Reply to Initial boundary options for Woodward study area are up

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://moderatelymoco.com/mcps-50-school-redistricting-how-boundary-changes-could-impact-families-opinion/

Great article here about the history of the four factors as well as some information on how lengthy bus rides to school contribute to absenteeism.[/quote]

Thank you for this very helpful link! I was unaware of the 2019 MCPS Countywide Boundary Analysis and that’s very helpful background for those of us who haven’t been following this for years and years.

I find this fascinating: “More than 70% of respondents stated that minimizing boundary changes, ensuring students attend the school closest to home, cohort stability and maximizing walkers were extremely important. Only 10% responded that school diversity was extremely important.”

So there was clearly a large, broad consensus on what variables matter to the community when doing this boundary study, yet some of these variables, such as cohort stability, aren’t even a priority. How is that? How did MCPS arrive at these final 4 priorities, which do not fully reflect the priorities of our community?

Demographic characteristics of student population
Geography
Stability of school assignments over time
Facility utilization

This whole process seems rather ridiculous. They ask for feedback from
the community and then ignore what people say they want as their priorities. They then establish their own priorities (still not clear on how this happened) that do not reflect the values of the community. And now we’re expected to weigh in (and probably get ignored) on some really poor options, most of which are in direct contradiction to the previously stated community priorities? How many millions of taxpayer dollars are funding this insanity?

[/quote]

It is a long, rather dramatic story. I’m sure you could find a lot of old posts related to how those factors were decided by the Board.

Here’s what I remember - this goes back years. Lots of drama over a few words added to the Demographics factor by the then-SMOB that would have put diversity first (for you to define diversity, as the prior consultants said), but a judge eventually ruled that it was optional (I think) and the four factors are supposedly equally important. Prior consultants developed a very expensive tool that let us look at how the district could have boundaries redrawn (and held some awful meetings with consultants, parents and students very upset). Not clear whether anyone is using that expensive tool or that was some sort of exercise in who knows what.

Then … COVID. Followed by …

Lots of talk over the years about how they will keep boundaries contiguous but then we see these islands of cross-county busing pop up, especially in Clarksburg redistricting (which seemed to get pretty nasty). Lots of talk about maintaining walk zones, but we have option 3 that ignores those. Lots of talk about utilizing space efficiently, but again we have option 3 that leaves schools overcrowded.

I think most in the county were in agreement back then that everyone wanted to have neighborhood schools, except for a vocal minority of progressives, some of whom were on the board and others were very strong advocates. I’m not sure how strongly people feel today. I think they learned that the kids themselves don’t want long bus rides either, they want good community schools with equal opportunities and resources. Of course other things are different today too, new superintendent, board members, and other officials too.

But my recollection may not be the best. Surely others remember. It’s good to go back and learn from what was gathered in 2019 so it wasn’t all a waste of time and energy.[/quote]

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