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Anonymous wrote:What will happen is that Wootton parents will reject option H. The county does not have the money to renovate Wootton. Wootton will eventually become too unsafe. Wootton kids will then be split up, separated from their friends, and sent on long commutes to different high schools around the county.

Wootton parents are completely screwing their own kids with their lack of realism on limited money and their magical belief that Wootton HS will ever be renovated.

As a parent in the Wootton cluster-I actually would prefer this than the current choices. I imagine if what you are saying does happen-the schools the different neighborhoods would be sent to would have to make sense geographically. For us as a whole to go to Crown does not.

Are you cold spring? I feel like cold spring is the furthest from crown though also far from Wootton. I would think Cold Spring closing and moving the CES to a different Wootton cluster elementary school and then move the local Cold Spring kids to Beverly Farms and the pocket of Beverly Farms near Cold Spring on the north side of Falls Rd to Wayside. Then all would go to Churchill with some plan for how to handle the middle school splits. Problem is Churchill is only going to get close to 100% utilized with no changes. I’d think a small addition at Churchill to bring its capacity up to 2100-2200 would be wise and further prevent Crown under an option H from getting overcrowded down the road. Also down the road QO definitely needs to be renovated and when that’s done its capacity should increase to 2000-2200 which could allow some overflow absorption. Both of these small additional costs would be a fraction of the Wootton replacement which isn’t needed now.

Of course Crown being built was a mistake but that’s with hindsight being 20-20. At the time it was clearly more justifiable, though I’d have argued at the time that money would be better spent renovating and making larger QO and Wootton, and then doing an addition at Churchill and RM.

This points out the MCPS folly in separating the Crown and Woodward studies. There's no need for Churchill to be overcrowded if there could be cascading shifts towards Whitman and WJ, and the same cascades from those areas & Woodward north.

From the beginning, it should have been all schools at all levels, and that should be done with some regularity. The shifts would not be nearly as dramatic, overcrowding would be a rare outlier, more easily countered with one-off operational considerations, and the system could more effectively and cheaply address CIP needs, from renovation/rebuild to expansion/contraction.

So, you are going to ignore the dcc schools being overcrowded?

Not at all. They are part of "all schools at all levels." "Could be" in the first paragraph indicates that the cascading shifts mentioned were an example, and, given the subject of this thread, the apropos one.

There could be cascading shifts in a number of directions, but constraining the studies has left many such options off the table, leaving the system much worse off than it otherwise could be.

If Wootton does not want Crown they should stay and get to the end of the line for repairs.

I don't think it's Wootton's responsibility to put up with MCPS mistakes. They knew MoCo was losing population and revenue.

That wasn't Wootton's fault, why should Wootton be punished?

There is not infinite money and not every high school will be rebuilt with declining enrollment. There is no fairytale ending where everyone gets what they want.

You and the Wootton community need to wake up to that reality.

That is what Wootton wants. They don't want or need a whole other "holding school" just to make rebuilding more convenient.

MCPS needs own up to their mistakes and stop construction.

Stopping construction at this point would be an even worse financial mistake. They would lose the land and the amount that they put into the 40% that is complete.

At this point, the financially prudent move is to move Wootton to Crown.

It's not prudent a prudent move when you consider the overall impact on the community. Since when has MCPS been financially prudent? If it is a paragon of financial prudence, why did it build Crown in the first place?

You make it sound like moving Wootton to Crown is the ONLY option. It isn't and never has been. Stop privately salivating about how your house value in Gaithersburg will increase.

The financially prudent move is to open Crown for Gaithersburg, use its excess capacity as a holding school for schools on the CIP in the next 5 years, remediate Wootton's immediate problems over the summer of 2026 or 2027, then fully renovate Wootton in 2035.

I’m not sure this is financially prudent, given that so many schools are already in poor condition and that construction would be nonstop regardless of whether Wootton is renovated. Taxes will be raised anyway. Since there would be significant financial gains for certain areas if Wootton moves to Crown, some people on this board are coercing the community to give up the heart of their neighborhood.

That's the point. When faced with ripping out the heart of a community that has been in its current location for 55+ years (3 generations of graduates), why would the community ever agree to this move in exchange for a new school building in a location they never asked for?

The parents who don't live in Wootton (who may not even have kids in school at all) will never understand this. The decision must be made by Wootton parents, not bureaucrats or other people with a personal financial agenda that is NOT aligned with what is in the best interests of the community.

Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Never has. And never should it. The funds used to fix Wootton and build Crown are MoCo taxpayer funds, not Wootton parents funds. The community absolutely does have a say in how taxpayer monies should be spent.

Are you saying Wootton parents don’t pay taxes? Other schools can get renovated but Wootton cannot? Wootton was on CIP for a decade but delayed again and again and then got pushed out. Wootton has the second worst FCI score in the whole county but only ranked number 3 high schools to be renovated now solely because of FARM rate. If crown was not built, Wootton would have already been renovated.

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Anonymous wrote:What will happen is that Wootton parents will reject option H. The county does not have the money to renovate Wootton. Wootton will eventually become too unsafe. Wootton kids will then be split up, separated from their friends, and sent on long commutes to different high schools around the county.

Wootton parents are completely screwing their own kids with their lack of realism on limited money and their magical belief that Wootton HS will ever be renovated.

As a parent in the Wootton cluster-I actually would prefer this than the current choices. I imagine if what you are saying does happen-the schools the different neighborhoods would be sent to would have to make sense geographically. For us as a whole to go to Crown does not.

Are you cold spring? I feel like cold spring is the furthest from crown though also far from Wootton. I would think Cold Spring closing and moving the CES to a different Wootton cluster elementary school and then move the local Cold Spring kids to Beverly Farms and the pocket of Beverly Farms near Cold Spring on the north side of Falls Rd to Wayside. Then all would go to Churchill with some plan for how to handle the middle school splits. Problem is Churchill is only going to get close to 100% utilized with no changes. I’d think a small addition at Churchill to bring its capacity up to 2100-2200 would be wise and further prevent Crown under an option H from getting overcrowded down the road. Also down the road QO definitely needs to be renovated and when that’s done its capacity should increase to 2000-2200 which could allow some overflow absorption. Both of these small additional costs would be a fraction of the Wootton replacement which isn’t needed now.

Of course Crown being built was a mistake but that’s with hindsight being 20-20. At the time it was clearly more justifiable, though I’d have argued at the time that money would be better spent renovating and making larger QO and Wootton, and then doing an addition at Churchill and RM.

This points out the MCPS folly in separating the Crown and Woodward studies. There's no need for Churchill to be overcrowded if there could be cascading shifts towards Whitman and WJ, and the same cascades from those areas & Woodward north.

From the beginning, it should have been all schools at all levels, and that should be done with some regularity. The shifts would not be nearly as dramatic, overcrowding would be a rare outlier, more easily countered with one-off operational considerations, and the system could more effectively and cheaply address CIP needs, from renovation/rebuild to expansion/contraction.

So, you are going to ignore the dcc schools being overcrowded?

Not at all. They are part of "all schools at all levels." "Could be" in the first paragraph indicates that the cascading shifts mentioned were an example, and, given the subject of this thread, the apropos one.

There could be cascading shifts in a number of directions, but constraining the studies has left many such options off the table, leaving the system much worse off than it otherwise could be.

If Wootton does not want Crown they should stay and get to the end of the line for repairs.

I don't think it's Wootton's responsibility to put up with MCPS mistakes. They knew MoCo was losing population and revenue.

That wasn't Wootton's fault, why should Wootton be punished?

There is not infinite money and not every high school will be rebuilt with declining enrollment. There is no fairytale ending where everyone gets what they want.

You and the Wootton community need to wake up to that reality.

That is what Wootton wants. They don't want or need a whole other "holding school" just to make rebuilding more convenient.

MCPS needs own up to their mistakes and stop construction.

Stopping construction at this point would be an even worse financial mistake. They would lose the land and the amount that they put into the 40% that is complete.

At this point, the financially prudent move is to move Wootton to Crown.

It's not prudent a prudent move when you consider the overall impact on the community. Since when has MCPS been financially prudent? If it is a paragon of financial prudence, why did it build Crown in the first place?

You make it sound like moving Wootton to Crown is the ONLY option. It isn't and never has been. Stop privately salivating about how your house value in Gaithersburg will increase.

The financially prudent move is to open Crown for Gaithersburg, use its excess capacity as a holding school for schools on the CIP in the next 5 years, remediate Wootton's immediate problems over the summer of 2026 or 2027, then fully renovate Wootton in 2035.

I’m not sure this is financially prudent, given that so many schools are already in poor condition and that construction would be nonstop regardless of whether Wootton is renovated. Taxes will be raised anyway. Since there would be significant financial gains for certain areas if Wootton moves to Crown, some people on this board are coercing the community to give up the heart of their neighborhood.

That's the point. When faced with ripping out the heart of a community that has been in its current location for 55+ years (3 generations of graduates), why would the community ever agree to this move in exchange for a new school building in a location they never asked for?

The parents who don't live in Wootton (who may not even have kids in school at all) will never understand this. The decision must be made by Wootton parents, not bureaucrats or other people with a personal financial agenda that is NOT aligned with what is in the best interests of the community.

Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Never has. And never should it. The funds used to fix Wootton and build Crown are MoCo taxpayer funds, not Wootton parents funds. The community absolutely does have a say in how taxpayer monies should be spent.

But you're wrong. It generally DOES work that way. Otherwise, why would MCPS ask for input from the Wootton community?

Your bias against and hatred for Wootton is showing.

P.S. Wootton parents vote like everyone else. A few thousand votes can make a difference in elections.

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Anonymous wrote:Wootton families has the loudest voice to the point of annoying. I hope that once you get your wish that option H is not chosen, please do not come back to complain that Wootton HS building is unsafe for kids and want to cut the line to get renovated first. Remember you are #3 in the line. IF Crown HS building becomes a permanent or holding school, don't be shocked and come back to complain. They have to pull neighboring HS kids to fill up seats, and that would also include to redraw the Gaithersburg, Quince Orchard and "Wootton" neighborhood boundaries in a certain way. All options A to H affect most neighborhood in a big or small extent. It is not only about wootton families.

Yeah, it’s interesting that H is so opposed when it’s one of the options that keeps all Wootton students together in the same school. Other options could split them up. But many people seem to just want the school by their house to stay open, but don’t think too much about who else attends it or whether it’s safe.

During the actual meetings the language that has been used for H is “most Wootton students would stay together” There is uncertainty about every option but I think with H it’s even more so because it came out of nowhere and they are not being transparent with what the actual plan is IF Wootton families accept the move. Literally mcps could change things however they want. At least if H is not chosen we still have our school-even if other things are still up in the air.

Oh good for you then, but too bad for some of your feeder schools who will be moving to Crown WITH the Gaithersburg HS kids.

Option H or not, some Wootton kids will be with the Gaithersburg HS kids.

I think you are not correctly reading what I’m saying here. When I said “at least we will still have our school” I meant in the physical sense that Wootton will still be an open functioning high school for at least some of the local community. Regardless of what option is the one that goes through-If/when Crown opens of course the neighborhoods very close to it should be zoned for it-Do you not agree? And also, I thought that is what people wanted? For the neighborhoods walkable and other wise very close to go to that school. Realistically if Crown becomes a regular high school and not JUST a holding school the boundaries are at least going to have to be redrawn somewhat.

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Anonymous wrote:Wootton families has the loudest voice to the point of annoying. I hope that once you get your wish that option H is not chosen, please do not come back to complain that Wootton HS building is unsafe for kids and want to cut the line to get renovated first. Remember you are #3 in the line. IF Crown HS building becomes a permanent or holding school, don't be shocked and come back to complain. They have to pull neighboring HS kids to fill up seats, and that would also include to redraw the Gaithersburg, Quince Orchard and "Wootton" neighborhood boundaries in a certain way. All options A to H affect most neighborhood in a big or small extent. It is not only about wootton families.

Yeah, it’s interesting that H is so opposed when it’s one of the options that keeps all Wootton students together in the same school. Other options could split them up. But many people seem to just want the school by their house to stay open, but don’t think too much about who else attends it or whether it’s safe.

During the actual meetings the language that has been used for H is “most Wootton students would stay together” There is uncertainty about every option but I think with H it’s even more so because it came out of nowhere and they are not being transparent with what the actual plan is IF Wootton families accept the move. Literally mcps could change things however they want. At least if H is not chosen we still have our school-even if other things are still up in the air.

Oh good for you then, but too bad for some of your feeder schools who will be moving to Crown WITH the Gaithersburg HS kids.

Option H or not, some Wootton kids will be with the Gaithersburg HS kids.

Anonymous wrote:Wootton families has the loudest voice to the point of annoying. I hope that once you get your wish that option H is not chosen, please do not come back to complain that Wootton HS building is unsafe for kids and want to cut the line to get renovated first. Remember you are #3 in the line. IF Crown HS building becomes a permanent or holding school, don't be shocked and come back to complain. They have to pull neighboring HS kids to fill up seats, and that would also include to redraw the Gaithersburg, Quince Orchard and "Wootton" neighborhood boundaries in a certain way. All options A to H affect most neighborhood in a big or small extent. It is not only about wootton families.

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Anonymous wrote:Wootton families has the loudest voice to the point of annoying. I hope that once you get your wish that option H is not chosen, please do not come back to complain that Wootton HS building is unsafe for kids and want to cut the line to get renovated first. Remember you are #3 in the line. IF Crown HS building becomes a permanent or holding school, don't be shocked and come back to complain. They have to pull neighboring HS kids to fill up seats, and that would also include to redraw the Gaithersburg, Quince Orchard and "Wootton" neighborhood boundaries in a certain way. All options A to H affect most neighborhood in a big or small extent. It is not only about wootton families.

Yeah, it’s interesting that H is so opposed when it’s one of the options that keeps all Wootton students together in the same school. Other options could split them up. But many people seem to just want the school by their house to stay open, but don’t think too much about who else attends it or whether it’s safe.

During the actual meetings the language that has been used for H is “most Wootton students would stay together” There is uncertainty about every option but I think with H it’s even more so because it came out of nowhere and they are not being transparent with what the actual plan is IF Wootton families accept the move. Literally mcps could change things however they want. At least if H is not chosen we still have our school-even if other things are still up in the air.

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Anonymous wrote:Wootton families has the loudest voice to the point of annoying. I hope that once you get your wish that option H is not chosen, please do not come back to complain that Wootton HS building is unsafe for kids and want to cut the line to get renovated first. Remember you are #3 in the line. IF Crown HS building becomes a permanent or holding school, don't be shocked and come back to complain. They have to pull neighboring HS kids to fill up seats, and that would also include to redraw the Gaithersburg, Quince Orchard and "Wootton" neighborhood boundaries in a certain way. All options A to H affect most neighborhood in a big or small extent. It is not only about wootton families.

Yeah, it’s interesting that H is so opposed when it’s one of the options that keeps all Wootton students together in the same school. Other options could split them up. But many people seem to just want the school by their house to stay open, but don’t think too much about who else attends it or whether it’s safe.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wootton families has the loudest voice to the point of annoying. I hope that once you get your wish that option H is not chosen, please do not come back to complain that Wootton HS building is unsafe for kids and want to cut the line to get renovated first. Remember you are #3 in the line. IF Crown HS building becomes a permanent or holding school, don't be shocked and come back to complain. They have to pull neighboring HS kids to fill up seats, and that would also include to redraw the Gaithersburg, Quince Orchard and "Wootton" neighborhood boundaries in a certain way. All options A to H affect most neighborhood in a big or small extent. It is not only about wootton families.

Yeah, it’s interesting that H is so opposed when it’s one of the options that keeps all Wootton students together in the same school. Other options could split them up. But many people seem to just want the school by their house to stay open, but don’t think too much about who else attends it or whether it’s safe.

Anonymous wrote:Wootton families has the loudest voice to the point of annoying. I hope that once you get your wish that option H is not chosen, please do not come back to complain that Wootton HS building is unsafe for kids and want to cut the line to get renovated first. Remember you are #3 in the line. IF Crown HS building becomes a permanent or holding school, don't be shocked and come back to complain. They have to pull neighboring HS kids to fill up seats, and that would also include to redraw the Gaithersburg, Quince Orchard and "Wootton" neighborhood boundaries in a certain way. All options A to H affect most neighborhood in a big or small extent. It is not only about wootton families.

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Anonymous wrote:What will happen is that Wootton parents will reject option H. The county does not have the money to renovate Wootton. Wootton will eventually become too unsafe. Wootton kids will then be split up, separated from their friends, and sent on long commutes to different high schools around the county.

Wootton parents are completely screwing their own kids with their lack of realism on limited money and their magical belief that Wootton HS will ever be renovated.

As a parent in the Wootton cluster-I actually would prefer this than the current choices. I imagine if what you are saying does happen-the schools the different neighborhoods would be sent to would have to make sense geographically. For us as a whole to go to Crown does not.

Are you cold spring? I feel like cold spring is the furthest from crown though also far from Wootton. I would think Cold Spring closing and moving the CES to a different Wootton cluster elementary school and then move the local Cold Spring kids to Beverly Farms and the pocket of Beverly Farms near Cold Spring on the north side of Falls Rd to Wayside. Then all would go to Churchill with some plan for how to handle the middle school splits. Problem is Churchill is only going to get close to 100% utilized with no changes. I’d think a small addition at Churchill to bring its capacity up to 2100-2200 would be wise and further prevent Crown under an option H from getting overcrowded down the road. Also down the road QO definitely needs to be renovated and when that’s done its capacity should increase to 2000-2200 which could allow some overflow absorption. Both of these small additional costs would be a fraction of the Wootton replacement which isn’t needed now.

Of course Crown being built was a mistake but that’s with hindsight being 20-20. At the time it was clearly more justifiable, though I’d have argued at the time that money would be better spent renovating and making larger QO and Wootton, and then doing an addition at Churchill and RM.

This points out the MCPS folly in separating the Crown and Woodward studies. There's no need for Churchill to be overcrowded if there could be cascading shifts towards Whitman and WJ, and the same cascades from those areas & Woodward north.

From the beginning, it should have been all schools at all levels, and that should be done with some regularity. The shifts would not be nearly as dramatic, overcrowding would be a rare outlier, more easily countered with one-off operational considerations, and the system could more effectively and cheaply address CIP needs, from renovation/rebuild to expansion/contraction.

So, you are going to ignore the dcc schools being overcrowded?

Not at all. They are part of "all schools at all levels." "Could be" in the first paragraph indicates that the cascading shifts mentioned were an example, and, given the subject of this thread, the apropos one.

There could be cascading shifts in a number of directions, but constraining the studies has left many such options off the table, leaving the system much worse off than it otherwise could be.

If Wootton does not want Crown they should stay and get to the end of the line for repairs.

I don't think it's Wootton's responsibility to put up with MCPS mistakes. They knew MoCo was losing population and revenue.

That wasn't Wootton's fault, why should Wootton be punished?

There is not infinite money and not every high school will be rebuilt with declining enrollment. There is no fairytale ending where everyone gets what they want.

You and the Wootton community need to wake up to that reality.

That is what Wootton wants. They don't want or need a whole other "holding school" just to make rebuilding more convenient.

MCPS needs own up to their mistakes and stop construction.

Stopping construction at this point would be an even worse financial mistake. They would lose the land and the amount that they put into the 40% that is complete.

At this point, the financially prudent move is to move Wootton to Crown.

It's not prudent a prudent move when you consider the overall impact on the community. Since when has MCPS been financially prudent? If it is a paragon of financial prudence, why did it build Crown in the first place?

You make it sound like moving Wootton to Crown is the ONLY option. It isn't and never has been. Stop privately salivating about how your house value in Gaithersburg will increase.

The financially prudent move is to open Crown for Gaithersburg, use its excess capacity as a holding school for schools on the CIP in the next 5 years, remediate Wootton's immediate problems over the summer of 2026 or 2027, then fully renovate Wootton in 2035.

I’m not sure this is financially prudent, given that so many schools are already in poor condition and that construction would be nonstop regardless of whether Wootton is renovated. Taxes will be raised anyway. Since there would be significant financial gains for certain areas if Wootton moves to Crown, some people on this board are coercing the community to give up the heart of their neighborhood.

That's the point. When faced with ripping out the heart of a community that has been in its current location for 55+ years (3 generations of graduates), why would the community ever agree to this move in exchange for a new school building in a location they never asked for?

The parents who don't live in Wootton (who may not even have kids in school at all) will never understand this. The decision must be made by Wootton parents, not bureaucrats or other people with a personal financial agenda that is NOT aligned with what is in the best interests of the community.

Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Never has. And never should it. The funds used to fix Wootton and build Crown are MoCo taxpayer funds, not Wootton parents funds. The community absolutely does have a say in how taxpayer monies should be spent.

Are you saying Wootton parents don’t pay taxes? Other schools can get renovated but Wootton cannot? Wootton was on CIP for a decade but delayed again and again and then got pushed out. Wootton has the second worst FCI score in the whole county but only ranked number 3 high schools to be renovated now solely because of FARM rate. If crown was not built, Wootton would have already been renovated.

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Anonymous wrote:What will happen is that Wootton parents will reject option H. The county does not have the money to renovate Wootton. Wootton will eventually become too unsafe. Wootton kids will then be split up, separated from their friends, and sent on long commutes to different high schools around the county.

Wootton parents are completely screwing their own kids with their lack of realism on limited money and their magical belief that Wootton HS will ever be renovated.

As a parent in the Wootton cluster-I actually would prefer this than the current choices. I imagine if what you are saying does happen-the schools the different neighborhoods would be sent to would have to make sense geographically. For us as a whole to go to Crown does not.

Are you cold spring? I feel like cold spring is the furthest from crown though also far from Wootton. I would think Cold Spring closing and moving the CES to a different Wootton cluster elementary school and then move the local Cold Spring kids to Beverly Farms and the pocket of Beverly Farms near Cold Spring on the north side of Falls Rd to Wayside. Then all would go to Churchill with some plan for how to handle the middle school splits. Problem is Churchill is only going to get close to 100% utilized with no changes. I’d think a small addition at Churchill to bring its capacity up to 2100-2200 would be wise and further prevent Crown under an option H from getting overcrowded down the road. Also down the road QO definitely needs to be renovated and when that’s done its capacity should increase to 2000-2200 which could allow some overflow absorption. Both of these small additional costs would be a fraction of the Wootton replacement which isn’t needed now.

Of course Crown being built was a mistake but that’s with hindsight being 20-20. At the time it was clearly more justifiable, though I’d have argued at the time that money would be better spent renovating and making larger QO and Wootton, and then doing an addition at Churchill and RM.

This points out the MCPS folly in separating the Crown and Woodward studies. There's no need for Churchill to be overcrowded if there could be cascading shifts towards Whitman and WJ, and the same cascades from those areas & Woodward north.

From the beginning, it should have been all schools at all levels, and that should be done with some regularity. The shifts would not be nearly as dramatic, overcrowding would be a rare outlier, more easily countered with one-off operational considerations, and the system could more effectively and cheaply address CIP needs, from renovation/rebuild to expansion/contraction.

So, you are going to ignore the dcc schools being overcrowded?

Not at all. They are part of "all schools at all levels." "Could be" in the first paragraph indicates that the cascading shifts mentioned were an example, and, given the subject of this thread, the apropos one.

There could be cascading shifts in a number of directions, but constraining the studies has left many such options off the table, leaving the system much worse off than it otherwise could be.

If Wootton does not want Crown they should stay and get to the end of the line for repairs.

I don't think it's Wootton's responsibility to put up with MCPS mistakes. They knew MoCo was losing population and revenue.

That wasn't Wootton's fault, why should Wootton be punished?

There is not infinite money and not every high school will be rebuilt with declining enrollment. There is no fairytale ending where everyone gets what they want.

You and the Wootton community need to wake up to that reality.

That is what Wootton wants. They don't want or need a whole other "holding school" just to make rebuilding more convenient.

MCPS needs own up to their mistakes and stop construction.

Stopping construction at this point would be an even worse financial mistake. They would lose the land and the amount that they put into the 40% that is complete.

At this point, the financially prudent move is to move Wootton to Crown.

It's not prudent a prudent move when you consider the overall impact on the community. Since when has MCPS been financially prudent? If it is a paragon of financial prudence, why did it build Crown in the first place?

You make it sound like moving Wootton to Crown is the ONLY option. It isn't and never has been. Stop privately salivating about how your house value in Gaithersburg will increase.

The financially prudent move is to open Crown for Gaithersburg, use its excess capacity as a holding school for schools on the CIP in the next 5 years, remediate Wootton's immediate problems over the summer of 2026 or 2027, then fully renovate Wootton in 2035.

I’m not sure this is financially prudent, given that so many schools are already in poor condition and that construction would be nonstop regardless of whether Wootton is renovated. Taxes will be raised anyway. Since there would be significant financial gains for certain areas if Wootton moves to Crown, some people on this board are coercing the community to give up the heart of their neighborhood.

That's the point. When faced with ripping out the heart of a community that has been in its current location for 55+ years (3 generations of graduates), why would the community ever agree to this move in exchange for a new school building in a location they never asked for?

The parents who don't live in Wootton (who may not even have kids in school at all) will never understand this. The decision must be made by Wootton parents, not bureaucrats or other people with a personal financial agenda that is NOT aligned with what is in the best interests of the community.

Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Never has. And never should it. The funds used to fix Wootton and build Crown are MoCo taxpayer funds, not Wootton parents funds. The community absolutely does have a say in how taxpayer monies should be spent.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What will happen is that Wootton parents will reject option H. The county does not have the money to renovate Wootton. Wootton will eventually become too unsafe. Wootton kids will then be split up, separated from their friends, and sent on long commutes to different high schools around the county.

Wootton parents are completely screwing their own kids with their lack of realism on limited money and their magical belief that Wootton HS will ever be renovated.

As a parent in the Wootton cluster-I actually would prefer this than the current choices. I imagine if what you are saying does happen-the schools the different neighborhoods would be sent to would have to make sense geographically. For us as a whole to go to Crown does not.

Are you cold spring? I feel like cold spring is the furthest from crown though also far from Wootton. I would think Cold Spring closing and moving the CES to a different Wootton cluster elementary school and then move the local Cold Spring kids to Beverly Farms and the pocket of Beverly Farms near Cold Spring on the north side of Falls Rd to Wayside. Then all would go to Churchill with some plan for how to handle the middle school splits. Problem is Churchill is only going to get close to 100% utilized with no changes. I’d think a small addition at Churchill to bring its capacity up to 2100-2200 would be wise and further prevent Crown under an option H from getting overcrowded down the road. Also down the road QO definitely needs to be renovated and when that’s done its capacity should increase to 2000-2200 which could allow some overflow absorption. Both of these small additional costs would be a fraction of the Wootton replacement which isn’t needed now.

Of course Crown being built was a mistake but that’s with hindsight being 20-20. At the time it was clearly more justifiable, though I’d have argued at the time that money would be better spent renovating and making larger QO and Wootton, and then doing an addition at Churchill and RM.

This points out the MCPS folly in separating the Crown and Woodward studies. There's no need for Churchill to be overcrowded if there could be cascading shifts towards Whitman and WJ, and the same cascades from those areas & Woodward north.

From the beginning, it should have been all schools at all levels, and that should be done with some regularity. The shifts would not be nearly as dramatic, overcrowding would be a rare outlier, more easily countered with one-off operational considerations, and the system could more effectively and cheaply address CIP needs, from renovation/rebuild to expansion/contraction.

So, you are going to ignore the dcc schools being overcrowded?

Not at all. They are part of "all schools at all levels." "Could be" in the first paragraph indicates that the cascading shifts mentioned were an example, and, given the subject of this thread, the apropos one.

There could be cascading shifts in a number of directions, but constraining the studies has left many such options off the table, leaving the system much worse off than it otherwise could be.

If Wootton does not want Crown they should stay and get to the end of the line for repairs.

I don't think it's Wootton's responsibility to put up with MCPS mistakes. They knew MoCo was losing population and revenue.

That wasn't Wootton's fault, why should Wootton be punished?

There is not infinite money and not every high school will be rebuilt with declining enrollment. There is no fairytale ending where everyone gets what they want.

You and the Wootton community need to wake up to that reality.

That is what Wootton wants. They don't want or need a whole other "holding school" just to make rebuilding more convenient.

MCPS needs own up to their mistakes and stop construction.

Stopping construction at this point would be an even worse financial mistake. They would lose the land and the amount that they put into the 40% that is complete.

At this point, the financially prudent move is to move Wootton to Crown.

It's not prudent a prudent move when you consider the overall impact on the community. Since when has MCPS been financially prudent? If it is a paragon of financial prudence, why did it build Crown in the first place?

You make it sound like moving Wootton to Crown is the ONLY option. It isn't and never has been. Stop privately salivating about how your house value in Gaithersburg will increase.

The financially prudent move is to open Crown for Gaithersburg, use its excess capacity as a holding school for schools on the CIP in the next 5 years, remediate Wootton's immediate problems over the summer of 2026 or 2027, then fully renovate Wootton in 2035.

I’m not sure this is financially prudent, given that so many schools are already in poor condition and that construction would be nonstop regardless of whether Wootton is renovated. Taxes will be raised anyway. Since there would be significant financial gains for certain areas if Wootton moves to Crown, some people on this board are coercing the community to give up the heart of their neighborhood.

That's the point. When faced with ripping out the heart of a community that has been in its current location for 55+ years (3 generations of graduates), why would the community ever agree to this move in exchange for a new school building in a location they never asked for?

The parents who don't live in Wootton (who may not even have kids in school at all) will never understand this. The decision must be made by Wootton parents, not bureaucrats or other people with a personal financial agenda that is NOT aligned with what is in the best interests of the community.

Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Never has. And never should it. The funds used to fix Wootton and build Crown are MoCo taxpayer funds, not Wootton parents funds. The community absolutely does have a say in how taxpayer monies should be spent.

But you're wrong. It generally DOES work that way. Otherwise, why would MCPS ask for input from the Wootton community?

Your bias against and hatred for Wootton is showing.

P.S. Wootton parents vote like everyone else. A few thousand votes can make a difference in elections.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What will happen is that Wootton parents will reject option H. The county does not have the money to renovate Wootton. Wootton will eventually become too unsafe. Wootton kids will then be split up, separated from their friends, and sent on long commutes to different high schools around the county.

Wootton parents are completely screwing their own kids with their lack of realism on limited money and their magical belief that Wootton HS will ever be renovated.

As a parent in the Wootton cluster-I actually would prefer this than the current choices. I imagine if what you are saying does happen-the schools the different neighborhoods would be sent to would have to make sense geographically. For us as a whole to go to Crown does not.

Are you cold spring? I feel like cold spring is the furthest from crown though also far from Wootton. I would think Cold Spring closing and moving the CES to a different Wootton cluster elementary school and then move the local Cold Spring kids to Beverly Farms and the pocket of Beverly Farms near Cold Spring on the north side of Falls Rd to Wayside. Then all would go to Churchill with some plan for how to handle the middle school splits. Problem is Churchill is only going to get close to 100% utilized with no changes. I’d think a small addition at Churchill to bring its capacity up to 2100-2200 would be wise and further prevent Crown under an option H from getting overcrowded down the road. Also down the road QO definitely needs to be renovated and when that’s done its capacity should increase to 2000-2200 which could allow some overflow absorption. Both of these small additional costs would be a fraction of the Wootton replacement which isn’t needed now.

Of course Crown being built was a mistake but that’s with hindsight being 20-20. At the time it was clearly more justifiable, though I’d have argued at the time that money would be better spent renovating and making larger QO and Wootton, and then doing an addition at Churchill and RM.

This points out the MCPS folly in separating the Crown and Woodward studies. There's no need for Churchill to be overcrowded if there could be cascading shifts towards Whitman and WJ, and the same cascades from those areas & Woodward north.

From the beginning, it should have been all schools at all levels, and that should be done with some regularity. The shifts would not be nearly as dramatic, overcrowding would be a rare outlier, more easily countered with one-off operational considerations, and the system could more effectively and cheaply address CIP needs, from renovation/rebuild to expansion/contraction.

So, you are going to ignore the dcc schools being overcrowded?

Not at all. They are part of "all schools at all levels." "Could be" in the first paragraph indicates that the cascading shifts mentioned were an example, and, given the subject of this thread, the apropos one.

There could be cascading shifts in a number of directions, but constraining the studies has left many such options off the table, leaving the system much worse off than it otherwise could be.

If Wootton does not want Crown they should stay and get to the end of the line for repairs.

I don't think it's Wootton's responsibility to put up with MCPS mistakes. They knew MoCo was losing population and revenue.

That wasn't Wootton's fault, why should Wootton be punished?

There is not infinite money and not every high school will be rebuilt with declining enrollment. There is no fairytale ending where everyone gets what they want.

You and the Wootton community need to wake up to that reality.

That is what Wootton wants. They don't want or need a whole other "holding school" just to make rebuilding more convenient.

MCPS needs own up to their mistakes and stop construction.

Stopping construction at this point would be an even worse financial mistake. They would lose the land and the amount that they put into the 40% that is complete.

At this point, the financially prudent move is to move Wootton to Crown.

It's not prudent a prudent move when you consider the overall impact on the community. Since when has MCPS been financially prudent? If it is a paragon of financial prudence, why did it build Crown in the first place?

You make it sound like moving Wootton to Crown is the ONLY option. It isn't and never has been. Stop privately salivating about how your house value in Gaithersburg will increase.

The financially prudent move is to open Crown for Gaithersburg, use its excess capacity as a holding school for schools on the CIP in the next 5 years, remediate Wootton's immediate problems over the summer of 2026 or 2027, then fully renovate Wootton in 2035.

I’m not sure this is financially prudent, given that so many schools are already in poor condition and that construction would be nonstop regardless of whether Wootton is renovated. Taxes will be raised anyway. Since there would be significant financial gains for certain areas if Wootton moves to Crown, some people on this board are coercing the community to give up the heart of their neighborhood.

That's the point. When faced with ripping out the heart of a community that has been in its current location for 55+ years (3 generations of graduates), why would the community ever agree to this move in exchange for a new school building in a location they never asked for?

The parents who don't live in Wootton (who may not even have kids in school at all) will never understand this. The decision must be made by Wootton parents, not bureaucrats or other people with a personal financial agenda that is NOT aligned with what is in the best interests of the community.

Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Never has. And never should it. The funds used to fix Wootton and build Crown are MoCo taxpayer funds, not Wootton parents funds. The community absolutely does have a say in how taxpayer monies should be spent.