Overcrowding at Walter johnson

[Anonymous]

550 students over at WJ sounds dangerously overcrowded, and 2026 is still quite a few years away. They should open Woodward immediately after the construction is finished & find alternative plans for housing Northwood students. It will only get worse. The only other option is redistricting some of the incoming 9th graders next year to a different high school, but it appears that no other HS around WJ has the room.

[Anonymous]

The development in that area has been phenomenal. Lost more high density housing and a general increase in population. Not surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:550 students over at WJ sounds dangerously overcrowded, and 2026 is still quite a few years away. They should open Woodward immediately after the construction is finished & find alternative plans for housing Northwood students. It will only get worse. The only other option is redistricting some of the incoming 9th graders next year to a different high school, but it appears that no other HS around WJ has the room.

That will never happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:550 students over at WJ sounds dangerously overcrowded, and 2026 is still quite a few years away. They should open Woodward immediately after the construction is finished & find alternative plans for housing Northwood students. It will only get worse. The only other option is redistricting some of the incoming 9th graders next year to a different high school, but it appears that no other HS around WJ has the room.

That will never happen.

Well then, another option could be to encourage every senior who is eligible for a partial schedule to take one. That could at least slightly help.

[Anonymous]

When will they announce the boundary lines for the new high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:550 students over at WJ sounds dangerously overcrowded, and 2026 is still quite a few years away. They should open Woodward immediately after the construction is finished & find alternative plans for housing Northwood students. It will only get worse. The only other option is redistricting some of the incoming 9th graders next year to a different high school, but it appears that no other HS around WJ has the room.

So an east county school that badly needs a renovation will get the short straw again??? Developers of all housing including condos and apartments need to provide adequate funding for school construction, the old false paradigm that people with kids don't live in multi housing units is very detrimental. All this could have been predicted and alarm bells were raised many years ago about population trends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When will they announce the boundary lines for the new high school?

Typically in November of the year before the new school opens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:550 students over at WJ sounds dangerously overcrowded, and 2026 is still quite a few years away. They should open Woodward immediately after the construction is finished & find alternative plans for housing Northwood students. It will only get worse. The only other option is redistricting some of the incoming 9th graders next year to a different high school, but it appears that no other HS around WJ has the room.

Stop with the hysterics. 550 students is not "dangerously overcrowded". If there was another holding school option, MCPS would use it. Northwood will get the building next, then it will officially open as a new highschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:550 students over at WJ sounds dangerously overcrowded, and 2026 is still quite a few years away. They should open Woodward immediately after the construction is finished & find alternative plans for housing Northwood students. It will only get worse. The only other option is redistricting some of the incoming 9th graders next year to a different high school, but it appears that no other HS around WJ has the room.

Stop with the hysterics. 550 students is not "dangerously overcrowded". If there was another holding school option, MCPS would use it. Northwood will get the building next, then it will officially open as a new highschool.

+1. In the meantime, all the overcrowded schools have little villages of portable classrooms.

[Anonymous]

According to this, yes, WJ is very overcrowded: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/publicinfo/Boundary_Analysis/interim-report/02b_Utilization.pdf

Overall, outside of WJ, MCPS has lost students since 2018-2019, and still has not caught up yet.

"For the 2018–2019 school year, the district has 206 schools and an enrollment of 162,680 students."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_County_Public_Schools_(Maryland)

"Enrollment: 160,564 Students (Official Fall 2020)"
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/about/

"Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is the largest school district in Maryland, with an official 2021–2022 enrollment of 158,232 students."
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/annualreport/2021/

"MCPS Opens Its Doors to Nearly 160,000 Students for the 2022–2023 School Year"
https://news.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/staff-bulletin/mcps-opens-its-doors-to-nearly-160000-students-for-the-2022-2023-school-year/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:550 students over at WJ sounds dangerously overcrowded, and 2026 is still quite a few years away. They should open Woodward immediately after the construction is finished & find alternative plans for housing Northwood students. It will only get worse. The only other option is redistricting some of the incoming 9th graders next year to a different high school, but it appears that no other HS around WJ has the room.

Stop with the hysterics. 550 students is not "dangerously overcrowded". If there was another holding school option, MCPS would use it. Northwood will get the building next, then it will officially open as a new highschool.

+1. In the meantime, all the overcrowded schools have little villages of portable classrooms.

AKA "Trailer Parks"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:550 students over at WJ sounds dangerously overcrowded, and 2026 is still quite a few years away. They should open Woodward immediately after the construction is finished & find alternative plans for housing Northwood students. It will only get worse. The only other option is redistricting some of the incoming 9th graders next year to a different high school, but it appears that no other HS around WJ has the room.

Stop with the hysterics. 550 students is not "dangerously overcrowded". If there was another holding school option, MCPS would use it. Northwood will get the building next, then it will officially open as a new highschool.

+1. In the meantime, all the overcrowded schools have little villages of portable classrooms.

AKA "Trailer Parks"

I think it is fine to utilize portable buildings to manage changing class sizes. The problem is when shared areas (like the cafeteria, orchestra practice room, gym space etc. don't get upgraded).

[Anonymous]

If enrollment keeps declining, maybe the overcrowding issue will sort itself out because people will have decided with their feet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If enrollment keeps declining, maybe the overcrowding issue will sort itself out because people will have decided with their feet.

Sorry - enrollment is up this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If enrollment keeps declining, maybe the overcrowding issue will sort itself out because people will have decided with their feet.

Sorry - enrollment is up this year.

Back to 2017 levels I see. Wonderful. Tell me when enrollment gets back to 2019 levels.