Anonymous
Post 02/15/2026 08:37     Subject: Re:Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Viers Mill Parents - I firmly suggest you write a letter to the BOE stating your preferred school choice and reasoning. Stating it on this thread is meaningless. There are various groups trying to reengineer us to Walter Johnson and back to Wheaton. We need to make our voices heard to the BOE as they are the ones that have the final say. Take 5 minutes and write an email.

boe@mcpsmd.org
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 23:29     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Three years ago, Viers Mill had universal free lunch for one year. That is why they have greater than 95% for "now or in the past" FARMs. Literally every kid (including the PEP classes for 3yos, meaning some current K) who was there in the 2023-24 school year is counted in the percentage.

I've been a VM parent for 10 years. Nobody I've heard from here wants to go to WJ. For many reasons. VM families have been happy mostly with Wheaton/DCC, and most people seem reasonably okay with Woodward.

The VM community is super tight and protective. Maybe it feels like WJ is racist/classist/whatever, but mostly I think it's that those feeder schools operate in completely different worlds.


Then it's super important for area to change this by not segregating them. It will be helpful for WJ community to increase diversity. Otherwise we will get another Whitman where racism has become a norm.


I mean yes, from the superintendent's POV. But don't expect VMES families to enjoy being known as the literal diversity hires, and integrate another school at the expense of their own community.


No need to put down VMES families by saying they are diversity hires. It's offensive.

VMES kids will benefit from attending lower FARMS schools as well. In fact all kids will benefit from that so it make sense to not put all FARMS kids in one school and put all rich kids in another. Both schools are side by side. Two well balanced schools will benefit everyone attending both schools. It;s best for our region.


Offensive to whom? My family, which attends VMES? I'm sure there are families that would be cool with WJ and I'm not denying their opinion, but far and wide most of the other parents here I've talked to are very aware of the perception that our kids would be the token brown/FARMs students (even the white and not FARMs jaguars) and are not comfortable with it. VMES kids would benefit from a lower FARMs school because too many FARMs is bad? A school is inherently better because its FARMs is lower? That kind of doesn't resonate when you're talking about a high FARMs ES with families who love their school community. "There's fewer people like you at this other school. You understand why that makes it better, don't you?"


Not the PP, but nothing offensive in it unless you look for offence. Concentrating poverty in one high school is not a good idea.
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 23:19     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Three years ago, Viers Mill had universal free lunch for one year. That is why they have greater than 95% for "now or in the past" FARMs. Literally every kid (including the PEP classes for 3yos, meaning some current K) who was there in the 2023-24 school year is counted in the percentage.

I've been a VM parent for 10 years. Nobody I've heard from here wants to go to WJ. For many reasons. VM families have been happy mostly with Wheaton/DCC, and most people seem reasonably okay with Woodward.

The VM community is super tight and protective. Maybe it feels like WJ is racist/classist/whatever, but mostly I think it's that those feeder schools operate in completely different worlds.


Then it's super important for area to change this by not segregating them. It will be helpful for WJ community to increase diversity. Otherwise we will get another Whitman where racism has become a norm.


I mean yes, from the superintendent's POV. But don't expect VMES families to enjoy being known as the literal diversity hires, and integrate another school at the expense of their own community.


No need to put down VMES families by saying they are diversity hires. It's offensive.

VMES kids will benefit from attending lower FARMS schools as well. In fact all kids will benefit from that so it make sense to not put all FARMS kids in one school and put all rich kids in another. Both schools are side by side. Two well balanced schools will benefit everyone attending both schools. It;s best for our region.


Offensive to whom? My family, which attends VMES? I'm sure there are families that would be cool with WJ and I'm not denying their opinion, but far and wide most of the other parents here I've talked to are very aware of the perception that our kids would be the token brown/FARMs students (even the white and not FARMs jaguars) and are not comfortable with it. VMES kids would benefit from a lower FARMs school because too many FARMs is bad? A school is inherently better because its FARMs is lower? That kind of doesn't resonate when you're talking about a high FARMs ES with families who love their school community. "There's fewer people like you at this other school. You understand why that makes it better, don't you?"
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 22:36     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anyone pushing to keep both WW and VM in Woodward is not thinking or working for what is best for the KIDS. We are a VM family. We love Wheaton HS. The staff is phenomenal but it is overcrowded. It is an easy lift to alleviate Wheaton’s overcrowding and send WW to Woodward and VM to WJ. It DOES NOT make sense to send both WW and VM to Woodward. The utilization rate at a school with higher FARMS should be lower. The utilization rate at a school with low FARMS should be higher. It’s not rocket science. STOP worrying about your own precious homes and start trying to advocate for what is best for all kids which is to spread out the diversity and needs so one school doesn’t have a larger load to bear.
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 18:10     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Three years ago, Viers Mill had universal free lunch for one year. That is why they have greater than 95% for "now or in the past" FARMs. Literally every kid (including the PEP classes for 3yos, meaning some current K) who was there in the 2023-24 school year is counted in the percentage.

I've been a VM parent for 10 years. Nobody I've heard from here wants to go to WJ. For many reasons. VM families have been happy mostly with Wheaton/DCC, and most people seem reasonably okay with Woodward.

The VM community is super tight and protective. Maybe it feels like WJ is racist/classist/whatever, but mostly I think it's that those feeder schools operate in completely different worlds.


Then it's super important for area to change this by not segregating them. It will be helpful for WJ community to increase diversity. Otherwise we will get another Whitman where racism has become a norm.


We are in WJ in all cases. I have no issue in VM getting assigned to WJ. Yes, many in our street prefer seeing FARMS going down because they are going to sell in a few years but school assingnemnt should be made keeping kids education and nothing else.
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 18:02     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Three years ago, Viers Mill had universal free lunch for one year. That is why they have greater than 95% for "now or in the past" FARMs. Literally every kid (including the PEP classes for 3yos, meaning some current K) who was there in the 2023-24 school year is counted in the percentage.

I've been a VM parent for 10 years. Nobody I've heard from here wants to go to WJ. For many reasons. VM families have been happy mostly with Wheaton/DCC, and most people seem reasonably okay with Woodward.

The VM community is super tight and protective. Maybe it feels like WJ is racist/classist/whatever, but mostly I think it's that those feeder schools operate in completely different worlds.


Then it's super important for area to change this by not segregating them. It will be helpful for WJ community to increase diversity. Otherwise we will get another Whitman where racism has become a norm.


I mean yes, from the superintendent's POV. But don't expect VMES families to enjoy being known as the literal diversity hires, and integrate another school at the expense of their own community.


No need to put down VMES families by saying they are diversity hires. It's offensive.

VMES kids will benefit from attending lower FARMS schools as well. In fact all kids will benefit from that so it make sense to not put all FARMS kids in one school and put all rich kids in another. Both schools are side by side. Two well balanced schools will benefit everyone attending both schools. It;s best for our region.
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 17:57     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:VM family. We will prefer to join WJ.


Good news! You can apply to any of WJ’s interest or criteria based programs! Nobody is keeping your kid from going to WJ, but most CM families don’t want WJ as their default. We don’t want to be anybody’s “diversity hire” as a PP said


Not the PP, but we are VM as well. We will prefer to be assinged to WJ as well. Commute is same and it will help entire region by creating two well balanced schools. No need to apply, just have it assinged to WJ.

It's not about diversity hire, its about not ceoncentrating poverty in one school when both schools are right next to each other. I don't see any benefit fin Woodward having 20-25% FARMS than WJ.
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 17:52     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:You are not facing 15% vs 35% choice. You are facing 15% (current recommendation) vs. 20% (proposal to modify). I guess 20% is still something too much to stomach for you.


My comment was regarding choice of buying in Tilden area vs buying in North Bethesda MS area a few years ago.
I will be fine with 20% as well.


Fair enough. I am sorry for accusing you. There are some WJ posters here who work 24/7 to run interference on the proposal to modify the recommendation just to trim down FARMS a couple of percentage points, so I am a little jumpy.


PP here. Given it was all one school, I don't see why balancing of FARMS can't happen. Even after balancing, WJ will have far less FARMS than Woodward. in all scenarios, future WJ part is not going to have much higher FARMS than current WJ, but Woodward part will have much higher FARMS in all cases. So I don't see why make it worse by assigning 2 high FARMS ES to Woodward.

I think Woodward community needs to step up to advocate. Not sure what role PTA played here because I heard that they took no position.
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 17:11     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Three years ago, Viers Mill had universal free lunch for one year. That is why they have greater than 95% for "now or in the past" FARMs. Literally every kid (including the PEP classes for 3yos, meaning some current K) who was there in the 2023-24 school year is counted in the percentage.

I've been a VM parent for 10 years. Nobody I've heard from here wants to go to WJ. For many reasons. VM families have been happy mostly with Wheaton/DCC, and most people seem reasonably okay with Woodward.

The VM community is super tight and protective. Maybe it feels like WJ is racist/classist/whatever, but mostly I think it's that those feeder schools operate in completely different worlds.


A question for you and other VM posters. I don't know anything about VM. When I want to learn about a school I go to SchoolDigger to see their ranking and performance on tests. 20 years ago VM was one of the top ES in the state. For the last 5-10 years, the school has been dropping on tests like a rock, hitting an all-time low last year and is currently ranked 595th in the state. What changed in recent years?


In those 5-10 years the CES program changed so that the top kids from every school are in a lottery for those spots. When you pull out the top performers in grades 4-5, it changes a school. Despite that, my kid who stayed in the lottery for CES has 90th plus percentile scores on MAP tests and made both MS magnet lotteries (with a spot in one already). The teachers and admin are amazing. Far superior to the MS and HS experiences of our older kids. My kid, who is a native English speaker, has made a ton of growth and loves school due to their efforts.

We’ve also seen our neighborhoods gentrify with lots of houses rebuilt or renovated post pandemic. A lot of original owners replaced by DINKs. Yes there are still ADUs and some houses with multiple families, but that’s because MoCo decided where these should be allowed. The huge yards in Potomac apparently are too good for ADUs, but Silver Spring homes that look like a large Lego brick quality.
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 17:05     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The superintendent's recommendation for Woodward/WJ was odd and not in alignment with the board's clearly stated goals.

The WJ cluster is currently made up of Tilden MS (Farmland ES, Luxmanor ES and Garrett Park ES) and North Bethesda MS (Ashburton ES, Wyngate ES and Kensington Parkwood ES). He recommends adding two more elementary schools - Wheaton Woods and Viers Mill. Both of these schools have substantially higher poverty with 95% FARMS rates. Rather than put one at each high school to better balance the FARMS rate, the recommendation puts Garrett Park (splitting off from Tilden) and puts both WW and VM at Woodward. Small "islands" of GP and KP also go to Woodward. All of this means that Woodward is close to 40% FARMS and WJ is 13%. WJ would also be at 77% utilitzation and Woodward at 91% - also odd because of all the multi-family development going up in the new Woodward cluster. WJ might have some development but not nearly as much. So in addition to Woodward having much higher poverty than WJ it is also likely to be overcrowded almost immediately.

It is completely contrary to what the BOE has been trying to achieve and goes directly against their Policy FAA. Was there a data error? It is politically motivated? Do powerful people live in the Towns of Kensington and Garrett Park? Lots of people are struggling to make sense of this one!


We are in WJ in all cases and I don't see issue with balancing FARMS between Woodward and WJ. Having said that most people in WJ are happy with 15% FARMS with 25% empty school.


There is no issue for you because you will be in the majority population and live close to the school. There is an issue for VM and WW families for a variety of reasons (transportation being one). We don’t want to not want to be your token diversity population. Half of VM is walking distance from Wheaton AND Einstein (using the Norris entrance). We don’t want WJ!!!
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 17:02     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:VM family. We will prefer to join WJ.


Good news! You can apply to any of WJ’s interest or criteria based programs! Nobody is keeping your kid from going to WJ, but most CM families don’t want WJ as their default. We don’t want to be anybody’s “diversity hire” as a PP said
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 17:01     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yea, Farmland's position on this invalid. BOE will see through it.


Farmland and LCA being Farmland and LCA - wasn't it just a few years ago they were fighting against having the Rock Terrace school co-located with Tilden MS?


Yes! And look at all the Tilden threads they’ve started since.
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 16:59     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:While I disagree with them, their opinion isn’t invalid. And they will make a lot of noise.


Not as much as Wootton and there is only one meeting with public testimony befofe the vote.
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 16:58     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We are not in the catchment area being discussed, but it does seem odd that there is a fairly simple way to have more even FARMs rates between the two schools, and Taylor went with the one that creates a bigger discrepancy. If there is a way to even it out, it should be done.


Same for us. We are not impacted but it's weird to see putting two high FARMS ES in Woodward and none in WJ depsite both being right next to each other on same road.


WW is nowhere near WJ. They are the island of diversity in the Woodward boundary. They literally have Wheaton in their name! VM has always been slated for Woodward way before Taylor.

Research redlining to find out why there aren’t Title 1 elementary schools near WJ. And don't forget that the ES boundaries will likely change before 2032 which will also change Taylor’s demographics chart. According to Taylor there is a ton of developmentally coming in the WJ area so who knows
Anonymous
Post 02/14/2026 12:31     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Three years ago, Viers Mill had universal free lunch for one year. That is why they have greater than 95% for "now or in the past" FARMs. Literally every kid (including the PEP classes for 3yos, meaning some current K) who was there in the 2023-24 school year is counted in the percentage.

I've been a VM parent for 10 years. Nobody I've heard from here wants to go to WJ. For many reasons. VM families have been happy mostly with Wheaton/DCC, and most people seem reasonably okay with Woodward.

The VM community is super tight and protective. Maybe it feels like WJ is racist/classist/whatever, but mostly I think it's that those feeder schools operate in completely different worlds.


Then it's super important for area to change this by not segregating them. It will be helpful for WJ community to increase diversity. Otherwise we will get another Whitman where racism has become a norm.


I mean yes, from the superintendent's POV. But don't expect VMES families to enjoy being known as the literal diversity hires, and integrate another school at the expense of their own community.