Proposal to close SSIMS in 2031

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being close to public transit is a problem in MCPS eyes… got it.

DCPS kids would roll so hard with this. The majority take public transit to get to school. MCPS just coddles kids.

Also, the close-in SS families affected by this are some of the most pro-public transit in the county…. So many families in this area have less than one car per adult.

Hello, broad brush!

There's more in the area who are fine with public transit, but not wanting the unrealistic reliance on it, with various negative living impacts, that county decision-makers routinely envision, than there are in the loud minority who give full-throated support to that more ideologically driven position.

Or maybe you are thinking of Takoma Park?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being close to public transit is a problem in MCPS eyes… got it.

DCPS kids would roll so hard with this. The majority take public transit to get to school. MCPS just coddles kids.

Also, the close-in SS families affected by this are some of the most pro-public transit in the county…. So many families in this area have less than one car per adult.

Hello, broad brush!

There's more in the area who are fine with public transit, but not wanting the unrealistic reliance on it, with various negative living impacts, that county decision-makers routinely envision, than there are in the loud minority who give full-throated support to that more ideologically driven position.

Or maybe you are thinking of Takoma Park?

Certainly didn’t mean to imply everyone but no I live in the affected neighborhood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 reasons:

1) The facility condition and the cost to address the long-standing problems associated with a very old and neglected facility. They've been avoiding this since the 90s when they decided to reopen the then-moving Blair HS as a combined ES (Sligo Creek ES) and MS (SSIMS) in one building, where they reconditioned, to a degree, the third that became SCES but did the absolute minimum reconditioning on the SSIMS side. They will have to do some work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they should have done (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line -- they don't want combo ES & MS kids in direct proximity for a variety of safety considerations. As a secondary-level holding school, there would be no walkers, and that seems to be enough of a safety mitigator for them.

3) The only secondary-level facility they have is Woodward, and that's going to be its own school shortly. They need a place to put an entire HS when that ends up under construction, and the combination of SSIMS and SCES, with some build-out but compromising some HS facility provisions (e.g., no real auditorium beyond the gym, limited athletics, etc.), is what they see as their best option.

Considering the next three HS projects will be mid and upcounty (wootton, magruder, damascus), why not have Crown be a holding school. That also has the benefit of kicking the can down the road for the boundaries until the development in that area is more complete.

The last board and McKnight messed up with the boundary study by not having it be All levels and all county. These half baked proposals are just going to keep us spiraling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being close to public transit is a problem in MCPS eyes… got it.

DCPS kids would roll so hard with this. The majority take public transit to get to school. MCPS just coddles kids.

Also, the close-in SS families affected by this are some of the most pro-public transit in the county…. So many families in this area have less than one car per adult.

Hello, broad brush!

There's more in the area who are fine with public transit, but not wanting the unrealistic reliance on it, with various negative living impacts, that county decision-makers routinely envision, than there are in the loud minority who give full-throated support to that more ideologically driven position.

Or maybe you are thinking of Takoma Park?

We live in the neighborhood, our kids attend SCES, and I have no idea what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So being close to public transit is a problem in MCPS eyes… got it.

DCPS kids would roll so hard with this. The majority take public transit to get to school. MCPS just coddles kids.

Most kids don’t take public transit. Stop making stuff up.

I teach at a DCPS middle school and half of my students take the train.

Not sure why folks are dragging DCPS into this.....MOCO is a huge, mostly suburban county and the zoning and public transit options aren't close to being the same.

That being said, anyone who lives downcounty knows that plenty of MS and HS kids in MOCO take Metrobus and Ride on to school. It's a better option for many kids when the public bus routes are more direct than the school buses.

Read the room. He’s closing it BECAUSE of public transit.

No. He's closing it because the building is too old and in bad shape.

Nope, he says it's just fine as a holding school because there are no walkers at holding schools, but doesn't work as a regular school because there are walkers who I guess he thinks will be hit by trains or abducted by commuters.

Holding schools are spaces you could probably tolerate being in on a temporary basis, especially knowing you have a new school to go back to, but they're not spaces you want a school to inhabit permanently. That's SSIMS.

Yep, tolerate the mold and lack of HVAC controls, sure. Tolerate the multiple ADA violations on the property.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For anyone suggesting Taylor wants to sell the land, no that is not accurate. His point in the presentation last night was that the district has 0 holding school options for middle or high school rebuilds/renovations once Woodward officially reopens to students. He thinks closing SSIMS in order to use the facility as the new holding school solves that challenge. However, like many before me have said, how does that make sense to keep using the building for students when he says it's not safe for students?

Yes - my takeaway from the presentation is that it's all about not having enough holding school capacity. Taylor doesn't really care about SSIMS or SCES, but sees the complaints about SSIMS' infrastructure as an excuse to use the site as a holding school.

Did anyone else catch when he talked about the Piney Branch renovation as representing a "significant investment in the Silver Spring community"? What??
(it's about 53 minutes in).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 reasons:

1) The facility condition and the cost to address the long-standing problems associated with a very old and neglected facility. They've been avoiding this since the 90s when they decided to reopen the then-moving Blair HS as a combined ES (Sligo Creek ES) and MS (SSIMS) in one building, where they reconditioned, to a degree, the third that became SCES but did the absolute minimum reconditioning on the SSIMS side. They will have to do some work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they should have done (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line -- they don't want combo ES & MS kids in direct proximity for a variety of safety considerations. As a secondary-level holding school, there would be no walkers, and that seems to be enough of a safety mitigator for them.

3) The only secondary-level facility they have is Woodward, and that's going to be its own school shortly. They need a place to put an entire HS when that ends up under construction, and the combination of SSIMS and SCES, with some build-out but compromising some HS facility provisions (e.g., no real auditorium beyond the gym, limited athletics, etc.), is what they see as their best option.

Who's "they"? I don't ever remember this being brought up as a concern before. This reason seems to be completely made up by Taylor.

It's really infuriating that our kids are going to have to pay for MCPS' continued mismanagement and incompetence. They should have fixed SSIMS long ago, but they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 reasons:

1) The facility condition and the cost to address the long-standing problems associated with a very old and neglected facility. They've been avoiding this since the 90s when they decided to reopen the then-moving Blair HS as a combined ES (Sligo Creek ES) and MS (SSIMS) in one building, where they reconditioned, to a degree, the third that became SCES but did the absolute minimum reconditioning on the SSIMS side. They will have to do some work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they should have done (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line -- they don't want combo ES & MS kids in direct proximity for a variety of safety considerations. As a secondary-level holding school, there would be no walkers, and that seems to be enough of a safety mitigator for them.

3) The only secondary-level facility they have is Woodward, and that's going to be its own school shortly. They need a place to put an entire HS when that ends up under construction, and the combination of SSIMS and SCES, with some build-out but compromising some HS facility provisions (e.g., no real auditorium beyond the gym, limited athletics, etc.), is what they see as their best option.

Who's "they"? I don't ever remember this being brought up as a concern before. This reason seems to be completely made up by Taylor.

It's really infuriating that our kids are going to have to pay for MCPS' continued mismanagement and incompetence. They should have fixed SSIMS long ago, but they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do it now.

The Purple Line excuse is pure gaslighting. The proximity of a station to a school came up years ago in PL meetings and was deemed to not be a safety issue. He is using the poor condition of the school (which is entirely MCPS's fault) and the new PL stop as excuses to get what he needs: a holding school to stagger other school renovations. It is terribly unfair that this neighborhood loses its community school so others can have nicer facilities. Now, DTSS, an already congested and urban neighborhood, will have busses coming in to take out of bounds kids to the holding school and busses going out to take neighborhood kids to Sligo or Eastern -- kids who previously could have walked to school. I hope the neighborhood and school communities come together to ardently oppose this. It is not a done deal yet and can be stopped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 reasons:

1) The facility condition and the cost to address the long-standing problems associated with a very old and neglected facility. They've been avoiding this since the 90s when they decided to reopen the then-moving Blair HS as a combined ES (Sligo Creek ES) and MS (SSIMS) in one building, where they reconditioned, to a degree, the third that became SCES but did the absolute minimum reconditioning on the SSIMS side. They will have to do some work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they should have done (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line -- they don't want combo ES & MS kids in direct proximity for a variety of safety considerations. As a secondary-level holding school, there would be no walkers, and that seems to be enough of a safety mitigator for them.

3) The only secondary-level facility they have is Woodward, and that's going to be its own school shortly. They need a place to put an entire HS when that ends up under construction, and the combination of SSIMS and SCES, with some build-out but compromising some HS facility provisions (e.g., no real auditorium beyond the gym, limited athletics, etc.), is what they see as their best option.

Who's "they"? I don't ever remember this being brought up as a concern before. This reason seems to be completely made up by Taylor.

It's really infuriating that our kids are going to have to pay for MCPS' continued mismanagement and incompetence. They should have fixed SSIMS long ago, but they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do it now.

The Purple Line excuse is pure gaslighting. The proximity of a station to a school came up years ago in PL meetings and was deemed to not be a safety issue. He is using the poor condition of the school (which is entirely MCPS's fault) and the new PL stop as excuses to get what he needs: a holding school to stagger other school renovations. It is terribly unfair that this neighborhood loses its community school so others can have nicer facilities. Now, DTSS, an already congested and urban neighborhood, will have busses coming in to take out of bounds kids to the holding school and busses going out to take neighborhood kids to Sligo or Eastern -- kids who previously could have walked to school. I hope the neighborhood and school communities come together to ardently oppose this. It is not a done deal yet and can be stopped.

X10000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 reasons:

1) The facility condition and the cost to address the long-standing problems associated with a very old and neglected facility. They've been avoiding this since the 90s when they decided to reopen the then-moving Blair HS as a combined ES (Sligo Creek ES) and MS (SSIMS) in one building, where they reconditioned, to a degree, the third that became SCES but did the absolute minimum reconditioning on the SSIMS side. They will have to do some work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they should have done (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line -- they don't want combo ES & MS kids in direct proximity for a variety of safety considerations. As a secondary-level holding school, there would be no walkers, and that seems to be enough of a safety mitigator for them.

3) The only secondary-level facility they have is Woodward, and that's going to be its own school shortly. They need a place to put an entire HS when that ends up under construction, and the combination of SSIMS and SCES, with some build-out but compromising some HS facility provisions (e.g., no real auditorium beyond the gym, limited athletics, etc.), is what they see as their best option.

Who's "they"? I don't ever remember this being brought up as a concern before. This reason seems to be completely made up by Taylor.

It's really infuriating that our kids are going to have to pay for MCPS' continued mismanagement and incompetence. They should have fixed SSIMS long ago, but they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do it now.

The Purple Line excuse is pure gaslighting. The proximity of a station to a school came up years ago in PL meetings and was deemed to not be a safety issue. He is using the poor condition of the school (which is entirely MCPS's fault) and the new PL stop as excuses to get what he needs: a holding school to stagger other school renovations. It is terribly unfair that this neighborhood loses its community school so others can have nicer facilities. Now, DTSS, an already congested and urban neighborhood, will have busses coming in to take out of bounds kids to the holding school and busses going out to take neighborhood kids to Sligo or Eastern -- kids who previously could have walked to school. I hope the neighborhood and school communities come together to ardently oppose this. It is not a done deal yet and can be stopped.

+1. Well put.

There must be other options for holding facilities. I know the county leases a number of buildings- have they explored whether any of those would be suitable once current leases are up? Also is anyone familiar with the plans for Eastern- is it meant to be a total tear-down/rebuild? Could they build the new school elsewhere on the property (athletic fields) and then use the existing Eastern building as the holding facility for the other schools? Blair is close by so they could use the athletic field there in the meantime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 reasons:

1) The facility condition and the cost to address the long-standing problems associated with a very old and neglected facility. They've been avoiding this since the 90s when they decided to reopen the then-moving Blair HS as a combined ES (Sligo Creek ES) and MS (SSIMS) in one building, where they reconditioned, to a degree, the third that became SCES but did the absolute minimum reconditioning on the SSIMS side. They will have to do some work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they should have done (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line -- they don't want combo ES & MS kids in direct proximity for a variety of safety considerations. As a secondary-level holding school, there would be no walkers, and that seems to be enough of a safety mitigator for them.

3) The only secondary-level facility they have is Woodward, and that's going to be its own school shortly. They need a place to put an entire HS when that ends up under construction, and the combination of SSIMS and SCES, with some build-out but compromising some HS facility provisions (e.g., no real auditorium beyond the gym, limited athletics, etc.), is what they see as their best option.

Who's "they"? I don't ever remember this being brought up as a concern before. This reason seems to be completely made up by Taylor.

It's really infuriating that our kids are going to have to pay for MCPS' continued mismanagement and incompetence. They should have fixed SSIMS long ago, but they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do it now.

The Purple Line excuse is pure gaslighting. The proximity of a station to a school came up years ago in PL meetings and was deemed to not be a safety issue. He is using the poor condition of the school (which is entirely MCPS's fault) and the new PL stop as excuses to get what he needs: a holding school to stagger other school renovations. It is terribly unfair that this neighborhood loses its community school so others can have nicer facilities. Now, DTSS, an already congested and urban neighborhood, will have busses coming in to take out of bounds kids to the holding school and busses going out to take neighborhood kids to Sligo or Eastern -- kids who previously could have walked to school. I hope the neighborhood and school communities come together to ardently oppose this. It is not a done deal yet and can be stopped.

+1. Well put.

There must be other options for holding facilities. I know the county leases a number of buildings- have they explored whether any of those would be suitable once current leases are up? Also is anyone familiar with the plans for Eastern- is it meant to be a total tear-down/rebuild? Could they build the new school elsewhere on the property (athletic fields) and then use the existing Eastern building as the holding facility for the other schools? Blair is close by so they could use the athletic field there in the meantime.

Yes, the plan for Eastern is to build the new building on the existing fields while students are still on site in the current building, then tear down the current building and put new fields in that location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 reasons:

1) The facility condition and the cost to address the long-standing problems associated with a very old and neglected facility. They've been avoiding this since the 90s when they decided to reopen the then-moving Blair HS as a combined ES (Sligo Creek ES) and MS (SSIMS) in one building, where they reconditioned, to a degree, the third that became SCES but did the absolute minimum reconditioning on the SSIMS side. They will have to do some work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they should have done (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line -- they don't want combo ES & MS kids in direct proximity for a variety of safety considerations. As a secondary-level holding school, there would be no walkers, and that seems to be enough of a safety mitigator for them.

3) The only secondary-level facility they have is Woodward, and that's going to be its own school shortly. They need a place to put an entire HS when that ends up under construction, and the combination of SSIMS and SCES, with some build-out but compromising some HS facility provisions (e.g., no real auditorium beyond the gym, limited athletics, etc.), is what they see as their best option.

Who's "they"? I don't ever remember this being brought up as a concern before. This reason seems to be completely made up by Taylor.

It's really infuriating that our kids are going to have to pay for MCPS' continued mismanagement and incompetence. They should have fixed SSIMS long ago, but they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do it now.

The Purple Line excuse is pure gaslighting. The proximity of a station to a school came up years ago in PL meetings and was deemed to not be a safety issue. He is using the poor condition of the school (which is entirely MCPS's fault) and the new PL stop as excuses to get what he needs: a holding school to stagger other school renovations. It is terribly unfair that this neighborhood loses its community school so others can have nicer facilities. Now, DTSS, an already congested and urban neighborhood, will have busses coming in to take out of bounds kids to the holding school and busses going out to take neighborhood kids to Sligo or Eastern -- kids who previously could have walked to school. I hope the neighborhood and school communities come together to ardently oppose this. It is not a done deal yet and can be stopped.

+1. Well put.

There must be other options for holding facilities. I know the county leases a number of buildings- have they explored whether any of those would be suitable once current leases are up? Also is anyone familiar with the plans for Eastern- is it meant to be a total tear-down/rebuild? Could they build the new school elsewhere on the property (athletic fields) and then use the existing Eastern building as the holding facility for the other schools? Blair is close by so they could use the athletic field there in the meantime.

Yes, the plan for Eastern is to build the new building on the existing fields while students are still on site in the current building, then tear down the current building and put new fields in that location.

Yeah, but the news of closing SSIMS is so new (to the public) - is that actually built into the current Eastern plans? Or is this another last-minute surprise to Eastern plans?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 reasons:

1) The facility condition and the cost to address the long-standing problems associated with a very old and neglected facility. They've been avoiding this since the 90s when they decided to reopen the then-moving Blair HS as a combined ES (Sligo Creek ES) and MS (SSIMS) in one building, where they reconditioned, to a degree, the third that became SCES but did the absolute minimum reconditioning on the SSIMS side. They will have to do some work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they should have done (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line -- they don't want combo ES & MS kids in direct proximity for a variety of safety considerations. As a secondary-level holding school, there would be no walkers, and that seems to be enough of a safety mitigator for them.

3) The only secondary-level facility they have is Woodward, and that's going to be its own school shortly. They need a place to put an entire HS when that ends up under construction, and the combination of SSIMS and SCES, with some build-out but compromising some HS facility provisions (e.g., no real auditorium beyond the gym, limited athletics, etc.), is what they see as their best option.

Who's "they"? I don't ever remember this being brought up as a concern before. This reason seems to be completely made up by Taylor.

It's really infuriating that our kids are going to have to pay for MCPS' continued mismanagement and incompetence. They should have fixed SSIMS long ago, but they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do it now.

The Purple Line excuse is pure gaslighting. The proximity of a station to a school came up years ago in PL meetings and was deemed to not be a safety issue. He is using the poor condition of the school (which is entirely MCPS's fault) and the new PL stop as excuses to get what he needs: a holding school to stagger other school renovations. It is terribly unfair that this neighborhood loses its community school so others can have nicer facilities. Now, DTSS, an already congested and urban neighborhood, will have busses coming in to take out of bounds kids to the holding school and busses going out to take neighborhood kids to Sligo or Eastern -- kids who previously could have walked to school. I hope the neighborhood and school communities come together to ardently oppose this. It is not a done deal yet and can be stopped.

+1. Well put.

There must be other options for holding facilities. I know the county leases a number of buildings- have they explored whether any of those would be suitable once current leases are up? Also is anyone familiar with the plans for Eastern- is it meant to be a total tear-down/rebuild? Could they build the new school elsewhere on the property (athletic fields) and then use the existing Eastern building as the holding facility for the other schools? Blair is close by so they could use the athletic field there in the meantime.

Yes, the plan for Eastern is to build the new building on the existing fields while students are still on site in the current building, then tear down the current building and put new fields in that location.

Yeah, but the news of closing SSIMS is so new (to the public) - is that actually built into the current Eastern plans? Or is this another last-minute surprise to Eastern plans?

Raising the capacity to 1500 is an increase from the most recent plans for a 1200-capacity replacement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 reasons:

1) The facility condition and the cost to address the long-standing problems associated with a very old and neglected facility. They've been avoiding this since the 90s when they decided to reopen the then-moving Blair HS as a combined ES (Sligo Creek ES) and MS (SSIMS) in one building, where they reconditioned, to a degree, the third that became SCES but did the absolute minimum reconditioning on the SSIMS side. They will have to do some work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they should have done (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line -- they don't want combo ES & MS kids in direct proximity for a variety of safety considerations. As a secondary-level holding school, there would be no walkers, and that seems to be enough of a safety mitigator for them.

3) The only secondary-level facility they have is Woodward, and that's going to be its own school shortly. They need a place to put an entire HS when that ends up under construction, and the combination of SSIMS and SCES, with some build-out but compromising some HS facility provisions (e.g., no real auditorium beyond the gym, limited athletics, etc.), is what they see as their best option.

Who's "they"? I don't ever remember this being brought up as a concern before. This reason seems to be completely made up by Taylor.

It's really infuriating that our kids are going to have to pay for MCPS' continued mismanagement and incompetence. They should have fixed SSIMS long ago, but they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do it now.

The Purple Line excuse is pure gaslighting. The proximity of a station to a school came up years ago in PL meetings and was deemed to not be a safety issue. He is using the poor condition of the school (which is entirely MCPS's fault) and the new PL stop as excuses to get what he needs: a holding school to stagger other school renovations. It is terribly unfair that this neighborhood loses its community school so others can have nicer facilities. Now, DTSS, an already congested and urban neighborhood, will have busses coming in to take out of bounds kids to the holding school and busses going out to take neighborhood kids to Sligo or Eastern -- kids who previously could have walked to school. I hope the neighborhood and school communities come together to ardently oppose this. It is not a done deal yet and can be stopped.

+1. Well put.

There must be other options for holding facilities. I know the county leases a number of buildings- have they explored whether any of those would be suitable once current leases are up? Also is anyone familiar with the plans for Eastern- is it meant to be a total tear-down/rebuild? Could they build the new school elsewhere on the property (athletic fields) and then use the existing Eastern building as the holding facility for the other schools? Blair is close by so they could use the athletic field there in the meantime.

Yes, the plan for Eastern is to build the new building on the existing fields while students are still on site in the current building, then tear down the current building and put new fields in that location.

This makes the proposal to close SSIMS even more puzzling. What is Taylor's real aganda?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 reasons:

1) The facility condition and the cost to address the long-standing problems associated with a very old and neglected facility. They've been avoiding this since the 90s when they decided to reopen the then-moving Blair HS as a combined ES (Sligo Creek ES) and MS (SSIMS) in one building, where they reconditioned, to a degree, the third that became SCES but did the absolute minimum reconditioning on the SSIMS side. They will have to do some work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they should have done (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line -- they don't want combo ES & MS kids in direct proximity for a variety of safety considerations. As a secondary-level holding school, there would be no walkers, and that seems to be enough of a safety mitigator for them.

3) The only secondary-level facility they have is Woodward, and that's going to be its own school shortly. They need a place to put an entire HS when that ends up under construction, and the combination of SSIMS and SCES, with some build-out but compromising some HS facility provisions (e.g., no real auditorium beyond the gym, limited athletics, etc.), is what they see as their best option.

Who's "they"? I don't ever remember this being brought up as a concern before. This reason seems to be completely made up by Taylor.

It's really infuriating that our kids are going to have to pay for MCPS' continued mismanagement and incompetence. They should have fixed SSIMS long ago, but they need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to do it now.

The Purple Line excuse is pure gaslighting. The proximity of a station to a school came up years ago in PL meetings and was deemed to not be a safety issue. He is using the poor condition of the school (which is entirely MCPS's fault) and the new PL stop as excuses to get what he needs: a holding school to stagger other school renovations. It is terribly unfair that this neighborhood loses its community school so others can have nicer facilities. Now, DTSS, an already congested and urban neighborhood, will have busses coming in to take out of bounds kids to the holding school and busses going out to take neighborhood kids to Sligo or Eastern -- kids who previously could have walked to school. I hope the neighborhood and school communities come together to ardently oppose this. It is not a done deal yet and can be stopped.

+1. Well put.

There must be other options for holding facilities. I know the county leases a number of buildings- have they explored whether any of those would be suitable once current leases are up? Also is anyone familiar with the plans for Eastern- is it meant to be a total tear-down/rebuild? Could they build the new school elsewhere on the property (athletic fields) and then use the existing Eastern building as the holding facility for the other schools? Blair is close by so they could use the athletic field there in the meantime.

Yes, the plan for Eastern is to build the new building on the existing fields while students are still on site in the current building, then tear down the current building and put new fields in that location.

This makes the proposal to close SSIMS even more puzzling. What is Taylor's real aganda?

I don't see why it's more puzzling. A replacement for Eastern was already being discussed anyway, and this just makes it larger in order to also handle the reassigning of hundreds of SSIMS students.