Initial boundary options for Crown/Damascus study

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:QO may become 13% FARMS and majority white again. That’s wild. It will could end up being higher performing than WJ

Which option makes this 13 percent FARMS in QO HS?

I am lost in all 4 options.

option 4

Option 4 is the most extreme one which definitely has no chance.

Extreme for who? What school are you at?

Option 4 makes a lot of sense to me. It is the best option by far.

Is it because your house is not rezoned to crown in option 4? Option 4 makes no sense for most schools.

I am in Churchill for all four options. Let me summarize this for you.

Fallsgrove does not like option 4 because they go to Crown.
Stone Mill does not ike option 1 because they go to Crown.
Dufief and Falls Grove do not like option 2 because they go to Crown.
Stone Mill and Kentlands do not like option 3 because Kentlands goes to Gaithersburg and stone Mill goes to Crown.

Stonemill townhouses do not like all four options because they all go to crown. And option 2 and 4 make single families in Stonemill stay in Wootton and townhouses (in the same 40 year old neighborhood) go to crown.

Then the townhouses are going to Crown. Somebody has to go to Crown. Your best bet is taking the rest of Stone Mill with you to Crown.

Exactly. Some of these complaints are ridiculous. It’s a sparkling brand new HS. It’s not like they are being shipped to the outlands of a third world country.

Brand new so what? We don't want this new high school with 35-45% FARMS from all options. Whoever wanna go can go. Just keep Stonemill in Wotton.

It wasn’t even built for Wootton. It was built for qo, rm and Gaithersburg to alleviate overcrowding. It’s due to DEI reasons to drag Wootton in this mess.

It was built for Churchill also( 115% right now) , and since Wayside will move to Wootton, something has to go out of Wootton.

Why didn’t they include Churchill to Woodward study then? There is still plenty of space there. Why do they need to split the boundary study to two? It’s obvious manipulation to move some Wootton kids to crown to achieve DEI goals.

I do think it was a mistake to not do it together. It make no sense to do it separately.

Having said that Woodward does not have extra seats after to you move all kids. In fact, that area all schoools are near capacity after adding Woodward.

In all options, Whitman has available space. Shifting some from Churchill to Whitman would meet much resistance and doesn’t have to disrupt Wootton at all.

This is exactly what I was thinking, but unfortunately Whitman and Churchill are in two separate studies. So ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Oh wow that’s really bad that MCPS is splitting the townhomes in Stonemill out to Crown while leaving the SFH in Stonemill to Wootton. It’s already rough being the kid in the townhome while the kids down the street are in the big houses. The kids all walk to school together and play in the same neighborhood areas, Now the townhouse kids have to split off to go to a different school.

MCPS is known for community dividing. They simply just don’t care about kids wellbeing. All they care about is DEI and how to balance farm rate.

Given that studies have shown low income kids do better when the FARMs rate is no higher than around 30%, while higher SES kids aren't negatively impacted, I can't blame them.

Okay but how does it make sense to move a lower priced townhouse community out of the school area and into a new school surrounded by condos, apartments and townhomes?

Then move a community from Wayside into Wootton.

What kind of homes do they think families with lower incomes live with? So they made Wootton richer and Crown from neighborhoods more likely with renters, lower income families, etc?

The issue I see is that MCPS picked on the poorer neighborhoods and schools to move to crown from Wootton and leaving the wealthy untouched.

It's not a conspiracy. Dufief and Stone Mill are closest to Crown. So there are options where they are removed from Wootton.

It’s not just these two schools. A small neighborhood in Lakewood is also split out in 2 options. What’s the need to split out a small neighborhood when most lakewood is unaffected?

[Anonymous]

Part of the issue is that it looks like they have that townhome community in Stone Mill in the walk zone from Crown.

But it's arguable if it should really be considered part of the walk zone.

Where using Google maps from the intersection of Prairie Landing Way and Darnestown Road to Crown High School, shows the walk to be about 38 to 43 minutes.

So not only do they cherry pick the lower priced homes from the neighborhood to go to Crown. But make the kids walk 40 minutes a day to and from school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of the issue is that it looks like they have that townhome community in Stone Mill in the walk zone from Crown.

But it's arguable if it should really be considered part of the walk zone.

Where using Google maps from the intersection of Prairie Landing Way and Darnestown Road to Crown High School, shows the walk to be about 38 to 43 minutes.

So not only do they cherry pick the lower priced homes from the neighborhood to go to Crown. But make the kids walk 40 minutes a day to and from school?

And these are highway roads and big intersection crossings no parents will let their kids walk on.

[Anonymous]

I initially was open to my kids going to Crown.

I thought that since it would pull more from the QO area, it would be pretty much like QO, which I'm okay with.

My main issue was that if they removed bus service for our neighborhood for Wootton HS, my kids could've taken the Ride On bus to Wootton in about a ten or fifteen minute ride. The only option for Crown from our neighborhood is to walk 40 minutes.

But looking at the area that is designated for Crown, which I think is the Fields Road Elementary School area, I don't think Crown HS is set up for success.

That townhome community in front of Fields Road Elementary is very affordable and I was seriously considering it when shopping for my first home. The townhome community across Diamondback, behind the newer townhomes and by Green Park, were more expensive enough that it was out of my price range. I think it was like $250k for the homes by the school and $350k for the homes by Green Park. In the end I determined that those homes were cheaper for a reason (they were smaller, had funny quirks to how they were designed and built, etc). So decided to look elsewhere.

And it's not just that specific townhome community that I'm targeting and why I'm turned off about Crown. It's that entire area has the more lower priced housing. The apartments behind Festival shopping center, the areas in between Fields and Festival, etc.

I didn't understand the previous comment about how QO would become a better school in this process. But understand now. So not only does Wootton get "stronger" with Wayside moving in. But QO does as well with the addition by subtraction of removing Fields Road ES and the possibility of areas from Wootton added to it as well.

btw looking at the homes sold in the past year in the Stone Mill neighborhood, without digging into the details, the townhomes sold for about $600k and the single family homes sold for about a million.

The only kind of hope that Crown HS has is if that Crown development has enough of a premium for that urban style living and being new, that higher income families choose to live there over other places they could have afforded.

Are we certain that these options aren't actually anti DEI and trying to segregate more?

So I don't think Crown HS is set up for success and I am not okay with the idea of my kids going there anymore. For reference, I wouldn't have minded my kids going to Northwest or Clarksburg and often wonder if we should've considered those areas more. But the main issues for our family for those two areas are location and commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I initially was open to my kids going to Crown.

I thought that since it would pull more from the QO area, it would be pretty much like QO, which I'm okay with.

My main issue was that if they removed bus service for our neighborhood for Wootton HS, my kids could've taken the Ride On bus to Wootton in about a ten or fifteen minute ride. The only option for Crown from our neighborhood is to walk 40 minutes.

But looking at the area that is designated for Crown, which I think is the Fields Road Elementary School area, I don't think Crown HS is set up for success.

That townhome community in front of Fields Road Elementary is very affordable and I was seriously considering it when shopping for my first home. The townhome community across Diamondback, behind the newer townhomes and by Green Park, were more expensive enough that it was out of my price range. I think it was like $250k for the homes by the school and $350k for the homes by Green Park. In the end I determined that those homes were cheaper for a reason (they were smaller, had funny quirks to how they were designed and built, etc). So decided to look elsewhere.

And it's not just that specific townhome community that I'm targeting and why I'm turned off about Crown. It's that entire area has the more lower priced housing. The apartments behind Festival shopping center, the areas in between Fields and Festival, etc.

I didn't understand the previous comment about how QO would become a better school in this process. But understand now. So not only does Wootton get "stronger" with Wayside moving in. But QO does as well with the addition by subtraction of removing Fields Road ES and the possibility of areas from Wootton added to it as well.

btw looking at the homes sold in the past year in the Stone Mill neighborhood, without digging into the details, the townhomes sold for about $600k and the single family homes sold for about a million.

The only kind of hope that Crown HS has is if that Crown development has enough of a premium for that urban style living and being new, that higher income families choose to live there over other places they could have afforded.

Are we certain that these options aren't actually anti DEI and trying to segregate more?

So I don't think Crown HS is set up for success and I am not okay with the idea of my kids going there anymore. For reference, I wouldn't have minded my kids going to Northwest or Clarksburg and often wonder if we should've considered those areas more. But the main issues for our family for those two areas are location and commute.

We did buy in shady grove village 20 years ago. It’s a great community—mostly starter homes for younger professionals beginning families or middle-income families. There are plenty of renters also. We moved out 10 years ago, but we had thought Crown would be more economically diverse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:someone said these were just the initial options. When are they going to put out more (better) options?

September

So September will be the final option?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:someone said these were just the initial options. When are they going to put out more (better) options?

September

So September will be the final option?

No there will be more rounds. Also, next round does not mean that original options won't be picked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:someone said these were just the initial options. When are they going to put out more (better) options?

September

So September will be the final option?

No there will be more rounds. Also, next round does not mean that original options won't be picked.

You are saying that even September options come out different from original options, the final ultimate decision could be coming from original 4 options, september options and other options afterward?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:someone said these were just the initial options. When are they going to put out more (better) options?

September

So September will be the final option?

No there will be more rounds. Also, next round does not mean that original options won't be picked.

You are saying that even September options come out different from original options, the final ultimate decision could be coming from original 4 options, september options and other options afterward?

Nobody knows. But from the information, it will be mixed from the options presented as now each option consider one factor and in the end the plan has to consider all four factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I initially was open to my kids going to Crown.

I thought that since it would pull more from the QO area, it would be pretty much like QO, which I'm okay with.

My main issue was that if they removed bus service for our neighborhood for Wootton HS, my kids could've taken the Ride On bus to Wootton in about a ten or fifteen minute ride. The only option for Crown from our neighborhood is to walk 40 minutes.

But looking at the area that is designated for Crown, which I think is the Fields Road Elementary School area, I don't think Crown HS is set up for success.

That townhome community in front of Fields Road Elementary is very affordable and I was seriously considering it when shopping for my first home. The townhome community across Diamondback, behind the newer townhomes and by Green Park, were more expensive enough that it was out of my price range. I think it was like $250k for the homes by the school and $350k for the homes by Green Park. In the end I determined that those homes were cheaper for a reason (they were smaller, had funny quirks to how they were designed and built, etc). So decided to look elsewhere.

And it's not just that specific townhome community that I'm targeting and why I'm turned off about Crown. It's that entire area has the more lower priced housing. The apartments behind Festival shopping center, the areas in between Fields and Festival, etc.

I didn't understand the previous comment about how QO would become a better school in this process. But understand now. So not only does Wootton get "stronger" with Wayside moving in. But QO does as well with the addition by subtraction of removing Fields Road ES and the possibility of areas from Wootton added to it as well.

btw looking at the homes sold in the past year in the Stone Mill neighborhood, without digging into the details, the townhomes sold for about $600k and the single family homes sold for about a million.

The only kind of hope that Crown HS has is if that Crown development has enough of a premium for that urban style living and being new, that higher income families choose to live there over other places they could have afforded.

Are we certain that these options aren't actually anti DEI and trying to segregate more?

So I don't think Crown HS is set up for success and I am not okay with the idea of my kids going there anymore. For reference, I wouldn't have minded my kids going to Northwest or Clarksburg and often wonder if we should've considered those areas more. But the main issues for our family for those two areas are location and commute.

It’s ironic that Crown is built to achieve their DEI agenda but it ends up achieving exactly the opposite. Capacity wise, MCPS has sufficient space. They could’ve just move part of Rachel Carson to Dufief (this was planned years ago but called off) to alleviate QO overcrowding and move part of RM/gaithersburg to Magruder/Sherwood. But they were so fixated on the opportunity to have large scale busing so here we are: an expensive new high school is being built with everyone paying more property taxes and income tax rate definitely increasing in the coming years, while a moldy old high school Wootton with asbestos gets indefinitely postpone on their decade overdue renovation project.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I initially was open to my kids going to Crown.

I thought that since it would pull more from the QO area, it would be pretty much like QO, which I'm okay with.

My main issue was that if they removed bus service for our neighborhood for Wootton HS, my kids could've taken the Ride On bus to Wootton in about a ten or fifteen minute ride. The only option for Crown from our neighborhood is to walk 40 minutes.

But looking at the area that is designated for Crown, which I think is the Fields Road Elementary School area, I don't think Crown HS is set up for success.

That townhome community in front of Fields Road Elementary is very affordable and I was seriously considering it when shopping for my first home. The townhome community across Diamondback, behind the newer townhomes and by Green Park, were more expensive enough that it was out of my price range. I think it was like $250k for the homes by the school and $350k for the homes by Green Park. In the end I determined that those homes were cheaper for a reason (they were smaller, had funny quirks to how they were designed and built, etc). So decided to look elsewhere.

And it's not just that specific townhome community that I'm targeting and why I'm turned off about Crown. It's that entire area has the more lower priced housing. The apartments behind Festival shopping center, the areas in between Fields and Festival, etc.

I didn't understand the previous comment about how QO would become a better school in this process. But understand now. So not only does Wootton get "stronger" with Wayside moving in. But QO does as well with the addition by subtraction of removing Fields Road ES and the possibility of areas from Wootton added to it as well.

btw looking at the homes sold in the past year in the Stone Mill neighborhood, without digging into the details, the townhomes sold for about $600k and the single family homes sold for about a million.

The only kind of hope that Crown HS has is if that Crown development has enough of a premium for that urban style living and being new, that higher income families choose to live there over other places they could have afforded.

Are we certain that these options aren't actually anti DEI and trying to segregate more?

So I don't think Crown HS is set up for success and I am not okay with the idea of my kids going there anymore. For reference, I wouldn't have minded my kids going to Northwest or Clarksburg and often wonder if we should've considered those areas more. But the main issues for our family for those two areas are location and commute.

It’s ironic that Crown is built to achieve their DEI agenda but it ends up achieving exactly the opposite. Capacity wise, MCPS has sufficient space. They could’ve just move part of Rachel Carson to Dufief (this was planned years ago but called off) to alleviate QO overcrowding and move part of RM/gaithersburg to Magruder/Sherwood. But they were so fixated on the opportunity to have large scale busing so here we are: an expensive new high school is being built with everyone paying more property taxes and income tax rate definitely increasing in the coming years, while a moldy old high school Wootton with asbestos gets indefinitely postpone on their decade overdue renovation project.

No, Crown HS is being built to achieve their free land agenda. That's it.

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2025/06/09/the-ticking-clock-for-crown-high-school/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I initially was open to my kids going to Crown.

I thought that since it would pull more from the QO area, it would be pretty much like QO, which I'm okay with.

My main issue was that if they removed bus service for our neighborhood for Wootton HS, my kids could've taken the Ride On bus to Wootton in about a ten or fifteen minute ride. The only option for Crown from our neighborhood is to walk 40 minutes.

But looking at the area that is designated for Crown, which I think is the Fields Road Elementary School area, I don't think Crown HS is set up for success.

That townhome community in front of Fields Road Elementary is very affordable and I was seriously considering it when shopping for my first home. The townhome community across Diamondback, behind the newer townhomes and by Green Park, were more expensive enough that it was out of my price range. I think it was like $250k for the homes by the school and $350k for the homes by Green Park. In the end I determined that those homes were cheaper for a reason (they were smaller, had funny quirks to how they were designed and built, etc). So decided to look elsewhere.

And it's not just that specific townhome community that I'm targeting and why I'm turned off about Crown. It's that entire area has the more lower priced housing. The apartments behind Festival shopping center, the areas in between Fields and Festival, etc.

I didn't understand the previous comment about how QO would become a better school in this process. But understand now. So not only does Wootton get "stronger" with Wayside moving in. But QO does as well with the addition by subtraction of removing Fields Road ES and the possibility of areas from Wootton added to it as well.

btw looking at the homes sold in the past year in the Stone Mill neighborhood, without digging into the details, the townhomes sold for about $600k and the single family homes sold for about a million.

The only kind of hope that Crown HS has is if that Crown development has enough of a premium for that urban style living and being new, that higher income families choose to live there over other places they could have afforded.

Are we certain that these options aren't actually anti DEI and trying to segregate more?

So I don't think Crown HS is set up for success and I am not okay with the idea of my kids going there anymore. For reference, I wouldn't have minded my kids going to Northwest or Clarksburg and often wonder if we should've considered those areas more. But the main issues for our family for those two areas are location and commute.

It’s ironic that Crown is built to achieve their DEI agenda but it ends up achieving exactly the opposite. Capacity wise, MCPS has sufficient space. They could’ve just move part of Rachel Carson to Dufief (this was planned years ago but called off) to alleviate QO overcrowding and move part of RM/gaithersburg to Magruder/Sherwood. But they were so fixated on the opportunity to have large scale busing so here we are: an expensive new high school is being built with everyone paying more property taxes and income tax rate definitely increasing in the coming years, while a moldy old high school Wootton with asbestos gets indefinitely postpone on their decade overdue renovation project.

No, Crown HS is being built to achieve their free land agenda. That's it.

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2025/06/09/the-ticking-clock-for-crown-high-school/

Someone else on Facebook pointed out that MCPS passed on many free land in the past.

https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2011/04/17866-acres-of-school-land-declared.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR6Mhv66oSiTeMGrTMVUy2WZYgvgpMd3Coz-5IZAIuUGu4zrz41w0hulGK7R6g_aem_N_qdsv49OJI11D1jkLjDbw&m=1

[Anonymous]

Based on past boundary changes, do we know what happens with kids at magnet schools? For example, let's say a student is initially zoned to Wootton and gets accepted in the Blair magnet program, which they begin in 9th grade. What happens if they are zoned to Crown starting in 10th grade and Crown is grouped with the Poolesville magnet rather than the Blair magnet? Would that student need to switch magnet programs starting in 10th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on past boundary changes, do we know what happens with kids at magnet schools? For example, let's say a student is initially zoned to Wootton and gets accepted in the Blair magnet program, which they begin in 9th grade. What happens if they are zoned to Crown starting in 10th grade and Crown is grouped with the Poolesville magnet rather than the Blair magnet? Would that student need to switch magnet programs starting in 10th grade?

I don’t know if Blair would even exist for the current 7th grader who will be the 9th graders who have to be forced to leave their current schools. MCPS is talking about replacing the countywide magnet program with 6 regional programs. I don’t know how MCPS can support 6 programs while they struggle to retain good teachers at Blair magnet. I guess they’ll just be watered down and not worth attending.