Anonymous wrote:Just sent a version of this e-mail to our PTA rep.

My evaluation of options applies these two criteria as primary:

A) Middle school assignments should be made based on where a student attends 5th grade; this criterion means that the students from NCC &RH assigned to NCC for 5th, and the students from CCES & RH assigned to CCES for 5th, should be assigned to the same middle schools

B) The best way to balance socioeconomic / FARMs / ESOL diversity is to assign Rock Creek Forest to one middle school, and the RH students to the other.

Applying Criterion A.

Options 1, 3, and 6 meet this criterion.

Applying Criterion B.

Options 1, 2, and 4 meet this criterion.

The only Option that fulfills MY two most important criteria is Option 1.

Finally, there are two very good additional outcomes from selection of Option 1.

1) All of the students that were together as 2nd graders at Rosemary Hills are reunited in 6th grade at BCC MS#2.

2) Because NCC and CCES currently house 6th graders, the BCC MS#2 can open with its entire population coming from NCC and CCES. The 2016-17 5th and 6th graders at NCC & CCES become the 2017-18 6th and 7th graders at BCC MS#2. This, combined with the decision that in 2017-18 BCC MS #2 will open with only 6th & 7th graders, means that no student will have to experience two different middle schools.

What are the problems with Option 1?

FIRST PROBLEM: The capacity utilization of BCC MS #2 is slightly less than the capacity utilization of Westland. The only option with closer capacity utilizations is Option 2, which violates my Criterion B by sending RH students to Westland and NCC/CCES to BCC MS#2.


SECOND PROBLEM: Rock Creek Forest is an "island" surrounded by students from RH, CCES, and NCC who attend a different middle school. Note that Criterion B almost guarantees that either RCF or RH will have "island" status within the BCC cluster for the MS years.

THIRD PROBLEM: I would anticipate opposition from some families in the CCES neighborhood who put a higher value on proximity of their particular home to middle school that they do on either Criterion A or Criterion B. For some (not all) portions of CCES, Westland is closer than BCC MS#2.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think both NCC and CCES, all of Rosemary Hills, have had it uniquely hard and I do not mind saying so at all. In fact, I feel the administration needs to be made aware of it. I hope it by being vocal, it stops them from making another mistake in boundaries.

I'll give just a taste of some of the things we've gone through. For example, my CCES son spent the last 2 months of second grade crying his his eyes out with major anxiety over leaving his NCC friends. The separation anxiety of leaving his friends since he was 5 completely overwelmed him his school work and his life at home suffered. Among RHPS kids, the split is all they talk about that last year. They know and are not ok with it. Just so happened that his classes at RHPS were always primarily NCC kids and they became very close as kids at a tender age do.

Or how about the time RHPS lost my 5 year old when he boarded the wrong bus?. And we couldn't find him. With so many buses going so many different directions so many miles apart it was terrifying.

Or about how one if my sons got so bus sick from his route because it was so long hat he started wearing motion sickness arm bands and when those failed we started driving him to another stop closer to the school instead of walking to the stop closer to our house.

Or not being able to go to both my third grader and kindergartners Halloween parades or parties and the schools won't stagger the parties so parents can go to both?. The tearsfor this reason alone in so many households is a common theme among RHPS parents. Should I go on?. The list is quite long and it's not exclusive to my household. MCOS needs to take these things into consideration in the new middle. Speaking up makes them aware even if you gind it distasteful or it makes you uncomfortable.

I was kind of with you until you mentioned you not attending a during school party as a hardship... Give me a break. Most kids will never ever see the parents during school hours.

Anonymous wrote:I think both NCC and CCES, all of Rosemary Hills, have had it uniquely hard and I do not mind saying so at all. In fact, I feel the administration needs to be made aware of it. I hope it by being vocal, it stops them from making another mistake in boundaries.

I'll give just a taste of some of the things we've gone through. For example, my CCES son spent the last 2 months of second grade crying his his eyes out with major anxiety over leaving his NCC friends. The separation anxiety of leaving his friends since he was 5 completely overwelmed him his school work and his life at home suffered. Among RHPS kids, the split is all they talk about that last year. They know and are not ok with it. Just so happened that his classes at RHPS were always primarily NCC kids and they became very close as kids at a tender age do.

Or how about the time RHPS lost my 5 year old when he boarded the wrong bus?. And we couldn't find him. With so many buses going so many different directions so many miles apart it was terrifying.

Or about how one if my sons got so bus sick from his route because it was so long hat he started wearing motion sickness arm bands and when those failed we started driving him to another stop closer to the school instead of walking to the stop closer to our house.

Or not being able to go to both my third grader and kindergartners Halloween parades or parties and the schools won't stagger the parties so parents can go to both?. The tearsfor this reason alone in so many households is a common theme among RHPS parents. Should I go on?. The list is quite long and it's not exclusive to my household. MCOS needs to take these things into consideration in the new middle. Speaking up makes them aware even if you gind it distasteful or it makes you uncomfortable.

Anonymous wrote:

I would assume they already know too but the new Super will make the final call in the Fall. Though they act like all options are still on the table at the meetings. This was just the first round of options with our split articulations. Though I would argue that dividing CCES and NCC IS splitting the RHPS articulation. Unless they are going to do away with RHPS splitting into CCES and NCC altogether and have three separate community K-5 elementary schools like everyone else has the luxury of having. If they split CCES and NCC at middle schools, the RHPS communities should rise up and demand a reversal of the RHPS boundary because it no longer makes sense or serves the communities properly without a binding middle school.

Anonymous wrote:Presumably MCPS and the BOE already know what path they prefer. Even if you've got a great argument for why one proposal is better, I assume they've already made up their minds. Is there a sense for which way they're leaning?

Anonymous wrote:yes, it does fracture the RHPS community, at least for the first 6th and 7th graders. Remember, a good chunk of BE kids went to RHPS too. Those kids already had it harder than the CCES or NCCES kids, because they went K-2 at Rosemary Hills, then had to integrate into a new school as a small group, since BE had many kids there who started in Kindergarten. The other two schools only start in 3rd and are populated mostly by RHPS kids. I think BE should be assigned to the same middle school as either NCCES or CCES for that reason.

Anonymous wrote:yes, it does fracture the RHPS community, at least for the first 6th and 7th graders. Remember, a good chunk of BE kids went to RHPS too. Those kids already had it harder than the CCES or NCCES kids, because they went K-2 at Rosemary Hills, then had to integrate into a new school as a small group, since BE had many kids there who started in Kindergarten. The other two schools only start in 3rd and are populated mostly by RHPS kids. I think BE should be assigned to the same middle school as either NCCES or CCES for that reason.