Please Read: Woodward Boundary Study -- Update and Next Steps for KP

[Elaine Liao Avin]

KP Community -

The KP Cluster Reps wanted to give you an update on the boundary study -- what this means, what is our overall cluster going to do, and what actions can we individually take now.  We have had time to digest the options and many have gone to the in-person meetings which were helpful to grab further context and how their survey is being used.  Below is a quick recap on the options currently presented and some specific asks of this community.  

• The initial options are not final options, they are more "thought experiments" with each maximizing one of the four main priorities per MCPS Board Policy (1. Stability, 2. Facility Utilization, 3. Diversity in FARMS and EML across schools and 4. Walkability). -- they didn't do a great job of positioning the options in the virtual meetings but if you went in-person they talked more about how it's a draft.  That said, the “options” do show the range of potential boundary lines that might affect our district.  So although these options were not intended to reflect what MCPS is actively considering, we should all assume that any of these options (or variations) may be eventually considered. 

• Options will be refined a couple of more times including revised Options in Fall and final options for Superintendent recommendations in Dec 2025 (overall timeline posted on website).  With this clarification, it’s important that members of our community look at all four options and provide detailed feedback to MCPS on anything — in any of the four — that is of concern. MCPS and its consultants are looking for that individual detailed feedback to assess our community’s priorities, and it will shape their next set of boundary revisions. We know many of you may have submitted comments in support of or opposition to these first four options, as if one of these might be picked as the basis for the new boundaries. But they are looking for specific issues we see in all of them. (See below for notes on submitting / resubmitting this additional, detailed feedback.)

• The WJ cluster (comprised of Farmland, Luxmanor, Ashburton, Wyngate, KP, GP, Tilden, NB, and WJ) met and have agreed to a couple of overarching areas of feedback that the cluster can consider advocating.  The three points below are what the cluster agreed to. Doing anything more specific has unintended consequences with other schools in the cluster (e.g., straight articulation is in Option 3 but puts Farmland in a HS further away):
• Looking at transportation study and funding to perform bussing for some of the options being presented and for any future option refinement

• Provide planned programming by high school ahead of or alongside the next round of options that are shared with the community. Many of these high schools have various programming (magnet, AP, etc) and what is not prevalent in the boundary study information is that the county is looking at programming as well (ie what will be at Woodard along with other high schools). We need to have that information alongside boundary options

• Keep/have 7th graders grandfathered alongside 8th, 11th, and 12th graders - this came up looking at current options, if options change we may have different arguments, but right now we think it would be good to do some broad advocating for this to help with stability and community for an age group that has a lot of change happening already

• At some point, KP will need advocate for our specific points - more to come on how we best approach this and when.  Thanks to those who filled out the KP specific survey. What we gathered as themes (in addition to what was listed above as WJ cluster-wide points) include:
• Keeping the community together - have ES kids stay together going to MS and HS and provide them stability in their cohorts
• Strong preference to keep with current MS and HS designation, strong desire to not introduce a change where both MS and HS are completely different.

What should you do now?

I will be closing the KP-specific survey as it served its purpose.  We have ~5 weeks to provide feedback to the options and the consultants performing the study (FLO Analytics) will be holding office hours.  Even if you already filled out the survey, you can revise/submit again (encouraged by the consultants). MCPS/FLO did NOT do a great job of introducing these options with proper context and how to respond in the survey to the options. So with the additional context learned over the past week here is some guidance on how to respond:

• Comment on each Option - It's important to provide feedback on all options - ones you like, ones you dislike. Remember these will change over the next 6 months - so your individual input is very important. I am re-linking the summary created for our cluster so you can see all options across the ES schools.

• When commenting, be constructive in the feedback. Discuss what you like and don't like and you can be specific in terms of making tweaks to making the option work better.  For example, I went to the in-person and offered some tweaks to make it work from a KP point of view. The only way to make it better is to show them what would work.

• Attend office hours to ask any and all questions including any technical issues using the interactive map. That map is the most specific and can tell you based on your address what schools you fall into in all 4 options.  They offer office hours every Tuesday (8-9 am), Thursday (6-7 pm), and Fridays (12-1 pm) until the survey closes (end of June-ish) -- see website for schedule and interactive maps

As always reach out if you have questions or want to get further involved next school year on this process.

Thanks,

Elaine

[Daniela BB]

Thank you Elaine and Cluster Reps for keeping us all informed! I have a few questions regarding the PTA feedback:

1. Will you provide a summary of the survey results once it is closed? 

2. What role does the PTA feedback play versus individual  parents/guardians to the committee? Do we need to be filling out both surveys? Or is committee looking mostly at PTA feedback? 

Thanks

Daniela 

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[Elaine Liao Avin]

Hi Daniela and the rest of the PTA Community --

For the KP specific survey results, I shared the main points in the email - both the WJ cluster advocacy points and the KP specific points reflect main themes coming out of the KP survey.  It was a way for the KP cluster reps to pulse check sentiment so that we could go into our broader WJ cluster meeting to come up with the advocacy points.

For your second question, I want to underscore the importance of filling out the Boundary Study Survey.  This is where you can provide feedback on each option as well as suggested edits.  This is actual feedback that the Consultants will review and incorporate into the next round of refinement of the options. Nothing replaces direct feedback from each individual.  Information at the bottom of my email outlines some guidance on how to do that.  Our KP PTA can serve a role to advocate on certain points when the time is appropriate to do so (e.g., present/speak/email to the Board of Education when there is a forum to discuss the options) -- we are sorting this one out as this boundary process will continue through the rest of 2025 so more to come on that front. -- Sorry if there was any confusion with the two surveys.

[Dan Rathbun]

Hi all--

When folks refer to KECA and Parkwood on this chain, are there specific boundaries that define/divide those neighborhoods?  Sorry if this is spelled out somewhere and I'm just not seeing it.

Thank you,

Dan

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[Daniela BB]

Here is the map for Parkwood. I assume KECA is everything outside this boundary but within Cedar Lane and Knowles. 

Parkwood website is here: 

https://parkwoodresidents.org

KECA website is here: 

https://keca20895.org

[Dan Rathbun]

Thank you!

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 10, 2025, at 1:14 PM, Daniela BB <daniela....@gmail.com> wrote:



Here is the map for Parkwood. I assume KECA is everything outside this boundary but within Cedar Lane and Knowles. 

Parkwood website is here: 

https://parkwoodresidents.org

KECA website is here: 

https://keca20895.org

<DF040D29-FB5D-4A5C-9A53-4CAB8E23065C.jpeg>

[Ryan McDermott]

My understanding is the eastern boundary of KECA is Cedar/Summit, western boundary is Parkwood and northern boundary is Knowles. I’ve never been quite sure where the southern boundary lies but seems like around Westbrook given the Parkwood map Daniela just sent. 

On Jun 10, 2025, at 1:14 PM, Daniela BB <daniela....@gmail.com> wrote:



Here is the map for Parkwood. I assume KECA is everything outside this boundary but within Cedar Lane and Knowles. 

Parkwood website is here: 

https://parkwoodresidents.org

KECA website is here: 

https://keca20895.org

<DF040D29-FB5D-4A5C-9A53-4CAB8E23065C.jpeg>

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[Elaine Liao Avin]

To find the exact boundary in these options click on the "Interactive Map" link for each option and type in your address. It will tell you exactly which schools you line up with in eah of the options.

https://sites.google.com/mcpsmd.net/boundarystudyoptions/home/woodward-initial-options?authuser=0

[Dan Rathbun]

Awesome, thanks!

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 10, 2025, at 1:28 PM, Elaine Liao Avin <elain...@gmail.com> wrote:



[Emily Beckman]

All of the initial options treat Parkwood and KE as one chunk that articulates in the same way. I don’t know if any later produced options would change that and treat them as separate chunks with different articulation patterns. 

The Parkwood/KE dividing line runs between Westbrook and Puller/Ambler. The houses on the north side of Westbrook with Westbrook addresses are still Parkwood but that’s the line. 

He fact that people don’t know where the line is is a reasonable argument that they should be treated more or less as one neighborhood for school boundary purposes. 

Emily on Westbrook

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 10, 2025, at 1:28 PM, Elaine Liao Avin <elain...@gmail.com> wrote:



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