like that switch or think it makes sense?

Yes, I think the "one district" point of view undervalues the community-building aspect of schools. People want to walk, but it is more than that, they want to feel a part of a local community. I wonder what would happen if the first step in considering boundaries was to draw a two mile radius around a school that would result in automatic assignment, unless the address fell into 2 circles, or no circles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
? What is the topic of this thread... it's about school overcrowding, so yes, over development makes schools even more crowded. You really need a study to show this?

The topic of this thread is a proposed study of the possibility of doing a district-wide boundary study.

Also, nobody is in favor of [b]overdevelopment. [/b]But your "overdevelopment" might be my just plain "development", or even "underdevelopment".

Not true.

Developers want to develop as much as they can, as quickly as they can. That's been the case in MoCo for the last decade. Without any regard to school overcrowding.

Overdevelopment occurs when the schools/libraries/parks/facilities can't keep up with the number of people moving into the thousands of new units being built every year. If the schools weren't as overcrowded, then it would not be an issue.

Developers are also against overdevelopment, because then they can't sell what they build.

You would think that’s how it works, but not quite. Developers are fine keeping the units empty for a while because they leave them as a write off.

That’s what is happening at Rockville Town Center. Market forces would indicate that rents would be lower there. Instead, the retail landlords choose to keep the rent high, chase out tenants (like Mellow Mushroom and Dawson’s) and now the taxpayers are paying the grant to pay for Dawson’s to come back.