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]I’m a future Wootton parent and I want Crown. If we lose option H, I’m not sending my kids into that moldy building! [/quote]

So send them to private. You are in a very very small minority that wants crown. [/quote]

We are fortunate to have the option of private school if it comes to that, but I’m speaking up because I know others who share my view and want Wootton at Crown as well. Many of us simply aren’t as vocal. The opposition may be loud, but it’s largely concentrated in one neighborhood. Not hearing from us doesn’t mean we don’t exist or that our numbers are small.[/quote]

Then why aren’t being vocal about what you want? Don’t complain if/when you don’t get crown when you are doing nothing to advocate for it. [/quote]

Why do they need to be. Crown makes sense.  [/quote]

haha ok. When homeless folks take over an abandoned Wootton and needles start being left all over the street for kids to find we will see if you still feel like it makes sense. [/quote]

Are there druggie squatters at Radnor, or are you constructing a boogeyman?[/quote]

An abandoned building attracts squatters no matter where it is. The building that was left empty right near wootton had that very problem. [/quote]

And would Wootton sit empty, or would it be an occupied holding school for the predictable future?[/quote]

Damascus is the only one on CIP and will not be renovated until 2029. So at least 2027-2029 will be empty and then on and off depends if they have money to renovate. [/quote]

From the CIP working session where they introduced the ideas of having Crown be a holding school and the same for SSIMS/SCES

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DN4KQG52F8D6/$file/FY2027%20Cap%20Bdgt%20FY2027-2032%20CIP%20251104%20PPT.pdf

Damascus would start occupancy in [i]FY[/i]29, which would be the fall of 2028.  Between the summers of 2026 & 2027 and the 2027-28 school year, when Wootton would occupy Crown, there would be plenty of time to have the minimum required repair/upgrade work done to the old Wootton to make it more suitable for holding others.  Crashing the schedule for that (to try to shoehorn it in over just the next 2 summers) only would be necessary if they likewise crashed the planning schedule for Damascus, advancing that whole effort by a year.

After Damascus spends its three years there, Magruder would be next up, occupying the site for the next two.  Wootton, next on the list in that presentation, would not need that project anymore, having moved to the Crown site.  Not only do they accelerate things for the first two schools (as they would using Crown), with the noted savings, but also:

-- Whichever school would be up for reno/replacement after Wootton (and there's a long list) would get there two years earlier,

-- MCPS would save the difference between whatever the cost might be for that minimal old Wootton facility reconditioning and the $297.6M it was projected to cost for the Wootton revitalization/replacement (if using Crown as a holding school),

-- Crown, scheduled for completion to be ready for occupancy for the 2027-28 school year, itself would see immediate occupancy (by Wootton plus whatever was added from Gaithersburg) instead of not only lying in a vacant state for a year, but also being one in which there, presumably, would not be construction activity scheduled at that that might dissuade the misuse of the property by third parties that was the concern of the past poster about a vacant Wootton, and, of course,

-- Wootton would be in a new facility for the duration of all of that, instead of waiting for six more years before temporarily moving to Crown for holding and another two before they could move back.

On the other hand:

-- It would be in another location, a bit farther for most currently zoned to Wootton,

-- The Wootton zone will change to incorporate parts of Gaithersburg, and may see one or other current elementary be assigned to neighboring secondary schools,

-- The immediate neighborhood would have other communities rotating through the facility for school purposes, which is less than ideal (though the community use of the facility likely would be preserved, with both the old and new Wootton sites available in close proximity, whereas that community's use of the Crown facility would be far less likely if it was not their assigned school site).[/quote]

It will not be immediate, as there is no funding in the CIP to fix Wootton even for holding school budget.  If there is, Wootton would be happy to fix urgent safety things and keep using it. There is also no funding to fix Magruder, and even expansion for Damascus could be delayed since there is really no need to expand at this point with so many empty seats. Given the current economic conditions, there is no guarantee of continued investment in school renovations. At this point, you plan is speculative rather than assured.[/quote]

You seem to suggest that they wouldn't shift existing funding to a minimal Wootton reconditioning project to capture the much larger overall savings opportunity.  I'd suggest that they would, just as MCPS has asked for, and gotten, such adjustments in the past, and often with much less clear rationale for doing so.

Now, if it won't float politically due to community opposition, either across the county as a whole or from smaller groups with outsized influence, that is another matter.

As for Magruder not yet being funded, that doesn't mean it isn't next on the list.  Until they decided to look at not opening Crown as it's own school, any Magruder rebuild $, including the funding for planning, would not have occurred until the following CIP cycle (see slide 46 of that presentation).  The CIP request now will include two years of planning and one year of construction during the cycle, presuming they will go with either the Crown or Wootton site as a swing space/holding school location.

Damascus is at the front of the line, needing full replacement, expansion of seating or not, though I'm sure economies point toward something larger.  The choices there are between off-site at a holding school (Crown or Wootton) and on-site, which would be longer, more costly and likely more disruptive to the student experience (though a long commute isn't ideal).  The CIP request will go with the off-site option.

Of course, these requests, like any, will have to make it through to the County Executive's recommendation and County Council's passage next year.  The Council has very often underfunded the requests in the past few decades, and that not only has seen MCPS have to make adjustment to its capital project plans (again, they can and do shift funding as part of that), but also has left us with a very much larger infrastructure deficit than we should have -- see those Wootton delays as cases in point.

All plans are speculative, and this one is not mine, it's MCPS's -- I'm just laying out what I understand, and that, itself, is prone to error.  However, that uncertainty is no reason for them to avoid planning as best they can.[/quote]

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