Wootton HS Modernization or redistricting? What have you heard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a BOE Boundaries and Facilities meeting tonight 7pm in the Carver Building. Wootton reps are speaking out against any boundary changes and delays. Your PTA should be trying to get parents to come out to this.

This a meeting to cover boundaries/facilities for virtually every cluster in the county. Wootton has 5 minutes on the agenda, in which the Wootton PTA members will give their usual speech against hypothetical proposals that nobody has proposed. There's really no need for parents to attend this. Everyone in MCPS is already aware that nobody in the Wootton cluster wants to be tainted by the "less desirables" who are currently zoned for RM, GBurg and QO.

Whew!

[Anonymous]

I live in the RM cluster and would love for my child to go to Frost/Wootton, so I get your concern. Also, Fallsmead is so close to the school so walking is a huge asset when purchasing there. The homes prices would go down for sure. So no need to make the OP feel bad. I agree, you don't want to go here. Lots of um, not so desirables at JW. Our child is in 6th grade and we are so not impressed with kids or the curriculum.

When they redistricted Ritchie Park to RM, the neighborhoods fought like crazy and still talk about how disappointing it is.

Once the new HS is built my guess is Fallsgrove (pulled out of Ritchie Park) Fields Elementary, some of Fallsmead (near Rio) and parts of King Farm will be going there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Once the new HS is built my guess is Fallsgrove (pulled out of Ritchie Park) Fields Elementary, some of Fallsmead (near Rio) and parts of King Farm will be going there.

I'm also in RM, and am awaiting with interest what happens in this regard. However, I tend to doubt that what you predict will happen simply because there is no new MS planned to my knowledge. If they were to redistrict just at the high school level, the new cluster would be a mess with kids coming from a whole slew of disconnected middle schools. Given the foregoing, it would seem to make more sense to me if any development of the new high school is deferred a decade or so to see what happens (especially given there are no construction funds set aside for it, and every PTSA is complaining as we speak about the 1-2 year delays on pending modernizations), or that they would just make it some special voluntary HS program drawing from all the neighboring clusters (QO, GB, RM, Wootton, WC, Rockville) to relieve any HS level overcrowding.

If there was a new MS in the works in the same area, then I could see a new cluster being set up from the areas you note, but I'm not aware of that being the case.

Given how MCPS likes to keep some level of continuity between the MS and HS boundaries, my guess is that the current cluster boundaries will just be retained for the most part, at least for the foreseeable future.

[Anonymous]

"That plot, donated to Montgomery County Public Schools by the City of Gaithersburg and Crown developers, will serve as a future high school, but not for at least six years, MCPS spokesperson Gboyinde Onijala told Patch.

In fact, such a school technically doesn't even exist, MCPS spokesperson Dana Tofig said.

"The [Board of Education] purchases land, or gathers, in trust that what they own could be used for future development as a school," Tofig said. "There is nothing in our CIP, not even planning funds, for a school on [the Crown] site."

[Anonymous]

"Lots of um, not so desirables at JW." Maybe you are the same poster who called the kids "crap" earlier in the week. Hope you get to move soon!

[Anonymous]

Op what happened at the meeting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Once the new HS is built my guess is Fallsgrove (pulled out of Ritchie Park) Fields Elementary, some of Fallsmead (near Rio) and parts of King Farm will be going there.

As far as I know, the "new high school at Crown Farm" consists of a piece of land that the developers have to give to MCPS once they have built a certain number of housing units.

There's a similar situation in Clarksburg. The developers are advertising "--even a planned elementary school". Yes, some day, maybe.

[Anonymous]

Just because a developer says they put land aside for a school, doesn't mean it will happen. When King Farm was built, the developer said land was put aside for a new elementary and middle school. Both never happened and probably never will.

[Anonymous]

The BOE said that there were no Wootton boundary changes being planned.

[Anonymous]

So I guess this was all the rumor mill of OPs HOA..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I guess this was all the rumor mill of OPs HOA..

Eternal vigilance is the price of living in one of the W school zones. Well, that plus an extra $500,000.

[Anonymous]

i am in the Wootton cluster. I have a crappy house that I overpaid about 100,000 for to be in the Wootton cluster, we had to be in the Wotton cluster, because my husband graduated from Churchill and could not fathom that our children will go anywhere but one of the W schools. Now I have friends who graduated from RM and all had very positive experiences and went on to do very well in life. I also have friends who graduated from the low performing high schools in MC like Kennedy and magruder and also went on to do extremely well in life. I personally graduated from a rural VA high school where all AP classes were thru distance education, and the majority of my classmates came from poor families. I ended up with a free ride at UMD then professional school. My husband also ended up in UMD (also honors) but was not able to secure any scholarships. So honestly, I am not convinced that going to a W cluster school will secure my kids future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The BOE said that there were no Wootton boundary changes being planned.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The BOE said that there were no Wootton boundary changes being planned.

+1

If people want to see the exact discussion, you can see it at the 84:10 mark of the video:
http://mcpsmd.swagit.com/play/11142013-805

[Anonymous]

^ Click on Item 4 from that link