By raw numbers you're right. The old Barnsley pool (3 classes) had high schools with a much larger population than and Chevy Chase (2 classes). But they drew those boundaries based it on the population identified gifted which are probably very different. Many of the schools in the Chevy Chase cluster have 80 percent of the students identified gifted while some of those in the Barnsley area may be closer to the average of 40 percent.

Looks like Gaithersburg, Magruder, and Watkins Mill will go to the Mill Creek Towne center now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the one who got the mailing, it went to 3rd grade parents. It literally arrived in the mail this afternoon. I’m thinking about going to the CES info meeting tonight at RM to see if I can get more info.

Wow! I'm a WJ cluster parent and we know nothing about it (I should probably go check my mailbox). Please go to the meeting, if you can, and report back to us!

FWIW, I went to the first informational meeting at Kennedy High in November, and the leaflet we got had WJ going to Barnsley.

Strange it they changed it between November and January. That was only 2 months ago!

Barnsley draws from something like 20 elementary schools currently. That is a lot of kids. Maybe dividing it up better will lead to more spots?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just got a mailing from MCPS that Barnsley will now only serve Rockville, RM, and Wheaton. WJ will got to Chevy Chase with BCC and Whitman. Cold Spring unchanged.

That is a huge change. Why haven't they communicated this to others? They have to increase the number of students at Chevy Chase or else it would be grossly unfair to students in those three clusters. I suspect they are doing this for racial reasons. They are making it less competitive at Barnesley which is more diverse and more competitive at Chevy Chase which has mostly white and Asian students.

Also wondering about this. We have not heard anything about this and we are currently AT Barnsley.

Does this mean next year's 5th grade class will stay the same, and there will be fewer 4th Grade classes.

If someone does attend the meeting, would love to hear more!

Anonymous wrote:I’m the one who got the mailing, it went to 3rd grade parents. It literally arrived in the mail this afternoon. I’m thinking about going to the CES info meeting tonight at RM to see if I can get more info.

Wow! I'm a WJ cluster parent and we know nothing about it (I should probably go check my mailbox). Please go to the meeting, if you can, and report back to us!

FWIW, I went to the first informational meeting at Kennedy High in November, and the leaflet we got had WJ going to Barnsley.

This is a very speculative and rough estimate based on the assumption of the original HGC clusters being roughly even in terms of 2nd graders identified gifted and the district making it more difficult on Whitman and BCC students to get in because of a peer group at home schools.

If they keep the number of classes at Barnsley and CC the same, this change might make it about 50% easier to get in to Barnsley and 40% harder to get into CC. They have to increase the number of classes at CC to make it more fair.

Looks like they are adding a new Center at Mill Creek Town and rearranging some of the other center boundaries: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/elementary/highly-gifted-centers.aspx

I’m the one who got the mailing, it went to 3rd grade parents. It literally arrived in the mail this afternoon. I’m thinking about going to the CES info meeting tonight at RM to see if I can get more info.

I would have guessed that a large proportion of the HGC classes at Barnsley are from WJ and white or Asian.
This is gerrymandering.

Anonymous wrote:Just got a mailing from MCPS that Barnsley will now only serve Rockville, RM, and Wheaton. WJ will got to Chevy Chase with BCC and Whitman. Cold Spring unchanged.

Does this mean that the current WJ cluster 4th graders at Barnsley will go to Chevy Chase for Grade 5?

I have a child at Barnsley in 4th grade, but we live in one of the other three clusters. Just wondering if there will be two classes next year rather than three. Seems like a relatively large number of children in my kid's class from WJ cluster elementary schools.

Anonymous wrote:Just got a mailing from MCPS that Barnsley will now only serve Rockville, RM, and Wheaton. WJ will got to Chevy Chase with BCC and Whitman. Cold Spring unchanged.

That is a huge change. Why haven't they communicated this to others? They have to increase the number of students at Chevy Chase or else it would be grossly unfair to students in those three clusters. I suspect they are doing this for racial reasons. They are making it less competitive at Barnesley which is more diverse and more competitive at Chevy Chase which has mostly white and Asian students.

I’m wondering about hiw many classes they will have at Barnsley too (its currently 3). Seems like they are increasing the number of students served, so there will be more classes for the county as a whole?

Anonymous wrote:Just got a mailing from MCPS that Barnsley will now only serve Rockville, RM, and Wheaton. WJ will got to Chevy Chase with BCC and Whitman. Cold Spring unchanged.

I wonder if they will add another class to Chevy Chase. There is only two classes now.

Just got a mailing from MCPS that Barnsley will now only serve Rockville, RM, and Wheaton. WJ will got to Chevy Chase with BCC and Whitman. Cold Spring unchanged.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love how only Wooton and Churchill go to Cold Spring but the entire school WITH the CES is still only at 65% capacity. Why can't Walter Johnson or Richard Montgomery cluster go there. Is it considered elite wealth only? I agree. I would never bus my kid to Barnsley fighting with 4 clusters when there is a CES right down the street at low capacity but only taking two schools. Pretty pathetic.

Cold Spring has the highest median scores for all three sections of HGC tests among all CESs. Kids can get into Barnsley may not get into the waitlist pool for Cold Spring. Don't be a sour grape.

not the PP - but this proves nothing. This difference could be because of the self selection against Barnsley, since it is in the Rockville cluster.

Unfortunately there are many parents in WJ cluster that wouldn't dream of sending their kids to a school in Rockville cluster. And I am sure, if the situation is reversed, there will be many in Churchill and Wootton clusters that will keep their kids in the local schools instead of sending them to a school in Rockville cluster.