Taylor's Feb Rec for Crown Boundary Study

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Ok fine then allow Magruder to use Crown for a defined time period as in Woodward like you mentioned. Then create a permanent school/community for Crown/Wootton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Not PP but Wootton cluster is the only reason why Magruder is getting any attention to begin with.

And yet, paradoxically, it's also the reason why others in the county take them less seriously.

LOL as if anyone in this county ever took Magruder seriously. If they did, we would not be here: one of the highest FARM rates school where a ceiling falling down on us is ok and still no plan for us!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Option G is also a headache for other parts of the county too. QO stays overcrowded, Brown Station becomes a split-articulated ES, part of which randomly goes to Watkins Mill, the Clarksburg island assignment still exists, Damascus reopens at 98% capacity etc. So yeah, not a win-win for everyone across the upcounty.

But Option G doesn’t change the status quo and allows the Magruder renovation clock to start running. Option H screws Magruder unless MCPS has the money to remediate Wootton and begin renovations of Magruder in the next 3-5 years.

No one at Brown Station currently goes to Watkins Mill. You seem to have ignored the impact it will have (which is a change in the status quo) on families from Fields Road, Rosemont Island #8 and Diamond ES island #2 too, as well as to all those who paid impact taxes more generally.

And I suppose the status quo is fine to you if it means overcrowding at other schools continues, just so long as Magruder gets to use Crown until funding appears. Great plan.

Again, advocate whatever you like. But stop speaking for the rest of the county or as though you have the moral highground. Your preferred option will be at the expense of other students and families across the county.

Why is it at other kids expense? It would still alleviate overcrowding. The only changes is swap Wootton out with Magruder. If anything, because Magruder is a smaller high school, you can alleviate even more overcrowding by sending more kids to crown?

The real answer that no one will say aloud? Because fields road, rosemont, etc. would much more prefer to go to school with the wealthier and higher performing Wootton and benefit from the legacy/name of Wootton and the Wootton staff etc. vs slumming it with Magruder riff raff.

Nope. Try again. We were perfectly happy with Options 1-4 and Options A-D which kept our school primarily drawing from the 20878 and 20877 zip codes before people from DuFief complained that they would be separated from the Wootton Cluster and blew things up by lobbying for H. At this point, it's our last option to have a stable four-year high school community, so we're going for it.

It’s always those pesky Dufiefers fault with their 5 people.

Don’t worry, Dufief will be closed soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Option G is also a headache for other parts of the county too. QO stays overcrowded, Brown Station becomes a split-articulated ES, part of which randomly goes to Watkins Mill, the Clarksburg island assignment still exists, Damascus reopens at 98% capacity etc. So yeah, not a win-win for everyone across the upcounty.

But Option G doesn’t change the status quo and allows the Magruder renovation clock to start running. Option H screws Magruder unless MCPS has the money to remediate Wootton and begin renovations of Magruder in the next 3-5 years.

No one at Brown Station currently goes to Watkins Mill. You seem to have ignored the impact it will have (which is a change in the status quo) on families from Fields Road, Rosemont Island #8 and Diamond ES island #2 too, as well as to all those who paid impact taxes more generally.

And I suppose the status quo is fine to you if it means overcrowding at other schools continues, just so long as Magruder gets to use Crown until funding appears. Great plan.

Again, advocate whatever you like. But stop speaking for the rest of the county or as though you have the moral highground. Your preferred option will be at the expense of other students and families across the county.

Why is it at other kids expense? It would still alleviate overcrowding. The only changes is swap Wootton out with Magruder. If anything, because Magruder is a smaller high school, you can alleviate even more overcrowding by sending more kids to crown?

The real answer that no one will say aloud? Because fields road, rosemont, etc. would much more prefer to go to school with the wealthier and higher performing Wootton and benefit from the legacy/name of Wootton and the Wootton staff etc. vs slumming it with Magruder riff raff.

Nope. Try again. We were perfectly happy with Options 1-4 and Options A-D which kept our school primarily drawing from the 20878 and 20877 zip codes before people from DuFief complained that they would be separated from the Wootton Cluster and blew things up by lobbying for H. At this point, it's our last option to have a stable four-year high school community, so we're going for it.

Ahhhh yes back to blaming Dufief and treating them as scapegoat for everything. They don’t have that much power guys!

The real reason A-D blew up was Churchill and Julie Yang. They easily could have just added Dufief back to A-D, the metrics supported it. 1-4 blew up because they decided to tie in regional programming.

Isn't it quite likely that the boundaries between Stone Mill - Wayside and Travilah - Potomac will change anyway with the coming ES boundary study? And hence also the high school assignment would change, such that the families that would have been pulled from Potomac/Wayside into Wootton in Options C/D will end up being switched eventually anyhow?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Ok fine then allow Magruder to use Crown for a defined time period as in Woodward like you mentioned. Then create a permanent school/community for Crown/Wootton.

"Defined period as in Woodward"? Let's recognize that Woodward closed in the early 90s (I think) and has been a holding school since at least as far back as 2015 (Tilden) but perhaps further back, I don't remember.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Not PP but Wootton cluster is the only reason why Magruder is getting any attention to begin with.

And yet, paradoxically, it's also the reason why others in the county take them less seriously.

This is why people are concerned with Wootton. Think about your actions. I'd pick Magruder any day over Wootton and the kids I know at Magruder are happy there. Its a decent school, just like other schools, lacking opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Ok fine then allow Magruder to use Crown for a defined time period as in Woodward like you mentioned. Then create a permanent school/community for Crown/Wootton.

What you are advocating for is NOT like that was done with Woodward because you are advocating that an entire ES + adjacent islands have no home community for multiple years. If you want people from FRES and Rosemont Island #8 to support this then you need to specifically request that it be:

A) Solely for Magruder's 2-year renovation, after which the school will open fully.

B) That current boundaries continue until Crown opens.

Otherwise, what you are asking for is not like what occurred with Woodward, and is unprecedentedly detrimental to existing communities close to the Crown Farm site.

If you don't care, okay. But don't act like it's benevolent to allow these areas to have no home school for four years or longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Ok fine then allow Magruder to use Crown for a defined time period as in Woodward like you mentioned. Then create a permanent school/community for Crown/Wootton.

What you are advocating for is NOT like that was done with Woodward because you are advocating that an entire ES + adjacent islands have no home community for multiple years. If you want people from FRES and Rosemont Island #8 to support this then you need to specifically request that it be:

A) Solely for Magruder's 2-year renovation, after which the school will open fully.

B) That current boundaries continue until Crown opens.

Otherwise, what you are asking for is not like what occurred with Woodward, and is unprecedentedly detrimental to existing communities close to the Crown Farm site.

If you don't care, okay. But don't act like it's benevolent to allow these areas to have no home school for four years or longer.

I’m that PP. that’s actually what I meant. Fine as in let Magruder use crown, keep fields road, rosemont, etc. exactly where they are now. Then in 2 years, open Crown fully up as a permanent school with whatever boundaries the Board deem fit be it Wootton at crown or crown at crown or whatever—not my monkey, not my circus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Option G is also a headache for other parts of the county too. QO stays overcrowded, Brown Station becomes a split-articulated ES, part of which randomly goes to Watkins Mill, the Clarksburg island assignment still exists, Damascus reopens at 98% capacity etc. So yeah, not a win-win for everyone across the upcounty.

But Option G doesn’t change the status quo and allows the Magruder renovation clock to start running. Option H screws Magruder unless MCPS has the money to remediate Wootton and begin renovations of Magruder in the next 3-5 years.

No one at Brown Station currently goes to Watkins Mill. You seem to have ignored the impact it will have (which is a change in the status quo) on families from Fields Road, Rosemont Island #8 and Diamond ES island #2 too, as well as to all those who paid impact taxes more generally.

And I suppose the status quo is fine to you if it means overcrowding at other schools continues, just so long as Magruder gets to use Crown until funding appears. Great plan.

Again, advocate whatever you like. But stop speaking for the rest of the county or as though you have the moral highground. Your preferred option will be at the expense of other students and families across the county.

Why is it at other kids expense? It would still alleviate overcrowding. The only changes is swap Wootton out with Magruder. If anything, because Magruder is a smaller high school, you can alleviate even more overcrowding by sending more kids to crown?

The real answer that no one will say aloud? Because fields road, rosemont, etc. would much more prefer to go to school with the wealthier and higher performing Wootton and benefit from the legacy/name of Wootton and the Wootton staff etc. vs slumming it with Magruder riff raff.

Nope. Try again. We were perfectly happy with Options 1-4 and Options A-D which kept our school primarily drawing from the 20878 and 20877 zip codes before people from DuFief complained that they would be separated from the Wootton Cluster and blew things up by lobbying for H. At this point, it's our last option to have a stable four-year high school community, so we're going for it.

Ahhhh yes back to blaming Dufief and treating them as scapegoat for everything. They don’t have that much power guys!

The real reason A-D blew up was Churchill and Julie Yang. They easily could have just added Dufief back to A-D, the metrics supported it. 1-4 blew up because they decided to tie in regional programming.

Isn't it quite likely that the boundaries between Stone Mill - Wayside and Travilah - Potomac will change anyway with the coming ES boundary study? And hence also the high school assignment would change, such that the families that would have been pulled from Potomac/Wayside into Wootton in Options C/D will end up being switched eventually anyhow?

Yet another reason why Magruder should use Crown and everyone else should stay put. In the meantime, let the ES/MS boundaries play out and then revisit HS boundaries once ES/MS wraps up and Magruder is back at its own school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Ok fine then allow Magruder to use Crown for a defined time period as in Woodward like you mentioned. Then create a permanent school/community for Crown/Wootton.

What you are advocating for is NOT like that was done with Woodward because you are advocating that an entire ES + adjacent islands have no home community for multiple years. If you want people from FRES and Rosemont Island #8 to support this then you need to specifically request that it be:

A) Solely for Magruder's 2-year renovation, after which the school will open fully.

B) That current boundaries continue until Crown opens.

Otherwise, what you are asking for is not like what occurred with Woodward, and is unprecedentedly detrimental to existing communities close to the Crown Farm site.

If you don't care, okay. But don't act like it's benevolent to allow these areas to have no home school for four years or longer.

I’m that PP. that’s actually what I meant. Fine as in let Magruder use crown, keep fields road, rosemont, etc. exactly where they are now. Then in 2 years, open Crown fully up as a permanent school with whatever boundaries the Board deem fit be it Wootton at crown or crown at crown or whatever—not my monkey, not my circus.

Thanks for the clarification. I respect that perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Ok fine then allow Magruder to use Crown for a defined time period as in Woodward like you mentioned. Then create a permanent school/community for Crown/Wootton.

What you are advocating for is NOT like that was done with Woodward because you are advocating that an entire ES + adjacent islands have no home community for multiple years. If you want people from FRES and Rosemont Island #8 to support this then you need to specifically request that it be:

A) Solely for Magruder's 2-year renovation, after which the school will open fully.

B) That current boundaries continue until Crown opens.

Otherwise, what you are asking for is not like what occurred with Woodward, and is unprecedentedly detrimental to existing communities close to the Crown Farm site.

If you don't care, okay. But don't act like it's benevolent to allow these areas to have no home school for four years or longer.

I’m that PP. that’s actually what I meant. Fine as in let Magruder use crown, keep fields road, rosemont, etc. exactly where they are now. Then in 2 years, open Crown fully up as a permanent school with whatever boundaries the Board deem fit be it Wootton at crown or crown at crown or whatever—not my monkey, not my circus.

but that's assuming there's funds to renovate magruder in 2 years when the $ isn't there! So in 2027-28 you want magruder to go to crown as a holding school till when? the cows come home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Ok fine then allow Magruder to use Crown for a defined time period as in Woodward like you mentioned. Then create a permanent school/community for Crown/Wootton.

What you are advocating for is NOT like that was done with Woodward because you are advocating that an entire ES + adjacent islands have no home community for multiple years. If you want people from FRES and Rosemont Island #8 to support this then you need to specifically request that it be:

A) Solely for Magruder's 2-year renovation, after which the school will open fully.

B) That current boundaries continue until Crown opens.

Otherwise, what you are asking for is not like what occurred with Woodward, and is unprecedentedly detrimental to existing communities close to the Crown Farm site.

If you don't care, okay. But don't act like it's benevolent to allow these areas to have no home school for four years or longer.

I’m that PP. that’s actually what I meant. Fine as in let Magruder use crown, keep fields road, rosemont, etc. exactly where they are now. Then in 2 years, open Crown fully up as a permanent school with whatever boundaries the Board deem fit be it Wootton at crown or crown at crown or whatever—not my monkey, not my circus.

but that's assuming there's funds to renovate magruder in 2 years when the $ isn't there! So in 2027-28 you want magruder to go to crown as a holding school till when? the cows come home?

Ever consider they want their kids in a safer school as that facility has serious issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Option G is also a headache for other parts of the county too. QO stays overcrowded, Brown Station becomes a split-articulated ES, part of which randomly goes to Watkins Mill, the Clarksburg island assignment still exists, Damascus reopens at 98% capacity etc. So yeah, not a win-win for everyone across the upcounty.

But Option G doesn’t change the status quo and allows the Magruder renovation clock to start running. Option H screws Magruder unless MCPS has the money to remediate Wootton and begin renovations of Magruder in the next 3-5 years.

No one at Brown Station currently goes to Watkins Mill. You seem to have ignored the impact it will have (which is a change in the status quo) on families from Fields Road, Rosemont Island #8 and Diamond ES island #2 too, as well as to all those who paid impact taxes more generally.

And I suppose the status quo is fine to you if it means overcrowding at other schools continues, just so long as Magruder gets to use Crown until funding appears. Great plan.

Again, advocate whatever you like. But stop speaking for the rest of the county or as though you have the moral highground. Your preferred option will be at the expense of other students and families across the county.

Why is it at other kids expense? It would still alleviate overcrowding. The only changes is swap Wootton out with Magruder. If anything, because Magruder is a smaller high school, you can alleviate even more overcrowding by sending more kids to crown?

The real answer that no one will say aloud? Because fields road, rosemont, etc. would much more prefer to go to school with the wealthier and higher performing Wootton and benefit from the legacy/name of Wootton and the Wootton staff etc. vs slumming it with Magruder riff raff.

Nope. Try again. We were perfectly happy with Options 1-4 and Options A-D which kept our school primarily drawing from the 20878 and 20877 zip codes before people from DuFief complained that they would be separated from the Wootton Cluster and blew things up by lobbying for H. At this point, it's our last option to have a stable four-year high school community, so we're going for it.

Ahhhh yes back to blaming Dufief and treating them as scapegoat for everything. They don’t have that much power guys!

The real reason A-D blew up was Churchill and Julie Yang. They easily could have just added Dufief back to A-D, the metrics supported it. 1-4 blew up because they decided to tie in regional programming.

Isn't it quite likely that the boundaries between Stone Mill - Wayside and Travilah - Potomac will change anyway with the coming ES boundary study? And hence also the high school assignment would change, such that the families that would have been pulled from Potomac/Wayside into Wootton in Options C/D will end up being switched eventually anyhow?

Yet another reason why Magruder should use Crown and everyone else should stay put. In the meantime, let the ES/MS boundaries play out and then revisit HS boundaries once ES/MS wraps up and Magruder is back at its own school.

Next week MCPS will probably release a proposal to construct a new elementary school at the Cavanaugh drive site, then argue it should close Stone Mill because it's a deficient building and "move" it to the Cavanaugh drive site and bring in people from Wayside to top things off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Ok fine then allow Magruder to use Crown for a defined time period as in Woodward like you mentioned. Then create a permanent school/community for Crown/Wootton.

What you are advocating for is NOT like that was done with Woodward because you are advocating that an entire ES + adjacent islands have no home community for multiple years. If you want people from FRES and Rosemont Island #8 to support this then you need to specifically request that it be:

A) Solely for Magruder's 2-year renovation, after which the school will open fully.

B) That current boundaries continue until Crown opens.

Otherwise, what you are asking for is not like what occurred with Woodward, and is unprecedentedly detrimental to existing communities close to the Crown Farm site.

If you don't care, okay. But don't act like it's benevolent to allow these areas to have no home school for four years or longer.

I’m that PP. that’s actually what I meant. Fine as in let Magruder use crown, keep fields road, rosemont, etc. exactly where they are now. Then in 2 years, open Crown fully up as a permanent school with whatever boundaries the Board deem fit be it Wootton at crown or crown at crown or whatever—not my monkey, not my circus.

but that's assuming there's funds to renovate magruder in 2 years when the $ isn't there! So in 2027-28 you want magruder to go to crown as a holding school till when? the cows come home?

Ever consider they want their kids in a safer school as that facility has serious issues.

Exactly. I want Magruder anywhere where ceilings aren’t falling down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That testimony makes a great point. Why rush to close Wootton and move its kids to Crown? Is it to avoid the embarrassment of using it as a holding school for Magritte kids? Don’t want those kids using the shiny new building? Seems like the Magruder families want Crown and the Wootton families don’t. If it’s a question of money, wouldn’t it make sense to do this - unless MCPS has no intention of renovating Magruder in the next 5-10 years. And if it does, then there is money to remediate Wootton where it is AND move Magruder kids to Crown for a few years. Everybody wins.

No, everyone does not win.

If you are from the Magruder community, I empathize with your frustration, and I am fine with you advocating for your own community and fighting to get what you want. But please, for the love of G-d, let's have these Rockville folks (the city council, Wootton et. al) STOP acting like they are being gracious by saying that, "In addition to Wootton and Magruder students being held at Crown, we'll allow local kids (FRES and Rosemont Island 8) to attend the holding school too XD XD XD". I hope you all realize how ridiculous that statement is. So my children from the Fields Road cluster should start off for two years as a teeny tiny minority at "Magruder @ Crown", then two years later as the same teeny tiny minority at "Wootton @ Crown" and have no home school of their own? It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. You need to level and accept that when you fly signs stating "CROWN = HOLDING SCHOOL" you are NOT being equitable; you are advoacting AGAINST the interests of the local population for whom Crown was designed and by whom impact taxes were paid. Again, if that is what you want to do for your community. By all means, go ahead. But don't act as though this does not affect others. I believe most of us from FRES and Crown would prefer to stay at QO and/or GHS than to become a tiny minority for years on end in an indefinite holding school.

Magruder PP and I’m going to be completely candid with you.

You are right. I understand that if Magruder is at Crown, the immediate families around Crown will not get their permanent school that they so desire.

However, no plan is perfect. And truthfully, in any type of plan, someone will feel like they “lost.” So if we must have a loser and a “winner,” I think we need to prioritize existing communities. There is no Crown community or school yet. No one is taking away your school because it doesn’t exist yet. Magruder exists, though people seem to forget that. Prioritize communities that have been waiting before Crown broke ground. Prioritize schools like Magruder that have high FARM rates.

In the end, your community may very well get your permanent school with Wootton. It may still be option H in the long run.


Remove all personal stakes. Pretend you don’t have kids in the system at all and you are some random person from another state, what is most fair? Can any objective person say prioritizing Magruder is not the most objectively fair option?

Thanks for taking the time to try to think this through, but your argument is flawed because these ARE existing communities - not simply a new one built exclusively from new construction.

We have existing communities to which we pertain. Fields Road and Diamond Island #2 have been at QO for many, many years. Downtown Crown and the area around Belward Farm have also been at Gaithersburg High School for many years. For these areas, Option G gives them NO opportunity to remain with their current school community, nor to join a new one (which Modified Option H does). They are simply forced to be a pariah at another school, or to join a new school community as an island (Options E and F), which is in clear violation of FAA.

To go back to your thought experiment of what someone from an entirely different state would say, I think the real answer would be that there should be no place in the county where existing communities are forced to be in a high school to which they are only visitors and hence have no home community of their own. It's simply unacceptable and unparalleled across the entire county.

To that effect, if you are serious that you only want this school for YOU and not Wootton, I would suggest you reach across the aisle and try to make alliances beyond the Wootton cluster. If Crown needs to be used for two years to get a specific school through, that is one thing - if and only if my kids can stay in a REAL community and not as pariahs at a holding school. This is what happened with Northwood @ Woodword, and Woodward was okay with this because there was an end date in sight and because its would-be students could continue to be part of their current communities until then (WJ and Wheaton primarily). What you are asking of Fields Road, Diamond Island #2 and, Rosemont Island #8 is simply unacceptable: no child should have no school community of their own to which to pertain for 4 years.

Ok fine then allow Magruder to use Crown for a defined time period as in Woodward like you mentioned. Then create a permanent school/community for Crown/Wootton.

What you are advocating for is NOT like that was done with Woodward because you are advocating that an entire ES + adjacent islands have no home community for multiple years. If you want people from FRES and Rosemont Island #8 to support this then you need to specifically request that it be:

A) Solely for Magruder's 2-year renovation, after which the school will open fully.

B) That current boundaries continue until Crown opens.

Otherwise, what you are asking for is not like what occurred with Woodward, and is unprecedentedly detrimental to existing communities close to the Crown Farm site.

If you don't care, okay. But don't act like it's benevolent to allow these areas to have no home school for four years or longer.

I’m that PP. that’s actually what I meant. Fine as in let Magruder use crown, keep fields road, rosemont, etc. exactly where they are now. Then in 2 years, open Crown fully up as a permanent school with whatever boundaries the Board deem fit be it Wootton at crown or crown at crown or whatever—not my monkey, not my circus.

but that's assuming there's funds to renovate magruder in 2 years when the $ isn't there! So in 2027-28 you want magruder to go to crown as a holding school till when? the cows come home?

Ever consider they want their kids in a safer school as that facility has serious issues.

Exactly. I want Magruder anywhere where ceilings aren’t falling down.

I understand that overcrowding is an issue at other schools (though mcps is saying enrollment is decreasing so overcrowding seems to be solving itself), but what is worse? Overcrowding or falling ceilings?

Personally, I rather send my kid to a school that is overcrowded vs one that is literally falling apart and an accident waiting to happen.

Prioritize Magruder and let Magruder use crown.