By Adam Pagnucco.
The fight over a potential relocation of Wootton High School to the Crown site in Gaithersburg is currently one of the biggest battles in MCPS’s pending boundary study and academic program mix. But that’s not all it is. As elected officials and candidates begin to react to the pressure coming out of the Wootton cluster, it’s turning into a major issue in multiple MoCo races.
Just look at what we have seen so far. PTAs in the Wootton vicinity have been organizing against the proposed move for months. Rockville’s elected officials have been raising Cain about it with City Council Member Adam Van Grack being especially aggressive. Now a series of statements from candidates are adding to the heat. Here are three of them.
First, here is Council Member Andrew Friedson, who represents part of Wootton’s service area and is running for executive.
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I appreciate the unique role of the Board of Education and Superintendent in overseeing one of the largest school systems in the country, and recognize the difficult decisions they face with aging facilities amid decades of deferred maintenance. However, abruptly interjecting the closure of a half century old high school facility in the midst of a pre-established and ongoing discussion of school boundaries significantly undermines trust that families have in the process. It also threatens the needed partnerships with municipal and county governments as well as businesses whose investments are necessary to fund and operate a world-class school system and provide the housing on which our residents rely.
What began as a boundary study to accommodate the long-anticipated opening of two new high schools has been derailed by the unexpected proposals to permanently close or relocate schools or to use one of the new schools as a holding school instead. In an attempt to solve too many challenges in one unrelated process, the school system has pitted communities against each other in a way that creates more problems than it solves. Any decision to permanently relocate an entire school community in perpetuity or to renege on a longstanding commitment by repurposing a new school as a holding school requires its own carefully planned and heavily communicated process guided by data and centered on trust.
In the Council’s Education and Culture Committee Meeting on January 30, the Superintendent noted that declining enrollment may require broader consolidation across MCPS and the longstanding challenge of Woodward High School’s reopening leaving the need for a secondary holding school remains. However, these decisions require a comprehensive, strategic, and transparent process – not an ad hoc approach.
This decision is too important to rubber stamp. Our families deserve better.
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Now to Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman, who is running in Council District 3, which contains another part of Wootton’s service area.
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I want to clarify my position on the relocation of Wootton High School to what will be the new high school facility at Crown.
In the testimony I’ve offered on behalf of the City of Gaithersburg, our position was guided by two consistent principles:
- first, that the new high school at Crown would open as a fully standalone school, not a temporary holding facility;
- and second, that neighborhood students would have the opportunity to attend it.
The only viable option presented by MCPS that satisfied both of those principles was Option H, which proposed the relocation of Wootton HS to the new Crown site. That is why the City Council and I – along with members of the Crown and Fields Road communities – supported that option.
***My support and advocacy on this matter was NEVER premised on the closure or abandonment of the existing Wootton facility. The idea of relocating Wootton to Crown never even occurred to me until MCPS proposed it.
In fact, in my testimony to the Board of Education on October 28, I explicitly called for a full renovation of the current Wootton building – work that is long overdue. (Kudos to Rockville Mayor Monique Ashton and Councilmember Adam Van Grack for their specific input on that testimony) I meant what I said then, and I stand by it now.
I have great respect for the place Wootton HS has enjoyed in the community, playing an extra-meaningful role as an activity center and central hub for surrounding neighborhoods that have no other such facility nearby. I’ve read and watched testimony from many families who are upset and unsettled by the prospect of being relocated. For them, I have the utmost empathy.
If the Board of Education moves forward with the Superintendent’s recommendation, I know our community will be committed to making the transition for the Wootton families as smooth as possible and to welcoming our new friends and colleagues with the warm embrace that is the Gaithersburg way.
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And finally, Republican Reardon “Sully” Sullivan, who is running to succeed Friedson in Council District 1.
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I am writing to add my voice to those opposing Option H: https://youtu.be/qprQcLrrxHM.
At its core, the mission of Montgomery County Public Schools should be to provide a world class education for our children. That mission should not be subordinated to busing initiatives designed to engineer social diversity, as described in Superintendent Taylor’s Boundary Study introduction video – MCPS Boundary Study Video at the 2:10 mark.
While the repairs to Wootton and needed, the proposed closure of Wootton High School and adoption of a regional model fall short on multiple fronts. Busing students in the name of “equity” and “diversity” represents a risky experiment, one that threatens to undermine successful academic programs, waste taxpayer dollars, and disrupt stable, functioning school communities.
As a graduate of Wootton High School, I firmly believe that community matters. The Wootton–Frost cluster has provided decades of stability, cohesion, and continuity for students and families. While the benefits of feeder patterns, proximity to home, and strong school–community ties may be difficult to quantify, they are real and meaningful. Children should attend schools within their own neighborhoods, whether around Wootton or Crown.
Rather than closing Wootton, MCPS should evaluate a phased, in-place renovation integrated into the Capital Improvements Program (CIP), coupled with the detailed professional evaluation and cost estimate of the projected repairs. Students will occupy the facility regardless of whether it serves as Wootton’s home or a holding school. Given declining enrollment countywide, now may be an ideal time to pursue this approach. In addition, a Public-Private Partnership (P3) delivery model with appropriate incentives and accountability—should be considered to avoid the cost overruns and delays experienced with the Woodward project.
It is also important to note that enrollment in Wootton’s service area is not projected to grow at the same pace as the developing Crown district. Logic suggests that we should preserve capacity where future growth is expected, rather than dismantling established schools and communities.
In short, Wootton should remain Wootton, and Crown should remain Crown. Preserving strong, neighborhood-based schools is not only sound educational policy, but also common sense.
Will other candidates step forward in opposition to Option H?
Let’s keep Wootton as Wootton and Crown as Crown.
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I am dead sure that these three will not be the only candidates weighing in on Wootton and Crown. Rockville’s elected officials and the Wootton PTAs will see to that.
To understand the critical role that Wootton could play in the upcoming election, let’s review its current cluster map as shown below.
The cluster touches Rockville, Potomac, North Potomac and Gaithersburg and crosses over between Council Districts 1 and 3 (with a bit in District 2 as well). Both of these districts have open seats. Additionally, candidates for executive and council at-large will be unable to avoid questions about Wootton. These four races will determine the control of county government over the next term.
The cluster overlaps with 13 election precincts. In the 2022 Democratic primary, those precincts cast 7,647 votes and had a combined turnout rate of 36.5%. (Countywide turnout in that election was 35.8%.) No politician will ignore an issue that could affect more than 7,000 votes. One of these precincts – 4-21 in Council District 3, which votes at Wootton HS – had a 50.9% turnout rate, ranking 15th of 257 precincts.
Want more? Two council candidates – Julie Yang in District 1 and Karla Silvestre, who is running at-large – are sitting school board members who will have to vote on the question of relocating Wootton. What will they do?
As if that’s not enough, let’s not forget that sitting council members like Friedson will be working on MCPS’s capital budget this spring. They need to do a lot of work on it because they have refused to borrow the money necessary to finance MCPS’s huge request. What will that mean for Wootton and Crown?
There are many dimensions to the Wootton issue in terms of finances, capacity, enrollment and the respective sources of authority of the superintendent, the school board and the county council. But the raw politics of this are hard to escape. If any of the county’s key races come down to a few hundred votes – an easily imaginable scenario given the last two Democratic county executive primaries – it’s entirely possible that the question of Wootton High School could decide the outcome.