MCPS's Plan for Regional Magnet Programs

To the Blair Magnet community:

At the end of March, the Montgomery County Board of Education voted 7-1 to approve the Superintendent’s plan for regional magnet programs.

Bethesda Magazine: MoCo school board approves regional programming model 

Although this was not the decision we hoped for, the Magnet Foundation’s Board of Directors would like to thank all of the parents, students, and alumni who helped to advocate for the Blair Magnet over the past several months - especially those who spoke out at Board of Education meetings and who signed their names to public letters. Many of the community’s views were reflected in a letter signed by hundreds of MCPS parents in March: Families urge MCPS to make changes to proposed regional program model 

Under the plan as presented by the Superintendent, the Blair Magnet will no longer admit students from most of Montgomery County - instead, the county will be split into six regions starting with the 2027-28 school year, and the freshman class entering the Blair Magnet that fall will be drawn from a smaller geographic area (currently proposed to be the Blair, B-CC, Einstein, Northwood, and Whitman clusters). Under the Superintendent’s plan, the number of seats in the Blair Magnet is also expected to decrease, and bus transportation is likely to be more limited for students whose home school is not Blair.

MCPS is providing more information here as the plans continue to develop: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/regional-programs-and-themes/ 

The Magnet Foundation Board is waiting to see how the regional plan is implemented and will continue to advocate for and support the Blair Magnet Program moving forward. We are hopeful that the Blair Magnet, the Poolesville Magnet, and the new regional programs will maintain the same high quality STEM education that has been established over the past forty years. We take comfort in the fact that there will be an experienced administrator involved in the process as Peter Ostrander, the Blair Magnet coordinator, has transitioned to MCPS central office to oversee the programs at the county level.

There are no changes to the Blair Magnet Program for the upcoming 2026-27 school year, so the Foundation continues to support the Magnet by funding grants to buy chemistry lab materials and engineering equipment, subsidizing field trips like Wallops Island, supporting summer math classes, and providing resources for large events hosted at Blair like the MBMT middle school math tournament, mBIT informatics tournament, and Blair BunnyBots competition. We are also continuing to look for ways to advocate for the Magnet.

Thank you for your continued support.