To: Montgomery County Board of Education and MCPS Leadership

We respectfully petition the Board to preserve the current school articulation path for children from Kensington Parkwood Elementary School (KPES) to North Bethesda Middle School (NBMS) and onward to Walter Johnson High School (WJHS) through the Woodward High School Boundary Study process.

Why This Matters?

This current pathway supports the four priority factors for consideration that MCPS has identified when establishing and making changes to school boundaries:

• Stability – It preserves vital academic and social continuity
• Diversity – NBMS and WJHS reflect diverse, inclusive demographics
• Geography – KPES is ideally located to NBMS and WJHS, promoting natural, community-based alignment
• Facility Efficiency – NBMS is appropriately utilized; removing KPES disrupts this balance

Our Community Is Stronger Together

The KPES - NBMS - WJHS pathway builds more than academic success, it nurtures a tight-knit community. Children do more than attend class together—they grow up together. They play on the same teams, participate in shared activities, and form supportive, lifelong friendships that provide an emotional anchor. To fracture this alignment would be to dismantle a successful, inclusive, and emotionally safe pathway that has benefited generations of students and families and would be highly disruptive to our community. 

Furthermore, it would:

• Break long-standing community and home-school connections
• Weaken emotional and social safety nets
• Create instability and added stress for children and families
• Damage the strong relationships that define our close, small community
• Contradict goals outlined in the MCPS Strategic Plan, especially those related to student stability, family engagement, and mental health
   

In Summary

We, the undersigned, urge the Board of Education to:

• Maintain the current KPES → NBMS → WJHS articulation path for all students.
• Protect the social, academic, and emotional fabric of our community.
• Ensure any unavoidable changes are implemented with compassion and stability.
   

 Please sign and share your stories/comments below about what the KPES-NBMS-WJHS community means to YOU and your family/community.

For more information, visit the boundary study website. You may also wish to read letters submitted to MCPS by the Kensington Parkwood PTA and the Mayor of Kensington and Kensington Town Council. 

Here are other ways to take further action: 

• Email, write, or call all members of the MCPS Board of Education directly
• Testify at an upcoming Board of Education meeting
• Email, write, or call the members of the Montgomery County Council
• Email Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich