Taylor's Feb Rec for Crown Boundary Study
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Anonymous
You were never guaranteed a specific school when you bought your house. We are all going through redistricting and changes. You make it sound like Wootton is the only one. The difference is we are dealing with it and if we don't like the changes will move or go private. You all brought this upon yourself by saying the building is immediately unsafe. MCPS is giving you a new school. Be grateful. Many of us would jump at the chance for a new school. |
Anonymous
Woah woah, you are making this seem like it’s akin to how you have conservatives looking the other way as they side with TACO Don. Interesting. I can see it. Overlook the Epstein files and such because he will help you keep more of your wealth and keep the immigrants out who are stealing our jobs. I guess the parallels are there. |
Anonymous
Are we making inroads here on DCUM? As you would say, "whoa, whoa"--this is kinda incredible. Look at us, just a coupla antiandproH parents coming together. If only Israel and it's enemies could do the same. Please DON'T EVEN THINK of killing the current vibe of this chain and turning to geopolical warfare. |
Anonymous
If you search Epstein files, Wootton is mentioned exactly 1,345,678 times. |
Anonymous
I would expect no less from another white slave owner. Epstein and THE TS Wootton had a lot in common. |
Anonymous
Walking distance isn't the only reason to prefer the current Wootton location. Crown is a much busier area. Some of us don't like the idea of our kids being so close to Rio and Crown during lunch and after school. There's more traffic, and several nearby hotels. I appreciate that not everyone would be bothered by this, but it's just a different environment that isn't what I would have picked. |
Anonymous
What’s the ongoing concern about hotels?! Elaborate please. Pharma bros staying at the nearby hotels are a threat? Or is it a concern that our students may check in?! Inquiring minds want to understand this one. |
Anonymous
How is this an issue? Tell your kids no. |
Anonymous
There are horels walking distance to current Wootton too. And there's about to be brand new retail across the street from current Wootton kocation. For decades there were multiple rearaurants and other retail across from Wootton. What is the issue exactly? Blair, RM, Northwest, and QO all have retail and busy roads. What is the problem that is unique to Crown??! |
Anonymous
DP. It’s true that nobody is “guaranteed” a specific school assignment. But people absolutely make major life decisions based on stable public infrastructure. When families buy homes near a high school that has been in the same place for decades, it’s reasonable to expect that the school itself isn’t going to be moved miles away. That’s not about entitlement—it’s about relying on long-standing public planning when making the biggest financial investment most people will ever make. And while a new building sounds great in theory, a new building in a different location isn’t automatically an upgrade. A school isn’t just the physical structure; it’s the role it plays in the surrounding community. A brand-new building in a high-traffic urban area doesn’t replace the value of a neighborhood school that students can reach easily and that families feel connected to. Finally, saying “just move or go private if you don’t like it” really isn’t a serious answer. Public schools are supposed to serve the communities that already exist around them. If there were planning mistakes, enrollment projection errors, or maintenance decisions that created this situation, those should be addressed directly rather than solved by asking one community to absorb the full impact of losing its neighborhood school. |
Anonymous
1. Crown is in a neighborhood, including the beighborhood of current Fallsmead students. It is walkable by current Fallsmead students. 2. Rio and Crown are not urban areas. If is bot downtown DC or even Bethesda (like BCC) Crown is a residential neighborhood wirh retail, like the Kentlands. 3. The majority of kids who currently attend Wootton are not walkers and the school is not in their neighborhood. In fact, the majority of students who go to Wootton live farther away from Wootton than kids who are zoned to other high schools. 4. Yes you can move. Everyone can move if they really want to you are not stuck in your house in Fallsmead. 5. Change is part of life. This is a good lesson for you and to teach your children. And also that things we catastrophize can turn out okay. Because the chances are that once this settles everyone will be just fine and happy at Crown and Crown will be a great school. |
Anonymous
Wootton at Crown is still a neighborhood school that students can reach easily. That doesn't change. And what does it even mean for "families to feel connected" to a specific building? And Option H IS directly addressing planning mistakes, enrollment projection errors and maintenance decisions. Literally, that is exactly what it is doing. |
Anonymous
I think some of what you’re saying is fair, but it still misses the core issue people are raising. First, no one is saying Crown isn’t in a neighborhood. Of course it is. The point people are making is that Wootton has been the neighborhood high school for the communities around it for decades, and the proposal would remove that school entirely from those communities and place it several miles away. Saying that it happens to be walkable for Fallsmead students actually illustrates the concern: it would make the school walkable for a completely different set of neighborhoods while taking it away from the ones it has historically served. That’s not just a boundary adjustment—it’s shifting the geographic center of the school and fundamentally changing which communities the school is anchored in. Second, while Crown may not be downtown DC, it’s still a very different environment from where Wootton currently sits. The area around Crown is built around major roads, major retail, and significantly higher traffic volumes. Whether someone calls that “urban” or “mixed-use,” it’s simply not the same type of setting as the current Wootton campus. For families thinking about daily drop-off traffic, student drivers, after-school activities, and pedestrian safety, that difference matters. Third, many Wootton students don’t currently walk—true, but that doesn’t mean proximity doesn’t matter. There’s a big difference between being a short drive away versus being several miles farther in a completely different corridor. Even if most students are bused or driven, the school’s location still affects commute times, traffic patterns, after-school participation, and how connected the school feels to the surrounding community. Forth, as for “you can move,” that’s technically true for anyone, but it’s not a realistic public policy answer. People choose homes partly based on long-standing public infrastructure like schools. Expecting families to move because the district decides to relocate a high school is very different from asking people to accept a normal boundary adjustment. Public systems are supposed to serve existing communities, not tell those communities they should relocate if the planning changes. The other thing is how rushed this entire process feels. The proposal to move Wootton is happening on an accelerated timeline, and it’s hard not to see it in the context of larger planning mistakes that the district has made over the past several years—especially around enrollment projections and capital planning. When a major structural change like relocating a long-standing high school is pushed through quickly, it raises the question of whether the goal is thoughtful long-term planning or simply trying to patch over earlier errors. Many residents feel that the district leadership, including Taylor and the Board of Education, is trying to move quickly to create political cover for decisions that didn’t age well. And yes, change is part of life. Most people accept that. But acknowledging that change happens doesn’t mean every proposed change is automatically the right one. Communities are allowed to ask whether a decision makes sense, whether alternatives were fully considered, and whether the impacts are being distributed fairly. Wanting those questions answered isn’t catastrophizing—it’s participating in the public process that shapes decisions affecting thousands of families. |
Anonymous
I totally understand that moving the location makes logistics harder for the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the current location. That is not a change I would personally want if I lived in that small area. That being said, the impact on those relatively small number of people should not be determinative of the outcome here. And your own post acknowledges that there are distributed impacts- some families that could not walk under the current boundaries COULD walk under the new one. It is still a walkable school. Possibly even more walkable to a higher number of students. And I still have no idea what it means to "feel connected" to a building. Also, I agree that the process could be better. But a process can ALWAYS be better- longer, more engagement, more opportunities for feedback, etc. And arguing process is what people ALWAYS do when they don't like an outcome. We see the same thing happen for every single zoning or development decision. |
Anonymous
| And process for closing a school is required by law. |