Reply to Crown boundary study Option H

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is the best option:

1. Wootton kids get a brand new school.
2. Best use of a new school as a permanent place and not holding school.
3. Add diversity to “Wootton” by adding crown area. It already has Rio. This is contiguous and good planning.
4. Horizon Hill can no longer talk about not walking to Wootton. RM is as close or closer than Crown.[/quote]

For the most part I don't think there's much to complain about option H.

EXCEPT the walking routes/zones have students walk along and across busy commuter routes and is about a 40 minute walk from some areas on the far edge of the walking zone.

So days like yesterday morning with the heavy rain kind of raises an issue for families who used to have a school bus for their neighborhood and public transit as an option, who would be faced with figuring out how to get their kids to schools with a change to the Crown location where there is no direct public bus route.

If they can resolve that issue, I don't really have any real complaints with option H.  Well maybe making sure all the facilities are available for use too, ie athletic fields, auditorium, etc.

Also everyone is just focusing on the high schools.  But Robert Frost is only one year newer then Wootton, built in 1971 with no major renovations since then.  So likely has the same issues as the current Wootton building.  When will the middle schools be slated for renovations then?[/quote]

This is normal including crossing dangerous roads and no sidewalks in some communities.

Most of the older schools have these problems.  Wootton screamed about their facilities vs others just live with theirs so the best option is to move them to the new building at crown.  [/quote]

I hear you to a certain extent.  Where it has crossed my mind that I'm not sure advocates for renovating Wootton really understood what they were asking for because it would at the very least likely involve students getting bussed to a holding school for a time being.

But at the same time, seeing how old the building is compared to other high schools, don't think that they were wrong saying they want/need a newer school.

I looked into it a little while back and in an old document, MCPS defines a walking shed and walking zone.  A walking shed is the distance in the specified radius of a school that they consider for a walking zone.  But the walking shed is the actual walk zone after they account for potential hazards to see if a route is realistically walkable:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/departments/publicinfo/boundary_analysis/interim-report/02d_proximity.pdf

This kind of explains things because we do see neighborhoods that get bus service for schools even though they are within the specified distance amount.  Those neighborhoods also have no sidewalks, which is why I think they were able to get bus service.  So think similar considerations should be put in place for establishing the walk zone for the Crown HS location.

The list below is from an old document I have with the schools with a last built or renovated/modernized date from the 70s or earlier.  I think there have been some changes since then.  For example Poolesville HS is listed below but sounds like has since been renovated.

Also to note Silver Spring International had a most recent date of 1999.  I haven't been following what is going with that school as much but am not sure why that school was identified to be closed.

Elementary Schools:
Whetstone ES 1968
Greenwood 1970
Strathmore 1970
Watkins Mill ES 1970
Stonegate 1971
Summit Hall 1971
Cold Spring 1972
South Lake 1972
Fields Road 1973
Piney Branch 1973
Belmont 1974
Fallsmead 1974
Fox Chapel 1974
JoAnn LeLeck ES 1974
Stedwick 1974
Woodlin ES 1974
Dufief 1975
Diamond ES 1975
East Silver Spring ES 1975
Sherwood ES 1977
Germantown ES 1978
Poolesvill ES 1978
Takoma Park ES 1979

Middle Schools:
Odessa Shannon MS 1966 
Baker MS 1971
Frost MS 1971
Redland MS 1971
Banneker 1974
Ridgeview MS 1975
Eastern MS 1976

High Schools:
Magruder 1970
Wootton 1970
Damascus 1978
Poolesville 1978-as of old document, sounds like it has been renovated/has a new building since then[/quote]

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