Looking for information when the Crown High will be opened?

[Anonymous]

Any reliable info? Someone said 10 years. Does this sound about right?

[Anonymous]

You can't know yet, because it hasn't been determined.

It was not in the last CIP (October 2018). It may be in the next CIP (Oct '19), but if so, probably not until year 6. Because of the lack of money, and 2 other HSs ahead of Crown (first Northwood then Woodward), even if it is planned in year 6 of October 2019's CIP, the chances of it actually happening 6 years later are slim. High schools are expensive, the economy is slowing, and MCPS rarely keeps to everything that is planned 6 years out because plans change, they don't have enough money, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any reliable info? Someone said 10 years. Does this sound about right?

No. There is supposed to be money in fiscal year 2019 (which starts in July) for the planning. Construction comes after planning. Tell your county councilmembers to make sure this item gets funded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any reliable info? Someone said 10 years. Does this sound about right?

8-10 years if funding is approved.

MCPS delayed even the planning funding and once planning is done then actual construction funding. Right now, no one can say the time line for Crown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any reliable info? Someone said 10 years. Does this sound about right?

8-10 years if funding is approved.

MCPS delayed even the planning funding and once planning is done then actual construction funding. Right now, no one can say the time line for Crown.

If you support building Crown HS, stop posting "There's no funding! Nobody knows! It could be decades!" on DCUM and start asking for meetings with your county councilmembers.

[Anonymous]

For those of you hoping to see Crown HS open sooner than ~10 years, I think you need to face the reality of the capacity data.

The 4 clusters that are assumed to send students to Crown (assuming no broader rezoning) are Wootton, QO, RM, GB. Here are the projected available seats in these schools for the 2024-25 school year according to the latest CIP (https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/cipmaster.aspx)

Wootton: 174
QO: (474)
RM: (504)
GB: (335)

So if you assume that they were to redraw maps such that all 4 of those clusters were taken to exactly 100% HS capacity, that would leave Crown HS with 1,139 students in 2024-25, which would likely be just a bit over 50% capacity.

If you look at the nearby area more broadly as part of a larger rezoning, here is the projected capacity for some other nearby clusters:

Damascas: 185
Clarksburg: (814)
Seneca Valley: 1280
Northwest: (695)
Watkins Mill: (6)
Rockville: (115)
Magruder: 216
WJ: (680)
Churchill: (195)
Whitman: 170

If you aggregate the 10 additional clusters above and assume that each school were zoned to exactly 100% capacity, you'd have an excess of 654 students. Even if you add that excess to what's projected for Wootton, QO, RM and GB, it still aggregates (1,793) to a lower number than Crown HS would house. So the utilization for those 14 (now 15) clusters would be below 100% in the aggregate if Crown HS were open in 2024-25.

Another way to look at it is if those 14 clusters were rezoned to make the utilization percentage the same at each HS (with Crown HS not opening), they'd all be 128 students over capacity in 2024-25, which would be around ~105%.

I hope that Crown HS gets approved ASAP, but if your concern as a parent is capacity, it's difficult to argue that there's any urgent need for it to be opened imminently.

What's clear when you look at the data is that we have legacy cluster maps that were drawn when MoCo looked quite different, and they haven't been adjusted over the past few decades to reflect where new development is being concentrated, which has concentrated the overcapacity burden in specific high schools. The BOE needs to be proactive in sticking its neck out and rezoning for the good of this part of the entire county, even if PTAs in clusters that see no need for change resist because their cluster has a stagnant or declining student population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any reliable info? Someone said 10 years. Does this sound about right?

8-10 years if funding is approved.

MCPS delayed even the planning funding and once planning is done then actual construction funding. Right now, no one can say the time line for Crown.

If you support building Crown HS, stop posting "There's no funding! Nobody knows! It could be decades!" on DCUM and start asking for meetings with your county councilmembers.

I am not the PP, but you are being rude to a fellow poster who replied to a genuine question with facts. Him being supporter or not is not relevant to reply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you hoping to see Crown HS open sooner than ~10 years, I think you need to face the reality of the capacity data.

The 4 clusters that are assumed to send students to Crown (assuming no broader rezoning) are Wootton, QO, RM, GB. Here are the projected available seats in these schools for the 2024-25 school year according to the latest CIP (https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/cipmaster.aspx)

Wootton: 174
QO: (474)
RM: (504)
GB: (335)

So if you assume that they were to redraw maps such that all 4 of those clusters were taken to exactly 100% HS capacity, that would leave Crown HS with 1,139 students in 2024-25, which would likely be just a bit over 50% capacity.

If you look at the nearby area more broadly as part of a larger rezoning, here is the projected capacity for some other nearby clusters:

Damascas: 185
Clarksburg: (814)
Seneca Valley: 1280
Northwest: (695)
Watkins Mill: (6)
Rockville: (115)
Magruder: 216
WJ: (680)
Churchill: (195)
Whitman: 170

If you aggregate the 10 additional clusters above and assume that each school were zoned to exactly 100% capacity, you'd have an excess of 654 students. Even if you add that excess to what's projected for Wootton, QO, RM and GB, it still aggregates (1,793) to a lower number than Crown HS would house. So the utilization for those 14 (now 15) clusters would be below 100% in the aggregate if Crown HS were open in 2024-25.

Another way to look at it is if those 14 clusters were rezoned to make the utilization percentage the same at each HS (with Crown HS not opening), they'd all be 128 students over capacity in 2024-25, which would be around ~105%.

I hope that Crown HS gets approved ASAP, but if your concern as a parent is capacity, it's difficult to argue that there's any urgent need for it to be opened imminently.

What's clear when you look at the data is that we have legacy cluster maps that were drawn when MoCo looked quite different, and they haven't been adjusted over the past few decades to reflect where new development is being concentrated, which has concentrated the overcapacity burden in specific high schools. The BOE needs to be proactive in sticking its neck out and rezoning for the good of this part of the entire county, even if PTAs in clusters that see no need for change resist because their cluster has a stagnant or declining student population.

Agree. MCPS needs to redraw boundaries right now to not allow some schools to be perpetually over crowded.