Anonymous wrote:And here it is: (well, not a lawsuit, but an appeal to the State BoE).
Silverman Thompson has filed a formal request for a stay with the Maryland State Superintendent, asking the State to pause implementation of Modified Option H while the decision is reviewed. The filing raises serious concerns, including whether Modified Option H is effectively closing Wootton under the label of a “relocation,” and whether flawed enrollment projections were used to justify the decision.
This is just the beginning. If the stay is not granted, we will immediately appeal. We are prepared to continue through administrative court and ultimately pursue litigation in circuit court.
The filing challenges multiple aspects of the Board’s decision, including:
• Failure to follow legally required procedures for closing a school
• Use of flawed or potentially misleading data to justify the outcome
• Risk of immediate and irreversible harm to affected students and families
Seems like a weak case. I've already seen other lawsuits that tried to argue the "we think they used the wrong data", which never wins; State BoE defers to the local BoE.
Then there's the "actually this is a de-facto closure"; personally, I think this is a bogus argument, especially because if they know it's a school closure by the law's definition, they wouldn't use the weasel word "de-facto".
P.S. Again, I'd urge the "Save Wootton" parents to pursue the solution electorally. The solution you're trying to find is not going to be found in the courts, but can be done by our elected officials.
LOL what elected officials?
County Council and BoE. The ones who control the budget and make the final decisions regarding the schools.
There's a huge amount of turnover happening this year, a lot of open seats, so it seems like the perfect time for a dedicated group to get commitments to reverse the decision.
The amount of money they're spending on a law firm is better spent on lobbying and contributions to politicians rather than launching a doomed legal challenge.
I’m not a part of the cluster so maybe they know something I don’t. But I do think it’s interesting that it’s been almost two weeks since they’ve filed and the state hasn’t responded. That’s quite unusual…
I will say as a neighboring cluster, I am fairly certain they are in fact is lobbying (I know we are)
I hardly think 2 weeks is "quite unusual" especially when those two weeks fell over holidays although I know that some in our chat used it as a hopeful hint since the lawyers said that the last time they received denial it came within 48 hours.
There is no two weeks. MSDE answers to no one. They respond when they want to. The pp has no clue what will happen. It’s just another attempt by TT’s huge PR machine. How did TT’s fun run work out?
They don’t need to respond. You file.
No one here has any lick of an idea as to how this actually works and it’s pretty funny. Like the other PP said, just trolls and AI fighting back and forth.
We know what it takes to file a lawsuit. You’ve had many months.
Huh? It wasn’t even ripe until 3/26? A month hasn’t even passed? You are proving the PP’s point. Wannabe DCUM attorneys have zero clue what is happening.
It was obvious it was happening.
Of course it was obvious. We all know it was predetermined. Thanks for agreeing with us!
But also doesn’t matter in terms of ripeness. It can be 100% obvious, as it was in this case (because again predetermined), the issue isn’t ripe for a lawsuit until the vote happens.
So to suggest they had months to file a lawsuit just shows you don’t know anything about the law. A month hasn’t even passed.
You clearly don’t know much about the law and why do you want to force others to risk their health staying in that building given how bad it is? Most want to go to Crown.
Citation?
If Magruderw is worse than Wootton (which it is), by your logic its kids should go to Crown and Wootton get remediation.
Crown is way closer to Wootton than it is to Magruder. As a long term plan it makes a lot more sense to move Wootton there than to move Magruder there. We aren't talking about a two year holding school timeline. This is for at least ten years I bet. There isn't money for remediation at this point (at least not on the CIP- we can debate if the money exists elsewhere).
Taylor actually proposed using Crown as a holding school (arguably for Magruder). It needs remediation far more immediately than Wootton. Even if there isnt any money today, its kids would be safe for a few years until it is. Under Option H, Magruder got screwed.
Magruder IS screwed, no doubt, but this is not because of Option H. None of the options accelerated the long overdue Magruder renovation. The only thing option H did was not let these students use Crown until then.
Unless you are a Magruder family who would have had to put your children on a bus for 30 mins each way* FOR THE BETTER PART OF A DECADE if you have multiple kids I think you should keep Magruder’s name out ya mouth.
*For the love of Wootton and all her feeders please do not reply that your commute to Crown from the Lakewood or Fallsmead area will also be that length. Please and thank you.
No one is dismissing the impact on Magruder families—long bus rides for years is a real concern—but if the justification for moving Wootton is truly student health and safety, then Magruder is arguably worse off, since its underlying issues remain unaddressed. Option H doesn’t fix that—it just shifts who absorbs the disruption. And in a countywide decision like this, it’s not realistic to say “keep Magruder out of it”—these tradeoffs are interconnected, and people are going to question whether the approach is consistent.
Just to be clear, the MCPS justification is fiscal; moving Wootton to Crown saves money by not opening an unneeded high school and on future improvements needed to keep Wootton open as a fulltime high school. MCPS' position has always been that Wootton is fine as-is as a holding school and they'll put money into needed renovations when money becomes available (which is not currently budgeted in the CIP).
It's the parent groups who have been arguing about how bad the conditions at Wootton are and whether they can be remediated.
No, it’s the trolls here that are saying it.
Sure… all those previous testimonies on the subject was trolling. Year after year worth of trolling on the condition of the building. Students giving a tour of the school with BOE and news reporters present. Just trolling
So student safety being the reason means Magruder - which is way worse off - should go to Crown for 5 years until there is money to renovate its building. This is bolstered by Taylor claiming Wootton’s building is fine as a holding school, which undercuts the hyperbole that Wootton is uninhabitable.
Sighhhhhh. This isn’t how Holding schools work. Communities don’t go to holding schools until construction is underway for their current facility. There was never any world where Magruder went to Crown for 5-10 years while waiting to get put on the CIP. The benefit of ANY holding school option for Magruder is that schools currently on the CIP (e.g., for shorter term projects like HVAC replacement) can use that holding school to accelerate the timeline of their repairs which then saves significant money. Saving that money on other investments may (hopefully) accelerate the timeline for Magruder getting on the CIP. This benefit is the same whether the holding school is at Crown or Wootton.
Then why did Taylor propose it? He knew there was no money, so I guess it was a smokescreen.
He proposed using it as a holding school. He did not propose Magruder going there for 5-10 years while they waited on the CIP funding. No plan, at any point, has specified who would use which holding school on which timeline.
Why would he even do that if the purpose of a holding school is to renovate a school, but there was no money or timeline to renovate? Again, it sounds like the holding school idea wasn’t a serious one.
Its to renovate other schools so it can be done quicker and more cost effective.
You are clearly missing the point of the question.
If there isn't - and never was - any money available for renovating a high school like Magruder, why did Taylor propose using Crown as a holding school? Did he think the money would suddenly appear, all the plans drawn up for the renovation, etc.?
If y'all can have your conspiracy theories, so can I so here goes: I actually think that the lack of any money for Magruder WAS the reason for proposing Crown as the holding school. As much as Taylor didn't want to use a new school as a holding school, I think he believed he could have Magruder go there for many, many years--they would learn to accept the distance in favor of the brand new building and the heat would be off of him to renovate their building. He might even have put Wootton back on the CIP once and for all since Magruder was essentially taken care of.
Anonymous wrote:And here it is: (well, not a lawsuit, but an appeal to the State BoE).
Silverman Thompson has filed a formal request for a stay with the Maryland State Superintendent, asking the State to pause implementation of Modified Option H while the decision is reviewed. The filing raises serious concerns, including whether Modified Option H is effectively closing Wootton under the label of a “relocation,” and whether flawed enrollment projections were used to justify the decision.
This is just the beginning. If the stay is not granted, we will immediately appeal. We are prepared to continue through administrative court and ultimately pursue litigation in circuit court.
The filing challenges multiple aspects of the Board’s decision, including:
• Failure to follow legally required procedures for closing a school
• Use of flawed or potentially misleading data to justify the outcome
• Risk of immediate and irreversible harm to affected students and families
Seems like a weak case. I've already seen other lawsuits that tried to argue the "we think they used the wrong data", which never wins; State BoE defers to the local BoE.
Then there's the "actually this is a de-facto closure"; personally, I think this is a bogus argument, especially because if they know it's a school closure by the law's definition, they wouldn't use the weasel word "de-facto".
P.S. Again, I'd urge the "Save Wootton" parents to pursue the solution electorally. The solution you're trying to find is not going to be found in the courts, but can be done by our elected officials.
LOL what elected officials?
County Council and BoE. The ones who control the budget and make the final decisions regarding the schools.
There's a huge amount of turnover happening this year, a lot of open seats, so it seems like the perfect time for a dedicated group to get commitments to reverse the decision.
The amount of money they're spending on a law firm is better spent on lobbying and contributions to politicians rather than launching a doomed legal challenge.
I’m not a part of the cluster so maybe they know something I don’t. But I do think it’s interesting that it’s been almost two weeks since they’ve filed and the state hasn’t responded. That’s quite unusual…
I will say as a neighboring cluster, I am fairly certain they are in fact is lobbying (I know we are)
I hardly think 2 weeks is "quite unusual" especially when those two weeks fell over holidays although I know that some in our chat used it as a hopeful hint since the lawyers said that the last time they received denial it came within 48 hours.
There is no two weeks. MSDE answers to no one. They respond when they want to. The pp has no clue what will happen. It’s just another attempt by TT’s huge PR machine. How did TT’s fun run work out?
They don’t need to respond. You file.
No one here has any lick of an idea as to how this actually works and it’s pretty funny. Like the other PP said, just trolls and AI fighting back and forth.
We know what it takes to file a lawsuit. You’ve had many months.
Huh? It wasn’t even ripe until 3/26? A month hasn’t even passed? You are proving the PP’s point. Wannabe DCUM attorneys have zero clue what is happening.
It was obvious it was happening.
Of course it was obvious. We all know it was predetermined. Thanks for agreeing with us!
But also doesn’t matter in terms of ripeness. It can be 100% obvious, as it was in this case (because again predetermined), the issue isn’t ripe for a lawsuit until the vote happens.
So to suggest they had months to file a lawsuit just shows you don’t know anything about the law. A month hasn’t even passed.
You clearly don’t know much about the law and why do you want to force others to risk their health staying in that building given how bad it is? Most want to go to Crown.
Citation?
If Magruderw is worse than Wootton (which it is), by your logic its kids should go to Crown and Wootton get remediation.
Crown is way closer to Wootton than it is to Magruder. As a long term plan it makes a lot more sense to move Wootton there than to move Magruder there. We aren't talking about a two year holding school timeline. This is for at least ten years I bet. There isn't money for remediation at this point (at least not on the CIP- we can debate if the money exists elsewhere).
Taylor actually proposed using Crown as a holding school (arguably for Magruder). It needs remediation far more immediately than Wootton. Even if there isnt any money today, its kids would be safe for a few years until it is. Under Option H, Magruder got screwed.
Magruder IS screwed, no doubt, but this is not because of Option H. None of the options accelerated the long overdue Magruder renovation. The only thing option H did was not let these students use Crown until then.
Unless you are a Magruder family who would have had to put your children on a bus for 30 mins each way* FOR THE BETTER PART OF A DECADE if you have multiple kids I think you should keep Magruder’s name out ya mouth.
*For the love of Wootton and all her feeders please do not reply that your commute to Crown from the Lakewood or Fallsmead area will also be that length. Please and thank you.
No one is dismissing the impact on Magruder families—long bus rides for years is a real concern—but if the justification for moving Wootton is truly student health and safety, then Magruder is arguably worse off, since its underlying issues remain unaddressed. Option H doesn’t fix that—it just shifts who absorbs the disruption. And in a countywide decision like this, it’s not realistic to say “keep Magruder out of it”—these tradeoffs are interconnected, and people are going to question whether the approach is consistent.
Just to be clear, the MCPS justification is fiscal; moving Wootton to Crown saves money by not opening an unneeded high school and on future improvements needed to keep Wootton open as a fulltime high school. MCPS' position has always been that Wootton is fine as-is as a holding school and they'll put money into needed renovations when money becomes available (which is not currently budgeted in the CIP).
It's the parent groups who have been arguing about how bad the conditions at Wootton are and whether they can be remediated.
No, it’s the trolls here that are saying it.
Sure… all those previous testimonies on the subject was trolling. Year after year worth of trolling on the condition of the building. Students giving a tour of the school with BOE and news reporters present. Just trolling
So student safety being the reason means Magruder - which is way worse off - should go to Crown for 5 years until there is money to renovate its building. This is bolstered by Taylor claiming Wootton’s building is fine as a holding school, which undercuts the hyperbole that Wootton is uninhabitable.
Sighhhhhh. This isn’t how Holding schools work. Communities don’t go to holding schools until construction is underway for their current facility. There was never any world where Magruder went to Crown for 5-10 years while waiting to get put on the CIP. The benefit of ANY holding school option for Magruder is that schools currently on the CIP (e.g., for shorter term projects like HVAC replacement) can use that holding school to accelerate the timeline of their repairs which then saves significant money. Saving that money on other investments may (hopefully) accelerate the timeline for Magruder getting on the CIP. This benefit is the same whether the holding school is at Crown or Wootton.
Then why did Taylor propose it? He knew there was no money, so I guess it was a smokescreen.
He proposed using it as a holding school. He did not propose Magruder going there for 5-10 years while they waited on the CIP funding. No plan, at any point, has specified who would use which holding school on which timeline.
Why would he even do that if the purpose of a holding school is to renovate a school, but there was no money or timeline to renovate? Again, it sounds like the holding school idea wasn’t a serious one.
Its to renovate other schools so it can be done quicker and more cost effective.
You are clearly missing the point of the question.
If there isn't - and never was - any money available for renovating a high school like Magruder, why did Taylor propose using Crown as a holding school? Did he think the money would suddenly appear, all the plans drawn up for the renovation, etc.?
If y'all can have your conspiracy theories, so can I so here goes: I actually think that the lack of any money for Magruder WAS the reason for proposing Crown as the holding school. As much as Taylor didn't want to use a new school as a holding school, I think he believed he could have Magruder go there for many, many years--they would learn to accept the distance in favor of the brand new building and the heat would be off of him to renovate their building. He might even have put Wootton back on the CIP once and for all since Magruder was essentially taken care of.
That could be true, but Taylor might have “counted noses” and learned he didn’t have the votes to do that. He then pivoted to relocating Wootton to Crown as a permanent school 3 days after releasing the holding school option, probably having the votes in hand to do that.
Stupid of Taylor to propose the holding school option if he didn’t already have the votes. This created the narrative that Crown as a holding school was never a real option.
Anonymous wrote:And here it is: (well, not a lawsuit, but an appeal to the State BoE).
Silverman Thompson has filed a formal request for a stay with the Maryland State Superintendent, asking the State to pause implementation of Modified Option H while the decision is reviewed. The filing raises serious concerns, including whether Modified Option H is effectively closing Wootton under the label of a “relocation,” and whether flawed enrollment projections were used to justify the decision.
This is just the beginning. If the stay is not granted, we will immediately appeal. We are prepared to continue through administrative court and ultimately pursue litigation in circuit court.
The filing challenges multiple aspects of the Board’s decision, including:
• Failure to follow legally required procedures for closing a school
• Use of flawed or potentially misleading data to justify the outcome
• Risk of immediate and irreversible harm to affected students and families
Seems like a weak case. I've already seen other lawsuits that tried to argue the "we think they used the wrong data", which never wins; State BoE defers to the local BoE.
Then there's the "actually this is a de-facto closure"; personally, I think this is a bogus argument, especially because if they know it's a school closure by the law's definition, they wouldn't use the weasel word "de-facto".
P.S. Again, I'd urge the "Save Wootton" parents to pursue the solution electorally. The solution you're trying to find is not going to be found in the courts, but can be done by our elected officials.
LOL what elected officials?
County Council and BoE. The ones who control the budget and make the final decisions regarding the schools.
There's a huge amount of turnover happening this year, a lot of open seats, so it seems like the perfect time for a dedicated group to get commitments to reverse the decision.
The amount of money they're spending on a law firm is better spent on lobbying and contributions to politicians rather than launching a doomed legal challenge.
I’m not a part of the cluster so maybe they know something I don’t. But I do think it’s interesting that it’s been almost two weeks since they’ve filed and the state hasn’t responded. That’s quite unusual…
I will say as a neighboring cluster, I am fairly certain they are in fact is lobbying (I know we are)
I hardly think 2 weeks is "quite unusual" especially when those two weeks fell over holidays although I know that some in our chat used it as a hopeful hint since the lawyers said that the last time they received denial it came within 48 hours.
There is no two weeks. MSDE answers to no one. They respond when they want to. The pp has no clue what will happen. It’s just another attempt by TT’s huge PR machine. How did TT’s fun run work out?
They don’t need to respond. You file.
No one here has any lick of an idea as to how this actually works and it’s pretty funny. Like the other PP said, just trolls and AI fighting back and forth.
We know what it takes to file a lawsuit. You’ve had many months.
Huh? It wasn’t even ripe until 3/26? A month hasn’t even passed? You are proving the PP’s point. Wannabe DCUM attorneys have zero clue what is happening.
It was obvious it was happening.
Of course it was obvious. We all know it was predetermined. Thanks for agreeing with us!
But also doesn’t matter in terms of ripeness. It can be 100% obvious, as it was in this case (because again predetermined), the issue isn’t ripe for a lawsuit until the vote happens.
So to suggest they had months to file a lawsuit just shows you don’t know anything about the law. A month hasn’t even passed.
You clearly don’t know much about the law and why do you want to force others to risk their health staying in that building given how bad it is? Most want to go to Crown.
Citation?
If Magruderw is worse than Wootton (which it is), by your logic its kids should go to Crown and Wootton get remediation.
Crown is way closer to Wootton than it is to Magruder. As a long term plan it makes a lot more sense to move Wootton there than to move Magruder there. We aren't talking about a two year holding school timeline. This is for at least ten years I bet. There isn't money for remediation at this point (at least not on the CIP- we can debate if the money exists elsewhere).
Taylor actually proposed using Crown as a holding school (arguably for Magruder). It needs remediation far more immediately than Wootton. Even if there isnt any money today, its kids would be safe for a few years until it is. Under Option H, Magruder got screwed.
Magruder IS screwed, no doubt, but this is not because of Option H. None of the options accelerated the long overdue Magruder renovation. The only thing option H did was not let these students use Crown until then.
Unless you are a Magruder family who would have had to put your children on a bus for 30 mins each way* FOR THE BETTER PART OF A DECADE if you have multiple kids I think you should keep Magruder’s name out ya mouth.
*For the love of Wootton and all her feeders please do not reply that your commute to Crown from the Lakewood or Fallsmead area will also be that length. Please and thank you.
No one is dismissing the impact on Magruder families—long bus rides for years is a real concern—but if the justification for moving Wootton is truly student health and safety, then Magruder is arguably worse off, since its underlying issues remain unaddressed. Option H doesn’t fix that—it just shifts who absorbs the disruption. And in a countywide decision like this, it’s not realistic to say “keep Magruder out of it”—these tradeoffs are interconnected, and people are going to question whether the approach is consistent.
Just to be clear, the MCPS justification is fiscal; moving Wootton to Crown saves money by not opening an unneeded high school and on future improvements needed to keep Wootton open as a fulltime high school. MCPS' position has always been that Wootton is fine as-is as a holding school and they'll put money into needed renovations when money becomes available (which is not currently budgeted in the CIP).
It's the parent groups who have been arguing about how bad the conditions at Wootton are and whether they can be remediated.
No, it’s the trolls here that are saying it.
Sure… all those previous testimonies on the subject was trolling. Year after year worth of trolling on the condition of the building. Students giving a tour of the school with BOE and news reporters present. Just trolling
So student safety being the reason means Magruder - which is way worse off - should go to Crown for 5 years until there is money to renovate its building. This is bolstered by Taylor claiming Wootton’s building is fine as a holding school, which undercuts the hyperbole that Wootton is uninhabitable.
Sighhhhhh. This isn’t how Holding schools work. Communities don’t go to holding schools until construction is underway for their current facility. There was never any world where Magruder went to Crown for 5-10 years while waiting to get put on the CIP. The benefit of ANY holding school option for Magruder is that schools currently on the CIP (e.g., for shorter term projects like HVAC replacement) can use that holding school to accelerate the timeline of their repairs which then saves significant money. Saving that money on other investments may (hopefully) accelerate the timeline for Magruder getting on the CIP. This benefit is the same whether the holding school is at Crown or Wootton.
Then why did Taylor propose it? He knew there was no money, so I guess it was a smokescreen.
He proposed using it as a holding school. He did not propose Magruder going there for 5-10 years while they waited on the CIP funding. No plan, at any point, has specified who would use which holding school on which timeline.
Why would he even do that if the purpose of a holding school is to renovate a school, but there was no money or timeline to renovate? Again, it sounds like the holding school idea wasn’t a serious one.
Its to renovate other schools so it can be done quicker and more cost effective.
You are clearly missing the point of the question.
If there isn't - and never was - any money available for renovating a high school like Magruder, why did Taylor propose using Crown as a holding school? Did he think the money would suddenly appear, all the plans drawn up for the renovation, etc.?
If y'all can have your conspiracy theories, so can I so here goes: I actually think that the lack of any money for Magruder WAS the reason for proposing Crown as the holding school. As much as Taylor didn't want to use a new school as a holding school, I think he believed he could have Magruder go there for many, many years--they would learn to accept the distance in favor of the brand new building and the heat would be off of him to renovate their building. He might even have put Wootton back on the CIP once and for all since Magruder was essentially taken care of.
That could be true, but Taylor might have “counted noses” and learned he didn’t have the votes to do that. He then pivoted to relocating Wootton to Crown as a permanent school 3 days after releasing the holding school option, probably having the votes in hand to do that.
Stupid of Taylor to propose the holding school option if he didn’t already have the votes. This created the narrative that Crown as a holding school was never a real option.
Option H was released with all the other holding school options. The 3 days later was them confirming what was on the slides; that it was a permanent move of Wootton.
Anonymous wrote:And here it is: (well, not a lawsuit, but an appeal to the State BoE).
Silverman Thompson has filed a formal request for a stay with the Maryland State Superintendent, asking the State to pause implementation of Modified Option H while the decision is reviewed. The filing raises serious concerns, including whether Modified Option H is effectively closing Wootton under the label of a “relocation,” and whether flawed enrollment projections were used to justify the decision.
This is just the beginning. If the stay is not granted, we will immediately appeal. We are prepared to continue through administrative court and ultimately pursue litigation in circuit court.
The filing challenges multiple aspects of the Board’s decision, including:
• Failure to follow legally required procedures for closing a school
• Use of flawed or potentially misleading data to justify the outcome
• Risk of immediate and irreversible harm to affected students and families
Seems like a weak case. I've already seen other lawsuits that tried to argue the "we think they used the wrong data", which never wins; State BoE defers to the local BoE.
Then there's the "actually this is a de-facto closure"; personally, I think this is a bogus argument, especially because if they know it's a school closure by the law's definition, they wouldn't use the weasel word "de-facto".
P.S. Again, I'd urge the "Save Wootton" parents to pursue the solution electorally. The solution you're trying to find is not going to be found in the courts, but can be done by our elected officials.
LOL what elected officials?
County Council and BoE. The ones who control the budget and make the final decisions regarding the schools.
There's a huge amount of turnover happening this year, a lot of open seats, so it seems like the perfect time for a dedicated group to get commitments to reverse the decision.
The amount of money they're spending on a law firm is better spent on lobbying and contributions to politicians rather than launching a doomed legal challenge.
I’m not a part of the cluster so maybe they know something I don’t. But I do think it’s interesting that it’s been almost two weeks since they’ve filed and the state hasn’t responded. That’s quite unusual…
I will say as a neighboring cluster, I am fairly certain they are in fact is lobbying (I know we are)
I hardly think 2 weeks is "quite unusual" especially when those two weeks fell over holidays although I know that some in our chat used it as a hopeful hint since the lawyers said that the last time they received denial it came within 48 hours.
There is no two weeks. MSDE answers to no one. They respond when they want to. The pp has no clue what will happen. It’s just another attempt by TT’s huge PR machine. How did TT’s fun run work out?
They don’t need to respond. You file.
No one here has any lick of an idea as to how this actually works and it’s pretty funny. Like the other PP said, just trolls and AI fighting back and forth.
We know what it takes to file a lawsuit. You’ve had many months.
Huh? It wasn’t even ripe until 3/26? A month hasn’t even passed? You are proving the PP’s point. Wannabe DCUM attorneys have zero clue what is happening.
It was obvious it was happening.
Of course it was obvious. We all know it was predetermined. Thanks for agreeing with us!
But also doesn’t matter in terms of ripeness. It can be 100% obvious, as it was in this case (because again predetermined), the issue isn’t ripe for a lawsuit until the vote happens.
So to suggest they had months to file a lawsuit just shows you don’t know anything about the law. A month hasn’t even passed.
You clearly don’t know much about the law and why do you want to force others to risk their health staying in that building given how bad it is? Most want to go to Crown.
Citation?
If Magruderw is worse than Wootton (which it is), by your logic its kids should go to Crown and Wootton get remediation.
Crown is way closer to Wootton than it is to Magruder. As a long term plan it makes a lot more sense to move Wootton there than to move Magruder there. We aren't talking about a two year holding school timeline. This is for at least ten years I bet. There isn't money for remediation at this point (at least not on the CIP- we can debate if the money exists elsewhere).
Taylor actually proposed using Crown as a holding school (arguably for Magruder). It needs remediation far more immediately than Wootton. Even if there isnt any money today, its kids would be safe for a few years until it is. Under Option H, Magruder got screwed.
Magruder IS screwed, no doubt, but this is not because of Option H. None of the options accelerated the long overdue Magruder renovation. The only thing option H did was not let these students use Crown until then.
Unless you are a Magruder family who would have had to put your children on a bus for 30 mins each way* FOR THE BETTER PART OF A DECADE if you have multiple kids I think you should keep Magruder’s name out ya mouth.
*For the love of Wootton and all her feeders please do not reply that your commute to Crown from the Lakewood or Fallsmead area will also be that length. Please and thank you.
No one is dismissing the impact on Magruder families—long bus rides for years is a real concern—but if the justification for moving Wootton is truly student health and safety, then Magruder is arguably worse off, since its underlying issues remain unaddressed. Option H doesn’t fix that—it just shifts who absorbs the disruption. And in a countywide decision like this, it’s not realistic to say “keep Magruder out of it”—these tradeoffs are interconnected, and people are going to question whether the approach is consistent.
Just to be clear, the MCPS justification is fiscal; moving Wootton to Crown saves money by not opening an unneeded high school and on future improvements needed to keep Wootton open as a fulltime high school. MCPS' position has always been that Wootton is fine as-is as a holding school and they'll put money into needed renovations when money becomes available (which is not currently budgeted in the CIP).
It's the parent groups who have been arguing about how bad the conditions at Wootton are and whether they can be remediated.
No, it’s the trolls here that are saying it.
Sure… all those previous testimonies on the subject was trolling. Year after year worth of trolling on the condition of the building. Students giving a tour of the school with BOE and news reporters present. Just trolling
So student safety being the reason means Magruder - which is way worse off - should go to Crown for 5 years until there is money to renovate its building. This is bolstered by Taylor claiming Wootton’s building is fine as a holding school, which undercuts the hyperbole that Wootton is uninhabitable.
Sighhhhhh. This isn’t how Holding schools work. Communities don’t go to holding schools until construction is underway for their current facility. There was never any world where Magruder went to Crown for 5-10 years while waiting to get put on the CIP. The benefit of ANY holding school option for Magruder is that schools currently on the CIP (e.g., for shorter term projects like HVAC replacement) can use that holding school to accelerate the timeline of their repairs which then saves significant money. Saving that money on other investments may (hopefully) accelerate the timeline for Magruder getting on the CIP. This benefit is the same whether the holding school is at Crown or Wootton.
Then why did Taylor propose it? He knew there was no money, so I guess it was a smokescreen.
He proposed using it as a holding school. He did not propose Magruder going there for 5-10 years while they waited on the CIP funding. No plan, at any point, has specified who would use which holding school on which timeline.
Why would he even do that if the purpose of a holding school is to renovate a school, but there was no money or timeline to renovate? Again, it sounds like the holding school idea wasn’t a serious one.
Its to renovate other schools so it can be done quicker and more cost effective.
You are clearly missing the point of the question.
If there isn't - and never was - any money available for renovating a high school like Magruder, why did Taylor propose using Crown as a holding school? Did he think the money would suddenly appear, all the plans drawn up for the renovation, etc.?
If y'all can have your conspiracy theories, so can I so here goes: I actually think that the lack of any money for Magruder WAS the reason for proposing Crown as the holding school. As much as Taylor didn't want to use a new school as a holding school, I think he believed he could have Magruder go there for many, many years--they would learn to accept the distance in favor of the brand new building and the heat would be off of him to renovate their building. He might even have put Wootton back on the CIP once and for all since Magruder was essentially taken care of.
That could be true, but Taylor might have “counted noses” and learned he didn’t have the votes to do that. He then pivoted to relocating Wootton to Crown as a permanent school 3 days after releasing the holding school option, probably having the votes in hand to do that.
Stupid of Taylor to propose the holding school option if he didn’t already have the votes. This created the narrative that Crown as a holding school was never a real option.
I think I am missing something--isn't the noise around options that weren't "real" based on the idea that he DID count noses? So if he proposed Crown as the holding school without the votes and then pivoted, doesn't that sort of prove it wasn't actually predetermined as many believe it was?
Everyone keeps side-stepping the reason why this was done. Community members heavily advocated that the facility was unsafe. So, what makes it suddenly safe now that a good plan was made to put the students and staff in a new facility? Nothing.
Anonymous wrote:Everyone keeps side-stepping the reason why this was done. Community members heavily advocated that the facility was unsafe. So, what makes it suddenly safe now that a good plan was made to put the students and staff in a new facility? Nothing.
Apparently, it’s unsafe for their property values.
Anonymous wrote:Wootton parents may delay finalizing a move to Crown with a legal challenge, but ultimately, I think the move will occur.
Highly unlikely that they will slow this down.
Most of the parents and students want Crown. We need to stop saying these are Wootton parents as if you look at the facebook groups and advocacy, many are community members and people with young kids not associated in any way or probably have even been in the school, so they aren't worried about the student or staff safety and health. The students we know want to go to Crown.
Anonymous wrote:It's still crazy to close one of the top public high schools in the state unless you value equity over excellence in which case it makes perfect sense.
Why do you think excellence will decrease in the new building?
Anonymous wrote:And here it is: (well, not a lawsuit, but an appeal to the State BoE).
Silverman Thompson has filed a formal request for a stay with the Maryland State Superintendent, asking the State to pause implementation of Modified Option H while the decision is reviewed. The filing raises serious concerns, including whether Modified Option H is effectively closing Wootton under the label of a “relocation,” and whether flawed enrollment projections were used to justify the decision.
This is just the beginning. If the stay is not granted, we will immediately appeal. We are prepared to continue through administrative court and ultimately pursue litigation in circuit court.
The filing challenges multiple aspects of the Board’s decision, including:
• Failure to follow legally required procedures for closing a school
• Use of flawed or potentially misleading data to justify the outcome
• Risk of immediate and irreversible harm to affected students and families
Seems like a weak case. I've already seen other lawsuits that tried to argue the "we think they used the wrong data", which never wins; State BoE defers to the local BoE.
Then there's the "actually this is a de-facto closure"; personally, I think this is a bogus argument, especially because if they know it's a school closure by the law's definition, they wouldn't use the weasel word "de-facto".
P.S. Again, I'd urge the "Save Wootton" parents to pursue the solution electorally. The solution you're trying to find is not going to be found in the courts, but can be done by our elected officials.
LOL what elected officials?
County Council and BoE. The ones who control the budget and make the final decisions regarding the schools.
There's a huge amount of turnover happening this year, a lot of open seats, so it seems like the perfect time for a dedicated group to get commitments to reverse the decision.
The amount of money they're spending on a law firm is better spent on lobbying and contributions to politicians rather than launching a doomed legal challenge.
I’m not a part of the cluster so maybe they know something I don’t. But I do think it’s interesting that it’s been almost two weeks since they’ve filed and the state hasn’t responded. That’s quite unusual…
I will say as a neighboring cluster, I am fairly certain they are in fact is lobbying (I know we are)
I hardly think 2 weeks is "quite unusual" especially when those two weeks fell over holidays although I know that some in our chat used it as a hopeful hint since the lawyers said that the last time they received denial it came within 48 hours.
There is no two weeks. MSDE answers to no one. They respond when they want to. The pp has no clue what will happen. It’s just another attempt by TT’s huge PR machine. How did TT’s fun run work out?
They don’t need to respond. You file.
No one here has any lick of an idea as to how this actually works and it’s pretty funny. Like the other PP said, just trolls and AI fighting back and forth.
We know what it takes to file a lawsuit. You’ve had many months.
Huh? It wasn’t even ripe until 3/26? A month hasn’t even passed? You are proving the PP’s point. Wannabe DCUM attorneys have zero clue what is happening.
It was obvious it was happening.
Of course it was obvious. We all know it was predetermined. Thanks for agreeing with us!
But also doesn’t matter in terms of ripeness. It can be 100% obvious, as it was in this case (because again predetermined), the issue isn’t ripe for a lawsuit until the vote happens.
So to suggest they had months to file a lawsuit just shows you don’t know anything about the law. A month hasn’t even passed.
You clearly don’t know much about the law and why do you want to force others to risk their health staying in that building given how bad it is? Most want to go to Crown.
Citation?
If Magruderw is worse than Wootton (which it is), by your logic its kids should go to Crown and Wootton get remediation.
Crown is way closer to Wootton than it is to Magruder. As a long term plan it makes a lot more sense to move Wootton there than to move Magruder there. We aren't talking about a two year holding school timeline. This is for at least ten years I bet. There isn't money for remediation at this point (at least not on the CIP- we can debate if the money exists elsewhere).
Taylor actually proposed using Crown as a holding school (arguably for Magruder). It needs remediation far more immediately than Wootton. Even if there isnt any money today, its kids would be safe for a few years until it is. Under Option H, Magruder got screwed.
Magruder IS screwed, no doubt, but this is not because of Option H. None of the options accelerated the long overdue Magruder renovation. The only thing option H did was not let these students use Crown until then.
Unless you are a Magruder family who would have had to put your children on a bus for 30 mins each way* FOR THE BETTER PART OF A DECADE if you have multiple kids I think you should keep Magruder’s name out ya mouth.
*For the love of Wootton and all her feeders please do not reply that your commute to Crown from the Lakewood or Fallsmead area will also be that length. Please and thank you.
No one is dismissing the impact on Magruder families—long bus rides for years is a real concern—but if the justification for moving Wootton is truly student health and safety, then Magruder is arguably worse off, since its underlying issues remain unaddressed. Option H doesn’t fix that—it just shifts who absorbs the disruption. And in a countywide decision like this, it’s not realistic to say “keep Magruder out of it”—these tradeoffs are interconnected, and people are going to question whether the approach is consistent.
Just to be clear, the MCPS justification is fiscal; moving Wootton to Crown saves money by not opening an unneeded high school and on future improvements needed to keep Wootton open as a fulltime high school. MCPS' position has always been that Wootton is fine as-is as a holding school and they'll put money into needed renovations when money becomes available (which is not currently budgeted in the CIP).
It's the parent groups who have been arguing about how bad the conditions at Wootton are and whether they can be remediated.
No, it’s the trolls here that are saying it.
Sure… all those previous testimonies on the subject was trolling. Year after year worth of trolling on the condition of the building. Students giving a tour of the school with BOE and news reporters present. Just trolling
So student safety being the reason means Magruder - which is way worse off - should go to Crown for 5 years until there is money to renovate its building. This is bolstered by Taylor claiming Wootton’s building is fine as a holding school, which undercuts the hyperbole that Wootton is uninhabitable.
Sighhhhhh. This isn’t how Holding schools work. Communities don’t go to holding schools until construction is underway for their current facility. There was never any world where Magruder went to Crown for 5-10 years while waiting to get put on the CIP. The benefit of ANY holding school option for Magruder is that schools currently on the CIP (e.g., for shorter term projects like HVAC replacement) can use that holding school to accelerate the timeline of their repairs which then saves significant money. Saving that money on other investments may (hopefully) accelerate the timeline for Magruder getting on the CIP. This benefit is the same whether the holding school is at Crown or Wootton.
Then why did Taylor propose it? He knew there was no money, so I guess it was a smokescreen.
He proposed using it as a holding school. He did not propose Magruder going there for 5-10 years while they waited on the CIP funding. No plan, at any point, has specified who would use which holding school on which timeline.
Why would he even do that if the purpose of a holding school is to renovate a school, but there was no money or timeline to renovate? Again, it sounds like the holding school idea wasn’t a serious one.
Its to renovate other schools so it can be done quicker and more cost effective.
You are clearly missing the point of the question.
If there isn't - and never was - any money available for renovating a high school like Magruder, why did Taylor propose using Crown as a holding school? Did he think the money would suddenly appear, all the plans drawn up for the renovation, etc.?
Actually you are missing the point of PP and numerous other posters’ responses. The point of the holding school is to serve schools currently on the CIP, to expedite their refurbishments and save money on the costs associated with doing things on site. The money saving then frees up CIP money that could be used FOR Magruder, at which point they too could use the holding school. The purpose of this doesn’t change if it’s Wootton or Crown and has nothing to do with the palatability of Options E-G vs H. Either way a holding school saves money and saving money helps everyone with renovation needs.
Anonymous wrote:It's still crazy to close one of the top public high schools in the state unless you value equity over excellence in which case it makes perfect sense.
Why do you think excellence will decrease in the new building?
Black kids and a lesser town’s name in the address. Half of the IB parents think it was in Potomac to begin with. That sort of delusion was never going be able to absorb the slight of rubbing their faces the county’s indifference. Half of them think this is about Whitman levels of resentment but nobody cares about a Rockville school. It’s not rich enough to be important or poor enough to be cool and school status or envy is really neighborhood status/envy. They spent a generation thinking “at least we are not gaithersburg” and presto change-o now they are. When they talk about losing their identity, thats the identity they are talking about. With some more poor kids thrown into the mix they will slide down academic rankings a tad too and then just be another middle tier not W school regardless of their motivated Asian population. They were comfortable as a faux W “North” Potomac school with good test scores.
Anonymous wrote:It's still crazy to close one of the top public high schools in the state unless you value equity over excellence in which case it makes perfect sense.
Anonymous wrote:It's still crazy to close one of the top public high schools in the state unless you value equity over excellence in which case it makes perfect sense.
Why do you think excellence will decrease in the new building?
Black kids and a lesser town’s name in the address. Half of the IB parents think it was in Potomac to begin with. That sort of delusion was never going be able to absorb the slight of rubbing their faces the county’s indifference. Half of them think this is about Whitman levels of resentment but nobody cares about a Rockville school. It’s not rich enough to be important or poor enough to be cool and school status or envy is really neighborhood status/envy. They spent a generation thinking “at least we are not gaithersburg” and presto change-o now they are. When they talk about losing their identity, thats the identity they are talking about. With some more poor kids thrown into the mix they will slide down academic rankings a tad too and then just be another middle tier not W school regardless of their motivated Asian population. They were comfortable as a faux W “North” Potomac school with good test scores.
+1.They think the addition of the new elementary schools will water down the classes and create disruption in the hallways.
Anonymous wrote:It's still crazy to close one of the top public high schools in the state unless you value equity over excellence in which case it makes perfect sense.
Nothing is being closed.
I guess you didn't hear the news; Wootton is being closed.
No, its being moved to a new facility per the community demands.
Anonymous wrote:It's still crazy to close one of the top public high schools in the state unless you value equity over excellence in which case it makes perfect sense.
Why do you think excellence will decrease in the new building?
They removed one of the best ES in the county and are adding 2 high-FARMs ES. It's pretty obvious why excellence will decrease.
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