Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
First pick of the ones in the pool, FYI the pool is not filled with the best teachers.


But teachers can enter the pool just for the purpose of going to the new school, so not just new teachers or disgruntle ones. Administrators from the Chases and Westland will certainly be a part of the new staff.

EXACTLY (or, is it "+1"?). I am very happy at my current school, and will only enter the pool for the EXPRESS purpose of applying to teach at B-CC MS #2. To the poster a little later who said "who would want to teach at a school that will be overcapacity.." (can't remember the exact wording), I think that's a valid concern, which is why I am on DC Urban Moms doing my 'homework' about the new school. STILL, I think that the opportunity to be a part of starting a new school is probably worth it. I really do think there will be a lot of competition for teaching jobs there. I do NOT think that there is any kind of automatic 'priority' given to teachers from Westland or CCES or NCES. In fact, it's really up to whatever principal they hire. So for me, I'm eagerly awaiting the appointment of the principal!

Yikes. Please don't use DCUM to do your homework about anything related to MCPS, ever!

HA, I know what you are saying. I guess what I mean is, I wanted to see what the 'community' was thinking about the school. Having used DCUM for other purposes before, I take everything I read here with a (huge) grain of salt. But, it can't hurt to see what the buzz is...

Another poster who would just say it's not just a huge grain of salt-- it's like an entire ocean. DCUM is not representative of the "community"-- you don't even know if the posters live in the community. There are a few people who post on here many of whom have definite agendas but the vast majority of the community doesn't.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
First pick of the ones in the pool, FYI the pool is not filled with the best teachers.


But teachers can enter the pool just for the purpose of going to the new school, so not just new teachers or disgruntle ones. Administrators from the Chases and Westland will certainly be a part of the new staff.

EXACTLY (or, is it "+1"?). I am very happy at my current school, and will only enter the pool for the EXPRESS purpose of applying to teach at B-CC MS #2. To the poster a little later who said "who would want to teach at a school that will be overcapacity.." (can't remember the exact wording), I think that's a valid concern, which is why I am on DC Urban Moms doing my 'homework' about the new school. STILL, I think that the opportunity to be a part of starting a new school is probably worth it. I really do think there will be a lot of competition for teaching jobs there. I do NOT think that there is any kind of automatic 'priority' given to teachers from Westland or CCES or NCES. In fact, it's really up to whatever principal they hire. So for me, I'm eagerly awaiting the appointment of the principal!

Yikes. Please don't use DCUM to do your homework about anything related to MCPS, ever!

HA, I know what you are saying. I guess what I mean is, I wanted to see what the 'community' was thinking about the school. Having used DCUM for other purposes before, I take everything I read here with a (huge) grain of salt. But, it can't hurt to see what the buzz is...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
First pick of the ones in the pool, FYI the pool is not filled with the best teachers.


But teachers can enter the pool just for the purpose of going to the new school, so not just new teachers or disgruntle ones. Administrators from the Chases and Westland will certainly be a part of the new staff.

EXACTLY (or, is it "+1"?). I am very happy at my current school, and will only enter the pool for the EXPRESS purpose of applying to teach at B-CC MS #2. To the poster a little later who said "who would want to teach at a school that will be overcapacity.." (can't remember the exact wording), I think that's a valid concern, which is why I am on DC Urban Moms doing my 'homework' about the new school. STILL, I think that the opportunity to be a part of starting a new school is probably worth it. I really do think there will be a lot of competition for teaching jobs there. I do NOT think that there is any kind of automatic 'priority' given to teachers from Westland or CCES or NCES. In fact, it's really up to whatever principal they hire. So for me, I'm eagerly awaiting the appointment of the principal!

Yikes. Please don't use DCUM to do your homework about anything related to MCPS, ever!

Anonymous wrote:Wow, we are moving to the area from DC, and it's amazing how much lower the PTA requests for these schools ours. The upper NW DCPS request anywhere from $650 to $1500 per child (not per family).

That's really nothing compared to what HRCS in DC force parents to "donate", and if do not receive the desired amount from the parents, the kids suffer.

Anonymous wrote:
First pick of the ones in the pool, FYI the pool is not filled with the best teachers.


But teachers can enter the pool just for the purpose of going to the new school, so not just new teachers or disgruntle ones. Administrators from the Chases and Westland will certainly be a part of the new staff.

EXACTLY (or, is it "+1"?). I am very happy at my current school, and will only enter the pool for the EXPRESS purpose of applying to teach at B-CC MS #2. To the poster a little later who said "who would want to teach at a school that will be overcapacity.." (can't remember the exact wording), I think that's a valid concern, which is why I am on DC Urban Moms doing my 'homework' about the new school. STILL, I think that the opportunity to be a part of starting a new school is probably worth it. I really do think there will be a lot of competition for teaching jobs there. I do NOT think that there is any kind of automatic 'priority' given to teachers from Westland or CCES or NCES. In fact, it's really up to whatever principal they hire. So for me, I'm eagerly awaiting the appointment of the principal!

Anonymous wrote:when will the decision be made public?

Tonight. The Board meets tonight and will vote at that meeting, as I understand. You are free to go to the meeting. You can also watch it online. In any event, I expect that your school's PTAs will send out an email pretty quickly after the decision to let everyone know. It will also likely get some press coverage.

when will the decision be made public?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PTA membership is $30.00, You can give money for special projects like Westland Cares, scholarships, etc or special funds like last year's fundraiser for chrome books.

I would assume that does not also include the annual fundraising drive? Anyone know how much Westland PTA raises total per year?

Goal is 50-60K a year

That seems a little low because I think our BCC cluster ES raises about that much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PTA membership is $30.00, You can give money for special projects like Westland Cares, scholarships, etc or special funds like last year's fundraiser for chrome books.

I would assume that does not also include the annual fundraising drive? Anyone know how much Westland PTA raises total per year?

Goal is 50-60K a year

Anonymous wrote:PTA membership is $30.00, You can give money for special projects like Westland Cares, scholarships, etc or special funds like last year's fundraiser for chrome books.

I would assume that does not also include the annual fundraising drive? Anyone know how much Westland PTA raises total per year?

PTA membership is $30.00, You can give money for special projects like Westland Cares, scholarships, etc or special funds like last year's fundraiser for chrome books.

Can anyone provide info on what Westland PTA's average expenditure per student is, exactly what the PTA funds, how much they give out in scholarships, and what those scholarships cover? What do they ask parents to contribute?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, we are moving to the area from DC, and it's amazing how much lower the PTA requests for these schools ours. The upper NW DCPS request anywhere from $650 to $1500 per child (not per family).

Sorry, that should read how much lower the requests are, not ours.

MCPS restricts what the PTA can fund. So, for example, you can't fundraise to get additional staff as I think you can do in DC.

Interesting. At our school, we didn't fund additional staff, but we did fund free after-school activities for all kids (enrichment like yoga, cooking class, etc.) and gave each teacher $2,000 to spend on field trips and such.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, we are moving to the area from DC, and it's amazing how much lower the PTA requests for these schools ours. The upper NW DCPS request anywhere from $650 to $1500 per child (not per family).

Sorry, that should read how much lower the requests are, not ours.

MCPS restricts what the PTA can fund. So, for example, you can't fundraise to get additional staff as I think you can do in DC.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, we are moving to the area from DC, and it's amazing how much lower the PTA requests for these schools ours. The upper NW DCPS request anywhere from $650 to $1500 per child (not per family).

Sorry, that should read how much lower the requests are, not ours.