Woodward Auditorium Construction Advocacy Ahead of Monday County Council Meeting

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Tell me you have selective memory or you don't have a HS student without telling me you have selective memory and don't have a HS student.

Our overcrowded HS has people in the auditorium all the time. Rehearsing, performing, meeting. There's no time to rent it out to another HS.

If you don't remember because it was a long time ago or you were a football player who's parents only went to the field, don't screw it up for everyone else.

Also - the time to say, "hmm, let's make it an xx school and not a traditional neighborhood/cluster school" was years ago, and with community input, not a couple years before opening when it's already been being in the planning stages as a traditional neighborhood/cluster school for nearly 10 years

How many kids play football in each school? They can share or use other venues like strathmore.

...for football?

A football team can use another location just like other sports do. A football team is only for what fifty students?

Where at Strathmore do you think the football team should play?

Woodward is close to WJ. They can share fields, except no need, because MCPS caved and paid to level the Woodward property at great expense to build Woodward's football field.

What do you know about field usage at WJ?

They can make it work.

Why are people who don't have HS athletes commenting?

No, they can't "make it work." WJ is extremely overcrowded, and current teams fight for space on the fields (some former field space now covered in portables). Oh, I suppose if some practice at 5am, and some practice at 10pm, maybe it could work, but that is not going to happen

Because far-leftists hate sports.

I don't hate sports but I also don't feel it should be funded with tax dollars. The schools need to focus on basics which they already struggle with.

Just stop

[Anonymous]

Plus, Kennedy was just expanded too.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Aren't there other capital projects that have been delayed for over a decade? Is the auditorium more important?

Do you have HS students? Ones who perform in school plays or musicals? Ones who play an instrument in the band or orchestra? Ones who sing in a chorus? Do you participate in grade-level meetings for parents? All of these and more take place in the auditorium that every other HS in the county has. This is about access and equity, and yes, it's more important than other capital projects, because you don't build 97% of a new HS, you build 100%

Woodward, rebuilt ahead of multiple other capital projects that were on the list for rebuilding first. Take your 97% of a school and be grateful.

The perennial MCPS Capital projects problem: Overcrowded schools get funded before schools that aren't overcrowded.

The DCC schools were overcrowded before WJ. It's just that westside parents have more influence so you went to the front of the line.

Please stop all this east side/west side stuff. Interested parties from all clusters should be coming together to advocate for this funding to be restored.

This is pretty disingenuous when you are asking for advocacy for an auditorium and other communities are advocating for space to relieve overcrowding in school or to fix mold or provide ADA accommodation.

Make the case for why this auditorium is more important than all those other needs and more important Thant what the council is already proposing.

DP. Why is it disingenuous? If Northwood families don't advocate for themselves, who will advocate for them?

Because it said “Interested parties from all clusters should be coming together to advocate for this funding to be restored.” The reality is that no one in another cluster or another school for that matter is an interested party in getting the auditorium. Particular if it means that other equally or more needed projects continue to get delayed

Any of the clusters included in the Woodward study might have an interest.

The Woodward Study should be renamed. This is really a realignment of several middle school and high school boundaries - it's just not about Woodward. The DCC needs to be part of the name of the study. That current name is intentional, so DCC families don't realize they need to pay attention to it. This has been going on for five years now.

It’s doubtful that it will really impact DCC. So, why would they care. It may pull from Rockville but that’s it.

Stop spreading misinformation.

Okay, let's be honest. Nobody cares about the DCC. It's an afterthought. That's why DCC schools are so overcrowded whereas Bethesda schools get build or renovated so much sooner.

And how does that explain Bethesda school WJ having to wait for relief from their absurd overcrowding until after DCC school Northwood has been rebuilt?

Blair has more portables than WJ, and yet WJ gets a new school, Woodward, to relieve the anxiety of WJ parents, while Blair does not. Stop whining about having to have Northwood use Woodward for a holding school. Count your blessings.

WJ has had several additions. Lots of schools have portables.

Blair has more portables than WJ, and yet WJ gets a new school, Woodward, to relieve the anxiety of WJ parents, while Blair does not. Stop whining about having to have Northwood use Woodward for a holding school. Count your blessings.

Northwood is being expanded to help relieve the overcapacity at Blair. DCC is getting a new school.

Blair may have more portables, but WJ's more than twice as many kids over capacity than Blair.

DCC is not getting a new school. DCC is getting a school that is being replaced and expanded. Big difference.

Northwood, which is in the DCC, is being replaced and expanded.

Woodward is being opened to relieve overcrowding at WJ and at all of the DCC high schools.

Ergo DCC is getting a replaced and expanded school (Northwood) and will benefit from the same new school that WJ will benefit from (Woodward).




Not the same at all.

[Anonymous]

Northwood is getting a new and larger building. Kennedy just got a larger building. Their space will alleviate Blair's overcrowding, and probably some of Wheaton's and Einstein's. Woodward is reopening as a new building. Its space will alleviate WJ's overcrowding and probably the rest of Wheaton's and Einstein's. BCC and Whitman are in the study too to allow for additional options that may make things work better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northwood is getting a new and larger building. Kennedy just got a larger building. Their space will alleviate Blair's overcrowding, and probably some of Wheaton's and Einstein's. Woodward is reopening as a new building. Its space will alleviate WJ's overcrowding and probably the rest of Wheaton's and Einstein's. BCC and Whitman are in the study too to allow for additional options that may make things work better.

Look at the projections (currently to 2029-30):

WW/BCC/WJ
Capacity 6992
Enrollment 7359 (367 over capacity, or 5%)

Blair/Northwood/Kennedy
Capacity 7308
Enrollment 7302 (6 under capacity, or 0%)

Einstein/Wheaton
Capacity 3839
Enrollment 4756 (917 over capacity, or 24%)

This includes new Northwood capacity but not Woodward. And WJ has all the overage in the first set -- WW & BCC remain under capacity (and could take on some small amount of shift). And Blair has all the overage in the second set, while both Wheaton and Einstein are over in the third. This is versus current catchments.

Even to get to that enrollment = capacity for the middle three, you'd need to bus large numbers past Blair and up to Northwood, shifting some of Northwood to Kennedy. And that's with none of the overage from Einstein & Wheaton -- all that Northwood & Kennedy capacity is used already.

This means large portions of Einstein and Wheaton will need to go to Woodward or shift to BCC, presuming Woodward naturally assumes more of the existing WJ catchment than needed to alleviate WJ's overcrowding. Possibly even some of the lower Northwood and Blair catchments to even out the enrollment vs. capacity once Woodward's 2160 comes online after Northwood moves out (the additional 540 might come online in a later phase, now, if funded). That's 882 seats across 8 high schools in 2029-30, and we know that the DCC is likely to continue growing faster than WW/BCC/WJ after the current projection timeline, so there might be greater shifts than some anticipate.

Unless the Ws keep up the pressure, of course. Then we'll have the expected: overcrowded DCC and under capacity Ws, with no solution for inside-the-beltway/east of the MARC tracks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood is getting a new and larger building. Kennedy just got a larger building. Their space will alleviate Blair's overcrowding, and probably some of Wheaton's and Einstein's. Woodward is reopening as a new building. Its space will alleviate WJ's overcrowding and probably the rest of Wheaton's and Einstein's. BCC and Whitman are in the study too to allow for additional options that may make things work better.

Look at the projections (currently to 2029-30):

WW/BCC/WJ
Capacity 6992
Enrollment 7359 (367 over capacity, or 5%)

Blair/Northwood/Kennedy
Capacity 7308
Enrollment 7302 (6 under capacity, or 0%)

Einstein/Wheaton
Capacity 3839
Enrollment 4756 (917 over capacity, or 24%)

This includes new Northwood capacity but not Woodward. And WJ has all the overage in the first set -- WW & BCC remain under capacity (and could take on some small amount of shift). And Blair has all the overage in the second set, while both Wheaton and Einstein are over in the third. This is versus current catchments.

Even to get to that enrollment = capacity for the middle three, you'd need to bus large numbers past Blair and up to Northwood, shifting some of Northwood to Kennedy. And that's with none of the overage from Einstein & Wheaton -- all that Northwood & Kennedy capacity is used already.

This means large portions of Einstein and Wheaton will need to go to Woodward or shift to BCC, presuming Woodward naturally assumes more of the existing WJ catchment than needed to alleviate WJ's overcrowding. Possibly even some of the lower Northwood and Blair catchments to even out the enrollment vs. capacity once Woodward's 2160 comes online after Northwood moves out (the additional 540 might come online in a later phase, now, if funded). That's 882 seats across 8 high schools in 2029-30, and we know that the DCC is likely to continue growing faster than WW/BCC/WJ after the current projection timeline, so there might be greater shifts than some anticipate.

Unless the Ws keep up the pressure, of course. Then we'll have the expected: overcrowded DCC and under capacity Ws, with no solution for inside-the-beltway/east of the MARC tracks.

It would make so much more sense if they would just build the addition at Einstein too.

[Anonymous]

The latest CIP shows Woodward with a capacity of 2249, which is higher than what it had last year, 2159. What changed?

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP25_Chapter4DCC.pdf

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell me you have selective memory or you don't have a HS student without telling me you have selective memory and don't have a HS student.

Our overcrowded HS has people in the auditorium all the time. Rehearsing, performing, meeting. There's no time to rent it out to another HS.

If you don't remember because it was a long time ago or you were a football player who's parents only went to the field, don't screw it up for everyone else.

Also - the time to say, "hmm, let's make it an xx school and not a traditional neighborhood/cluster school" was years ago, and with community input, not a couple years before opening when it's already been being in the planning stages as a traditional neighborhood/cluster school for nearly 10 years

How many kids play football in each school? They can share or use other venues like strathmore.

...for football?

A football team can use another location just like other sports do. A football team is only for what fifty students?

Where at Strathmore do you think the football team should play?

Woodward is close to WJ. They can share fields, except no need, because MCPS caved and paid to level the Woodward property at great expense to build Woodward's football field.

What do you know about field usage at WJ?

They can make it work.

Why are people who don't have HS athletes commenting?

No, they can't "make it work." WJ is extremely overcrowded, and current teams fight for space on the fields (some former field space now covered in portables). Oh, I suppose if some practice at 5am, and some practice at 10pm, maybe it could work, but that is not going to happen

Because far-leftists hate sports.

I don't hate sports but I also don't feel it should be funded with tax dollars. The schools need to focus on basics which they already struggle with.

But they are, in all schools. So you can fight it (good luck with that), or, encourage parity and equity, by having the same opportunities at every HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The latest CIP shows Woodward with a capacity of 2249, which is higher than what it had last year, 2159. What changed?

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP25_Chapter4DCC.pdf

You're right! Maybe a reclassification of the planned swing space (retractable walls) from a dance recital space to three 30-seat classrooms.

That makes 971 extra seats across the 9 (I'd forgotten to include Woodward, itself) high schools in 2029-30. With a total capacity of 20,388, if I have that right, that puts them collectively at a bit under 5% of extra room, assuming the projections hold up (it's not like they try to make bad projections, but it's a fuzzy number).

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Tell me you have selective memory or you don't have a HS student without telling me you have selective memory and don't have a HS student.

Our overcrowded HS has people in the auditorium all the time. Rehearsing, performing, meeting. There's no time to rent it out to another HS.

If you don't remember because it was a long time ago or you were a football player who's parents only went to the field, don't screw it up for everyone else.

Also - the time to say, "hmm, let's make it an xx school and not a traditional neighborhood/cluster school" was years ago, and with community input, not a couple years before opening when it's already been being in the planning stages as a traditional neighborhood/cluster school for nearly 10 years

How many kids play football in each school? They can share or use other venues like strathmore.

...for football?

A football team can use another location just like other sports do. A football team is only for what fifty students?

Where at Strathmore do you think the football team should play?

Woodward is close to WJ. They can share fields, except no need, because MCPS caved and paid to level the Woodward property at great expense to build Woodward's football field.

What do you know about field usage at WJ?

They can make it work.

Why are people who don't have HS athletes commenting?

No, they can't "make it work." WJ is extremely overcrowded, and current teams fight for space on the fields (some former field space now covered in portables). Oh, I suppose if some practice at 5am, and some practice at 10pm, maybe it could work, but that is not going to happen

Because far-leftists hate sports.

I don't hate sports but I also don't feel it should be funded with tax dollars. The schools need to focus on basics which they already struggle with.

MCPS has strayed so far from the basics over the past 5 to 10 years it's ridiculous. Chosing sports as the thing you'd eliminate is also ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The latest CIP shows Woodward with a capacity of 2249, which is higher than what it had last year, 2159. What changed?

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP25_Chapter4DCC.pdf

You're right! Maybe a reclassification of the planned swing space (retractable walls) from a dance recital space to three 30-seat classrooms.

That makes 971 extra seats across the 9 (I'd forgotten to include Woodward, itself) high schools in 2029-30. With a total capacity of 20,388, if I have that right, that puts them collectively at a bit under 5% of extra room, assuming the projections hold up (it's not like they try to make bad projections, but it's a fuzzy number).

Which would mean all 9 schools are likely to go over capacity again shortly after the new buildings open. They need to restart the 2017 conversation about expanding Einsten's capacity up to 2400.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/departments/facilities/construction/studies2/dcchs_einstein_presentation.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood is getting a new and larger building. Kennedy just got a larger building. Their space will alleviate Blair's overcrowding, and probably some of Wheaton's and Einstein's. Woodward is reopening as a new building. Its space will alleviate WJ's overcrowding and probably the rest of Wheaton's and Einstein's. BCC and Whitman are in the study too to allow for additional options that may make things work better.

Look at the projections (currently to 2029-30):

WW/BCC/WJ
Capacity 6992
Enrollment 7359 (367 over capacity, or 5%)

Blair/Northwood/Kennedy
Capacity 7308
Enrollment 7302 (6 under capacity, or 0%)

Einstein/Wheaton
Capacity 3839
Enrollment 4756 (917 over capacity, or 24%)

This includes new Northwood capacity but not Woodward. And WJ has all the overage in the first set -- WW & BCC remain under capacity (and could take on some small amount of shift). And Blair has all the overage in the second set, while both Wheaton and Einstein are over in the third. This is versus current catchments.

Even to get to that enrollment = capacity for the middle three, you'd need to bus large numbers past Blair and up to Northwood, shifting some of Northwood to Kennedy. And that's with none of the overage from Einstein & Wheaton -- all that Northwood & Kennedy capacity is used already.

This means large portions of Einstein and Wheaton will need to go to Woodward or shift to BCC, presuming Woodward naturally assumes more of the existing WJ catchment than needed to alleviate WJ's overcrowding. Possibly even some of the lower Northwood and Blair catchments to even out the enrollment vs. capacity once Woodward's 2160 comes online after Northwood moves out (the additional 540 might come online in a later phase, now, if funded). That's 882 seats across 8 high schools in 2029-30, and we know that the DCC is likely to continue growing faster than WW/BCC/WJ after the current projection timeline, so there might be greater shifts than some anticipate.

Unless the Ws keep up the pressure, of course. Then we'll have the expected: overcrowded DCC and under capacity Ws, with no solution for inside-the-beltway/east of the MARC tracks.

It would make so much more sense if they would just build the addition at Einstein too.

Einstein is ancient. It needs fully replaced, not an addition. They could easily add on top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell me you have selective memory or you don't have a HS student without telling me you have selective memory and don't have a HS student.

Our overcrowded HS has people in the auditorium all the time. Rehearsing, performing, meeting. There's no time to rent it out to another HS.

If you don't remember because it was a long time ago or you were a football player who's parents only went to the field, don't screw it up for everyone else.

Also - the time to say, "hmm, let's make it an xx school and not a traditional neighborhood/cluster school" was years ago, and with community input, not a couple years before opening when it's already been being in the planning stages as a traditional neighborhood/cluster school for nearly 10 years

How many kids play football in each school? They can share or use other venues like strathmore.

...for football?

A football team can use another location just like other sports do. A football team is only for what fifty students?

Where at Strathmore do you think the football team should play?

Woodward is close to WJ. They can share fields, except no need, because MCPS caved and paid to level the Woodward property at great expense to build Woodward's football field.

What do you know about field usage at WJ?

They can make it work.

Why are people who don't have HS athletes commenting?

No, they can't "make it work." WJ is extremely overcrowded, and current teams fight for space on the fields (some former field space now covered in portables). Oh, I suppose if some practice at 5am, and some practice at 10pm, maybe it could work, but that is not going to happen

Because far-leftists hate sports.

I don't hate sports but I also don't feel it should be funded with tax dollars. The schools need to focus on basics which they already struggle with.

MCPS has strayed so far from the basics over the past 5 to 10 years it's ridiculous. Chosing sports as the thing you'd eliminate is also ridiculous.

It's been longer than that. Try 15+ years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood is getting a new and larger building. Kennedy just got a larger building. Their space will alleviate Blair's overcrowding, and probably some of Wheaton's and Einstein's. Woodward is reopening as a new building. Its space will alleviate WJ's overcrowding and probably the rest of Wheaton's and Einstein's. BCC and Whitman are in the study too to allow for additional options that may make things work better.

Look at the projections (currently to 2029-30):

WW/BCC/WJ
Capacity 6992
Enrollment 7359 (367 over capacity, or 5%)

Blair/Northwood/Kennedy
Capacity 7308
Enrollment 7302 (6 under capacity, or 0%)

Einstein/Wheaton
Capacity 3839
Enrollment 4756 (917 over capacity, or 24%)

This includes new Northwood capacity but not Woodward. And WJ has all the overage in the first set -- WW & BCC remain under capacity (and could take on some small amount of shift). And Blair has all the overage in the second set, while both Wheaton and Einstein are over in the third. This is versus current catchments.

Even to get to that enrollment = capacity for the middle three, you'd need to bus large numbers past Blair and up to Northwood, shifting some of Northwood to Kennedy. And that's with none of the overage from Einstein & Wheaton -- all that Northwood & Kennedy capacity is used already.

This means large portions of Einstein and Wheaton will need to go to Woodward or shift to BCC, presuming Woodward naturally assumes more of the existing WJ catchment than needed to alleviate WJ's overcrowding. Possibly even some of the lower Northwood and Blair catchments to even out the enrollment vs. capacity once Woodward's 2160 comes online after Northwood moves out (the additional 540 might come online in a later phase, now, if funded). That's 882 seats across 8 high schools in 2029-30, and we know that the DCC is likely to continue growing faster than WW/BCC/WJ after the current projection timeline, so there might be greater shifts than some anticipate.

Unless the Ws keep up the pressure, of course. Then we'll have the expected: overcrowded DCC and under capacity Ws, with no solution for inside-the-beltway/east of the MARC tracks.

It would make so much more sense if they would just build the addition at Einstein too.

Einstein is ancient. It needs fully replaced, not an addition. They could easily add on top.

Well, dang! Where's that holding school!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood is getting a new and larger building. Kennedy just got a larger building. Their space will alleviate Blair's overcrowding, and probably some of Wheaton's and Einstein's. Woodward is reopening as a new building. Its space will alleviate WJ's overcrowding and probably the rest of Wheaton's and Einstein's. BCC and Whitman are in the study too to allow for additional options that may make things work better.

Look at the projections (currently to 2029-30):

WW/BCC/WJ
Capacity 6992
Enrollment 7359 (367 over capacity, or 5%)

Blair/Northwood/Kennedy
Capacity 7308
Enrollment 7302 (6 under capacity, or 0%)

Einstein/Wheaton
Capacity 3839
Enrollment 4756 (917 over capacity, or 24%)

This includes new Northwood capacity but not Woodward. And WJ has all the overage in the first set -- WW & BCC remain under capacity (and could take on some small amount of shift). And Blair has all the overage in the second set, while both Wheaton and Einstein are over in the third. This is versus current catchments.

Even to get to that enrollment = capacity for the middle three, you'd need to bus large numbers past Blair and up to Northwood, shifting some of Northwood to Kennedy. And that's with none of the overage from Einstein & Wheaton -- all that Northwood & Kennedy capacity is used already.

This means large portions of Einstein and Wheaton will need to go to Woodward or shift to BCC, presuming Woodward naturally assumes more of the existing WJ catchment than needed to alleviate WJ's overcrowding. Possibly even some of the lower Northwood and Blair catchments to even out the enrollment vs. capacity once Woodward's 2160 comes online after Northwood moves out (the additional 540 might come online in a later phase, now, if funded). That's 882 seats across 8 high schools in 2029-30, and we know that the DCC is likely to continue growing faster than WW/BCC/WJ after the current projection timeline, so there might be greater shifts than some anticipate.

Unless the Ws keep up the pressure, of course. Then we'll have the expected: overcrowded DCC and under capacity Ws, with no solution for inside-the-beltway/east of the MARC tracks.

Why is it expected that Ws will be under capacity and DCC over when Woodward is being built to relieve overcrowding at WJ AND DCC?

Isn’t that why there will be a massive boundary study involving all these schools?

Woodward is not going to be just for WJ students. Current DCC students will go there too