Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This foolish person thinks the real world is fair. Lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to bring in some history, years ago WJ families were asked by MCPS survey whether they would like to stay together and build huge addition on WJ or reopen Woodward to accommodate the growing number of students, while likely taking in some DCC schools.

Overwhelmingly, WJ parents voted to reopen Woodward. WJ parents and students went to County Council meetings all decked out in Green to show support for funding for Woodward. We’ve filled out I don’t know how many surveys about Woodward.

Now it looks like MCPS may renege on that and send WJ families from Farmland, Garrett Park and KP to other parts of the county. That’s half of WJ.

No good deed shall go unpunished. Bait and switch.

Wow, this is just...wow. The entitlement in this post is staggering. WJ families are not entitled to anything more than other MCPS families. Wow.

What you may view as "entitlement", others may view as "advocacy" for their children and community.

Kids don't deserve extra advantages based on how skilled their parents are at advocacy. (And honestly they generally already get advantages based on their parents' advocacy at an individual level... they definitely don't deserve the double benefit of getting better school assignments due to their parents' better advocacy. Triple benefit, honestly, because likely these families have a lot of other socioeconomic advantages over other kids to start with...)

I think you are missing the point. When asked, WJ families overwhelmingly voted in surveys and advocated for reopening Woodward and expanding the boundary of Woodward to include DCC students versus just building WJ big enough to actually house the current WJ student body.

They advocated for Woodward as a solution to overcrowding in WJ and DCC, along with expansion of Northwood.

WJ PTAs testified for this at the BOE. Most other high school cluster PTAs also advocate for things that they want. It really is ok. And it is ok to have feelings when things don’t work out the way you want

But the idea they liked was to relieve DCC overcrowding indirectly through a criteria-/application-based magnet program, only having to deal with a few select kids from the hoi polloi motivated enough to get into the magnet. Relocating Blair SMCS was the dream.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair isn't in its own cluster because the density in DTSS and TkPk fills it before you even get outside of the Beltway. This was a known thing when they moved it to its current location.

MCPS could have acquired the Adventist site in TkPk, used it for Northwood holding and then built a new high school there to alleviate Blair, but no. Or they could have bought the Discovery editing building on Kennett in DTSS to use for Northwood holding and turned that into an urban high school campus that would have alleviated Blair crowding and could have provided an alternative high school experience for kids who don't do well in huge suburban campus high schools like we build.

But instead they were pennywise and pound foolish and used Woodward for Northwood holding, meaning those kids are bused to North Bethesda for three years and don't even have sports fields or an auditorium.

One thing that I’ve wondered about is what’s the plan for the high school renovations that are massively overdue as well as others coming due over the next decade. I believe Northwood was the holding school for years, but that’s not possible now Woodward will be unavailable and Crown will be filled in. Seems like Crown should become a new holding school to do Wootton and Magruder.

The oldest schools (25+) are built in:

Magruder - 1970
Wootton - 1970
QO - 1988
Sherwood - renovated 1991
Einstein - renovated 1997
Northwest - built 1998
Blair - built 1998
Kennedy - renovated 1999
Churchill - renovated 2001

Hard to say, but they can sometimes build the new building on the field next to the school, then tear down the old building afterwards. That's what they did at Paint Branch and Wheaton.

Were those schools without athletics for several years? If so that’s unfortunate, but I suppose better than bussing cross county to a holding school, just feels like Crown would be perfect to be a holding school to knock out those two oldest renovations needed.

Some of the DCC schools are close enough they could share the fields with other schools and provid a bus back and forth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, time to walk between building can conceivably be helped at the school level rather than shipping everyone around the county.

What are you suggesting? Hoverboards in the hallways?

Make the time between bells longer? Have leeway for students with long walks? Easier than hoverboards.

Then they lose out on academic time. Are you paying for the hoverboards?

PP doesn't care. They know know the new capital project will never be approved, but that's fine because it's not their kid in an overcrowded school while classrooms at other schools sit empty. Gotta love MoCo community spirit.

The only real solution is to build another school, down county under Blair as that's where it is needed. But, really, MCPS has a spending problem and their priorities are wacked so it will never happen. Many don't realize how much is lacking in the DCC schools outside Blair and Wheaton which make them popular. They should not allow any students outside the DCC into Blair or Wheaton. That would be a good start.

I love how some people are all about reducing x government spending up until that involves their kids going to school with Black and Hispanic kids. That needs to be avoided at all costs including land and construction of a new school that is not needed and will likely be closed in a decade or 2

If they cannot live in the neighborhoods, they should not be entitled to use our schools, given that they purposely moved away. Even if they build a new school and the population decreases, that would be good. I cannot imagine it happening. The schools are entirely too big.

They could also fix the equity/lack of classes by doing advanced classes virtually if there are not enough students per school and align the bell schedules.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This foolish person thinks the real world is fair. Lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to bring in some history, years ago WJ families were asked by MCPS survey whether they would like to stay together and build huge addition on WJ or reopen Woodward to accommodate the growing number of students, while likely taking in some DCC schools.

Overwhelmingly, WJ parents voted to reopen Woodward. WJ parents and students went to County Council meetings all decked out in Green to show support for funding for Woodward. We’ve filled out I don’t know how many surveys about Woodward.

Now it looks like MCPS may renege on that and send WJ families from Farmland, Garrett Park and KP to other parts of the county. That’s half of WJ.

No good deed shall go unpunished. Bait and switch.

Wow, this is just...wow. The entitlement in this post is staggering. WJ families are not entitled to anything more than other MCPS families. Wow.

What you may view as "entitlement", others may view as "advocacy" for their children and community.

Kids don't deserve extra advantages based on how skilled their parents are at advocacy. (And honestly they generally already get advantages based on their parents' advocacy at an individual level... they definitely don't deserve the double benefit of getting better school assignments due to their parents' better advocacy. Triple benefit, honestly, because likely these families have a lot of other socioeconomic advantages over other kids to start with...)

I think you are missing the point. When asked, WJ families overwhelmingly voted in surveys and advocated for reopening Woodward and expanding the boundary of Woodward to include DCC students versus just building WJ big enough to actually house the current WJ student body.

They advocated for Woodward as a solution to overcrowding in WJ and DCC, along with expansion of Northwood.

WJ PTAs testified for this at the BOE. Most other high school cluster PTAs also advocate for things that they want. It really is ok. And it is ok to have feelings when things don’t work out the way you want

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, time to walk between building can conceivably be helped at the school level rather than shipping everyone around the county.

What are you suggesting? Hoverboards in the hallways?

Make the time between bells longer? Have leeway for students with long walks? Easier than hoverboards.

Then they lose out on academic time. Are you paying for the hoverboards?

PP doesn't care. They know know the new capital project will never be approved, but that's fine because it's not their kid in an overcrowded school while classrooms at other schools sit empty. Gotta love MoCo community spirit.

The only real solution is to build another school, down county under Blair as that's where it is needed. But, really, MCPS has a spending problem and their priorities are wacked so it will never happen. Many don't realize how much is lacking in the DCC schools outside Blair and Wheaton which make them popular. They should not allow any students outside the DCC into Blair or Wheaton. That would be a good start.

Decade-long proposition, there, to build another school. And one that was given cursory/unimaginative review close to a decade back so that they could say they considered it before discarding it in favor of building Woodward.

Too late, now, to be a solution for this boundary study, but probably not a bad idea for the future, what with the County Council and Montgomery Planning pushing for more and more density. There's some magical thinking going on there that because there currently is extra capacity in MCPS overall, relief of DCC overcrowding is a trivial matter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, time to walk between building can conceivably be helped at the school level rather than shipping everyone around the county.

What are you suggesting? Hoverboards in the hallways?

Make the time between bells longer? Have leeway for students with long walks? Easier than hoverboards.

Then they lose out on academic time. Are you paying for the hoverboards?

PP doesn't care. They know know the new capital project will never be approved, but that's fine because it's not their kid in an overcrowded school while classrooms at other schools sit empty. Gotta love MoCo community spirit.

The only real solution is to build another school, down county under Blair as that's where it is needed. But, really, MCPS has a spending problem and their priorities are wacked so it will never happen. Many don't realize how much is lacking in the DCC schools outside Blair and Wheaton which make them popular. They should not allow any students outside the DCC into Blair or Wheaton. That would be a good start.

Anonymous wrote:JFC, none of the 4 are real options - they are showing you an option that focus on each one of the 4 priorities in FAA. The options the Superintendent will chose from, to recommend to try BOE, haven't been shared yet.

What MCPS staff allowed the consultants to release these 4 options, when none of them are actual options anyone will be choosing from, and why MCPS staff and consultants are holding all these meetings, which is a huge waste of time and resources, is beyond me

Anonymous wrote:Many wealthy school PTSA’s have foundations as well, funded by family contributions. Schools with less wealth certainly don’t have those and barely have PTSA’s. Some high schools have long-standing booster clubs with a lot of support. Others do not.

Anonymous wrote:I’m actually thrilled I don’t live near any of you. You people are disgusting and deserve each other. I have the means to live in the W cluster and thought about moving there but glad I did not. You want to keep your schools white and wealthy then go private. This is how segregation started years ago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there discussion to end the consortiums? Seems like such a waste of busses.

Sort of, but they may end up creating six regions across the county instead, so still a lot of bussing.

The wealthier schools have everything the kids need. The reason for the DCC was that these schools don't have nearly the same things and it gives kids opportunities to go to a school where they might have it.

This is categorically false. Look at the per pupil funding downcounty. It is MUCH higher than anywhere else.

Do your schools have multiple bands, marching band, gymnastics and crew, stem clubs, ap classes? Then you have a lot more.

I want to echo the PP. The schools receiving the most per pupil funding at not the W schools. I am curious why you think any programs or activities are provided by MCPS. If someone "has more" its because the kids advocated for it do the work run a club, or sport, activity or advocacy group. It's great leadership and something any student can take on. I heard the recent SMOB candidates talking about the school booster clubs in some schools have like they are part of the problem (???). My school's booster club spends an inordinate amount of time trying to raise funds for basic school property maintenance. Things I would think MCPS would cover. It's rather sad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there discussion to end the consortiums? Seems like such a waste of busses.

Sort of, but they may end up creating six regions across the county instead, so still a lot of bussing.

The wealthier schools have everything the kids need. The reason for the DCC was that these schools don't have nearly the same things and it gives kids opportunities to go to a school where they might have it.

This is categorically false. Look at the per pupil funding downcounty. It is MUCH higher than anywhere else.

Do your schools have multiple bands, marching band, gymnastics and crew, stem clubs, ap classes? Then you have a lot more.

I want to echo the PP. The schools receiving the most per pupil funding at not the W schools. I am curious why you think any programs or activities are provided by MCPS. If someone "has more" its because the kids advocated for it do the work run a club, or sport, activity or advocacy group. It's great leadership and something any student can take on. I heard the recent SMOB candidates talking about the school booster clubs in some schools have like they are part of the problem (???). My school's booster club spends an inordinate amount of time trying to raise funds for basic school property maintenance. Things I would think MCPS would cover. It's rather sad.

And also…parents with disposable income to donate to these clubs, fundraisers, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there discussion to end the consortiums? Seems like such a waste of busses.

Sort of, but they may end up creating six regions across the county instead, so still a lot of bussing.

The wealthier schools have everything the kids need. The reason for the DCC was that these schools don't have nearly the same things and it gives kids opportunities to go to a school where they might have it.

This is categorically false. Look at the per pupil funding downcounty. It is MUCH higher than anywhere else.

Do your schools have multiple bands, marching band, gymnastics and crew, stem clubs, ap classes? Then you have a lot more.

I want to echo the PP. The schools receiving the most per pupil funding at not the W schools. I am curious why you think any programs or activities are provided by MCPS. If someone "has more" its because the kids advocated for it do the work run a club, or sport, activity or advocacy group. It's great leadership and something any student can take on. I heard the recent SMOB candidates talking about the school booster clubs in some schools have like they are part of the problem (???). My school's booster club spends an inordinate amount of time trying to raise funds for basic school property maintenance. Things I would think MCPS would cover. It's rather sad.