To get their children into Hyattsville Middle School, parents just have to live in the surrounding area. To get them into Robert Goddard Montessori, they have to apply for a lottery before kindergarten.
A researcher at the University of Pennsylvania found that led to two very different groups of parents, with the Goddard parents having a distinct advantage when lobbying for limited county resources.
In a 2019 study of Prince Georges County schools, Angela Marie Simms found that because they had to go through so many steps to enroll, specialty school parents were more affluent, organized and vocal than traditional public school parents, regularly making their case at budget hearings for more money.
Now, some parents at Hyattsville Middle School and from elementary schools that feed into the middle school contend that school officials were catering too much to Goddard parents when they recently dramatically reversed a decision on where students from the two schools would go next year while a new Hyattsville Middle is built, just one day after making their initial announcement.
In a joint letter sent Tuesday, heads of the parent-teacher associations at Hyattsville Middle and four elementary schools that feed into it demanded that Prince Georges County school officials review their original decision and “provide a public report outlining how and why the decision was overturned less than 24 hours after it was presented at a Prince George’s County Public School town hall.”
Originally, school officials planned to move Goddard students to the empty Meadowbrook school in Bowie so that Hyattsville Middle students could use the Robert Goddard space while their middle school was being rebuilt.
But after some Goddard parents protested, PGCPS announced a new plan to keep Goddard students in place while splitting Hyattsville Middle students between unused parts of the existing Goddard space and the empty school in Bowie.
The Hyattsville Middle students can’t stay put, as their school is being torn down and a new one built over the next two years.
Catarina Correia, president of the Hyattsville Middle PTSO, told the Hyattsville Wire that it made sense to set up a temporary location for the middle school at the current Goddard location, which is currently only being half-used by its 490 students, as a “swing” school for Hyattsville Middle students that could also be used to house future students during other PGCPS school renovation projects over the next decade as well.
With over 900 students, all of Hyattsville Middle couldn’t fit in the Meadowbrook Bowie location, which can only house around 500 students.
The Bowie location is also close to to Goddard’s current location, where students come from all over the county already, while it could mean up to an hour bus commute each way for some Hyattsville Middle students, as buses would have to stop at both Goddard and Meadowbrook, in some cases separating siblings by dropping them off at different locations.
Meantime, parents at Goddard who are active in the school’s PSTA and have two children currently enrolled, told the Hyattsville Wire that they are concerned that the Bowie location has not been renovated to be safe enough for pre-K students and note that it is outside the current school boundary.
“Parents who are not in favor of the move and/or cannot manage a longer bus ride or transporting their three-year-old for 30-plus minute commute for a half-day of school, have essentially been told to go to their local school or find other options,” they wrote.
Other Goddard parents said that the proposed Meadowbrook location doesn’t fill the needs of a Montessori school including that it’s too small, there’s no gym, and it’s too far away and were upset saying PGCPS did a poor job at communicating with the Goddard parents and did not address their concerns when they made their first announcement.
Hyattsville Middle parents are already showing themselves to be highly organized on this decision, and their protest letter was endorsed by Board of Education member Pamela Boozer-Strother, who said the original plan was “a sound decision” and the reversal seemed politically motivated.
Support the Wire and Community Journalism
Make a one-time donation or become a regular supporter here.
