Anonymous wrote:The county school board model used in this area seems inefficient. Where I grew up, each city managed its own schools and had its own school board. In this case of particularly small suburbs or towns, a couple would create one school district (for example, towns like Greenbelt/Berwyn Hts/College Park would likely combine to make up one district).

It's ridiculous that Silver Spring and Damascus are in the same district.

I also grew up where each town/city managed it's own schools. Made so much more sense. It's a smaller beaurocracy (sp?). More efficient and easier to make changes when needed.

MoCo is too big, and I agree that it's completely inefficiently designed. Agree that it's crazy that two towns so far away are in the same district.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the people who say that it wouldn't put a large number of children out of school should first find out what the numbers actually are.

And also state right out that it wouldn't be their children who would be put out of school.

How can we know the numbers - we don't know where the county would draw the imaginary line. But please share your numbers since you are poking holes in the assumptions of several other posters.

Yes, I will confess my kid goes to a local, non-magnet school. But she is "put out of school", as you put it, because up county weather made her miss a day of school today. A 2 hour delay would have sufficed here. So are probably 50-100,000 other kids who could have gone to school today. Where's the equity in that?

No, I'm happy with the system the way it is. I don't see any need to change it. If you want to change it, then you find the data to support your argument.

As for equity? The weather in Montgomery County made her miss a day of school. All of the kids in Montgomery County public schools were out of school today. Seems equitable to me. Equity doesn't mean "my kid could have gone to school if it hadn't been for those other kids living somewhere I don't live".

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the people who say that it wouldn't put a large number of children out of school should first find out what the numbers actually are.

And also state right out that it wouldn't be their children who would be put out of school.

How can we know the numbers - we don't know where the county would draw the imaginary line. But please share your numbers since you are poking holes in the assumptions of several other posters.

Yes, I will confess my kid goes to a local, non-magnet school. But she is "put out of school", as you put it, because up county weather made her miss a day of school today. A 2 hour delay would have sufficed here. So are probably 50-100,000 other kids who could have gone to school today. Where's the equity in that?

Anonymous wrote:Where I grew up you followed the city your school was in. If your town was closed and your school's town was open and you couldn't get in, it was an excused absence. It really wasn't a big deal and happened only rarely.

As for transportation, I like the idea of simply announcing no cross-zone transportation provided for closings. (Of course the easiest solution is no cross-zone attendance to begin with which would mean restructuring a few magnets) Parents could take their kids themselves, transport them to a central pickup in zone, or take the absence.

It sure is nice to be affluent and be able to assume that everybody is like you, isn't it?

And if some poor kids don't get to go to school, well, they're not your kids, so who cares?

Where I grew up you followed the city your school was in. If your town was closed and your school's town was open and you couldn't get in, it was an excused absence. It really wasn't a big deal and happened only rarely.

As for transportation, I like the idea of simply announcing no cross-zone transportation provided for closings. (Of course the easiest solution is no cross-zone attendance to begin with which would mean restructuring a few magnets) Parents could take their kids themselves, transport them to a central pickup in zone, or take the absence.

Maybe the people who say that it wouldn't put a large number of children out of school should first find out what the numbers actually are.

And also state right out that it wouldn't be their children who would be put out of school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sure. They can just say on those days when one zone is closed and the other isn't that there is no cross county bus service. Parents can drive on those days, or find alternative transport, or yes, miss a day of school. DC doesn't provide bus service and they (sort of) fulfill their responsibilities to their students. The numbers who would really be traveling across a county dividing line would be small and should 100,000 kids stay home so that 100 can ride the school bus (who knows exactly what the numbers are - the magnet programs are all pretty small and the numbers coming from far away even smaller)? Or maybe the county continues to regionalize the magnet schools and keeps kids within zone 1 and zone 2- seems like they are starting to move in that direction anyway.

Evidently equity is not one of your main priorities. Especially when it concerns (I'm inferring) other people's children.

Also your numbers are wrong.

So what are the right numbers? I am figuring there might be 100,000 in the down county area and 50,000 in the up county area. I don't know how many might be going from up to down and vice versa. There aren't that many kids in the countywide magnet programs. And parents are already required to get their kids to the central bus pickup in the outer county areas so need to be available for transporting their kids as it is. This would apply maybe 2-3 days a year?

There are 151,000 students in Montgomery County and it seems that disadvantaging 150,000 so maybe 1,000 are not inconvenienced is pretty inequitable. But that is just me. How many kids travel from Damascus to say Blair? Does it really make any sense to keep everyone home so they are treated the same? There are a lot of good things about having a large county school but the crazy school closure policy is not one of them.

Anonymous wrote:

Sure. They can just say on those days when one zone is closed and the other isn't that there is no cross county bus service. Parents can drive on those days, or find alternative transport, or yes, miss a day of school. DC doesn't provide bus service and they (sort of) fulfill their responsibilities to their students. The numbers who would really be traveling across a county dividing line would be small and should 100,000 kids stay home so that 100 can ride the school bus (who knows exactly what the numbers are - the magnet programs are all pretty small and the numbers coming from far away even smaller)? Or maybe the county continues to regionalize the magnet schools and keeps kids within zone 1 and zone 2- seems like they are starting to move in that direction anyway.

Evidently equity is not one of your main priorities. Especially when it concerns (I'm inferring) other people's children.

Also your numbers are wrong.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how do we lobby to at least split the county in two for weather-related emergencies? (In two halves--north/south or urban/rural--I just think the county is too large to have one decision govern all schools). Who's in charge of that? And how do we deal with the teacher who lives, in say, Gaithersburg, but who teaches in Bethesda? Her kids' schools would be closed but she'd have to come and teach my children in Bethesda?

How do we deal with the kid who lives in, say, Gaithersburg, but who goes to school in Bethesda?

Does that happen? Seems like there aren't any magnet schools in Bethesda, they are all overcrowded local schools. In any event Gaithersburg and Bethesda would be probably be in the same zone. It's places like Poolesville and Clarksburg that tend to have different weather patterns.

It would have to be like private schools. They base decisions on where the majority of their students live. Sure they may have a few who live farther out but those aren't the ones driving the decision.

Fine. How do we deal with the kid who lives in Damascus and goes to school in Silver Spring? How do we deal with the kid who lives in Germantown and goes to school in Rockville? How do we deal with the kid who lives in Gaithersburg and goes to school in Poolesville? Yes, that happens. And unlike in private schools, they get there by school bus. Do you think that MCPS would be fulfilling its responsibilities if it told the kid who lives in [one of those places that might as well be Mongolia to you] and goes to school in [places near you] that school is open, but the kid either has to get a ride there, or miss a day of school?

Sure. They can just say on those days when one zone is closed and the other isn't that there is no cross county bus service. Parents can drive on those days, or find alternative transport, or yes, miss a day of school. DC doesn't provide bus service and they (sort of) fulfill their responsibilities to their students. The numbers who would really be traveling across a county dividing line would be small and should 100,000 kids stay home so that 100 can ride the school bus (who knows exactly what the numbers are - the magnet programs are all pretty small and the numbers coming from far away even smaller)? Or maybe the county continues to regionalize the magnet schools and keeps kids within zone 1 and zone 2- seems like they are starting to move in that direction anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how do we lobby to at least split the county in two for weather-related emergencies? (In two halves--north/south or urban/rural--I just think the county is too large to have one decision govern all schools). Who's in charge of that? And how do we deal with the teacher who lives, in say, Gaithersburg, but who teaches in Bethesda? Her kids' schools would be closed but she'd have to come and teach my children in Bethesda?

How do we deal with the kid who lives in, say, Gaithersburg, but who goes to school in Bethesda?

Does that happen? Seems like there aren't any magnet schools in Bethesda, they are all overcrowded local schools. In any event Gaithersburg and Bethesda would be probably be in the same zone. It's places like Poolesville and Clarksburg that tend to have different weather patterns.

It would have to be like private schools. They base decisions on where the majority of their students live. Sure they may have a few who live farther out but those aren't the ones driving the decision.

Fine. How do we deal with the kid who lives in Damascus and goes to school in Silver Spring? How do we deal with the kid who lives in Germantown and goes to school in Rockville? How do we deal with the kid who lives in Gaithersburg and goes to school in Poolesville? Yes, that happens. And unlike in private schools, they get there by school bus. Do you think that MCPS would be fulfilling its responsibilities if it told the kid who lives in [one of those places that might as well be Mongolia to you] and goes to school in [places near you] that school is open, but the kid either has to get a ride there, or miss a day of school?

I didn't. I don't think the county govt. model is doing MD and its residents any favors, though.

Anonymous wrote:The county school board model used in this area seems inefficient. Where I grew up, each city managed its own schools and had its own school board. In this case of particularly small suburbs or towns, a couple would create one school district (for example, towns like Greenbelt/Berwyn Hts/College Park would likely combine to make up one district).

It's ridiculous that Silver Spring and Damascus are in the same district.

Evidently you didn't grow up in Maryland.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how do we lobby to at least split the county in two for weather-related emergencies? (In two halves--north/south or urban/rural--I just think the county is too large to have one decision govern all schools). Who's in charge of that? And how do we deal with the teacher who lives, in say, Gaithersburg, but who teaches in Bethesda? Her kids' schools would be closed but she'd have to come and teach my children in Bethesda?

How do we deal with the kid who lives in, say, Gaithersburg, but who goes to school in Bethesda?

Does that happen? Seems like there aren't any magnet schools in Bethesda, they are all overcrowded local schools. In any event Gaithersburg and Bethesda would be probably be in the same zone. It's places like Poolesville and Clarksburg that tend to have different weather patterns.

It would have to be like private schools. They base decisions on where the majority of their students live. Sure they may have a few who live farther out but those aren't the ones driving the decision.

The county school board model used in this area seems inefficient. Where I grew up, each city managed its own schools and had its own school board. In this case of particularly small suburbs or towns, a couple would create one school district (for example, towns like Greenbelt/Berwyn Hts/College Park would likely combine to make up one district).

It's ridiculous that Silver Spring and Damascus are in the same district.