Reply to My gut feeling on 3/26 BOE vote

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]But wasn’t Crown built using state funds not the county?[/quote]

If this is true, that’s a Mossi g piece of the puzzle. Taylor proposed using Crown as a holding school, then suddenly pivoted 2 days later to proposed closing Wootton and moving its kids to Crown. Perhaps someone in Annapolis told him a holding school was a non-starter?[/quote]

State is on record saying Crown as a holding school is ok. Ironically, the only option not okayed by state is using Crown as a “relocation” of Wootton[/quote]

The state is also on record saying they don't get involved in boundary decisions, which is what H is. They would have needed to approve the holding school option because of funding but they do not need to approve H. [/quote]

Interesting point. This actually isn’t just a boundary study. In fact, the boundary study is the only way MCPS can get away with closing Wootton. Without moving the Wootton boundary to encompass Crown, this would be an absolute school closure and MCPS couldn’t send Wootton’s kids to Crown.

I wonder what would happen if it comes out that this entire move Wootton to Crown idea was cooked up before the State of Maryland cut a $100M check to build Crown (so MCPS wouldn’t lose the land).[/quote]

This timeline doesn't make sense.

Crown project is much older than Taylor's tenure, and Taylor loves publicly blaming past leadership for MCPS problems.

From an administrative view, the Wootton/Crown shell came makes perfect budget sense and bureaucratic sense. It's bad for students and families, but that's not the unelected bureaucracy's concern. 
[/quote]

What doesn’t make sense about the timeline?  If the state offered $100M to build Crown, MCPS had to find a way to break ground within the 20 year time limit, or both that money and the land would be gone. MCPS had every financial incentive to shade the data in its favor, break ground on time, then figure out how to fill Crown later (assuming they didn’t already have a plan to close/move Wootton to Crown)

More likely, taking Wootton off the CIP right before breaking ground on Crown was not a coincidence. Rather, MCPS probably considered moving Wootton to Crown at that time, then sought to paper that decision through the boundary study commissioned in November 2024 (at which point moving an existing school to Crown was allegedly being considered).

So yes, MCPS wanted the money, the land, and close Wootton. It would be in a $1B+ hole if it didn’t (i.e., no Crown Farm land ($200-300M, no new Crown ($$300-400M) and have to renovate Wootton’s existing facility ($300-400M).  Oh, and no holding school for Magruder and other schools needing renovation.[/quote]

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