Reply to Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm super confused by the whole debate as I haven't been tracking it very well.
One thing I saw on a listserve is that the proposal being pushed on the change petition would put WJ at over 90% capacity.  That seems dumb when we've waited about 15 years for the new high school that was supposed to relieve the massive over-congestion -- it will just be oversubscribed again in a couple of years and then we'll wait another 20 for a fix to that?

My general feelings about HS are that --

they should be between 80-90% capacity;

the kids should not have to drive far to get there since the classes already start go-awful early and ideally there should be public bus lines to help them get there;

the specialized magnet idea is really dumb (my hometown went to a model where all the schools were specialty-focus charter-type schools and they are basically all just bad -- bad arts focus, bad tech focus, bad journalism focus, bad law/justice focus, etc. etc.) -- these gimmicks almost never add to the education plus most 13 year olds aren't in a position to be picking a focus area anyway.[/quote]

It’s not dumb if TWENTY-FOUR extra busses of kids are choosing to go to RMIB. Or all the kids going to the Wheaton and Blair magnets. [/quote]

That is if they set them up reasonably to replicate the experiences at those magnets.

Right now, the plan is to reduce the magnet populations even at those existing, which will undercut the support for the breadth and level of classes that have made them so desired.  All you have to do is look at the difference between that available at Blair SMCS and at Poolesville SMCS.  Each is a good program, but Blair's offers more, and it generally is more sought.

Sure, a half program across six schools will offer more than a program and two thirds across two, as in that SMCS case, but they will end up supporting less than even the smaller of the current two.  MCPS is not wrong in noting that there are plenty more kids who would benefit from magnet education than there are current seats available, but they won't be delivering the magnet education most are after.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics