That's just the way it is,
Some thing will never change.
That's just the way it is,
Ah yeah.

Anonymous wrote:We live a few blocks from Westland, and 2-3 miles from Pyle, and are zoned for Pyle. Both are good, and I don't know anyone in my neighborhood who has requested a COSA.

I have a friend who lives in the apartment building that abuts the Westland parking lot. If her kid walked to Westland she wouldn't even have to cross a street. But every day the bus picks her up to go to Pyle. Apparently Westland itself is not in it's own boundaries.

We are literally around the corner from Tilden MS and are zoned to North Bethesda MS, which is several miles away.

The district lines in MoCo make no sense. I think it is all very political. Our ES child rides a bus for more than an hour each way to attend a special program at a different elementary school. There is another ES that is only 1.2 miles from our house that houses the exact same special program, but because the way the lines were drawn we slated for the further school.

Anonymous wrote:Happens all the time. Our home high school is Einstein, 5.2 miles away, and we live about one mile from Blair and two miles from Northwood.

It's all about economic redistricting. Which, somehow, doesn't really occur in the western part of MoCo.

We are in the Western part of the county and I assure you it happens here too. We are less than a mile to Wootton (walking distance) but our home school is RM. Not complaining - RM is a great school - just not as close to us.

Anonymous wrote:There will (almost) always be some houses for which this is the case.

Specifically, this will be the case unless the ES district boundaries form the Voronoi diagram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram) corresponding to the set of points that are the ES's.

thanks

This was particularly helpful, as it explains the reasons behind rezoning:

In the particular case where the space is a finite dimensional Euclidean space, each site is a point, there are finitely many points and all of them are different, then the Voronoi cells are convex polytopes and they can be represented in a combinatorial way using their vertices, sides, 2-dimensional faces, etc. Sometimes the induced combinatorial structure is referred to as the Voronoi diagram. However, in general the Voronoi cells may not be convex or even connected.

There will (almost) always be some houses for which this is the case.

Specifically, this will be the case unless the ES district boundaries form the Voronoi diagram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram) corresponding to the set of points that are the ES's.

We live a few blocks from Westland, and 2-3 miles from Pyle, and are zoned for Pyle. Both are good, and I don't know anyone in my neighborhood who has requested a COSA.

Happens all the time. Our home high school is Einstein, 5.2 miles away, and we live about one mile from Blair and two miles from Northwood.

It's all about economic redistricting. Which, somehow, doesn't really occur in the western part of MoCo.

It happens from time to time--all the neighborhood kids will also be attending Lakewood. Boundaries might be weird based on a pocket of higher population, like a neighborhood of townhouses or condos. You attend the school you are designated for unless you have an extreme circumstance. Then you can apply for a COSA (change of school assignment) but you really do need to have a good reason, other than "it's closer."

Agree with pp. There are several neighborhoods in Potomac that go to Potomac Elementary but are closer to Wayside. Stone Mill and Lakewood are both good schools so I wouldn't worry.

This will happen from time to time based on the way the boundaries have been drawn for the school. You will need to attend the school that you are designated for...

We just bought a new house in Rockville that is about twice as close to one ES (Stone Mill) than it is to the one it is supposed to feed into (Lakewood). Any ideas on why that is? Is one significantly better than the other? Can you petition to go to the one that is closer to your house? Apologies for all the questions - we are new to the area and trying to understand before we move in. We have two years before our older child is ready for Kindergarten so it's not urgent, just want to figure it out. Thanks!