Emotions ran high in a packed cafeteria Tuesday night at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville where community members had gathered to discuss a proposal by Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) to permanently move the school to the upcoming Crown High in Gaithersburg.
The meeting hosted by the school’s Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA), which included occasional outbursts and shouting from audience members, highlighted frustrations with the dilapidated state of Wootton and other MCPS school buildings and the district’s two ongoing boundary studies.
“This is an issue that has been ignored for well over a decade, and the situation that we’ve been put in is not a fair choice,” said Rockville City Councilmember Adam Van Grack, referring to the condition of the building and the options put forward by the boundary study.
The MCPS proposal, known as option “H”, was included this month as part of additional sets of options for the ongoing boundary studies for Crown and the new Charles W. Woodward High in Rockville released by the district. These sets of options reflect the district’s recent recommendations that Crown be used as a holding school instead of opening as scheduled for the 2027-2028 school year. The new proposals are in addition to the boundary options released in October for the Woodward and Crown studies.
Option “H” also proposes potentially using Wootton’s aging building at 2100 Wootton Parkway as a holding school for other schools undergoing their own construction or renovation after staff and students move to the Gaithersburg high school. Crown at 9410 Fields Road in Gaithersburg is roughly 3 miles, or a 10-minute drive, from Wootton High.
Option “H” is one of eight included in the district’s Crown boundary study. MCPS spokesperson Liliana López said in a Dec. 10 email to Bethesda Today that the options are only proposals and “no final decision has been made on them yet.” Other options propose the use of Crown as a holding school, with one “hybrid” option that could allow some students in the Crown area to attend the school while it also operates as a temporary holding facility.
Option “H” as well as the proposal to turn Crown High into a holding school have drawn a variety of reactions from school communities. An online petition against option “H” garnered more than 2,200 signatures as of Wednesday morning.
The two boundary studies are expected to determine the attendance zones for Woodward High at 11211 Old Georgetown Road, which is nearing completion, and the upcoming Crown. Both are expected to be finished by the 2027-2028 school year. The studies will also determine the attendance zone for Damascus High at 25921 Ridge Road, which is set to be expanded by 2031, according to MCPS staff.
In the Dec. 10 email, López said option “H” would include the potential for Wootton High to be turned into a holding school, but “other options for this school could also be considered.” She didn’t elaborate on what the other options could be. If Wootton were to be turned into a holding school, improvements to the building would “need to be considered,” López said in her email.
Opposition, some support
Wootton PTSA President Brian Rabin told Bethesda Today Tuesday night that roughly 300 people signed up to attend Tuesday’s meeting, during which PTSA members explained the history of the building and options for the Crown boundary study. Those who attended then met in small groups for discussion.
Rabin told the crowd the PTSA wouldn’t take a position on any of the MCPS options. Some community members took issue with the association’s lack of stance, at one point erupting in outbursts and shouting, and arguing that the PTSA favored the proposed option H.
“We do have a position on keeping the Wootton cluster together. We have a position on getting Wootton fixed so that our students can learn and their teachers can work in a safe environment,” Rabin said. “So those are the positions that we’ve always had. We’re not going to take a position on the options. There’s too many questions we don’t have answers to.”
Sylvia Mwangi, whose daughter is a sophomore, told Bethesda Today she didn’t know how badly the school had deteriorated until she discussed it with her daughter.
“This school is in such bad condition,” Mwangi told Bethesda Today. “She told me that she hates being here in spring because that’s when the bugs come out. She tells me that there are times they can’t … use a certain corridor because the ceiling is falling. And she actually told me she feels sorry for the principal, because half the time he’s trying to do everything else except being a principal, and I commend that man … [for maintaining] the status of the school and to deal with all this.”
Many parents said during the meeting they were opposed to option “H”, arguing that they moved to the area to be close to Wootton.
Mwangi told Bethesda Today she didn’t like the location of Crown because it provided easier access for students to local malls. She also noted that the district has continued to postpone renovations for Wootton.
Renovations for Wootton, as well as other schools such as Damascus High and Col. Zadok Magruder High in Rockville, have been included in the MCPS six-year capital improvements program several times over the years before being removed due to budget constraints.
“So as much as Crown is new and it looks flashy like a new toy, I feel that we are just being passed over, and it’s not right,” Mwangi told Bethesda Today. “They are forcing all of us to fight amongst ourselves.”
Not everyone in attendance was opposed to option “H”. Some parents said moving to Crown would provide a guaranteed safe building for students, rather than waiting for renovations at Wootton that may never occur.
Iris Yen, parent of an elementary school student and a seventh grader who is slated to attend Wootton, said option “H” was “tricky,” but would at least give students the opportunity to go to a new, safer school. Wootton was destined to continue to deteriorate if its building issues weren’t addressed, Yen said.
“The main problem is, what happens to this school? That’s the tricky part,” Yen told Bethesda Today. “My sister went to this school … to me, this is the community school. So I don’t want to see the school get torn down or taken out.”
For Wootton Student Government Association leaders who attended Tuesday’s meeting, what matters most is attending classes in a safe building and maintaining their school culture.
“As students, we’re scared. We want to be safe,” junior Manasa Iyer told Bethesda Today. “As much as it would suck to go drive somewhere really far to go to school, our safety and our education are our top priority. A lot of our parents moved to this area for the sole purpose of us having … a meaningful education. So I think above everything, that’s probably the most important.”