Taylor Meeting at Wootton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real reason why certain Wootton families adamantly want to remain on the Parkway (knowing full well there is no money for renovations for several years) is because of what they have said in writing and orally publicly (we have many receipts): they're afraid that going to school with Crown kids will harm their kids. They have said that the Crown kids are violent, will disrupt the classes, are "low performers," will somehow affect their kids' grades and ability to get into a selective college. This racist fear is THE reason they're opposed. What is disgusting is their ploy to use Magruder for cover. Some of the Magruder parents I talked with said they disengaged once they saw that the intentions of the Rockville power brokers was not to actually advocate for Magruder to get money to get renovated. Comments from Wootton parents that Magruder should go to Crown because their demo and "culture" is more in tune with the Crown kids than Wootton's "excellence" are case in point.

Receipts? Great, show them. Because you're making a sweeping accusation against an entire community based on what sounds like a handful of loud idiots on the internet and then using those idiots to invalidate thousands of families who have legitimate concerns. That's not an argument. That's a smear with a bow on it.

I'll be direct: I have never once heard anyone in my circle express concern about Crown kids. Not once. What I have heard is parents who built their family's daily routine around three kids walking home together through three schools on the same corridor. That's not racism. That's a family's life.

Also worth noting: Wootton had a student shot on campus and multiple bomb threats this year. If we're playing the "dangerous kids" card, maybe consider which direction that cuts.

As for Magruder? I've spoken to those families too. Many of them actually want Crown. It's closer, it's newer, it genuinely works better for their community. So why aren't we having THAT conversation instead of this one? If the data supports Magruder going to Crown, make that case. It's a compelling one.

But constructing a villain is so much easier than making an honest argument.

Show the receipts or stop calling it evidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is with the hyperbole? 250 new buses on Wootton Parkway? 37 stops for one bus?! Making up BS just further undermines your argument. Clearly you're unfamiliar with how public school busing works here, because they don't go from house to house picking up each kid. LOL. There are things called "bus stops" where they pick up dozens of kids at one place, for efficiency. The Wootton bus schedule is a public document, and you can see for yourself that every bus makes just a handful of stops - with one outlier at 16 stops. Oh, and it's 22 buses for Wootton. Moving Wootton to Crown will not make that number jump to 250. Even if none of these groups turn to walkers at Crown (which some of them will), it still will not require another 228 buses to transport the Wootton walkers to Crown. And since MCPS already said that Wootton wouldn't be used as a holding school for several years, you don't have to worry about another 22-30 (not 228) buses from another high school coming. IF and when it is used as a holding school, there will be plenty of time to stagger the holding school start time from Wootton. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/Transportation/busroutes/04234bus.pdf

If Wootton isn’t going to be used as a holding school for several years, what is the plan for Magruder and why is this plan equitable?

It isn’t. Moving Wootton to Crown kills 2 birds with one stone for Taylor (really 3 birds). First, he fills Crown with high achieving kids, instant academic reputation that would otherwise take 20 years (if ever) to develop (and speaking of developers, they will be very happy). Second, it avoids MCPS having to spend money remediating Wootton, so it can spend that money on more sole source contracts that violate procurement regulations. Third, it means there isn’t a holding school for Magruder, so MCPS can delay that $300M+ renovation for years (if Crown was a holding school for Magruder, MCPS would have to find the money to begin renovations).

Nobody is talking about the staffing elephant in the room. What happens when Wootton's teachers leave?

And they will. I would know since I am one. Teachers with 15-20 years in a community don't just pick up and relocate because a superintendent drew a new line on a map. Many of them chose Wootton specifically for the culture, the community, the commute from where they actually live. When this "relocation" happens and half the faculty walks out the door, suddenly you don't have Wootton at Crown. You have Crown with a Wootton nameplate.

My kids had some of those teachers (my colleagues) over a decade ago. The institutional knowledge, the relationships, the culture we've all built... it's not a building. That's years of investment that evaporates the moment this vote passes and the resignation letters start.

MCPS keeps saying this is a move, not a closure. Fine. But a school is its people, not its address. When you force a relocation without meaningful faculty buy-in and lose half your experienced staff in the process, you've effectively closed the school everyone knew and opened a new one with a familiar logo. We've had very little engagement from the county other than with each other as peers. There are mixed feelings of course, but nobody took our pulse at the county level.

That's not a relocation. That's a rebranding. And the kids who show up at Crown in 2027 expecting Wootton deserve to know the difference.

That sucks but there is no money to do major renovations of two high schools in horrible condition while using a brand new school that has already been built as a holding school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Making my way through the insults to ask a sincere Q about why the IG complaints should delay the vote. Does the IG have authority to actually override a boundary decision? I went on the website and all I see are opinions written by the IG with loosey goosey recommendations. If the IGs do open an investigation, I for one will be interested in reading their recommendations, particularly for the next ES study. But they have no power to actually determine a proper boundary configuration, right?

Fair question and you're right I believe. The IG can't override a boundary decision. Nobody is claiming they can (I hope!).

The argument for delay isn't "the IG will reverse this." The argument is that a vote taken while active complaints are pending at both the IG and the state board of education creates a legitimacy problem that doesn't go away just because the vote passed. If the IG subsequently finds process violations or data irregularities, you've already implemented a permanent boundary change built on a flawed foundation. Unwinding that is exponentially harder and more expensive than pausing 30-60 days to get it right the first time.

The IG's value here isn't enforcement, but rather it's accountability and documentation. If the procurement concerns, the rushed timeline, the data methodology questions, and the multilingual outreach failures are found to be legitimate, that matters for every boundary study and capital decision that follows. The ES study you mentioned being interested in would benefit enormously from those findings being on record before the next round begins.

So no, the IG can't stop this vote. But "they can't stop it" and "there's no reason to pause" are two very different things. One is a legal observation. The other is a choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is with the hyperbole? 250 new buses on Wootton Parkway? 37 stops for one bus?! Making up BS just further undermines your argument. Clearly you're unfamiliar with how public school busing works here, because they don't go from house to house picking up each kid. LOL. There are things called "bus stops" where they pick up dozens of kids at one place, for efficiency. The Wootton bus schedule is a public document, and you can see for yourself that every bus makes just a handful of stops - with one outlier at 16 stops. Oh, and it's 22 buses for Wootton. Moving Wootton to Crown will not make that number jump to 250. Even if none of these groups turn to walkers at Crown (which some of them will), it still will not require another 228 buses to transport the Wootton walkers to Crown. And since MCPS already said that Wootton wouldn't be used as a holding school for several years, you don't have to worry about another 22-30 (not 228) buses from another high school coming. IF and when it is used as a holding school, there will be plenty of time to stagger the holding school start time from Wootton. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/Transportation/busroutes/04234bus.pdf

If Wootton isn’t going to be used as a holding school for several years, what is the plan for Magruder and why is this plan equitable?

It isn’t. Moving Wootton to Crown kills 2 birds with one stone for Taylor (really 3 birds). First, he fills Crown with high achieving kids, instant academic reputation that would otherwise take 20 years (if ever) to develop (and speaking of developers, they will be very happy). Second, it avoids MCPS having to spend money remediating Wootton, so it can spend that money on more sole source contracts that violate procurement regulations. Third, it means there isn’t a holding school for Magruder, so MCPS can delay that $300M+ renovation for years (if Crown was a holding school for Magruder, MCPS would have to find the money to begin renovations).

Nobody is talking about the staffing elephant in the room. What happens when Wootton's teachers leave?

And they will. I would know since I am one. Teachers with 15-20 years in a community don't just pick up and relocate because a superintendent drew a new line on a map. Many of them chose Wootton specifically for the culture, the community, the commute from where they actually live. When this "relocation" happens and half the faculty walks out the door, suddenly you don't have Wootton at Crown. You have Crown with a Wootton nameplate.

My kids had some of those teachers (my colleagues) over a decade ago. The institutional knowledge, the relationships, the culture we've all built... it's not a building. That's years of investment that evaporates the moment this vote passes and the resignation letters start.

MCPS keeps saying this is a move, not a closure. Fine. But a school is its people, not its address. When you force a relocation without meaningful faculty buy-in and lose half your experienced staff in the process, you've effectively closed the school everyone knew and opened a new one with a familiar logo. We've had very little engagement from the county other than with each other as peers. There are mixed feelings of course, but nobody took our pulse at the county level.

That's not a relocation. That's a rebranding. And the kids who show up at Crown in 2027 expecting Wootton deserve to know the difference.

That sucks but there is no money to do major renovations of two high schools in horrible condition while using a brand new school that has already been built as a holding school.

So leave Magruder empty until there is money. Kids are safe. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh good, the "it's only 12 minutes" people are here. Love it. Please, tell me more about the school bus system you have apparently never ridden. Your kid is not getting picked up last and dropped off at Crown. They are stop four of thirty-seven at 6:45am. But sure. Twelve minutes. Totally.

Now that we've handled that, let's talk about what's actually happening here because some of you are out here defending a process that wouldn't pass a middle school civics test.

MCPS added 16,000 housing units between 2019 and 2024. Enrollment dropped by 6,000 students. That is their own data. They are using declining enrollment to justify moving Wootton. By that exact same logic, Crown doesn't need Wootton's students either. The district built a school for a growth wave that never came, and now Wootton's community gets to pay for that miscalculation with their kids' commutes. Cool system.

And my personal favorite: the Wootton building is apparently SO dangerous, SO deteriorated, SO uninhabitable that students must be relocated immediately to a brand new facility. Great. Totally logical. So why is the very next sentence of the plan "and then we'll put other people's children in that same building as a holding school"? WHICH IS IT? Is it a condemned hazard or a perfectly serviceable facility? Because it cannot be both, and nobody in the pro-move crowd has ever once attempted to explain this contradiction.

Option H... the actual plan on the table, was introduced in December. The board votes March 26. Ninety days. Permanent decision. Thousands of families. A cluster that is over one-third Asian American with documented inadequate multilingual outreach. The community asked for an independent cost comparison of renovation versus relocation. They still don't have one. The community asked for more time. They were told to be grateful for a new building.

The argument that this is just entitled homeowners protecting property values might land better if the district had done a single thing transparently. They didn't. They rushed a process, buried a conflict of interest between needing a holding school and needing to justify Crown, and then acted surprised when thousands of people showed up furious.

You don't have to oppose the move to recognize this process was a dumpster fire. But apparently nuance is also on the renovation delay list.

I'm so sick of this argument- its so misleading. You guys REALLY don't understand how this whole Wootton holding school thing is supposed to work huh?

They do in fact need to do work to make it safe for the other kids. Guess what, there's no money for that right now. There is zero funding and zero timeline to turn Wootton into the holding school. But they at least have a building they can use if and when the funding and opportunity arise. Not once has MCPS provided any data on when and how Wootton becomes a holding school. My guess? 5-10 years from now.

You should get on boarddocs because lots of the other information you want has been released in the board work sessions.

So Magruder just sits and rots for 5-10 years right? The alternative is Magruder gets to and wants to (rightfully so) go straight to Crown.

Agree to the fullest and rightfully!!

Magruder could go and sit there for 5-10 years yeah, but there wouldn't be funding to repair Magruder before then. Do they want to relocate that far away for ten years? I also don't know for sure they can get approval to use it as a holding school without a project actually happening.

This is good. Do they WANT to relocate? Suddenly we care about what Magruder wants? Yet we didn't care about what Wootton wants? 5-10 years? Maybe. Flip a coin. Who cares. Someone loses out, but give the new school to the one that needs it more vs caring about who wants it. Use data to determine that.

I'm Wootton. I want to move to Crown.

None of our voices matter either way. You'll get your wish, but not because you wanted it, but because he wanted it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is with the hyperbole? 250 new buses on Wootton Parkway? 37 stops for one bus?! Making up BS just further undermines your argument. Clearly you're unfamiliar with how public school busing works here, because they don't go from house to house picking up each kid. LOL. There are things called "bus stops" where they pick up dozens of kids at one place, for efficiency. The Wootton bus schedule is a public document, and you can see for yourself that every bus makes just a handful of stops - with one outlier at 16 stops. Oh, and it's 22 buses for Wootton. Moving Wootton to Crown will not make that number jump to 250. Even if none of these groups turn to walkers at Crown (which some of them will), it still will not require another 228 buses to transport the Wootton walkers to Crown. And since MCPS already said that Wootton wouldn't be used as a holding school for several years, you don't have to worry about another 22-30 (not 228) buses from another high school coming. IF and when it is used as a holding school, there will be plenty of time to stagger the holding school start time from Wootton. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/Transportation/busroutes/04234bus.pdf

If Wootton isn’t going to be used as a holding school for several years, what is the plan for Magruder and why is this plan equitable?

It isn’t. Moving Wootton to Crown kills 2 birds with one stone for Taylor (really 3 birds). First, he fills Crown with high achieving kids, instant academic reputation that would otherwise take 20 years (if ever) to develop (and speaking of developers, they will be very happy). Second, it avoids MCPS having to spend money remediating Wootton, so it can spend that money on more sole source contracts that violate procurement regulations. Third, it means there isn’t a holding school for Magruder, so MCPS can delay that $300M+ renovation for years (if Crown was a holding school for Magruder, MCPS would have to find the money to begin renovations).

Nobody is talking about the staffing elephant in the room. What happens when Wootton's teachers leave?

And they will. I would know since I am one. Teachers with 15-20 years in a community don't just pick up and relocate because a superintendent drew a new line on a map. Many of them chose Wootton specifically for the culture, the community, the commute from where they actually live. When this "relocation" happens and half the faculty walks out the door, suddenly you don't have Wootton at Crown. You have Crown with a Wootton nameplate.

My kids had some of those teachers (my colleagues) over a decade ago. The institutional knowledge, the relationships, the culture we've all built... it's not a building. That's years of investment that evaporates the moment this vote passes and the resignation letters start.

MCPS keeps saying this is a move, not a closure. Fine. But a school is its people, not its address. When you force a relocation without meaningful faculty buy-in and lose half your experienced staff in the process, you've effectively closed the school everyone knew and opened a new one with a familiar logo. We've had very little engagement from the county other than with each other as peers. There are mixed feelings of course, but nobody took our pulse at the county level.

That's not a relocation. That's a rebranding. And the kids who show up at Crown in 2027 expecting Wootton deserve to know the difference.

That sucks but there is no money to do major renovations of two high schools in horrible condition while using a brand new school that has already been built as a holding school.

So leave Magruder empty until there is money. Kids are safe. Problem solved.

You can't do that apparently because word is that Crown is filled with violent people according to posters here.

[Anonymous]

I know these communities near Wootton. They are truly lovely, down to earth people. But their kids all know that their parents spent a lot of money to live there because they care so much about their kids' education. There is a lack of awareness of what they are saying to their kids about other schools and other families. And now with this proposal they are grasping at straws, claiming entitlement to something that is not something you are entitled to in a public school system. And if they succeed even at delaying this change, they will cost us all a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

Reading through this thread and watching clips, videos and hearings from MCPS. Woodson families are doing the right thing to fight. Hold these officials accountable. There isn't any reason for MCPS to shuffle people like this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is with the hyperbole? 250 new buses on Wootton Parkway? 37 stops for one bus?! Making up BS just further undermines your argument. Clearly you're unfamiliar with how public school busing works here, because they don't go from house to house picking up each kid. LOL. There are things called "bus stops" where they pick up dozens of kids at one place, for efficiency. The Wootton bus schedule is a public document, and you can see for yourself that every bus makes just a handful of stops - with one outlier at 16 stops. Oh, and it's 22 buses for Wootton. Moving Wootton to Crown will not make that number jump to 250. Even if none of these groups turn to walkers at Crown (which some of them will), it still will not require another 228 buses to transport the Wootton walkers to Crown. And since MCPS already said that Wootton wouldn't be used as a holding school for several years, you don't have to worry about another 22-30 (not 228) buses from another high school coming. IF and when it is used as a holding school, there will be plenty of time to stagger the holding school start time from Wootton. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/Transportation/busroutes/04234bus.pdf

If Wootton isn’t going to be used as a holding school for several years, what is the plan for Magruder and why is this plan equitable?

It isn’t. Moving Wootton to Crown kills 2 birds with one stone for Taylor (really 3 birds). First, he fills Crown with high achieving kids, instant academic reputation that would otherwise take 20 years (if ever) to develop (and speaking of developers, they will be very happy). Second, it avoids MCPS having to spend money remediating Wootton, so it can spend that money on more sole source contracts that violate procurement regulations. Third, it means there isn’t a holding school for Magruder, so MCPS can delay that $300M+ renovation for years (if Crown was a holding school for Magruder, MCPS would have to find the money to begin renovations).

Nobody is talking about the staffing elephant in the room. What happens when Wootton's teachers leave?

And they will. I would know since I am one. Teachers with 15-20 years in a community don't just pick up and relocate because a superintendent drew a new line on a map. Many of them chose Wootton specifically for the culture, the community, the commute from where they actually live. When this "relocation" happens and half the faculty walks out the door, suddenly you don't have Wootton at Crown. You have Crown with a Wootton nameplate.

My kids had some of those teachers (my colleagues) over a decade ago. The institutional knowledge, the relationships, the culture we've all built... it's not a building. That's years of investment that evaporates the moment this vote passes and the resignation letters start.

MCPS keeps saying this is a move, not a closure. Fine. But a school is its people, not its address. When you force a relocation without meaningful faculty buy-in and lose half your experienced staff in the process, you've effectively closed the school everyone knew and opened a new one with a familiar logo. We've had very little engagement from the county other than with each other as peers. There are mixed feelings of course, but nobody took our pulse at the county level.

That's not a relocation. That's a rebranding. And the kids who show up at Crown in 2027 expecting Wootton deserve to know the difference.

That sucks but there is no money to do major renovations of two high schools in horrible condition while using a brand new school that has already been built as a holding school.

I have watched this county find money for a great many things over the years. Rarely has critical infrastructure been among them. Not for us, not for Magruder, and I suspect not for a number of schools most of us never hear about because we are all, as you say, in our own little bubbles.

I chose this school. I chose this neighborhood. Fifteen years ago I moved within walking distance of Wootton specifically because I wanted to be part of something - not just a building I drove to and left. I have walked home alongside students. I have stayed late for clubs and tutoring and the quiet conversations that happen after the bell rings, precisely because home was close enough to make that possible. Those things are not nothing. Those things are, in my experience, everything.

With this move, that chapter will have to close without me. I am not angry about it. I am simply telling you plainly what will be lost. Not in a spreadsheet, not in a facilities utilization table, but in the daily fabric of a school community that took a very long time to build.

The county has made its priorities clear over many years. I suppose I should not be surprised that the people closest to the school, both literally and figuratively, are the last ones consulted about its future.

I will miss the walk home most of all. I'm sure someone will attack my post as well as it seems to be a common theme, but I wish all of the Wootton community well after next school year. Maybe there can be some St. Patty's day luck from yesterday shone on the vote, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh good, the "it's only 12 minutes" people are here. Love it. Please, tell me more about the school bus system you have apparently never ridden. Your kid is not getting picked up last and dropped off at Crown. They are stop four of thirty-seven at 6:45am. But sure. Twelve minutes. Totally.

Now that we've handled that, let's talk about what's actually happening here because some of you are out here defending a process that wouldn't pass a middle school civics test.

MCPS added 16,000 housing units between 2019 and 2024. Enrollment dropped by 6,000 students. That is their own data. They are using declining enrollment to justify moving Wootton. By that exact same logic, Crown doesn't need Wootton's students either. The district built a school for a growth wave that never came, and now Wootton's community gets to pay for that miscalculation with their kids' commutes. Cool system.

And my personal favorite: the Wootton building is apparently SO dangerous, SO deteriorated, SO uninhabitable that students must be relocated immediately to a brand new facility. Great. Totally logical. So why is the very next sentence of the plan "and then we'll put other people's children in that same building as a holding school"? WHICH IS IT? Is it a condemned hazard or a perfectly serviceable facility? Because it cannot be both, and nobody in the pro-move crowd has ever once attempted to explain this contradiction.

Option H... the actual plan on the table, was introduced in December. The board votes March 26. Ninety days. Permanent decision. Thousands of families. A cluster that is over one-third Asian American with documented inadequate multilingual outreach. The community asked for an independent cost comparison of renovation versus relocation. They still don't have one. The community asked for more time. They were told to be grateful for a new building.

The argument that this is just entitled homeowners protecting property values might land better if the district had done a single thing transparently. They didn't. They rushed a process, buried a conflict of interest between needing a holding school and needing to justify Crown, and then acted surprised when thousands of people showed up furious.

You don't have to oppose the move to recognize this process was a dumpster fire. But apparently nuance is also on the renovation delay list.

For the next time or iteration you post this, it might "land better" without the "sure", "cool", "totally" etc additions that weaken the whole tone of this and probably matches how you talk. Also, be aware that Wootton is certainly moving to Crown so all of this is sour grapes. But you knew that (another favorite line of people who talk like you). Wonder how long this revolving door of complaints will last. My guess is until it posts its first GPA or AP score list and everyone realizes everything is ok. Like totally.

Appreciate the writing workshop from someone whose entire counter-argument was "it's happening, get over it." Bold contribution to the discourse.

And you're right, the casual language was imprecise. You know what else is imprecise? Calling a March 26 board vote a foregone conclusion the same week the state board of education received a formal complaint, the IG was asked to investigate, and multiple elected officials publicly called for a pause. But sure, totally settled. Nothing left to litigate here. Move along.

"Sour grapes" is a cute framing if you'd like to keep ignoring what was actually argued. The argument was never "Wootton deserves to stay in a crumbling building forever." It was that 90 days is an indefensible timeline for a permanent decision affecting thousands of families, that the independent cost analysis was requested and never produced, that multilingual outreach was documented as inadequate for a cluster over one-third Asian American, and that the district's own enrollment data directly contradicts its own justifications. None of that inconvenient reality dissolves because a vote is calendared.

The AP score prediction is genuinely my favorite part though. That's the move you make when you've run out of actual responses and need the conversation to stop. "Everyone will be fine eventually" is not a process defense. It's a concession that the process doesn't matter which, ironically, is the entire problem people are upset about.

But I'm sure you'll explain how I talk next.

Was generally trying to help sweetie. You all are deeply wired for conflict. Wonder if the parkway people 55 years ago were thankful or resentful about their new school. Was probably much of the same. You had your distance mongers, your change mongers, your traffic mongers, your life isn't fair mongers. But it all worked out so, so swimmingly. Well, until now it's a complete disaster but you know what I mean - had a great run there.

If the plan is strong, it should stand up to tough questions. Dismissing concerns instead of addressing them is usually a sign that something isn’t being fully answered (and you’re afraid the answers will show that the emperor has no clothes)

Go ahead and call the Wootton parents “sweetie” in front of a judge. Your condescending attitude isn’t going to fly at all.

Sweet tigress, since when are we talking about parents talking in front of a judge? Wootton is oddly fascinated by lawsuits, but more in the way that fourth graders say “I’ll sue you” at recess. I know, I know…sacrifice, fighting for the kids. So noble. But not to worry, your future little Crownies will flourish over there up by 270 and after all, success is the ultimate revenge. You will win in the long run, love. You will overcome. Besitos muah

[Anonymous]

It take skill, wisdom, effort, intention to build something - like the Wootton community. Any fool can break it.

Ditto for the HS magnet programs. So many decades of effort, investment. All about to come crashing down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is with the hyperbole? 250 new buses on Wootton Parkway? 37 stops for one bus?! Making up BS just further undermines your argument. Clearly you're unfamiliar with how public school busing works here, because they don't go from house to house picking up each kid. LOL. There are things called "bus stops" where they pick up dozens of kids at one place, for efficiency. The Wootton bus schedule is a public document, and you can see for yourself that every bus makes just a handful of stops - with one outlier at 16 stops. Oh, and it's 22 buses for Wootton. Moving Wootton to Crown will not make that number jump to 250. Even if none of these groups turn to walkers at Crown (which some of them will), it still will not require another 228 buses to transport the Wootton walkers to Crown. And since MCPS already said that Wootton wouldn't be used as a holding school for several years, you don't have to worry about another 22-30 (not 228) buses from another high school coming. IF and when it is used as a holding school, there will be plenty of time to stagger the holding school start time from Wootton. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/Transportation/busroutes/04234bus.pdf

If Wootton isn’t going to be used as a holding school for several years, what is the plan for Magruder and why is this plan equitable?

It isn’t. Moving Wootton to Crown kills 2 birds with one stone for Taylor (really 3 birds). First, he fills Crown with high achieving kids, instant academic reputation that would otherwise take 20 years (if ever) to develop (and speaking of developers, they will be very happy). Second, it avoids MCPS having to spend money remediating Wootton, so it can spend that money on more sole source contracts that violate procurement regulations. Third, it means there isn’t a holding school for Magruder, so MCPS can delay that $300M+ renovation for years (if Crown was a holding school for Magruder, MCPS would have to find the money to begin renovations).

Nobody is talking about the staffing elephant in the room. What happens when Wootton's teachers leave?

And they will. I would know since I am one. Teachers with 15-20 years in a community don't just pick up and relocate because a superintendent drew a new line on a map. Many of them chose Wootton specifically for the culture, the community, the commute from where they actually live. When this "relocation" happens and half the faculty walks out the door, suddenly you don't have Wootton at Crown. You have Crown with a Wootton nameplate.

My kids had some of those teachers (my colleagues) over a decade ago. The institutional knowledge, the relationships, the culture we've all built... it's not a building. That's years of investment that evaporates the moment this vote passes and the resignation letters start.

MCPS keeps saying this is a move, not a closure. Fine. But a school is its people, not its address. When you force a relocation without meaningful faculty buy-in and lose half your experienced staff in the process, you've effectively closed the school everyone knew and opened a new one with a familiar logo. We've had very little engagement from the county other than with each other as peers. There are mixed feelings of course, but nobody took our pulse at the county level.

That's not a relocation. That's a rebranding. And the kids who show up at Crown in 2027 expecting Wootton deserve to know the difference.

That sucks but there is no money to do major renovations of two high schools in horrible condition while using a brand new school that has already been built as a holding school.

I have watched this county find money for a great many things over the years. Rarely has critical infrastructure been among them. Not for us, not for Magruder, and I suspect not for a number of schools most of us never hear about because we are all, as you say, in our own little bubbles.

I chose this school. I chose this neighborhood. Fifteen years ago I moved within walking distance of Wootton specifically because I wanted to be part of something - not just a building I drove to and left. I have walked home alongside students. I have stayed late for clubs and tutoring and the quiet conversations that happen after the bell rings, precisely because home was close enough to make that possible. Those things are not nothing. Those things are, in my experience, everything.

With this move, that chapter will have to close without me. I am not angry about it. I am simply telling you plainly what will be lost. Not in a spreadsheet, not in a facilities utilization table, but in the daily fabric of a school community that took a very long time to build.

The county has made its priorities clear over many years. I suppose I should not be surprised that the people closest to the school, both literally and figuratively, are the last ones consulted about its future.

I will miss the walk home most of all. I'm sure someone will attack my post as well as it seems to be a common theme, but I wish all of the Wootton community well after next school year. Maybe there can be some St. Patty's day luck from yesterday shone on the vote, but I'm not holding my breath.

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is with the hyperbole? 250 new buses on Wootton Parkway? 37 stops for one bus?! Making up BS just further undermines your argument. Clearly you're unfamiliar with how public school busing works here, because they don't go from house to house picking up each kid. LOL. There are things called "bus stops" where they pick up dozens of kids at one place, for efficiency. The Wootton bus schedule is a public document, and you can see for yourself that every bus makes just a handful of stops - with one outlier at 16 stops. Oh, and it's 22 buses for Wootton. Moving Wootton to Crown will not make that number jump to 250. Even if none of these groups turn to walkers at Crown (which some of them will), it still will not require another 228 buses to transport the Wootton walkers to Crown. And since MCPS already said that Wootton wouldn't be used as a holding school for several years, you don't have to worry about another 22-30 (not 228) buses from another high school coming. IF and when it is used as a holding school, there will be plenty of time to stagger the holding school start time from Wootton. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/Transportation/busroutes/04234bus.pdf

If Wootton isn’t going to be used as a holding school for several years, what is the plan for Magruder and why is this plan equitable?

It isn’t. Moving Wootton to Crown kills 2 birds with one stone for Taylor (really 3 birds). First, he fills Crown with high achieving kids, instant academic reputation that would otherwise take 20 years (if ever) to develop (and speaking of developers, they will be very happy). Second, it avoids MCPS having to spend money remediating Wootton, so it can spend that money on more sole source contracts that violate procurement regulations. Third, it means there isn’t a holding school for Magruder, so MCPS can delay that $300M+ renovation for years (if Crown was a holding school for Magruder, MCPS would have to find the money to begin renovations).

Nobody is talking about the staffing elephant in the room. What happens when Wootton's teachers leave?

And they will. I would know since I am one. Teachers with 15-20 years in a community don't just pick up and relocate because a superintendent drew a new line on a map. Many of them chose Wootton specifically for the culture, the community, the commute from where they actually live. When this "relocation" happens and half the faculty walks out the door, suddenly you don't have Wootton at Crown. You have Crown with a Wootton nameplate.

My kids had some of those teachers (my colleagues) over a decade ago. The institutional knowledge, the relationships, the culture we've all built... it's not a building. That's years of investment that evaporates the moment this vote passes and the resignation letters start.

MCPS keeps saying this is a move, not a closure. Fine. But a school is its people, not its address. When you force a relocation without meaningful faculty buy-in and lose half your experienced staff in the process, you've effectively closed the school everyone knew and opened a new one with a familiar logo. We've had very little engagement from the county other than with each other as peers. There are mixed feelings of course, but nobody took our pulse at the county level.

That's not a relocation. That's a rebranding. And the kids who show up at Crown in 2027 expecting Wootton deserve to know the difference.

I like your characterization "Crown with a Wootton nameplate."

I am curious - with the turnover in the administration and staff in the last ~12 months, is Wootton still the same Wootton? Or has it already begun to change?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is with the hyperbole? 250 new buses on Wootton Parkway? 37 stops for one bus?! Making up BS just further undermines your argument. Clearly you're unfamiliar with how public school busing works here, because they don't go from house to house picking up each kid. LOL. There are things called "bus stops" where they pick up dozens of kids at one place, for efficiency. The Wootton bus schedule is a public document, and you can see for yourself that every bus makes just a handful of stops - with one outlier at 16 stops. Oh, and it's 22 buses for Wootton. Moving Wootton to Crown will not make that number jump to 250. Even if none of these groups turn to walkers at Crown (which some of them will), it still will not require another 228 buses to transport the Wootton walkers to Crown. And since MCPS already said that Wootton wouldn't be used as a holding school for several years, you don't have to worry about another 22-30 (not 228) buses from another high school coming. IF and when it is used as a holding school, there will be plenty of time to stagger the holding school start time from Wootton. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/Transportation/busroutes/04234bus.pdf

If Wootton isn’t going to be used as a holding school for several years, what is the plan for Magruder and why is this plan equitable?

It isn’t. Moving Wootton to Crown kills 2 birds with one stone for Taylor (really 3 birds). First, he fills Crown with high achieving kids, instant academic reputation that would otherwise take 20 years (if ever) to develop (and speaking of developers, they will be very happy). Second, it avoids MCPS having to spend money remediating Wootton, so it can spend that money on more sole source contracts that violate procurement regulations. Third, it means there isn’t a holding school for Magruder, so MCPS can delay that $300M+ renovation for years (if Crown was a holding school for Magruder, MCPS would have to find the money to begin renovations).

Nobody is talking about the staffing elephant in the room. What happens when Wootton's teachers leave?

And they will. I would know since I am one. Teachers with 15-20 years in a community don't just pick up and relocate because a superintendent drew a new line on a map. Many of them chose Wootton specifically for the culture, the community, the commute from where they actually live. When this "relocation" happens and half the faculty walks out the door, suddenly you don't have Wootton at Crown. You have Crown with a Wootton nameplate.

My kids had some of those teachers (my colleagues) over a decade ago. The institutional knowledge, the relationships, the culture we've all built... it's not a building. That's years of investment that evaporates the moment this vote passes and the resignation letters start.

MCPS keeps saying this is a move, not a closure. Fine. But a school is its people, not its address. When you force a relocation without meaningful faculty buy-in and lose half your experienced staff in the process, you've effectively closed the school everyone knew and opened a new one with a familiar logo. We've had very little engagement from the county other than with each other as peers. There are mixed feelings of course, but nobody took our pulse at the county level.

That's not a relocation. That's a rebranding. And the kids who show up at Crown in 2027 expecting Wootton deserve to know the difference.

That sucks but there is no money to do major renovations of two high schools in horrible condition while using a brand new school that has already been built as a holding school.

I have watched this county find money for a great many things over the years. Rarely has critical infrastructure been among them. Not for us, not for Magruder, and I suspect not for a number of schools most of us never hear about because we are all, as you say, in our own little bubbles.

I chose this school. I chose this neighborhood. Fifteen years ago I moved within walking distance of Wootton specifically because I wanted to be part of something - not just a building I drove to and left. I have walked home alongside students. I have stayed late for clubs and tutoring and the quiet conversations that happen after the bell rings, precisely because home was close enough to make that possible. Those things are not nothing. Those things are, in my experience, everything.

With this move, that chapter will have to close without me. I am not angry about it. I am simply telling you plainly what will be lost. Not in a spreadsheet, not in a facilities utilization table, but in the daily fabric of a school community that took a very long time to build.

The county has made its priorities clear over many years. I suppose I should not be surprised that the people closest to the school, both literally and figuratively, are the last ones consulted about its future.

I will miss the walk home most of all. I'm sure someone will attack my post as well as it seems to be a common theme, but I wish all of the Wootton community well after next school year. Maybe there can be some St. Patty's day luck from yesterday shone on the vote, but I'm not holding my breath.

You want taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild a facility that isn't needed so you can continue walking to work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is with the hyperbole? 250 new buses on Wootton Parkway? 37 stops for one bus?! Making up BS just further undermines your argument. Clearly you're unfamiliar with how public school busing works here, because they don't go from house to house picking up each kid. LOL. There are things called "bus stops" where they pick up dozens of kids at one place, for efficiency. The Wootton bus schedule is a public document, and you can see for yourself that every bus makes just a handful of stops - with one outlier at 16 stops. Oh, and it's 22 buses for Wootton. Moving Wootton to Crown will not make that number jump to 250. Even if none of these groups turn to walkers at Crown (which some of them will), it still will not require another 228 buses to transport the Wootton walkers to Crown. And since MCPS already said that Wootton wouldn't be used as a holding school for several years, you don't have to worry about another 22-30 (not 228) buses from another high school coming. IF and when it is used as a holding school, there will be plenty of time to stagger the holding school start time from Wootton. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/Transportation/busroutes/04234bus.pdf

If Wootton isn’t going to be used as a holding school for several years, what is the plan for Magruder and why is this plan equitable?

It isn’t. Moving Wootton to Crown kills 2 birds with one stone for Taylor (really 3 birds). First, he fills Crown with high achieving kids, instant academic reputation that would otherwise take 20 years (if ever) to develop (and speaking of developers, they will be very happy). Second, it avoids MCPS having to spend money remediating Wootton, so it can spend that money on more sole source contracts that violate procurement regulations. Third, it means there isn’t a holding school for Magruder, so MCPS can delay that $300M+ renovation for years (if Crown was a holding school for Magruder, MCPS would have to find the money to begin renovations).

Nobody is talking about the staffing elephant in the room. What happens when Wootton's teachers leave?

And they will. I would know since I am one. Teachers with 15-20 years in a community don't just pick up and relocate because a superintendent drew a new line on a map. Many of them chose Wootton specifically for the culture, the community, the commute from where they actually live. When this "relocation" happens and half the faculty walks out the door, suddenly you don't have Wootton at Crown. You have Crown with a Wootton nameplate.

My kids had some of those teachers (my colleagues) over a decade ago. The institutional knowledge, the relationships, the culture we've all built... it's not a building. That's years of investment that evaporates the moment this vote passes and the resignation letters start.

MCPS keeps saying this is a move, not a closure. Fine. But a school is its people, not its address. When you force a relocation without meaningful faculty buy-in and lose half your experienced staff in the process, you've effectively closed the school everyone knew and opened a new one with a familiar logo. We've had very little engagement from the county other than with each other as peers. There are mixed feelings of course, but nobody took our pulse at the county level.

That's not a relocation. That's a rebranding. And the kids who show up at Crown in 2027 expecting Wootton deserve to know the difference.

I like your characterization "Crown with a Wootton nameplate."

I am curious - with the turnover in the administration and staff in the last ~12 months, is Wootton still the same Wootton? Or has it already begun to change?

Staff turnover happens every year but that is natural in any school or organization right? There are many staff here that remain the core of the school that have built the academic programs, clubs, and other areas that have remained steadfast even with changes in administration. The administration had to learn from us how we do things which was refreshing.