Option H is permanent and the old Wootton HS campus will be closed for good?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many students from Fields Road are walkable to Crown. They should be sent to Crown. The City of Gaithersburg Mayor even came out to support modifying H to include Fields Road. Moving Fields Road would also help alleviate overcrowding from QO (which currently has 18 portables) while moving parts of Rosemont ES would help alleviate overcrowding at GHS.

The problem is if you put Fields Road and parts of Rosemont into Crown, all of the Wootton cluster cannot also fit in Crown.

Remember, the Superintendent can take pieces of every option in making his proposal. There’s nothing to stop him from cutting up Wootton cluster (say removing Cold Spring and Fallsmead), moving the rest of Wootton to Crown, and add in Rosemont and Fields Road.

Most Wootton families have no problems with adding students to their cluster. What they have a problem with is their cluster being broken apart. And the reason why Wootton’s current location is beloved isn’t because the building itself is somehow magically responsible for academic achievement, but because it really is a community hub. There are so many connections between Frost MS and Wootton HS. They are currently on a shared campus!

Not to mention what are the practical implications of turning Wootton into a holding school? If Wootton is a run-down unsafe building that the Board is refusing to renovate, how does turning it into a holding school make it magically safe for Damascus and Magruder students? What are the practical safety implications of bussing kids all the way from Damascus and Magruder into Wootton Parkway—which is a single-lane road—while also bussing all of the previously walkable Wootton kids out of Wootton parkway to Crown? The morning congestion is already terrible on both Wootton Parkway and around Sam Eig/270. This isn’t going to help.

The research on road safety is clear. The farther kids travel, the more bussing involved, the more there will be accidents and deaths. For example, can you begin to imagine a bunch of inexperienced teenage drivers driving quite literally across the county going from Damascus to Wootton?

Removing an ES which was never presented in all previous options last minute is a problem. It’s not enough community engagement. Closing Wootton and relocating to crown is also introduced late and doesn’t have enough public engagement and not legal in the boundary study process.

Exactly! Why is no one talking about this? Option H will close Wootton—that is inappropriate for a boundary study. Also everyone should be alarmed. If MCPS can just close a school rather than renovate it, maybe Damascus and Magruder are next.

This thread is full of crown trolls dreaming that the Wootton asset will be transferred to their neighborhood and skyrocket their property values. Any legal or reasonable argument is conveniently ignored. Reality check is coming in about a month.

Say it louder for the people in the back.
MCPS sure does have money for litigation but not for renovation schools!

MCPS better have a lot of it. Wootton families are going to file one or more lawsuits over this. Apparently the BOE/MCPS members blanched when they heard this during the hearing. A friendly judge could slap an injunction on the entire decision process, leading to discovery and depositions. Who knows, maybe some of the developers around Crown will get pulled into it. Rest assured, MCPS does not want any part of that.

A formal legal notice was already sent to the Board. Suffice it to say, it’s getting very interesting… MCPS Office of General Counsel is now involved.

Roll your eyes all you want, doesn’t mean what the Board doing is legal. But I guess you don’t care about following the law? Maybe when the Board has to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money on lawsuits, you’ll care then 🤷‍♂️

No plausible legal complaint has been provided.

That you know of lol. Do you expect the legal notice to be delivered to you personally at your home address instead of the BOE, Taylor, and OGC?

They've provided their argument- it is just wrong. There no requirement for impact taxes to be spent in the same place. UPP taxes are a little different, but Gaithersburg/QO/Wootton/Crown are adjacent schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't care whether Wootton goes to Crown or stays at current location but I do care about the fact nearby Travilah and Dufief kids are getting bussed to Wootton and Fields Rd and Brown Station are getting bussed to QO.

I hope that changes and to the people with the lawsuits, I hope MCPS sticks it to you and moves these 2 schools to QO and moves out Fields Rd and Brown Station from QO.

QO needs some diversity - currently we have majority white and Hispanic kids at QO because of all this bussing. QO used to be a great school and now it is a 5/10. Some of this Asian population will improve QO's ratings.

Tell me you don’t know anything about the law without telling me.

All these trolls who are salivating at the thought of breaking up the Wootton cluster will sure be upset when H isn’t chosen.

H is illegal.

Reading is fundamental - I said I don't care ifWootton moves to Crown or not, and implied that if Option H is not chosen to prevent lawsuits, I hope MCPS sticks it to you all and breaks up the cluster - nothing you can do if MCPS moves Dufief and Travilah to QO. Both schools are closer to QO and makes no sense to bus them to Wootton 4.5 miles when QO is down the road within 2 miles.

How can MCPS stick to me when I don’t live in Dufief or Travilah 🤣. Try again.

Stop using Asian kids as pawns in your agenda. Maybe try to actually help find solutions to the root of why QO is performing poorly.

If you don't live in Travilah, but still zoned for Wootton, what do you think will happen if 2 schools are moved out? Fields Rd will come in and from what you all have posted you do not want Fields Rd since your strong cohort will be diluted.

Fields School would go to Crown? They live in walkable distance. That’s what they are all up in arms about—rightfully so.

Then some other school from Rockville will be with Wootton - I am not too familiar with the Rockville cluster but I take it they are not as academically strong as Wootton.

Give us back Horizon Hill. They are walkable to Wootton. They belong in the cluster.

Ha ha, I take it you are zoned for RHS and you would rather go to Wootton. Does Wootton want your school?

Not familiar with that part of the county.

Maybe you should familiarize yourself before you comment. HH used to be in the Wootton cluster. They now go to Richard Montgomery which is a great school. They never have or will go to RHS.

Amazing all these commenters who say “I’m not familiar with that part of the county” but still have so many opinions about something that they don’t even know anything about. Unbelievable.

[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:Many students from Fields Road are walkable to Crown. They should be sent to Crown. The City of Gaithersburg Mayor even came out to support modifying H to include Fields Road. Moving Fields Road would also help alleviate overcrowding from QO (which currently has 18 portables) while moving parts of Rosemont ES would help alleviate overcrowding at GHS.

The problem is if you put Fields Road and parts of Rosemont into Crown, all of the Wootton cluster cannot also fit in Crown.

Remember, the Superintendent can take pieces of every option in making his proposal. There’s nothing to stop him from cutting up Wootton cluster (say removing Cold Spring and Fallsmead), moving the rest of Wootton to Crown, and add in Rosemont and Fields Road.

Most Wootton families have no problems with adding students to their cluster. What they have a problem with is their cluster being broken apart. And the reason why Wootton’s current location is beloved isn’t because the building itself is somehow magically responsible for academic achievement, but because it really is a community hub. There are so many connections between Frost MS and Wootton HS. They are currently on a shared campus!

Not to mention what are the practical implications of turning Wootton into a holding school? If Wootton is a run-down unsafe building that the Board is refusing to renovate, how does turning it into a holding school make it magically safe for Damascus and Magruder students? What are the practical safety implications of bussing kids all the way from Damascus and Magruder into Wootton Parkway—which is a single-lane road—while also bussing all of the previously walkable Wootton kids out of Wootton parkway to Crown? The morning congestion is already terrible on both Wootton Parkway and around Sam Eig/270. This isn’t going to help.

The research on road safety is clear. The farther kids travel, the more bussing involved, the more there will be accidents and deaths. For example, can you begin to imagine a bunch of inexperienced teenage drivers driving quite literally across the county going from Damascus to Wootton?

Removing an ES which was never presented in all previous options last minute is a problem. It’s not enough community engagement. Closing Wootton and relocating to crown is also introduced late and doesn’t have enough public engagement and not legal in the boundary study process.

Exactly! Why is no one talking about this? Option H will close Wootton—that is inappropriate for a boundary study. Also everyone should be alarmed. If MCPS can just close a school rather than renovate it, maybe Damascus and Magruder are next.

This thread is full of crown trolls dreaming that the Wootton asset will be transferred to their neighborhood and skyrocket their property values. Any legal or reasonable argument is conveniently ignored. Reality check is coming in about a month.

Say it louder for the people in the back.
MCPS sure does have money for litigation but not for renovation schools!

MCPS better have a lot of it. Wootton families are going to file one or more lawsuits over this. Apparently the BOE/MCPS members blanched when they heard this during the hearing. A friendly judge could slap an injunction on the entire decision process, leading to discovery and depositions. Who knows, maybe some of the developers around Crown will get pulled into it. Rest assured, MCPS does not want any part of that.

A formal legal notice was already sent to the Board. Suffice it to say, it’s getting very interesting… MCPS Office of General Counsel is now involved.

Roll your eyes all you want, doesn’t mean what the Board doing is legal. But I guess you don’t care about following the law? Maybe when the Board has to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money on lawsuits, you’ll care then 🤷‍♂️

No plausible legal complaint has been provided.

That you know of lol. Do you expect the legal notice to be delivered to you personally at your home address instead of the BOE, Taylor, and OGC?

They've provided their argument- it is just wrong. There no requirement for impact taxes to be spent in the same place. UPP taxes are a little different, but Gaithersburg/QO/Wootton/Crown are adjacent schools.

That’s literally nowhere close to the legal argument 🤣 but nice try.

[Anonymous]

Wootton + Fields Rd + Rosemont - Dufief - Travilah = Crown? Is that it?

[Anonymous]

I think they would have been better off proposing a total redrawing of the boundaries instead of this absolute ridiculousness. We specifically didn’t buy into Dufief or Travilah because we honestly just assumed it was a matter of time until they got redistricted. They are not even close to Wootton and it makes no sense at all for them to go there.

It’s way harder to push against a change that makes logical geographical sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't care whether Wootton goes to Crown or stays at current location but I do care about the fact nearby Travilah and Dufief kids are getting bussed to Wootton and Fields Rd and Brown Station are getting bussed to QO.

I hope that changes and to the people with the lawsuits, I hope MCPS sticks it to you and moves these 2 schools to QO and moves out Fields Rd and Brown Station from QO.

QO needs some diversity - currently we have majority white and Hispanic kids at QO because of all this bussing. QO used to be a great school and now it is a 5/10. Some of this Asian population will improve QO's ratings.

Tell me you don’t know anything about the law without telling me.

All these trolls who are salivating at the thought of breaking up the Wootton cluster will sure be upset when H isn’t chosen.

H is illegal.

Reading is fundamental - I said I don't care ifWootton moves to Crown or not, and implied that if Option H is not chosen to prevent lawsuits, I hope MCPS sticks it to you all and breaks up the cluster - nothing you can do if MCPS moves Dufief and Travilah to QO. Both schools are closer to QO and makes no sense to bus them to Wootton 4.5 miles when QO is down the road within 2 miles.

How can MCPS stick to me when I don’t live in Dufief or Travilah 🤣. Try again.

Stop using Asian kids as pawns in your agenda. Maybe try to actually help find solutions to the root of why QO is performing poorly.

If you don't live in Travilah, but still zoned for Wootton, what do you think will happen if 2 schools are moved out? Fields Rd will come in and from what you all have posted you do not want Fields Rd since your strong cohort will be diluted.

Fields School would go to Crown? They live in walkable distance. That’s what they are all up in arms about—rightfully so.

Then some other school from Rockville will be with Wootton - I am not too familiar with the Rockville cluster but I take it they are not as academically strong as Wootton.

Give us back Horizon Hill. They are walkable to Wootton. They belong in the cluster.

Ha ha, I take it you are zoned for RHS and you would rather go to Wootton. Does Wootton want your school?

Not familiar with that part of the county.

Maybe you should familiarize yourself before you comment. HH used to be in the Wootton cluster. They now go to Richard Montgomery which is a great school. They never have or will go to RHS.

Amazing all these commenters who say “I’m not familiar with that part of the county” but still have so many opinions about something that they don’t even know anything about. Unbelievable.

Lol I gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed they meant RMHS.

But maybe they really have zero clue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they would have been better off proposing a total redrawing of the boundaries instead of this absolute ridiculousness. We specifically didn’t buy into Dufief or Travilah because we honestly just assumed it was a matter of time until they got redistricted. They are not even close to Wootton and it makes no sense at all for them to go there.

It’s way harder to push against a change that makes logical geographical sense.

Same here. That’s why I bought walking distance of Wootton!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't care whether Wootton goes to Crown or stays at current location but I do care about the fact nearby Travilah and Dufief kids are getting bussed to Wootton and Fields Rd and Brown Station are getting bussed to QO.

I hope that changes and to the people with the lawsuits, I hope MCPS sticks it to you and moves these 2 schools to QO and moves out Fields Rd and Brown Station from QO.

QO needs some diversity - currently we have majority white and Hispanic kids at QO because of all this bussing. QO used to be a great school and now it is a 5/10. Some of this Asian population will improve QO's ratings.

Granted you proposed both Travilah and Dufief.

But seriously poor Dufief. It's one of the affordable areas for single family homes in the Wootton cluster. Where in the past year, you could've bought a SFH there for under $800k:
https://www.redfin.com/MD/North-Potomac/15004-Dufief-Dr-20878/home/10609433

And they have the smallest population and percentage of Asians in their school out of the whole Wootton cluster:

Stone Mill 239/516 46 pct
Lakewood 178/406 43 pct
Travilah 163/372 43 pct
Cold Spring 131/362 36 pct
Fallsmead 174/512 34 pct
Dufief 77/276 28 pct

Yet people are proposing to use those 77 Asians at their school to help mix/skew demographics and performances at other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wootton + Fields Rd + Rosemont - Dufief - Travilah = Crown? Is that it?

No lol what????

Wootton + Horizon Hill - Dufief - Travilah.

Send Fields Road, Rosemont, Dufief, Travilah, and everyone to where it geographically makes most sense.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:Many students from Fields Road are walkable to Crown. They should be sent to Crown. The City of Gaithersburg Mayor even came out to support modifying H to include Fields Road. Moving Fields Road would also help alleviate overcrowding from QO (which currently has 18 portables) while moving parts of Rosemont ES would help alleviate overcrowding at GHS.

The problem is if you put Fields Road and parts of Rosemont into Crown, all of the Wootton cluster cannot also fit in Crown.

Remember, the Superintendent can take pieces of every option in making his proposal. There’s nothing to stop him from cutting up Wootton cluster (say removing Cold Spring and Fallsmead), moving the rest of Wootton to Crown, and add in Rosemont and Fields Road.

Most Wootton families have no problems with adding students to their cluster. What they have a problem with is their cluster being broken apart. And the reason why Wootton’s current location is beloved isn’t because the building itself is somehow magically responsible for academic achievement, but because it really is a community hub. There are so many connections between Frost MS and Wootton HS. They are currently on a shared campus!

Not to mention what are the practical implications of turning Wootton into a holding school? If Wootton is a run-down unsafe building that the Board is refusing to renovate, how does turning it into a holding school make it magically safe for Damascus and Magruder students? What are the practical safety implications of bussing kids all the way from Damascus and Magruder into Wootton Parkway—which is a single-lane road—while also bussing all of the previously walkable Wootton kids out of Wootton parkway to Crown? The morning congestion is already terrible on both Wootton Parkway and around Sam Eig/270. This isn’t going to help.

The research on road safety is clear. The farther kids travel, the more bussing involved, the more there will be accidents and deaths. For example, can you begin to imagine a bunch of inexperienced teenage drivers driving quite literally across the county going from Damascus to Wootton?

Removing an ES which was never presented in all previous options last minute is a problem. It’s not enough community engagement. Closing Wootton and relocating to crown is also introduced late and doesn’t have enough public engagement and not legal in the boundary study process.

Exactly! Why is no one talking about this? Option H will close Wootton—that is inappropriate for a boundary study. Also everyone should be alarmed. If MCPS can just close a school rather than renovate it, maybe Damascus and Magruder are next.

This thread is full of crown trolls dreaming that the Wootton asset will be transferred to their neighborhood and skyrocket their property values. Any legal or reasonable argument is conveniently ignored. Reality check is coming in about a month.

Say it louder for the people in the back.
MCPS sure does have money for litigation but not for renovation schools!

MCPS better have a lot of it. Wootton families are going to file one or more lawsuits over this. Apparently the BOE/MCPS members blanched when they heard this during the hearing. A friendly judge could slap an injunction on the entire decision process, leading to discovery and depositions. Who knows, maybe some of the developers around Crown will get pulled into it. Rest assured, MCPS does not want any part of that.

A formal legal notice was already sent to the Board. Suffice it to say, it’s getting very interesting… MCPS Office of General Counsel is now involved.

Roll your eyes all you want, doesn’t mean what the Board doing is legal. But I guess you don’t care about following the law? Maybe when the Board has to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money on lawsuits, you’ll care then 🤷‍♂️

No plausible legal complaint has been provided.

That you know of lol. Do you expect the legal notice to be delivered to you personally at your home address instead of the BOE, Taylor, and OGC?

They've provided their argument- it is just wrong. There no requirement for impact taxes to be spent in the same place. UPP taxes are a little different, but Gaithersburg/QO/Wootton/Crown are adjacent schools.

That’s literally nowhere close to the legal argument 🤣 but nice try.

That's the generous version of their legal argument. What they've actually said was even more wrong. Impact taxes are not tied to cities.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many students from Fields Road are walkable to Crown. They should be sent to Crown. The City of Gaithersburg Mayor even came out to support modifying H to include Fields Road. Moving Fields Road would also help alleviate overcrowding from QO (which currently has 18 portables) while moving parts of Rosemont ES would help alleviate overcrowding at GHS.

The problem is if you put Fields Road and parts of Rosemont into Crown, all of the Wootton cluster cannot also fit in Crown.

Remember, the Superintendent can take pieces of every option in making his proposal. There’s nothing to stop him from cutting up Wootton cluster (say removing Cold Spring and Fallsmead), moving the rest of Wootton to Crown, and add in Rosemont and Fields Road.

Most Wootton families have no problems with adding students to their cluster. What they have a problem with is their cluster being broken apart. And the reason why Wootton’s current location is beloved isn’t because the building itself is somehow magically responsible for academic achievement, but because it really is a community hub. There are so many connections between Frost MS and Wootton HS. They are currently on a shared campus!

Not to mention what are the practical implications of turning Wootton into a holding school? If Wootton is a run-down unsafe building that the Board is refusing to renovate, how does turning it into a holding school make it magically safe for Damascus and Magruder students? What are the practical safety implications of bussing kids all the way from Damascus and Magruder into Wootton Parkway—which is a single-lane road—while also bussing all of the previously walkable Wootton kids out of Wootton parkway to Crown? The morning congestion is already terrible on both Wootton Parkway and around Sam Eig/270. This isn’t going to help.

The research on road safety is clear. The farther kids travel, the more bussing involved, the more there will be accidents and deaths. For example, can you begin to imagine a bunch of inexperienced teenage drivers driving quite literally across the county going from Damascus to Wootton?

Removing an ES which was never presented in all previous options last minute is a problem. It’s not enough community engagement. Closing Wootton and relocating to crown is also introduced late and doesn’t have enough public engagement and not legal in the boundary study process.

Exactly! Why is no one talking about this? Option H will close Wootton—that is inappropriate for a boundary study. Also everyone should be alarmed. If MCPS can just close a school rather than renovate it, maybe Damascus and Magruder are next.

This thread is full of crown trolls dreaming that the Wootton asset will be transferred to their neighborhood and skyrocket their property values. Any legal or reasonable argument is conveniently ignored. Reality check is coming in about a month.

Say it louder for the people in the back.
MCPS sure does have money for litigation but not for renovation schools!

MCPS better have a lot of it. Wootton families are going to file one or more lawsuits over this. Apparently the BOE/MCPS members blanched when they heard this during the hearing. A friendly judge could slap an injunction on the entire decision process, leading to discovery and depositions. Who knows, maybe some of the developers around Crown will get pulled into it. Rest assured, MCPS does not want any part of that.

A formal legal notice was already sent to the Board. Suffice it to say, it’s getting very interesting… MCPS Office of General Counsel is now involved.

Roll your eyes all you want, doesn’t mean what the Board doing is legal. But I guess you don’t care about following the law? Maybe when the Board has to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money on lawsuits, you’ll care then 🤷‍♂️

No plausible legal complaint has been provided.

That you know of lol. Do you expect the legal notice to be delivered to you personally at your home address instead of the BOE, Taylor, and OGC?

They've provided their argument- it is just wrong. There no requirement for impact taxes to be spent in the same place. UPP taxes are a little different, but Gaithersburg/QO/Wootton/Crown are adjacent schools.

That’s literally nowhere close to the legal argument 🤣 but nice try.

That's the generous version of their legal argument. What they've actually said was even more wrong. Impact taxes are not tied to cities.

I can’t speak to the Churchill lawsuit. I can tell you that the Wootton lawsuit has literally nothing to do with taxes. Agree that sounds beyond asinine.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many students from Fields Road are walkable to Crown. They should be sent to Crown. The City of Gaithersburg Mayor even came out to support modifying H to include Fields Road. Moving Fields Road would also help alleviate overcrowding from QO (which currently has 18 portables) while moving parts of Rosemont ES would help alleviate overcrowding at GHS.

The problem is if you put Fields Road and parts of Rosemont into Crown, all of the Wootton cluster cannot also fit in Crown.

Remember, the Superintendent can take pieces of every option in making his proposal. There’s nothing to stop him from cutting up Wootton cluster (say removing Cold Spring and Fallsmead), moving the rest of Wootton to Crown, and add in Rosemont and Fields Road.

Most Wootton families have no problems with adding students to their cluster. What they have a problem with is their cluster being broken apart. And the reason why Wootton’s current location is beloved isn’t because the building itself is somehow magically responsible for academic achievement, but because it really is a community hub. There are so many connections between Frost MS and Wootton HS. They are currently on a shared campus!

Not to mention what are the practical implications of turning Wootton into a holding school? If Wootton is a run-down unsafe building that the Board is refusing to renovate, how does turning it into a holding school make it magically safe for Damascus and Magruder students? What are the practical safety implications of bussing kids all the way from Damascus and Magruder into Wootton Parkway—which is a single-lane road—while also bussing all of the previously walkable Wootton kids out of Wootton parkway to Crown? The morning congestion is already terrible on both Wootton Parkway and around Sam Eig/270. This isn’t going to help.

The research on road safety is clear. The farther kids travel, the more bussing involved, the more there will be accidents and deaths. For example, can you begin to imagine a bunch of inexperienced teenage drivers driving quite literally across the county going from Damascus to Wootton?

Removing an ES which was never presented in all previous options last minute is a problem. It’s not enough community engagement. Closing Wootton and relocating to crown is also introduced late and doesn’t have enough public engagement and not legal in the boundary study process.

Exactly! Why is no one talking about this? Option H will close Wootton—that is inappropriate for a boundary study. Also everyone should be alarmed. If MCPS can just close a school rather than renovate it, maybe Damascus and Magruder are next.

This thread is full of crown trolls dreaming that the Wootton asset will be transferred to their neighborhood and skyrocket their property values. Any legal or reasonable argument is conveniently ignored. Reality check is coming in about a month.

Say it louder for the people in the back.
MCPS sure does have money for litigation but not for renovation schools!

MCPS better have a lot of it. Wootton families are going to file one or more lawsuits over this. Apparently the BOE/MCPS members blanched when they heard this during the hearing. A friendly judge could slap an injunction on the entire decision process, leading to discovery and depositions. Who knows, maybe some of the developers around Crown will get pulled into it. Rest assured, MCPS does not want any part of that.

A formal legal notice was already sent to the Board. Suffice it to say, it’s getting very interesting… MCPS Office of General Counsel is now involved.

Roll your eyes all you want, doesn’t mean what the Board doing is legal. But I guess you don’t care about following the law? Maybe when the Board has to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money on lawsuits, you’ll care then 🤷‍♂️

No plausible legal complaint has been provided.

That you know of lol. Do you expect the legal notice to be delivered to you personally at your home address instead of the BOE, Taylor, and OGC?

They've provided their argument- it is just wrong. There no requirement for impact taxes to be spent in the same place. UPP taxes are a little different, but Gaithersburg/QO/Wootton/Crown are adjacent schools.

That’s literally nowhere close to the legal argument 🤣 but nice try.

That's the generous version of their legal argument. What they've actually said was even more wrong. Impact taxes are not tied to cities.

I can’t speak to the Churchill lawsuit. I can tell you that the Wootton lawsuit has literally nothing to do with taxes. Agree that sounds beyond asinine.

What do you think their argument is then?

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many students from Fields Road are walkable to Crown. They should be sent to Crown. The City of Gaithersburg Mayor even came out to support modifying H to include Fields Road. Moving Fields Road would also help alleviate overcrowding from QO (which currently has 18 portables) while moving parts of Rosemont ES would help alleviate overcrowding at GHS.

The problem is if you put Fields Road and parts of Rosemont into Crown, all of the Wootton cluster cannot also fit in Crown.

Remember, the Superintendent can take pieces of every option in making his proposal. There’s nothing to stop him from cutting up Wootton cluster (say removing Cold Spring and Fallsmead), moving the rest of Wootton to Crown, and add in Rosemont and Fields Road.

Most Wootton families have no problems with adding students to their cluster. What they have a problem with is their cluster being broken apart. And the reason why Wootton’s current location is beloved isn’t because the building itself is somehow magically responsible for academic achievement, but because it really is a community hub. There are so many connections between Frost MS and Wootton HS. They are currently on a shared campus!

Not to mention what are the practical implications of turning Wootton into a holding school? If Wootton is a run-down unsafe building that the Board is refusing to renovate, how does turning it into a holding school make it magically safe for Damascus and Magruder students? What are the practical safety implications of bussing kids all the way from Damascus and Magruder into Wootton Parkway—which is a single-lane road—while also bussing all of the previously walkable Wootton kids out of Wootton parkway to Crown? The morning congestion is already terrible on both Wootton Parkway and around Sam Eig/270. This isn’t going to help.

The research on road safety is clear. The farther kids travel, the more bussing involved, the more there will be accidents and deaths. For example, can you begin to imagine a bunch of inexperienced teenage drivers driving quite literally across the county going from Damascus to Wootton?

Removing an ES which was never presented in all previous options last minute is a problem. It’s not enough community engagement. Closing Wootton and relocating to crown is also introduced late and doesn’t have enough public engagement and not legal in the boundary study process.

Exactly! Why is no one talking about this? Option H will close Wootton—that is inappropriate for a boundary study. Also everyone should be alarmed. If MCPS can just close a school rather than renovate it, maybe Damascus and Magruder are next.

This thread is full of crown trolls dreaming that the Wootton asset will be transferred to their neighborhood and skyrocket their property values. Any legal or reasonable argument is conveniently ignored. Reality check is coming in about a month.

Say it louder for the people in the back.
MCPS sure does have money for litigation but not for renovation schools!

MCPS better have a lot of it. Wootton families are going to file one or more lawsuits over this. Apparently the BOE/MCPS members blanched when they heard this during the hearing. A friendly judge could slap an injunction on the entire decision process, leading to discovery and depositions. Who knows, maybe some of the developers around Crown will get pulled into it. Rest assured, MCPS does not want any part of that.

A formal legal notice was already sent to the Board. Suffice it to say, it’s getting very interesting… MCPS Office of General Counsel is now involved.

Roll your eyes all you want, doesn’t mean what the Board doing is legal. But I guess you don’t care about following the law? Maybe when the Board has to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money on lawsuits, you’ll care then 🤷‍♂️

No plausible legal complaint has been provided.

That you know of lol. Do you expect the legal notice to be delivered to you personally at your home address instead of the BOE, Taylor, and OGC?

They've provided their argument- it is just wrong. There no requirement for impact taxes to be spent in the same place. UPP taxes are a little different, but Gaithersburg/QO/Wootton/Crown are adjacent schools.

That’s literally nowhere close to the legal argument 🤣 but nice try.

That's the generous version of their legal argument. What they've actually said was even more wrong. Impact taxes are not tied to cities.

I can’t speak to the Churchill lawsuit. I can tell you that the Wootton lawsuit has literally nothing to do with taxes. Agree that sounds beyond asinine.

What do you think their argument is then?

IYKYK. MCPS Office of General Counsel sure does 😉.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they would have been better off proposing a total redrawing of the boundaries instead of this absolute ridiculousness. We specifically didn’t buy into Dufief or Travilah because we honestly just assumed it was a matter of time until they got redistricted. They are not even close to Wootton and it makes no sense at all for them to go there.

It’s way harder to push against a change that makes logical geographical sense.

Same here. That’s why I bought walking distance of Wootton!

Us too. We looked at several Dufief houses when we were moving from a Brown Station house. I wasn't against our kids going to QO or Crown, but we ended up buying walking distance to Wootton to not have to deal with the uncertainty of the boundary study. Joke's on us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't care whether Wootton goes to Crown or stays at current location but I do care about the fact nearby Travilah and Dufief kids are getting bussed to Wootton and Fields Rd and Brown Station are getting bussed to QO.

I hope that changes and to the people with the lawsuits, I hope MCPS sticks it to you and moves these 2 schools to QO and moves out Fields Rd and Brown Station from QO.

QO needs some diversity - currently we have majority white and Hispanic kids at QO because of all this bussing. QO used to be a great school and now it is a 5/10. Some of this Asian population will improve QO's ratings.

I'm not sure why you think Brown Station and Fields Road students are "bussed" to QO, the way you're describing it.

Which high school do you think they should have been originally assigned to?

All three schools are in Gaithersburg.

Brown Station Elementary is right up the street off of Quince Orchard Blvd, 3 miles away.

Fields Road is 3.4 miles aways driving. Drawing a direct line, as the crow flies distance of 2.12 miles.

A problem and issue is that Gaithersburg has three high schools in close proximity all around that Muddy Branch/Clopper Road area.

Look at the distance for Brown Station:
QO 3 miles
Gaithersburg HS 2.6 miles
Northwest 4.7 miles

Fields Road:
QO: 3.4 miles
Gaithersburg: 2.5 miles
Northwest: 5 miles

And they're all in contiguous zones with QO.

To me, bussing is when there's a random island somewhere and the residents in that island ride the bus past several other schools to attend another school.

I don't think the less than a mile difference for the two schools (.4 for Brown Station and .9 for Fields Road) really constitutes bussing as you call it.