Crown boundary study Option H

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than Cold Spring, all of the other feeder schools that feed into Wootton are in Rockville. As someone else said, Potomac is not an incorporated city. I think the only incorporated cities in Montgomery County are Rockville and Gaithersburg. This goes back a very, very long time. Potomac parents are not at fault for "not planning" or "leeching" off of Rockville and Gaithersburg. Believe me, Potomac and Bethesda are paying their share of freight here in the county, that everyone benefits from. When all of the "rich" people from Potomac run away from this county, it will really be in trouble.

Potomac parents should pay taxes to Rockville for using their property and having Rockville city pay for snow removal and the upkeep of sidewalks and roads. I'm paying for all that so that you can drive your kid to school, while I probably live closer to Wootton than most Wootton families but we are zoned for RM.

Or using RSFC. Sure they say the compensate with higher rates, but it's still subsidized and many Rockville kids don't get spots on the teams as it's a finite resource.

The resident discount is only 5%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all keep talking in circles at each other, getting nowhere. At this point, I think everyone on this thread has made up their mind. Put your energy into something more productive like writing to BOE.

True that. MCPS has already decided. The BOE is testing the political winds before announcing. Personally, I think they're going to use Crown as a holding school for Wootton while they claim that they'll find the money to renovate Wootton. Give or take 5-10 years from now, after the current crop of late-elementary and middle school kids graduate, MCPS will announce that the move is permanent and the Wootton name will disappear (although he was a founding father, he was a significant slave owner in Maryland):

1. Kids kids were happy/doing well (and it will cherry-pick or massage the numbers to show this)
2. Families have adapted well to the change (the parents of past students will have moved on or gone quiet because their kids aren't in MCPS anymore)
3. Diversity numbers are up (and make MCPS look good)
.
.
.
100. MCPS couldn't find (never budgeted) the money.

Sorry, I forgot reason #101 - The BOE chose to sell the land to a developer for $$$$ (who conveniently offered campaign funding to the DCCC or other MD (D) group that will make sure it trickles down to the campaigns of the current or former BOE members (who are running for higher offices).

The DCC has very little. We'd love a brand new building and all the opportunities Wootton has.

what opportunities does Wootton have that other schools don’t? I thought all the high schools had the same curriculum?????

lolololol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all keep talking in circles at each other, getting nowhere. At this point, I think everyone on this thread has made up their mind. Put your energy into something more productive like writing to BOE.

True that. MCPS has already decided. The BOE is testing the political winds before announcing. Personally, I think they're going to use Crown as a holding school for Wootton while they claim that they'll find the money to renovate Wootton. Give or take 5-10 years from now, after the current crop of late-elementary and middle school kids graduate, MCPS will announce that the move is permanent and the Wootton name will disappear (although he was a founding father, he was a significant slave owner in Maryland):

1. Kids kids were happy/doing well (and it will cherry-pick or massage the numbers to show this)
2. Families have adapted well to the change (the parents of past students will have moved on or gone quiet because their kids aren't in MCPS anymore)
3. Diversity numbers are up (and make MCPS look good)
.
.
.
100. MCPS couldn't find (never budgeted) the money.

Sorry, I forgot reason #101 - The BOE chose to sell the land to a developer for $$$$ (who conveniently offered campaign funding to the DCCC or other MD (D) group that will make sure it trickles down to the campaigns of the current or former BOE members (who are running for higher offices).

Wootton parents should just plan on MCPS doing what it wants to do, namely, sell in a few years and buy somewhere else after your kids are out of MCPS.

IMO it seems to be a failure of the Wootton parents in Potomac to plan for the future and zone appropriately for schools. They are sort of like leeches living off the lands that Rockville or Gaithersburg are able to zone, using all of the city services in Rockville or Gaithersburg but not paying taxes there.

Ironic Potomac can't zone for a school because property prices are too high, but their property prices are going to go down because they didn't zone for a school. Maybe next high school it'll be their turn, when the land is cheaper.

Hahaha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other than Cold Spring, all of the other feeder schools that feed into Wootton are in Rockville. As someone else said, Potomac is not an incorporated city. I think the only incorporated cities in Montgomery County are Rockville and Gaithersburg. This goes back a very, very long time. Potomac parents are not at fault for "not planning" or "leeching" off of Rockville and Gaithersburg. Believe me, Potomac and Bethesda are paying their share of freight here in the county, that everyone benefits from. When all of the "rich" people from Potomac run away from this county, it will really be in trouble.

I guess you don't live in the North Potomac 20878 zip code. What kind of BS is this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all keep talking in circles at each other, getting nowhere. At this point, I think everyone on this thread has made up their mind. Put your energy into something more productive like writing to BOE.

True that. MCPS has already decided. The BOE is testing the political winds before announcing. Personally, I think they're going to use Crown as a holding school for Wootton while they claim that they'll find the money to renovate Wootton. Give or take 5-10 years from now, after the current crop of late-elementary and middle school kids graduate, MCPS will announce that the move is permanent and the Wootton name will disappear (although he was a founding father, he was a significant slave owner in Maryland):

1. Kids kids were happy/doing well (and it will cherry-pick or massage the numbers to show this)
2. Families have adapted well to the change (the parents of past students will have moved on or gone quiet because their kids aren't in MCPS anymore)
3. Diversity numbers are up (and make MCPS look good)
.
.
.
100. MCPS couldn't find (never budgeted) the money.

Sorry, I forgot reason #101 - The BOE chose to sell the land to a developer for $$$$ (who conveniently offered campaign funding to the DCCC or other MD (D) group that will make sure it trickles down to the campaigns of the current or former BOE members (who are running for higher offices).

The DCC has very little. We'd love a brand new building and all the opportunities Wootton has.

DCCC ≠ DCC

DCCC is the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and, yes, between that national-level organization and local political groups, there is developer gold in them thar hills (not that there isn't in the equivalent R landscape -- developers, like many $-driven concerns, play the political contributions field as it lies).

DCC is the (always relatively bereft and now to be dismantled) Down-County Consortium.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Makes zero sense to fix up Wootton to be used as a regular HS AND have Crown when we have declining enrollment and a tight budget.

Exactly, and I get frustration, as Taylor said if the decision was made today to build Crown they would not have done so, that money could have gone towards Damascus Wootton and Magruder replacements. However the reason why Wootton has not been touched for 20-25 years (Churchill got a full renovation and major addition back in 2001 and was about 5 years older so Wootton theoretically should been due in 2006) is because its location and site do not allow for a new school to be built on the fields while students attend the current facility and thus needed a holding school. I don’t know what this was never explicitly stated vs constantly jerking the community along like Charlie Brown and the football. Wootton will never be renovated without a holding school period end of story. It’s also very different than Churchill which has a renovation while students were in side, in Churchills case a big addition was done first which allowed several huge sections of the school to be redone after the addition opened. This isn’t really practical at Wootton as there’s no suitable land to add a massive 600-800 seat addition. The site is too small and has problems.

Not only that but then you add the budget woes, how can you in good faith spend money to rebuild a high school when enrollment is declining and there is no need for Wootton and when one was constructed only a few miles away in Crown (I agree ill advised). There is no need for Woottons seats there will still be 3-4 thousand seats open at the high school level without it once Crown Woodward Northwood and Damascus are done (assuming Magruder gets redone too). Unfortunately with just three high schools over 40 years old the most logical one to close is the one pretty much next to Crown.

All the money could be better spent on renovating/replacing two middle schools or 5-6 elementary schools.

This county needs to rethink things in a big way and that’s inevitably going to mean closing more schools and reasoning students vs pooling money into a million schools that quite frankly are not needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes zero sense to fix up Wootton to be used as a regular HS AND have Crown when we have declining enrollment and a tight budget.

Exactly, and I get frustration, as Taylor said if the decision was made today to build Crown they would not have done so, that money could have gone towards Damascus Wootton and Magruder replacements. However the reason why Wootton has not been touched for 20-25 years (Churchill got a full renovation and major addition back in 2001 and was about 5 years older so Wootton theoretically should been due in 2006) is because its location and site do not allow for a new school to be built on the fields while students attend the current facility and thus needed a holding school. I don’t know what this was never explicitly stated vs constantly jerking the community along like Charlie Brown and the football. Wootton will never be renovated without a holding school period end of story. It’s also very different than Churchill which has a renovation while students were in side, in Churchills case a big addition was done first which allowed several huge sections of the school to be redone after the addition opened. This isn’t really practical at Wootton as there’s no suitable land to add a massive 600-800 seat addition. The site is too small and has problems.

Not only that but then you add the budget woes, how can you in good faith spend money to rebuild a high school when enrollment is declining and there is no need for Wootton and when one was constructed only a few miles away in Crown (I agree ill advised). There is no need for Woottons seats there will still be 3-4 thousand seats open at the high school level without it once Crown Woodward Northwood and Damascus are done (assuming Magruder gets redone too). Unfortunately with just three high schools over 40 years old the most logical one to close is the one pretty much next to Crown.

All the money could be better spent on renovating/replacing two middle schools or 5-6 elementary schools.

This county needs to rethink things in a big way and that’s inevitably going to mean closing more schools and reasoning students vs pooling money into a million schools that quite frankly are not needed.

MCPS needs to offer more incentives to Wootton parents beyond just a shiny new building that should have never been built. The reasons many Wootton parents oppose Option H have been discussed on this board by countless posters - and those have nothing to do with race as many trolls have insinuated or posted outright.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes zero sense to fix up Wootton to be used as a regular HS AND have Crown when we have declining enrollment and a tight budget.

Exactly, and I get frustration, as Taylor said if the decision was made today to build Crown they would not have done so, that money could have gone towards Damascus Wootton and Magruder replacements. However the reason why Wootton has not been touched for 20-25 years (Churchill got a full renovation and major addition back in 2001 and was about 5 years older so Wootton theoretically should been due in 2006) is because its location and site do not allow for a new school to be built on the fields while students attend the current facility and thus needed a holding school. I don’t know what this was never explicitly stated vs constantly jerking the community along like Charlie Brown and the football. Wootton will never be renovated without a holding school period end of story. It’s also very different than Churchill which has a renovation while students were in side, in Churchills case a big addition was done first which allowed several huge sections of the school to be redone after the addition opened. This isn’t really practical at Wootton as there’s no suitable land to add a massive 600-800 seat addition. The site is too small and has problems.

Not only that but then you add the budget woes, how can you in good faith spend money to rebuild a high school when enrollment is declining and there is no need for Wootton and when one was constructed only a few miles away in Crown (I agree ill advised). There is no need for Woottons seats there will still be 3-4 thousand seats open at the high school level without it once Crown Woodward Northwood and Damascus are done (assuming Magruder gets redone too). Unfortunately with just three high schools over 40 years old the most logical one to close is the one pretty much next to Crown.

All the money could be better spent on renovating/replacing two middle schools or 5-6 elementary schools.

This county needs to rethink things in a big way and that’s inevitably going to mean closing more schools and reasoning students vs pooling money into a million schools that quite frankly are not needed.

It actually might not be bad idea for Wootton families to just happily take the Crown school just to stick it to the Gaithersburg residents to anger them even more and to have the Gaithersburg residents keep in mind when election season comes around.

And Wootton families should still not be happy that their original school was neglected to the point of no return and they were forced to move and remember it during election season too.

This goes for the city council, BOE and county council.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes zero sense to fix up Wootton to be used as a regular HS AND have Crown when we have declining enrollment and a tight budget.

Exactly, and I get frustration, as Taylor said if the decision was made today to build Crown they would not have done so, that money could have gone towards Damascus Wootton and Magruder replacements. However the reason why Wootton has not been touched for 20-25 years (Churchill got a full renovation and major addition back in 2001 and was about 5 years older so Wootton theoretically should been due in 2006) is because its location and site do not allow for a new school to be built on the fields while students attend the current facility and thus needed a holding school. I don’t know what this was never explicitly stated vs constantly jerking the community along like Charlie Brown and the football. Wootton will never be renovated without a holding school period end of story. It’s also very different than Churchill which has a renovation while students were in side, in Churchills case a big addition was done first which allowed several huge sections of the school to be redone after the addition opened. This isn’t really practical at Wootton as there’s no suitable land to add a massive 600-800 seat addition. The site is too small and has problems.

Not only that but then you add the budget woes, how can you in good faith spend money to rebuild a high school when enrollment is declining and there is no need for Wootton and when one was constructed only a few miles away in Crown (I agree ill advised). There is no need for Woottons seats there will still be 3-4 thousand seats open at the high school level without it once Crown Woodward Northwood and Damascus are done (assuming Magruder gets redone too). Unfortunately with just three high schools over 40 years old the most logical one to close is the one pretty much next to Crown.

All the money could be better spent on renovating/replacing two middle schools or 5-6 elementary schools.

This county needs to rethink things in a big way and that’s inevitably going to mean closing more schools and reasoning students vs pooling money into a million schools that quite frankly are not needed.

It actually might not be bad idea for Wootton families to just happily take the Crown school just to stick it to the Gaithersburg residents to anger them even more and to have the Gaithersburg residents keep in mind when election season comes around.

And Wootton families should still not be happy that their original school was neglected to the point of no return and they were forced to move and remember it during election season too.

This goes for the city council, BOE and county council.

There will be no political repercussions for anyone involved. None whatsoever.

Better yet, Wootton parents should decline the new school because it erases a school that has served its local neighborhoods for 55 years. More likely than not, MCPS also plans to erase the Thomas Wootton name because of its historical negativity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes zero sense to fix up Wootton to be used as a regular HS AND have Crown when we have declining enrollment and a tight budget.

Exactly, and I get frustration, as Taylor said if the decision was made today to build Crown they would not have done so, that money could have gone towards Damascus Wootton and Magruder replacements. However the reason why Wootton has not been touched for 20-25 years (Churchill got a full renovation and major addition back in 2001 and was about 5 years older so Wootton theoretically should been due in 2006) is because its location and site do not allow for a new school to be built on the fields while students attend the current facility and thus needed a holding school. I don’t know what this was never explicitly stated vs constantly jerking the community along like Charlie Brown and the football. Wootton will never be renovated without a holding school period end of story. It’s also very different than Churchill which has a renovation while students were in side, in Churchills case a big addition was done first which allowed several huge sections of the school to be redone after the addition opened. This isn’t really practical at Wootton as there’s no suitable land to add a massive 600-800 seat addition. The site is too small and has problems.

Not only that but then you add the budget woes, how can you in good faith spend money to rebuild a high school when enrollment is declining and there is no need for Wootton and when one was constructed only a few miles away in Crown (I agree ill advised). There is no need for Woottons seats there will still be 3-4 thousand seats open at the high school level without it once Crown Woodward Northwood and Damascus are done (assuming Magruder gets redone too). Unfortunately with just three high schools over 40 years old the most logical one to close is the one pretty much next to Crown.

All the money could be better spent on renovating/replacing two middle schools or 5-6 elementary schools.

This county needs to rethink things in a big way and that’s inevitably going to mean closing more schools and reasoning students vs pooling money into a million schools that quite frankly are not needed.

Why would Wootton need addition? They have 2200 seats already. Not like other schools only have 1500 which need expansion

[Anonymous]

Well, dont take option H for new school, and please don't be surprised if there is no major renovation within the 10 years. If option H is not chosen, they should still move some Churchill kids to wootton, and nearby crown kids ( like wootton, Gaithersburg, and Quince Orchard) should fill up Crown HS. The budget for mcps is stretch already, I still think that the board will pick Option H ultimately maybe with some minor changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any way to petition to the Maryland regulatory bodies to force MCPS to do a full redraw of the boundaries?

What would be the basis or reasoning to ask them to intervene?

The only way an outside party MIGHT be able to force MCPS to do anything is if the boundaries are in anyway illegal or discriminatory.

Which while there may be people unhappy with the proposals, I don't think any of the proposed boundaries are either.

Like how far could they force a whole school district to be bussed?

I mean the obviously left out certain school districts as "protected" from being redrawn.

I'm not sure if you're aware of current bussing distances. Where some students are on the bus for 40 minutes.

It definitely looks like there are some areas that help grease the wheels. And even though we originally weren't interested in living there, will have to put it into consideration once everything is finalized and we know what everything looks like.

I'm not against you. And I think the fact that Wootton kept getting pushed off is bs and there was some discrimination in it. But you'd need valid reasons and proof if you plan or hope to bring outside parties in to intervene.

I get 45-minute bus rides. I grew up in a rural county where the entire county went to one school K-12.

What is the reason for Wooton being required to bus three miles in urban/suburban setting? If it's oops bad planning. Isn't that evidence enough. MCPS has a problem bigger than they can handle.

This is not bad planning. For once I think MCPS is doing the right thing - they are giving Gaithersburg residents what they need to prevent overcrowding and giving Wootton a new school 3 miles away so the kids are not in a school that is unsafe (at least that is what all these next door petitions were saying)

MCPS: We have addressed your petitions and will be moving you to Crown permanently along with some feeders from Gaithersburg

Wootton parents shocked that it will be a new Wootton with more URM: Bussing 3 miles is a problem

MCPS: We have addressed your concerns by moving some of the feeders to QO which is closer so you will not have a long commute

I sincerely hope Dufief and Travilah (all or part of it - the new homes on QO Rd) which are 2 miles from QO get zoned to QO, and Fields Road fully goes to Crown/Wootton.

Dufief and Travilah are the ones who care the least about this move since they are on a bus regardless. Those I have talked to actually like this option and welcome adding other schools to the wootton community. Also, there isn’t room at QO. Remember- this whole thing was to alleviate overcrowding at Crown and Gaithersburg? But that’s an inconvenient point when you just want to “punish” wootton kids.

And is that why I see all these signs on Dufief Drive asking to save Dufief? It sooo horrible that Dufief may end up going to QO that we need signs asking to save the school.

Dufief wants to remain with the Wootton cluster. They are the only cluster being removed from Wootton in options A-D. They do not mind as much about option H as some of the schools geographically closer to Wootton mind because they are on a bus regardless. They remain with Woottton even though Wootton moves physically. It's not hard to understand the difference unless you are just being deliberately obtuse.

It’s wishful thinking that they remain with Wootton if option H is adopted. Are they not paying attention that fields road votes for option H only if option H includes them? That means Wootton would be 110+% overcapacity so Dufief would be moved to QO to make room for fields road.

And this is how it should be. Imagine living near a brand new high school and you are forced to take the bus to an old high school further away so some rich kids can come and occupy it. Dufief is not all that special. They need to go to QO, and Fields Road needs to go to Crown.

Yes, and it's just a coincidnce that Dufief is the least wealthy and most demographically diverse of all the Wootton cluster schools. Of course they gotta go.

They never should have been zoned to Wootton to begin with. Same goes with parts of Travilah. Nothing to do with wealth, just proximity. Travilah also should go to QO. Kids further away in Muddy Branch and West Diamond Avenue are bussed to QO while Dufief and Travilah which are nearby are bussed much further away to Wootton instead of QO.

Based on another post and I think the school built years match it, Dufief was always assigned to Wootton. Even before QO was built.

There are of course going to be issues in reassigning a school, especially if a community views one school being better than another.

What shouldn't have happened was all of new homes built in the North Potomac area after QO was built being assigned to any school other than QO.

The same goes with the Potomac Glen area somehow having the 20854 zip code and being zoned for Churchill.

The problem with North Potomac homes being assigned to QO in the past with that QO would’ve definitely been overcrowded at times. It’s definitely a small school and should be expanded when renovated.

To the second point that Potomac clan going to Churchill, I grew up in the area in the 90s and there was a lot of changes between men and Churchill clusters due to at the time being severely overcrowded so Potomac Glen was built and added in Churchill instead of going to, I believe Lakewood and Wootton. It’s really shocking how much of a decline in enrollment Wooten has experienced since the 90s. I think it’s like 500 kids potentially from its peak. I went there about 25 years ago and it was definitely a much larger enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, dont take option H for new school, and please don't be surprised if there is no major renovation within the 10 years. If option H is not chosen, they should still move some Churchill kids to wootton, and nearby crown kids ( like wootton, Gaithersburg, and Quince Orchard) should fill up Crown HS. The budget for mcps is stretch already, I still think that the board will pick Option H ultimately maybe with some minor changes.

I don’t think they can realistically go forward with H if it’s clear the community as a whole has been against it. It’s an obvious majority against it at this point and their whole thing is “our choices are based on community feedback”. I really believe they need to publish the feedback after it’s collected for this round and be transparent. Because if they do ended up going forward with H without the support of the community majority I really can’t imagine they won’t lose the little trust they already have left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, dont take option H for new school, and please don't be surprised if there is no major renovation within the 10 years. If option H is not chosen, they should still move some Churchill kids to wootton, and nearby crown kids ( like wootton, Gaithersburg, and Quince Orchard) should fill up Crown HS. The budget for mcps is stretch already, I still think that the board will pick Option H ultimately maybe with some minor changes.

The board will likely decide to save $300M and go with the holding school options, if Wootton is effective in rejecting option H. Why in the world would they create all the chaos involved in A-D AND spend $300M more? That's insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes zero sense to fix up Wootton to be used as a regular HS AND have Crown when we have declining enrollment and a tight budget.

Exactly, and I get frustration, as Taylor said if the decision was made today to build Crown they would not have done so, that money could have gone towards Damascus Wootton and Magruder replacements. However the reason why Wootton has not been touched for 20-25 years (Churchill got a full renovation and major addition back in 2001 and was about 5 years older so Wootton theoretically should been due in 2006) is because its location and site do not allow for a new school to be built on the fields while students attend the current facility and thus needed a holding school. I don’t know what this was never explicitly stated vs constantly jerking the community along like Charlie Brown and the football. Wootton will never be renovated without a holding school period end of story. It’s also very different than Churchill which has a renovation while students were in side, in Churchills case a big addition was done first which allowed several huge sections of the school to be redone after the addition opened. This isn’t really practical at Wootton as there’s no suitable land to add a massive 600-800 seat addition. The site is too small and has problems.

Not only that but then you add the budget woes, how can you in good faith spend money to rebuild a high school when enrollment is declining and there is no need for Wootton and when one was constructed only a few miles away in Crown (I agree ill advised). There is no need for Woottons seats there will still be 3-4 thousand seats open at the high school level without it once Crown Woodward Northwood and Damascus are done (assuming Magruder gets redone too). Unfortunately with just three high schools over 40 years old the most logical one to close is the one pretty much next to Crown.

All the money could be better spent on renovating/replacing two middle schools or 5-6 elementary schools.

This county needs to rethink things in a big way and that’s inevitably going to mean closing more schools and reasoning students vs pooling money into a million schools that quite frankly are not needed.

MCPS needs to offer more incentives to Wootton parents beyond just a shiny new building that should have never been built. The reasons many Wootton parents oppose Option H have been discussed on this board by countless posters - and those have nothing to do with race as many trolls have insinuated or posted outright.

Wootton is being offered a brand new building and has tons of course offerings. Many schools don't even have 1/3 of what they have. And, yet, we should go without so W school parents can be happy?