Montgomery County Public Schools has wrapped up the meetings of its Boundary Study Advisory Committee for Richard Montgomery (RM) Elementary School #5 and conducted the boundary study to reset elementary school boundaries in the Richard Montgomery High School Cluster in anticipation of the opening of RM Elementary School #5 at 332 West Edmonston Drive in September 2018.

Over the course of several meetings last spring, MCPS presented eight options for resetting elementary school service-area boundaries in the Richard Montgomery Cluster and relocating the Chinese Immersion Program. The eight options and the Boundary Study Committee Report were posted on the Richard Montgomery Elementary School #5 website for families to review.
The report included community feedback but did not make recommendations.

On October 23rd, the MCPS Superintendent released a recommendation for new boundaries, referring to the boundary study report for guidance.  The full report/recommendation can be found here: 
http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/RMES5_SuperintendentsRecommendation.pdf

Thank you to the following CGES parents who served on the Boundary Advisory Committee:

Parent Representatives:

Monique Ashton: moniquemla@yahoo.com
Deborah Gredder: dgredder@gmail.com
Colin Heitzmann: Colin.heitzmann@otsuka-us.com

CGES was also fortunate to have two RM Cluster leaders who were part of the committee and represented our cluster of schools (CGES, Beall, Ritchie Park, and Twinbrook). Thank you also to these representatives:

• Mallika Sastry
• Matt Swibel

 
The Background

Montgomery County Public Schools will do a “boundary study” in Spring 2017 to reset elementary school boundaries in the Richard Montgomery High School Cluster in anticipation of the opening of RM Elementary School #5 at 332 West Edmonston Drive in August 2018.
Some families from our community could be moved into the new school to relieve overcrowding here and throughout our cluster.

There are currently four elementary schools in the Richard Montgomery Cluster: Beall, College Gardens, Ritchie Park and Twinbrook. The Board of Education has approved construction of a fifth elementary school in the cluster to accommodate overcrowding and new housing planned nearby. To prepare for the August 2018 opening of the new school, MCPS will administer a boundary study to determine the service area for the new school as well as how to reassign students from Beall, College Gardens, Ritchie Park and Twinbrook. 

The boundary study process began with the public information session on February 28. Over the next few months, a Boundary Study Committee with representatives from all four schools will meet to discuss options. At a second community-wide meeting on May 9 at 7 p.m. at College Gardens, MCPS presented options and received feedback.

MCPS will report the boundary study in June, and, based on the recommendations of the boundary study, the MCPS Superintendent will make a recommendation for new boundaries in October 2017. The Board of Education will vote on the recommendation in November 2017.

The boundary study will review the boundaries for Beall, College Gardens, Ritchie Park, Twinbrook, and the new school.  The boundaries for Julius West and Richard Montgomery will remain the same.

The study will evaluate:

 --Moving students from an existing school to either a different elementary school within the Richard Montgomery cluster or to a new elementary school within the cluster, set to open in August 2018.

--Moving the Chinese Immersion Program from College Gardens to the new school or another elementary school in the cluster.  

The boundary study will include four MCPS priorities below, plus
other criteria identified by the committee.

1) Utilization (efficient range of 80-100% of school capacity),

2) Demographics (measured by race/ethnicity, socioeconomics (FARMS), ESOL)

3) Geography (contiguous, and emphasize walking to school)

4) Stability (predictions of future population changes)

In preparation for the boundary study, the RM Cluster distributed a survey to the families in the four current RM Cluster Elementary Schools--Beall, CGES, Ritchie Park and Twinbrook. The aim was to get a pulse on RMES#5-affected communities and to help guide the RMES#5 Boundary Advisory Committee on community sentiments. See the results here.

Information regarding the boundary study will be posted on the following MCPS website as it becomes available: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/rmes.aspx

If you would like more background information, please visit the following

• MCPS Boundary Study Process
• Superintendent’s Recommended FY 2018 Capital Budget and Amendments to the FY 2017–2022 Capital Improvements Program
• RM Cluster Survey