Two new MCPS HSs with no auditoriums

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need to accept that Montgomery County has had a huge influx in population. Developers are building more and more housing units, there is a push to urbanize a large part of the County and the county will just get more and more overcrowded as the years go by.

There is no end in sight. This is just one side effect of the rampant, uncontrolled growth in MoCo. Developers are profiting and our kids are losing out.

And this is what folks should bring up to the county council.

[Anonymous]

To the people who are upset about this, which projects that have been approved in the CIP pipeline do you want to see postponed so that the $40 million necessary to fund the auditoriums for Crown and Woodward can be put back into the budget?

There's no more money coming in. So some projects or elements of projects are going to have to be postponed or deferred. And someone, somewhere who's hoping and paying for whatever project gets deferred is going to be pissed off. There's no pleasing everyone here.

[Anonymous]

I missed the portion of the meeting when they voted to push the Woodward auditorium construction to phase 3. Did they vote yes to push to phase 3? The meeting recording isn’t yet posted online. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I missed the portion of the meeting when they voted to push the Woodward auditorium construction to phase 3. Did they vote yes to push to phase 3? The meeting recording isn’t yet posted online. Thanks!

Yes, they approved all three CIP resolutions. You can watch the voting here:

https://www.youtube.com/live/j0LMARTT0mo?si=0iRw6l0syRkMt6P1&t=27407

[Anonymous]

If they delay them and the schools are forced to share auditoriums, MCPS and the County Council will decide that, "Well it's working as is. We don't need to build auditoriums after all."

What a clusterf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is not planning to build schools without auditoriums. They are DELAYING the build to a later phase and not FUNDING the construction of said auditoriums with this fiscal year’s budget.

You can be skeptical that it will be funded in future years, but that is just skepticism.

Yes, this. They are staging the projects in phases due to the capital budget situation. They have every intention of building the auditoriums.

I guess due to budget constraints, the phase 3 could be another 10 years

There's no reason to expect that. At the board meeting yesterday, they were talking about a one or two year delay.

Which means students will go to high school without an auditorium. Future construction is meaningless to current students.

The plan all along for the Northwood students has been to be at the Woodward holding school with no auditorium. That's been known to be the case for years now, and somehow people could accept that.

The plan wasn't phased originally. As it got closer to adoption, it became phased, with Northwood getting the short shrift -- construction during occupancy, no athletic fields and no auditorium, all of which were then to be complete by the time the W students moved in.

With the auditorium moved into a Phase 3, they'll shrug their shoulders about DCC relief that was, at first, supposed to come directly, then was re-envisioned into some draw from the DCC into a Woodward arts magnet. That was the bill of goods that was sold and progressively walked back after eschewing options for direct relief of the DCC with a new HS, where the alternatingly unimaginative and unpleasant strawman options presented were all deemed unworkable and/or too expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What sucks about delaying it at Woodward is that means Northwood (who will use it as a holding school for 3 years) won't have an auditorium and they have a magnet performing arts program. I feel bad for those students.

An academy, not a magnet

An academy that draws from the entire DCC, even though not criteria-based, so a magnet. The DCC is quite a large portion of the county population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is not planning to build schools without auditoriums. They are DELAYING the build to a later phase and not FUNDING the construction of said auditoriums with this fiscal year’s budget.

You can be skeptical that it will be funded in future years, but that is just skepticism.

Yes, this. They are staging the projects in phases due to the capital budget situation. They have every intention of building the auditoriums.

I guess due to budget constraints, the phase 3 could be another 10 years

There's no reason to expect that. At the board meeting yesterday, they were talking about a one or two year delay.

Which means students will go to high school without an auditorium. Future construction is meaningless to current students.

The plan all along for the Northwood students has been to be at the Woodward holding school with no auditorium. That's been known to be the case for years now, and somehow people could accept that.

The plan wasn't phased originally. As it got closer to adoption, it became phased, with Northwood getting the short shrift -- construction during occupancy, no athletic fields and no auditorium, all of which were then to be complete by the time the W students moved in.

With the auditorium moved into a Phase 3, they'll shrug their shoulders about DCC relief that was, at first, supposed to come directly, then was re-envisioned into some draw from the DCC into a Woodward arts magnet. That was the bill of goods that was sold and progressively walked back after eschewing options for direct relief of the DCC with a new HS, where the alternatingly unimaginative and unpleasant strawman options presented were all deemed unworkable and/or too expensive.

Where would you find a workable and not-too-expensive site to build a new HS within the DCC itself?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What sucks about delaying it at Woodward is that means Northwood (who will use it as a holding school for 3 years) won't have an auditorium and they have a magnet performing arts program. I feel bad for those students.

An academy, not a magnet

An academy that draws from the entire DCC, even though not criteria-based, so a magnet. The DCC is quite a large portion of the county population.

OK. I live in the Northwood cluster, and it's always been referred to by the school as an academy, so it seems misleading to relabel it.

https://sites.google.com/mcpsmd.net/northwoodacademies/amtad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What sucks about delaying it at Woodward is that means Northwood (who will use it as a holding school for 3 years) won't have an auditorium and they have a magnet performing arts program. I feel bad for those students.

An academy, not a magnet

An academy that draws from the entire DCC, even though not criteria-based, so a magnet. The DCC is quite a large portion of the county population.

OK. I live in the Northwood cluster, and it's always been referred to by the school as an academy, so it seems misleading to relabel it.

https://sites.google.com/mcpsmd.net/northwoodacademies/amtad

+1 Moreover, AEHS (also in the DCC) also has a performing arts academy and arguably a stronger performing arts program. A magnet would be something like Duke Ellington in the district, which is what Woodward was initially meant to be. The model was an audition/portfolio-based criteria-based program. I don't know what happened to that idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they delay them and the schools are forced to share auditoriums, MCPS and the County Council will decide that, "Well it's working as is. We don't need to build auditoriums after all."

What a clusterf.

I think the chaos not having an auditorium will cause for the Northwood students and families will ultimately help get the funding approved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need to accept that Montgomery County has had a huge influx in population. Developers are building more and more housing units, there is a push to urbanize a large part of the County and the county will just get more and more overcrowded as the years go by.

There is no end in sight. This is just one side effect of the rampant, uncontrolled growth in MoCo. Developers are profiting and our kids are losing out.

And this is what folks should bring up to the county council.

But the people on the council depend on developers to fund their elections. They aren't going to do anything about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need to accept that Montgomery County has had a huge influx in population. Developers are building more and more housing units, there is a push to urbanize a large part of the County and the county will just get more and more overcrowded as the years go by.

There is no end in sight. This is just one side effect of the rampant, uncontrolled growth in MoCo. Developers are profiting and our kids are losing out.

And this is what folks should bring up to the county council.

But the people on the council depend on developers to fund their elections. They aren't going to do anything about this.

They depend on the people in the county to vote for them. So who has more power if used correctly?

[Anonymous]

I feel bad for Northwood students.
They will have a rough commute, no sports fields, and now no auditorium. The school will not be fully finished either as some classrooms and labs, etc. will still be under construction in the fall.

When phase 3 occurs, is unclear. There is no timeline. Why is the construction happening at a snail’s pace?

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately all the money is being sucked up by legal issues. This board has done a poor oversight job and the students will have to bear the brunt of all the incompetence