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]I"m confused. If they use Crown for Wootton, and move one or two additional GHS neighborhoods to Crown, how does that the overcrowding at the neighboring schools like RM, QO, NW?[/quote]

It doesn't.  It achieves the following:

1. Removes the political pressure from Wootton families on MCPS to remediate (not renovate) issues at Wootton
2. Removes Wootton from the Capital Improvement Plan in 2035 (after being removed twice previously, but now permanently - third time's a charm)
3. Moves the Wootton boundary to include GHS neighborhoods by moving Wootton 3 miles, achieving previous boundary study goals/recommendations that were rejected
4. Redistributes the high achievers from Wootton to a new school and mixes them with kids from much lower-achieving school(s), hoping for improved grades by peer influence
5. Removes the political pressure from vocal, non-W school neighborhoods that such schools are bastions of white, privileged, rich families
6. Frees up prime real estate on Wootton Parkway for substantial residential development, enriching a developer that will make campaign contributions for years to come
7. Covers up a mistake by MCPS in accepting "free land" and building a new high school in a congested, high-traffic area right off the highway
8. Generates more tax revenues from increased business at the shops and restaurants surrounding Crown (and potential campaign contributions for years to come from those businesses)[/quote]

1) Yes.  But, location aside for the moment, it does much, much better with a new facility than remediation or even renovation from a facilities perspective.

2) Yes.  But it seems that that also means a couple hundred million not spent in comparison, along with those high schools the line after Magruder all being advanced by 2 years.

3) Yes.  But the whole idea of a boundary study is to make things more feasible than they are, utilizing spaces available to relieve the lumpy overcrowding and other differential conditions that arise over the years...and it's been somewhere in the range of 30 since the system has been addressed to this extent.  Honestly, more is needed.

4) A new [i]location[/i], not a new school.  Wootton looks as though it would be  kept relatively whole, unless you are really just underlining a distaste for that inclusion of [i]additional[/i] feeder elementaries

5) Some, yes.  Others simply point out that the opportunities available at some schools should be equivalently available to all, and that, to the extent that they are differentially more available at schools that tend to serve wealthier communities, that dichotomy should be changed.

6) However much Montgomery Planning and the County Council may salivate over that prospect, MCPS knows it would be terribly difficult to get the land it might need in the future, and would be rather loath to part with any currently in its possession.

7) With regard to being right off of a highway in a congested area, this is not unique.  See also: Blair.  See above about the reason MCPS may have decided to acquire the land, and, at the time that decision was made, projections pointed to the need for [i]more[/i] seats, not fewer.

8) Possibly, yes, but likely a rather marginal differential, and not likely to move the needle politically.

This is not to say that any of the points is entirely invalid, but that they are better considered in a more holistic or nuanced context.  There are other considerations mentioned previously in this thread, as well.[/quote]

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