We walk it everyday 10 minutes -not a big deal.

When I lived in East Bethesda, there were people trying to get it called West Chevy Chase.

One of the legal subdivisions within East Bethesda, encompassing parts of Chase, Highland, Maple and West Virginia Avenues, is named "West Chevy Chase Heights" and has been since the homes were built 70-80 years ago. Other subdivisions there are called Westboro, Columbia Forest, Rosedale Park, etc. etc. But the community has been known as East Bethesda at least since my parents bought a house there in the 1960s. East Bethesda does not have its own tax since it's not incorporated as a city, town or village nor designated as a special taxing district. I think the PP referring to her "Bethesda taxes" was implying that she pays a lot of money in property taxes for being in such a high-priced area and "deserves" to be able to walk to a school with "Bethesda" in the name.

I'm curious as to how many kids in East Bethesda will be walking to Bethesda Elementary now that the boundaries have changed. It's a ridiculously long walk that involves crossing several major arteries. Will BE have 5th-grade safety patrols at the corner of Old Georgetown and Woodmont to help the 2nd-graders walk to school?

I still do not believe Bethesda has its own "tax." I lived in DT Bethesda from 98-00 and never paid a special tax. It isn't like Bethesda is an incorporated city, like Rockville or Gaithersburg.

Anonymous wrote:Not only does Bethesda have its own tax, but its own country with its own language, have you not heard the phrase "keep East Bethesda together"? "East Bethesda boundaries"?

There is actually a medieval wall around it...

Wehn I lived in East Bethesda, there were people trying to get it called West Chevy Chase.

Not only does Bethesda have its own tax, but its own country with its own language, have you not heard the phrase "keep East Bethesda together"? "East Bethesda boundaries"?

There is actually a medieval wall around it...

Bethesda has a separate tax from MoCo???

Your MoCo taxes go to county-wide programs: schools, police, etc. Your Bethesda taxes do not.

Go to the NY or Chicago suburbs if you want to surround yourself with affluence. There each town supports a local school system often with little/no commercial base and residents pay taxes through the nose.

We pay Bethesda taxes....our kids should to go to Bethesda schools...neighborhood schools.....not be bused halfway across the county for someone's "project"

It's clear from the most recent posts here, that the boundary and matriculation pattern for RH is regressive.

Whether it involves busing kids thousands of miles out of their way to satisfy an outdated agenda to splitting siblings off from one another, to considering "demographics and FARM rates" as a reason to group kids together, this costly and overbearing system of busing children outside of their village needs to go.

One person mentioned that there is EVEN MORE busing available to group siblings together in after school programs. [I take right arm, wrap it around the back of my head, and slap the left side of my face with right hand]

BTW - regarding the most recent few posts about people wanting a walkable school, I didn't see that mentioned anywhere other than the last couple of posters pretending to be arguing with an argument that doesn't exist. It seems to be a made-up premise. Nobody is saying they want a walkable school. They are saying they don't want their children bused many thousands of unnecessary miles out of their locality, and further split off from their siblings because of an outdated and regressive agenda.

For example our kids will also be bused nearly 6000 unnecessary miles, and we will at one point have 3 kids in 3 DIFFERENT mcps elementary schools (one of them is special needs). That's absurd no matter how you slice it.

Anonymous wrote:I think the biggest issue for E. Bethesda has always been the split articulation-- K-2 at RH and then 3-5 at BE (which is a k-5 school with an entirely different student population). Almost everyone thinks that's a terrible pattern, and the question has been how to fix it.

A majority, but not all, of E. Bethesda residents when asked whether they would prefer to do RH/NCC (or CCES) vs. BE would say BE. I can't vouch for everyone's motivation but generally I think the fact that it's a single school in walking distance are major reasons. But I also think that most residents would rather have a consistent articulation pattern, no matter where it sent the kids, than have kids assigned to RH/BE.

The question of how to fix the E. Bethesda articulation pattern is separate from the question of whether the RHPS/NCC/CCES pairing is a good idea generally. (For what it's worth, I think RHPS/NCC/CCES is a great cluster and I'm just as happy or happier being there vs. BE).

Thank you for this. It's nice to see a thoughtful post by an East Bethesda resident. Option 3 helped with the "awkward articulation" by matriculating all E. Bethesda kids from Rosemary Hills to NCC. That way, your whole neighborhood would matriculate through elementary school together and would not have to jump into Bethesda Elementary in 3rd grade. This would have been a nice compromise that would have met the concerns of East Bethesda while keeping demographics of each school relatively fair (not balanced, but more reasonable).

Anonymous wrote:One fact that never seems to be mentioned in this debate is that after 2nd grade, all residents of Rosemary Hills, whether they live in the apartments or single-family homes, will be bused somewhere. So what I don't get is why is it so important that East Bethesda kids have a (at least theoretically, if not in actual practice) walkable school, while for all other kids (be they home or apartment dwellers, FARMS/ESOL or not) it is not even in question that they will be bused somewhere. By definition that means that parents in the broader RH community will have siblings at different schools even while they are in the elementary level.

The Rosemary Hills neighborhood is 1.5 miles from NCC. So the difference for Paddington students - being bused to NCC versus being bused to Bethesda - is just 1.5 miles.

Also, regarding the multiple pick-up situation: there is busing to aftercare programs from Rosemary Hills to other schools to facilitate working parents' pick up in one location for siblings in different schools.

I also don't get "walkability" as an argument -- East Bethesda does live within walking distance from a school -- it's BCC. All their kids will get to walk to school for 4 years, just not until high school. Many other areas of the cluster will never have a school in walking distance. All of Kensington north of the Beltway gets bused to school from K-12, as does all of Rollingwood (which, like Bethesda, used to have it's own elementary school until it was closed in the early 80s due to declining enrollment and integration), as well as the area in between EW Hwy and the railroad tracks between Conn. and Beach Drive. None of those kids will ever walk to any school.

I think the biggest issue for E. Bethesda has always been the split articulation-- K-2 at RH and then 3-5 at BE (which is a k-5 school with an entirely different student population). Almost everyone thinks that's a terrible pattern, and the question has been how to fix it.

A majority, but not all, of E. Bethesda residents when asked whether they would prefer to do RH/NCC (or CCES) vs. BE would say BE. I can't vouch for everyone's motivation but generally I think the fact that it's a single school in walking distance are major reasons. But I also think that most residents would rather have a consistent articulation pattern, no matter where it sent the kids, than have kids assigned to RH/BE.

The question of how to fix the E. Bethesda articulation pattern is separate from the question of whether the RHPS/NCC/CCES pairing is a good idea generally. (For what it's worth, I think RHPS/NCC/CCES is a great cluster and I'm just as happy or happier being there vs. BE).

Many people in the East Bethesda area buy their homes based on what the listing agent puts as the school. The agents do this on purpose because is is clearly stated that is it RHPS, some put call school board. I have met several of them who didn't follow up with the school board they just listened to the agent........duh they want to sell a house they will put anything on there

One fact that never seems to be mentioned in this debate is that after 2nd grade, all residents of Rosemary Hills, whether they live in the apartments or single-family homes, will be bused somewhere. So what I don't get is why is it so important that East Bethesda kids have a (at least theoretically, if not in actual practice) walkable school, while for all other kids (be they home or apartment dwellers, FARMS/ESOL or not) it is not even in question that they will be bused somewhere. By definition that means that parents in the broader RH community will have siblings at different schools even while they are in the elementary level.

The Rosemary Hills neighborhood is 1.5 miles from NCC. So the difference for Paddington students - being bused to NCC versus being bused to Bethesda - is just 1.5 miles.

Also, regarding the multiple pick-up situation: there is busing to aftercare programs from Rosemary Hills to other schools to facilitate working parents' pick up in one location for siblings in different schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're then given the realization that your kid will be going to a school that's literally twice as far as the #1 closest school and that there are 4 other elementary schools that are literally *MILES* closer. Why you ask are the kids going to the 5th closest school and forced to commute TWICE as far? Oh, because we want to maintain the success of FARMS and ESOL integration at this #5 school. You do a little math and realize each of your little kids will be bused nearly 1000 extra miles per school year (nearly 3000 unnecessary toddler commuting miles over k-2) to help out in this involuntary social experiment. By no sensible measure is this a reasonable proposal.

At that point, if you don't support the structure in place to ensure diversity in all the schools (i.e., if you want your kid in an all white, all wealthy school), you choose not to buy a home in that neighborhood, or you decide to send your kid to private school. You are full of hatred and psychosis. A true representative of East Bethesda. I take it all back. We're better off with high FARMS and higher numbers of minority students, with you and your kids GONE. Good riddance.

You know the school boundaries when you buy the home and they have been fairly stable until recently. If you didn't want the k-2 or more diverse school in the BCC cluster, there were other options in Bethesda that were probably in the same price point. I also know people that go to our school, not RH but another Bethesda school, that I wonder how this is the closest school. I don't hear all heck breaking loose likely because the school has a great reputation. As for all the parents claiming they would walk their kid to school if only they lived within walking distance, I find this hard to believe. I live within walking distance of a school and can tell you a) most people don't walk their kids to school or let their kids walk by themselves to elementary school and b) if you need to be at work by 8:30 or even 9:00 it would be a challenge when school starts at 8:50 or so. I've seen true crazy boundaries where I grew up where a tiny sliver of the south side of town went to a school clear on the north side of town, minimum 20-30 minute drive, more than 5 miles away, I could see why parents would get upset with that kind of commute.

The people that mentioned not being able to see both kids in the parade or having siblings the same place, I can understand the desire to have kids in one place. The other reasons I have to wonder.