Bowie (Baltimore, Dundalk, Annapolis: lease, purchasing, middle school)

[kcmo]

What a great area and nice suburb overall!

Even though we live in Annapolis, we do a lot of shopping and dining in Bowie as well and after being all over the Baltimore and DC area, I think Bowie is probably one of the nicer suburbs in the region. It's not overpriced, it's close to DC and Baltimore and Annapolis, it seems to be quite diverse (probably majority black) and it has some of the better "suburban" shopping and dining in the entire area.

From everybody we have talked to the schools are great as well. We are strongly considering purchasing in Bowie when our lease is up.

I just thought I would post this as people seem to give PG County a hard time.

[RelativelyGruntled]

...with good reason.

[slowlane]

Bowie has going for it, the Baysox minor league baseball team, an ice skating rink, a University, and a new upscale shopping area. I believe Bowie's public school population is about half black and half white. Several years ago, residents were concerned because P.G. County was bussing students into Bowie H.S. from lower-income communities inside the Beltway -- I don't know whether this is still being done or not? About 90% of Bowie consists of the enormous "Bel Air" housing development built by the Levitt homebuilders in the early 1960s. It is centrally located to so many things.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by slowlane

Several years ago, residents were concerned because P.G. County was bussing students into Bowie H.S. from lower-income communities inside the Beltway -- I don't know whether this is still being done or not?

That would be interesting to learn more about though.

I was just reading the Baltimore County board on the Baltimore forum, and that seems to be a theme there.

Curious if PG has a similar system.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

That would be interesting to learn more about though.

I was just reading the Baltimore County board on the Baltimore forum, and that seems to be a theme there.

Curious if PG has a similar system.

The reason why that was done was because Bladensburg High School was getting their new building built so they used the Bowie High School annex. That wasn't a representation of policy changes, it was just a matter of finding a building for those students. Needless to say, the Bowie residents didn't like that.

[North Beach Person]

There's an old middle school that's used, sometimes, when a high school is closed for re-building. They aren't doing that so much now, the current method of replacing a high school is to build the new one on the athletic fields, open it, demo the old one and then put the new fields where the old building was. That's what is happening at Oxon Hill and at Northern in Calvert County (they already did it at Calvert High School). The method was also done at Dundalk and Carver Performing Arts High School in Baltimore County.

Bowie High School used to pull kids from the Landover Mall area (I don't know if they still do) to satisfy the Federal Court order the system was under to ensure that no high school was more than 80% White or less than 20% Black. That court order was removed several years ago when the County demographics made it impossible to fulfill. Prior to the lifting of the court order Bowie, Douglass, Gwynn Park and Laurel were declared "continuity magnets". No really special programs just a lot of White kids. Douglass and Gwynn Park then pulled students from Westphalia Road, Temple Hills and Hillcrest Heights. Westpahlia was in the attendance area of Douglass while the kids from Temple Hills and Hillcrest went into a lottery to go. I don't know where Bowie and Laurel pulled from.