Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was not able to attend, but found this report on the meeting to be helpful:
http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/Web-2016/County-School-System-Begins-Boundary-Drawing-Process-for-New-Bethesda-Chevy-Chase-Middle-School/

I'm calling it....

Westbrook, Somerset and CC + Rosemary hills -> Westland
NCC, Bethesda and RCF -> BCC MS

Your “calling it” takes the children from three schools and “unpairs” them after they have been together and switched twice in their K-5 experience. It also undermines the desegregation plan that arose after tremendous controversy and now is a social success story, and it creates upwards of a 15-20% difference in white populations between the two schools. To achieve this dubious result, kids in the school furthest from Westland would have to endure the longest commute across the cluster. Using that logic, Westbrook could be sent north to the new school with Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, and the northern half of Chevy Chase.

I’m struggling to understand why your call isn’t anything more than wishful thinking motivated by something other than the best interests of the students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They put all of their presentations and handouts on line.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BCCMS2_OptionsPacketEnglish021816.pdf

Very helpful - thank you.

Anonymous wrote:They put all of their presentations and handouts on line.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/BCCMS2_OptionsPacketEnglish021816.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have lots of friends at RCF and RH who mercifully have no idea that so many people are afraid of their children.

They're just happy to not have to go to silver spring schools but deep down they know that one thing isn't quite like the others.

Anonymous wrote:I have lots of friends at RCF and RH who mercifully have no idea that so many people are afraid of their children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why is there an absolute need to balance the farms? Why not just let them go to the closer more convenient school for them or do you suggest that they care more about some weird middle class paranoia about being surrounded by them more than their own logistics? I purpose that there isn't enough of them to worry about gerrymandering for any other reason other then locality.

PP, you are referring to poor people as "them". Who is "us", in this case?

+1

I think PP makes a fair point that people of lesser means don't necessarily benefit from or want a longer school commute.

I would frame this differently - Putting the onus of integration on poor and minority children by forcing them into longer commutes (and letting wealthy non-minorith kids tk simply ho to the closest school) was a major issue when RHPS was desegregated years ago. The solution to equalizing the burden of integration was to pair RHPS with CCES, NCES and BES (the latter of which was dropped from the pairing about 5 years ago) so that kids went to RHPS in k-2 and the upper school for 3-6.

I think the question is what can MCPS come up with that will ensure a deomgraphic balance between
the two schools? Or if that is impossible, maybe there is a simple boundary drawing or maybe there is something more creative like a choice program that pulls integration instead of pushing.

Ok, question - is the issue of hugely different populations such a big thing in MoCo that it's worth going through contortions to integrate them? I'm asking mostly out of ignorance as someone relatively new to the area.

This is generally a pretty well off area, right? Does it really matter if some schools have a slightly higher percentage less well-off parents than others?

Does it really matter to whom and why? And what qualifies as a "contortion"? Research shows that poor and minority kids who go to school in higher SES environments do better. From the other side, as a white and wealthy student in the RHPS/BCC cluster integration scheme, I think I also benefitted greatly from having been a product of an integrated school system. Although, my benefit shouldn't be imposed by creating an undue burden on others which brings no benefit to them (which I don't think is the case).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think:

Westland - Westbrook, Somerset, RCF
New - NCC, Bethesda ES, CCES

This
-balances FARMS, ESOL
-balances school population
-keeps walkers within walking distance (somerset kids in Kenwood are within walking distance to Westland)
-keeps the rosemary hills kids together

Why is there an absolute need to balance the farms? Why not just let them go to the closer more convenient school for them or do you suggest that they care more about some weird middle class paranoia about being surrounded by them more than their own logistics? I purpose that there isn't enough of them to worry about gerrymandering for any other reason other then locality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why is there an absolute need to balance the farms? Why not just let them go to the closer more convenient school for them or do you suggest that they care more about some weird middle class paranoia about being surrounded by them more than their own logistics? I purpose that there isn't enough of them to worry about gerrymandering for any other reason other then locality.

PP, you are referring to poor people as "them". Who is "us", in this case?

+1

I think PP makes a fair point that people of lesser means don't necessarily benefit from or want a longer school commute.

I would frame this differently - Putting the onus of integration on poor and minority children by forcing them into longer commutes (and letting wealthy non-minorith kids tk simply ho to the closest school) was a major issue when RHPS was desegregated years ago. The solution to equalizing the burden of integration was to pair RHPS with CCES, NCES and BES (the latter of which was dropped from the pairing about 5 years ago) so that kids went to RHPS in k-2 and the upper school for 3-6.

I think the question is what can MCPS come up with that will ensure a deomgraphic balance between
the two schools? Or if that is impossible, maybe there is a simple boundary drawing or maybe there is something more creative like a choice program that pulls integration instead of pushing.

Ok, question - is the issue of hugely different populations such a big thing in MoCo that it's worth going through contortions to integrate them? I'm asking mostly out of ignorance as someone relatively new to the area.

This is generally a pretty well off area, right? Does it really matter if some schools have a slightly higher percentage less well-off parents than others?

Anonymous wrote:


Ok, question - is the issue of hugely different populations such a big thing in MoCo that it's worth going through contortions to integrate them? I'm asking mostly out of ignorance as someone relatively new to the area.

This is generally a pretty well off area, right? Does it really matter if some schools have a slightly higher percentage less well-off parents than others?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why is there an absolute need to balance the farms? Why not just let them go to the closer more convenient school for them or do you suggest that they care more about some weird middle class paranoia about being surrounded by them more than their own logistics? I purpose that there isn't enough of them to worry about gerrymandering for any other reason other then locality.

PP, you are referring to poor people as "them". Who is "us", in this case?

+1

I think PP makes a fair point that people of lesser means don't necessarily benefit from or want a longer school commute.

I would frame this differently - Putting the onus of integration on poor and minority children by forcing them into longer commutes (and letting wealthy non-minorith kids tk simply ho to the closest school) was a major issue when RHPS was desegregated years ago. The solution to equalizing the burden of integration was to pair RHPS with CCES, NCES and BES (the latter of which was dropped from the pairing about 5 years ago) so that kids went to RHPS in k-2 and the upper school for 3-6.

I think the question is what can MCPS come up with that will ensure a deomgraphic balance between
the two schools? Or if that is impossible, maybe there is a simple boundary drawing or maybe there is something more creative like a choice program that pulls integration instead of pushing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why is there an absolute need to balance the farms? Why not just let them go to the closer more convenient school for them or do you suggest that they care more about some weird middle class paranoia about being surrounded by them more than their own logistics? I purpose that there isn't enough of them to worry about gerrymandering for any other reason other then locality.

PP, you are referring to poor people as "them". Who is "us", in this case?

+1

I think PP makes a fair point that people of lesser means don't necessarily benefit from or want a longer school commute.