Eighth graders placed in Downcounty Consortium schools

For the 2004-5 school year, 730 ninth graders will attend Blair, 379 Einstein, 335 Kennedy, 333 Northwood and 349 Wheaton, according to Academy Coordinator Susan Ragan. Ragan said she expects the class of 2008 to be larger than the already expected 730 students but not as large as in September of 2003 when there were 909 ninth grade students at Blair.

Ninety-seven percent of the eighth grade students in the DCC received their preference school in the first Round of Choice. Seventy-three students did not receive their first choice in Round 1 and can participate in the selection for Round 2.

The estimated number of students to attend each school does not include students who sent in forms for the application-only programs, such as CAP and Magnet. Ragan said that Magnet students who live outside the DCC and would attend Blair are not included in Blair's population of 730. "Any CAP-applicant students who did not choose Blair as their first-choice school, but who do get accepted into CAP, are not included in Blair's numbers," Ragan adds. "On the other hand, a student who chose Blair but also applied to Richard Montgomery's IB Program could decide to go to RM if accepted into the RM IB Program."

On the forms distributed to this year's current eighth graders, no information was asked regarding the specific academy the students wanted to attend. Letters have been distributed to the current eighth grade class regarding the high schools they will attend in the Downcounty Consortium (DCC) for next year. Check out Silver Chips for more information to come regarding academy selections for eighth and ninth graders.