Taylor Meeting at Wootton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor inherited some of these issues. Sure we could cut him some slack but shouldn’t his board be set up to actually facilitate conversations to arrive at a decision?

He promised transparency, accountability, and equity. This is great for some schools but will further harm many otheres.

‘Scuse? Please spell this out

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The Wootten community finds itself defending certain actions and attitudes that to much of the county appear indefensible. Sometimes we are unsure just how to frame our response in terms of reason. We are not arguing against the Gaithersburg community as persons, but for the preservation of the neighborhood school and the geographic integrity of our communities, which are the only sure safeguards of our academic and neighborhood heritage.

That last sentence negates your argument. You want a bubble around your community to preserve the heritage. Again displaying the underlying classist attitudes coming from Wootton pkwy.

And Silver Spring and Damascus and Olney and go ahead and name all the communities in Montgomery County that are exactly the same.

Public school policy and governance are not based on the feelings of one supreme leader. They are based on laws, policies and procedures. If you don't understand that then MCPS really failed you in your education.

The nature of public school means no boundaries are forever and nothing is guaranteed. You want certainties then go private.

Duh. That's why there are laws and policies in place for how to make these changes. You want a king? Go live at the White House.

Process has been followed. Sorry you don't like the outcome.

Not even close. Sorry you can’t read.

DP- I've read this whole thread and there are a lot of assertions of improper process and violations of COMAR, etc. But not one person has identified a single process step that is required that has not been met, or a COMAR language that has been violated.

COMAR is probably not the place to find an issue; it defers a lot to the local school board. They'd have to assert that there was a breach in MCPS not following its own policies.

That said, there's two different arguments at play: whether the process followed the legal requirements vs. whether the process was done in a way that felt like a good, transparent process.

Even as a Pro-H person, the process has felt immensely chaotic. We looked over the initial 4 options, which were wildly different, because they were emphasizing different parts of the Policy FAA criteria. After freaking out about some of the options (option 3 was sheer lunacy), options A-D were presented which looked mostly fine in October.

Then the superintendent threw a bomb into the whole process by suggesting Crown as a holding school. Then Option H was included among the other options of Crown being a holding school, making Wootton the holding school and moving Wootton to Crown in December.

So, we started this process in July and the entire premise was upended more than half way through. Never mind that concurrently, they're also pushing through the biggest changes to the criteria programs in generations at the same time and arguing that the regional programs and boundary study are interlinked.

The process has generally been bad at setting expectations and getting community buy-in. We still have a lot of unanswered questions about the criteria program, but the Wootton issue is sucking so much oxygen that it's getting left behind.

For the Wootton move, I don't think a delay would make a huge difference; there's been plenty of vocal feedback and I'm not sure what new information can be surfaced with holding more hearings. The situation is the situation, MCPS has the data that they have, and the decision needs to be made soon so that the school is ready to open on-time.

I think the end result given the situation as it stands makes the most sense. Enrollment is declining, Wootton's current building is in bad shape, Wootton is close to the Crown building and its school boundaries are adjacent to the new building. It sucks that it's come to this point, because they neglected the Wootton building enough that it's in such poor shape and they stuck to poor projections that showed a new high school was needed. It's not great, but MCPS needs to think county and system wide.

there you go being reasonable and sensible. DCUM is not the place for reason! teach reasoning to your kids, not adults arguing on an anonymous platform

But my property values! Didn’t MCPS consider the cost of my kitchen renovations and how I have no ROI now. That lack of consideration much have violated COMAR somehow

I am the tiny townhome PP. i thought i was paying for a W but now it will be crown. have some mercy please.

Crown will also be a wealthy school and those crown homes are worth far more than yours. Why overpay for a crummy townhome? What is small? 4000 square feet? Just move and you can still have your kids at a W school.

The single family homes in Crown sell for over $1.6million and some of the town houses sell for close to that. Crown is generally an affluent neighborhood.

Which cost more than some of the homes zoned for Wootton. Maybe they should be complaing about going to school with poor people who stretched to buy their homes?

They will say absolutely nada. The Wootton population is the only thing preventing the Crown residents from having to go school with the poors. Crown people leveled up by getting the Wootton population and they know it.

You are funny, plenty of expensive houses in Gaithersburg too, around Wootton which pretends to be Rockville.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Wootten community finds itself defending certain actions and attitudes that to much of the county appear indefensible. Sometimes we are unsure just how to frame our response in terms of reason. We are not arguing against the Gaithersburg community as persons, but for the preservation of the neighborhood school and the geographic integrity of our communities, which are the only sure safeguards of our academic and neighborhood heritage.

That last sentence negates your argument. You want a bubble around your community to preserve the heritage. Again displaying the underlying classist attitudes coming from Wootton pkwy.

And Silver Spring and Damascus and Olney and go ahead and name all the communities in Montgomery County that are exactly the same.

Public school policy and governance are not based on the feelings of one supreme leader. They are based on laws, policies and procedures. If you don't understand that then MCPS really failed you in your education.

The nature of public school means no boundaries are forever and nothing is guaranteed. You want certainties then go private.

Duh. That's why there are laws and policies in place for how to make these changes. You want a king? Go live at the White House.

Process has been followed. Sorry you don't like the outcome.

Not even close. Sorry you can’t read.

DP- I've read this whole thread and there are a lot of assertions of improper process and violations of COMAR, etc. But not one person has identified a single process step that is required that has not been met, or a COMAR language that has been violated.

COMAR is probably not the place to find an issue; it defers a lot to the local school board. They'd have to assert that there was a breach in MCPS not following its own policies.

That said, there's two different arguments at play: whether the process followed the legal requirements vs. whether the process was done in a way that felt like a good, transparent process.

Even as a Pro-H person, the process has felt immensely chaotic. We looked over the initial 4 options, which were wildly different, because they were emphasizing different parts of the Policy FAA criteria. After freaking out about some of the options (option 3 was sheer lunacy), options A-D were presented which looked mostly fine in October.

Then the superintendent threw a bomb into the whole process by suggesting Crown as a holding school. Then Option H was included among the other options of Crown being a holding school, making Wootton the holding school and moving Wootton to Crown in December.

So, we started this process in July and the entire premise was upended more than half way through. Never mind that concurrently, they're also pushing through the biggest changes to the criteria programs in generations at the same time and arguing that the regional programs and boundary study are interlinked.

The process has generally been bad at setting expectations and getting community buy-in. We still have a lot of unanswered questions about the criteria program, but the Wootton issue is sucking so much oxygen that it's getting left behind.

For the Wootton move, I don't think a delay would make a huge difference; there's been plenty of vocal feedback and I'm not sure what new information can be surfaced with holding more hearings. The situation is the situation, MCPS has the data that they have, and the decision needs to be made soon so that the school is ready to open on-time.

I think the end result given the situation as it stands makes the most sense. Enrollment is declining, Wootton's current building is in bad shape, Wootton is close to the Crown building and its school boundaries are adjacent to the new building. It sucks that it's come to this point, because they neglected the Wootton building enough that it's in such poor shape and they stuck to poor projections that showed a new high school was needed. It's not great, but MCPS needs to think county and system wide.

there you go being reasonable and sensible. DCUM is not the place for reason! teach reasoning to your kids, not adults arguing on an anonymous platform

But my property values! Didn’t MCPS consider the cost of my kitchen renovations and how I have no ROI now. That lack of consideration much have violated COMAR somehow

I am the tiny townhome PP. i thought i was paying for a W but now it will be crown. have some mercy please.

Crown will also be a wealthy school and those crown homes are worth far more than yours. Why overpay for a crummy townhome? What is small? 4000 square feet? Just move and you can still have your kids at a W school.

The single family homes in Crown sell for over $1.6million and some of the town houses sell for close to that. Crown is generally an affluent neighborhood.

Which cost more than some of the homes zoned for Wootton. Maybe they should be complaing about going to school with poor people who stretched to buy their homes?

They will say absolutely nada. The Wootton population is the only thing preventing the Crown residents from having to go school with the poors. Crown people leveled up by getting the Wootton population and they know it.

You are funny, plenty of expensive houses in Gaithersburg too, around Wootton which pretends to be Rockville.

And that’s why they’re fighting so hard for Option H. Without Wootton, Crown won’t help their property values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor inherited some of these issues. Sure we could cut him some slack but shouldn’t his board be set up to actually facilitate conversations to arrive at a decision?

He promised transparency, accountability, and equity. This is great for some schools but will further harm many otheres.

‘Scuse? Please spell this out

Just wait or see what he did to Stafford.

[Anonymous]

Who keeps reporting posts? Next conspiracy is Save Wootton / Anti H / whatever you want to be called is trying to control the narrative on DCUM too. Lots of dirty deleting going around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who keeps reporting posts? Next conspiracy is Save Wootton / Anti H / whatever you want to be called is trying to control the narrative on DCUM too. Lots of dirty deleting going around.

Not sure, but usually the moderators here try to delete only nasty, doxxing, or completely irrelevant posts. What were the deleted posts discussing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What schools are due for CIP that need Wootton as a holding school?

Assuming Damascus is done on site, I don’t think any major replacements. But the HVAC replacements can be done in 4-5 months vs over three summers. I’d imagine a lot of these

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who keeps reporting posts? Next conspiracy is Save Wootton / Anti H / whatever you want to be called is trying to control the narrative on DCUM too. Lots of dirty deleting going around.

I’ve noticed stuff is missing and lose my spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools are due for CIP that need Wootton as a holding school?

Assuming Damascus is done on site, I don’t think any major replacements. But the HVAC replacements can be done in 4-5 months vs over three summers. I’d imagine a lot of these

So if Taylor doesn’t have the money to fix Wootton, and it’s unsafe, why put any other kids there for even 4-5 months? Or is Taylor going to suddenly find the money after Option H goes through?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools are due for CIP that need Wootton as a holding school?

Assuming Damascus is done on site, I don’t think any major replacements. But the HVAC replacements can be done in 4-5 months vs over three summers. I’d imagine a lot of these

So if Taylor doesn’t have the money to fix Wootton, and it’s unsafe, why put any other kids there for even 4-5 months? Or is Taylor going to suddenly find the money after Option H goes through?

You have to actually watch the work sessions where they discuss the timeline and what could be done repair wise over 2 months of summer vs what could be done in 6 months if there was a holding school. But first they need $ for the repairs of the Wootton building to make it a holding. They never said, we’re putting kids here without fixing anything! Then they would also need the CIP budget to fix/rebuild those schools at the top of the lists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools are due for CIP that need Wootton as a holding school?

Assuming Damascus is done on site, I don’t think any major replacements. But the HVAC replacements can be done in 4-5 months vs over three summers. I’d imagine a lot of these

So if Taylor doesn’t have the money to fix Wootton, and it’s unsafe, why put any other kids there for even 4-5 months? Or is Taylor going to suddenly find the money after Option H goes through?

I honestly wouldn’t expect huge improvements anytime soon but also the CIP likely budgeted costs for HVAC projects assuming they would take multiple phases. Back in November or December 2025, one of the meetings about the CIP I remember them showing planned replacements and the timeline and it was like 2 summers for ES, 3 MS and 4 HS. There’s no doubt these cost more to spread over so many years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools are due for CIP that need Wootton as a holding school?

Assuming Damascus is done on site, I don’t think any major replacements. But the HVAC replacements can be done in 4-5 months vs over three summers. I’d imagine a lot of these

So if Taylor doesn’t have the money to fix Wootton, and it’s unsafe, why put any other kids there for even 4-5 months? Or is Taylor going to suddenly find the money after Option H goes through?

I honestly wouldn’t expect huge improvements anytime soon but also the CIP likely budgeted costs for HVAC projects assuming they would take multiple phases. Back in November or December 2025, one of the meetings about the CIP I remember them showing planned replacements and the timeline and it was like 2 summers for ES, 3 MS and 4 HS. There’s no doubt these cost more to spread over so many years.

I’m a different responder than the post right before this. Also just looked for it and it’s November 11 2025 board meeting shows if on pages 10-13.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand the property values argument at all. How would property values be negatively impacted when all that's happening is moving the same students and neighborhoods into a brand new building elsewhere? FFS, it's still the same school! Yes, it will include kids in Crown too, but it's not like Crown is an impovrished area with low property values.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Wootten community finds itself defending certain actions and attitudes that to much of the county appear indefensible. Sometimes we are unsure just how to frame our response in terms of reason. We are not arguing against the Gaithersburg community as persons, but for the preservation of the neighborhood school and the geographic integrity of our communities, which are the only sure safeguards of our academic and neighborhood heritage.

That last sentence negates your argument. You want a bubble around your community to preserve the heritage. Again displaying the underlying classist attitudes coming from Wootton pkwy.

And Silver Spring and Damascus and Olney and go ahead and name all the communities in Montgomery County that are exactly the same.

Public school policy and governance are not based on the feelings of one supreme leader. They are based on laws, policies and procedures. If you don't understand that then MCPS really failed you in your education.

The nature of public school means no boundaries are forever and nothing is guaranteed. You want certainties then go private.

Duh. That's why there are laws and policies in place for how to make these changes. You want a king? Go live at the White House.

Process has been followed. Sorry you don't like the outcome.

Not even close. Sorry you can’t read.

DP- I've read this whole thread and there are a lot of assertions of improper process and violations of COMAR, etc. But not one person has identified a single process step that is required that has not been met, or a COMAR language that has been violated.

COMAR is probably not the place to find an issue; it defers a lot to the local school board. They'd have to assert that there was a breach in MCPS not following its own policies.

That said, there's two different arguments at play: whether the process followed the legal requirements vs. whether the process was done in a way that felt like a good, transparent process.

Even as a Pro-H person, the process has felt immensely chaotic. We looked over the initial 4 options, which were wildly different, because they were emphasizing different parts of the Policy FAA criteria. After freaking out about some of the options (option 3 was sheer lunacy), options A-D were presented which looked mostly fine in October.

Then the superintendent threw a bomb into the whole process by suggesting Crown as a holding school. Then Option H was included among the other options of Crown being a holding school, making Wootton the holding school and moving Wootton to Crown in December.

So, we started this process in July and the entire premise was upended more than half way through. Never mind that concurrently, they're also pushing through the biggest changes to the criteria programs in generations at the same time and arguing that the regional programs and boundary study are interlinked.

The process has generally been bad at setting expectations and getting community buy-in. We still have a lot of unanswered questions about the criteria program, but the Wootton issue is sucking so much oxygen that it's getting left behind.

For the Wootton move, I don't think a delay would make a huge difference; there's been plenty of vocal feedback and I'm not sure what new information can be surfaced with holding more hearings. The situation is the situation, MCPS has the data that they have, and the decision needs to be made soon so that the school is ready to open on-time.

I think the end result given the situation as it stands makes the most sense. Enrollment is declining, Wootton's current building is in bad shape, Wootton is close to the Crown building and its school boundaries are adjacent to the new building. It sucks that it's come to this point, because they neglected the Wootton building enough that it's in such poor shape and they stuck to poor projections that showed a new high school was needed. It's not great, but MCPS needs to think county and system wide.

there you go being reasonable and sensible. DCUM is not the place for reason! teach reasoning to your kids, not adults arguing on an anonymous platform

But my property values! Didn’t MCPS consider the cost of my kitchen renovations and how I have no ROI now. That lack of consideration much have violated COMAR somehow

I am the tiny townhome PP. i thought i was paying for a W but now it will be crown. have some mercy please.

Crown will also be a wealthy school and those crown homes are worth far more than yours. Why overpay for a crummy townhome? What is small? 4000 square feet? Just move and you can still have your kids at a W school.

The single family homes in Crown sell for over $1.6million and some of the town houses sell for close to that. Crown is generally an affluent neighborhood.

Which cost more than some of the homes zoned for Wootton. Maybe they should be complaing about going to school with poor people who stretched to buy their homes?

They will say absolutely nada. The Wootton population is the only thing preventing the Crown residents from having to go school with the poors. Crown people leveled up by getting the Wootton population and they know it.

You are funny, plenty of expensive houses in Gaithersburg too, around Wootton which pretends to be Rockville.

And that’s why they’re fighting so hard for Option H. Without Wootton, Crown won’t help their property values.

Your property values will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the property values argument at all. How would property values be negatively impacted when all that's happening is moving the same students and neighborhoods into a brand new building elsewhere? FFS, it's still the same school! Yes, it will include kids in Crown too, but it's not like Crown is an impovrished area with low property values.

It’s an excuse to self segregate.