What should MCPS do with the Kensington ES site?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still do not understand how the county was allowed to sell the Grace episcopal site at Connecticut Avenue just outside the beltway. It would have been a perfect sight to alleviate crowding. Can’t the county buy that site back? How did that get sold?

The what?

[Anonymous]

I recall seeing that the field space wasn't sufficient there for required ball and play fields (it's < 5 acres, less than half the size of the old Larchmont property). Running buses there as a holding school would be a nightmare given traffic in that area. When construction starts on the new senior living center a few parcels over, traffic will get even worse. It makes the most sense as a neighborhood walkable school, but that seems really unlikely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reopen it so our schools are less crowded. Tired of Kensington being shafted.

Huh? Kensington-Parkwood is a mile away, just had a new addition built, and currently has 114 available seats.

The crowding in our area is more along the Bethesda/Rockville Pike corridor, not in Kensington. KP has space, Rock View has space, Garrett Park is overcapacity but not enough for a whole new school. NCC has space. I haven't looked at OT's numbers. The need is closer to Rockville Pike, which is why they should reopen Grosvenor and use the Kensington site as a holding school.

+1

I think that site is too small even for a holding school. Holding schools often need space for many portables, since the sizes of the schools moving into the site will vary. And there still needs to be room for recess fields.

[Anonymous]

How about make it a center PreK for WJ area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about make it a center PreK for WJ area?

Good idea. It could be modeled on the early childhood centers at MacDonald Knolls and Emory Grove, both of which are in former school buildings.

[Anonymous]

The site is large enough if the school building is multiple stories, like Wayside is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The site is large enough if the school building is multiple stories, like Wayside is.

Wayside is 9.3 acres.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The site is large enough if the school building is multiple stories, like Wayside is.

Wayside is 9.3 acres.

Haha I didn't realize there was one in MCPS. I meant the 30-story "Wayside School is Falling Down" one, from the book

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still do not understand how the county was allowed to sell the Grace episcopal site at Connecticut Avenue just outside the beltway. It would have been a perfect sight to alleviate crowding. Can’t the county buy that site back? How did that get sold?

The what?

Not sure what PP was unclear about. Grace Episcopal School on Connecticut Avenue in Kensington used to be Larchmont Elementary. MCPS leased it for a to Grace for a long time and eventually sold it. That neighborhood had historically never supported the public elementary school.

[Anonymous]

I mentioned this site in this thread because it’s basically at the intersection of the BCC and WJ clusters. Would be perfect.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/832722.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mentioned this site in this thread because it’s basically at the intersection of the BCC and WJ clusters. Would be perfect.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/832722.page

But that site is within the NCC service area, which isn't overcapacity, and near the KP service area, which also isn't overcapacity.

[Anonymous]

It's County property, not specifically MCPS property.

My ideal would be a new combined library & rec center, like the one that just went up in Wheaton. Then the County could sell off the old library to a developer for something else.

But I doubt that will happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It's County property, not specifically MCPS property.

My ideal would be a new combined library & rec center, like the one that just went up in Wheaton. Then the County could sell off the old library to a developer for something else.

But I doubt that will happen.

I wish they would have done more with that space, like an indoor pool. It seems like a nice space but lots of wasted use and the library is small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's County property, not specifically MCPS property.

My ideal would be a new combined library & rec center, like the one that just went up in Wheaton. Then the County could sell off the old library to a developer for something else.

But I doubt that will happen.

I wish they would have done more with that space, like an indoor pool. It seems like a nice space but lots of wasted use and the library is small.

Indoor pools are very expensive and so that may have been hard. However, I agree that the lobby is extremely large given the size of the overall facility, and I am not sure if some of those random rooms on the second floor will actually get used much. My wife also noticed the library was really just the same or smaller than an ordinary branch library.

Still, it's an attractive facility and it would be handy to have a library + rec center + playground space all together on one site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's County property, not specifically MCPS property.

My ideal would be a new combined library & rec center, like the one that just went up in Wheaton. Then the County could sell off the old library to a developer for something else.

But I doubt that will happen.

I wish they would have done more with that space, like an indoor pool. It seems like a nice space but lots of wasted use and the library is small.

Indoor pools are very expensive and so that may have been hard. However, I agree that the lobby is extremely large given the size of the overall facility, and I am not sure if some of those random rooms on the second floor will actually get used much. My wife also noticed the library was really just the same or smaller than an ordinary branch library.

Still, it's an attractive facility and it would be handy to have a library + rec center + playground space all together on one site.

And they're already building a new indoor pool in Silver Spring.