Is anyone following the Bethesda/Somerset/Westbrook boundary study?
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Anonymous
| Seems like poor timing to do this during COVID... |
Anonymous
Why? Please explain. |
Anonymous
Kids have already been disrupted and will continue to be so next year. Then they’ll get shifted around to new schools. The long term impact of COVID on enrollment are unknown at this point. Also the proposals pretty much all take Westbrook and essentially double its population. That’s a dramatic shift in school identity. |
Anonymous
Westbrook is under populated. Somerset and Bethesda Elementary are at capacity or over capacity. The proximity of the homes of the students of all three schools and those places that are labeled as possibly shifting are all close by. Rezoning to balance populations of students that are essentially in similar socio-economic classes is not a "shift in school identity." |
Anonymous
| Westbrook is going to have 260 empty seats--of course they need to fill those seats with the kids who'd be in portables otherwise. |
Anonymous
Wouldn't it be the perfect time? Kids have not been in school for a year. The changes wouldn't happen for a little while. There is never a "best time" to shift things around. Push forward, balance the three schools in question and move on... |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| Because there is not a lot of high density areas that they can annex without basically sending half the town of Somerset to Westbrook is to just carve out the Woodmont Triangle for Westbrook. |
Anonymous
|
It's YEARS overdue, OP. Some students have been suffering their entire school life in overcrowded classrooms, so it's actually great that they're forging ahead and trying to solve this while they're out of the buildings. I know some people are distracted right now, but even during normal times, they're distracted. |
Anonymous
So you think it's better for the kids just to continue in overcrowded schools next to a very undercrowded school? To avoid a shift in "school identity"? |
Anonymous
|
Everyone can see a in interactive map of the options here.
https://mcpsgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0790388e04ca4c56b3c4d9dd51ca1b61 |
Anonymous
Let me guess: you’re a Westbrook parent. |
Anonymous
More students = more funding! The Principal there must be thrilled to get more students. |
Anonymous
Absolutely. But also, this is necessary because COVID hit the county council dropped Bethesda ES expansion from the capital improvement plan. As a result, they are legally required to do the boundary study because they can otherwise can no longer maintain the placeholder which waives the building moratorium. |
Anonymous
| Upcounty parent here. What are you talking about? B-CC may or may not be a W school, but what it isn't, is an upcounty school. |