Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was not a fan of the UMBC graduation. It felt very unspecial. Maybe especially so because we had the morning slot in the middle of the week -- we had to get up really really early and fight rush hour traiffc and didn't invite the younger sibs or aunts/uncles because it would have meant everyone missing a whole day of school/work (more if they had to travel). So it was just like basically driving out to the middle of nowhere to go to a building that felt like a warehouse and sit there and listen to some politicians speak. I guess it all flows from the fact that these high schools are just so enormous and impersonal. I remember my own public HS graduation and it was a Friday night at our own HS -- so felt like our sort of last hurrah at the school. I had nephews graduate from a small public HS in a small town and they did it basically at the town hall and it was a big local event. Our UMBC graduation basically felt like a very impersonal warehouse. Maybe a fitting end to the MCPS experience.

But in the general gist of all the things that are going wrong with the world, this ranks below the top million things I'm concerned about.

You should move back to your small town and have a "special graduation." This is MCPS. Our highschools are enormous and impersonal. I'm not sure why that is UMBC's fault. DAR is a massive PIA.

I'm not from a small town. I went to a regular sized public HS in a regular sized city, and we had graduation on Friday night in our HS auditorium. As I said, it was my nephews who graduated from a small town. And I never said it was UMBC's fault. Just felt like a crappy cookie cutter end to 13 years of an educational system that started out feeling very nice and community-based but with each year felt more and more bureaucratic and impersonal. But whatever. That's life in the 21st century -- bureaucratic and impersonal. As I said, it might have felt slightly better if it wasn't at 9 a.m. on a Wednesday with everyone rushed to get out so they could get in the next group on the conveyer belt.

I don't know how big your regular sized public HS was but the highschool sizes here in Montgomery Country with the exception of 2, are huge. Would it be nice to have it outdoors at a football stadium on a friday night? Sure; but boy would it suck if that spring rain came in. There are literally no HS auditoriums here at MCPS that could hold all the seniors and their guests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many public schools are moving away from graduations at DAR this year. Not sure why.

Might have to do with the militarization of the federal government and concerns for undocumented Hispanic families with potentially being raided by ICE during their kids graduation.

Really? Is there no ICE in Baltimore County?

Anonymous wrote:The email mentions the UMBC venue is better for accessibility. Did anyone have elderly guests with mobility challenges attend a graduation there, and how did it work for them?

UMBC was fantastic for my parent in a wheelchair. 1000x better than DAR could ever be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Total agree with the post that says “not personal” because for some of us it will feel like a factory and rushed. BEFORE you jump on me - not all MCPS schools are huge. Damascus does graduation at their football field because that is what the parents want. Poolesville did theirs at Mount St Mary’s which is perfect for the Poolesville school location. Yeah we are small towns and want a smaller feel but it was taken away from us because it’s always about the bigger schools.

Totally agree about not using DAR and I agree UMBC is a good location but not for all.

But if MCPS got a better deal by holding ALL the graduations there this year, then it frees up desperately-needed money for the rest of their long to-do list.

You seem to have forgotten that your high school is just a small part of a very large, unwieldy and impersonal school system. Everything cannot revolve around your school's needs, and believe me, coming from a very large overcrowded down-county school, everything does not revolve around my children's needs either!

This is how it is when your taxes pay for your kids' education, without an extra 60K tuition per kid out of your own pocket every year. I have friends and neighbors who pay that much to attend private school.

Isn’t it sad that schools are built so large these days they aren’t personable? Sort of the bigger issue isn’t it? Probably the reason people go private. Wouldn’t it be nice to not just be a number on a conveyor belt and actual feel appreciated after your 13 years of hard work. Kids are literally celebrating their biggest accomplishment in their young lives.

If Damascus holds them in their football stadium, I would imagine their cost is quite low. As for Poolesville, I bet this small town would get parents or businesses to help with the cost of graduation. Those who can’t afford the high price of the majority of housing in Poolesville still manage to have their kid in the magnet program. Many of whom are from down county. Why do they pick Poolesville? Being in Poolesville is just like being in a private school. Yes I know what I’m talking about because I sent a kid through a $60k private school. Also, upcounty residents are just used to consistently getting the shaft because of the center and down county. Only way to fix it is to split the county in half.

One of the big issues is the size of the graduating classes and allowing families enough tickets. The drivee is absurd. Many schools have said the cost of a football field graduation is about equal as they have to rent all the equiptment.

I was relieved to have the change from DAR which is a stressful venue. But I was hoping for UMD Xfinity which is much closer and familiar to us. I’m sure UMBC will be fine though. I just hope our assigned time isn’t first thing in the morning.

I think it makes sense for MCPS to have all schools do the same thing. I’m glad to see they will offer transportation for those families that need it.

UMBC is a little far so just leave a little earlier.

Parking is fabulous. It’s well organized with police directing traffic everywhere.

The venue is huge. You can pretty much get tickets for very large parties. Just ask other classmates.

We had lunch near Anne Arundal Mills and it was not crowded.

Don’t stress about UMBC. It is most definitely better than DAR constitution hall.

We drove from Falls Grove area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was not a fan of the UMBC graduation. It felt very unspecial. Maybe especially so because we had the morning slot in the middle of the week -- we had to get up really really early and fight rush hour traiffc and didn't invite the younger sibs or aunts/uncles because it would have meant everyone missing a whole day of school/work (more if they had to travel). So it was just like basically driving out to the middle of nowhere to go to a building that felt like a warehouse and sit there and listen to some politicians speak. I guess it all flows from the fact that these high schools are just so enormous and impersonal. I remember my own public HS graduation and it was a Friday night at our own HS -- so felt like our sort of last hurrah at the school. I had nephews graduate from a small public HS in a small town and they did it basically at the town hall and it was a big local event. Our UMBC graduation basically felt like a very impersonal warehouse. Maybe a fitting end to the MCPS experience.

But in the general gist of all the things that are going wrong with the world, this ranks below the top million things I'm concerned about.

It is being used to promote the UMBC campus to MCPS graduates as a direction for college. Sending all MCPS graduates and parents up there is to promote the use of UMBC since MCPS grads can’t reliably get into UM College Park anymore. This was set up in closed door negotiations.

Not sure how you know this but it certainly makes a lot of sense. Similar to how MCPS aggressively pushed dual enrolment to boost Montgomery college which was suffering from decreasing enrolment

I think you and the PP tinfoil hats might be too tight

And the numbers show MC enrollment continues to plummet. They need seats filled by MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Total agree with the post that says “not personal” because for some of us it will feel like a factory and rushed. BEFORE you jump on me - not all MCPS schools are huge. Damascus does graduation at their football field because that is what the parents want. Poolesville did theirs at Mount St Mary’s which is perfect for the Poolesville school location. Yeah we are small towns and want a smaller feel but it was taken away from us because it’s always about the bigger schools.

Totally agree about not using DAR and I agree UMBC is a good location but not for all.

But if MCPS got a better deal by holding ALL the graduations there this year, then it frees up desperately-needed money for the rest of their long to-do list.

You seem to have forgotten that your high school is just a small part of a very large, unwieldy and impersonal school system. Everything cannot revolve around your school's needs, and believe me, coming from a very large overcrowded down-county school, everything does not revolve around my children's needs either!

This is how it is when your taxes pay for your kids' education, without an extra 60K tuition per kid out of your own pocket every year. I have friends and neighbors who pay that much to attend private school.

Isn’t it sad that schools are built so large these days they aren’t personable? Sort of the bigger issue isn’t it? Probably the reason people go private. Wouldn’t it be nice to not just be a number on a conveyor belt and actual feel appreciated after your 13 years of hard work. Kids are literally celebrating their biggest accomplishment in their young lives.

If Damascus holds them in their football stadium, I would imagine their cost is quite low. As for Poolesville, I bet this small town would get parents or businesses to help with the cost of graduation. Those who can’t afford the high price of the majority of housing in Poolesville still manage to have their kid in the magnet program. Many of whom are from down county. Why do they pick Poolesville? Being in Poolesville is just like being in a private school. Yes I know what I’m talking about because I sent a kid through a $60k private school. Also, upcounty residents are just used to consistently getting the shaft because of the center and down county. Only way to fix it is to split the county in half.

PP you replied to. I agree with the bolded, but for the rest, I don't feel exactly that way. I am the product of 100% private schools, and we didn't have a graduation ceremony because it was in Europe and they don't have those over there. I look at the ones in the States and don't see the point of graduation ceremonies. It's hours of meaningless speeches and sitting around for one second of walking on stage to shake someone's hand. The gowns are cheap polyester. There are additional cords and medals if you did something extra. Really, none of it is important. The sense of achievement is internal, not external! In terms of teacher rapport, my kids in large MCPS high schools have had excellent teachers who saw their worth and recognized them as individuals, and terrible teachers. I had the same experience in my fancy private international school in Paris.

So, when I say "impersonal", I mean it more in an efficiency sort of way. Larger institutions are usually harder to organize. For ex: registering for courses. My youngest didn't get a class she had requested for this year because they decided to only open one classroom for it, and reserve it for 11th and 12th graders. She's a 10th grader. We had to scramble to change her schedule. This was irritating. In a better organized system, this might not have happened, maybe because they wouldn't even have allowed her to request it - but at least we'd have planned in consequence! All sorts of small irritations like that, which end up creating an additional, low-key hum of background stress.

If a split can make both halves of MCPS better organized, I'm all for it.