RM Cluster Overcrowding?
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Anonymous
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I was reading an article in Bethesda Magazine about a Rockville City Council meeting on Rockville Town Center. It included this paragraph on comments by a councilmember: “But council member Mark Pierzchala warned that any development-related discussions or studies must include the possibility that the Richard Montgomery High School cluster is projected to go into a development moratorium, which would affect the city’s ability to approve additional development.”
Is this correct? Does this mean the cluster is close to being 120 percent overcapacity, which I understand is the limit for a building moratorium? If so, how can that be after opening a new elementary school in the cluster and additions to Julius West Middle School? Did Montgomery County not plan appropriately when they built the new school/addition? Did the City of Rockville approve too much development in this cluster? I know there are other clusters that are way overcrowded, and I’m not trying to put RM over others. Just looking for answers to a problem that can’t seem to be fixed in this cluster. |
Anonymous
Your could be over crowded in HS and not be over crowded in MS/ES in the same cluster. |
Anonymous
| The ES are no longer overcrowded bc there’s a new school that just opened this year. But there’s only one MS and HS. Imagine they’re overcrowded, like most mcps schools. |
Anonymous
| The ES are no longer overcrowded bc there’s a new school that just opened this year. But there’s only one MS and HS. Imagine they’re overcrowded, like most mcps schools. |
Anonymous
| It sounds like prep for reasoning for rezoning. |
Anonymous
| JW is definitely overcrowded, even with the addition. So is RM. If I remember correctly, MCPS has a maximum # of students for middle and high schools, regardless of building size, and JW and RM exceeded that years ago. We knew this would be an issue even before the new school was planned and additions were approved. Unfortunately, the only solution is rezoning, which no superintendent wants to do, and which parents don't generally support. Parents have advocated for the building moratorium in Rockville, however. |
Anonymous
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There absolutely needs to be a building moratorium in Rockville.
They haven’t even finished all the high senators housing construction that has already been approved near Twinbrook and there is more in the works. Those students will end up at RM and JW. You should see the hordes of kids who at those bus stops now that were not there two years ago, with all the new apartments and townhouses going up in the area. It’s crazy! Obviously there has been a large influx of students into the area, despite MCPS assurances that people who live in apartments and condos do not have kids. |
Anonymous
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Yes, RMHS is very overcrowded. Two main contributors - all the recent development projected singles or married/no kids for a lot of this apartments, but there are more children living there than projected. RM was also slated for an addition (as were many other high schools) but that was scrapped in favor of two new high schools. It's a better fiscal solution, but pushes out the timeline for a fix. Meanwhile, RM has been adding portables and there have been internal construction projects to revamp underutilized spaces into classrooms and additional offices for counseling.
The rapid pace of development in the past 15 years has vastly outstripped the ability of the school system to respond, and the money the county council is willing to provide for capital improvements. In on of the recent BOE meeting discussing the new process for projections a comment was made to the effect that newly approved development can start producing students in two years. But with the school system's longer capital improvements process it takes 4-6 years minimum for new spaces to be built. Factor in the existing backlog, and there's a huge problem. |
Anonymous
| How about getting some jobs in rockville |
Anonymous
so even more people will move in? |
Anonymous
| Is there even a date for Crown HS? The RM addition was cancelled for Crown but how many years will that be? |
Anonymous
So people who live here can work here and we can get revenues from business, not property tax |
Anonymous
I would love that, too, but the problem is that it can also draw in more people, thereby possibly making schools even more overcrowded. It takes time to build/add to schools, so even if they increased jobs here, the additions would take *years*, and in the meantime, already overcrowded schools will become even more overcrowded. They need a building moratorium until they can address overcrowding. It's getting ridiculous. JWMS had an addition put in a couple of years ago. It's one of the largest MS in the area, and in a few years time, it's projected to be overcrowded again. https://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/B6Q4S577EE2D/$file/181108%20Boundaries%20Facilities%20Hearing%20Follow-up%20Qs.pdf |
Anonymous
| If the overcrowding is resolved on the 6 year CIP, the area doesn't go into moratorium. No date for Crown yet but there might be in next years CIP. If so, no moratorium... |
Anonymous
This is absolutely a huge issue. This is an expensive area, so may families with kids do live in these high density apartment units/condos. Definitely kids in townhouses. Yet, MCPS doesn't account for them when it makes projections. Also, people have an elderly relative living in one of these units, and the family/child lives elsewhere. They use the relative's address. My co-worker lives in Frederick County, but works in Montgomery County. She uses her MILs apartment address for her two kids to attend MCPS. The projections that MCPS makes simply don't account for this kind of thing. |