Reply to Where are all you families of high performing students planning on moving to?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is a significant faction pushing for MCPS to even our FARMs rates as much as possible among MCPS schools.  What “as much as possible” means and whether the BOE will do it over the objections of low income communities remains to be seen.  Some of this came out of the RM5/Bayard Rustin boundary study where Twinbrook was left with a much higher FARMs rate than the other schools in the cluster.  But the Twinbrook community was not supportive of a change to “integrate” with the other elementary schools in the cluster.  Gaithersburg also relatively recently came out strongly in favor of an addition to Gaithersburg ES rather than “integrate” with Wootton elementary schools.  So it certainly remains to be seen how it will play out.  But balancing FARMs rate is a primary goal of some people involved in this process.[/quote]

I totally agree that is a goal for some. But when push comes to shove, I don't see the County doing it -- precisely because lower SES communities are disproportionately burdened by imposing long travel distances on those kids. That's why MCPS didn't try to even out the FARMs rate or demographic balance during the boundary study for Silver Creek - they instead agreed to let Westland become whiter and higher income rather than subject Rock Creek Forest elementary kids to long bus rides to balance things out. Personally I can see both sides of the argument and I think even those parents who wanted greater parity are happy with the outcome of Silver Creek.

For that reason I'm skeptical about radical boundary revisions overall. I'd guess they may try to find a way to tweak around the edges if there are ways to lean into greater diversity. I also think it's not inconceivable that you could wind up with other types of Rosemary Hills experiments, where they deliberately disrupt a few neighborhood schools to achieve a better balance. BTW I wouldn't be shocked if the Rosemary Hills arrangement itself changes. The demographics around the neighborhood itself are no longer the same as they were 40 years ago. And my elementary kid came home the other day and said that the teachers told them that North Chevy Chase may become a K-5 school. We had a good experience at RH but I know it's still a pain point for a lot of people who don't want their 5yo spending 45 minutes twice a day on the bus.[/quote]

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