Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?

[Anonymous]

You, I suspect are neither. Most posts here pretending to be VM or WW are actually from the same poster who is trying to cash in on projected property value increase for homes in the new WJ zone.

This makes NO sense. VM is fine with Woodward. We will not let the racist and classist parents drive us away.

This is the fake VM / WW / GP poster I was referring to. Active again. It is usually in bursts. It is entertaining to observe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You, I suspect are neither. Most posts here pretending to be VM or WW are actually from the same poster who is trying to cash in on projected property value increase for homes in the new WJ zone.

This makes NO sense. VM is fine with Woodward. We will not let the racist and classist parents drive us away.

This is the fake VM / WW / GP poster I was referring to. Active again. It is usually in bursts. It is entertaining to observe.


This is the same guy who thinks a dozen people are sock puppeting. yawn. just look at the survey data and you'll see most of the community does not agree with you. The superintendent posted it all on his page. line item by litem. even excel format. take a look

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re a VM family was clear in the original options that our neighborhood was a bargaining chip for MCPS, especially in the options that split the school in half along beach drive. We are happy that Taylor’s rev keeps VM together.

We support any elementary school that wants to avoid split articulation for HS. We don’t support well-off parents deciding and proposing which less well-off families get booted out of their school.

The irony of this whole argument is that I grew up a FARMS kid and now I’m teaching your children, but now my kids aren’t good enough to be in a school with yours?

This feels a lot like the podcast Nice White Parents.

I am not aware of any option that had VM with split articulation. That is a complete non-issue. Taylor's recommendation does introduce split articulations for other schools but I guess that is OK for you.

There were several options with split articulation for VM. One version had Holiday Park going to North Bethesda MS and Randolph Hills going somewhere else. Another split us between Tilden and somewhere else.

+1. Farmland will ask to go to WJ next.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You, I suspect are neither. Most posts here pretending to be VM or WW are actually from the same poster who is trying to cash in on projected property value increase for homes in the new WJ zone.

This makes NO sense. VM is fine with Woodward. We will not let the racist and classist parents drive us away.

This is the fake VM / WW / GP poster I was referring to. Active again. It is usually in bursts. It is entertaining to observe.


I am not fake! I am actively telling every VM family how classist Farmland/Lux people pushing their own proposal are. Did you realize that some of the boundary options had us coming to Tilden as well? We hear the rumors about all the infighting at Tilden between parent populations. It’s now clear which parents are the problem. Stop using VM as a bargaining chip. We will speak for ourselves. I hope they send YOU back to WJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re a VM family was clear in the original options that our neighborhood was a bargaining chip for MCPS, especially in the options that split the school in half along beach drive. We are happy that Taylor’s rev keeps VM together.

We support any elementary school that wants to avoid split articulation for HS. We don’t support well-off parents deciding and proposing which less well-off families get booted out of their school.

The irony of this whole argument is that I grew up a FARMS kid and now I’m teaching your children, but now my kids aren’t good enough to be in a school with yours?

This feels a lot like the podcast Nice White Parents.

I am not aware of any option that had VM with split articulation. That is a complete non-issue. Taylor's recommendation does introduce split articulations for other schools but I guess that is OK for you.

There were several options with split articulation for VM. One version had Holiday Park going to North Bethesda MS and Randolph Hills going somewhere else. Another split us between Tilden and somewhere else.

+1. Farmland will ask to go to WJ next.

Good riddance!

[Anonymous]

No thank you. They’ve shown their true colors.

[Anonymous]

Yea, Farmland's position on this invalid. BOE will see through it.

[Anonymous]

While I disagree with them, their opinion isn’t invalid. And they will make a lot of noise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm super confused by the whole debate as I haven't been tracking it very well.
One thing I saw on a listserve is that the proposal being pushed on the change petition would put WJ at over 90% capacity. That seems dumb when we've waited about 15 years for the new high school that was supposed to relieve the massive over-congestion -- it will just be oversubscribed again in a couple of years and then we'll wait another 20 for a fix to that?

My general feelings about HS are that --

they should be between 80-90% capacity;

the kids should not have to drive far to get there since the classes already start go-awful early and ideally there should be public bus lines to help them get there;

the specialized magnet idea is really dumb (my hometown went to a model where all the schools were specialty-focus charter-type schools and they are basically all just bad -- bad arts focus, bad tech focus, bad journalism focus, bad law/justice focus, etc. etc.) -- these gimmicks almost never add to the education plus most 13 year olds aren't in a position to be picking a focus area anyway.

It’s not dumb if TWENTY-FOUR extra busses of kids are choosing to go to RMIB. Or all the kids going to the Wheaton and Blair magnets.

That is if they set them up reasonably to replicate the experiences at those magnets.

Right now, the plan is to reduce the magnet populations even at those existing, which will undercut the support for the breadth and level of classes that have made them so desired. All you have to do is look at the difference between that available at Blair SMCS and at Poolesville SMCS. Each is a good program, but Blair's offers more, and it generally is more sought.

Sure, a half program across six schools will offer more than a program and two thirds across two, as in that SMCS case, but they will end up supporting less than even the smaller of the current two. MCPS is not wrong in noting that there are plenty more kids who would benefit from magnet education than there are current seats available, but they won't be delivering the magnet education most are after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a high proportion of students experiencing financial constraint (as might be represented by ever-FARMS) is more impactful to the learning environment in one respect than having a high proportion of students in rather well off situations in the other. Lower percentages of high need are more important than higher percentages of great wealth. It doesn't matter as much that WJ isn't as uniformly wealthy as Whitman or Churchill. It matters more that Woodward will have a substantially greater challenge to manage.

That is, unless the system differentially resources schools enough to effectively meet the needs on an equivalent basis (i.e., such that any individual student, with whichever levels of individual/family resource and academic ability, might expect a similar experience for themselves -- not the school population as a whole -- whether they might attend one school or another).

35% FARMS is very low. Woodward makes it seem like this is the worst in the county. 35% will be one of the wealthiest.

No doubt that 35% FARMS is low in the county nowadays. The statements still hold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a high proportion of students experiencing financial constraint (as might be represented by ever-FARMS) is more impactful to the learning environment in one respect than having a high proportion of students in rather well off situations in the other. Lower percentages of high need are more important than higher percentages of great wealth. It doesn't matter as much that WJ isn't as uniformly wealthy as Whitman or Churchill. It matters more that Woodward will have a substantially greater challenge to manage.

That is, unless the system differentially resources schools enough to effectively meet the needs on an equivalent basis (i.e., such that any individual student, with whichever levels of individual/family resource and academic ability, might expect a similar experience for themselves -- not the school population as a whole -- whether they might attend one school or another).

There Woodward folks don’t see the Wheaton and Kennedy families saying the same thing about them. Maybe Woodward should take on some more FARMS to improve Wheaton and Kennedy. That would be equitable.

Possibly. But shifting along the margins between next door catchments offers only marginal progress towards equity. And bussing to achieve parity not only is detrimental to community building, but is rather expensive in addition to being disfavored by most, rich or not, who would lose time, flexibility and elements of the school experience when bussed far from home.

Or, again, MCPS could really move funding around as suggested (considerably more than Taylor's proposed operating budget) to make it such that one didn't really care, from an academic perspective, where one lived, because the opportunities everywhere would be reasonably similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a high proportion of students experiencing financial constraint (as might be represented by ever-FARMS) is more impactful to the learning environment in one respect than having a high proportion of students in rather well off situations in the other. Lower percentages of high need are more important than higher percentages of great wealth. It doesn't matter as much that WJ isn't as uniformly wealthy as Whitman or Churchill. It matters more that Woodward will have a substantially greater challenge to manage.

That is, unless the system differentially resources schools enough to effectively meet the needs on an equivalent basis (i.e., such that any individual student, with whichever levels of individual/family resource and academic ability, might expect a similar experience for themselves -- not the school population as a whole -- whether they might attend one school or another).

There Woodward folks don’t see the Wheaton and Kennedy families saying the same thing about them. Maybe Woodward should take on some more FARMS to improve Wheaton and Kennedy. That would be equitable.

Possibly. But shifting along the margins between next door catchments offers only marginal progress towards equity. And bussing to achieve parity not only is detrimental to community building, but is rather expensive in addition to being disfavored by most, rich or not, who would lose time, flexibility and elements of the school experience when bussed far from home.

Or, again, MCPS could really move funding around as suggested (considerably more than Taylor's proposed operating budget) to make it such that one didn't really care, from an academic perspective, where one lived, because the opportunities everywhere would be reasonably similar.

There is a huge belief on DCUM that everyone wants to go to a W school and that's not true for many reasons. I'd choose Wheaton over Woodward for Stem.

[Anonymous]

Three years ago, Viers Mill had universal free lunch for one year. That is why they have greater than 95% for "now or in the past" FARMs. Literally every kid (including the PEP classes for 3yos, meaning some current K) who was there in the 2023-24 school year is counted in the percentage.

I've been a VM parent for 10 years. Nobody I've heard from here wants to go to WJ. For many reasons. VM families have been happy mostly with Wheaton/DCC, and most people seem reasonably okay with Woodward.

The VM community is super tight and protective. Maybe it feels like WJ is racist/classist/whatever, but mostly I think it's that those feeder schools operate in completely different worlds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yea, Farmland's position on this invalid. BOE will see through it.

Farmland and LCA being Farmland and LCA - wasn't it just a few years ago they were fighting against having the Rock Terrace school co-located with Tilden MS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Three years ago, Viers Mill had universal free lunch for one year. That is why they have greater than 95% for "now or in the past" FARMs. Literally every kid (including the PEP classes for 3yos, meaning some current K) who was there in the 2023-24 school year is counted in the percentage.

I've been a VM parent for 10 years. Nobody I've heard from here wants to go to WJ. For many reasons. VM families have been happy mostly with Wheaton/DCC, and most people seem reasonably okay with Woodward.

The VM community is super tight and protective. Maybe it feels like WJ is racist/classist/whatever, but mostly I think it's that those feeder schools operate in completely different worlds.

A question for you and other VM posters. I don't know anything about VM. When I want to learn about a school I go to SchoolDigger to see their ranking and performance on tests. 20 years ago VM was one of the top ES in the state. For the last 5-10 years, the school has been dropping on tests like a rock, hitting an all-time low last year and is currently ranked 595th in the state. What changed in recent years?