Anonymous wrote:

The magnet is there to boost test scores of the school.

First off, no. That was the original purpose, or more accurately to boost the white population but at the time that was essentially the same thing. It is however, not the purpose anymore. If you adjust for the Blair Magnet's 400 students by using the data put out by the magnet program, which is fairly easy since you just assume all 400 have the same average SAT and subtract, Blair has an average SAT of 1159, fairly high for a school of its wealth (approximately half FARMS, FARMS being the best measure of wealth available). I am working on a publication so you can see how I did this adjustment but for now take me at my word.

The W schools all have lots of AP and other classes the DCC doesn't have. Those slots should be for kids in DCC who don't have equal access.

You have pointed out the solution to the problem in your own complaint, just advanced classes at those schools. I haven't seen anyone, even here, argue against doing that. Besides, Blair itself does offer those classes and a DCC student can, in theory, go to Blair without going to magnet. I understand that that is problematic since Blair is immensely overcrowded and it seems silly to move students instead of just moving the classes.

So...a DCC student doesn't have reliable access to those classes, as the other DCC schools to which they would be relegated under the choice paradigm have fewer advanced courses than either Blair or the high schools to the west -- a much greater problem than that faced by those in the Ws not having been selected for the magnet.

I don't dispute your other thoughts.

Anonymous wrote:The whole idea of bussing for racial balance is silly. Just like it made no sense to try to break up the 10% black population and spread them all over the county back in 1970, it now makes no sense to take the 24% of white kids and disperse them all over the county, thinking that somehow others will benefit from their presence. Especially when this percentage will likely go down even further if kids are bussed.

No one is "segregated" in 2024 Montgomery County. They live where they can afford. Design your school services and classes to meet the needs of your school's population and move on.

The thing is currently we are bussing for racial imbalance. Many kids don't go to the schools closest to them.

Anonymous wrote:The whole idea of bussing for racial balance is silly. Just like it made no sense to try to break up the 10% black population and spread them all over the county back in 1970, it now makes no sense to take the 24% of white kids and disperse them all over the county, thinking that somehow others will benefit from their presence. Especially when this percentage will likely go down even further if kids are bussed.

No one is "segregated" in 2024 Montgomery County. They live where they can afford. Design your school services and classes to meet the needs of your school's population and move on.

Then it's a good thing no one is proposing doing that.

The magnet is there to boost test scores of the school.

First off, no. That was the original purpose, or more accurately to boost the white population but at the time that was essentially the same thing. It is however, not the purpose anymore. If you adjust for the Blair Magnet's 400 students by using the data put out by the magnet program, which is fairly easy since you just assume all 400 have the same average SAT and subtract, Blair has an average SAT of 1159, fairly high for a school of its wealth (approximately half FARMS, FARMS being the best measure of wealth available). I am working on a publication so you can see how I did this adjustment but for now take me at my word.

The W schools all have lots of AP and other classes the DCC doesn't have. Those slots should be for kids in DCC who don't have equal access.

You have pointed out the solution to the problem in your own complaint, just advanced classes at those schools. I haven't seen anyone, even here, argue against doing that. Besides, Blair itself does offer those classes and a DCC student can, in theory, go to Blair without going to magnet. I understand that that is problematic since Blair is immensely overcrowded and it seems silly to move students instead of just moving the classes.

The whole idea of bussing for racial balance is silly. Just like it made no sense to try to break up the 10% black population and spread them all over the county back in 1970, it now makes no sense to take the 24% of white kids and disperse them all over the county, thinking that somehow others will benefit from their presence. Especially when this percentage will likely go down even further if kids are bussed.

No one is "segregated" in 2024 Montgomery County. They live where they can afford. Design your school services and classes to meet the needs of your school's population and move on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This concern now feels a bit out of touch with current economic realities of MCPS. They simply do not have the funds to bus kids longer than required nor to turn potential walkers into bus riders. I do not see them in this economic climate placing diversity creation through busing over concerns such as eliminating overcrowding and geographic proximity. Yes, I think there will be odd pockets where kids could go almost the same distance to one school or the other where the to parents ‘less desirable’ school is chosen but I do not see walking distance kids to the middle or high school being zoned so they then must bus. The issue likely will be the families that live reasonably near more than one school via bus but are not close enough to either to be walkers. If the change in bus ride time is 5 or 10 minutes more or less to go to one school versus another then I would think this would be where diversity as well as eliminating overcrowding will play out.

That's why bussed kids to WJ or BCC who live near Einstein, or the boundaries like Wootton's, where most families live closer to another high-school, need to change.

Does Einstein have capacity? Isn’t Woodward going change boundaries throughout WJ and DCC?
You have an ax to grind with Kensington and that is fine. But really it is time to move on.

To support everyone always going to their closest school you have to also support remixing the student population every time they move from ES to MS to HS. MCPS prioritizes keeping kids together. Do you think cutting .3 miles off a kids commute is more important than keeping kids with their established cohorts? Do you see any school district in the country that de-prioritizes keeping kids together in exchange for such small bussing distances?

DP. I would like to see more frequent boundary adjustments than MCPS has (or hasn't) been doing. When they lease so many portable classrooms to add on to a school when the next school over has available space, that to me is a waste of our resources. Assess the potential savings by looking at the neighboring schools' space first, and only add portables when truly necessary.

+100. Bayard Rustin ES is a perfect example. Opened in 2018 and already has two portables. Anyone care to guess what enrollment looks like at the neighboring schools it pulled from? Boundaries (and MCPS’ refusal to adjust them) are absolutely the problem. Spending *millions* to lease portables when there are empty seats within a cluster is nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:While I’m in agreement with the ideas of spreading around advanced education, I do think, as someone who has intimate experience with the Blair magnet, that the programs have advantages over simply their classes in terms of cohorts of invested kids and teachers. The extra busing cost for the magnet program is also tiny, the yearly variations in gas cost are far greater than the cost of the buses. This is all in addition to the previously mentioned fact that removing free busing would stop the exact students you want to give opportunities to from going to the magnet programs.

I don't think they should let anyone outside of the consortium go to Blair. You all have your own schools or at a minimum, you should provide transportation. The magnet is there to boost test scores of the school. The W schools all have lots of AP and other classes the DCC doesn't have. Those slots should be for kids in DCC who don't have equal access.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But support kids being bussed to magnet programs please explain why?

I feel like the anti bussing crowd that say little Larla shouldnt have to be on a bus for that long are the same people who would happily bus their kid to a magnet program.

I am against all the busing from some areas like Kensington to places like BCC or WJ. Why can't people use their neighborhood schools?

Because Kensington has long been part of the BCC cluster - like for 40+ years since I went to BCC. BCC is the neighborhood school for parts of Kensington.

Kensington has a big geographic area. Part goes to BCC, part goes to WJ and part goes to Einstein. For Einstein, the boundary is the non-town side across the tracks. Einstein is overcrowded. Years ago the Town wanted to self-segregate which is how they ended up at WJ over Einstein. Those kids probably will go to Woodward once it opens.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But support kids being bussed to magnet programs please explain why?

I feel like the anti bussing crowd that say little Larla shouldnt have to be on a bus for that long are the same people who would happily bus their kid to a magnet program.

People who are anti bussing are also anti magnet school being put in silver spring only. They need to put have more magnet schools in other locations.

It's incredibly stupid that the STEM magnet is in a corner of the county in the largest high school in the state, which has something like 24 portables. If you moved the STEM magnet from Blair to any other school you'd improve utilization and maybe more kids who can walk to Blair but get bused to Northwood could go to their neighborhood school.

If a magnet contributes to overutilization of a school it should be moved.

LOL, where would that be? to Woodward?

The new Northwood building?

Anonymous wrote:There does seem to be a lot of segregation busing today that needs to end. Any boundary where half the families live closer to another school is flawed.

it's *de*-segregation busing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But support kids being bussed to magnet programs please explain why?

I feel like the anti bussing crowd that say little Larla shouldnt have to be on a bus for that long are the same people who would happily bus their kid to a magnet program.

I am against all the busing from some areas like Kensington to places like BCC or WJ. Why can't people use their neighborhood schools?

Because Kensington has long been part of the BCC cluster - like for 40+ years since I went to BCC. BCC is the neighborhood school for parts of Kensington.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But support kids being bussed to magnet programs please explain why?

I feel like the anti bussing crowd that say little Larla shouldnt have to be on a bus for that long are the same people who would happily bus their kid to a magnet program.

People who are anti bussing are also anti magnet school being put in silver spring only. They need to put have more magnet schools in other locations.

It's incredibly stupid that the STEM magnet is in a corner of the county in the largest high school in the state, which has something like 24 portables. If you moved the STEM magnet from Blair to any other school you'd improve utilization and maybe more kids who can walk to Blair but get bused to Northwood could go to their neighborhood school.

If a magnet contributes to overutilization of a school it should be moved.

LOL, where would that be? to Woodward?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This concern now feels a bit out of touch with current economic realities of MCPS. They simply do not have the funds to bus kids longer than required nor to turn potential walkers into bus riders. I do not see them in this economic climate placing diversity creation through busing over concerns such as eliminating overcrowding and geographic proximity. Yes, I think there will be odd pockets where kids could go almost the same distance to one school or the other where the to parents ‘less desirable’ school is chosen but I do not see walking distance kids to the middle or high school being zoned so they then must bus. The issue likely will be the families that live reasonably near more than one school via bus but are not close enough to either to be walkers. If the change in bus ride time is 5 or 10 minutes more or less to go to one school versus another then I would think this would be where diversity as well as eliminating overcrowding will play out.

That's why bussed kids to WJ or BCC who live near Einstein, or the boundaries like Wootton's, where most families live closer to another high-school, need to change.

Does Einstein have capacity? Isn’t Woodward going change boundaries throughout WJ and DCC?
You have an ax to grind with Kensington and that is fine. But really it is time to move on.

No, they are severely overcrowded with portables.

+1 Einstein has been severely overcrowded for the entire decade that people on this site have been saying that they need more kids from Kensington to go there.

They need to build more schools. The schools are aready huge as it is. They could easily expand Einstein but creating monster schools is getting absurd.

Keeping school capacity on pace to handle student populations is anti-housing, dontcha know! And redressing overcrowding with comprehensive, but adjacent-focused, boundary changes is both anti-neighborhood and certain to be extremely gerrymandered to the extent it amounts to the return of cross-county bussing from the 60s/70s!

The ideologues from each side are just killing us...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This concern now feels a bit out of touch with current economic realities of MCPS. They simply do not have the funds to bus kids longer than required nor to turn potential walkers into bus riders. I do not see them in this economic climate placing diversity creation through busing over concerns such as eliminating overcrowding and geographic proximity. Yes, I think there will be odd pockets where kids could go almost the same distance to one school or the other where the to parents ‘less desirable’ school is chosen but I do not see walking distance kids to the middle or high school being zoned so they then must bus. The issue likely will be the families that live reasonably near more than one school via bus but are not close enough to either to be walkers. If the change in bus ride time is 5 or 10 minutes more or less to go to one school versus another then I would think this would be where diversity as well as eliminating overcrowding will play out.

That's why bussed kids to WJ or BCC who live near Einstein, or the boundaries like Wootton's, where most families live closer to another high-school, need to change.

Does Einstein have capacity? Isn’t Woodward going change boundaries throughout WJ and DCC?
You have an ax to grind with Kensington and that is fine. But really it is time to move on.

No, they are severely overcrowded with portables.

+1 Einstein has been severely overcrowded for the entire decade that people on this site have been saying that they need more kids from Kensington to go there.

They need to build more schools. The schools are aready huge as it is. They could easily expand Einstein but creating monster schools is getting absurd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This concern now feels a bit out of touch with current economic realities of MCPS. They simply do not have the funds to bus kids longer than required nor to turn potential walkers into bus riders. I do not see them in this economic climate placing diversity creation through busing over concerns such as eliminating overcrowding and geographic proximity. Yes, I think there will be odd pockets where kids could go almost the same distance to one school or the other where the to parents ‘less desirable’ school is chosen but I do not see walking distance kids to the middle or high school being zoned so they then must bus. The issue likely will be the families that live reasonably near more than one school via bus but are not close enough to either to be walkers. If the change in bus ride time is 5 or 10 minutes more or less to go to one school versus another then I would think this would be where diversity as well as eliminating overcrowding will play out.

That's why bussed kids to WJ or BCC who live near Einstein, or the boundaries like Wootton's, where most families live closer to another high-school, need to change.

Does Einstein have capacity? Isn’t Woodward going change boundaries throughout WJ and DCC?
You have an ax to grind with Kensington and that is fine. But really it is time to move on.

To support everyone always going to their closest school you have to also support remixing the student population every time they move from ES to MS to HS. MCPS prioritizes keeping kids together. Do you think cutting .3 miles off a kids commute is more important than keeping kids with their established cohorts? Do you see any school district in the country that de-prioritizes keeping kids together in exchange for such small bussing distances?

DP. I would like to see more frequent boundary adjustments than MCPS has (or hasn't) been doing. When they lease so many portable classrooms to add on to a school when the next school over has available space, that to me is a waste of our resources. Assess the potential savings by looking at the neighboring schools' space first, and only add portables when truly necessary.

Preach to the people in Rockville who are still b|tching about being moved from Wootton to Richard Montgomery 30 years ago.