Anonymous
Post 03/03/2026 13:28     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:finally, one person testifying states the obvious: arts will be replaced by AI. why are we doing a magnet school for arts. that's the real problem with woodward. not luxmanor property values


Arts will not be replaced by AI.

NATIONAL IMPACT OF THE ARTS
The creative industries are America’s largest export with more than $60 billion annually in overseas sales. Ninety-seven percent of employers say creativity is of increasing importance but 85 percent of employers concerned with hiring creative people are unable to find the applicants they seek. More than 904,000 U.S. businesses are involved in the creation and distribution of art. Creativity-oriented jobs have gone from just over 10 percent of the economy to more than 30 percent.

Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics


+1
Anonymous
Post 03/03/2026 13:24     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:Today at the BOE meeting, the central office stood behind the Superintendent’s recommendation.

However…to respond to some comments, they propose an alternative to the BOE that would cut Viers Mill Elementary in two for split articulation. The half in the walk zone to Wheaton would go to Wheaton. The other half would go to WJ. This is instead of all of VMES going to Woodward.

Thoughts?


Horrible. In 2 years they will cry that Wheaton is overcrowded and how horrible it is for taxpayers not to fund an expansion of Edison "for equity". When they should have just done the boundary study correctly without inflating Wheaton HS capacity with seats that don't exist.
Anonymous
Post 03/03/2026 13:21     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:Today at the BOE meeting, the central office stood behind the Superintendent’s recommendation.

However…to respond to some comments, they propose an alternative to the BOE that would cut Viers Mill Elementary in two for split articulation. The half in the walk zone to Wheaton would go to Wheaton. The other half would go to WJ. This is instead of all of VMES going to Woodward.

Thoughts?


Seems like a decent compromise.
Anonymous
Post 03/03/2026 13:18     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Today at the BOE meeting, the central office stood behind the Superintendent’s recommendation.

However…to respond to some comments, they propose an alternative to the BOE that would cut Viers Mill Elementary in two for split articulation. The half in the walk zone to Wheaton would go to Wheaton. The other half would go to WJ. This is instead of all of VMES going to Woodward.

Thoughts?
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 09:09     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why not? If the demand is there. How about statistics? Economics? Finance? Some niche.


Because MCPS curriculums suck. Why can’t we have quality courses available at every school? A good normal HS is fine. We don’t need to create these hyper specialized programs so families can self segregate and run the school. Plenty of engineers that didn’t attend a STEM HS. In fact, the majority of people in STEM careers don’t even have a STEM degree.the recent grads with the STEM degrees are the unemployed ones


I completely agree. I wish we all could send our kids to our local schools and know they will get a good education. But here we are and kids aren't even reading grade-level books in "honors" English. They are focusing on programs to try to put a bandaid over the low test scores and poor instruction.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 08:09     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why not? If the demand is there. How about statistics? Economics? Finance? Some niche.


Because MCPS curriculums suck. Why can’t we have quality courses available at every school? A good normal HS is fine. We don’t need to create these hyper specialized programs so families can self segregate and run the school. Plenty of engineers that didn’t attend a STEM HS. In fact, the majority of people in STEM careers don’t even have a STEM degree.the recent grads with the STEM degrees are the unemployed ones


You need STEM classes to get into computer science or engineering schools. It's a huge problem when some schools only have 1-2 in each subject and no clubs. Those kids cannot be competitive.


But which STEM classes do they need? There are only so many hours in the day and years of high school, how many kids have time to fit in electives beyond the typical AP science and math pathways?
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 07:56     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why not? If the demand is there. How about statistics? Economics? Finance? Some niche.


Because MCPS curriculums suck. Why can’t we have quality courses available at every school? A good normal HS is fine. We don’t need to create these hyper specialized programs so families can self segregate and run the school. Plenty of engineers that didn’t attend a STEM HS. In fact, the majority of people in STEM careers don’t even have a STEM degree.the recent grads with the STEM degrees are the unemployed ones


You need STEM classes to get into computer science or engineering schools. It's a huge problem when some schools only have 1-2 in each subject and no clubs. Those kids cannot be competitive.


False.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 07:47     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:finally, one person testifying states the obvious: arts will be replaced by AI. why are we doing a magnet school for arts. that's the real problem with woodward. not luxmanor property values


Arts will not be replaced by AI.

NATIONAL IMPACT OF THE ARTS
The creative industries are America’s largest export with more than $60 billion annually in overseas sales. Ninety-seven percent of employers say creativity is of increasing importance but 85 percent of employers concerned with hiring creative people are unable to find the applicants they seek. More than 904,000 U.S. businesses are involved in the creation and distribution of art. Creativity-oriented jobs have gone from just over 10 percent of the economy to more than 30 percent.

Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics


+ 1,000,000

So ignorant to dismiss the arts.
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2026 14:41     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why not? If the demand is there. How about statistics? Economics? Finance? Some niche.


Because MCPS curriculums suck. Why can’t we have quality courses available at every school? A good normal HS is fine. We don’t need to create these hyper specialized programs so families can self segregate and run the school. Plenty of engineers that didn’t attend a STEM HS. In fact, the majority of people in STEM careers don’t even have a STEM degree.the recent grads with the STEM degrees are the unemployed ones


You need STEM classes to get into computer science or engineering schools. It's a huge problem when some schools only have 1-2 in each subject and no clubs. Those kids cannot be competitive.
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2026 14:00     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:One of the video testimonies was a woman who began by saying she was the parent of a student at Viers Mill Elementary. And she is not. So there's that.


I need to rewatch her testimony. I know she lives in the district and has a rising school age kid. You can’t solely blame her though. The BOE needs to do a better job vetting testimony. If the point of the testimony is to hear from all stakeholders, they completely failed! If the point of the testimony was Q and A with the BOE using parents as pawns, they were successful!


Seems like folks are trying to disqualify her on a technicality. Her child will be impacted by the new boundaries and she has every right to testify and describe herself as part of the VMES community.

As far as public hearings go, no they are not a good tool for ensuring all stakeholders are heard for various reasons. The real problem is neither MCPS nor the BOE are interested in hearing from all stakeholders. If they were, they would be doing outreach focused on listening to people and gathering and reporting out feedback. Instead they waste people's time with long repetitive presentations and online surveys that they use quite selectively to support their decisions.
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2026 12:34     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:finally, one person testifying states the obvious: arts will be replaced by AI. why are we doing a magnet school for arts. that's the real problem with woodward. not luxmanor property values


Arts will not be replaced by AI.

NATIONAL IMPACT OF THE ARTS
The creative industries are America’s largest export with more than $60 billion annually in overseas sales. Ninety-seven percent of employers say creativity is of increasing importance but 85 percent of employers concerned with hiring creative people are unable to find the applicants they seek. More than 904,000 U.S. businesses are involved in the creation and distribution of art. Creativity-oriented jobs have gone from just over 10 percent of the economy to more than 30 percent.

Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2026 12:33     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:One of the video testimonies was a woman who began by saying she was the parent of a student at Viers Mill Elementary. And she is not. So there's that.


I need to rewatch her testimony. I know she lives in the district and has a rising school age kid. You can’t solely blame her though. The BOE needs to do a better job vetting testimony. If the point of the testimony is to hear from all stakeholders, they completely failed! If the point of the testimony was Q and A with the BOE using parents as pawns, they were successful!
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2026 12:28     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:finally, one person testifying states the obvious: arts will be replaced by AI. why are we doing a magnet school for arts. that's the real problem with woodward. not luxmanor property values


While AI will certainly impact the arts, it is not a guarantee that arts will disappear, nor should you desire that to be the case.

Every industry's future with AI is uncertain. The arts could integrate with AI, or the arts could shrink as AI grows, or people can decide human-generated art is preferable to AI-generated AI and grow. No one knows.

However, there is ENORMOUS educational value in arts education in terms of brain and child development. So that broadside was short-sighted and simplistic.


Arts does not equip our community for the modern economy. It's a hobby. Let's have a card and stamp collecting magnet while we are at it.
i

You are ignorant. Tons of brain research out there about how music builds a bigger, better brain. In addition, the arts help children build resilience, grit and empathy more than any other discipline. All those soft skills that current employers complain are missing from the newest workers are learned in arts classes. Not just one-offs or programs in name only, but real programs where kids can refine their passion while also getting leadership experience and using their art as service to the community.
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2026 12:23     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:Why not? If the demand is there. How about statistics? Economics? Finance? Some niche.


Because MCPS curriculums suck. Why can’t we have quality courses available at every school? A good normal HS is fine. We don’t need to create these hyper specialized programs so families can self segregate and run the school. Plenty of engineers that didn’t attend a STEM HS. In fact, the majority of people in STEM careers don’t even have a STEM degree.the recent grads with the STEM degrees are the unemployed ones
Anonymous
Post 02/26/2026 22:36     Subject: Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Certainly enough demand for two STEM related magnets. It’s a big catch all theme.


Current program at Wheaton that they are very proud of is unique and nothing like, for example, Blair magnet program. Wheaton program is focused on engineering and doesn't really have strong course offering for sciences (physics, chemistry, biology), certainly not nearly what Blair has.

So one way to handle this is to continue engineering focused program at Wheaton (sTEm) that will attract kids that like to build things (more practical ones) and open a new SteM magnet at Woodward that will attract science nerds. That way Wheaton continues with what has been a fairly successful program and Woodward gets something meaningful to build on other than pointless art magnet.


Wheaton has a lot of strong math and science but it only goes up to MVC. Blair isn't very attractive to some kids in their magnet as its very limited on flexibility on what classes kids take. Blair has better arts than Wheaton but Wheaton has some great teachers who are really invested in the students success.