OPINION: Beyond Neighborhood Boundaries: Diverse Urban Schools Promote Cross Cultural Understanding

By Lynn Amano and Mynor Herrera, Co-Presidents, Rosemary Hills Neighborhood Association

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of two opinion pieces on an that will re-draw the school boundaries between four elementary schools – Bethesda Elementary, Chevy Chase Elementary, North Chevy Chase Elementary and Rosemary Hills Primary schools. There are a wide variety of opinions on the study, which touches on issues including simplifying confusing school matriculation patterns for the East Bethesda neighborhood, relieving overcrowding and maintaining racial and demographic balance at all the schools. Currently, some students are bused between the Rosemary Hills community in Silver Spring and Bethesda Elementary. This piece is written from the perspective of the Rosemary Hills community. Read the viewpoint of an East Bethesda resident here.

We can work together to alleviate overcrowding and meet our children’s collective needs without segregating our elementary schools along socioeconomic and racial lines. Our current urban school pairings offer a unique social and academic education that extends beyond the confines of neighborhood streets. This is a good thing for all our children, as it gives them an opportunity to understand and embrace their differences at an early age.

This mini-cluster has earned acclaim as a national model for successful integration. We should cherish and protect racial and socioeconomic diversity in our schools. We oppose any effort that would shift the FARMS (poverty) and ESOL (children who do not speak English at home) burden from a wealthy school to those with less.

The Rosemary Hills/Lyttonsville neighborhood invites everyone to support Option 3 of the elementary school Boundary Study. This study seeks to keep schools within capacity and simplify matriculation patterns for East Bethesda, while maintaining diversity in the schools. Of the five options under consideration, only Option 3 achieves these goals.

Options 1, 2 and 5 are unacceptable because they significantly reduce FARMS and ESOL at Bethesda Elementary while significantly increasing them at other schools. Option 4 creates demographic imbalance in the other direction. Options 1, 2 and 5, proposed by East Bethesda residents, virtually boot the largely minority children of Rosemary Hills’ Paddington Square apartments out of Bethesda Elementary to make room for East Bethesda children. Bethesda Elementary has been Paddington’s assigned school for many years, and residents have indicated a preference to remain there.

Option 3 would help simplify Paddington’s matriculation by moving their children to Bethesda Elementary for grades K-5 instead of 3-5. The four-mile bus trip and single child drop-off location gives working parents more time to get to and from work, and allows parents of siblings to simplify getting their kids to school. Option 3 also alleviates some of the need to pay for before and after school childcare.

Finally, Option 3 also keeps East Bethesda’s children together for grades K-5 at Rosemary Hills and NCC, offering the neighborhood cohesion they desire. Some argue that Bethesda Elementary provides East Bethesda with more opportunity to walk to school. However, these children would need to cross both Wisconsin Ave. and Old Georgetown Rd. during rush hour. Most likely, East Bethesda children would still be bused.

Some argue that the early ‘80s desegregation plan for what was then a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Rosemary Hills/Lyttonsville is no longer relevant. It’s true that our demographics have changed and now include people from all over the world, such as Latin America and several African countries. Many African Americans who fought to achieve school integration also still live here. Rosemary Hills/Lyttonsville has traveled a long journey to achieve what is now an effective mini-cluster of four diverse, highly successful schools, and we oppose any change that could undermine this fragile balance.

The integration of Rosemary Hills Primary School brought up the quality of the school and encouraged some white families to move into the neighborhood. However, our neighborhood is still more than 50 percent minority with much higher FARMS and ESOL rates than others in the BCC cluster. As long as Rosemary Hills/Lyttonsville has several densely populated apartment complexes offering affordable/subsidized housing, two-way busing will be necessary to achieve the current balance in our schools.

Moving East Bethesda students out of a more racially and economically diverse school and adding them to one that is less so is a step in the wrong direction. The shift will also have a significant impact on the social and economic support of Rosemary Hills Primary School and North Chevy Chase Elementary. The purpose of the Boundary Study is to simplify the matriculation patterns between our cluster schools (to make each a “true pairing” – eliminating the need for students to join a k-5 school in 3^rd grade) and to address overcrowding. Option 3 is the only option that achieves these goals while preserving balance and quality of education.

Children can make friends with their classmates and neighbors regardless of where they live or go to school. With private and magnet schools so prevalent, the reality of a “neighborhood school” no longer exists in the B-CC cluster for anyone.