Reply to Option H is permanent and the old Wootton HS campus will be closed for good?

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Reply to "Option H is permanent and the old Wootton HS campus will be closed for good?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What did everyone think of the speeches today? [/quote]

I learned a lot actually. It does sound like MCPS jumped the gun and there's too many unanswered questions. Why did they go back and amend the scope of the boundary study for EFG and not H? Feels like H was a last minute add, and I'm not comfortable going forward with it was so many unanswered questions.

I also really really appreciated Magruder's testimony. It was powerful. 
There's no conceivable argument I can come up with for why Magruder or any other school would want Wootton over Crown.

Here's a copy and paste:

Good afternoon Dr. Taylor, President Rivera-Oven, and Members of the Board,
My name is Kim Glassman. I am the Magruder PTSA President, and parent of two MCPS
students. I am testifying today to encourage the Board to reject Option H, and reject using the
current Wootton as a holding school. In the current plan, despite having the worst Facility
Condition Index of all MCPS high schools, Magruder may finally reach the front of the line to be
renovated around 2031, assuming there are no further delays between now and then. Option H
makes more delays even more likely.
I have spent years hearing about the dilapidated conditions at Wootton. Though our FCI is
worse, I’m told Wootton appears worse. If the Wootton facility is so bad that Wootton must move
into Crown right away, then it is not good enough for our less connected, quieter, and less
wealthy community to be used as a holding school. If the mold, mildew, rat infestation, gas
leaks, HVAC, and plumbing issues are too much, then it is certainly not going to be better 5
years from now when it is finally Magruder’s turn. Preparing Wootton to be a holding school
would take more time and more money, which only pushes Magruder’s long overdue renovation
out even further. Magruder does not have more time to wait.
Our cluster is divided between three BOE districts. Flower Hill, Mill Creek and Resnik ES are in
district one. Shady Grove is in district two, and Magruder, Redland, and its feeder elementary
schools are in district 5. We are a community with a high percentage of FARMS, ever FARMS,
and EML families.
There are already significant transportation barriers in our community. There is no bus that runs
down Snouffer School to Magruder, which makes it challenging for district 1 families to access
Magruder. The shortest route from Flower Hill to Wootton requires a bus to the metro, a metro
ride to Rockville, and then another bus to Wootton. The high school is often used as a larger
space for events for the cluster and by feeder schools, such as for concerts or promotion
ceremonies. It takes twice as long to get from the District 1 area to Wootton as it does to get to
the Crown area. Making Wootton our "home" for years adds a layer of inaccessibility for our
families.
I support having a holding school. I do not support Wootton being our holding school. Magruder
needs to be renovated as quickly as possible. We cannot afford more delays by first preparing a
facility we know is almost as bad as ours to be a holding school. What will it take to prioritize
Magruder? Is it another ceiling falling during a show, perhaps landing on the audience? More
days of missed instruction due to lack of A/C? We were told that the order of renovation and
construction is decided based on math. Mathematically, Magruder is the next high school after
Damascus and 7th on the overall list of schools prioritized for major construction projects. In
Option H, Wootton jumps the line, and Magruder has to wait even longer. Please reject Option
H.
Thank you,
Kim Glassman[/quote]

I don't get this. What does she want? I think I get her concern, but I don't see how any of the plausible alternatives to H create a better situation. Not going with H means there won't be a holding school and there will be less money for capital improvements elsewhere.[/quote]

You forgot that crown as holding school has three options on the table. If there has to be a holding school, then it has to be crown. Even Magruder and Damascus do not want Wootton to be holding school. Why you want to force three clusters to accept something they don’t want?

[/quote]

She didn't say what she wants. She suggests Crown would be better for them, although I think she's exaggerating the difference, but she never says she wants a particular option. Or even clearly that she want Crown to be a holding school.

Besides H, the other holding school options look exceedingly unlikely. So playing this out, MCPS would have more schools to operate, maintain and renovate, ultimately slowing down things for Magruder. Surely she knows that. What's her objective here?[/quote]

I’m very confused. Why is having crown as the holding school less likely when that’s literally what three other options (EFG) is about? If you didn’t know that, you are obviously not following this. Her point is using Wootton makes no sense. Using Wootton means Wootton does jump the line to get renovated first, which will take another 3-4 years, then Damascus and Magruder get to use it as a holding school.

Also, you know what’s crazier? MCPS has done feasibility and cost studies for using crown as a holding school. Its own internal documents say crown would be a great holding school due to its access. It says that it is a great location for the countless schools that need renovations, and how it would save a lot of money and time.

And you know what’s the craziest part? MCPS has never done this feasibility and cost analysis for using Wootton as a holding school.

[/quote]

Because MCPS isn't going to *not* send kids to Crown whose impact taxes paid for a portion of the school. That gets into a real legal problem. Yes, they could carve out 500 seats for the local kids, but does anyone think they're going to have entire high schools rotating in with the relatively number of Crown kids? And what do they do the years when there isn't a construction project? 500 kids isn't enough to operate a high school in MCPS.

MCPS is likely to be going into a construction boom. There aren't enough students.[/quote]

Lawyer here: this is just BS. There’s no clear statutory obligation that impact taxes, by themselves, force MCPS to assign local students to Crown. The impact tax helps fund capital capacity, but doesn’t come with guarantee in the code itself.

You know what has legal issues? H. There are countless issues.[/quote]

UPP taxes need to be spent to increase capacity in the service area where they were collected (or to increase capacity in an adjacent service area).

H doesn't have a problem because some kids would be moved from GHS.[/quote]

EFG won’t be an issue either because it will increase capacity at a whole slew of schools including Magruder and Wootton both do which are adjacent service areas. There’s also a whole bunch of schools that can use crown as the holding school, like Gaithersburg MS and Redlands MS, which would increase capacity in both service area and adjacent area.[/quote]

Also long term after holding school, Crown becomes a permanent school. By then, enrollment numbers will be back up and it’ll be needed. UPP issues are literally moot. The state already told Mcps this. Funny enough, the state has never told Mcps about H being legal—you know why? Mcps hasn’t even asked. [/quote]

What enrollment projections do you see indicating that additional capacity would be needed after Crown's stint as a holding school? [/quote]

Once again, MCPS own words. Not mine. Their analysis shows they don’t expect enrollment to go up until 2035 at the earliest. Ask them why and how accurate this is.[/quote]

Ok, so why are you saying Crown would be needed then?[/quote]

I’m saying it is not needed now, maybe later starting in 2035 or later[/quote]

OK, but that's pretty different than what you initially said, or at least implied. There aren't projections indicating a need for increased capacity. Not now, not in the future.[/quote]

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