Mcps waiting in line for renovation

[Anonymous]

Why would closing schools increase class sizes? (It would increase school sizes/utilization rates, but since there's plenty of space to spare that's no problem.) Class sizes are based on the same guidelines no matter the size of your school.

And with declining enrollment and a number of elementary schools likely needing to close in the next decade, why should taxpayers be paying tens of millions of dollars to build or renovate new schools when those kids can just be redistricted to neighboring schools with space?

Cold Spring’s enrollment has not declined. It’s increased so much they had to hire a third 3rd grade teacher a week before school started.

To the comment that stated other schools could just get more teachers if they got more students, there generally isn’t room! When CS got the new teacher, they had to move sped, ot, psychologist, speech into the middle of classrooms using bookshelves as walls.

No school should ever be closed! The smaller class sizes, the better. The more schools, the better! This forum does nothing except complain about MCPS especially when they’re trying to fix it!

[Anonymous]

"No school should ever be closed" is not a sensible position to take, especially in the current situation with declining enrollment numbers and tight budgets.

[Anonymous]

It's about priorities, and when there is so much need, the few students at Cold Spring are not the priority over the many more students at other schools who should be helped first

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's about priorities, and when there is so much need, the few students at Cold Spring are not the priority over the many more students at other schools who should be helped first

Correct. Cold Springs is projected to have declining enrollment. It has no walls because of design, not some maintenance issue per se. Those patents make it seem like walls are crumbling when it actually was designed to not have walls (open concept). If the parents truly believe that the situation is dire, they’d actually push to have their students moved rather than wait 5 years for a new school to be built. The privilege in Potomac is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would closing schools increase class sizes? (It would increase school sizes/utilization rates, but since there's plenty of space to spare that's no problem.) Class sizes are based on the same guidelines no matter the size of your school.

And with declining enrollment and a number of elementary schools likely needing to close in the next decade, why should taxpayers be paying tens of millions of dollars to build or renovate new schools when those kids can just be redistricted to neighboring schools with space?

Cold Spring’s enrollment has not declined. It’s increased so much they had to hire a third 3rd grade teacher a week before school started.

To the comment that stated other schools could just get more teachers if they got more students, there generally isn’t room! When CS got the new teacher, they had to move sped, ot, psychologist, speech into the middle of classrooms using bookshelves as walls.

No school should ever be closed! The smaller class sizes, the better. The more schools, the better! This forum does nothing except complain about MCPS especially when they’re trying to fix it!

It is about limited resources and maximizing their use. I’m sure you folks in Potomac are the first to complain when property taxes are increased to pay for things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wayside, Dufief and Beverly Farms all have enough space to house all Cold Spring students. Move the CES to one, the in-bounds cold spring kids to another. There is zero need to rebuild that school.

Hell not only those but Lakewood, Fallsmead and Stonemill also all have space. Agreed they should move CES to one other school and move the 200 or so Cold Spring kids to another perhaps shoddy f lines a bit elsewhere

There are almost 400 students at Cold Spring. That would be putting 60ish students at the 6 schools mentioned in the previous two posts. That would greatly impact class sizes. Even two extra kids makes a difference in a classroom. This also displaces almost 50 staff members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wayside, Dufief and Beverly Farms all have enough space to house all Cold Spring students. Move the CES to one, the in-bounds cold spring kids to another. There is zero need to rebuild that school.

Hell not only those but Lakewood, Fallsmead and Stonemill also all have space. Agreed they should move CES to one other school and move the 200 or so Cold Spring kids to another perhaps shoddy f lines a bit elsewhere

There are almost 400 students at Cold Spring. That would be putting 60ish students at the 6 schools mentioned in the previous two posts. That would greatly impact class sizes. Even two extra kids makes a difference in a classroom. This also displaces almost 50 staff members.

No, if 60 students are moved to a school, so would 3 teachers. That takes care of the staff displacement too. True that a few principal, admin, or counselor positions might be consolidated, but MCPS is a large system that new positions could be found for those staff just because of turnover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wayside, Dufief and Beverly Farms all have enough space to house all Cold Spring students. Move the CES to one, the in-bounds cold spring kids to another. There is zero need to rebuild that school.

Hell not only those but Lakewood, Fallsmead and Stonemill also all have space. Agreed they should move CES to one other school and move the 200 or so Cold Spring kids to another perhaps shoddy f lines a bit elsewhere

There are almost 400 students at Cold Spring. That would be putting 60ish students at the 6 schools mentioned in the previous two posts. That would greatly impact class sizes. Even two extra kids makes a difference in a classroom. This also displaces almost 50 staff members.

No, if 60 students are moved to a school, so would 3 teachers. That takes care of the staff displacement too. True that a few principal, admin, or counselor positions might be consolidated, but MCPS is a large system that new positions could be found for those staff just because of turnover.

That would imply those buildings have extra rooms 🙃🙃🙃.

No point in arguing with all of you who care more about your taxes going up a little bit than what’s best for kids. I want my taxes to keep all schools open and safe for all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wayside, Dufief and Beverly Farms all have enough space to house all Cold Spring students. Move the CES to one, the in-bounds cold spring kids to another. There is zero need to rebuild that school.

Hell not only those but Lakewood, Fallsmead and Stonemill also all have space. Agreed they should move CES to one other school and move the 200 or so Cold Spring kids to another perhaps shoddy f lines a bit elsewhere

There are almost 400 students at Cold Spring. That would be putting 60ish students at the 6 schools mentioned in the previous two posts. That would greatly impact class sizes. Even two extra kids makes a difference in a classroom. This also displaces almost 50 staff members.

No, if 60 students are moved to a school, so would 3 teachers. That takes care of the staff displacement too. True that a few principal, admin, or counselor positions might be consolidated, but MCPS is a large system that new positions could be found for those staff just because of turnover.

That would imply those buildings have extra rooms 🙃🙃🙃.

No point in arguing with all of you who care more about your taxes going up a little bit than what’s best for kids. I want my taxes to keep all schools open and safe for all.

Yes, across all Wootton cluster elementary schools there are ~700 available seats.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/departments/planning/fy2027/CIP27_Chapter4_Wootton%20Cluster.pdf

[Anonymous]

Those schools do have extra rooms, that’s the point. Those elementary schools were built for literally hundreds more students - Beverly Farms will have 212 vacant spots in 2 years time, Wayside 146, similar numbers in the other schools mentioned upthread.

Per CS PTA there are 369 students, so if you move the CES to one school, then there is plenty of space to split the actual CS students between just 2 other (very local) schools.

Easy win. CS kids get to go to a not-open plan school (isn’t that what is being advocated for?). MCPS save by not rebuilding an elementary school, and perhaps use that money for HVAC or maybe even a Wootton rebuild…

[Anonymous]

Why don't the county ask for family contribution to fund to rebuild or renovate to their zoned school , and those money contribution are tax deductible on their state tax return.