Crown boundary study Option H

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think I missed something and the rollout of these four new options.

Last time I looked it was just A through D.

When did they release these newer options and what does each one reflect? ie H is moving Wootton to Crown and closing Wootton. What are E through G?

Additional boundary study options came out yesterday, options E-H. For Crown, this was to include the possibility that Crown turns into a holding school. So H is pretty radical.

What concerns me is that if the "Wootton to Crown" becomes the leading option, then this is it. There aren't other possibilities.

And we don't know how the proposed regional model will change. They already arbitrarily swapped Damascus and QO with no input. I could see them sneak in a swap for Wootton to Crown, from Region 4 to 5, even after the BOE votes, and call it their continuing "iterative process." AKA MCPS has no clue what they are doing and making it up as they go along without regard to the implications to real students/families/staffing/logistics-bussing/cost.

I guess if Option H is the final selected one, MCPS won't move Wootton (the new Crown) to Region 5, as Region 4 would only have 3 HSs if that happens, while Region 5 currently has 4 HSs excluding Crown. Crown people must be quite supportive of Option H as this can isolate them away from the Gaithersburg. That's just my wild guess.

It looks like it's only half of Crown that gets included in this option. Only part of Rosemont Elem would go to Crown with the Wootton clusters.

Why is Cold Spring suddenly wanting to go to Churchill?? There isn't room at Churchill and they have never gone to Churchill...really, five extra minutes on a bus is not a big deal.

Well until now their high school was 2.6 miles away and no need to go into the highway. With Crown, most likely buses will use I-270 and longer commute time. Churchill is right around the corner it will reduce commute time and the need to use 270 twice a day.

You can't have everything. Crown's new facility will enable a criteria-based STEM program for Wootton Cluster students, and that's a good thing. The regional programming model will de facto disassemble Blair's magnet, but we could have an outstanding STEM program at Wootton if the science facilities are optimized in the new building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - this is not to say these are great facilities. Most WM cluster schools are dumps. But they're dumps with shoddy 1990s additions/renovations, not dumps because they haven't been touched since the 1960s-80s.

I’m the prior poster who shared all of those high school and middle schools I believe if a school says it hasn’t been modernized that could include schools that had an addition done at some point, but I believe if the entire school hasn’t been renovated or rebuilt, it will show with no modernization having been done. For example, I believe even Wootton high school had a small edition done in the late 90s, but the rest of the school was left intact and therefore it does not show any renovation date

This. I know Whetstone ES had a wing and gym added around 1990, but to the best of my knowledge, that's it. The vast majority of that school is the original 1968 building. Watkins Mill ES is similar. These buildings are old and a small addition or minor retrofitting to convert open classrooms to traditional classrooms doesn't change the fact that, on the whole, the WM cluster feels pretty neglected.

[Anonymous]

What's the guarantee the board doesn't goof up and rename Wootton to Crown in Option H? The map shows the HS name as Crown not Wootton for Option H. Renaming Wootton would be a disaster for kids college prospects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP - this is not to say these are great facilities. Most WM cluster schools are dumps. But they're dumps with shoddy 1990s additions/renovations, not dumps because they haven't been touched since the 1960s-80s.

At least they got some renovations. Some schools haven't been touched at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the guarantee the board doesn't goof up and rename Wootton to Crown in Option H? The map shows the HS name as Crown not Wootton for Option H. Renaming Wootton would be a disaster for kids college prospects.

This has to be a joke. Colleges are not as dumb as this comment is. Do you truly believe that colleges will not understand that a school was renamed? This is not novel and has happened recently as schools distance themselves from names of confederates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the guarantee the board doesn't goof up and rename Wootton to Crown in Option H? The map shows the HS name as Crown not Wootton for Option H. Renaming Wootton would be a disaster for kids college prospects.

This has to be a joke. Colleges are not as dumb as this comment is. Do you truly believe that colleges will not understand that a school was renamed? This is not novel and has happened recently as schools distance themselves from names of confederates.

I am also concerned about name change in option H. Renaming Wootton (because of who T. Wootton was) is a separate issue. Option H changes the school's boundary (if in a limited way). To me, this is different from mere renaming. This is changing Wootton into a different school. Tradition and reputation will be affected.

[Anonymous]

One next step is to dissect the building facilities, comparing what Wootton and Crown have or don't have. For example, Wootton has a dedicated space for preschool (child development program) - does Crown? If Wootton is getting SMCS, does Wootton have facilities to support SMCS? What about Crown? What do Crown's music facilities look like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - this is not to say these are great facilities. Most WM cluster schools are dumps. But they're dumps with shoddy 1990s additions/renovations, not dumps because they haven't been touched since the 1960s-80s.

I’m the prior poster who shared all of those high school and middle schools I believe if a school says it hasn’t been modernized that could include schools that had an addition done at some point, but I believe if the entire school hasn’t been renovated or rebuilt, it will show with no modernization having been done. For example, I believe even Wootton high school had a small edition done in the late 90s, but the rest of the school was left intact and therefore it does not show any renovation date

This. I know Whetstone ES had a wing and gym added around 1990, but to the best of my knowledge, that's it. The vast majority of that school is the original 1968 building. Watkins Mill ES is similar. These buildings are old and a small addition or minor retrofitting to convert open classrooms to traditional classrooms doesn't change the fact that, on the whole, the WM cluster feels pretty neglected.

This is fully due to Pat O'Neill hoarding capital resources for schools in her district for at least a decade. The data shows that her district from 2005-2015 or so got 50% of CIP funding while the other BOE districts split the leftovers. Once her grip on the funds ended, the area most in need was the DCC so they got northwood and odessa shannon, and the rest of the county is falling behind. WM cluster is definitely neglected but it's because people in that area are not squeaky wheels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the guarantee the board doesn't goof up and rename Wootton to Crown in Option H? The map shows the HS name as Crown not Wootton for Option H. Renaming Wootton would be a disaster for kids college prospects.

This has to be a joke. Colleges are not as dumb as this comment is. Do you truly believe that colleges will not understand that a school was renamed? This is not novel and has happened recently as schools distance themselves from names of confederates.

I am also concerned about name change in option H. Renaming Wootton (because of who T. Wootton was) is a separate issue. Option H changes the school's boundary (if in a limited way). To me, this is different from mere renaming. This is changing Wootton into a different school. Tradition and reputation will be affected.

You're correct that moving to the Crown location will change the current Wootton cluster's geographic center and any future redistricting might have the school include more portions of Gaithersburg (and, to name what you are talking about, people of color) as they will now be in much closer proximity. But that is a very different issue that a simple rename which is what could happen here given that 1) there is no plan to move any additional students, save a small portion of Rosemont ES, into the current Wootton cluster 2) can you even imagine another secondary school boundary study after this one? The county is too broke and exhausted to even consider taking that on within the next decade or two.

[Anonymous]

I think Wootton going to Crown is a good idea from a budget standpoint. There really is no reason to have Crown and Wootton open given the declining enrollment.

Crown will be a brand new building, and I'm sure very nice.

Yes, it's a trek for walkers today, but currently, some of the Wootton neighborhoods are bused but will become walkers to crown.

[Anonymous]

I still think their projected numbers for the regions are wrong. They are assuming same number of in/out for each program in each HS, but that won't be the case.

Some programs will be more popular than others, and then we'll hit the capacity issue again in some of these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Frost kids walk to Wootton for classes. How are they going to do it if Wootton is now 3 miles away?

The same way others do it. Either they don’t get the class, frost offers it or parents drive them.

or they provide a bus. I remember some kids at our ES had to take the bus for advanced math to a MS that wasn't even in our cluster but it was logistically closer to us.

Wootton, you are not special. Other schools have to figure out logistics, too.

[Anonymous]

Wait, this would just be a 2 year move, right? They would rebuild Wotton and send kids back there when done?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, this would just be a 2 year move, right? They would rebuild Wotton and send kids back there when done?

No. Permanent move I believe for Option H. The money will go to fund Damascus or Magruder HS renovations.

[Anonymous]

Why is Fields Rd a disconnected island zoned to Gaithersburg when much of it could be in the walk zone to Crown?