Anonymous wrote:I don't really have a dog in this fight, but what stands out strikingly in this thread is the "we were screwed, so others should be screwed too" and the "kick them out" attitude of the CC/RHES folks. It's not you against RCF or others in the cluster. Everyone is advocating for their best interests based on outreach to their communities, and many of those interests are exactly the same! E.g., it's hard to swallow vehement assertions that the interests of the RH low income families are any different from the RCF low income families (by way of attending the closer school). Or that CC/RHES families are justified in pushing for the closer middle, but not the RCF families. Or that CC/RHES is justified in arguing that they shouldn't be split, but not the RCF families. Really everyone has similar goals. And remember, RCF did not get its first choice option either (for those saying the recommendation is pandering to RCF).

To an outsider, it looks like the Superintendent's recommendation was a way to give both communities a bit of what they want, but both also have to give some things up. The recommended choice does seem to prioritize the input received from the low income/minority communities in both RH and RCF - they both want to attend the closer middle school. It also appears to take into account the CC/RHES desire not to be split up. RCF will be split, which was not what the school advocated for.

I get that many think it is totally unfair that the Triad schools have had to deal with attending a farther-away, not-walkable school for a few years (though many say that they actually DO like the split!). I also get that the new middle will be overcrowded and have a higher low-income population (but really not that much of a difference, compared to some of the east side schools). So my point is sure - CC/RHES families do have something to complain about.

But just some advice - the seemingly targeted, bitter, threatening, kick-them-out of the new middle school vocabulary does not do your cause justice. It comes across as mean spirited and blaming RCF and other families for a lower-school situation in the Triad that they did not cause at all. Find a more inclusive, positive way to convey your message. Also consider re-thinking what is most important to you, since it is possible (or likely) that you may not get absolutely everything you want.

Anonymous wrote:I don't really have a dog in this fight, but what stands out strikingly in this thread is the "we were screwed, so others should be screwed too" and the "kick them out" attitude of the CC/RHES folks. It's not you against RCF or others in the cluster. Everyone is advocating for their best interests based on outreach to their communities, and many of those interests are exactly the same! E.g., it's hard to swallow vehement assertions that the interests of the RH low income families are any different from the RCF low income families (by way of attending the closer school). Or that CC/RHES families are justified in pushing for the closer middle, but not the RCF families. Or that CC/RHES is justified in arguing that they shouldn't be split, but not the RCF families. Really everyone has similar goals. And remember, RCF did not get its first choice option either (for those saying the recommendation is pandering to RCF).

To an outsider, it looks like the Superintendent's recommendation was a way to give both communities a bit of what they want, but both also have to give some things up. The recommended choice does seem to prioritize the input received from the low income/minority communities in both RH and RCF - they both want to attend the closer middle school. It also appears to take into account the CC/RHES desire not to be split up. RCF will be split, which was not what the school advocated for.

I get that many think it is totally unfair that the Triad schools have had to deal with attending a farther-away, not-walkable school for a few years (though many say that they actually DO like the split!). I also get that the new middle will be overcrowded and have a higher low-income population (but really not that much of a difference, compared to some of the east side schools). So my point is sure - CC/RHES families do have something to complain about.

But just some advice - the seemingly targeted, bitter, threatening, kick-them-out of the new middle school vocabulary does not do your cause justice. It comes across as mean spirited and blaming RCF and other families for a lower-school situation in the Triad that they did not cause at all. Find a more inclusive, positive way to convey your message. Also consider re-thinking what is most important to you, since it is possible (or likely) that you may not get absolutely everything you want.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a CCES, NCC, RHPS parent and you are OK with Option 7, you need to wake up!!!!!!! Option 1 is the most equitable. You are not only doing a disservice to your OWN children with 7, but think of the next two decades of kids you are selling short.

You are bequeathing them an overcrowded school from the moment it opens with a lopsided FARMS and overall diversity rate that essentially turns Westland into a "private school" (not my words but the words of friends of mine at the proposed Westland boundary who love to the new arrangement because their property values "jumped overnight!") It is board sanctioned segregation thanks to a weak BOE pandering to RCF. Why is the NAACP not involved in this? What about the achievement gap they are so desperate to close? Does it not matter that they are creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?

We have the real kids in need at RHPS. Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills. They get to stay local for three years and then are bused! Amazing that RCF pitches a fit and gets their way about proximity after having it so easy when RHPS has paved the way for equity and diversity through shared sacrifice by busing for over three decades and is expected to give even more! How about RCF participates in shared busing too for three years? They get a brand spanking new walkable neighborhood school for 6 whole years and then they get bused for only three in middle school? Amazingly, under that plan, they still get a better deal than RHPS/CCES/NCC!

This is not "overblown" or "hysteria". These are the facts. The people who have been holding up the Diversity and Equity bargain in Chevy Chase and NCC are tired of being railroaded.

CCES parent here-- no need to be rude-- I am awake. I support option 1; however, option 7 seems fine to me. I am happy to have the CCES kids not be split up as some of the options included AND I am ok with my kids going to a more diverse school. All the schools are overcrowded. Your comments about government housing and the apartments show your true colors-- this is about not wanting the lower income and minority kids as someone else said earlier. Embarrassing.

Anonymous wrote:NCC/RHPS parent here who is also OK with Option #7. It wasn't my first pick but addresses my primary concern of avoiding a 2nd split articulation and certainly seems reasonable even if it wasn't my first choice.

Anonymous wrote:If you are a CCES, NCC, RHPS parent and you are OK with Option 7, you need to wake up!!!!!!! Option 1 is the most equitable. You are not only doing a disservice to your OWN children with 7, but think of the next two decades of kids you are selling short.

You are bequeathing them an overcrowded school from the moment it opens with a lopsided FARMS and overall diversity rate that essentially turns Westland into a "private school" (not my words but the words of friends of mine at the proposed Westland boundary who love to the new arrangement because their property values "jumped overnight!") It is board sanctioned segregation thanks to a weak BOE pandering to RCF. Why is the NAACP not involved in this? What about the achievement gap they are so desperate to close? Does it not matter that they are creating what will no doubt be an overachieving school in Westland and a less achieving school at BCC#2 due to overcrowding, inequity and lack of resources?

We have the real kids in need at RHPS. Our kids don't live in single family homes like RCF able to walk to a BRAND NEW SCHOOL for 6 years! They live in multi level government housing, Paddington, Barrington, Summit Hills. They get to stay local for three years and then are bused! Amazing that RCF pitches a fit and gets their way about proximity after having it so easy when RHPS has paved the way for equity and diversity through shared sacrifice by busing for over three decades and is expected to give even more! How about RCF participates in shared busing too for three years? They get a brand spanking new walkable neighborhood school for 6 whole years and then they get bused for only three in middle school? Amazingly, under that plan, they still get a better deal than RHPS/CCES/NCC!

This is not "overblown" or "hysteria". These are the facts. The people who have been holding up the Diversity and Equity bargain in Chevy Chase and NCC are tired of being railroaded.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Under the option selected, RCF is being split up (despite the success the school has had with integrating the two programs). Under the option you want, the RCF families would "get bused off and used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers."

I'm not sure that's accurate. I believe, but am not positive, that the Spanish Immersion program is not full of ESOLs, and would guess not as high on the FARMS list. Therefore the ESOL / FARMS are going to MS#2 and the Spanish Immersion are going to Westland. No token kids being moved to lilly-white Westland under option 7.

You are correct that the immersion program's ESOL and FARMs rates are lower than the neighborhood school's rates. But the immersion program's racial diversity,at least in the lower grades, more closely reflects Montgomery County than what the demographics of Westland will be under Option 7. The minority immersion kids attending Westland under option 1 will indeed be "used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers." They will be separated from the schoolmates they've befriended over six years and they will be the brown and black faces at Westland. Even for the children from upper-middle class and affluent black and Latino families, this will be really difficult for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Under the option selected, RCF is being split up (despite the success the school has had with integrating the two programs). Under the option you want, the RCF families would "get bused off and used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers."

I'm not sure that's accurate. I believe, but am not positive, that the Spanish Immersion program is not full of ESOLs, and would guess not as high on the FARMS list. Therefore the ESOL / FARMS are going to MS#2 and the Spanish Immersion are going to Westland. No token kids being moved to lilly-white Westland under option 7.

You are correct that the immersion program's ESOL and FARMs rates are lower than the neighborhood school's rates. But the immersion program's racial diversity,at least in the lower grades, more closely reflects Montgomery County than what the demographics of Westland will be under Option 7. The minority immersion kids attending Westland under option 1 will indeed be "used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers." They will be separated from the schoolmates they've befriended over six years and they will be the brown and black faces at Westland. Even for the children from upper-middle class and affluent black and Latino families, this will be really difficult for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Under the option selected, RCF is being split up (despite the success the school has had with integrating the two programs). Under the option you want, the RCF families would "get bused off and used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers."

I'm not sure that's accurate. I believe, but am not positive, that the Spanish Immersion program is not full of ESOLs, and would guess not as high on the FARMS list. Therefore the ESOL / FARMS are going to MS#2 and the Spanish Immersion are going to Westland. No token kids being moved to lilly-white Westland under option 7.

You are correct that the immersion program's ESOL and FARMs rates are lower than the neighborhood school's rates. But the immersion program's racial diversity,at least in the lower grades, more closely reflects Montgomery County than what the demographics of Westland will be under Option 7. The minority immersion kids attending Westland under option 1 will indeed be "used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers." They will be separated from the schoolmates they've befriended over six years and they will be the brown and black faces at Westland. Even for the children from upper-middle class and affluent black and Latino families, this will be really difficult for them.

Anonymous wrote:Since RCF is such an outlier maybe it would be better to move the boundary closer to Silver Spring for middle and high school? If proximity and travel time truly are of tantamount importance.

If I recall correctly were they not previously zoned for a different high school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Under the option selected, RCF is being split up (despite the success the school has had with integrating the two programs). Under the option you want, the RCF families would "get bused off and used as tokens to diversity Westland in a sea of strangers."

I'm not sure that's accurate. I believe, but am not positive, that the Spanish Immersion program is not full of ESOLs, and would guess not as high on the FARMS list. Therefore the ESOL / FARMS are going to MS#2 and the Spanish Immersion are going to Westland. No token kids being moved to lilly-white Westland under option 7.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Huh? At BES probably 80% or more of the kids arrive on the bus. Know a family at Bradley Hills and the same is true there too. More kids take the bus at other ESs than you imagine.

Its not the fact that kids take buses; its how illogical the boundaries are drawn up. Its that my kid who lives 0.5 miles from CCES takes bus, passes by RCF, and goes to RHES. If proximity matters, then break up the triad and make all the schools K-5 and make them local.
But instead, my kid is bussed from CC to SS in the name of diversity, then kids from the Rosemary Hills neighborhood are bussed to CC in the name of diversity.

This. My kids can walk to NCC; tons of kids do. But we spend 3 years dealing with busing and split articulation because the county prioritizes diversity. Except when it comes to the middle school, apparently.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Huh? At BES probably 80% or more of the kids arrive on the bus. Know a family at Bradley Hills and the same is true there too. More kids take the bus at other ESs than you imagine.

Its not the fact that kids take buses; its how illogical the boundaries are drawn up. Its that my kid who lives 0.5 miles from CCES takes bus, passes by RCF, and goes to RHES. If proximity matters, then break up the triad and make all the schools K-5 and make them local.
But instead, my kid is bussed from CC to SS in the name of diversity, then kids from the Rosemary Hills neighborhood are bussed to CC in the name of diversity.

Anonymous wrote:
Huh? At BES probably 80% or more of the kids arrive on the bus. Know a family at Bradley Hills and the same is true there too. More kids take the bus at other ESs than you imagine.