Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course we taxpayers (or rather, we citizens) have influence. We elect the county school board. We elect the county council. We elect the county executive.

It may not be as local as you want it to be, but it's still local.

If you think you have any influence at all on how our school system is run, you are delusional.

I don't have much influence at all on how our school system is run, because I haven't tried to influence it (beyond voting for school board candidates).

How have you tried to influence how our school system is run? Have you been a regular at meetings, put together plans with realistic and feasible suggestions for change, acknowledged that you won't get everything you want, led your local PTA, worked with the MCCPTA, gotten the press involved, organized other parents to write letters, talked to school board members, talked to county council members, run for the school board yourself?

I don't necessarily disagree with your main idea, but I do not think this topic is the place to make that argument. The two communities involved did make a huge effort on this issue over the course of a couple years. They are still working on an appeal to the BOE. I do not live in the communities, but have friends that do. Please don't demean their efforts on this issue by suggesting they just didn't try hard enough.

I am the PP, and I certainly did not mean to suggest that -- I apologize! I don't know anything about this particular issue. I was only responding to the "delusional" PP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course we taxpayers (or rather, we citizens) have influence. We elect the county school board. We elect the county council. We elect the county executive.

It may not be as local as you want it to be, but it's still local.

If you think you have any influence at all on how our school system is run, you are delusional.

I don't have much influence at all on how our school system is run, because I haven't tried to influence it (beyond voting for school board candidates).

How have you tried to influence how our school system is run? Have you been a regular at meetings, put together plans with realistic and feasible suggestions for change, acknowledged that you won't get everything you want, led your local PTA, worked with the MCCPTA, gotten the press involved, organized other parents to write letters, talked to school board members, talked to county council members, run for the school board yourself?

I don't necessarily disagree with your main idea, but I do not think this topic is the place to make that argument. The two communities involved did make a huge effort on this issue over the course of a couple years. They are still working on an appeal to the BOE. I do not live in the communities, but have friends that do. Please don't demean their efforts on this issue by suggesting they just didn't try hard enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course we taxpayers (or rather, we citizens) have influence. We elect the county school board. We elect the county council. We elect the county executive.

It may not be as local as you want it to be, but it's still local.

If you think you have any influence at all on how our school system is run, you are delusional.

I don't have much influence at all on how our school system is run, because I haven't tried to influence it (beyond voting for school board candidates).

How have you tried to influence how our school system is run? Have you been a regular at meetings, put together plans with realistic and feasible suggestions for change, acknowledged that you won't get everything you want, led your local PTA, worked with the MCCPTA, gotten the press involved, organized other parents to write letters, talked to school board members, talked to county council members, run for the school board yourself?

Anonymous wrote:Of course we taxpayers (or rather, we citizens) have influence. We elect the county school board. We elect the county council. We elect the county executive.

It may not be as local as you want it to be, but it's still local.

If you think you have any influence at all on how our school system is run, you are delusional.

I don't think the gap can be explained by the HGC. The HGC is very small- only 50 kids or so total and probably 7 or 8 would have gone to Oak View anyway.

Of course we taxpayers (or rather, we citizens) have influence. We elect the county school board. We elect the county council. We elect the county executive.

It may not be as local as you want it to be, but it's still local.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starr recommended against unpairing the schools. Status quo for both these schools and communities. Such a shame to deprive families of a neighborhood school all because of politics.

The truth is that there is no local control or even influence of any kind over schools here. None at all.

It's the county school system. I consider the county local.

But it's not local in the true sense of that word. We taxpayers have no influence.

The NH Estates and Oak View community had looked at this extensively - if they themselves cannot influence this, then how can this be characterized as locally-controlled or even influenced?

I live nearby, and have several friends who live in the Oak view neighborhood. Oak View, Highlandview, Sligo Creek, Montgomery Knolls, and I think Rolling Terrace area all closer to my friends' houses than NHE. But they are expected to bus their 5 year olds all the way to NHE, to be in a school with 10 kindergarten classes. they could walk to Highland View, which has 4 kindergarten classes.
PP is correct, NHE and OV are the two poorest schools in the Blair cluster. Unpairing them might lead to a slight change in demographics at OV, because all the middle class families who now avoid the paired schools and go private, immersion or COSA might start to stay at their home school.

Anonymous wrote:We are not in the neighborhood but my child is in the HGC at Oak View. I read most of Dr. Starr's recommendation and it sounds like it all came down to the difference in FARMS between the schools. Can anyone explain why there is a large gap in the FARMS rates? Do families choose other schools for k-2 and then go to Oak View in 3rd?

Most of the gap is attributable to the HGC center. Also, many of the kids from NHE don't continue on when it's time to transition to Oakview, and some parents with kids who live in the Oakview neighborhood go to the local parochial school for k-2, and transition in to Oakview when third grade hits, although by that point parents have usually found their groove wherever else they decided to send their child. The reliance on the FARMS difference is particularly bizarre when you look at all of the other schools surrounding Oakview and see that they have much lower FARMS rates, yet nobody is suggesting that those schools be joined in a busing program to adjust for difference. Can you imagine what would happen if MCPS proposed system-wide busing??? Everyone would go nuts because busing policies are unpopular and have been proven ineffective.

The demographics in Silver Spring have changed so much since the 70's, and it's like MCPS is totally blind to the fact that because both Oakview and NHE feed from large apartment complexes and from largely poor populations, there simply is no way that "pairing" these schools and busing between these two schools will bring socioeconomic diversity. There are some schools that you could "pair", I suppose, and end up with diversity, but choosing to join the two poorest schools in the cluster to achieve that result just doesn't do what Starr seems to think it does.

The gap in farms rates is largely due to the hgc kids, I think. It's not really a fair argument since they are in separate classes.

We are not in the neighborhood but my child is in the HGC at Oak View. I read most of Dr. Starr's recommendation and it sounds like it all came down to the difference in FARMS between the schools. Can anyone explain why there is a large gap in the FARMS rates? Do families choose other schools for k-2 and then go to Oak View in 3rd?

There was a big cost issue. It would have required a large addition at oak view to accommodate younger kids (smaller class sizes).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starr recommended against unpairing the schools. Status quo for both these schools and communities. Such a shame to deprive families of a neighborhood school all because of politics.

The truth is that there is no local control or even influence of any kind over schools here. None at all.

It's the county school system. I consider the county local.

Anonymous wrote:Starr recommended against unpairing the schools. Status quo for both these schools and communities. Such a shame to deprive families of a neighborhood school all because of politics.

The truth is that there is no local control or even influence of any kind over schools here. None at all.

This really is unfortunate. The oakview community wanted to create a neighborhood k to 5 school and not bus kids across town. What were the politics?