One more thing I meant to add. RHPS the SCHOOL is represented at the table by RHPS parents, neither one of which live in the NEIGHBORHOOD of Rosemary Hills. So Rosemary Hills the neighborhood is absolutely being disenfrachised without a seat at the table since they have been targeted outside of RHPS.

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

NP here -- in fairness, I should probably note that my youngest is now in HS, so we won't be directly effected by the new articulation pattern. That said, however, can anyone address why the split proposed above wouldn't work? Is the PP incorrect in his/her assumptions about the numbers of students or any other factors that would balance out?

Anonymous wrote:Thank you 14:51. That is exactly the case. 14:17 I have news for you as you are obviously a RCF parent. RHPS is praying to be pushed out of Westland but we want the entire primary school to stay together. These are our friends, our community. Bus or divide RCF or BE or Somerset. We paid our dues in choosing between our children, classmate birthday parties 25 minutes away in a different town, double the PTA costs, double the everything, our smallest children bused 20 minutes away from home at tender ages with very little to no benefit in the sake of diversit. We deserve to stay together with our community at the new middle. We earned it. Not to mention in every other way Option one clearly makes the most sense. It is by FAR the most equitable and fair to all.

If what you say is true... That all the RHPS parents want out of Westland than that makes it easy. I think RHPS should go to the neighborhood MS if they want and so should RCF.

Again if what you say is true than lets just go ahead and do option # 6. It not a matter of we sacrificed do someone else should suffer. Why does anyone have too?

Thank you 14:51. That is exactly the case. 14:17 I have news for you as you are obviously a RCF parent. RHPS is praying to be pushed out of Westland but we want the entire primary school to stay together. These are our friends, our community. Bus or divide RCF or BE or Somerset. We paid our dues in choosing between our children, classmate birthday parties 25 minutes away in a different town, double the PTA costs, double the everything, our smallest children bused 20 minutes away from home at tender ages with very little to no benefit in the sake of diversit. We deserve to stay together with our community at the new middle. We earned it. Not to mention in every other way Option one clearly makes the most sense. It is by FAR the most equitable and fair to all.

Save your eye rolling 14:17. When you say "The reason RHPS is being considered..." you don't seem to recognize that RHPS is a school made up of kids that live within the neighborhoods of CC, NCC, and Rosemary Hills. They are all RHPS students. Then they move to CCES and NCCES where they are all CCES or NCCES students.

Furthermore, RHPS is at the table which is why they don't want to be pushed out of Westland.

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I meant to say both Option 2 and Option 3 split the Rosemary Hills PS community apart. Option 3 is even worse because it treats the neighborhood Rosemary Hills as a separate entity from CCES and NCC which is absolutely not the case. Rosemary Hills kids go to NCC.

Sectioning off the Rosemary neighborhood as it's own entity without the neighborhood having it's own representation at the table is a dirty trick to play with the Farms numbers to make them more acceptable at Westland. That is where all of the lower income housing is. I don't live there but those kids are my kids' friends and I resent the way they are being treated. They belong with the NCC and CCES kids because they are one of us. For decades, We have sacrificed and worked hard to develop a community across a ridiculous boundary for the sake of diversity. After all of the work, we deserve get to keep it. No one else in the cluster puts up with what we put up with as a K-2 and 3-6. The RCF kids are already at Westland, they should stay at Westland for the sake of fewer numbers and to bring diversity to that school. It wouldn't be the end of the world because essentially it would be business as usual for them.

everyone is already at Westland... The reason RHPS is being considered is because they have the bulk of the farms. I can easily say RHPS is already being bussed it wouldn't be the end of the world.

PP here. I meant to say both Option 2 and Option 3 split the Rosemary Hills PS community apart. Option 3 is even worse because it treats the neighborhood Rosemary Hills as a separate entity from CCES and NCC which is absolutely not the case. Rosemary Hills kids go to NCC.

Sectioning off the Rosemary neighborhood as it's own entity without the neighborhood having it's own representation at the table is a dirty trick to play with the Farms numbers to make them more acceptable at Westland. That is where all of the lower income housing is. I don't live there but those kids are my kids' friends and I resent the way they are being treated. They belong with the NCC and CCES kids because they are one of us. For decades, We have sacrificed and worked hard to develop a community across a ridiculous boundary for the sake of diversity. After all of the work, we deserve get to keep it. No one else in the cluster puts up with what we put up with as a K-2 and 3-6. The RCF kids are already at Westland, they should stay at Westland for the sake of fewer numbers and to bring diversity to that school. It wouldn't be the end of the world because essentially it would be business as usual for them.

Does anyone else find it very interesting that they are considering the RH neighborhood as a separate carve-out? I heard rumors that once the new middle school is open, they will revert NCC, CCES & RHES as regular K-5 schools.
It would save the county some money on busing, and it's obvious that the demographic conditions that applied to this area have changed radically since the early 1970s when the desegregation order created the special RHES district.

The way they are going about the middle school boundary study would seem to support that.

Anonymous wrote:I think pp is wrong about option 2. Option 3 splits up rosemary hills not option 2 the way I read it. Right? So what was said about option 2?

Option #2 does split rhps from NCC and CC. In that option, all of the RHPS goes to Westland and NCC/CC goes to BCC#2.

The RHPS/CCES/NCC pairing is made up of catchment areas for Rosemary Hills, Chevy Chase and North Chevy Chase. When the options paper talks about "Rosemary Hills" it usually means the neighborhood, not the school. The PP is objecting to kids from Rosemary Hills (the neighborhood) being bussed from the farthest point of the MS catchment area to Westland, while everyone else they went to elementary school with goes to a different middle school.

^^Oh wait, no, I think I misunderstood that PP's objection, which is (I think?) that Rosemary Hills, Chevy Chase, and North Chevy Chase wouldn't stay together. The PP thinks that they should stay together. Only Options 1 and 6 seem to do that.

Yes, it also looks to me like Option 3 is the one that splits up Rosemary Hills.

Option 2 would send Chevy Chase, North Chevy Chase, and Rock Creek Forest to the new middle school.

I think pp is wrong about option 2. Option 3 splits up rosemary hills not option 2 the way I read it. Right? So what was said about option 2?

Anonymous wrote:Options #1-2 seem to roughly preserve the percentages of ethnicity/FARMS/ESOL (e.g. the categories for which MCPS is providing percentages), while Options #3-6 really start to skew those numbers. Options 2 and 3 do the best at balancing overall enrollment. On the numbers only, seems like #2 could emerge as the top option, followed by #1.

I was at the meeting.

Option 2 splits NCC and CCES apart from their Rosemary Hills community which is totally cruel!!!. NCC and CCES are part of the same community that faces busing hardship with the tiniest of students (5-8 year old) to make diversity happen. Those kids deserve to stay together after all the hardships the parents go through to make RHPS work.

Options 5 and 6 and the total lack of diversity are a slap the face to the Rosemary Hills communitiy that was forced into busing tiny babies for the sake of diversity out of their neighborhoods. Not to mention the high farms rate is not good for anyone. Def not the poor who benefit acadeically. Appalling that those options are even listed. Expect hell raised.

Option One is the only fair option. Especially since ALL of the development along the Purple Line is going to eventually squeeze the new middle school, it needs to be slightly more under capacity than Westland. It was made clear at the meeting that the hypothetical Westbard development will all go to Pyle and have zero effect on Westland which can hold more students.

And on a side note, one of the reprensentatives from Westbrook was disgusting. Pitching a fit over CURRENT lunch numbers while her kid gets to walk to both Westbrook Elementary and Westland with their less than 5 percent Farms rates. Meanwhile , everyone else but NCC is in play and will be bused. It was clear she wanted none of RCF at her school as she was championing the Options 5 and 6. While all of the other parents who are there are just wanted a fair mix of diversity and for their kids to have a community to go back too. She also snickered at the RHPS split mouthed "what is that anyway?" and rolled her eyes. She is as a poor example to have at the table. Really made Westbrook look elistist. Embarrassing for the school.