Reply to Woodward Auditorium Construction Advocacy Ahead of Monday County Council Meeting

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Reply to "Woodward Auditorium Construction Advocacy Ahead of Monday County Council Meeting"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
MoCo Council’s Joint Operating Committee for Government Opportunities and Economic Development will be meeting at 9am Monday morning (4/29). Several councilmembers have put forward bills and are requesting to fund them using the County’s reserves. The merits of these bills notwithstanding, they should be funded through the regular budget as operating expenses. Reserves are intended for special, one-time cases like the auditorium at Woodward High School.  The Northwood community is asking for parents to contact the County Council prior to the meeting tomorrow (4/29) to express concern and ask that these funds be used for the auditorium.

In the case of many Northwood families, please email: Councilmember.Stewart@montgomerycountymd.gov

Here's a sample letter that you can use:
***
Dear [Councilmember Stewart],

My name is ___________ and I live in ____________.  I/my child(ren) attend/graduated Northwood High School and they will attend Northwood@Woodward, also known as NorthWoodward.

After decades of fighting for a new high school and being promised that our holding facility would provide the full range of academic and programmatic infrastructure, it is egregious that construction of the auditorium at Woodward is being delayed to Phase III. I am requesting that the County Council allocate $20 million from its reserves for this one-time, non-recurring expense to keep the auditorium’s construction on schedule and part of Phase II.

I am disappointed that there are several bills currently under consideration that would tap into the reserves. Those proposals should be funded through the budget as operating expenses. I urge you and your colleagues to instead use reserve funds to ensure students in the Down County Consortium have equitable access to high school programming.

Sincerely,

Your Name
Street Address
City State
Email
[/quote]

If this is meant for Northwood stakeholders, [b]it'd better say "to ensure the auditorium is completed by this summer" instead of "part of Phase II."[/b]  Phase II is whst helps the WJ folks -- construction [i]while[/i] Northwood temporarily occupies Phase I.

It's not that I don't think the students/community that ultimately occupies a completed Woodward shouldn't have an auditorium, but let's not co-opt Northwood folks to advocate for anything less than having access to an on-campus auditorium [i]themselves[/i].[/quote]

Completing the auditorium by this summer is not on the table. Northwood families knew their first year at Woodward would be without an auditorium. But they were expecting it to be available for the second (and now, third) year. That can still happen if funding is secured.[/quote]

Then they should be getting [i]Woodward[/i] families to advocate for its completion by next summer at the latest.  Asking Northwood families to advocate for something that would only benefit them for a single year [i]if[/i] it doesn't slip again (as many of these things do) is asking DCC to carry the W's water.

It's pretty bad, no matter how you look at it, but, without getting something more substantive, the political capital is better spent elsewhere.[/quote]

There are no Woodward families yet.[/quote]

This.  Eventually, Woodward families will come from WJ, DCC, and maybe even Whitman and BCC.  But in  true MCPS fashion, no one yet knows who will be a Woodward family[/quote]

Sure, no one knows with absolute certainty until approval, but the writing is on the wall and you have the order a bit out of whack:

WJ, primarily.

Then adjustments to Whitman, BCC, Einstein and Wheaton, but not clearing the projected overcrowding of the latter two.  More of Einstein might be sent east to Northwood when it's complete (partially).  Blair would see more students passing right by on the way to Northwood, too.

A very small number of DCC students accessing the Woodward magnet program when that can be stood up (? Phase III).

The end result will be relatively comfortable capacity and relatively reasonable catchment boundaries for the Ws/BCC, and continued overcrowding and less reasonable catchment boundaries for the DCC.[/quote]

True that.[/quote]

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