Montgomery County Public Schools officials responded strongly Tuesday to news reports that they’re considering school boundary changes as a way to address the achievement gap.
The school system issued a press release that says there are “no imminent plans to pursue boundary changes across the district” in response to the reports.
The County Council’s education committee held a three hour-plus discussion of achievement gap issues with Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr and Board of Education president Phil Kauffmann on Monday. The discussion focused on how to raise the performance of Hispanic and black students in county schools to match the performance of their white and Asian peers. The issue was detailed in an April Office of Legislative Oversight report.
But what was reported Monday by the likes of The Washington Post and WAMU 88.5 centered on a brief clash between the superintendent and some councilmembers over whether redrawing school boundaries could help close the achievement gap.
After Councilmembers Craig Rice, Nancy Navarro and Cherri Branson brought up boundary changes as one way to possibly address the achievement gap, Starr responded by saying “at no time did we say boundaries are off limits.”
On Tuesday though, officials clarified by saying that Starr and Kauffman have no immediate plans to pursue boundary changes, although they believe boundary adjustments may be one strategy to better economically and racially integrate local schools.
our 3.5 hr session w/ council today re: strategies 2 reduce gap & prepare kids 4 future is now sound bite re: non-existent boundary changes
— Joshua Starr (@mcpssuper) July 15, 2014
School boundaries are one of the most controversial local issues. The changes often pit parents fighting to keep their children in schools where they’ve grown up and made friends against public officials trying to address problems such as overcrowding or filling a new school.
Gboyinde Onijala, a spokeswoman for the school system, said they’ve been receiving calls all day about possible boundary changes when it was just one idea of many discussed at Monday’s meeting.
“We are addressing the achievement gap in so many ways,” Onijala said. “Dr. Starr and the Board want to put the message forward that they have other initiatives in place to address the issue.”
Those strategies include studying choice programs like magnet schools, devoting resources to schools with the highest needs, partnering with community groups and working with county officials to determine how land use and housing policies affect local school populations, according to Monday’s discussion.