Bethesda Today School Notes on MCPS Boundary Study and move to dividing the District into Six Regions

 Reporter Ashlyn Campbell. To read the entire article go here.

Dear reader,

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is moving ahead with its boundary study and program analysis, presenting four new options for the proposed attendance zone of the new Charles W. Woodward High School in Rockville this week.  

After reviewing the options, which seem to offer a more practical alignment than the initial round of options MCPS presented in June, I spent Tuesday evening at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High listening to parents’ concerns about the boundary study following a district presentation.  

Parents said they wanted MCPS to better explain the changes to the initial options and raised concerns about the potential impact on diversity in schools. But they also had concerns about the district’s ongoing program analysis.  

So far, the program analysis has resulted in a proposal to change the MCPS model for programming by dividing the district into six regions, instead of offering the mix of countywide and regional programs that currently exist. Stakeholders have continued to raise concerns about issues — such as the elimination of the Down County Consortium and a potential lack of teachers to staff regional programs — since I last wrote about worries many had in August. Many parents say the program analysis is moving too fast for their liking.  

Their comments weren’t surprising to me, especially after learning that the Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations (MCCPTA) recently introduced a draft resolution asking MCPS to slow down its program analysis. Superintendent Thomas Taylor is expected to present a recommendation about a programming model to the school board for a vote by the end of December.