Crown boundary study Option H

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

My comment on addition at Wootton was in regards to doing a renovation on site. The way the current school is sited and the rest of the land on which it sits, it doesn’t permit for a very large addition which would allow them to work on renovating the rest of the school a section at a time and eventually demolishing another area of the school to use as a field. I think when Churchill was renovated in like 1998-2001 they started with a very large addition which held a lot of students. This let them demolish another existing area of the school (became parking lot to replace the parking that existed where the addition was built) and then they worked on wings of the school renovating one section at a time while students used the new addition and other non-renovated areas of the school, then the newly renovated area opened and a non-renovated area closed to be renovated. What I’m saying is that process isn’t possible at Wootton which means a holding school is required in order to renovate the school. This is why it’s never been done.

Then the question becomes does it make sense to spend $400M on a high school nearby a brand new high school when the county wide excess seats will be more than 5000 at the HS level and there are so many other needs in the county. Closing Damascus isn’t an option given its location, Magruder would be a challenge too. So because of the poor decision to build Crown which was made at a time when it seemed it would be needed, unfortunately logically it makes the most sense to close Wootton and add some money to fix some key areas and use it as a holding school.

There are so many secondary schools that need renovations in the coming decade and having a holding school will be essential.

If we had unlimited money and were in a good economic situation sure rebuild Wootton but the reality is we are not.

Wootton had a large addition back in 2000 too. It’s just the original building part which never got any renovation.
You can’t treat Wootton differently from other schools. Damascus Magruder can have a rebuild but Wootton cannot because of economic situation. Why not moving the other two?

Magruder has some far more serious issues as do other schools.

Either way, I don’t think option H is viable for the such strong opposition from Wootton cluster. MCPS will most likely not push against the whole community and force them to relocate with a boundary process which doesn’t have even sound legal.
Let’s focus on other options.

So you feel that they should keep SSIMS open and rehabilitate it just like Wootton, right?

SSIMS deserves more community engagement time and they got it. So is Wootton. Closing a school and merging with others cannot be done in such short period of time. Period. Option H is neither legal or appropriate.

Pretty much all MCPS stakeholding communities deserve better engagement than is offered. On the other hand, time is short vis-à-vis opening Crown, and the financial & logistical exigencies are fairly pressing. Their ability to conduct effective/equitable engagement for the Wootton, putative Crown and candidate holding-school-occupying communities in the time they've left themselves is in doubt, but I hope they try before finalizing plans.

As far as the short delay related to the decision to close SSIMS, move SCES and use that old Blair facility currently housing both as a holding school -- if you believe there will be a reasonable chance that that delay will produce any differential outcome beyond racheting down the opposition from that community to the overarching boundaries/regions plan until after it is passed, well, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn you might like to buy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mcps has no money for another boundary study, not in near future like 2031. They already have the high school boundary study and regional program study which cost a lot to chew.

They have money for anything important to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are questions I have for people opposing Option H:

1) If MCPS could guarantee (I know they can't/won't) that the current building wouldn't be neglected and would be upkept to the extent it current is so it wouldn't be an eyesore, would you feel as strongly?

2) If MCPS could guarantee (I know they can't/won't) that the entirety of the current cluster would go to the new school and only be joined by the 500 Gaithersburg residents the documents show rather than the rumored 1000, would you feel as strongly?

You know they can’t/won’t, then what’s the point of asking the question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

My comment on addition at Wootton was in regards to doing a renovation on site. The way the current school is sited and the rest of the land on which it sits, it doesn’t permit for a very large addition which would allow them to work on renovating the rest of the school a section at a time and eventually demolishing another area of the school to use as a field. I think when Churchill was renovated in like 1998-2001 they started with a very large addition which held a lot of students. This let them demolish another existing area of the school (became parking lot to replace the parking that existed where the addition was built) and then they worked on wings of the school renovating one section at a time while students used the new addition and other non-renovated areas of the school, then the newly renovated area opened and a non-renovated area closed to be renovated. What I’m saying is that process isn’t possible at Wootton which means a holding school is required in order to renovate the school. This is why it’s never been done.

Then the question becomes does it make sense to spend $400M on a high school nearby a brand new high school when the county wide excess seats will be more than 5000 at the HS level and there are so many other needs in the county. Closing Damascus isn’t an option given its location, Magruder would be a challenge too. So because of the poor decision to build Crown which was made at a time when it seemed it would be needed, unfortunately logically it makes the most sense to close Wootton and add some money to fix some key areas and use it as a holding school.

There are so many secondary schools that need renovations in the coming decade and having a holding school will be essential.

If we had unlimited money and were in a good economic situation sure rebuild Wootton but the reality is we are not.

Wootton had a large addition back in 2000 too. It’s just the original building part which never got any renovation.
You can’t treat Wootton differently from other schools. Damascus Magruder can have a rebuild but Wootton cannot because of economic situation. Why not moving the other two?

Magruder has some far more serious issues as do other schools.

Either way, I don’t think option H is viable for the such strong opposition from Wootton cluster. MCPS will most likely not push against the whole community and force them to relocate with a boundary process which doesn’t have even sound legal.
Let’s focus on other options.

So you feel that they should keep SSIMS open and rehabilitate it just like Wootton, right?

SSIMS deserves more community engagement time and they got it. So is Wootton. Closing a school and merging with others cannot be done in such short period of time. Period. Option H is neither legal or appropriate.

Pretty much all MCPS stakeholding communities deserve better engagement than is offered. On the other hand, time is short vis-à-vis opening Crown, and the financial & logistical exigencies are fairly pressing. Their ability to conduct effective/equitable engagement for the Wootton, putative Crown and candidate holding-school-occupying communities in the time they've left themselves is in doubt, but I hope they try before finalizing plans.

As far as the short delay related to the decision to close SSIMS, move SCES and use that old Blair facility currently housing both as a holding school -- if you believe there will be a reasonable chance that that delay will produce any differential outcome beyond racheting down the opposition from that community to the overarching boundaries/regions plan until after it is passed, well, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn you might like to buy.

No matter how unnecessary you feel about the delay, it’s not procedurally legal to rush through this process. If they push through option H with this holiday season, then accept legal challenges which prevent opening of crown on time.

[Anonymous]

So what happens if MCPS approves H without community support? Nothing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

My comment on addition at Wootton was in regards to doing a renovation on site. The way the current school is sited and the rest of the land on which it sits, it doesn’t permit for a very large addition which would allow them to work on renovating the rest of the school a section at a time and eventually demolishing another area of the school to use as a field. I think when Churchill was renovated in like 1998-2001 they started with a very large addition which held a lot of students. This let them demolish another existing area of the school (became parking lot to replace the parking that existed where the addition was built) and then they worked on wings of the school renovating one section at a time while students used the new addition and other non-renovated areas of the school, then the newly renovated area opened and a non-renovated area closed to be renovated. What I’m saying is that process isn’t possible at Wootton which means a holding school is required in order to renovate the school. This is why it’s never been done.

Then the question becomes does it make sense to spend $400M on a high school nearby a brand new high school when the county wide excess seats will be more than 5000 at the HS level and there are so many other needs in the county. Closing Damascus isn’t an option given its location, Magruder would be a challenge too. So because of the poor decision to build Crown which was made at a time when it seemed it would be needed, unfortunately logically it makes the most sense to close Wootton and add some money to fix some key areas and use it as a holding school.

There are so many secondary schools that need renovations in the coming decade and having a holding school will be essential.

If we had unlimited money and were in a good economic situation sure rebuild Wootton but the reality is we are not.

Wootton had a large addition back in 2000 too. It’s just the original building part which never got any renovation.
You can’t treat Wootton differently from other schools. Damascus Magruder can have a rebuild but Wootton cannot because of economic situation. Why not moving the other two?

Magruder has some far more serious issues as do other schools.

Either way, I don’t think option H is viable for the such strong opposition from Wootton cluster. MCPS will most likely not push against the whole community and force them to relocate with a boundary process which doesn’t have even sound legal.
Let’s focus on other options.

So you feel that they should keep SSIMS open and rehabilitate it just like Wootton, right?

SSIMS deserves more community engagement time and they got it. So is Wootton. Closing a school and merging with others cannot be done in such short period of time. Period. Option H is neither legal or appropriate.

Pretty much all MCPS stakeholding communities deserve better engagement than is offered. On the other hand, time is short vis-à-vis opening Crown, and the financial & logistical exigencies are fairly pressing. Their ability to conduct effective/equitable engagement for the Wootton, putative Crown and candidate holding-school-occupying communities in the time they've left themselves is in doubt, but I hope they try before finalizing plans.

As far as the short delay related to the decision to close SSIMS, move SCES and use that old Blair facility currently housing both as a holding school -- if you believe there will be a reasonable chance that that delay will produce any differential outcome beyond racheting down the opposition from that community to the overarching boundaries/regions plan until after it is passed, well, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn you might like to buy.

No matter how unnecessary you feel about the delay, it’s not procedurally legal to rush through this process. If they push through option H with this holiday season, then accept legal challenges which prevent opening of crown on time.

Nothing would happen until Feb/March.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what happens if MCPS approves H without community support? Nothing?

you must be new to mcps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

My comment on addition at Wootton was in regards to doing a renovation on site. The way the current school is sited and the rest of the land on which it sits, it doesn’t permit for a very large addition which would allow them to work on renovating the rest of the school a section at a time and eventually demolishing another area of the school to use as a field. I think when Churchill was renovated in like 1998-2001 they started with a very large addition which held a lot of students. This let them demolish another existing area of the school (became parking lot to replace the parking that existed where the addition was built) and then they worked on wings of the school renovating one section at a time while students used the new addition and other non-renovated areas of the school, then the newly renovated area opened and a non-renovated area closed to be renovated. What I’m saying is that process isn’t possible at Wootton which means a holding school is required in order to renovate the school. This is why it’s never been done.

Then the question becomes does it make sense to spend $400M on a high school nearby a brand new high school when the county wide excess seats will be more than 5000 at the HS level and there are so many other needs in the county. Closing Damascus isn’t an option given its location, Magruder would be a challenge too. So because of the poor decision to build Crown which was made at a time when it seemed it would be needed, unfortunately logically it makes the most sense to close Wootton and add some money to fix some key areas and use it as a holding school.

There are so many secondary schools that need renovations in the coming decade and having a holding school will be essential.

If we had unlimited money and were in a good economic situation sure rebuild Wootton but the reality is we are not.

Wootton had a large addition back in 2000 too. It’s just the original building part which never got any renovation.
You can’t treat Wootton differently from other schools. Damascus Magruder can have a rebuild but Wootton cannot because of economic situation. Why not moving the other two?

Magruder has some far more serious issues as do other schools.

Either way, I don’t think option H is viable for the such strong opposition from Wootton cluster. MCPS will most likely not push against the whole community and force them to relocate with a boundary process which doesn’t have even sound legal.
Let’s focus on other options.

So you feel that they should keep SSIMS open and rehabilitate it just like Wootton, right?

SSIMS deserves more community engagement time and they got it. So is Wootton. Closing a school and merging with others cannot be done in such short period of time. Period. Option H is neither legal or appropriate.

Pretty much all MCPS stakeholding communities deserve better engagement than is offered. On the other hand, time is short vis-à-vis opening Crown, and the financial & logistical exigencies are fairly pressing. Their ability to conduct effective/equitable engagement for the Wootton, putative Crown and candidate holding-school-occupying communities in the time they've left themselves is in doubt, but I hope they try before finalizing plans.

As far as the short delay related to the decision to close SSIMS, move SCES and use that old Blair facility currently housing both as a holding school -- if you believe there will be a reasonable chance that that delay will produce any differential outcome beyond racheting down the opposition from that community to the overarching boundaries/regions plan until after it is passed, well, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn you might like to buy.

No matter how unnecessary you feel about the delay, it’s not procedurally legal to rush through this process. If they push through option H with this holiday season, then accept legal challenges which prevent opening of crown on time.

I didn't say the delay was unnecessary, whether speaking about Wootton or SSIMS. I did note that their timeline might not be compatible for a delay to conduct that Wootton engagement, and I did suggest that the one for SSIMS is not likely to result in something that that community will relish.

Certainly, I expect legal challenges, though I'd anticipate more of those from the Wootton community (can you imagine if they were suggesting this for Churchill or Whitman?!), and those likely fewer from the SSIMS community would face a higher hurdle with the aforementioned afforded delay, even if it ends up being performative. We'll have to see if those challenges have any impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are questions I have for people opposing Option H:

1) If MCPS could guarantee (I know they can't/won't) that the current building wouldn't be neglected and would be upkept to the extent it current is so it wouldn't be an eyesore, would you feel as strongly?

2) If MCPS could guarantee (I know they can't/won't) that the entirety of the current cluster would go to the new school and only be joined by the 500 Gaithersburg residents the documents show rather than the rumored 1000, would you feel as strongly?

You know they can’t/won’t, then what’s the point of asking the question

Because given that MCPS has said that the final result is likely to be a combination of various options, they keep asking for information from people to help identify what particular aspects are important to them (rather than just saying the letter they pick). So, in asking this question, I am curious where levels of concern/priorities are among opposers of option H related to 1) having a potentially dilapidated building/eyesore in our neighborhood 2) potentially having the current Wootton community be outsized by new additions to the cluster.

So now that I have answered your question of why bother asking, please answer mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

In that case, they should move Brown Station also to fill Crown and pull in all the new homes on Quince Orchard Road to QO. Why is that neighborhood being bussed all the way to Wootton instead of going 2 miles down the road to QO? This is a new neighborhood with no longstanding community to talk about.

QO and Wootton need an overhaul.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Cabin Branch was just as loud as Wootton is now, and you all know what happened. In the end, you can have your lawsuits and whatnot, but MCPS will do what they think is right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are questions I have for people opposing Option H:

1) If MCPS could guarantee (I know they can't/won't) that the current building wouldn't be neglected and would be upkept to the extent it current is so it wouldn't be an eyesore, would you feel as strongly?

2) If MCPS could guarantee (I know they can't/won't) that the entirety of the current cluster would go to the new school and only be joined by the 500 Gaithersburg residents the documents show rather than the rumored 1000, would you feel as strongly?

I think there is a big faction that would get behind Option H, if you could just guarantee #2 with one major caveat. Crown doesn’t have capacity to enroll all of Wootton and 500 kids from Rosemont and Fields Road. That, plus Taylor’s recent comments that “the majority of Wootton” would be enrolled at Crown has parents anxious that they would be the ones pushed out (especially at Cold Spring and Fallsmead, but to a growing extent at Dufief and Travilah too). If the statement was modified to - the entirety of the current cluster will go to Crown and the rest of the school capacity will be filled with students in the walking zone (which I’m guessing would be closer to 300 kids max), then I think Option H would have wider spread Wootton support - though it’s maybe net neutral movement in terms of support because you’d then lose Gaithersburg support due to the inequities on their side.

I also think there’s a growing and vocal faction of both Fallsmead parents and parents with kids who are currently in Frost/Wootton that these conditions won’t satisfy. These are people who feel Wootton is an important community hub and that the proximity of Frost and Wootton enables a lot of the rigorous programming and school climate that they value and that contribute to the quality of the school. For this group, there isn’t a pathway to make Option H attractive.

Obviously purely a thought exercise, since this doesn’t address current trust levels in MCPS which have never been that high, and are currently severely eroded. In a vacuum, I think there would be a world where Wootton parents could be split in their support for Option H - but in our current reality, I think they’re increasingly united against it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are questions I have for people opposing Option H:

1) If MCPS could guarantee (I know they can't/won't) that the current building wouldn't be neglected and would be upkept to the extent it current is so it wouldn't be an eyesore, would you feel as strongly?

2) If MCPS could guarantee (I know they can't/won't) that the entirety of the current cluster would go to the new school and only be joined by the 500 Gaithersburg residents the documents show rather than the rumored 1000, would you feel as strongly?

I think there is a big faction that would get behind Option H, if you could just guarantee #2 with one major caveat. Crown doesn’t have capacity to enroll all of Wootton and 500 kids from Rosemont and Fields Road. That, plus Taylor’s recent comments that “the majority of Wootton” would be enrolled at Crown has parents anxious that they would be the ones pushed out (especially at Cold Spring and Fallsmead, but to a growing extent at Dufief and Travilah too). If the statement was modified to - the entirety of the current cluster will go to Crown and the rest of the school capacity will be filled with students in the walking zone (which I’m guessing would be closer to 300 kids max), then I think Option H would have wider spread Wootton support - though it’s maybe net neutral movement in terms of support because you’d then lose Gaithersburg support due to the inequities on their side.

I also think there’s a growing and vocal faction of both Fallsmead parents and parents with kids who are currently in Frost/Wootton that these conditions won’t satisfy. These are people who feel Wootton is an important community hub and that the proximity of Frost and Wootton enables a lot of the rigorous programming and school climate that they value and that contribute to the quality of the school. For this group, there isn’t a pathway to make Option H attractive.

Obviously purely a thought exercise, since this doesn’t address current trust levels in MCPS which have never been that high, and are currently severely eroded. In a vacuum, I think there would be a world where Wootton parents could be split in their support for Option H - but in our current reality, I think they’re increasingly united against it.

Ok, so students go to other nearby schools.

[Anonymous]

This "holding school" option is highly unusual. Either in urban or rural areas, we don't see schools do that. Schools that are either more constrained by land or more constrained by resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

My comment on addition at Wootton was in regards to doing a renovation on site. The way the current school is sited and the rest of the land on which it sits, it doesn’t permit for a very large addition which would allow them to work on renovating the rest of the school a section at a time and eventually demolishing another area of the school to use as a field. I think when Churchill was renovated in like 1998-2001 they started with a very large addition which held a lot of students. This let them demolish another existing area of the school (became parking lot to replace the parking that existed where the addition was built) and then they worked on wings of the school renovating one section at a time while students used the new addition and other non-renovated areas of the school, then the newly renovated area opened and a non-renovated area closed to be renovated. What I’m saying is that process isn’t possible at Wootton which means a holding school is required in order to renovate the school. This is why it’s never been done.

Then the question becomes does it make sense to spend $400M on a high school nearby a brand new high school when the county wide excess seats will be more than 5000 at the HS level and there are so many other needs in the county. Closing Damascus isn’t an option given its location, Magruder would be a challenge too. So because of the poor decision to build Crown which was made at a time when it seemed it would be needed, unfortunately logically it makes the most sense to close Wootton and add some money to fix some key areas and use it as a holding school.

There are so many secondary schools that need renovations in the coming decade and having a holding school will be essential.

If we had unlimited money and were in a good economic situation sure rebuild Wootton but the reality is we are not.

Wootton had a large addition back in 2000 too. It’s just the original building part which never got any renovation.
You can’t treat Wootton differently from other schools. Damascus Magruder can have a rebuild but Wootton cannot because of economic situation. Why not moving the other two?

Magruder has some far more serious issues as do other schools.

Either way, I don’t think option H is viable for the such strong opposition from Wootton cluster. MCPS will most likely not push against the whole community and force them to relocate with a boundary process which doesn’t have even sound legal.
Let’s focus on other options.

Of course it is. They demanded a new building and are getting it.

They demanded a new building at the current Wootton site. You conveniently left out that part. As another poster mentioned, Wootton is important to the surrounding community. You might not think 3 miles makes a difference, but it does to parents whose kids walk to and from school. Bussing isn't the answer unless MCPS can guarantee busses for ALL after school and weekend activities to replace walk ability, which it can't.