Taylor's Feb Rec for Crown Boundary Study

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ultimately you can’t force people to attend a school they don’t want to attend. If H passes, there will be a lawsuit and a mass exodus from the Wootton cluster.

That's fine. They move or go private or homeschool. Not an issue for MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Things are shifting quickly since Magruder joined the boundary study this week. I completely sympathize with Magruder’s urgent need for a renovation. But can anyone help me understand what will happen if the BOE decides to place Magruder at the Crown building as Wootton is considered in "too poor condition" to even use as a holding school?

At the CIP meeting after Magruder moves to Crown, as Damascus is already on the CIP, Magruder would be at the new Crown building, and Wootton is officially considered in "poor condition"; who will win the limited funding for renovation? It is highly likely the Wootton community will advocate strongly for this funding.

So, if this scenario plays out, Magruder may be cut from the line again, as they are no longer in a building in poor condition, but a new one. Magruder kids and families may have to accept extended daily commutes for years. Additionally, if enrollment stays flat after 5 years or so, and the county eventually has to close one high school, which one goes? The newly renovated Damascus/Wootton? The long-unmaintained Magruder? Or turning Crown into a permanent holding facility? It is hard to say, but Magruder and Crown seem the most vulnerable.

What does this leave for the Crown community? Crown donated the land to MCPS for a neighborhood school, and homeowners may have directly or indirectly paid school impact taxes for this future school when purchasing their houses (I could be wrong here)? In the end, they might be left with a transitional school facility, regardless of whether Crown kids are allowed to attend Crown or not by other holding communities.

Am I being too pessimistic about the future of the Magruder and Crown communities, or does anyone else see it this way?

Crown people have a nice facility to go to which is not far. You choose to live there knowing the school district is Gaithersburg. There is nothing wrong to continue being Gaithersburg high students for another few years .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Things are shifting quickly since Magruder joined the boundary study this week. I completely sympathize with Magruder’s urgent need for a renovation. But can anyone help me understand what will happen if the BOE decides to place Magruder at the Crown building as Wootton is considered in "too poor condition" to even use as a holding school?

At the CIP meeting after Magruder moves to Crown, as Damascus is already on the CIP, Magruder would be at the new Crown building, and Wootton is officially considered in "poor condition"; who will win the limited funding for renovation? It is highly likely the Wootton community will advocate strongly for this funding.

So, if this scenario plays out, Magruder may be cut from the line again, as they are no longer in a building in poor condition, but a new one. Magruder kids and families may have to accept extended daily commutes for years. Additionally, if enrollment stays flat after 5 years or so, and the county eventually has to close one high school, which one goes? The newly renovated Damascus/Wootton? The long-unmaintained Magruder? Or turning Crown into a permanent holding facility? It is hard to say, but Magruder and Crown seem the most vulnerable.

What does this leave for the Crown community? Crown donated the land to MCPS for a neighborhood school, and homeowners may have directly or indirectly paid school impact taxes for this future school when purchasing their houses (I could be wrong here)? In the end, they might be left with a transitional school facility, regardless of whether Crown kids are allowed to attend Crown or not by other holding communities.

Am I being too pessimistic about the future of the Magruder and Crown communities, or does anyone else see it this way?

I don’t think Magruder joined the boundary study? They’ve been at meetings but aren’t formally part of the study.


Despite the overall backlash at meetings, most of the work sessions give me the strong impression modified H is still the most likely outcome. Either way, the board won’t make Crown a long term holding school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Things are shifting quickly since Magruder joined the boundary study this week. I completely sympathize with Magruder’s urgent need for a renovation. But can anyone help me understand what will happen if the BOE decides to place Magruder at the Crown building as Wootton is considered in "too poor condition" to even use as a holding school?

At the CIP meeting after Magruder moves to Crown, as Damascus is already on the CIP, Magruder would be at the new Crown building, and Wootton is officially considered in "poor condition"; who will win the limited funding for renovation? It is highly likely the Wootton community will advocate strongly for this funding.

So, if this scenario plays out, Magruder may be cut from the line again, as they are no longer in a building in poor condition, but a new one. Magruder kids and families may have to accept extended daily commutes for years. Additionally, if enrollment stays flat after 5 years or so, and the county eventually has to close one high school, which one goes? The newly renovated Damascus/Wootton? The long-unmaintained Magruder? Or turning Crown into a permanent holding facility? It is hard to say, but Magruder and Crown seem the most vulnerable.

What does this leave for the Crown community? Crown donated the land to MCPS for a neighborhood school, and homeowners may have directly or indirectly paid school impact taxes for this future school when purchasing their houses (I could be wrong here)? In the end, they might be left with a transitional school facility, regardless of whether Crown kids are allowed to attend Crown or not by other holding communities.

Am I being too pessimistic about the future of the Magruder and Crown communities, or does anyone else see it this way?

I don’t think Magruder joined the boundary study? They’ve been at meetings but aren’t formally part of the study.


Despite the overall backlash at meetings, most of the work sessions give me the strong impression modified H is still the most likely outcome. Either way, the board won’t make Crown a long term holding school.

yeah they are not part of it. They are pissed (with good reason) and are showing up to the meetings and testifying but that’s it. And I haven’t seen any evidence of “things shifting quickly” I have either attended or watched all of the meetings since December.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know who modified option H? What was wrong with the original option H?

The original options received extensive discussions. This modified H simply did not receive any community inputs before it was recommended. Weird stuff!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know who modified option H? What was wrong with the original option H?

The original options received extensive discussions. This modified H simply did not receive any community inputs before it was recommended. Weird stuff!

Original H was a problem because it created a geographic island by placing Fields Road into Gaithersburg. Also, they used Mod H to move Cold Spring to Churchill to show they’ve taken community suggestions into account (Cold Spring requested Churchill if Wootton moved to Crown Farm).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know who modified option H? What was wrong with the original option H?

The original options received extensive discussions. This modified H simply did not receive any community inputs before it was recommended. Weird stuff!

Original H was a problem because it created a geographic island by placing Fields Road into Gaithersburg. Also, they used Mod H to move Cold Spring to Churchill to show they’ve taken community suggestions into account (Cold Spring requested Churchill if Wootton moved to Crown Farm).

It also has lots of middle school changes. But we knew it was going to be modified to add fields road right from the beginning, so either way it was never passing as original H.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ultimately you can’t force people to attend a school they don’t want to attend. If H passes, there will be a lawsuit and a mass exodus from the Wootton cluster.

That's fine. They move or go private or homeschool. Not an issue for MCPS.

Actually this is a MCPS problem. Part of why enrollment is down is because folks have moved out of the county, gone private or homeschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is BOE not exploring the use of Wootton as the holding facility while the current walkers remain there? Essentially moving Magruder there and integrating with Lakewood and Fallsmead, the current walkers who do not want to bus. The North Potomac feeders could go to Crown with Fields Road and Rosemont and whatever other schools need relief. Almost everyone, except Magruder, wins here. Very curious why this has yet to be explored or suggested.

What kind of troll comment is this? Did you not listen to a word that countless Magruder parents testified to??? Why in gods name would Magruder kids want to commute to a school that is marginally better than their own? The commute only makes sense if Magruder gets to use the newly built Crown while their own school gets rebuilt.

Yea no shit everyone wins but Magruder in your proposal. Magruder—the one that needs the most amount of attention with the worst FCI and the highest FARMS.

GTFO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is BOE not exploring the use of Wootton as the holding facility while the current walkers remain there? Essentially moving Magruder there and integrating with Lakewood and Fallsmead, the current walkers who do not want to bus. The North Potomac feeders could go to Crown with Fields Road and Rosemont and whatever other schools need relief. Almost everyone, except Magruder, wins here. Very curious why this has yet to be explored or suggested.

What kind of troll comment is this? Did you not listen to a word that countless Magruder parents testified to??? Why in gods name would Magruder kids want to commute to a school that is marginally better than their own? The commute only makes sense if Magruder gets to use the newly built Crown while their own school gets rebuilt.

Yea no shit everyone wins but Magruder in your proposal. Magruder—the one that needs the most amount of attention with the worst FCI and the highest FARMS.

GTFO

If magruder is actually getting a new school they can suck it up and deal with Wootton for two years. Pretty decent trade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is BOE not exploring the use of Wootton as the holding facility while the current walkers remain there? Essentially moving Magruder there and integrating with Lakewood and Fallsmead, the current walkers who do not want to bus. The North Potomac feeders could go to Crown with Fields Road and Rosemont and whatever other schools need relief. Almost everyone, except Magruder, wins here. Very curious why this has yet to be explored or suggested.

What kind of troll comment is this? Did you not listen to a word that countless Magruder parents testified to??? Why in gods name would Magruder kids want to commute to a school that is marginally better than their own? The commute only makes sense if Magruder gets to use the newly built Crown while their own school gets rebuilt.

Yea no shit everyone wins but Magruder in your proposal. Magruder—the one that needs the most amount of attention with the worst FCI and the highest FARMS.

GTFO

If magruder is actually getting a new school they can suck it up and deal with Wootton for two years. Pretty decent trade.

Except Magruder isn’t even on CIP (step 2) nor is Wootton renovations (step 1).

If Magruder goes to Crown, it reduces at least one step.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is BOE not exploring the use of Wootton as the holding facility while the current walkers remain there? Essentially moving Magruder there and integrating with Lakewood and Fallsmead, the current walkers who do not want to bus. The North Potomac feeders could go to Crown with Fields Road and Rosemont and whatever other schools need relief. Almost everyone, except Magruder, wins here. Very curious why this has yet to be explored or suggested.

What kind of troll comment is this? Did you not listen to a word that countless Magruder parents testified to??? Why in gods name would Magruder kids want to commute to a school that is marginally better than their own? The commute only makes sense if Magruder gets to use the newly built Crown while their own school gets rebuilt.

Yea no shit everyone wins but Magruder in your proposal. Magruder—the one that needs the most amount of attention with the worst FCI and the highest FARMS.

GTFO

If magruder is actually getting a new school they can suck it up and deal with Wootton for two years. Pretty decent trade.

Except Magruder isn’t even on CIP (step 2) nor is Wootton renovations (step 1).

If Magruder goes to Crown, it reduces at least one step.

How about this solution: put Wootton renovations on CIP, as well as Magruder.
Once Magruder rebuilt is done, put Horizon Hill, Fallsgrove, and Cold Spring back at Wootton.

Open Crown as a perm school with Fields Road, Rosemont, Rio, and Dufief in meantime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is BOE not exploring the use of Wootton as the holding facility while the current walkers remain there? Essentially moving Magruder there and integrating with Lakewood and Fallsmead, the current walkers who do not want to bus. The North Potomac feeders could go to Crown with Fields Road and Rosemont and whatever other schools need relief. Almost everyone, except Magruder, wins here. Very curious why this has yet to be explored or suggested.

What kind of troll comment is this? Did you not listen to a word that countless Magruder parents testified to??? Why in gods name would Magruder kids want to commute to a school that is marginally better than their own? The commute only makes sense if Magruder gets to use the newly built Crown while their own school gets rebuilt.

Yea no shit everyone wins but Magruder in your proposal. Magruder—the one that needs the most amount of attention with the worst FCI and the highest FARMS.

GTFO

Countless Wootton parents from Fallsmead and Lakewood have also testified that their school can live on for a few more years and they’d prefer that to moving to Crown. If there’s approval for Magruder to get funding it’s really not a bad idea. Have Magruder kids spend two years on the parkway with kids from Lakewood, Fallsmead, and Cold Spring, and populate Crown with kids from the 20878 zip code Crown is actually in (Field Roads, Stone Mill, DuFief etc.) Magruder gets a new school within two years, Crown opens and Wootton stays 20850 and on the parkway and will be next in the pipeline for a major capital project.

[Anonymous]

Can Magruder be rebuilt like Damascus on the same property? If so, why the need for the holding school once the $ is available? Seems like it needs a full tear down from all the testimony this week.

[Anonymous]

How do we vote on this thread for which option we like best?