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[quote=Anonymous][b]The Issue[/b]

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has announced that countywide Magnet programs, including the Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science (SMCS) program at Poolesville High School (PHS), will be "dismantled and adapted to serve only their region." The new model will promote six regional programs rather than countywide Magnet programs.

We, the alumni, parents, students, teachers, and community members of the SMCS program are deeply concerned about these proposed changes. We sign this petition to support the SMCS community, protect the fidelity of the program, and share our concerns and experiences with the Superintendent and Board of Education.

The proposed regional model has several inherent flaws that will be a disservice to students.

Firstly, the success of the Poolesville SMCS program, and of its counterpart at the Blair Magnet in Silver Spring, is the development of a "critical mass" of like minded individuals who are able to share unique interests and abilities,learn from one another and thrive where they may otherwise languish. This "critical mass" effect would be diluted and diminish the educational experience of students if they were divided among several regional programs. This flaw would be felt worst by students in regions that traditionally send fewer students to the SMCS program--if cut off, they would be less likely to thrive.

Secondly, the large area from which the SMCS program draws its students allows specialized course offerings that would be impossible in a regional model. Students in the program complete coursework in subjects such as Linear Algebra, Cybersecurity, Quantum Physics, and Artificial Intelligence, among other subjects, which are academically more rigorous and more advanced than AP classes and comparable first year college classes. Already, even in the program, it can be difficult to fill an advanced course with enough students who meet the demanding prerequisites. If the program is split into several regional schools, it all but guarantees that these advanced courses will never be consistently offered. In the SMCS program every year, there are only a handful of students who exhaust all possible mathematics courses in the time they are at Poolesville thanks to the course offerings. In a regional model, more students would be left without adequately challenging and appropriate coursework for their level of study.

Since the program was opened in 2006, SMCS has elevated itself from an experiment shared by a few teachers and students into one of the top secondary programs for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in the region and the nation. Students reliably win awards in national and international competitions, including the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS), and put forward innovative and revolutionary work into the greater STEM research community, such as at the International Systems Dynamics Conference. Even more important than awards and accolades is the impact that SMCS students have on their communities through their work. Students over several subsequent graduating classes have worked tirelessly to develop LunaSim, free software that allows programming and scientific simulation in an easy to use visual environment, and unlike its more expensive competitor products, requires nothing more than an MCPS-issued Chromebook to get started. Two students from the SMCS program addressed head-on major issues with school facilities countywide through their deployment of the Ripple app, significantly improving the experience of all students in the county. The Ripple app addressed facility shortfalls, from lack of menstrual products to closed bathrooms, by harnessing student-provided data to give actionable insights to MCPS.

We recognize the genuine issues surrounding equity that MCPS wishes to address. However, we also wish to acknowledge the positive impact that the SMCS program has had on students from a range of diverse backgrounds. One such student provided the following statement in response to the proposed changes:

"I would not be where I am today without the Science, Math, Computer Science (SMCS) magnet program at Poolesville High School. The program gave me the foundation to succeed at an Ivy League university and the tools to land my dream job in game development and computer graphics. Just as importantly, it connected me with like-minded peers from across Montgomery County, many of whom remain my closest friends and colleagues to this day. SMCS pushed me to be better, and it consistently elevates Poolesville to be one of the highest-ranked schools in Maryland. Replacing it with smaller regional programs would take away opportunities that have already proven life-changing for generations of students. Please protect SMCS for the future."

We implore MCPS to address the legitimate issue of equity without dismantling a tried and tested true solution. When the Poolesville SMCS program was opened in 2006, it was done carefully and deliberately, with extensive communication from the existing Blair program, ample professional development opportunities and planning time afforded to teachers, and adequate resources made available to ensure that the nascent program succeeded. Any new STEM program in Montgomery County must be born of the same careful process, which cannot occur in immediate haste as proposed by MCPS, and cannot be replicated six-fold into each of the new regions all at once.

We, the alumni, parents, students, teachers, and community members of the SMCS program implore the Superintendent and the Board of Education of Montgomery County to continue to meet the needs of our students by respecting the fidelity of countywide Magnet programs and continued operation of our SMCS program in its current form. We endorse all actions taken thus far by the Blair Magnet Foundation in response to this proposed change, and we stand united with the Blair, Richard Montgomery, and broader Montgomery County communities in seeking to ensure that Montgomery County remains a leader in secondary education.
 
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