Taylor's Feb Rec for Crown Boundary Study

[Anonymous]

Why isn't fallsgrove getting moved to wootton at crown? They're one of the closest neighborhoods to crown.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:People are pissed and deserve answers. If you want people to accept what you call is a done deal, then answer their questions. Obfuscation and evasion only make things worse.

If people wanted answers, they wouldn’t have yelled over Taylor every time he tried to speak. I’m not against yelling at public officials as therapy, but let’s not pretend that the main source of obfuscation wasn’t mostly just the crowd’s own boos.

The problem is that Taylor didn’t want to answer the questions to which Wootton families wanted answers.

If a public official was deliberately not answering your questions, at an event intended to facilitate those answers, you would be very annoyed as well.

Like what?

He pre-screened questions. If he wanted to answer questions actually asked by the parents hm who attended, he wouldn’t have done that. He was trying to control the narrative like a typical politician.

Were you even there? The 2nd half was all questions from the room except he couldn’t even get an answer in without rude parents screaming above him. Someone shouted out for him to move on when he was answering a question about safety in the building following the shooting! These people are CRINGE AF, their kids are 100% embarrassed by them!

It’s called running out the clock. And of course, there can be plants in the audience. Again, politicians do this all the time. President Biden was famous for this, as he had written instructions to call on certain reporters with pre-vetted questions by name.

Taylor and MCPS only answered the questions they wanted to answer. As for the unanswered ones, I’d be happy if they answered every question that was submitted in advance. I’m sure there are questions along the same lines, so it wouldn’t be 400 individual answers. Besides, MCPS has had over 3 months to answer some of these (ie since announcement of Option H), so one would think they already know the answers but are avoiding them. The government does this for proposed regulations all the time.

Here are a couple questions off the top of my head:

When did you actually decide moving Wootton was on the table (or even contemplated), and why wasn’t that possibility clearly spelled out as part of the boundary proposal commissioning effort in Novém 2024, or even in the first version of Option H issued on December 1, 2025 (until people complained, requiring MCPS to finally come clean about its intentions for Wootton)?

When Blair was moved, it was part of a long-term, clearly planned project that everyone knew about and understood years in advance. Here, you’re closing a long-standing (55 years) neighborhood high school and moving it several miles away (requiring boundary movement to do it). Where is the same level of planning and transparency for doing something that significant?

For the latter question, my guess is that relocating Wootton was actually part of the Crown development project, just not disclosed to the public until it was too late (ie Crown was 40% constructed). This is because there would be massive opposition had this been disclosed right after Wootton was taken off the CIP in May 2024. Such opposition would have prevented MCPS from breaking ground on Crown in July 2024, and MCPS would lose the land because it couldn’t build and open Crown within the 20 year time limit.

I don’t get what you want - it’s just constant criticism where the answers don’t actually matter unless it somehow changes the outcome.

For the first question, even if they say oops we messed up and should have said more but then we did clarify because of community feedback, that still wont be enough. For question 2, they plan to use it as a holding school at some point. There is no money to fix it faster right now so there isn’t some grand plan with a timeline. Nobody is going to commit to something more concrete because they can’t - and you will definitely sue them then.

Now what other questions?

There is a lot of pretending that people wouldn’t be going crazy if you JUST had answers and it’s whack.

But they will change the outcome. Failure to follow legal procedures means a court could grant an injunction blocking the relocation of Wootton to Crown and force Crown to be used as a holding school to preserve the status quo. Then MCPS can do what it was supposed to have done (ie like Blair). If Wootton ultimately moves, so be it. Just do it the right way.

So what you want is a deposition to develop evidence to support a lawsuit, not a Q&A with the community. Got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are pissed and deserve answers. If you want people to accept what you call is a done deal, then answer their questions. Obfuscation and evasion only make things worse.

If people wanted answers, they wouldn’t have yelled over Taylor every time he tried to speak. I’m not against yelling at public officials as therapy, but let’s not pretend that the main source of obfuscation wasn’t mostly just the crowd’s own boos.

The problem is that Taylor didn’t want to answer the questions to which Wootton families wanted answers.

If a public official was deliberately not answering your questions, at an event intended to facilitate those answers, you would be very annoyed as well.

Like what?

He pre-screened questions. If he wanted to answer questions actually asked by the parents hm who attended, he wouldn’t have done that. He was trying to control the narrative like a typical politician.

Were you even there? The 2nd half was all questions from the room except he couldn’t even get an answer in without rude parents screaming above him. Someone shouted out for him to move on when he was answering a question about safety in the building following the shooting! These people are CRINGE AF, their kids are 100% embarrassed by them!

It’s called running out the clock. And of course, there can be plants in the audience. Again, politicians do this all the time. President Biden was famous for this, as he had written instructions to call on certain reporters with pre-vetted questions by name.

Taylor and MCPS only answered the questions they wanted to answer. As for the unanswered ones, I’d be happy if they answered every question that was submitted in advance. I’m sure there are questions along the same lines, so it wouldn’t be 400 individual answers. Besides, MCPS has had over 3 months to answer some of these (ie since announcement of Option H), so one would think they already know the answers but are avoiding them. The government does this for proposed regulations all the time.

Here are a couple questions off the top of my head:

When did you actually decide moving Wootton was on the table (or even contemplated), and why wasn’t that possibility clearly spelled out as part of the boundary proposal commissioning effort in Novém 2024, or even in the first version of Option H issued on December 1, 2025 (until people complained, requiring MCPS to finally come clean about its intentions for Wootton)?

When Blair was moved, it was part of a long-term, clearly planned project that everyone knew about and understood years in advance. Here, you’re closing a long-standing (55 years) neighborhood high school and moving it several miles away (requiring boundary movement to do it). Where is the same level of planning and transparency for doing something that significant?

For the latter question, my guess is that relocating Wootton was actually part of the Crown development project, just not disclosed to the public until it was too late (ie Crown was 40% constructed). This is because there would be massive opposition had this been disclosed right after Wootton was taken off the CIP in May 2024. Such opposition would have prevented MCPS from breaking ground on Crown in July 2024, and MCPS would lose the land because it couldn’t build and open Crown within the 20 year time limit.

I don’t get what you want - it’s just constant criticism where the answers don’t actually matter unless it somehow changes the outcome.

For the first question, even if they say oops we messed up and should have said more but then we did clarify because of community feedback, that still wont be enough. For question 2, they plan to use it as a holding school at some point. There is no money to fix it faster right now so there isn’t some grand plan with a timeline. Nobody is going to commit to something more concrete because they can’t - and you will definitely sue them then.

Now what other questions?

There is a lot of pretending that people wouldn’t be going crazy if you JUST had answers and it’s whack.

But they will change the outcome. Failure to follow legal procedures means a court could grant an injunction blocking the relocation of Wootton to Crown and force Crown to be used as a holding school to preserve the status quo. Then MCPS can do what it was supposed to have done (ie like Blair). If Wootton ultimately moves, so be it. Just do it the right way.

So what you want is a deposition to develop evidence to support a lawsuit, not a Q&A with the community. Got it.

Why not both? What are you afraid a lawsuit will uncover? If you’re so convinced it’s baseless, then it should get dismissed quickly. But you are afraid that it won’t be….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it looks like they will eventually close one of the QO middle schools?

Currently Ridgeview is projected to be 71 percent capacity if there are no changes and change to 44 percent capacity with sending Fields Road to Frost.

Lakelands Park currently has 85 percent capacity if there are no changes and goes down to 55 percent with some changes in the superintendent's proposal. Although I'm not sure where these changes are coming from.

And it looks like they'll bump Travilah ES to Cabin John to make room for Fields Road to go to Frost.

I guess my question is why does Fields Road ES have to go to Frost, when their current middle school is close by(3.2 miles to Ridgeview vs 7.1 miles to Frost) and has capacity?

Unless it's like some posters have mentioned, they will eventually consolidate Lakelands Park and Ridgeview and close one of the schools. Leaving just one feeder MS to QO?

Regional programming model. Wootton region 4 and QO is region 5. You can't swap regions from MS to HS so if Fields is going to new Wootton it needs to also go to a region 4 middle.

In the regional overview documents Crown HS is under region 5 so they will be swapping regions if Wootton gets moved to Crown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it looks like they will eventually close one of the QO middle schools?

Currently Ridgeview is projected to be 71 percent capacity if there are no changes and change to 44 percent capacity with sending Fields Road to Frost.

Lakelands Park currently has 85 percent capacity if there are no changes and goes down to 55 percent with some changes in the superintendent's proposal. Although I'm not sure where these changes are coming from.

And it looks like they'll bump Travilah ES to Cabin John to make room for Fields Road to go to Frost.

I guess my question is why does Fields Road ES have to go to Frost, when their current middle school is close by(3.2 miles to Ridgeview vs 7.1 miles to Frost) and has capacity?

Unless it's like some posters have mentioned, they will eventually consolidate Lakelands Park and Ridgeview and close one of the schools. Leaving just one feeder MS to QO?

Regional programming model. Wootton region 4 and QO is region 5. You can't swap regions from MS to HS so if Fields is going to new Wootton it needs to also go to a region 4 middle.

In the regional overview documents Crown HS is under region 5 so they will be swapping regions if Wootton gets moved to Crown.

The Crown building is under region 4 if Wootton gets moved there. Stays in 5 if it doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Until MCPS decides to change it again whenever they feel like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it looks like they will eventually close one of the QO middle schools?

Currently Ridgeview is projected to be 71 percent capacity if there are no changes and change to 44 percent capacity with sending Fields Road to Frost.

Lakelands Park currently has 85 percent capacity if there are no changes and goes down to 55 percent with some changes in the superintendent's proposal. Although I'm not sure where these changes are coming from.

And it looks like they'll bump Travilah ES to Cabin John to make room for Fields Road to go to Frost.

I guess my question is why does Fields Road ES have to go to Frost, when their current middle school is close by(3.2 miles to Ridgeview vs 7.1 miles to Frost) and has capacity?

Unless it's like some posters have mentioned, they will eventually consolidate Lakelands Park and Ridgeview and close one of the schools. Leaving just one feeder MS to QO?

Regional programming model. Wootton region 4 and QO is region 5. You can't swap regions from MS to HS so if Fields is going to new Wootton it needs to also go to a region 4 middle.

In the regional overview documents Crown HS is under region 5 so they will be swapping regions if Wootton gets moved to Crown.

The Crown building is under region 4 if Wootton gets moved there. Stays in 5 if it doesn't.

Crown is under Region 5 Welcome to Region 5. Five Schools. Many Pathways to Success.
Every student begins with a strong local high school. Regional programs are designed for students who want to
explore a specialized area of interest, while maintaining the same high expectations and quality found in each
school(c) criteria - based
(i) interest - based
Watkins Mill
Crown
Gaithersburg Quince Orchard
Col. Zadok Magruder
International Baccalaureate (

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it looks like they will eventually close one of the QO middle schools?

Currently Ridgeview is projected to be 71 percent capacity if there are no changes and change to 44 percent capacity with sending Fields Road to Frost.

Lakelands Park currently has 85 percent capacity if there are no changes and goes down to 55 percent with some changes in the superintendent's proposal. Although I'm not sure where these changes are coming from.

And it looks like they'll bump Travilah ES to Cabin John to make room for Fields Road to go to Frost.

I guess my question is why does Fields Road ES have to go to Frost, when their current middle school is close by(3.2 miles to Ridgeview vs 7.1 miles to Frost) and has capacity?

Unless it's like some posters have mentioned, they will eventually consolidate Lakelands Park and Ridgeview and close one of the schools. Leaving just one feeder MS to QO?

Regional programming model. Wootton region 4 and QO is region 5. You can't swap regions from MS to HS so if Fields is going to new Wootton it needs to also go to a region 4 middle.

In the regional overview documents Crown HS is under region 5 so they will be swapping regions if Wootton gets moved to Crown.

The Crown building is under region 4 if Wootton gets moved there. Stays in 5 if it doesn't.

Crown is under Region 5 Welcome to Region 5. Five Schools. Many Pathways to Success.
Every student begins with a strong local high school. Regional programs are designed for students who want to
explore a specialized area of interest, while maintaining the same high expectations and quality found in each
school(c) criteria - based
(i) interest - based
Watkins Mill
Crown
Gaithersburg Quince Orchard
Col. Zadok Magruder
International Baccalaureate (

Crown will not be 5 because it is becoming Wootton at Crown. It will be region 4. Check the planning docs. Crown would have been five in the prior options when Wootton was still on the parkway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it looks like they will eventually close one of the QO middle schools?

Currently Ridgeview is projected to be 71 percent capacity if there are no changes and change to 44 percent capacity with sending Fields Road to Frost.

Lakelands Park currently has 85 percent capacity if there are no changes and goes down to 55 percent with some changes in the superintendent's proposal. Although I'm not sure where these changes are coming from.

And it looks like they'll bump Travilah ES to Cabin John to make room for Fields Road to go to Frost.

I guess my question is why does Fields Road ES have to go to Frost, when their current middle school is close by(3.2 miles to Ridgeview vs 7.1 miles to Frost) and has capacity?

Unless it's like some posters have mentioned, they will eventually consolidate Lakelands Park and Ridgeview and close one of the schools. Leaving just one feeder MS to QO?

Regional programming model. Wootton region 4 and QO is region 5. You can't swap regions from MS to HS so if Fields is going to new Wootton it needs to also go to a region 4 middle.

In the regional overview documents Crown HS is under region 5 so they will be swapping regions if Wootton gets moved to Crown.

The Crown building is under region 4 if Wootton gets moved there. Stays in 5 if it doesn't.

Crown is under Region 5 Welcome to Region 5. Five Schools. Many Pathways to Success.
Every student begins with a strong local high school. Regional programs are designed for students who want to
explore a specialized area of interest, while maintaining the same high expectations and quality found in each
school(c) criteria - based
(i) interest - based
Watkins Mill
Crown
Gaithersburg Quince Orchard
Col. Zadok Magruder
International Baccalaureate (

They updated this with the Superintendent's recommendation:

See slide 8. If Wootton moves, Wootton stays in Region 4, there's only 4 schools in Region 5.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DQZPAX63BCF7/$file/Rec%20Secondary%20Prog%20Analysis%20Boundary%20Studies%20260205%20PPT.pdf

[Anonymous]

Under modified H, Lakeland park MS can absorb all kids from ridgeview MS (will be closed?), so that means all Rachel carson ES, thurgood ES, Jones Lane ES and Diamond ES go to Lakeland Park MS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Under modified H, Lakeland park MS can absorb all kids from ridgeview MS (will be closed?), so that means all Rachel carson ES, thurgood ES, Jones Lane ES and Diamond ES go to Lakeland Park MS?

That's a question for the ES/MS study. Ridgeview is not closed in modified H but I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually was closed down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Under modified H, Lakeland park MS can absorb all kids from ridgeview MS (will be closed?), so that means all Rachel carson ES, thurgood ES, Jones Lane ES and Diamond ES go to Lakeland Park MS?

The Elementary School / Middle School boundary study will start after this round is over. There are probably going to be changes given that Lakelands Park will go to 55% utilization under the current Superintendent Recommendation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Under modified H, Lakeland park MS can absorb all kids from ridgeview MS (will be closed?), so that means all Rachel carson ES, thurgood ES, Jones Lane ES and Diamond ES go to Lakeland Park MS?

The Elementary School / Middle School boundary study will start after this round is over. There are probably going to be changes given that Lakelands Park will go to 55% utilization under the current Superintendent Recommendation.

Ny youngest is 1st grader now, will he be affected by ES/MS boundary study? I am confused with the timing.

[Anonymous]

Between ridgeview MS & lakeland park MS, which one is better to be kept or closed? Not sure which one is older/newer or better/worse in academic rating or other programs or they both are similar. They are quite close to each other. Just curious about it if in case they bring it up at ES/MS boundary study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Between ridgeview MS & lakeland park MS, which one is better to be kept or closed? Not sure which one is older/newer or better/worse in academic rating or other programs or they both are similar. They are quite close to each other. Just curious about it if in case they bring it up at ES/MS boundary study.

Lakelands Park is fairly new and has the turf field.