Anonymous wrote:It's silly to make a decision between, say, Lynnbrook, Coffield, and RCH on the basis of whether MCPS or the Parks Department currently owns the land. There may be real reasons why one or more of those works better as school, or as a park, than the others, but the decision ought to be made on that basis, and not on whether the Parks dept. "refuses" to give up the land.

Quite right, but if the owner refuses to sell, than it is a No Go. Lynnbrook is a GO, because the owner is MCPS and Parks might agreel. Coffield (rightful name, Rosemary Hills Lyttonsville Local Park, is a No Go, for a variety or reasons, RCH is a Go because MCPS has a reclaim clause, but the location stinks).

My kids are out of this race- having finished Bethesda Elementary/Westland/BCC - but Lynnbrook is a mystery. My dentist's mother worked there in an adminstrative role and he joked about 'a dozen old ladies roaming the halls' of the part that wasn't the day care center. What is MCPS doing with that place?

Anonymous wrote:One of the problems with Lynnbrook is that it is right at the BARE minimum acreage of the smallest middle school site that MCPS can imagine. Another problem is that teams from B-CC are already using all the fields there in the afternoons, so that leaves B-CC looking for different fields if the MS is built there and MS kids start using the fields.

Co-Location, ever heard of that? Sorry, the rest of the county should sacrifice heavily used parks because BCC soft ball teams are using Lynnbrook fields?

At 10+ acres, the site works, MCPS already owns 3 out of 6 parcels, the activity buildings has been closed for a couple of years due to UNDERUSE.

What is not clear about this?

Is NCC Park a serious possibility? Has anyone ever sat on that section of Jones Bridge Road between the hours of 7am and 6pm? While I'm totally prepared to believe that the park is underutilized, I can't imagine that adding a zillion school bus trips each day is really going to be viable given BRAC and the existing beltway traffic.

It's silly to make a decision between, say, Lynnbrook, Coffield, and RCH on the basis of whether MCPS or the Parks Department currently owns the land. There may be real reasons why one or more of those works better as school, or as a park, than the others, but the decision ought to be made on that basis, and not on whether the Parks dept. "refuses" to give up the land.

One of the problems with Lynnbrook is that it is right at the BARE minimum acreage of the smallest middle school site that MCPS can imagine. Another problem is that teams from B-CC are already using all the fields there in the afternoons, so that leaves B-CC looking for different fields if the MS is built there and MS kids start using the fields.

Anonymous wrote:Starr is easily conned. Look at how hard he fell for perpetuating the Rosemary Hills scam.

What Rosemary Hills Scam? Did I miss something?

"Lynbrook is the one I was thinking of. I understand it's on the small side, but I wonder if having the MS so close to the high school would have benefits that might offset that somehow."

It is actually not too small. It would be on the small side but then in the down county area, you just are not going to find up county acreage. I have heard from many other parents that Lynnbrook would be a centrally, well located choice for a middle school. I don't understand why the first SSAC dismissed it so quickly. I read in the report folks were concerned about increased traffic through their streets...But wouldn't that be a concern across the board at most all the sites? It certainly should not be a greater concern for that neighborhood. Plus as the previous poster said, it has a great walkability factor.

Though I do think that the crosshairs are fixed on Rock Creek Hills. Still, Bethesda is a much better location.

My two cents.

Lynnbrook is the no brainer obvious choice. The MCPS already owns the property, the current buildings are already falling apart and will very soon need major renovation (or tear down). Parks has already said they will WORK with MCPS on Lynnbrook, thereby not losing any rectangular fields. Lynnbrook has a minimal amount of administrative employees, they are largely leased out to a PRIVATE day care center, and already big MCPS buses ride up and down those streets with several routes taking daycare students to and from 4 MCPS elementary schools. And we could have a terrific middle school that MANY OF US COULD WALK TO. A real community middle school, and it would be a wonderful asset for us, so no, we are NOT nimbys.

Parks has made it very clear that they are not willing to give up one square foot of unencumbered park land (sorry RCH, you are considered encumbered with reclaim clause) and so when I hear that the second SSAC is building consensus to recommend NCC Park...I just think they are setting themselves up for failure. If those families in RCH want to not end up as "The Top Pick", they should start lobbying for a good hard look at Lynnbrook, because that is the fiscally responsible and smart choice.

Can someone explain this from the start? Just moving into Chevy Chase or Bethesda and trying to figure out how to tell if my child would be attending the new middle school, and if the new school will be better or worse than the existing two.

RE: "the existing two" - there is currently only one middle school in the B-CC cluster: Westland. It is already overcrowded and slated to get uncomfortably so over the next decade.

If you are in that district and your kid is below 2nd grade today they will, if not they go to Westland

RE: "If you are in that district" - redistricting, i.e. deciding which elementary school clusters will attend the new middle school vs. which ones will stay at Westland, will not occur until way after the site selection process.

The superintendent wants the new middle school to open by August 2017. There is a lot of information here: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/facilities/REM/

Now for the opinion part of this post:

What's wrong with the properties on that list? Why are these neighborhoods so hysterically opposed to having a middle school in their midst? We're not talking about a psychiatric institution or a maximum security prison; we're talking about a school that would benefit the community itself. I just don't understand the attitude at all.

I TOTALLY agree. My husband and I shared pretty much these same exact thoughts in a conversation yesterday.

Anonymous wrote:1115PP, what planet are you from? I'm not a country club person in the least, but it's basically absurd to suggest that the county expropriate the Columbia Country Club to build a new middle school. There is no legal basis for doing so, and it would cost a gazillion dollars to buy that land. There is a list of possible sites for the new middle school, many of which are buildings that used to be schools. What's wrong with the properties on that list? Why are these neighborhoods so hysterically opposed to having a middle school in their midst? We're not talking about a psychiatric institution or a maximum security prison; we're talking about a school that would benefit the community itself. I just don't understand the attitude at all.

I agree with you.

Anonymous wrote:Westland and Norwood aren't terribly close in location, although I guess that would be further west than the first two tries. I recall there was some issue of a historic property at Norwood that got it knocked off the list last time around, but truthfully I always figured that this location as well as Lynbrook would provoke even fiercer and more deep-pocketed opposition than the Coffield or RCH options. Those are much pricier neighborhoods than Kensington and Rosemary Hills, and presumably a very high lawyer population who'd like nothing better than to organize a pro bono challenge to any community facility in their midst. But maybe I'm wrong? Maybe RCH is an anomaly, and other fancier hoods would be happy to have a school?

At least we would not have the issue of have and have nots. Both schools will be in the economically advantaged area.

Starr is easily conned. Look at how hard he fell for perpetuating the Rosemary Hills scam.

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain this from the start? Just moving into Chevy Chase or Bethesda and trying to figure out how to tell if my child would be attending the new middle school, and if the new school will be better or worse than the existing two.

If you are in that district and your kid is below 2nd grade today they will, if not they go to Westland

Can someone explain this from the start? Just moving into Chevy Chase or Bethesda and trying to figure out how to tell if my child would be attending the new middle school, and if the new school will be better or worse than the existing two.