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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Both Madison and Marshall can be challenging to get to during rush hour from the Buehlah / Clarks Crossing / Meadowlark area - with a few minutes time difference on average with outliers here and there. What is occurring is vocal families that have moved into the area over the last five to 10 years want a school that is less socio-economic diverse (Marshall: 15.89% English Learner versus Madison 6.11%; Marshall: 20.78% Free/Reduce Fee Lunch versus Madison 10.26%; Marshall: 39.95% White (Not Of Hispanic Origin) versus Madison: 58.11%).  There is strong pride for Marshall by those that are attending and have attended Marshall from impacted neighborhoods and those families are, for the most part, happy they ended up there instead of Madison.  Marshall is a great school and unfortunately families with children at Wolftrap ES currently have become confused with the constant chatter about Madison being so great.   There will always be a few families that want to go to Madison as it is more a sports oriented school and their AP program but those are outliers.  [/quote]

As a parent of young kids at Wolftrap ES, I understand what you are saying... We knew we were zoned for Marshall when we bought out house and were fine with it, it is a great school and we were happy to attend there. I don't think most people's hopes to switch are as nefarious as you are making it sound, at least in my experience and conversations (granted I am taking people at their word, so I do allow for the possibility that deep down it could be about socio economic status for some of them as you say).

I think people love both Wolftrap and Marshall. But, the split feeder thing is tough, especially for young families zoned for Marshall watching their kids start to form friendships at a young age with kids zoned for Madison (i.e. our kid's entire tee ball team lived in Eudora neighborhood and would eventually go to Madison, except for our daughter!). So when this boundary process started to take off, and scenarios 1-3 showed all of Eudora moving from Kilmer to Thoreau and starting the split in middle school instead of high school, the split feeder factor started to feel a lot more daunting. A chunk of Wolftrap that is zoned for Marshall was moving to Westbriar in Scenarios 1-3, reducing that cohort group further. One of the early stated goals was to reduce split feeder patterns and it felt like this was carving our piece of Wolftrap into an even smaller part that was not attending Thoreau/Madison. Everyone I know is glad to have all of Wolftrap move up together. We would have been just as happy if all of Wolftrap was switched to Marshall, but I understand the people currently zoned for Madison would have thrown a fit. [/quote]

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