By Adam Pagnucco.
So far, the fight over relocating Wootton High School has become a major issue in Rockville and potentially in upcoming Montgomery County elections. Now it’s spreading to Annapolis as well, as one of MoCo’s most powerful state senators is blasting “really bad estimates” from MCPS.
Let’s start with two pieces of context.
First, one of the more surprising opponents of the proposal to relocate Wootton to Gaithersburg’s Crown site is the Maryland Building Industry Association (MBIA), which stated its position in a letter to MCPS. The builders made their case on land use considerations, writing:
After reviewing MCPS capacity, adopted master plans, and planned residential development in the Rockville–Gaithersburg corridor, we are concerned that Option H would permanently reduce high school capacity in a designated growth area and disrupt the alignment between school infrastructure and planned residential development.
Let’s note that the City of Rockville has its own land use authority, a power also possessed by the City of Gaithersburg.
Second, the Maryland Senate’s Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee held a hearing on SB31 on Tuesday. The bill, sponsored by Howard County Senate Clarence Lam, deals with school boundaries, capacity planning and county Adequate Public Facility Ordinances (APFO) on infrastructure and development. Here is the fiscal note’s summary of the bill’s purpose.
This bill requires each local board of education to submit a student residency and school zones report to the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) and the Interagency Commission on School Construction (IAC), including information on (1) the school zone boundaries and attendance area map; (2) the locations of each student’s residence (without including any personal identifying information); and (3) the State-rated capacity, student population, and capacity percentage of each school in the county. IAC must adopt regulations establishing formatting and submission requirements for the report. Also, the bill forbids a county adequate public facilities ordinance (APFO) that restricts housing development on the basis of school capacity from delaying the processing and completion of subdivision or site development plans, but allows an APFO to delay the issuance of final permits. The bill takes effect June 1, 2026.
MCPS should pay heed to this exchange between Committee Vice Chair Cheryl Kagan, whose district includes Rockville, and former Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson, who was in attendance to comment on the bill.
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Senator Kagan: Casey, one of the reasons why everyone – why all of us are freaked out about the possibility of closing Wootton is because some of it is based on bad data. And this, Senator Lam, is based on data. And I wonder whether you are open to a conversation, maybe offline, about requiring that municipalities be consulted. Because sometimes – and we’ve had problems with APFO data and Casey, you know this better than anyone in this room, but we’ve had problems with really bad estimates coming out of the Montgomery County Public School system. And some of it could be that they didn’t realize that the city was going to build this whole huge community in, I don’t know, Rockshire adjacent to Wootton or you know similar issues that we’ve had in the past. So Senator Lam, maybe you and I can talk about that or you can give me off the top of your head your concept, but I would really love to have municipalities that have zoning capacity that do plan and build the opportunity to be at the table and make sure that their data is included in the county’s data. Casey, you’re nodding your head like you think that’s maybe a good idea, Senator Lam.
Anderson: So, yeah, in the interest of time, happy to talk offline.
Kagan: Casey, anything you want to add?
Anderson: Yeah, I mean that’s true. And it’s worse when you have a situation like Rockville and Gaithersburg which have their own zoning authority but don’t – not their own school system. So, it’s sort of a, there’s a little disjunction with that.
Kagan: 100%.
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As if that was not enough, Kagan doubled down on Facebook.
Note the supportive comment from Rockville City Council Member Adam Van Grack, who is one of the most vocal and prominent opponents of the Wootton move. Note also that all city elected officials – whom Kagan would like to “be at the table” – oppose the Wootton move.
So why should MCPS be concerned about this? Look folks, boundary shifts and school closures are inherently nasty business. And because MCPS’s enrollment is shrinking, change is inevitable. Some folks – actually, a LOT of folks – are bound to be unhappy.
But some folks count in this discussion more than others. Consider the county executive and the county council. Yes, the county appropriates MCPS’s budget. But county officials have limited ability to punish MCPS for disagreements owing to state mandates like the maintenance of effort law, no individual line item budget authority and political constraints like the Apple Ballot.
Annapolis presents an entirely different set of problems. First, while the county is constrained by state law, the General Assembly writes state law and is the ultimate source of statutory authority over MCPS. Annapolis, not the county governments, is the true master of public schools. Second, veteran state lawmakers like Kagan are very hard to topple. Dealing with someone like her is far more challenging than winning an open council seat race. And third, there is the matter of Kagan herself. She is fearless, vocal and relentless. Just ask former long-time state elections administrator Linda Lamone, whom Kagan banished from state government after a decades-long crusade. Kagan is a superb ally and a fearsome opponent.
MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor has understandable reasons for wanting to relocate Wootton. And those who support rebuilding Wootton and opening Crown as a separate high school have a responsibility to explain how they would find the money to accommodate that.
But no school leaders in their right minds want to antagonize the Lords of Annapolis, and especially not a formidable one like Kagan. How much heat is TT willing to take to move Wootton?