Anonymous
Post 01/19/2025 13:18     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

My 2 kids graduated from Einstein HS these past 2 years (IB program) and go to T20 schools. Few houses anymore in our SFH neighborhood under 700K. We moved here for affordability -- no more!

Who are these detractors hanging out with??
Anonymous
Post 01/18/2025 11:02     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There will also be new middle school and high school boundary lines/assignments starting in 2027 (your daughter's 6th grade year), by the way. So I wouldn't make any huge sacrifices for a given school because you never know if it will actually be the one she'll be assigned to by the time it's time for her to attend.

In Silver Spring?



Yes, all the DCC high schools and their feeder middle schools are included in the Woodward boundary study, as is BCC, which covers part of Silver Spring.


Only the tiniest slivers of downtown Silver Spring goes to BCC. It was a historically black neighborhood and low income apartments gerrymandered into BCC’s zone to integrate it to the point Bethesda successfully lobbied the central office to close rosemary hills in the early 80s when the county was closing schools from the population shrinkage. They only acquiesced when the feds threatened to pull county funding. Funny part is those historically modest homes in rosemary hills are now some of most expensive in Silver Spring (Woodside non-withstanding) and being snatched up not by lower SES people of color looking to get in to BCC for as cheap as possible.


Yes but it's also the closest geographic high-school to many parts of Silver Spring so it makes sense. In fact, BCC was originally part of the DCC until the parents were able to get the county to change this.


This is categoricAlly untrue but you post this on every thread of this topic. Stop spreading untruths. BCC was never supposed to be part of the DCC!

Yes, it was initially.


It was mentioned but never went far or made it to the logistics phase. The school felt it already sacrificed enough and had its quota of silver spring kids pulling down its averages.

It would have become the number one requested school by a mile in the consortium maxing out its enrollment every year and disappointing thousands. The choice in the DCC is for lesser desirable schools not more, that is how the program works in practice. If all the east county kids put it as an option and not 1 BCC kid ever selected a different school what would be the point in putting it in the pool? Look at the schools in the any of the consortiums and look at the schools not them, even a blind person can see the pattern. Now which side of the pattern is BCC on.


Look, I have no desire for my child to attend B-CC, but it's 100 kids under capacity this year while East County schools are hundreds of kids over the max. Even a small number of kids moving to a school where there is room for them would have a material benefit. I'd argue that B-CC ends up in the study for sure, and maxxes out enrollment in the first year.


What did you think living in the poorer denser part of an area would entail. Poke aside one year attendance metrics are not really what capacity planning is about. They have very specific ratios of bedrooms to students and is “supposed” to be factored into the permitting process. They also have to factor in the pipeline of all the feeder and population fluctuations. Couple to a lag in the system it’s hard. BCC was over capacity for years before their renovations and coupled to the explosive Condo growth IBs I doubt it will be under for long looking at the Elementaries.

The formulas do a better job projecting the more stable SFH areas where their resources add stability. The current assessment will be plucking areas for the new schools more. There will be a little shuffling at the edges but not at the core schools that feed into the new high school. Einstein will lose a feeder almost assuredly from Kensington, it isn’t going to lose additional ones to BCC


I'm not quite sure what you are getting at here, but you seem to be suggesting that folks who live in areas with multi-family dwellings "deserve" to have overcrowded schools, and folks who live in single family homes "deserve" to have under-enrolled schools in perpetuity. That's not very neighborly of you.
Anonymous
Post 01/18/2025 10:49     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:I would rent to give you more options if you are not happy with the schools.


Except if you rent in this market, you may find yourself switching HS unwillingly.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2025 14:03     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There will also be new middle school and high school boundary lines/assignments starting in 2027 (your daughter's 6th grade year), by the way. So I wouldn't make any huge sacrifices for a given school because you never know if it will actually be the one she'll be assigned to by the time it's time for her to attend.

In Silver Spring?



Yes, all the DCC high schools and their feeder middle schools are included in the Woodward boundary study, as is BCC, which covers part of Silver Spring.


Only the tiniest slivers of downtown Silver Spring goes to BCC. It was a historically black neighborhood and low income apartments gerrymandered into BCC’s zone to integrate it to the point Bethesda successfully lobbied the central office to close rosemary hills in the early 80s when the county was closing schools from the population shrinkage. They only acquiesced when the feds threatened to pull county funding. Funny part is those historically modest homes in rosemary hills are now some of most expensive in Silver Spring (Woodside non-withstanding) and being snatched up not by lower SES people of color looking to get in to BCC for as cheap as possible.


Yes but it's also the closest geographic high-school to many parts of Silver Spring so it makes sense. In fact, BCC was originally part of the DCC until the parents were able to get the county to change this.


This is categoricAlly untrue but you post this on every thread of this topic. Stop spreading untruths. BCC was never supposed to be part of the DCC!

Yes, it was initially.


It was mentioned but never went far or made it to the logistics phase. The school felt it already sacrificed enough and had its quota of silver spring kids pulling down its averages.

It would have become the number one requested school by a mile in the consortium maxing out its enrollment every year and disappointing thousands. The choice in the DCC is for lesser desirable schools not more, that is how the program works in practice. If all the east county kids put it as an option and not 1 BCC kid ever selected a different school what would be the point in putting it in the pool? Look at the schools in the any of the consortiums and look at the schools not them, even a blind person can see the pattern. Now which side of the pattern is BCC on.


Look, I have no desire for my child to attend B-CC, but it's 100 kids under capacity this year while East County schools are hundreds of kids over the max. Even a small number of kids moving to a school where there is room for them would have a material benefit. I'd argue that B-CC ends up in the study for sure, and maxxes out enrollment in the first year.


What did you think living in the poorer denser part of an area would entail. Poke aside one year attendance metrics are not really what capacity planning is about. They have very specific ratios of bedrooms to students and is “supposed” to be factored into the permitting process. They also have to factor in the pipeline of all the feeder and population fluctuations. Couple to a lag in the system it’s hard. BCC was over capacity for years before their renovations and coupled to the explosive Condo growth IBs I doubt it will be under for long looking at the Elementaries.

The formulas do a better job projecting the more stable SFH areas where their resources add stability. The current assessment will be plucking areas for the new schools more. There will be a little shuffling at the edges but not at the core schools that feed into the new high school. Einstein will lose a feeder almost assuredly from Kensington, it isn’t going to lose additional ones to BCC


There aren't yet any "core schools that feed into the new high school." That's what the boundary study will establish, along with potential changes to the rest of the schools included in the study.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2025 13:59     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There will also be new middle school and high school boundary lines/assignments starting in 2027 (your daughter's 6th grade year), by the way. So I wouldn't make any huge sacrifices for a given school because you never know if it will actually be the one she'll be assigned to by the time it's time for her to attend.

In Silver Spring?


I'm curious to see how this pans out because mcps hasn't done a holistic boundary reassignment in decades due to parents lawyering up every time they attempt it.

Some of the boundaries are bizarre like my friends live behind Blair but are zoned to Northwood


Yeah, and I live .25 miles from Sligo Middle but am zoned to SSIMS.

I hate the DCC. I say avoid it like the plague. I couldn’t afford a shack in the better school zones, otherwise I’d move. MCPS intentionally gerrymanders this part of the county and it awful. Less of an issue at the ES level. But awful, awful, awful at high school level.


Einstein has been terrific for my kids, so maybe you only have a little while longer of hating the DCC.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2025 13:45     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There will also be new middle school and high school boundary lines/assignments starting in 2027 (your daughter's 6th grade year), by the way. So I wouldn't make any huge sacrifices for a given school because you never know if it will actually be the one she'll be assigned to by the time it's time for her to attend.

In Silver Spring?



Yes, all the DCC high schools and their feeder middle schools are included in the Woodward boundary study, as is BCC, which covers part of Silver Spring.


Only the tiniest slivers of downtown Silver Spring goes to BCC. It was a historically black neighborhood and low income apartments gerrymandered into BCC’s zone to integrate it to the point Bethesda successfully lobbied the central office to close rosemary hills in the early 80s when the county was closing schools from the population shrinkage. They only acquiesced when the feds threatened to pull county funding. Funny part is those historically modest homes in rosemary hills are now some of most expensive in Silver Spring (Woodside non-withstanding) and being snatched up not by lower SES people of color looking to get in to BCC for as cheap as possible.


Yes but it's also the closest geographic high-school to many parts of Silver Spring so it makes sense. In fact, BCC was originally part of the DCC until the parents were able to get the county to change this.


This is categoricAlly untrue but you post this on every thread of this topic. Stop spreading untruths. BCC was never supposed to be part of the DCC!

Yes, it was initially.


It was mentioned but never went far or made it to the logistics phase. The school felt it already sacrificed enough and had its quota of silver spring kids pulling down its averages.

It would have become the number one requested school by a mile in the consortium maxing out its enrollment every year and disappointing thousands. The choice in the DCC is for lesser desirable schools not more, that is how the program works in practice. If all the east county kids put it as an option and not 1 BCC kid ever selected a different school what would be the point in putting it in the pool? Look at the schools in the any of the consortiums and look at the schools not them, even a blind person can see the pattern. Now which side of the pattern is BCC on.


Look, I have no desire for my child to attend B-CC, but it's 100 kids under capacity this year while East County schools are hundreds of kids over the max. Even a small number of kids moving to a school where there is room for them would have a material benefit. I'd argue that B-CC ends up in the study for sure, and maxxes out enrollment in the first year.


What did you think living in the poorer denser part of an area would entail. Poke aside one year attendance metrics are not really what capacity planning is about. They have very specific ratios of bedrooms to students and is “supposed” to be factored into the permitting process. They also have to factor in the pipeline of all the feeder and population fluctuations. Couple to a lag in the system it’s hard. BCC was over capacity for years before their renovations and coupled to the explosive Condo growth IBs I doubt it will be under for long looking at the Elementaries.

The formulas do a better job projecting the more stable SFH areas where their resources add stability. The current assessment will be plucking areas for the new schools more. There will be a little shuffling at the edges but not at the core schools that feed into the new high school. Einstein will lose a feeder almost assuredly from Kensington, it isn’t going to lose additional ones to BCC
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2025 23:12     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There will also be new middle school and high school boundary lines/assignments starting in 2027 (your daughter's 6th grade year), by the way. So I wouldn't make any huge sacrifices for a given school because you never know if it will actually be the one she'll be assigned to by the time it's time for her to attend.

In Silver Spring?


I'm curious to see how this pans out because mcps hasn't done a holistic boundary reassignment in decades due to parents lawyering up every time they attempt it.

Some of the boundaries are bizarre like my friends live behind Blair but are zoned to Northwood


Yeah, and I live .25 miles from Sligo Middle but am zoned to SSIMS.

I hate the DCC. I say avoid it like the plague. I couldn’t afford a shack in the better school zones, otherwise I’d move. MCPS intentionally gerrymanders this part of the county and it awful. Less of an issue at the ES level. But awful, awful, awful at high school level.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2025 22:57     Subject: Re:Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:What happens to kids that are already attending one of the high schools in the boundary study? Are kids who will be juniors in 2027/2028 likely to be affected once the boundaries are changed? We are in DCC so it's even more complicated with the choice process etc.


Juniors and seniors are likely to stay at their previous schools.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2025 22:49     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

My understanding is that rising grades 8, 11, and 12 get to stay at the original school. Rising grades 7 and 10 have to move. (6th and 9th graders are all new anyhow.)
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2025 21:28     Subject: Re:Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

I don’t know if this would differ for high school, but when our elementary boundary was redrawn in 2020 some kids moved and some stayed. We got moved from a k-5 to split campus (k-2 and 3-5). If you were entering grade 2 or 5, you stayed at the old school. All others went to the new schools. I imagine for high school rising seniors would stay at the former school and all others would go to the new assigned school.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2025 21:10     Subject: Re:Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

What happens to kids that are already attending one of the high schools in the boundary study? Are kids who will be juniors in 2027/2028 likely to be affected once the boundaries are changed? We are in DCC so it's even more complicated with the choice process etc.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2025 09:30     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There will also be new middle school and high school boundary lines/assignments starting in 2027 (your daughter's 6th grade year), by the way. So I wouldn't make any huge sacrifices for a given school because you never know if it will actually be the one she'll be assigned to by the time it's time for her to attend.

In Silver Spring?


Yes, all the DCC high schools and their feeder middle schools are included in the Woodward boundary study, as is BCC, which covers part of Silver Spring.


Only the tiniest slivers of downtown Silver Spring goes to BCC. It was a historically black neighborhood and low income apartments gerrymandered into BCC’s zone to integrate it to the point Bethesda successfully lobbied the central office to close rosemary hills in the early 80s when the county was closing schools from the population shrinkage. They only acquiesced when the feds threatened to pull county funding. Funny part is those historically modest homes in rosemary hills are now some of most expensive in Silver Spring (Woodside non-withstanding) and being snatched up not by lower SES people of color looking to get in to BCC for as cheap as possible.


Yes but it's also the closest geographic high-school to many parts of Silver Spring so it makes sense. In fact, BCC was originally part of the DCC until the parents were able to get the county to change this.


This is categoricAlly untrue but you post this on every thread of this topic. Stop spreading untruths. BCC was never supposed to be part of the DCC!

Yes, it was initially.


It was mentioned but never went far or made it to the logistics phase. The school felt it already sacrificed enough and had its quota of silver spring kids pulling down its averages.

It would have become the number one requested school by a mile in the consortium maxing out its enrollment every year and disappointing thousands. The choice in the DCC is for lesser desirable schools not more, that is how the program works in practice. If all the east county kids put it as an option and not 1 BCC kid ever selected a different school what would be the point in putting it in the pool? Look at the schools in the any of the consortiums and look at the schools not them, even a blind person can see the pattern. Now which side of the pattern is BCC on.


Look, I have no desire for my child to attend B-CC, but it's 100 kids under capacity this year while East County schools are hundreds of kids over the max. Even a small number of kids moving to a school where there is room for them would have a material benefit. I'd argue that B-CC ends up in the study for sure, and maxxes out enrollment in the first year.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2025 08:52     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There will also be new middle school and high school boundary lines/assignments starting in 2027 (your daughter's 6th grade year), by the way. So I wouldn't make any huge sacrifices for a given school because you never know if it will actually be the one she'll be assigned to by the time it's time for her to attend.

In Silver Spring?





Yes, all the DCC high schools and their feeder middle schools are included in the Woodward boundary study, as is BCC, which covers part of Silver Spring.


Only the tiniest slivers of downtown Silver Spring goes to BCC. It was a historically black neighborhood and low income apartments gerrymandered into BCC’s zone to integrate it to the point Bethesda successfully lobbied the central office to close rosemary hills in the early 80s when the county was closing schools from the population shrinkage. They only acquiesced when the feds threatened to pull county funding. Funny part is those historically modest homes in rosemary hills are now some of most expensive in Silver Spring (Woodside non-withstanding) and being snatched up not by lower SES people of color looking to get in to BCC for as cheap as possible.


Yes but it's also the closest geographic high-school to many parts of Silver Spring so it makes sense. In fact, BCC was originally part of the DCC until the parents were able to get the county to change this.


Ah yes the Einstein parents who “love” their school but just want to go to BCC for the drive have arrived to the chat. Funny thing about about it is there is no chance they are going to slice off the one upper SES neighborhood that is zoned to a high farms school like Einstein and send it to a high SES school like BCC. The funnier thing is if someone could afford Woodside they could have afforded a starter home in Bethesda zoned to a better school. They chose house over school but now have to live with that. Every signal person who bought a SFH zoned for the Bethesda schools could have afforded one the nicest homes or often 2 of them in silver spring or TP but realized there are other important factors.


They just have to reassign K-P to Einstein and Woodlin to BCC. And a BCC feeder to WJ, etc. Domino effect.


Enjoy your fever dream while you can but remember to enjoy sending your kids to Einstein more. But don’t forget you have school choice in the consortium, maybe your kid can go to Kennedy for their Spanish immersion program.


It's no fever dream, it's the most realistic option. I have no dog in the fight, as my youngest graduates next year.


It’s not realistic or ever going to happen. Some schools will be pointed to Woodward. No school is going to be pointed to BCC. Literally no one is talking about that except people who resent being zoned for Einstein when they think their neighborhood deserves a better cohort driven by their own insecurities.



I think you'll be surprised when the options come out. They included BCC and Whitman in the study in order to be able to shift school boundaries to the west in a more gradual way.
Anonymous
Post 01/05/2025 22:54     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There will also be new middle school and high school boundary lines/assignments starting in 2027 (your daughter's 6th grade year), by the way. So I wouldn't make any huge sacrifices for a given school because you never know if it will actually be the one she'll be assigned to by the time it's time for her to attend.

In Silver Spring?





Yes, all the DCC high schools and their feeder middle schools are included in the Woodward boundary study, as is BCC, which covers part of Silver Spring.


Only the tiniest slivers of downtown Silver Spring goes to BCC. It was a historically black neighborhood and low income apartments gerrymandered into BCC’s zone to integrate it to the point Bethesda successfully lobbied the central office to close rosemary hills in the early 80s when the county was closing schools from the population shrinkage. They only acquiesced when the feds threatened to pull county funding. Funny part is those historically modest homes in rosemary hills are now some of most expensive in Silver Spring (Woodside non-withstanding) and being snatched up not by lower SES people of color looking to get in to BCC for as cheap as possible.


Yes but it's also the closest geographic high-school to many parts of Silver Spring so it makes sense. In fact, BCC was originally part of the DCC until the parents were able to get the county to change this.


Ah yes the Einstein parents who “love” their school but just want to go to BCC for the drive have arrived to the chat. Funny thing about about it is there is no chance they are going to slice off the one upper SES neighborhood that is zoned to a high farms school like Einstein and send it to a high SES school like BCC. The funnier thing is if someone could afford Woodside they could have afforded a starter home in Bethesda zoned to a better school. They chose house over school but now have to live with that. Every signal person who bought a SFH zoned for the Bethesda schools could have afforded one the nicest homes or often 2 of them in silver spring or TP but realized there are other important factors.


They just have to reassign K-P to Einstein and Woodlin to BCC. And a BCC feeder to WJ, etc. Domino effect.


Enjoy your fever dream while you can but remember to enjoy sending your kids to Einstein more. But don’t forget you have school choice in the consortium, maybe your kid can go to Kennedy for their Spanish immersion program.


It's no fever dream, it's the most realistic option. I have no dog in the fight, as my youngest graduates next year.


It’s not realistic or ever going to happen. Some schools will be pointed to Woodward. No school is going to be pointed to BCC. Literally no one is talking about that except people who resent being zoned for Einstein when they think their neighborhood deserves a better cohort driven by their own insecurities.

Anonymous
Post 01/05/2025 12:48     Subject: Please explain how Silver Spring high school assignments work

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There will also be new middle school and high school boundary lines/assignments starting in 2027 (your daughter's 6th grade year), by the way. So I wouldn't make any huge sacrifices for a given school because you never know if it will actually be the one she'll be assigned to by the time it's time for her to attend.

In Silver Spring?


Yes, all the DCC high schools and their feeder middle schools are included in the Woodward boundary study, as is BCC, which covers part of Silver Spring.


Only the tiniest slivers of downtown Silver Spring goes to BCC. It was a historically black neighborhood and low income apartments gerrymandered into BCC’s zone to integrate it to the point Bethesda successfully lobbied the central office to close rosemary hills in the early 80s when the county was closing schools from the population shrinkage. They only acquiesced when the feds threatened to pull county funding. Funny part is those historically modest homes in rosemary hills are now some of most expensive in Silver Spring (Woodside non-withstanding) and being snatched up not by lower SES people of color looking to get in to BCC for as cheap as possible.


Yes but it's also the closest geographic high-school to many parts of Silver Spring so it makes sense. In fact, BCC was originally part of the DCC until the parents were able to get the county to change this.


Ah yes the Einstein parents who “love” their school but just want to go to BCC for the drive have arrived to the chat. Funny thing about about it is there is no chance they are going to slice off the one upper SES neighborhood that is zoned to a high farms school like Einstein and send it to a high SES school like BCC. The funnier thing is if someone could afford Woodside they could have afforded a starter home in Bethesda zoned to a better school. They chose house over school but now have to live with that. Every signal person who bought a SFH zoned for the Bethesda schools could have afforded one the nicest homes or often 2 of them in silver spring or TP but realized there are other important factors.


They just have to reassign K-P to Einstein and Woodlin to BCC. And a BCC feeder to WJ, etc. Domino effect.


Enjoy your fever dream while you can but remember to enjoy sending your kids to Einstein more. But don’t forget you have school choice in the consortium, maybe your kid can go to Kennedy for their Spanish immersion program.


It's no fever dream, it's the most realistic option. I have no dog in the fight, as my youngest graduates next year.