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

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

And for the last time, no one in those cases cared enough to pursue it in court. In some of those cases (Blair) it was welcomed by the community.

If no one cares enough to pursue it in court, even if it’s illegal, it’s a harmless legal error.

Stop comparing Wootton to all these other schools on closure, because I can assure you Wootton will sue. They will be ready the moment H is passed.

Yep. And a judge will issue a TRO - and may even order MCPS to make immediate repairs to Wootton to maintain the status quo. Funnily enough, this is all Wootton families want. MCPS needs to figure out what to do with a school it should have never built, without closing the #3 school in Maryland. If it wants to move Wootton to Crown, then it can’t change the boundaries. Doing both under Option H is a closure.

No one cares about the rating of the school and its not what all Wootton families want. Its what you want. Wootton has some serious issues the past few years. A new start may be what they need.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

Can you cite to the statutory or regulatory definition of “closure”? Or are you making up that definition?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

And for the last time, no one in those cases cared enough to pursue it in court. In some of those cases (Blair) it was welcomed by the community.

If no one cares enough to pursue it in court, even if it’s illegal, it’s a harmless legal error.

Stop comparing Wootton to all these other schools on closure, because I can assure you Wootton will sue. They will be ready the moment H is passed.

Yep. And a judge will issue a TRO - and may even order MCPS to make immediate repairs to Wootton to maintain the status quo. Funnily enough, this is all Wootton families want. MCPS needs to figure out what to do with a school it should have never built, without closing the #3 school in Maryland. If it wants to move Wootton to Crown, then it can’t change the boundaries. Doing both under Option H is a closure.

No one cares about the rating of the school and its not what all Wootton families want. Its what you want. Wootton has some serious issues the past few years. A new start may be what they need.

People do care. You don’t care because you don’t live in Wootton. A judge will make this decision. The question is whether the BOE wants to roll the dice during an election year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

And for the last time, no one in those cases cared enough to pursue it in court. In some of those cases (Blair) it was welcomed by the community.

If no one cares enough to pursue it in court, even if it’s illegal, it’s a harmless legal error.

Stop comparing Wootton to all these other schools on closure, because I can assure you Wootton will sue. They will be ready the moment H is passed.

Yep. And a judge will issue a TRO - and may even order MCPS to make immediate repairs to Wootton to maintain the status quo. Funnily enough, this is all Wootton families want. MCPS needs to figure out what to do with a school it should have never built, without closing the #3 school in Maryland. If it wants to move Wootton to Crown, then it can’t change the boundaries. Doing both under Option H is a closure.

No one cares about the rating of the school and its not what all Wootton families want. Its what you want. Wootton has some serious issues the past few years. A new start may be what they need.

People do care. You don’t care because you don’t live in Wootton. A judge will make this decision. The question is whether the BOE wants to roll the dice during an election year.

Roll 'em

[Anonymous]

Why couldn’t MCPS keep Wootton open, but allow advanced coursework at Crown using its state of the art labs, etc… for high performing Wootton kids to attend with Gaithersburg kids whose home school is Crown? Wouldn’t that achieve MCPS goal of exposing such kids to one another, potentially resulting in higher achievement? High school kids already take advanced classes at MC and other colleges. Advanced classes only available at Crown would make it somewhat like RM and Blair, but without permanent students assigned to Crown. Such advanced classes could count towards enrollment at Crown (different classes and kids on different days, such as 1x or 2x a week). Call it a shared hybrid learning model. Crown would get instant prestige with smart kids from Wootton, GHS, QO, Clarksburg, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

And for the last time, no one in those cases cared enough to pursue it in court. In some of those cases (Blair) it was welcomed by the community.

If no one cares enough to pursue it in court, even if it’s illegal, it’s a harmless legal error.

Stop comparing Wootton to all these other schools on closure, because I can assure you Wootton will sue. They will be ready the moment H is passed.

Yep. And a judge will issue a TRO - and may even order MCPS to make immediate repairs to Wootton to maintain the status quo. Funnily enough, this is all Wootton families want. MCPS needs to figure out what to do with a school it should have never built, without closing the #3 school in Maryland. If it wants to move Wootton to Crown, then it can’t change the boundaries. Doing both under Option H is a closure.

No one cares about the rating of the school and its not what all Wootton families want. Its what you want. Wootton has some serious issues the past few years. A new start may be what they need.

People do care. You don’t care because you don’t live in Wootton. A judge will make this decision. The question is whether the BOE wants to roll the dice during an election year.

Roll 'em

Hi MCPS! I didn’t know you posted here.

[Anonymous]

I live in the Wootton cluster and I think Option H solves a lot of needs with minimal negative impacts. Those that live closest to Wootton will obviously feel the adverse impacts of the loss of walkability and new traffic patterns. But how can any objective person really says it's not worth it to move a few miles in order to give the students and staff a brand new facility that is desperately needed. Bringing the existing Wootton building up to safe modern standards would cost $$$$. There are so many other schools with repair needs around the county that could use that money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in the Wootton cluster and I think Option H solves a lot of needs with minimal negative impacts. Those that live closest to Wootton will obviously feel the adverse impacts of the loss of walkability and new traffic patterns. But how can any objective person really says it's not worth it to move a few miles in order to give the students and staff a brand new facility that is desperately needed. Bringing the existing Wootton building up to safe modern standards would cost $$$$. There are so many other schools with repair needs around the county that could use that money.

Wootton families wanted their own building renovated but are willing to accept minor remediation for now. Crown was promised to GHS kids. Taking it away from them doesn’t solve anything and has a negative impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

And for the last time, no one in those cases cared enough to pursue it in court. In some of those cases (Blair) it was welcomed by the community.

If no one cares enough to pursue it in court, even if it’s illegal, it’s a harmless legal error.

Stop comparing Wootton to all these other schools on closure, because I can assure you Wootton will sue. They will be ready the moment H is passed.

Yep. And a judge will issue a TRO - and may even order MCPS to make immediate repairs to Wootton to maintain the status quo. Funnily enough, this is all Wootton families want. MCPS needs to figure out what to do with a school it should have never built, without closing the #3 school in Maryland. If it wants to move Wootton to Crown, then it can’t change the boundaries. Doing both under Option H is a closure.

That’s true. Perhaps Wootton, Magruder, Damascus, and Sherwood should consider a collective lawsuit against MCPS for negligence in maintaining their school buildings. If MCPS wants to open a can of worms, this would certainly do it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

And for the last time, no one in those cases cared enough to pursue it in court. In some of those cases (Blair) it was welcomed by the community.

If no one cares enough to pursue it in court, even if it’s illegal, it’s a harmless legal error.

Stop comparing Wootton to all these other schools on closure, because I can assure you Wootton will sue. They will be ready the moment H is passed.

Yep. And a judge will issue a TRO - and may even order MCPS to make immediate repairs to Wootton to maintain the status quo. Funnily enough, this is all Wootton families want. MCPS needs to figure out what to do with a school it should have never built, without closing the #3 school in Maryland. If it wants to move Wootton to Crown, then it can’t change the boundaries. Doing both under Option H is a closure.

That’s true. Perhaps Wootton, Magruder, Damascus, and Sherwood should consider a collective lawsuit against MCPS for negligence in maintaining their school buildings. If MCPS wants to open a can of worms, this would certainly do it.

I actually think this is an excellent idea.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

And for the last time, no one in those cases cared enough to pursue it in court. In some of those cases (Blair) it was welcomed by the community.

If no one cares enough to pursue it in court, even if it’s illegal, it’s a harmless legal error.

Stop comparing Wootton to all these other schools on closure, because I can assure you Wootton will sue. They will be ready the moment H is passed.

Yep. And a judge will issue a TRO - and may even order MCPS to make immediate repairs to Wootton to maintain the status quo. Funnily enough, this is all Wootton families want. MCPS needs to figure out what to do with a school it should have never built, without closing the #3 school in Maryland. If it wants to move Wootton to Crown, then it can’t change the boundaries. Doing both under Option H is a closure.

No one cares about the rating of the school and its not what all Wootton families want. Its what you want. Wootton has some serious issues the past few years. A new start may be what they need.

What are you talking about? Pretty much everyone cares about school ratings.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

And for the last time, no one in those cases cared enough to pursue it in court. In some of those cases (Blair) it was welcomed by the community.

If no one cares enough to pursue it in court, even if it’s illegal, it’s a harmless legal error.

Stop comparing Wootton to all these other schools on closure, because I can assure you Wootton will sue. They will be ready the moment H is passed.

I perceive a tone in your response that doesn't need to be there. I am genuinely interested in whether this counts as a closure and therefore whether any lawsuit would ultimately be successful. I'm not taking a position on whether Option H is a good idea, or should be objected to on other grounds. I'm comparing Wootton because that is exactly what a court would do.

Certainly, sue. And I don't doubt that a lawsuit would delay any action. So if that is the objective, it will likely be achieved. No doubt.

But I'm interested in the merits.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

Stop making up stuff. What procedure do they need? The issue is the students getting educational services and they are in a different building. You are not guarenteed a school within walking distance? Your entitlement is off the hook. What is your solution?

Dude. Where is there entitlement coming through in any of what I am saying? I don't even know what problem you are asking me to provide a solution for.

[Anonymous]

As a Gaithersburg resident, I am saddened by this entire thread. I am opposed to H but for completely different reasons.

This thread and the larger conversation is dominated by parents wealthy enough to sue vs. people who aren’t impacted by the decision, don’t have skin in the game, don’t live in the affected areas, etc.

No one cares about Gaithersburg.
No one cares that they are giving away a brand new school to a community that doesn’t even want it.
No one cares that there are kids in our community who are walkable to Crown, who can see Crown from their house, yet won’t be able to attend under H.
No one cares that H means not only do the kids referenced above lose access to Crown, but so does the entire region 5.

Has anyone considered how H impacts people in Gaithersburg, especially when we don’t have the resources to sue? Most of us can’t even attend BOE meetings because we are working families. A meeting at 12 PM or the upcoming 4 PM is ridiculous.

Why did the new options even come up? A-D were the only options that gave Gaithersburg a voice. Is it really because Churchill sued? If suing is the only way to get MCPS to listen, then I say have at it Wootton…go sue MCPS.

H does not benefit Gaithersburg, but again nobody cares about us.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All you Wootton crazies - just shut up

I'm more concerned about the Regional magnets and looks like this thread keeps getting longer and longer and bumped so the rest of us will forget about that.

Actually I have questions about H and regional magnets. Under any other option A-F, Crown (with its state-of-the-art labs) is in region 5. Under H, Crown/Wootton (whatever you call it) is under region 4.

How do we feel about option H handing a brand new amazing STEM centric school to a region that is already well-resourced over the under-resourced Gaithersburg community that is also overcrowded.

Do we care that Option H completely screws over Gaithersburg?

For all the people who say they are pro H to diversify Wootton, please do tell—how can you support an option that “steals” a school meant for a community of lower income and less resourced and hands it over to the privileged folks of Rockville and Potomac?

The cognitive dissonance doesn't make sense. Either Wootton is rich and privileged - doesn't deserve a new building, or Wootton is being given a "gift" that it should be forced to take for the good of MCPS. Which is it?

It's really not that complicated once you stop being deliberately obtuse. While people might disagree on relative priority, most would agree Wootton is nearing the end of its functional lifespan and will soon need a major renovation or to be rebuilt.

The people opposed to H don't want to stick with current Wootton building. They instead want MCPS to build them a school that the district doesn't actually need because they think it will help their property values.

So let’s say we give Wootton this brand new school. Again for the countless time: do we care or don’t care that H moves Crown/Wootton to region 4? Do we care or don’t care that this would give all the brand new, state of art labs and resources to Rockville and Potomac residents (Wootton, Churchill, RM) when this was supposed to be for under-resourced yet over populated Gaithersburg?

PP, by your own logic, MCPS is giving H to “privileged” parents of Wootton. How do you feel about the entire Gaithersburg community losing access to Crown, when every other option A-G gives Crown to Region 5?

Longer-term, it isn't good for Region 5 to have MCPS paying for a high school that it doesn't need.

Even longer term, it isn’t good for anyone in the school system for MCPS to spend money breaking ground on a new school it doesn’t need, use faulty enrollment numbers, not renovate another school that they have neglected for decades, and then instead of fixing the neglected school, punishes it by closing it altogether.

If we’re talking about the long term, pretty sure setting an unlawful precedent is worse.

Strongly disagree. Circumstances and data change. When a previous decision is no longer justified by the current situation and data, or (gasp!) if that decision was made in error, and there is still an opportunity to make a better decision, we should take it. Blindly continuing down a wasteful path due to a decision made 20 years ago would be the awful precedent.

It's absurd to characterize option H as "punishing" people in the Wootton zone. We know in the short-to-moderate term we would need a new building for Wootton. And we just so happen to have an available building just 2.3 miles away.

So you’re suggesting that Wootton get 100% of the former Crown and Taylor agrees not to move 500+ GHS kids into the new Wootton? This would make sense if MCPS is correct that the numbers don’t support a new high school at Crown anymore. However, I wonder how GHS parents would feel about MCPS “stealing” their new school and giving it to Wootton. Oh wait, we already know this from the hearings last week.

If you’re saying that Wootton has to move AND has to absorb kids through a boundary change, then you’re creating a new school and closing the old Wootton.

You can play with semantics all you like, but a judge is unlikely to agree, at least in the short term due to irreparable harm to Wootton families. MCPS doesn’t want this situation anywhere near a courtroom because it would be forced to open Crown with only 500 GHS kids. Any more kids than that and MCPS can’t close Wootton and move it to Crown.

By my read school closure under the regulations means the literal facility- "permanently ceasing to use it for educational purposes". It basically means a "negative one" facility for educational purposes. There aren't established facts to show that is happening here.

The currently empty Rock Terrace school in Rockville did not go through closure proceedings. Nor did any of the other buildings currently being used as holding schools.

Multiple school buildings stop being used over the years. Some reopened like Woodward and Northwood, others like Leland and became something else.

PP here. Thank you for adding additional examples. All of these, as far as my internet research can tell me, did not follow closure procedures, presumably because there was not a plan to permanently stop using them for educational purposes.

And for the last time, no one in those cases cared enough to pursue it in court. In some of those cases (Blair) it was welcomed by the community.

If no one cares enough to pursue it in court, even if it’s illegal, it’s a harmless legal error.

Stop comparing Wootton to all these other schools on closure, because I can assure you Wootton will sue. They will be ready the moment H is passed.

I perceive a tone in your response that doesn't need to be there. I am genuinely interested in whether this counts as a closure and therefore whether any lawsuit would ultimately be successful. I'm not taking a position on whether Option H is a good idea, or should be objected to on other grounds. I'm comparing Wootton because that is exactly what a court would do.

Certainly, sue. And I don't doubt that a lawsuit would delay any action. So if that is the objective, it will likely be achieved. No doubt.

But I'm interested in the merits.

Not PP but I’ll respond.
The thing is nothing like this has ever happened in the county. Sure there had been boundary studies and school closures, but not all entangled together. Throw in other entanglements like CIP, land grants, and it gets even messier and more unique.

Yes, courts look at precedent, but the fact pattern here is too different. We really can’t compare this case to anything MCPS has done in the past. It’s the perfect storm of so many things happening converging all at once—things that typically do not converge.

I really don’t know how a court will rule. There are arguments on both sides. But I think there are enough merits that the case won’t be tossed out and that the most likely possibility is the court issuing an injunction.

Do MCPS and the Wootton families have the appetite for a long legal battle? No idea. But this may be a part of MCPS calculus. Maybe they won’t pick H because they want to avoid this mess. EFG would create lawsuits. Or maybe, they think the parents won’t actually sue or that if they do, they will spend more money and outlast them. I can’t answer those questions. I’m just saying, the legal question can’t be answered by precedent, which makes this the exact type of case for courts to intervene.