Does anyone know if there is a scheduled meeting to address all of these questions about option H? I feel like the board just dumped this on us last week. Bits and pieces are making their way through the rumor mill but when do we get real information?

Anonymous wrote:Did it occur to no one that maybe Wootton is considered for moving to Crown because of the 3 HSs named by Taylor as needing construction (Wootton, Magruder, Damascus), Wootton is the closest in proximity to the new building?

So not Wootton entitlement or being the loudest. Some people need to give the diatribe against Wootton/Asians a rest.

Under option H, would Damascus move into Wootton then as a holding school? I did not see this information anywhere

Did it occur to no one that maybe Wootton is considered for moving to Crown because of the 3 HSs named by Taylor as needing construction (Wootton, Magruder, Damascus), Wootton is the closest in proximity to the new building?

So not Wootton entitlement or being the loudest. Some people need to give the diatribe against Wootton/Asians a rest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes zero sense to build a new HS and fix up a crumbling one when enrollment is decreasing, budgets are being cut, and tax revenue is down.

The kids will be fine taking a bus instead of walking. Thousands of kids do it in MCPS. They will be fine.

More like 50% of the kids who can walk to Wootton will be forced to take a bus. That means their parents will have to drive to pick up for after school activities, further clogging the roads around Crown.

Wootton can be repaired in the interim, and renovated in the long term. It's just that MCPS doesn't want to do that.

They will survive. Gosh, how do the rest of us schlubs manage put our kids on the bus and drive to pick them up after school for activities.

Moco tax revenues are down. Enrollment is declining. Makes zero sense to rebuild Wootton for a few neighborhoods to have to take a bus.

I don't work for MCPS, and I think it's a stupid idea to fix Wootton AND open Crown.

It’s stupid idea to build crown. MCPS’s mismanagement is undeniable. They poured resources into opening an unnecessary school while neglecting Wootton’s needs, now forcing Wootton to become the victim of their poor planning and lose its current building where they belong for 50+ years. It’s no different from Silver Spring international middle school which is forced to close.

Have you been following anything? The land was a gift to MCPS. And if they didn't build something there it would have been taken away.

There are many things I fault MCPS with, but not building Crown.

Its the Wootton families who are making it a big deal because more blacks and browns and poors will be part of that school.

They want to self segregate. It made sense to build Crown. Now it makes sense to give it to Wootton.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Sorry to be insensitive. But this sounds like a choice of “eat sh*t” vs “eat a big load of sh*t”, at least for some families.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wootton is the most hated school in the county for racist reasons…we don’t have the levels of other W schools yet our average SAT results and MCAP pass rates are higher. We are a majority minority school where most parents are immigrants to this country. Unfortunately we have the wrong kind of minority that woke justice warriors like to dump on. Every other thread is about Wootton. It’s insane. Yes, we don’t fit your crazed racial narratives. We are sorry for having a student body of capable kids.

Wootton parents are complaining about the facilities and want immediate action. Due to the wasteful spending with no accountability or transparency, there is NO money to repair or replace the failing schools, and Wootton is not alone; they are just the ones making the biggest fuss. So, MCPS came up with a solution to give them Crown. That's not an unreasonable solution.

Wootton families get penalized by MCPS poor planning and wasteful spending?

Do you not understand how many schools are in the same condition but the difference is you are being offered a brand new school nearby! Plus, your kids get access to so many more courses, clubs and activities while ours get the absolute minimum. I’d take that new school over our mold infested one.

Some wootton families dont want a new school. They want to stay where they are, and asking for a renovation of school. MCPS planned poorly with the budget, spending millions of dollars on a new school, and now they are saying they dont have enough enrollment, so Wootton has to go?

The county is losing $800+ million in revenue over the next 6 years, enrollment is declining, and there is a brand new $300 million dollar high school 2.5 miles from one that needs to be torn down. In what universe do we build an additional $300 million dollar school under these circumstances?

Was it bad planning? Yes. Was it preventable? Yes. But this is where we are today and dragging the county into more bonding when debt service is already a huge chunk of the budget is not the solution. Nor is raising income tax or property tax unless you want middle-class and upper-middle class homeowners to revolt.

It’s not ideal but it’s the best of a bunch of bad options and personally, it’s the first time I can recall MCPS actually proposing something practical rather than aspirational since the Great Recession.

I don’t disagree that the county faces major fiscal pressure — but that’s exactly why we need better planning, not short-term fixes that create bigger long-term problems. Moving an entire cluster into Crown is not a cost-saving plan; it’s a way of avoiding the consequences of past planning mistakes, and it doesn’t actually eliminate the need to rebuild Wootton. The building will not magically fix itself simply because its students are reassigned. Whether Wootton is occupied or not, MCPS will still eventually have to address a failing facility, and pushing that cost down the road does not make it go away.

The point is.. MCPS doesn't really need another HS due to falling enrollment. There will be a brand new HS. The best use of it is to close the neighboring crumbling HS and move the students to the new HS.

But, yes, MCPS is a hot mess and needs better CIP planning. But, the two things are not mutually exclusive. IMO, making Crown into Wootton 2.0 is good CIP planning.

Nope my kid can walk home from wootton or take a city bus they can not from crown nope nope nope

If Wootton parents really don't want a nice new building at Crown and would prefer to stay at the crappy current building, fine. But don't expect the rest of us to pay for renovations to the current Wootton building. You had your choice, you decided that walkability or whatever was more important than a good building, then live with the issues at the Wootton building indefinitely. You don't get to have it both ways

How is "we'll give you a nice new building slightly further away from your house" asking them to eat sh*t? Do they not understand that "your high school might be a couple miles further away from you" and/or "there will be some fairly modest changes to your high school's boundaries" is exactly what a huge share of us across the county are dealing with right now, and we don't even get a nice building out of it? Do Wootton families think they're so special that they should be guaranteed a walkable school, no boundary changes, AMD tons of expensive renovations, while the rest of us get only one or none of those things? Sorry, guys, you have to choose.

Why don’t they move Magruder there? Or Damascus? Why Wootton only?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes zero sense to build a new HS and fix up a crumbling one when enrollment is decreasing, budgets are being cut, and tax revenue is down.

The kids will be fine taking a bus instead of walking. Thousands of kids do it in MCPS. They will be fine.

More like 50% of the kids who can walk to Wootton will be forced to take a bus. That means their parents will have to drive to pick up for after school activities, further clogging the roads around Crown.

Wootton can be repaired in the interim, and renovated in the long term. It's just that MCPS doesn't want to do that.

They will survive. Gosh, how do the rest of us schlubs manage put our kids on the bus and drive to pick them up after school for activities.

Moco tax revenues are down. Enrollment is declining. Makes zero sense to rebuild Wootton for a few neighborhoods to have to take a bus.

I don't work for MCPS, and I think it's a stupid idea to fix Wootton AND open Crown.

It’s stupid idea to build crown. MCPS’s mismanagement is undeniable. They poured resources into opening an unnecessary school while neglecting Wootton’s needs, now forcing Wootton to become the victim of their poor planning and lose its current building where they belong for 50+ years. It’s no different from Silver Spring international middle school which is forced to close.

Sure, MCPS sucks, but when they started to build Crown, all of the surrounding HS were projected to be over capacity, and they didn't have this regional model concept.

Now, they are projecting enrollment declines, and we have a huge budget issue.

Yes, they should've fixed Wootton a while ago, but there were a lot of schools that needed to be fixed in the CIP.

So, here we are, declining enrollments, budget issues, a brand new HS, and another HS next to that new build that is falling apart.

Common sense is to move the Wootton kids to Crown.

This. Move Wootton to Crown, move many feeders to QO and Crown and improve QO and Crown. Wootton will not suffer much because of this (other than the parents crying about mixing with the brown and black people).

Wootton is not that special that they get to segregate all the Asians there. Spread them around to improve the other schools. Tiger parents will make the other schools also better.

They may help make the test scores and ratings better but it won't help the struggling students.

Here are the total enrollment numbers, enrollments for Blacks/African American and Hispanic/Latinos and their 2025 MCAP proficiency rates for the Wootton feeder schools:

------------------------------
MCPS
Total enrollment: 159181
Overall FARMS Rate 42.9
Total Black/African American count: 34293
Total Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity count: 56716

MCAP Proficiency rates:
ELA All 57
FARMS 35
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 34.3
Black/African American 48.3


Math All 35.7
FARMS 15.4
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 15.7
Black/African American 22.9


Looking at the feeder elementary schools for Wootton:


Cold Spring
Total enrollment: 362
Overall FARMS Rate 8.2
Total Black/African American count: 25
Total Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity count: 31

MCAP Proficiency rates:
ELA All 84.2
FARMS 83.3
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 75
Black/African American 75


Math All 85.5
FARMS 79.2
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 90
Black/African American 47.1

Dufief
Total enrollment: 276
Overall FARMS Rate 19.1
Total Black/African American count: 46
Total Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity count: 40


MCAP Proficiency rates:
ELA All 57.8
FARMS 8.7
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 21.4
Black/African American 41.7


Math All 58.8
FARMS 5
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 26.7
Black/African American 33.3



Fallsmead
Total enrollment: 512
Overall FARMS Rate 21.2
Total Black/African American count: 55
Total Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity count: 76


MCAP Proficiency rates:
ELA All 73.9
FARMS 56.4
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 63.9
Black/African American 52.6


Math All 72.2
FARMS 53.4
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 50
Black/African American 57.9




Lakewood
Total enrollment: 406
Overall FARMS Rate 21.9
Total Black/African American count: 70
Total Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity count: 48


MCAP Proficiency rates:
ELA All 73.6
FARMS 42.1
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 62.5
Black/African American 50


Math All 68
FARMS 32.5
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 47.1
Black/African American 33.3




Stone Mill
Total enrollment: 516
Overall FARMS Rate 15.5
Total Black/African American count: 55
Total Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity count: 65


MCAP Proficiency rates:
ELA All 73.6
FARMS 58.3
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 60
Black/African American 57.1


Math All 74.1
FARMS 44.4
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 50
Black/African American 54.3



Travilah
Total enrollment: 372
Overall FARMS Rate 15.5
Total Black/African American count: 35
Total Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity count: 55

MCAP Proficiency rates:
ELA All 82.2
FARMS 62.5
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 73.3
Black/African American 69.6


Math All 74.7
FARMS 60.6
Hispanic/Latino of any ethnicity 68.8
Black/African American 41.7


---------------------------------

It's good that almost all of the groups at the schools are above the county averages. But look at Dufief. Dufief is middle of the pack when it comes to the FARMS rate out of those schools but barely above the county average for the ELA proficiency rates for all students. Then the FARMS, Hispanic/Latino and Black/African American subgroups have proficiency averages below the county average for the ELA test. Their FARMS student has a proficiency percentage of 5 percent compared to the county average of 15.4 percent.

Same thing with Stone Mill. Stone Mill is tied for the second lowest FARMS rate in the cluster with Travilah. However for overall ELA proficiency they're tied with Lakewood (which has a higher FARMS rate at 21.9 percent and highest in the cluster), only beating out Dufief. Their subgroups for ELA isn't bad. And their math numbers aren't bad, other then their FARMS Math proficiency rates are at the bottom three.

Cold Spring has great numbers but their populate of the FARMS, Hispanic/Latino Black/African American are small. So just one or two students can change the percentages a lot. And they also have the gifted program and more high performing students there.

This is just to point out, that even if demographics are spread out and evenly distributed, it doesn't necessarily help struggling students. To truly help struggling students would require a more quality of education and more resources need to be devoted to make sure they are truly understanding the material. Mixing up the demographics just kind of hides them.

Anonymous wrote:How much does being three miles from a high school effect housing price. From what I've seen even in rural areas with easy drives, it knocks of a hundred or two hundred grand from the price of the house.

Most people would prefer a school that is a seven or eight over being three miles in congested traffic from the school.

It does not. If we go by proximity to a high school, Travilah ES and Dufief ES should go to QO not Wootton. The homes in Travilah are 1.5 million while those in QO are 900K.

Its just the reputation of the school and Wootton will not suffer if they move to Crown. Their branding still stands. Wootton parents want it all - a new school building, and it has to be closer to home, while the rest of us pay taxes to renovate Wootton, when a new one already exists in Crown and can pull Wootton families.

They should pull in from Gaithersburg, QO and Wootton to make a NEW Wootton at Crown. I'm not familiar with the RM, Churchill, Rockville, Whitman and their proximities, but change the boundary for them too. Redistrict everyone and fill up Crown. Demolish the existing Wootton building.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes zero sense to build a new HS and fix up a crumbling one when enrollment is decreasing, budgets are being cut, and tax revenue is down.

The kids will be fine taking a bus instead of walking. Thousands of kids do it in MCPS. They will be fine.

More like 50% of the kids who can walk to Wootton will be forced to take a bus. That means their parents will have to drive to pick up for after school activities, further clogging the roads around Crown.

Wootton can be repaired in the interim, and renovated in the long term. It's just that MCPS doesn't want to do that.

They will survive. Gosh, how do the rest of us schlubs manage put our kids on the bus and drive to pick them up after school for activities.

Moco tax revenues are down. Enrollment is declining. Makes zero sense to rebuild Wootton for a few neighborhoods to have to take a bus.

I don't work for MCPS, and I think it's a stupid idea to fix Wootton AND open Crown.

It’s stupid idea to build crown. MCPS’s mismanagement is undeniable. They poured resources into opening an unnecessary school while neglecting Wootton’s needs, now forcing Wootton to become the victim of their poor planning and lose its current building where they belong for 50+ years. It’s no different from Silver Spring international middle school which is forced to close.

Sure, MCPS sucks, but when they started to build Crown, all of the surrounding HS were projected to be over capacity, and they didn't have this regional model concept.

Now, they are projecting enrollment declines, and we have a huge budget issue.

Yes, they should've fixed Wootton a while ago, but there were a lot of schools that needed to be fixed in the CIP.

So, here we are, declining enrollments, budget issues, a brand new HS, and another HS next to that new build that is falling apart.

Common sense is to move the Wootton kids to Crown.

This. Move Wootton to Crown, move many feeders to QO and Crown and improve QO and Crown. Wootton will not suffer much because of this (other than the parents crying about mixing with the brown and black people).

Wootton is not that special that they get to segregate all the Asians there. Spread them around to improve the other schools. Tiger parents will make the other schools also better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes zero sense to build a new HS and fix up a crumbling one when enrollment is decreasing, budgets are being cut, and tax revenue is down.

The kids will be fine taking a bus instead of walking. Thousands of kids do it in MCPS. They will be fine.

More like 50% of the kids who can walk to Wootton will be forced to take a bus. That means their parents will have to drive to pick up for after school activities, further clogging the roads around Crown.

Wootton can be repaired in the interim, and renovated in the long term. It's just that MCPS doesn't want to do that.

They will survive. Gosh, how do the rest of us schlubs manage put our kids on the bus and drive to pick them up after school for activities.

Moco tax revenues are down. Enrollment is declining. Makes zero sense to rebuild Wootton for a few neighborhoods to have to take a bus.

I don't work for MCPS, and I think it's a stupid idea to fix Wootton AND open Crown.

It’s stupid idea to build crown. MCPS’s mismanagement is undeniable. They poured resources into opening an unnecessary school while neglecting Wootton’s needs, now forcing Wootton to become the victim of their poor planning and lose its current building where they belong for 50+ years. It’s no different from Silver Spring international middle school which is forced to close.

Have you been following anything? The land was a gift to MCPS. And if they didn't build something there it would have been taken away.

There are many things I fault MCPS with, but not building Crown.

Its the Wootton families who are making it a big deal because more blacks and browns and poors will be part of that school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wootton is the most hated school in the county for racist reasons…we don’t have the levels of other W schools yet our average SAT results and MCAP pass rates are higher. We are a majority minority school where most parents are immigrants to this country. Unfortunately we have the wrong kind of minority that woke justice warriors like to dump on. Every other thread is about Wootton. It’s insane. Yes, we don’t fit your crazed racial narratives. We are sorry for having a student body of capable kids.

Wootton parents are complaining about the facilities and want immediate action. Due to the wasteful spending with no accountability or transparency, there is NO money to repair or replace the failing schools, and Wootton is not alone; they are just the ones making the biggest fuss. So, MCPS came up with a solution to give them Crown. That's not an unreasonable solution.

Instead of spending tens of millions on the unpopular regions model, MCPS should do option 1 (Strengthen local schools—add programs the students at that school want, not add every single program) and fix schools like Sherwood and Wootton.

Lotds of schools need fixed and they aren't going to increase offerings at most schools. Move on from that.

Anonymous wrote:How much does being three miles from a high school effect housing price. From what I've seen even in rural areas with easy drives, it knocks of a hundred or two hundred grand from the price of the house.

Most people would prefer a school that is a seven or eight over being three miles in congested traffic from the school.

Honestly, having grown up in the area, I thought for sure that we'd move into the Fallsmead or Rockshire neighborhoods because had a lot of happy memories there.

But when shopping for homes there, kind of saw that you're really just paying for the proximity for the good schools.

The homes are old, expensive and a lot of the lots are really weird, I think because there are a lot of elevation changes in that area.

If the Crown school will eventually incorporate more parts of Gaithersburg, it will give more options to look at in the area and are closer to the school.

So think that homeowners in the communities near the current Wootton location are justifiably concerned about the impact on their home values. They still have the elementary and middle schools going for them. But buyers can look at additional options too.

How much does being three miles from a high school effect housing price. From what I've seen even in rural areas with easy drives, it knocks of a hundred or two hundred grand from the price of the house.

Most people would prefer a school that is a seven or eight over being three miles in congested traffic from the school.

Seriously? I have no doubt some Wootton families, perhaps the majority, welcome the move. But clearly not everyone.

For those who are unhappy, MCPS failed them for a long time and now asks them to give up even more.

Perhaps you may understand this better: a bully beat up a kid and knocked off the poor kid’s tooth. The bully then offers new dentures and expects the kid to swallow the broken tooth and shut up.

At the same, some bystanders are trying to silence that poor kid claiming this is the best solution moving forward.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Sorry to be insensitive. But this sounds like a choice of “eat sh*t” vs “eat a big load of sh*t”, at least for some families.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wootton is the most hated school in the county for racist reasons…we don’t have the levels of other W schools yet our average SAT results and MCAP pass rates are higher. We are a majority minority school where most parents are immigrants to this country. Unfortunately we have the wrong kind of minority that woke justice warriors like to dump on. Every other thread is about Wootton. It’s insane. Yes, we don’t fit your crazed racial narratives. We are sorry for having a student body of capable kids.

Wootton parents are complaining about the facilities and want immediate action. Due to the wasteful spending with no accountability or transparency, there is NO money to repair or replace the failing schools, and Wootton is not alone; they are just the ones making the biggest fuss. So, MCPS came up with a solution to give them Crown. That's not an unreasonable solution.

Wootton families get penalized by MCPS poor planning and wasteful spending?

Do you not understand how many schools are in the same condition but the difference is you are being offered a brand new school nearby! Plus, your kids get access to so many more courses, clubs and activities while ours get the absolute minimum. I’d take that new school over our mold infested one.

Some wootton families dont want a new school. They want to stay where they are, and asking for a renovation of school. MCPS planned poorly with the budget, spending millions of dollars on a new school, and now they are saying they dont have enough enrollment, so Wootton has to go?

The county is losing $800+ million in revenue over the next 6 years, enrollment is declining, and there is a brand new $300 million dollar high school 2.5 miles from one that needs to be torn down. In what universe do we build an additional $300 million dollar school under these circumstances?

Was it bad planning? Yes. Was it preventable? Yes. But this is where we are today and dragging the county into more bonding when debt service is already a huge chunk of the budget is not the solution. Nor is raising income tax or property tax unless you want middle-class and upper-middle class homeowners to revolt.

It’s not ideal but it’s the best of a bunch of bad options and personally, it’s the first time I can recall MCPS actually proposing something practical rather than aspirational since the Great Recession.

I don’t disagree that the county faces major fiscal pressure — but that’s exactly why we need better planning, not short-term fixes that create bigger long-term problems. Moving an entire cluster into Crown is not a cost-saving plan; it’s a way of avoiding the consequences of past planning mistakes, and it doesn’t actually eliminate the need to rebuild Wootton. The building will not magically fix itself simply because its students are reassigned. Whether Wootton is occupied or not, MCPS will still eventually have to address a failing facility, and pushing that cost down the road does not make it go away.

The point is.. MCPS doesn't really need another HS due to falling enrollment. There will be a brand new HS. The best use of it is to close the neighboring crumbling HS and move the students to the new HS.

But, yes, MCPS is a hot mess and needs better CIP planning. But, the two things are not mutually exclusive. IMO, making Crown into Wootton 2.0 is good CIP planning.

Nope my kid can walk home from wootton or take a city bus they can not from crown nope nope nope

If Wootton parents really don't want a nice new building at Crown and would prefer to stay at the crappy current building, fine. But don't expect the rest of us to pay for renovations to the current Wootton building. You had your choice, you decided that walkability or whatever was more important than a good building, then live with the issues at the Wootton building indefinitely. You don't get to have it both ways

How is "we'll give you a nice new building slightly further away from your house" asking them to eat sh*t? Do they not understand that "your high school might be a couple miles further away from you" and/or "there will be some fairly modest changes to your high school's boundaries" is exactly what a huge share of us across the county are dealing with right now, and we don't even get a nice building out of it? Do Wootton families think they're so special that they should be guaranteed a walkable school, no boundary changes, AMD tons of expensive renovations, while the rest of us get only one or none of those things? Sorry, guys, you have to choose.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wootton is the most hated school in the county for racist reasons…we don’t have the levels of other W schools yet our average SAT results and MCAP pass rates are higher. We are a majority minority school where most parents are immigrants to this country. Unfortunately we have the wrong kind of minority that woke justice warriors like to dump on. Every other thread is about Wootton. It’s insane. Yes, we don’t fit your crazed racial narratives. We are sorry for having a student body of capable kids.

Wootton parents are complaining about the facilities and want immediate action. Due to the wasteful spending with no accountability or transparency, there is NO money to repair or replace the failing schools, and Wootton is not alone; they are just the ones making the biggest fuss. So, MCPS came up with a solution to give them Crown. That's not an unreasonable solution.

Wootton families get penalized by MCPS poor planning and wasteful spending?

Do you not understand how many schools are in the same condition but the difference is you are being offered a brand new school nearby! Plus, your kids get access to so many more courses, clubs and activities while ours get the absolute minimum. I’d take that new school over our mold infested one.

Some wootton families dont want a new school. They want to stay where they are, and asking for a renovation of school. MCPS planned poorly with the budget, spending millions of dollars on a new school, and now they are saying they dont have enough enrollment, so Wootton has to go?

The county is losing $800+ million in revenue over the next 6 years, enrollment is declining, and there is a brand new $300 million dollar high school 2.5 miles from one that needs to be torn down. In what universe do we build an additional $300 million dollar school under these circumstances?

Was it bad planning? Yes. Was it preventable? Yes. But this is where we are today and dragging the county into more bonding when debt service is already a huge chunk of the budget is not the solution. Nor is raising income tax or property tax unless you want middle-class and upper-middle class homeowners to revolt.

It’s not ideal but it’s the best of a bunch of bad options and personally, it’s the first time I can recall MCPS actually proposing something practical rather than aspirational since the Great Recession.

I don’t disagree that the county faces major fiscal pressure — but that’s exactly why we need better planning, not short-term fixes that create bigger long-term problems. Moving an entire cluster into Crown is not a cost-saving plan; it’s a way of avoiding the consequences of past planning mistakes, and it doesn’t actually eliminate the need to rebuild Wootton. The building will not magically fix itself simply because its students are reassigned. Whether Wootton is occupied or not, MCPS will still eventually have to address a failing facility, and pushing that cost down the road does not make it go away.

The point is.. MCPS doesn't really need another HS due to falling enrollment. There will be a brand new HS. The best use of it is to close the neighboring crumbling HS and move the students to the new HS.

But, yes, MCPS is a hot mess and needs better CIP planning. But, the two things are not mutually exclusive. IMO, making Crown into Wootton 2.0 is good CIP planning.

Nope my kid can walk home from wootton or take a city bus they can not from crown nope nope nope

If Wootton parents really don't want a nice new building at Crown and would prefer to stay at the crappy current building, fine. But don't expect the rest of us to pay for renovations to the current Wootton building. You had your choice, you decided that walkability or whatever was more important than a good building, then live with the issues at the Wootton building indefinitely. You don't get to have it both ways

It's fun to watch Wooton take one for team good schools, keep all of those property prices like they should be except. Wooton.

You mean because they're shooting themselves in the foot insisting on keeping a crappy building forever?

Most moves weren't even considered in the boundary study. Oh no RM has the magnet program.

Are Gaithersburg residents on another forum or website?

All the talk is about Wootton families.

There have been a couple of posts mentioning it but not a lot about how Gaithersburg residents aren't getting the school they were expecting.

Here's a news report with some feedback from some parents in the Gaithersburg area:

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/gaithersburg-parents-upset-over-mcps-new-boundary-plans