The student from Magruder—I believe the SGA—president was very convincing! |
I don't get this. What does she want? I think I get her concern, but I don't see how any of the plausible alternatives to H create a better situation. Not going with H means there won't be a holding school and there will be less money for capital improvements elsewhere. |
You forgot that crown as holding school has three options on the table. If there has to be a holding school, then it has to be crown. Even Magruder and Damascus do not want Wootton to be holding school. Why you want to force three clusters to accept something they don’t want? |
She didn't say what she wants. She suggests Crown would be better for them, although I think she's exaggerating the difference, but she never says she wants a particular option. Or even clearly that she want Crown to be a holding school. Besides H, the other holding school options look exceedingly unlikely. So playing this out, MCPS would have more schools to operate, maintain and renovate, ultimately slowing down things for Magruder. Surely she knows that. What's her objective here? |
I’m very confused. Why is having crown as the holding school less likely when that’s literally what three other options (EFG) is about? If you didn’t know that, you are obviously not following this. Her point is using Wootton makes no sense. Using Wootton means Wootton does jump the line to get renovated first, which will take another 3-4 years, then Damascus and Magruder get to use it as a holding school. Also, you know what’s crazier? MCPS has done feasibility and cost studies for using crown as a holding school. Its own internal documents say crown would be a great holding school due to its access. It says that it is a great location for the countless schools that need renovations, and how it would save a lot of money and time. And you know what’s the craziest part? MCPS has never done this feasibility and cost analysis for using Wootton as a holding school. |
Are you people ok? To the people going but there’s no other holding school option besides Wootton—are you actually stupid? Crown is the holding school. Options EFG has this. On 10/30, BOE voted to expand the scope of the boundary study to allow options that uses crown as a holding school. That’s why there’s feasibility and cost analysis on this. Funny enough when the amends the scope of the boundary study to include crown as a holding school, they said no other changes to scope will be made. Then they randomly go and add H anyways. And no studies have been made on wootton’s feasibility or cost as a holding school. Logic dictates that a new school off 270 is safer and more convenient for everyone to use as a holding school. If you are still saying but we need a holding school and Wootton is the only option, you either can’t read or don’t care enough to even find out what the other options are. For the dumbasses who keep saying but what do you want? Options E F or G |
Because MCPS isn't going to *not* send kids to Crown whose impact taxes paid for a portion of the school. That gets into a real legal problem. Yes, they could carve out 500 seats for the local kids, but does anyone think they're going to have entire high schools rotating in with the relatively number of Crown kids? And what do they do the years when there isn't a construction project? 500 kids isn't enough to operate a high school in MCPS. MCPS is likely to be going into a construction boom. There aren't enough students. |
Lawyer here: this is just BS. There’s no clear statutory obligation that impact taxes, by themselves, force MCPS to assign local students to Crown. The impact tax helps fund capital capacity, but doesn’t come with guarantee in the code itself. You know what has legal issues? H. There are countless issues. |
Does anyone really think they'd use Crown as a holding school for Damascus? That's the only scenario where people might be coming south on 270. If they would actually be willing to do that, then I see the logic in Crown as a holding school, but that seems implausible to me. |
UPP taxes need to be spent to increase capacity in the service area where they were collected (or to increase capacity in an adjacent service area). H doesn't have a problem because some kids would be moved from GHS. |
Why is it implausible when that’s what EFG is about? Why is using Wootton better? I’m going to quote MCPS own documents: literally says Crown is the ideal opportunity “Crown HS’s location in the center of the county offers an ideal opportunity for a secondary swing that can benefit several secondary schools. Of the initial 50 schools on which MCPS performed FCIs that have identified capital and infrastructure needs, five are within a 20-minute drive of Crown HS, with others just outside. The five within the 20-minute drive time include: Gaithersburg MS, Redland MS, Magruder HS, Wooton HS, and Robert Frost MS. Just outside are Eastern MS, Newport Mill MS, White Oak MS, Sligo MS, and Damascus HS.” Don’t take my word. Take MCPS own words. |
EFG won’t be an issue either because it will increase capacity at a whole slew of schools including Magruder and Wootton both do which are adjacent service areas. There’s also a whole bunch of schools that can use crown as the holding school, like Gaithersburg MS and Redlands MS, which would increase capacity in both service area and adjacent area. |
Also long term after holding school, Crown becomes a permanent school. By then, enrollment numbers will be back up and it’ll be needed. UPP issues are literally moot. The state already told Mcps this. Funny enough, the state has never told Mcps about H being legal—you know why? Mcps hasn’t even asked. |
Just because it's an option doesn't mean it's a plausible option. Crown isn't 20 minutes away from Damascus when schools open and close. I don't think Wootton is a more plausible alternative holding school for Damascus. I think Damascus will do the longer, phased renovation. I think they might not use Wootton as a holding school until and unless there are enrollment projections requiring long-term capacity increases west of 270. |
What enrollment projections do you see indicating that additional capacity would be needed after Crown's stint as a holding school? |