Reply to Proposal to close SSIMS in 2031

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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 [i]some[/i] work to make it habitable as a holding facility, but not as much as they [i]should have done[/i] (long ago, and should be doing now) for the local school.

2) The Purple Line --[b] they[/b] 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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

+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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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

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.[/quote]

What I mean is, why is SSIMS needed as a holding school when the existing Eastern building could be used as a holding school while the new Eastern is being built and then a new SSIMS building (and potentially Sligo renovation)?  It just seems like two of his excuses are manufactured.[/quote]

This doesn't make any sense. Where do you put the Eastern kids while the  new Eastern is being built?
[/quote]

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