Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Because one of the goals of the new middle school was to cut down on the distances traveled by the students. We are not at Westland yet but I live right near NCC and my dad lives next to Westland. It takes FOREVER to get there and back on a weekday afternoon. Keep in mind that expanding Westland was on the list of options that could relieve the overcrowding there and the county chose to open a new school instead. Because the traffic makes getting from one corner of the cluster to the other very difficult. This is not as much of a problem with B-CC since it is right in the middle of the cluster.

Where did you get this from? This site was selected TWICE by site selection committees. It's an odd site to pick (twice), if your goal was to cut down on travel distance.

Not sure what you are talking about. It is definitely not an odd site to pick if your goal was to cut down on travel distance for the kids in the north and east corners of the cluster who have to get to the extreme southwest corner of the cluster.

The site selection criteria were:

Location (central location preferred)
Size (20 acres preferred)'
Topography (flat preferred)
Access (primary roadway with 70-foot right-of-way preferred)
Utilities (access to public utilities preferred)
Physical condition (no noisy, distracting, or hazardous adjacent uses preferred)
Availability and timing (necessity for eminent domain NOT preferred)
Cost

For Rock Creek Hills Local Park, the location was both good (far from Westland) and bad (not centrally located).

http://www.montgomeryplanningboard.org/agenda/2012/documents/Reportof200120315_SSACforBCCMS2FINALMarch122012_000.pdf

Thank you for the info/link! It's technically true that a central location was preferred but since the center of the cluster is frigging downtown Bethesda, there were no sites that really fit that preference. The three sites that were most seriously considered were all toward the north and east - Rock Creek Hills Local Park which was selected both times; Rosemary Hills Local Park which was the first choice of the first site selection committee and quickly thrown out since it is such a necessary/high use park for so many apartments/condos nearby in an area with very little green space; and North Chevy Chase Park off of Jones Bridge which IIRC came in second to Rock Creek Hills both times.

How big are the elementary schools?

in 2014-15, grade level populations calculated by taking total school population divided by 4 (for grades 3 to 6) for NCC & CC; divided by 6 for grades K to 5 for Bethesda, RCF, Westbrook, Somerset.

School pop includes the highly gifted center (at one of the CCs) and the Spanish immersion (at RCF), and possibly some preK at some of these school (I don't know well enough) so these numbers are not adjusted for those .. . .

Smallest to largest using this approximation method per grade level:

Westbrook, 76
Bethesda E, 87
NCC, 89
Somerset, 94
Rock Creek Forest, 112
CC, 136

So if you add together CC + NCC = 224
WB + Somerset = 170

If you put Bethesda E with the CCs at MS #2 = 311
which puts RCF staying at Westland = 282

If you put RCF with the CCs at MS #2 = 336
which puts BE with WB + Somerset at Westland = 257


so from these numbers if correct, it seems that RCF, Somerset, Westbrook should stay at Westland.

CC, NCC, Bethesda should go to BCC MS #2.

Otherwise the size difference between the schools will be significant.

I didn't dig out the future projections for school size growth which are in the school summary sheets. The answer may change.

also, could do a split articulation with RCF Spanish Immersion going to Westland with BE, WB, Somerset; and the CCs and RCF non-immersion going to BCC MS #2.

That's a split articulation, but only by moving a specific program on to westland, and the general population to BCC MS #2. It might exacerbate dynamics at RCF that there are immersion kids who are more privileged, and in boundary kids who are less so, don't know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Because one of the goals of the new middle school was to cut down on the distances traveled by the students. We are not at Westland yet but I live right near NCC and my dad lives next to Westland. It takes FOREVER to get there and back on a weekday afternoon. Keep in mind that expanding Westland was on the list of options that could relieve the overcrowding there and the county chose to open a new school instead. Because the traffic makes getting from one corner of the cluster to the other very difficult. This is not as much of a problem with B-CC since it is right in the middle of the cluster.

Where did you get this from? This site was selected TWICE by site selection committees. It's an odd site to pick (twice), if your goal was to cut down on travel distance.

Not sure what you are talking about. It is definitely not an odd site to pick if your goal was to cut down on travel distance for the kids in the north and east corners of the cluster who have to get to the extreme southwest corner of the cluster.

The site selection criteria were:

Location (central location preferred)
Size (20 acres preferred)'
Topography (flat preferred)
Access (primary roadway with 70-foot right-of-way preferred)
Utilities (access to public utilities preferred)
Physical condition (no noisy, distracting, or hazardous adjacent uses preferred)
Availability and timing (necessity for eminent domain NOT preferred)
Cost

For Rock Creek Hills Local Park, the location was both good (far from Westland) and bad (not centrally located).

http://www.montgomeryplanningboard.org/agenda/2012/documents/Reportof200120315_SSACforBCCMS2FINALMarch122012_000.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Because one of the goals of the new middle school was to cut down on the distances traveled by the students. We are not at Westland yet but I live right near NCC and my dad lives next to Westland. It takes FOREVER to get there and back on a weekday afternoon. Keep in mind that expanding Westland was on the list of options that could relieve the overcrowding there and the county chose to open a new school instead. Because the traffic makes getting from one corner of the cluster to the other very difficult. This is not as much of a problem with B-CC since it is right in the middle of the cluster.

Where did you get this from? This site was selected TWICE by site selection committees. It's an odd site to pick (twice), if your goal was to cut down on travel distance.

Not sure what you are talking about. It is definitely not an odd site to pick if your goal was to cut down on travel distance for the kids in the north and east corners of the cluster who have to get to the extreme southwest corner of the cluster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FARMS rates are what MCPS will look at when deciding the boundaries. They don't care whether you are middle class or upper. They care about the number of poverty level students which is determined by the FARMS rate. That population needs the most financial and personnel resources because they have the highest ESOL needs and academic failure rates.

Are you familiar with the boundary study process? MCPS is not going to make this decision in isolation, all by itself. There will be community meetings and tons of PowerPoints with demographic data and committee recommendations based on committee criteria and...

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/boundary.aspx

lol! I hope the person who works on the Powerpoints doesn't invest much effort. It will all boil down to distributing the hot potato of FARMS students. Somerset and Westbrook will fight hard to keep their lily white student bodies while paying lip service to "diversity".

I think it is funny when people use "Lilly white" or "snow flake" as derogatory terms. As if white people could be made to fell bad about being born into the ruling/ownership class of the world. The terms reek of an inferiority complex.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FARMS rates are what MCPS will look at when deciding the boundaries. They don't care whether you are middle class or upper. They care about the number of poverty level students which is determined by the FARMS rate. That population needs the most financial and personnel resources because they have the highest ESOL needs and academic failure rates.

Are you familiar with the boundary study process? MCPS is not going to make this decision in isolation, all by itself. There will be community meetings and tons of PowerPoints with demographic data and committee recommendations based on committee criteria and...

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/boundary.aspx

lol! I hope the person who works on the Powerpoints doesn't invest much effort. It will all boil down to distributing the hot potato of FARMS students. Somerset and Westbrook will fight hard to keep their lily white student bodies while paying lip service to "diversity".

Why? I think it's helpful to have the actual data. Don't you?

For example, "lily-white" Somerset ES is 37% non-white (more than 1 in 3), and "lily-white" Westbrook ES is 24% non-white (1 in 4). They are lily-white only in comparison to the rest of the county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FARMS rates are what MCPS will look at when deciding the boundaries. They don't care whether you are middle class or upper. They care about the number of poverty level students which is determined by the FARMS rate. That population needs the most financial and personnel resources because they have the highest ESOL needs and academic failure rates.

Are you familiar with the boundary study process? MCPS is not going to make this decision in isolation, all by itself. There will be community meetings and tons of PowerPoints with demographic data and committee recommendations based on committee criteria and...

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/boundary.aspx

lol! I hope the person who works on the Powerpoints doesn't invest much effort. It will all boil down to distributing the hot potato of FARMS students. Somerset and Westbrook will fight hard to keep their lily white student bodies while paying lip service to "diversity".

Anonymous wrote:

A poster has written about the diversity the new apartments in Bethesda will bring. Families living at or below the FARMS rate are not going to be residents of those very expensive high rise apartments.

12.5-15% of those units will be MPDUs. Some people who qualify for FARMS earn enough to qualify for the MPDU program.

Anonymous wrote:FARMS rates are what MCPS will look at when deciding the boundaries. They don't care whether you are middle class or upper. They care about the number of poverty level students which is determined by the FARMS rate. That population needs the most financial and personnel resources because they have the highest ESOL needs and academic failure rates.

Are you familiar with the boundary study process? MCPS is not going to make this decision in isolation, all by itself. There will be community meetings and tons of PowerPoints with demographic data and committee recommendations based on committee criteria and...

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/boundary.aspx

FARMS rates are what MCPS will look at when deciding the boundaries. They don't care whether you are middle class or upper. They care about the number of poverty level students which is determined by the FARMS rate. That population needs the most financial and personnel resources because they have the highest ESOL needs and academic failure rates.

Each school contributes around 80 to 100 students.

Westbrook <5 percent FARMS
Somerset <5 percent FARMS
Bethesda 6.7 percent FARMS
Chevy Chase 14 percent FARMS
NCC 14 percent FARMS
Rock Creek Forest 24.3 percent FARMS

If you split geographically...

CCES, NCC, RCF which have a combined average FARMS rate of (24.3+14+14)/3 or 17.4 percent FARMS rate

Bethesda, Westbrook, Somerset have a combined average FARMS rate of (0+0+6.7)/3 or 2.23 percent FARMS rate.

You can see the socio-economic imbalance that would exist at the new middle school with a straight up geographic split. I foresee the Bethesda, Westbrook, Somerset consortium pushing hard for this option, this way Westland could emulate Pyle with it's lily white less than 5 percent FARMS rate.

A poster has written about the diversity the new apartments in Bethesda will bring. Families living at or below the FARMS rate are not going to be residents of those very expensive high rise apartments.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in the NCC zone and I didn't understand the survey. Can someone explain how split articulation for the new middle school would work in theory - understanding that it's purely theoretical now.

We love RHES, but it does suck for the kids to have bus commutes and get separated from friends when none of the rest of Bethesda is subject to this kind of gerrymandering. So I'm inherently negative on split articulation, but I don't quite understand how they would carry it out for the new middle school.

Where to start with this, "the rest of Bethesda" did you mean Bethesda? Also you realize that Rosemary hills doesn't quite fit because it is the gerrymandered part of the equation. If you think they are being unreasonable you could request to go to your home school Einstein, if people insist on clinging on to something they couldn't otherwise afford or belong they really shouldn't complaine on how they are accommodated.

WTF PP? Our "home school" isn't Einstein. We're in Chevy Chase MD in the NCC zone, which feeds into BCC. I like both RHPS and NCC but I don't understand why this one corner of Bethesda/Chevy Chase is subject to busing for desegregation purposes whereas no one is proposing to breakup neighborhood elementaries in other parts of Bethesda/Chevy Chase.

To PPs point if Rosemary hills can go all the way to Westland why can't Westbrook go all the way to BCC #2.

Because one of the goals of the new middle school was to cut down on the distances traveled by the students. We are not at Westland yet but I live right near NCC and my dad lives next to Westland. It takes FOREVER to get there and back on a weekday afternoon. Keep in mind that expanding Westland was on the list of options that could relieve the overcrowding there and the county chose to open a new school instead. Because the traffic makes getting from one corner of the cluster to the other very difficult. This is not as much of a problem with B-CC since it is right in the middle of the cluster.

Thanks. I'm actually leaning heavily towards sending students from the 3 closest schools to the new MS regardless of makeup of school.

Not going to happen. I agree that there will be some sort of split

Can they redraw lines? That might solve some of the problems...

Ha, what a bad idea. You think this is contentious wait until they try that.

Well the results may be better

They would have to do a study to see how schools can be realigned to make them more diverse if that's what they care about. I really don't care so I'd like my RCF kid to go to BCC # 2 as it's much closer.

Anonymous wrote:

Because one of the goals of the new middle school was to cut down on the distances traveled by the students. We are not at Westland yet but I live right near NCC and my dad lives next to Westland. It takes FOREVER to get there and back on a weekday afternoon. Keep in mind that expanding Westland was on the list of options that could relieve the overcrowding there and the county chose to open a new school instead. Because the traffic makes getting from one corner of the cluster to the other very difficult. This is not as much of a problem with B-CC since it is right in the middle of the cluster.

Where did you get this from? This site was selected TWICE by site selection committees. It's an odd site to pick (twice), if your goal was to cut down on travel distance.

There is no RHES. There is RHPS and those kids go to CC, or NCC.

Anonymous wrote:Better for BCC

You clearly don't know how to answer "How" questions.

Better for BCC