As yet, the school board and MCPS officials are not free of political pressures. As of early August 2019, the school board had delayed consideration and award of the consulting contract intended to investigate the boundary issue.
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While boundary change is likely to remain emotive however it is pursued, focusing on the process over the outcome could address the most trenchant opposition: a) periodic review and adjustment of boundaries, and b) an independent and binding review commission in charge of the process.
So, are the current efforts to revisit boundary change evidence of an emerging new coalition? The clearest proponents of boundary change appear to be MCPS students themselves.
Rachel Carson Elementary School has been a particularly egregious case demonstrating the need for boundary change. The school has been overcrowded by hundreds of students for over a decade, but the community has rejected boundary change that would reassign students to one of five other underenrolled schools within two miles.
Since the late 1990s, with enrollment numbers swinging back up, MCPS has built new schools in burgeoning upcounty areas, renovated and expanded old schools to accommodate more students, and reopened some that it had closed during the 1980s retrenchment.
Montgomery County’s population is not only principally center-left, but also highly educated and employed in professions requiring years of training and the accretion of intellectual capital. Not surprisingly, they have an absolute belief in the necessity of high-quality education in preparing their children for a globally competitive labor market.
Finally, after years of Montgomery County Public Schools resegregating and the achievement gap growing despite efforts to shrink it, the debate over school boundary change has come out into the open.
Beginning today, Lemon Slice Café is planning a soft opening with a limited menu at its location on the lower level of 8737 Colesville Rd. Owner Beth Yohannes has taken over the space formerly occupied by Dip n Rolls, which closed at the end of July.