Option H is permanent and the old Wootton HS campus will be closed for good?
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Anonymous
Interesting past few years. On October 9, 2020, former football coach Christopher Papadopoulos was sentenced to 18 months in jail with 5 years of probation with his addition to the Maryland sex offender registry. Papadopolous pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse of a minor and one count of fourth-degree sex offense. These charges stemmed from his sexual assault of several 17-year-old minors in his home in Gaithersburg.[14] On November 2, 2021, a report of a sexual assault occurring in the school's locker room was received by Montgomery County Police. Members of the school's varsity team were allegedly involved in this incident. Several students and staff members were interviewed in an investigation with officers from the police department's Special Victims Investigation Division. However, the investigation yielded no evidence of an occurrence of a sexual assault.[15] On April 18, 2024, an 18-year-old student was arrested by the Montgomery County Police Department for shooting threats made against the school. The FBI contacted the MCPD, after which they proceeded to obtain a search warrant to investigate the student's home, where they discovered violent drawings and documents relating to mass violence, including a 129-page long manifesto, containing numerous threats of violence against the student population and staff of Wootton High School.[16] In December, 2024, Douglas Nelson, the principal of the high school, was placed on administrative leave, due to his failure to properly respond to reports of racism amongst the student body. Dr. Joseph Bostic has taken his place as acting principal.[17] Its infrastructure is aging, a cause of concern for many students and teachers alike. It was found to have lead in its water, but those issues have not been fixed as of 2018.[18] However, Montgomery County Public School Student Member of the Board candidates of 2023 are promising to fix this.[19] |
Anonymous
It's a high school boundary study not elementary or middle school |
Anonymous
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All existing boundaries should be ignored. Lines should be drawn around neighborhoods and if a neighborhood can walk to a school, then they should go to that school, no discussion or possibility to change on those assignments. This will reduce the amount MCPS has to spend on busses and bus drivers. It will reduce traffic which the county desperately needs. It will allow more students to participate in after school activities without burdening parents to have to pick them up. Everyone on this forum seems to be in favor of students walking to school, except maybe Horizon Hill since they like going to RM, but that neighborhood really should go to Wootton for the reasons listed above.
For students that are not in a walk zone, they should try to keep them at the closest school, but when multiple schools are similarly close, they may not go to the closest one in order to balance enrollment and keep all schools under capacity. That should be the process. Ignore historical boundaries, ignore demographics, this doesn't need to be nearly as complicated as MCPS is making it out to be. |
Anonymous
Dream on. Demographics matter, obviously. That's why the Wootton parents are freaking out. |
Anonymous
I couldn’t agree more and an equally disappointed. The walk zone people essentially drop their feeder schools like a hot potato. Despite their volume, they don’t represent everybody in the class, and I also thought keeping together would have been the priority, hence the pride. We were offered a brand new school and it’s possible that a few neighborhoods will ruin it for everybody. Or, they will be responsible for breaking Wootton up if this now goes in another direction. To meet a school is all encompassing, not just the physical location. But their argument is that the physical location makes it. I don’t see why Wootton could not be Wootton if the teachers followed, the students followed and were appreciative of a brand new school. |
Anonymous
| I'm skeptical of the new numbers that say there is not enough enrollment to fill both Wootton and Crown since previously Crown was supposed to relieve overcrowding at Churchill, RM, QO, and Gaithersburg, but even if the new numbers are true, Crown will almost certainly need to be expanded in the future to accommodate all the new planned developments in the atea. I'd much rather have both Wootton and Crown than have a mega-Crown with a large students body. |
Anonymous
There is nothing wrong with wanting your child to go to a school that historically turns out high test scores. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to preserve that and its history, either. What is wrong is not supporting one of the options that were offered and instead creating your own. What is wrong is not even considering the option that would keep the entire cluster together, and hence theoretically, its high performance. Staying on Wootton Parkway is the priority. It is insane. Performance could be even higher in the beautiful new school with all of its new resources. There is no hate here for Wootton. I’m an alum (and actually remember the traffic turning out of that school and getting off of the one lane Parkway was horrendous). But you’re not seeing the forest through the trees and instead are passing up a really nice offer. Smells like entitlement. |
Anonymous
| Not trolling but trying to understand whether there is any valid basis to the “illegality” argument other than just posturing: these boundary study options are merely just options - Taylor may ultimately decide to propose to the council a modified version of one of the options or something entirely different. Survey responses aren’t votes and aren’t binding on them. If they do decide to close Wootton, they have plenty of time to notice public hearings and conduct impact studies. What is the basis for folks believing that all this work must be done prematurely? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Wow you must have no idea what the heck is happening. Why are you even commenting? This is a high school and middle school boundary study. That’s why there are changes to where elementary schools are being sent in terms of high school feeder pattern. No one is talking about changing which elementary school you are assigned to—that elementary school boundary study is coming after this one (because it would have been way too logical for mcps to do it at once). This is why people on this thread are completely useless and wrong. They literally don’t know the basic facts. |
Anonymous
Because you are genuinely asking: any lawyer worth their salt would know there is no legal standing yet because you are right there is no harm done. That’s why the argument isn’t mcps is violating the law—the argument is Option H is violating the law. Hence, if Option H is chosen, MCPS is in violation of the law. Lawyers use notices all the time to warn institutions. If you do this, we will be forced to sue you. |
Anonymous
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I live in the area that should go to Crown, and I want Crown to open. However, I think that Wootton should jump to the front of the line for a rebuild and Crown should be used as a holding school for Wootton students prior to opening for local Gaithersburg students.
Wootton was on the CIP already and removed, supposedly because it cannot be rebuilt on-site and there was no holding school available. If Crown is opened and populated immediately with local Gaithersburg students, then the same thing will happen when it's Wootton's turn for a full rebuild in ~10 years. The Wootton situation is unique, because it needs a holding school and there is an opportunity right now to have one only 3 miles away. Damascus, Magruder, Sherwood are all in equal or worse shape as Wootton, but they can all be rebuilt on-site without the need to a holding school, so they will not have the same long term issues if their projects are delayed by a few years to accommodate moving Wootton to the front of the line. |
Anonymous
You do know that the school is being combined with GHS students correct? So why would you think its performance would be even higher? GHS is the lowest performing school in the country with an abysmal graduation rate. and no, even if it wasn’t being combined (which it is-that’s a fact) the students will have to get up so much earlier than they already do just to get to school on time. And you think that will increase their performance when they are all exhausted now that their school is 30+ minutes away?? |
Anonymous
Response got cut off. To your second part—can’t they start all this process after going with H. The answer is no. MCPS can’t decide to do something without first doing all the things required. The point of the law isn’t so that MCPS can perform a checklist for the sake of doing so. The point of the law is to have good-faith engagement and impact studies. Thats why procedure matters. If Mcps decides first to close, then there is no point in doing all the things the state requires—their minds are made up. That’s why the law requires these protections before a decision is made. |
Anonymous
Not PP but wanted to add an analogy. Things like probable cause exist because the order in which you do things matter. You need to have probable cause before you arrest someone. Not the other way around—the point of the arrest is because you had a reason to do so not so you can go ahead and find a reason because you already made up your mind that this person is bad. In this case, Mcps must actually engage in studies to figure out hey is closing this school a good idea? The whole point of good faith is that if you already make up your mind, I’m going to close this school, then none of the studies and engagement can be trusted. You are going through the motions to come up with a conclusion that supports the decision you already made. |