Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 17:27     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Did you hear that the BOE wants to look at a county wide boundary study and balance out diversity where possible, and that they are putting a bit more weight on diversity than the other factors when drawing boundaries?

Churchill is one of the least diverse clusters in MCPS. It's ripe for boundary reassessment for diversity.


Actually the MCPS staff at the Clarksburg-Seneca Valley-Northwest boundary study meeting at Clarksburg HS this week said that they were NOT putting more weight on it.

Also, it's not a county-wide boundary study, it's a county-wide study of boundaries. An assessment or report. After the report, they may decide to redo boundaries, or they may not.

BOE did pass a resolution not that long ago where they stated that where possible, they would look at diversity when drawing boundaries. This means that they aren't go to send kids from one side of the county to another, but that neighboring clusters (RM and Churchill) where one school is overcrowded and the other isn't as much could have have their boundaries redrawn with diversity as a priority. I can't find the thread, but it was discussed on this forum. The impetus to the study was spreading diversity and addressing overcrowding.

Coupled with the boundary study, yes, I think it's a possibility to have TB zoned for Churchill. And so what if it is? Poverty isn't contagious. Wealthy kids will do just as well in Churchill with or without poor kids sitting near them.

Pressured by increasing enrollment and evolving demographics, the Montgomery County school board will hire an outside consultant to examine boundary changes for schools.

The consultant will not recommend specific boundary changes that would require students to shift to different schools, but recommend general areas of potential changes.

The resolution for an outside review was introduced by student board member Ananya Tadikonda, who said a study to address overcrowding and increase diversity among schools was overdue.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/school-district-to-conduct-countywide-boundary-study/

Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 17:26     Subject: Wootton or Churchill or RM
Comparative to Bethesda/DC
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 17:25     Subject: Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:Go to Churchill and live in the neighboring houses. Lots of kids walking to school. Quiet neighborhood and safe and affordable.

This school produces Ivy grads. It’s up to the student to do the hard work and get noticed


Affordable for whom?
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 17:20     Subject: Wootton or Churchill or RM
Go to Churchill and live in the neighboring houses. Lots of kids walking to school. Quiet neighborhood and safe and affordable.

This school produces Ivy grads. It’s up to the student to do the hard work and get noticed
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 17:14     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

I'm going to assume that you're stirring the pot, here. Most of Twinbrook is walking distance to Richard Montgomery HS.

And? Are you new to mcps? There are tons of neighborhoods that are walking distance to one school but are zoned for a school much further away. BOE passed a resolution to balance out diversity in re-drawing boundary. Makes perfect sense to send TB cluster to Churchill to balance out diversity since both Rockvill HS and RMHS have enough diversity, and RM is overcrowded.

Horizon Hill neighborhood off Falls rd is walking distance to Wootton, and it was once zoned for Wootton. Then it got rezoned to RM, not walking distance. Why? Because of capacity and diversity issues. Fallsgrove is also closer to Wootton, but they are zoned for RM.

You really must be new to mcps, or you live in a bubble. Do you by chance live in the Churchill cluster?


It makes just as much sense to keep Twinbrook at Richard Montgomery HS and rezone some wealthy Churchill kids to Gaithersburg HS, no?

The Rustin ES boundary study made it pretty clear that the low-income families in Twinbrook are as unenthusiastic about long school bus rides as the wealthy families in Potomac -- and that the BoE understands that it's harder for low-income families to get to distant schools than wealthy families.

PP here.. I was part of that study.

An ES aged student going a few miles further away is a lot different than a HS student going 5 miles away to HS.

There is a neighborhood in Gaithersburg that is zoned for Gaithersburg HS even though there is a HS much much closer. It's 20 min, almost 6 miles. TB area is about 5 miles from Churchill MCPS does this all the time.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 16:58     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I agree that boundary changes will not be big deal for Churchill or Wootton.

Geographically Churchill and even most of Wootton are too far from the areas with significant poverty for boundary changes based on diversity to work without spending a lot on busses, adding to traffic and ending up with really long bus rides passing other HSs and optically being very obvious that you are slicing out a neighborhood for social engineering which is never supported by parents of any SES.


I'd imagine same assertion was made 20 years ago by Silver Spring parents, and 10 years ago by RM parents. I agree with you that Churchill/Wotton might not get significantly impacted in this round if the boundary study would come out in a year or two, but let's wait for 5-10 more years and see.


No, people looked down their noses at Twinbrook 10 years ago too.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 16:48     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:I agree that boundary changes will not be big deal for Churchill or Wootton.

Geographically Churchill and even most of Wootton are too far from the areas with significant poverty for boundary changes based on diversity to work without spending a lot on busses, adding to traffic and ending up with really long bus rides passing other HSs and optically being very obvious that you are slicing out a neighborhood for social engineering which is never supported by parents of any SES.


I'd imagine same assertion was made 20 years ago by Silver Spring parents, and 10 years ago by RM parents. I agree with you that Churchill/Wotton might not get significantly impacted in this round if the boundary study would come out in a year or two, but let's wait for 5-10 more years and see.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 16:30     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:I agree that boundary changes will not be big deal for Churchill or Wootton.

Geographically Churchill and even most of Wootton are too far from the areas with significant poverty for boundary changes based on diversity to work without spending a lot on busses, adding to traffic and ending up with really long bus rides passing other HSs and optically being very obvious that you are slicing out a neighborhood for social engineering which is never supported by parents of any SES.


Guess why Churchill and most of Wootton are so far from the areas with significant poverty? BECAUSE OF SOCIAL ENGINEERING.

Yes, I'm shouting.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 16:25     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
I agree that boundary changes will not be big deal for Churchill or Wootton.

Geographically Churchill and even most of Wootton are too far from the areas with significant poverty for boundary changes based on diversity to work without spending a lot on busses, adding to traffic and ending up with really long bus rides passing other HSs and optically being very obvious that you are slicing out a neighborhood for social engineering which is never supported by parents of any SES.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 16:25     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:

I'm going to assume that you're stirring the pot, here. Most of Twinbrook is walking distance to Richard Montgomery HS.

And? Are you new to mcps? There are tons of neighborhoods that are walking distance to one school but are zoned for a school much further away. BOE passed a resolution to balance out diversity in re-drawing boundary. Makes perfect sense to send TB cluster to Churchill to balance out diversity since both Rockvill HS and RMHS have enough diversity, and RM is overcrowded.

Horizon Hill neighborhood off Falls rd is walking distance to Wootton, and it was once zoned for Wootton. Then it got rezoned to RM, not walking distance. Why? Because of capacity and diversity issues. Fallsgrove is also closer to Wootton, but they are zoned for RM.

You really must be new to mcps, or you live in a bubble. Do you by chance live in the Churchill cluster?


It makes just as much sense to keep Twinbrook at Richard Montgomery HS and rezone some wealthy Churchill kids to Gaithersburg HS, no?

The Rustin ES boundary study made it pretty clear that the low-income families in Twinbrook are as unenthusiastic about long school bus rides as the wealthy families in Potomac -- and that the BoE understands that it's harder for low-income families to get to distant schools than wealthy families.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 16:17     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:
Did you hear that the BOE wants to look at a county wide boundary study and balance out diversity where possible, and that they are putting a bit more weight on diversity than the other factors when drawing boundaries?

Churchill is one of the least diverse clusters in MCPS. It's ripe for boundary reassessment for diversity.


Actually the MCPS staff at the Clarksburg-Seneca Valley-Northwest boundary study meeting at Clarksburg HS this week said that they were NOT putting more weight on it.

Also, it's not a county-wide boundary study, it's a county-wide study of boundaries. An assessment or report. After the report, they may decide to redo boundaries, or they may not.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 16:11     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:
I fail to see how Wootton could be higher pressure than Churchill. There is a huge thread and local media covering grade inflation in MCPS. Is Wootton not buying into the grade inflation or something? Is it really true that an A at Churchill equals a C in Wootton? Unlike private schools, I'm pretty sure that MCPS doesn't do class rankings so there isn't the competition to get into the top 10 spots. There are numerous sections of AP and honors classes at both schools so there couldn't be any competition to get into certain classes. The pressure cooker comments sound like myths.

I also fail to see how Churchill is considered so amazingly ultra wealthy when the majority of areas feeding it are older houses under 1M. How is someone in a 70s split level worth between 700K-800K house affording to buy their kid a BMW? Beverly Farms and Cold Spring are not filled with big mansions just lots of older mid level houses built in the 70s. In fact the houses surrounding Churchill are not mega mansions. Whitman has far more multi-million dollar in bounds but for some reason the myth of wealth at Churchill persists.

I think these stereotypes are out dated and don't really represent the changes in the overall school system and area over the past decade.


There's probably more pressure because there are more Asian American students at Wootton than Churchill.

I'm Asian American.

Look at the homes for sale right now in the Churchill cluster. Most go for near or over $1mil. Not so much in the Wootton cluster. Also, Cold Spring is zoned for Wootton, not Churchill. They have split articulation after Cabin John MS.


This just doesn't make any sense. If grades are inflated where everyone gets easy As anyway and there is no class ranking or competition to get spots in AP/honors classes - where is the pressure?

Are Asian kids forming study gangs and dragging their peers into the library? Do white Wootton moms really think -"I'm so worried about junior. He did his homework again last night instead of playing video games. I was counting on him leveling up to grand master in XYZ game but those darn Asian kids are just such a bad influence. "
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 15:43     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
RMHS has an agreement with the county to allow in certain # of refugees? Where is this agreement? I'd like to see it.

I'm betting Churchill will be rezoned from the broader MCPS rezoning effort. I think sending Twinbrook ES to to Churchill is a possibility.

OP, I'm assuming you are used to school rezoning every few years coming from HoCo since that is what they do. So, wherever you choose to live, just understand that it's not a guarantee that you will stay in the cluster you *thought* you'd be in.



I'm going to assume that you're stirring the pot, here. Most of Twinbrook is walking distance to Richard Montgomery HS.


Agree. I haven't heard anything about the Churchill district being affected by either the new Woodward school or the new Crown school

Did you hear that the BOE wants to look at a county wide boundary study and balance out diversity where possible, and that they are putting a bit more weight on diversity than the other factors when drawing boundaries?

Churchill is one of the least diverse clusters in MCPS. It's ripe for boundary reassessment for diversity.
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 15:42     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
RMHS has an agreement with the county to allow in certain # of refugees? Where is this agreement? I'd like to see it.

I'm betting Churchill will be rezoned from the broader MCPS rezoning effort. I think sending Twinbrook ES to to Churchill is a possibility.

OP, I'm assuming you are used to school rezoning every few years coming from HoCo since that is what they do. So, wherever you choose to live, just understand that it's not a guarantee that you will stay in the cluster you *thought* you'd be in.



I'm going to assume that you're stirring the pot, here. Most of Twinbrook is walking distance to Richard Montgomery HS.

And? Are you new to mcps? There are tons of neighborhoods that are walking distance to one school but are zoned for a school much further away. BOE passed a resolution to balance out diversity in re-drawing boundary. Makes perfect sense to send TB cluster to Churchill to balance out diversity since both Rockvill HS and RMHS have enough diversity, and RM is overcrowded.

Horizon Hill neighborhood off Falls rd is walking distance to Wootton, and it was once zoned for Wootton. Then it got rezoned to RM, not walking distance. Why? Because of capacity and diversity issues. Fallsgrove is also closer to Wootton, but they are zoned for RM.

You really must be new to mcps, or you live in a bubble. Do you by chance live in the Churchill cluster?
Anonymous
Post 01/25/2019 15:38     Subject: Re:Wootton or Churchill or RM
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
RMHS has an agreement with the county to allow in certain # of refugees? Where is this agreement? I'd like to see it.

I'm betting Churchill will be rezoned from the broader MCPS rezoning effort. I think sending Twinbrook ES to to Churchill is a possibility.

OP, I'm assuming you are used to school rezoning every few years coming from HoCo since that is what they do. So, wherever you choose to live, just understand that it's not a guarantee that you will stay in the cluster you *thought* you'd be in.



I'm going to assume that you're stirring the pot, here. Most of Twinbrook is walking distance to Richard Montgomery HS.


Agree. I haven't heard anything about the Churchill district being affected by either the new Woodward school or the new Crown school