New Middle School Moves Forward

Jane Ward, RCF/Westland Parent and member of the site selection committee for the proposed new BCC Cluster middle school reports that the committee has arrived at a recommendation and alternates. These recommendations will not be released to the public until they have been presented Superintendent. The Board of Education will consider the recommendation at their March 8 meeting. Remember, most meetings can be watched live on cable or online.

While assignments to the new school will occur later in the process, it is reasonable to assume that RCF would attend due to our geographic location within the cluster. On the one hand, a new building would be terrific. On the other, there are not many site that meet the size criteria for a middle school and at a minimum, it would be a few years before the new school could be certified as an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IB/MYP) school, if at all. Westland currently has a highly regarded IB/MYP. Further the new middle school will need to funded through the Capital Improvement Budget (CIP) around the same time as our modernization. In a period with tight budgets, this is very difficult.

To refresh your memories, the proposed new middle school has come about because Westland middle school is projected to become overcrowded in the near future. This situation will be exacerbated should the 6th grades currently at North Chevy Chase and Chevy Chase ES be moved to Westland. So why would the 6th grades move to Westland? Under the current budget constraints, it has been very hard for the county to provide an equivelant education to those students in a elementary school setting (in MCPS speak this is called "parity").

Issues with 6th grade at Elementary Schools:

1. The ES school day is 1/2 hour shorter.


2. The ES is not set up to provide daily PE (MS students have PE everyday).


3. Foreign language was cut last year in a budgetary move to save money. It was restored at the last budget meeting.