Woodward Boundary Study discussion at next BoE meeting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's been the BCC parents who have been up in arms...

The diversity of BCC vs Whitman and Walter Johnson speaks for itself. Many of us in this cluster were trying to find a school that had strong academics and community with a diverse population, and picked it over western Bethesda and Potomac for that reason. I for one will be very happy if that increases even more with the new boundary studies.

Sure Jan.

WJ is diverse. MCPS "at a glance" source

--western Bethesda person

WJ BCC
AS 13.8 5.4
BL 10.6 14.3
HI 17.1 17.2
WH 52 57.6
MU 6 5.3

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Not surprised to see Whitman and BCC here. It makes sense.

Not doing that will be illogical.

Sure, but then we’ll have Whitman parents screaming about “bussing,” as we did in the Before Times. They paid a premium to live away from the Poors, and don’t you forget it.

Just rearrange the boundaries which allows efficient use of resource and also create as much diversity as possible in all schools. Whitman boundary can't be change too much due to where it's located unless solution is long distance bussing. I don't think long distance bussing should be an option, but boundary of Whitman should be adjusted along other schools.

It will help Whitman if it gets a bit more socioeconomic diversity.

I don’t disagree with you at all. I just remember the vitriol around this issue from a particular Whitman parent on FB again, pre-covid. It was… not pretty. People get very, very nasty when they perceive any decrease in their property values.

A small portion of Whitman may go to either WJ or BCC. It's not going to make too much difference.

More likely that some get added to Whitman, since it’s under capacity.

Yes. They can rezone Westbrook from BCC to Whitman, and then Woodlin from Einstein to BCC. That makes more sense than sending them to Woodward.

I do not think Whitman will go to BCc, that would just make BCC whiter. The only exception would be if they reversed the current split articulation of Bethesda ES, which half goes to BCc and half to Whitman.

I also don’t think Woodlin will come to BCC. BCC had an addition and will be at capacity in 5 years. At the end of the last BCC addition MCPS said there is no room to expand BCC any further.

If any area is vulnerable based on geography, it is the south east and west parts of Kensington. West half goes to WJ and east half goes to BCC. It could make sense geographically to send those parts to Einstein - but the east half that goes to BCC is where they just built the new BCC MS - Silver Creek. So that seems unlikely.

BCC will not become part of the DCC based on geography. DCC is based on a choice model where students are guaranteed their base school if they rank it first. Just based on distance, most BCC families would rank BCC first - the closest other DCC schools that would act as choice magnets - Blair and Einstein are pretty far away from most of white BCC and closer to non-white parts of the BCC cluster. Best case scenario if BCC were in the DCC the best case scenario would be a drain of the diverse populations away from BCC - not desirable. Also the programs of interest - Blair SMACS - is already a magnet to which BCC kids can apply. Einstein has Ib, but so does BCC - so really why would students choose Einstein over BCC? The other DC. schools like Woodward and Kennedy are way too far away to act as choice magnets pulling kids away from BCC, no matter how great the program.

Bethesda ES is not split-articulated. It all goes to BCC.

+1 Had not been split-articulated for a decade? So much mis-info on here, per usual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which parts of Kennedy's boundary could be impacted by these new schools?

I think Kennedy is the least likely to be significantly impacted, since it just got a new addition, and it's projected to remain within a reasonable range of its capacity. Plus all of the additional seats that will open up at the new Northwood will be needed for Blair's overcrowding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOE should do boundary study of Crown and Woodward at the same time. Just do it in advance and make the best possible choice in one go.

Disagree. Crown is opening much later, and there are development plans which may change the makeup of the area.

Nope, Crown is opening one year after Woodward. Their process will start one year from now, and also take 2 years

[Anonymous]

Could the Damascus expansion mean sending all of Laytonsville ES to Damascus instead of some to Damascus and some to GHS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could the Damascus expansion mean sending all of Laytonsville ES to Damascus instead of some to Damascus and some to GHS?

I guess that's possible, especially if Crown doesn't sufficiently relieve GHS's overcrowding. But it seems like Damascus will end up with 700 available seats, and Clarksburg will need about 600 of them.

[Anonymous]

I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

It may seem that way to you, but the numbers do not agree with you.

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP24_Chapter4BCC.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

Have you looked at a map? There is no way any of downtown Bethesda will move to Whitman as it is adjacent to BCC.

Also Somerset will mot go to Whitman - that would leave Westbrook in BCC which is actually further away from BCC than Somerset. If any school feom the west side of BCC went to Whitman it would be Westbrook.

[Anonymous]

Meeting now:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/

Still talking budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOE should do boundary study of Crown and Woodward at the same time. Just do it in advance and make the best possible choice in one go.

Disagree. Crown is opening much later, and there are development plans which may change the makeup of the area.

What development plans are you referring to? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: DP.. we live 1 mile walking distance to one HS, but zoned for another that is 2.3 miles walking distance, so the kids have to take a bus. We will be part of the Crown HS rezoning. It will be interesting to see if they make all neighborhoods within the walk zone but currently bused back to walk zone even if makes the the schools less diverse.

Where do you live, DP? And what high schools are you speaking of?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McKnight wants it to include BCC! And Whitman!

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/publicinfo/community/school-year-2022-2023/Community-Message-20230222.html

Future School Boundary Analyses (Agenda Item 7.1)

Future openings of two new high schools will require boundary studies in multiple areas throughout the county. The new Charles W. Woodward High School is scheduled to reopen in 2026 and will impact current school boundaries. The clusters included in the superintendent’s recommendation for the boundary scope include Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Montgomery Blair, Albert Einstein, Walter Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Northwood, Wheaton and Walt Whitman high schools. Additional future boundary studies will address midcounty overutilization with the opening of Crown High School (2027) and upcounty with the expansion of Damascus High School (2026).

Let the Sturm und Drang ensue!

Remember two weeks ago when people saying that BCC, Blair and Whitman would be affected were being called lunatics?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I expect Whitman to either take parts of Somerset or some slice of downtown Bethesda with BCC being the biggest beneficiary and similar rolling impact to BCC on Einstein or DCC. BCC seems to be bursting at the seams at the elementary and high school levels. That or, the neighborhoods north of Greentree getting absorbed into Whitman.

They are trying to diversify Whitman not make it whiter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: DP.. we live 1 mile walking distance to one HS, but zoned for another that is 2.3 miles walking distance, so the kids have to take a bus. We will be part of the Crown HS rezoning. It will be interesting to see if they make all neighborhoods within the walk zone but currently bused back to walk zone even if makes the the schools less diverse.

Where do you live, DP? And what high schools are you speaking of?

Horizon Hill which will be part of the Crown HS boundary analysis.

Currently zoned for RM cluster; got zoned there back in the 80s when MCPS was trying to make it more diverse. A lot of the parents who fought it still live in the neighborhood and still talk about it.

It was previously a walk zone to Wootton, but MCPS didn't look at the walk zone factor back then.

I would think they want to get rid of as many buses as possible given how they are perpetually short staffed for bus drivers. But, I don't know how they would keep RM and Wootton diverse by moving that neighborhood.

This will be another interesting discussion.