BCC/WJ Joint New ES Study

[Anonymous]

The hearing on the amendment to the CIP recommending focusing on the White Flint and WMAL sites is scheduled for March 5.

I actually think it's a good plan because MCPS has tended to not finalize the acquisitions on dedicated parcels to save $, and thus we end up with bad options like Lynbrook and Ayrlawn as potential sites, rather than expanding the school.

[Anonymous]

*pool

[Anonymous]

I just read a posting on our neighborhood listserve in which a neighbor is strongly urging us that the decision by MCPS to keep Grosvenor as a holding school is wrong-headed and it is the perfect site for the new school. The cluster and Ashburton has been advocating it for years, etc.

But I watched the actual BOE meeting with explanation from facilities head Seth Adams, and he basically said that they want to experiment with taller, more urban design options on one of the new construction sites at WMAL or White Flint to plan for the future of the district. Also, I agree that MCPS should not continually miss options to purchase new land for schools when development is continuing. WMAL is in the Ashburton zone, and the White Flint sites are one mile away.

This does not seem like an MCPS is crazy moment, Am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at these maps, I realize that the problem is really that somehow, at some point in the past, a big part of Kennsington became deluded to think that they were "North Chevy Chase" or "Chevy Chase View" and probably with some political will forced themselves into the BCC cluster. If those kids just got moved to the WJ cluster like they should be, then East Bethesda can get moved back to Rosemary Hills/North Chevy Chase ES and Bethesda ES is no longer crowded.

North Chevy Chase is an incorporated municipality. So is Chevy Chase View. Why the scare quotes?

Stop with the Chevy Chase purity test. NCC east of Connecticut and Chevy Chase View are actually too far away to be sent to WJ -- BCC is much closer. Plus, when the Purple Line Trail reopens, these kids will once again be able to bike or walk to BCC like many used to. They can't do that to WJ.

As a long time (50+) year resident of CHCH, I am so tired of people who insist that there are outsiders who don't belong to ChCh -- whether they're people who insist that those in Kensington outside the beltway don't belong at BCC or that those east of Rock Creek Park from RCF or RHPS don't belong at BCC. Truth is that kids used to attend BCC even from - shocker - Kensington Parkwood Elementary, not only North Chevy Chase. So both east and west sides of Kensington used to attend BCC (and not WJ).

I have even heard ridiculous people in the Town of Chevy Chase decry why they are busing those outsider kids from Rollingwood and Somerset and Whitman cluster to CCES.

Besides, like 10 years ago, the East Bethesda people advocated to get removed from the RHPS pairing. It seems unlikely that they would suddenly want to move back, especially when it means putting their K-2 kids on school buses. Also, E Bethesda considers themselves part of Bethesda and not Chevy Chase or North Chevy Chase. Their kids cannot get to school without walking along Jones Bridge road and crossing Connecticut Avenue neither of which are very safe for ES kids. They can't cut through the neighborhood south of Jones Bridge due to the country club grounds and the Howard Hughes Medical institute, so I feel pretty safe in saying that they are not going to re-pair up with NCC.

For someone who wants to police who truly belongs in the BCC area, you seem to actually know very little about it or its history.

[Anonymous]

WJ parent, and given how vocal our community here is, I'm surprised to see nothing on our school list serve. I saw the Board of Education meeting, and I don't understand why the need to build an urban School when Grosvenor is available. And, it's what the community in the overcrowded area wants and has advocated for. Isn't that why there is community outreach? To see what the community wants? Sure in the future an urban school may be necessary, but not yet and not now. I don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WJ parent, and given how vocal our community here is, I'm surprised to see nothing on our school list serve. I saw the Board of Education meeting, and I don't understand why the need to build an urban School when Grosvenor is available. And, it's what the community in the overcrowded area wants and has advocated for. Isn't that why there is community outreach? To see what the community wants? Sure in the future an urban school may be necessary, but not yet and not now. I don't get it.

I think because MCPS doesn't consider Grosvenor to be "available." They don't want to be without that holding school site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WJ parent, and given how vocal our community here is, I'm surprised to see nothing on our school list serve. I saw the Board of Education meeting, and I don't understand why the need to build an urban School when Grosvenor is available. And, it's what the community in the overcrowded area wants and has advocated for. Isn't that why there is community outreach? To see what the community wants? Sure in the future an urban school may be necessary, but not yet and not now. I don't get it.

I think because MCPS doesn't consider Grosvenor to be "available." They don't want to be without that holding school site.

The children who will be attending this school probably haven't been born yet, whether they choose Grosvernor or not. Choosing Grosvenor isn't going to speed things up because MCPS says that the numbers aren't there yet to support a new school. People who are most vocal now may not be relevant by the time this school opens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at these maps, I realize that the problem is really that somehow, at some point in the past, a big part of Kennsington became deluded to think that they were "North Chevy Chase" or "Chevy Chase View" and probably with some political will forced themselves into the BCC cluster. If those kids just got moved to the WJ cluster like they should be, then East Bethesda can get moved back to Rosemary Hills/North Chevy Chase ES and Bethesda ES is no longer crowded.

North Chevy Chase is an incorporated municipality. So is Chevy Chase View. Why the scare quotes?

Stop with the Chevy Chase purity test. NCC east of Connecticut and Chevy Chase View are actually too far away to be sent to WJ -- BCC is much closer. Plus, when the Purple Line Trail reopens, these kids will once again be able to bike or walk to BCC like many used to. They can't do that to WJ.

As a long time (50+) year resident of CHCH, I am so tired of people who insist that there are outsiders who don't belong to ChCh -- whether they're people who insist that those in Kensington outside the beltway don't belong at BCC or that those east of Rock Creek Park from RCF or RHPS don't belong at BCC. Truth is that kids used to attend BCC even from - shocker - Kensington Parkwood Elementary, not only North Chevy Chase. So both east and west sides of Kensington used to attend BCC (and not WJ).

I have even heard ridiculous people in the Town of Chevy Chase decry why they are busing those outsider kids from Rollingwood and Somerset and Whitman cluster to CCES.

Besides, like 10 years ago, the East Bethesda people advocated to get removed from the RHPS pairing. It seems unlikely that they would suddenly want to move back, especially when it means putting their K-2 kids on school buses. Also, E Bethesda considers themselves part of Bethesda and not Chevy Chase or North Chevy Chase. Their kids cannot get to school without walking along Jones Bridge road and crossing Connecticut Avenue neither of which are very safe for ES kids. They can't cut through the neighborhood south of Jones Bridge due to the country club grounds and the Howard Hughes Medical institute, so I feel pretty safe in saying that they are not going to re-pair up with NCC.

For someone who wants to police who truly belongs in the BCC area, you seem to actually know very little about it or its history.

Everything you say is true, but there is even more. Silver Creek MS was built because Westland was over capacity as the only MS feeding BCC. This caused a potential building moratorium in Bethesda. You can imagine how much money was at stake with such a moratorium. SCMS alleviated that. If the neighborhood where SCMS is located were moved out of BCC, Bethesda would find itself back in moratorium. It will never happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Everything you say is true, but there is even more. Silver Creek MS was built because Westland was over capacity as the only MS feeding BCC. This caused a potential building moratorium in Bethesda. You can imagine how much money was at stake with such a moratorium. SCMS alleviated that. If the neighborhood where SCMS is located were moved out of BCC, Bethesda would find itself back in moratorium. It will never happen.

Maybe if they did split articulation it could happen, with SCMS feeding to both BCC and WJ (or Woodward).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Everything you say is true, but there is even more. Silver Creek MS was built because Westland was over capacity as the only MS feeding BCC. This caused a potential building moratorium in Bethesda. You can imagine how much money was at stake with such a moratorium. SCMS alleviated that. If the neighborhood where SCMS is located were moved out of BCC, Bethesda would find itself back in moratorium. It will never happen.

Maybe if they did split articulation it could happen, with SCMS feeding to both BCC and WJ (or Woodward).

A split articulation would not work - CCES, NCCES and RCF feed to SCMS. NCC encompasses kids who live N of the Beltway on the east side of Kensington (primarily relatively wealthy and white) as well as kids who live S of the Beltway as far south as East-West hey (also primarily wealthy and white) and kids from the part of the neighborhood around RHPS that are paired w/NCC (lower SES and higher minority pop).

If you were to split articulate all of NCC to SCMS and then to WJ - kids who currently live less than 3 miles/15 mins away from BCC (many of whom can walk or bike to BCC) would literally be bused across the entire BCC cluster to WJ for a 5-6 mile/half hour commute.

If you were to split articulate only that portion of NCC north of the Beltway to WJ (which is only a portion of the NCCES area), you would be articulating relatively few students most of whom would be wealthy and white, thus concentrating the poor and minority students left at SCMS (who then articulate to BCC).

If your goal was to get rid of the poor and minority students from the BCC cluster through split articulation to WJ, that will not work because most of these students live in the far east of the BCC cluster around RHPS and RCF - far to far away from WJ practically speaking to send them to WJ. It would also be unpalatable because the burden of busing would once again fall on minority students, which was an issue when the pairing was set up, and in the creation of which schools were re-districted to SCMS instead of Westland. Not to mention that many of us older ChCh residents do not want re-segregation.

[Anonymous]

what happened to this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what happened to this?

Not much. The latest info in the Capital Improvements Plan:

"The adopted FY 2023–2028 CIP included planning funds in the out-years for this new elementary school with a TBD completion date. An FY 2025 appropriation was requested, however, due to fiscal constraints, the County Council shifted planning expenditures to the out-years of the adopted FY 2025-2030 CIP. Once planning is complete, construction funds, along with a completion date, will be considered in a future CIP."

We'll have to see what it says when the next one comes out later this year.