PTAs Weigh In on Controversial Boundary Study

The PTAs for Bethesda Elementary School, Chevy Chase and North Chevy Chase Elementary Schools, and the Rosemary Hills Primary School weighed in last week with their official opinions on a boundary study that’s drawing a firestorm of controversy within the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster.

The boundary study is aimed to redraw the boundaries between the four elementary schools. There are a wide variety of opinions on the study, which looks at five redistricting options and touches on issues including simplifying confusing school matriculation patterns for the East Bethesda neighborhood, relieving overcrowding and maintaining racial and demographic balance at all the schools. Currently, some students are bused between the Rosemary Hills community in Silver Spring and Bethesda Elementary, and East Bethesda students are assigned to Rosemary Hills Primary School for grades K-2 and Bethesda Elementary for grades 3-5.

Differing opinion pieces from the community and the community drew intense discussion on Patch last month surrounding the benefits of walkable, “neighborhood” schools versus the benefits of busing some children to maintain racial and demographic balance in the cluster and avoid an “East/West” divide.

But the PTA’s position papers, submitted late last week, appear to complicate the controversy further.

The Bethesda Elementary community largely supported an option that would mean the entire community would matriculate together from K-5 at Bethesda Elementary. But neither the Chevy Chase, North Chevy Chase nor Rosemary Hills Primary school PTAs were able to support any of the five options reviewed. The Rosemary Hills PTA raised concerns about an option supported by the community surrounding the school that would continue busing Rosemary Hills children to Bethesda Elementary in order to maintain demographic balance, worrying it could overcrowd the school. In a departure from the position of the Rosemary Hills Neighborhood Association, the Rosemary Hills PTA position paper read, “While none of the options is perfect, we believe that geographic need should take precedence over demographic concerns.”

Meanwhile, the communities at the Chases placed an emphasis on maintaining diversity in the cluster. “The options provided require a trade-off between diversity and geographic proximity to a school. We believe that economic integration…is a key consideration that should be utilized in this study, yet we were disappointed that no options were presented that allowed for both geographic proximity and diversity.”

The PTAs at the Chases also worried about overcrowding at RHPS and North Chevy Chase.

Read the full boundary advisory committee report here and stay tuned to Patch for more coverage of the study. The incoming MCPS Superintendent, Joshua P. Starr, will release a recommendation on the study in the fall. The earliest any boundary changes could be implemented would be in 2015, following the construction of additions at Bethesda Elementary, Rosemary Hills and North Chevy Chase.