Blair to lose richest areas

Correction:
The May 22 print article "Blair to lose richest areas" cited a misleading statistic regarding the Free and Reduced Meals (FARMs) program. The article stated that "As a result [of Superintendent Jerry Weast's plan for redistricting the Downcounty Consortium], the percentage of Blair students on the Free and Reduced Meals Program (FARMs) would jump from 53.5 percent, the second-lowest in the consortium, to 60.5 percent, the highest in the county." The statistics refer to the percentage of students on FARMs in Blair's base area elementary schools (i.e. future Blair students) before and after the implementation of Weast's plan. According to Bruce Crispell, a senior planner at the MCPS Planning Department, the percentage of current Blair students on FARMs is 22.2 percent, the lowest in the Downcounty Consortium. Weast's proposal does not calculate the percentage of Blair high school students who would be on FARMs after redistricting; Crispell does not predict that the proposed redistricting would raise this number by more than a point or two. He added that the FARMs percentage drops dramatically between elementary and high schools because of the stigma attached to the program and the addition of 450 Magnet and CAP students, only three of whom are currently enrolled in FARMs.

Blair would become the poorest high school in Montgomery County under Superintendent Jerry Weast's plan for redistricting the Downcounty Consortium (DCC).

"This is absolutely the worst option possible for the Blair cluster," said PTSA President Marilyn Shoenfeld. "You can practically see the ‘For Sale' signs going up."

If the recommendation, announced May 14, is ratified by the Board of Education (BOE) in June, Forest Knolls, Highland View and the western half of Sligo Creek elementary schools, Blair's wealthiest feeders, would be reassigned to the Northwood cluster. As a result, the percentage of Blair students on the Free and Reduced Meals Program (FARMs) would jump from 53.5 percent, the second-lowest in the consortium, to 60.5 percent, the highest in county.

Principal Phillip Gainous worries that if fewer middle- and upper-class students attend Blair, the school may not be able to meet standards set by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. "I'm worried about our teachers who are working very hard [to raise scores]," said Gainous. "We're climbing a slippery slope, but now they've made the slope steeper and slipperier."

Shoenfeld shares Gainous' concerns. "If your scores go down, is the government going to take into consideration that your population changed? Of course not!" she said.

If Blair scores fail to meet NCLB standards for 3 years or more, the school could be subject to reorganization.

The consortium will comprise Blair, Einstein, Kennedy and Wheaton high schools. Northwood High School will join the consortium in the fall of 2004, when it reopens.

Shoenfeld also took issue with Weast's reasoning behind moving Blair's wealthiest students to the Northwood cluster. "The reasons for justifying it are totally specious and totally false," said Shoenfeld. According to Shoenfeld, Weast thought that the students in Blair's signature Magnet and CAP programs would act to "counterbalance" the extra students on FARMS.

In his recommendation, Weast wrote, "The FARMS levels calculated for elementary schools in the current Montgomery Blair cluster need to be viewed with the knowledge of the sizeable share of non-FARMS students [in] the magnet and CAP programs. This consideration persuades me that the shift in demographic characteristics at Montgomery Blair High School is not unreasonable."

Shoenfeld begs to differ. "I think it's very unreasonable. I think a 60 percent FARMS rate is the highest educational load in the county," she said.

Shoenfeld believes that the recommended plan will isolate students at the two extremes—high performing, wealthy students in the CAP and Magnet programs and lower-income students on FARMS. "There's always tension between the kids on the lower end of the academic spectrum and those on the higher end.  The thing is, it's the kids in the middle who keep it flowing.  But if you take the kids in the middle out, it's just going to be awful."

Widening the achievement gap is not the only problem the redistricting will create, said Gainous, whose prior experiences as a principal in Virgina have caused him to worry about social tensions. "When I was in Virginia, our school was overcrowded so they opened up a new school and took away the top and bottom parts of the student body and left us in the middle. The other school had fights and all sorts of social problems."

Social studies teacher David West believes, however, that it is important to maintain a one-for-all attitude. "Everyone in the entire downcounty area needs to organize as a unit to fight for all schools in the downcounty
consortium," said West. West also said that Blair still has many advantages over other DCC schools.

Weast also recommended to the BOE to allow consortium students not in the Blair area to apply to the CAP program starting this fall.

Shoenfeld feels that allowing non-Blair area students to apply for the CAP this early is an abrogation of trust. "We were promised that it would be at least two years before these programs would be touched," said Shoenfeld. "There are no other comparable programs in the county."