New boundary study for Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Gaithersburg, RM, Northwest, Poolesville, QO, SV, WM, Wootton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What was the rationale for combining them? Seems odd to add 6 additional HS to the study given that several of the others are not close to the former.

If anything they should just do a district wide boundary study and stop the games. Everyone knows it needs to be done. And the actually have a whole year or two to complete it and the boundary analysis to use as a starting basis.

District wide boundary would be a bit harder as MCPS is quite large. But, what they are proposing here is a good start. I'm actually impressed that they thought of this. I was thinking that they should expand the boundary study for Crown.

Lower MoCo schools are already having their boundaries reassessed with the Woodward HS.

[Anonymous]

Which God should I pray to for Stone Mill ES to stay districted to Wootton? Open to suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which God should I pray to for Stone Mill ES to stay districted to Wootton? Open to suggestions.

LOL, same here from Travilah ES, which god should we pray to stay with Wootton?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which God should I pray to for Stone Mill ES to stay districted to Wootton? Open to suggestions.

LOL, same here from Travilah ES, which god should we pray to stay with Wootton?

Are they going to send a whole ES to a different school? Or could be part of an ES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which God should I pray to for Stone Mill ES to stay districted to Wootton? Open to suggestions.

LOL, same here from Travilah ES, which god should we pray to stay with Wootton?

Are they going to send a whole ES to a different school? Or could be part of an ES?

I saw a message on FB said they are not touching Elementary Schools, but who knows what BOE will do.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which God should I pray to for Stone Mill ES to stay districted to Wootton? Open to suggestions.

LOL, same here from Travilah ES, which god should we pray to stay with Wootton?

Are they going to send a whole ES to a different school? Or could be part of an ES?

I saw a message on FB said they are not touching Elementary Schools, but who knows what BOE will do.....

I guess it’s too hard to touch ES for such a large study. But I would hate split articulation for ES students to different MS and HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is time to move Ritchie Park back into the Wootton Cluster. They never should have been moved out of it.

The old timers in my neighborhood still complain about this

The Battle of Kosovo in 1389.
Moving Horizon Hill to RM in 1986.
Both equally important, never-to-be-forgotten-or-forgiven events.

[Anonymous]

So the Woodward, Crown, and Damascus studies are all getting a Mar '26 vote? That'll be fun!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which God should I pray to for Stone Mill ES to stay districted to Wootton? Open to suggestions.

LOL, same here from Travilah ES, which god should we pray to stay with Wootton?

Are they going to send a whole ES to a different school? Or could be part of an ES?

They said today that they would try to use whole elementary schools as the building blocks of the new MS and HS boundaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the rationale for combining them? Seems odd to add 6 additional HS to the study given that several of the others are not close to the former.

If anything they should just do a district wide boundary study and stop the games. Everyone knows it needs to be done. And the actually have a whole year or two to complete it and the boundary analysis to use as a starting basis.

District wide boundary would be a bit harder as MCPS is quite large. But, what they are proposing here is a good start. I'm actually impressed that they thought of this. I was thinking that they should expand the boundary study for Crown.

Lower MoCo schools are already having their boundaries reassessed with the Woodward HS.

Harder, yes. Needed, Absolutely. The county looks completely different than it did 40-50 years ago. We have things like K-2 schools whereas all the others schools are K-5. We’ve got schools than only hold 350 ES students where the rest hold 600+. With got HS that has 1500 students and others with 3000. We have schools that are bursting at the seams and others that freely have space. Meanwhile,MCPS is also mandated to expand Pre-K.

The piecemealing needs to stop. There needs to be a holistic look at things to come up with a plan that makes sense in a county wide level and takes into account areas of likely growth and where new school may be needed soon in the future. Layered on top of that should be CIP projects (planned and in work) so everyone can see the full impacts.

Are a bunch of people going to be mad, sure. But as someone already stated, just rip the Band-aide off already. Approve the huge study, hire a consultant, create a timeline into Spring 2025 and then be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the rationale for combining them? Seems odd to add 6 additional HS to the study given that several of the others are not close to the former.

If anything they should just do a district wide boundary study and stop the games. Everyone knows it needs to be done. And the actually have a whole year or two to complete it and the boundary analysis to use as a starting basis.

District wide boundary would be a bit harder as MCPS is quite large. But, what they are proposing here is a good start. I'm actually impressed that they thought of this. I was thinking that they should expand the boundary study for Crown.

Lower MoCo schools are already having their boundaries reassessed with the Woodward HS.

Harder, yes. Needed, Absolutely. The county looks completely different than it did 40-50 years ago. We have things like K-2 schools whereas all the others schools are K-5. We’ve got schools than only hold 350 ES students where the rest hold 600+. With got HS that has 1500 students and others with 3000. We have schools that are bursting at the seams and others that freely have space. Meanwhile,MCPS is also mandated to expand Pre-K.

The piecemealing needs to stop. There needs to be a holistic look at things to come up with a plan that makes sense in a county wide level and takes into account areas of likely growth and where new school may be needed soon in the future. Layered on top of that should be CIP projects (planned and in work) so everyone can see the full impacts.

Are a bunch of people going to be mad, sure. But as someone already stated, just rip the Band-aide off already. Approve the huge study, hire a consultant, create a timeline into Spring 2025 and then be done.

This boundary study is like about half of the county. Then Woodward is another large piece. So only a small part of this county is not in the boundary studies. They already got what they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is time to move Ritchie Park back into the Wootton Cluster. They never should have been moved out of it.

The old timers in my neighborhood still complain about this

This should never have happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which God should I pray to for Stone Mill ES to stay districted to Wootton? Open to suggestions.

LOL, same here from Travilah ES, which god should we pray to stay with Wootton?

Are they going to send a whole ES to a different school? Or could be part of an ES?

I saw a message on FB said they are not touching Elementary Schools, but who knows what BOE will do.....

I guess it’s too hard to touch ES for such a large study. But I would hate split articulation for ES students to different MS and HS.

Why ES have been included in others. Smondrowski ask to have them included in the Woodward study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the rationale for combining them? Seems odd to add 6 additional HS to the study given that several of the others are not close to the former.

If anything they should just do a district wide boundary study and stop the games. Everyone knows it needs to be done. And the actually have a whole year or two to complete it and the boundary analysis to use as a starting basis.

District wide boundary would be a bit harder as MCPS is quite large. But, what they are proposing here is a good start. I'm actually impressed that they thought of this. I was thinking that they should expand the boundary study for Crown.

Lower MoCo schools are already having their boundaries reassessed with the Woodward HS.

Harder, yes. Needed, Absolutely. The county looks completely different than it did 40-50 years ago. We have things like K-2 schools whereas all the others schools are K-5. We’ve got schools than only hold 350 ES students where the rest hold 600+. With got HS that has 1500 students and others with 3000. We have schools that are bursting at the seams and others that freely have space. Meanwhile,MCPS is also mandated to expand Pre-K.

The piecemealing needs to stop. There needs to be a holistic look at things to come up with a plan that makes sense in a county wide level and takes into account areas of likely growth and where new school may be needed soon in the future. Layered on top of that should be CIP projects (planned and in work) so everyone can see the full impacts.

Are a bunch of people going to be mad, sure. But as someone already stated, just rip the Band-aide off already. Approve the huge study, hire a consultant, create a timeline into Spring 2025 and then be done.

This boundary study is like about half of the county. Then Woodward is another large piece. So only a small part of this county is not in the boundary studies. They already got what they want.

Ok, then at this point figure out where to include the small part not included.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Giving this one its own thread.

This morning, MCPS staff proposed combining the boundary studies for Crown and Damascus high schools into one large study with the following high schools and their feeder middle schools in scope: Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Gaithersburg, Richard Montgomery, Northwest, Poolesville, Quince Orchard, Seneca Valley, Watkins Mill, and Wootton.

The boundary study process would happen during 2025, and the final boundary vote would be in March 2026.

Detailed timeline:

Spring 2024--Request for Proposal released
Summer 2024--Board approves consultant
Fall 2024--Prepare for community engagement
Early 2025-Fall/Winter 2025--Boundary study process
January 2026--Boundary Study Report released
Early February 2026--Recommendation released
Late February-March 2026--Board work sessions, public hearings and action

This study has been proposed, but not approved by the board yet. That would happen at their March 19th meeting.

Lynne Harris seemed keenly interested in closing an elementary school or two in the Wooton cluster (she keyed in on Cold Spring in particular). I suspect she'd vote in favor of this study to ID how to better utilize the free seats in the elementary schools in that cluster.

Because the classrooms have no interior walls. It's a 1970s open concept design, which is no longer desirable.

They don’t have interior walls?! I’m trying to imagine how that works and what it looks like.