s noches, everyone, and welcome to the first of four spring Facilities and Boundaries public hearings. My name is Grace Rivera-Oven, president of the Board of Education. We appreciate everyone's flexibility in moving to a virtual hearing today. Para las
personas. Esta virtual. Escuchar la Presione el botón con el icono
de un globo terráqueo y elija el idioma And feedback it receives
through the community's participation in the facilities and boundaries process. The board will take action on the superintendent's recommended FY 27, FY 32 Capital Improvement Program and boundaries. At the board's business meeting on
Thursday, March 26th of this year. As always, board members look forward to both hearing and thoughtfully considering your input as we prepare to review and take action on the FY 27 FY 32 CIP. We are joined this evening by Doctor Taylor
and several M.C.P.S. staff. Let us begin by introducing my colleagues to help facilitate virtual participation. I will call on each board member to please introduce themselves. Ms. Silvestre. Good evening
everyone. Carla Silvestre, school board member at large. Miss Yang. Good evening everyone. Julie Yang, district three. And thank you for being here tonight. We have staff on board and please help make
notes if you see trends and help us address it in the upcoming work session. Thank you, Miss Montoya. Good evening. Rita montoya, board member at large. Miss Stewart. Good evening, Laura Stewart from
district four. And I also expect to go over notes after this session. Thank you, Miss Zimmerman. Good evening. Natalie Zimmerman representing
district two and Miss Wolff. I see Miss Wolff, but I will be joining shortly. Wait a minute, wait a minute, I couldn't unmute, you had to unmute me. So good evening, Brenda Wolff,
district five. No, I saw you, Miss Wolff. Thank you. And I believe it's my Lu might be joining us a little bit later. She's our student board member. She's not on. Correct. She's here. Oh. She's here. Awesome. We're all here, miss Malu. Good evening. And student board member. Wonderful. Thank you
very much. Doctor Taylor, can you please introduce your M.C.P.S. staff who are joining you this evening? Thank you so much, Madam President. I'm joined by chief Operations Officer Adnan Mahmood, deputy
chief of facilities, Andrea Sueoka, DJ Conolly from our operations office and my chief of staff, Essie McGuire, as well as a couple other members of our team from the operations team that are also on the on the call. Thank you, Doctor
Taylor. We appreciate it. Tonight, board members will have the opportunity to hear from the community via virtual testimony or by audio or video presentations, written testimonies provided by those who signed up for tonight's hearing will be available on board docs by tomorrow
afternoon. While the board encourages public input on policy, program and practices and will consider the comments received, it is not the board's practice during the public hearings to respond to questions, provide comments or take action on the issues
raised. We will begin with a light testimony from elected officials, followed by prerecorded testimony, and then followed by live virtual testimony for speakers who are providing virtual testimony this evening, we request that you note the following at the
conclusion of each testimony, board staff will read the names of the next three speakers. Please listen carefully for your name during this roll call. Please ensure the name displayed in your zoom meeting. Profile matches the name under
which you signed up. This will allow MCPs staff to easily and accurately identify you. Third, when it is your turn to speak, your microphone will be turned on for you. Fourth, a countdown clock will be visible during
your testimony and may be pinned to your screen if helpful. Speakers are asked to turn their camera on while speaking. If you are splitting your allowed time with another individual, the first speaker should conclude their remarks
by clearly transitioning to the next speaker. Once your time has expired, your microphone will be muted. Additional remarks. Additional remarks can always be submitted to the board via email. That
information can be found on the MCPs website. I now will ask our board staff to assist in facilitating the process. For those, sign up to provide testimony for this evening.
Thank you. Thank you, President Rivera-Oven. We will begin with live testimony from elected officials who will each have five minutes, followed by prerecorded testimony. Our first speakers will be Monique Ashton, mayor of the City of Rockville, then Adam Van Grack,
councilmember for the City of Rockville. And then prerecorded testimony. Mayor Ashton, you may begin. Yes. Can you hear me? Okay. We can. Yes. All right. Thank you very much. Good evening, President Rivera of Auvergne and members of the
board. My name is Monique Ashton. I'm delivering the city of Rockville's official testimony today. You will also hear from some of my colleagues in their personal capacity. First, I want to thank M.C.P.S. and the Board of Education superintendent for the strong partnership inent weeks as we responded to challenges including snow removal issues
and major public safety issues involving the shooting at Wooton High School. We look forward to working together again in the future. I also want to acknowledge the difficult jobs that each of you has. I've had the opportunity to work with each of you, and I know you're committed to serving our community. We are concerned about the CIP needs
for mental health and twinbrook, which need repair and are not currently included as partners and stakeholders. We have very serious concerns about the superintendent's recommendation to the board to close Wooton High School and at an undefined point, convert the campus into a holding school for an undefined time and then to
relocate all students to the Crown Farm High School. We strongly urge the Superintendent and Board of Education to quickly change course and recommend the school system advocate to the County Council CIP process at funding, or to collaborate on a renovation of the current campus at Rockville. We have
shared with the superintendent that Rockville would consider supporting either of these two options as part of the budget process, and we would welcome a discussion. We stand together with the Wooton community, and we will continue to strongly advocate to keep Wootton High open on its current campus. Importantly, there are several
concerning factors about the October 2026 CIP document and the December Boundary Options document. First, the October CIP document, which annually includes a section called Cluster Planning Consideration. It fails to include two major planning documents adopted by the City of Rockville and the
Richard Montgomery High School Cluster section. The 2040 Comprehensive Plan adopted in 21, as well as the Rockville Town Center Master Plan adopted in 2025. See pages 45 and 40 and 89 of that document. Both of our planning documents
reflect significant plan growth, including thousands of additional housing units within the city of Rockville, the CIP shows RM as overcapacity in October, yet the December and February options data show Richard Montgomery is no longer overcapacity, despite indicating no change. Meanwhile,
Richard Montgomery High School continues to rely on nine portable classrooms and faces continued growth pressure, including over 1000 residential units and nine approved developments and more in the pipeline. Rockville needs school capacity not only to to address overcrowding at RM, but also to plan responsibly for
future growth in all of our clusters. We asked directly how will M.C.P.S. and the county address overcrowding and projected growth amidst the state and national housing shortage? If you close an existing high school, please help us understand why these documents are missing from the CIP document and why there is a
data discrepancy between the October and December and February documents for the benefit of the Wootton High School, Richard Montgomery High School and the City of Rockville and M.c.p.s. Overall, we support a modified recommendation wherein the existing superintendent's recommendation can be adjusted through an amendment to this proposed modified
recommendation. All the school assignments and recommendation are retained except for current Wootton students proposed to attend Wootton High School at Crown. The current Magruder High School students proposed to attend Rockville Holding School during renovation or rebuild. Magruder students under this proposed recommendation. Wootton students. Magruder students, each at separate times with
temporarily be placed in the Crown Farm High School during their school's renovation and or rebuild periods. Wootton would not permanently be relocated. Relocated the same Crown area students who proposed under the recommendation to attend the Crown High School was still attend. We support the great Gaithersburg Crown community's
advocacy to be able to attend as a walkable school. After the temporary use of Crown, M.C.P.S. may want to consider a boundary study to determine how best to fill that school. However, Crown was originally built and planned to support overcrowding at Remco and Gaithersburg High School, as well as house a regional
program. This compromise for modified recommendation preserves utilization, stability, walkability, and equity factors for boundary study, and it also reduces instability from permanently closing a longstanding school community. It also secures the opportunity for neighboring students to attend Crown High School as soon as possible.
Rockville is open to exploring a partnership with the school system to support improvements at the existing Wootton High School to keep it open. And if m.c.p.s. Is already planning to invest funds as we know they are, why not partner with the city to make the building work for the long term? We request a review of the concerns raised
before making a decision. This impacts the stability and future of the school, communities municipalities in the county. This could also have long term impacts not just on school communities, but also on housing, economic development, infrastructure and funds needed to support the growth of the county. Once the campus is closed, the consequences will be difficult
to reverse. We share the school system's deep commitment to providing high quality services that meet the needs of our students, and we look forward to your continued partnership to achieve them. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor Aston. Next up is council member Adam Van Grack, city of Rockville.
This will be followed by 14 prerecorded testimonies and then board questions. Thank you, Madam President. Members of the board, while we are here virtual. I am here across from
Wooton High School with hundreds of community members and colleagues to stress to you how important this issue is, not just to me, but to us. Snow cannot stop us from gathering and emphasizing our passion. Now I want to talk first about something that the mayor talked
about and that is M.C.P.S. data accurate. Just last week, Senator Kagan stated during a hearing in Annapolis, quote, we've had problems with really bad estimates coming out of the Montgomery County public school system. End quote. Now, that statement is not personal.
Rather, it reflects a broader concern and reputation about MCPs projection accuracy and long term forecasting. Thus, all the more important that we get this decision and this data correct. Now, on February 13th, you heard the mayor talk about
the city of Rockville's letter to the Board of Education, noting that adopted municipal planning documents may not have been reflected by this decision. And on November 14th, the Gaithersburg mayor, Judd Ashman, sent a letter to the board noting key projections and residential growth data for
Gaithersburg that also appears not to have been accounted for by M.C.P.S. These projections show that over 10,000 planned housing units are being projected in the Richard Montgomery, Gaithersburg, Quince Orchard, Watkins Mill and Wooton corridor. In addition, the Maryland Building
Industry Association also sees enrollment growth in Rockville and Gaithersburg that MCPs appears to be missing. This is not about blame. It's about ensuring that MCPs reputation about problems with bad estimates doesn't continue to
redeem MCPs reputation and make sure you're using the best data possible. There's also a question about money, and the fact that Wooten is not currently funded in the CIP is not a justification against what the mayor talked about. The modified recommendation.
The CIP is not a fixed law of nature. It's a planning document. It's adopted and revised by this board and the county council every single cycle. It changes constantly. Wooten knows about this because we've been removed from it multiple times. Second, the
current recommendation itself assumes the capital investment in Wooton High School. If this campus becomes a holding school, it's going to require capital investment. So the question is not whether dollars will be spent on Wootton because they will. The question is whether we're going to invest
temporarily in Wootton or invest to preserve enrollment capacity. Additionally, respectfully permanently closing Wootton High School and then reassessing enrollment 5 to 10 years from now is also not an option, because closing a comprehensive high school is
a one way decision. Articulation patterns shift, feeder systems reset, and the campuses will become institutionalized. Reopening a defunct school after it has been closed would require enormous capital investment, and that's not an option. We've
seen this pattern before in Baltimore and Prince George's County, when they've made short term closures and then had to reinvest. In fact, Prince George's County had to assume long term debt because they took the short term solution, not looking at long term
projections. If you believe that your check projections may be wrong, as many have been warning, then the board should act cautiously. Support the amendment that the modified recommendation has and not permanently close. Wootton whether it's a formal closure
or a constructive closure, by moving the entire student body to a different school, the decision before you is not about simply one campuses resistant to change. It's about institutional stewardship and risk management for M.c.p.s. As
a whole, the City of Rockville, the Wootton PTSA, the Magruder PTSA has all supported the reasonable amendment that the mayor talked about, called the modified recommendation. This amendment opens Crown. This amendment supports multiple school clusters and honors the
commitments to Rockville and Gaithersburg families moving forward. The structural pressures that MCPs faces today, we understand, are not the fault of this board, but you are the board holding the pen right now. You can't change the past, but you can control the
future. If enrollment rises, as is predicted by the experts and the city of Rockville and the city of Gaithersburg, there will not be an easy correction. There will be students without seats. There will be overcrowded classrooms, there will be emergency capital
spending. And there will be one unavoidable question why did the 2026 board eliminate capacity when they were warned not to make sure that when M.c.p.s. Boards of 2046 looks back to 2026, they say that was
the board that chose foresight over finality. That was the board that built the future without closing a door on it. Protect the future. Protect. Thank you, Councilmember Van Grack. We will now move to
prerecorded testimonies. Hi. I'm existing. I'm a second grader in elementary school. I heard that my schools are changing. I just want to go to the schools with the friends I make. I don't want to lose the friends I made at school on my
basketball team. All my my soccer team at karate or bhangra practice. I don't think kids should lose their friends when they move to high school or middle school. And I want everybody, including my sister, to have a safe school. Thank
you. Hi, my name is Alicia Basra and I'm an 11th grader at Reuben. This month was a reminder of how much we rely on our teachers and staff to keep us safe. Wootton is special not because of a building, but because of its people, the teachers, the programs and the community that cares for each
other. I started making friends at an elementary school, grew my circle in middle school, and I've been able to keep those friendships as we moved into high school together. That continuity matters. Growing up with the same community helps us feel supported and confident. If Wootton moves to Crown, it's still Wootton. It's still our
classes, our clubs and our traditions. But we would also have a modern building designed to support students today in a safer way. As students, we want to feel safe, supported and connected to our community. I hope decisions are made based on what's best for us long term. Thank you. Good evening. My
name is Herman Singh Basra. I am a proud Dufief and Wootton parent. I understand change is uncomfortable, but maintaining the status quo in aging facilities is not a long term solution for our students. The superintendents recommendation is fiscally responsible, preserves the Wootton School
community and maintains dufief alignment within the cluster. Safety, stewardship of public resources and continuity should guide our decision. I also respectfully ask the board to continue examining middle school articulation patterns, where capacity allows at least two of the three North Potomac elementary communities should
remain together as students transition into high school. Adolescence is not the time to fragment peer groups unnecessarily. For many families, Wootton and Quince Orchard serve as a primary high school. Communities for North Potomac, our Eastern School, and our Western School. We welcome students from across
lines. Diversity strengthens us, does not diminish us, but growth should not come at the expense of long standing community pathways. There's room for everyone. Inclusion does not require breaking existing bonds. Please stay grounded in data, long term planning and student centered priorities. Thank you. Good
afternoon, members of the board. My name is Florence Lee. I'm a 10th grader at Wootton and currently lives right next to the school. If Wootton is closed, I would have to go to Crown for my senior year. As you know, Crown sits in a dense commercial area filled with
hotels, apartments, offices and shops, which poses the concern for traffic congestion. This would create major disruptions in my life. First of all, I am a swimmer and right now I am able to walk home and have daily practices at Rockville
after school. Moving to Crown. Our commute becomes longer and time becomes tighter. More than 500 walkers like me will face the same problem. We will have to wake up earlier to ride school busses, get home later, and lose valuable time on the road. Not to mention Magruder
students will also be bussed into Wootton when they renovate their school, in the end creating more traffic on the road. Second of all, Wootton is more than just a building. It is about the generations who grew up here. Over the years, Wootton has had tight connections with Robert Frost
Middle School. For example, the Chinese American Parents and Students Association, run by Wootton volunteers, provides academic support for younger students every Saturday at Frost, Wootton hosts annual art and music festivals for Frost.
Frost students have their promotion ceremony at Wootton. It is also a long standing tradition that Wootton brings musicals to surrounding elementary schools like Lakewood and Falls Park. Without Wootton being in the center of the community, the bonds between the neighborhood
schools will be broken. Thirdly, families chose to live in the surrounding neighborhoods because of Wootton. That decision was intentional based on the walkability and its location in a quiet area. Meanwhile, the Crown Gaithersburg area has always
expected to have its own high school for years. If Crown becomes the only school serving this broad area, it would face the potential problem of their population outgrowing its capacity. Leaving the original Wootton cluster students no choice but to be divided into
high schools in different communities. This will lead to more uncertainty and instability for our future students and families. Say no
to option H keep an open. Hereby, I respectfully urge you to not close Wootton. Please consider the Rockville City
recommendation. Thank you. Hi, my name is Melanie Brennan, and I'm a sixth grader at Roberto Clemente Middle School. I would like to thank Doctor Taylor for making the Wootton at Crown recommendation. That will sa%e
money for M.c.p.s. My parents have tried to teach us about money since we were little. They always said if you can't spend, choose to spend money on one thing and not on the other. I, even though I didn't like hearing you, can't have everything you want. I know
it's true. The reason you recommendation is important to me, because both my twin brother and I have IEPs. We both received special ed services, I have dyslexia and I've been in the reading program for for a couple years.
My brother is in his second year of the Autism Connection program. It took us a very long time to get the help we needed. My mom has been asking since kindergarten there, but there just are not enough resources
for every kid to get the support they need right away. It can take a long time. I used to have a really hard time reading. It hurt my self-confidence. When I was younger, I was always stressed. My brother had such a hard time
that he stopped going to school. Sometimes. Once we started getting the support that we needed, things got much better. But I could not have. Even though I am in the magnet program now and I love it, but
I could not have done it without the great teachers in the reading interventions. Reading is still exhausting for me. There are still some areas that are tough because I know I'm because I got the I started getting support late. I'm still
catching up, but it is getting better. I know special ed services in the area keep getting cut. My brothers convention program has had has half the resources it had a few years ago, and it is getting
harder for him again, I don't. I hope the board approves Doctor Taylor's recommendation because I know m.c.p.s. Needs more money. I don't want special ed programs to lose more money. Too many kids need
the extra support, but can't get it because there is not enough resources for everyone who needs it. Kids can do great in school when they have the right support. Thank you. Hi, my name is Danny Ibarra and I along with Joanna Wisner and
Aditi Shah, our Damascus Cluster Coordinators. This is our boundary study testimony. We are here to talk about the recently released boundary study recommendations. And first off, we want to begin with a sincere note of appreciation. We are genuinely grateful for the thoughtfulness reflected in recommendations
that prioritize keeping elementary and middle schools together with straight articulation. After decades of boundary changes that have repeatedly disrupted families in the Clarksburg community, we and the Damascus community want to thank you for prioritizing continuity. We understand that this recommendation is not without complexity,
particularly for some families within our community at Snowden Farm. Elementary change is never easy. We acknowledge that some community members have raised genuine concern about how these boundaries will affect their families. Specifically, we want to honor those concerns. Every family's perspective deserves to be heard from the Damascus cluster
perspective. We believe in long term benefit of cohesive school communities. Students who have the opportunity to grow up together will benefit into middle and high school by fostering relationships in sports, extracurricular activities, and at school. Families will also have the opportunity to grow and connect with stabilized school
assignments. We have spoken directly to several Damascus High School students who experienced split articulation from Laytonsville Elementary School and Halliwells Middle School, and they all said it was a really tough transition. Being only one of a few that came from the same school can feel really isolating. The
recommended boundary adjustments for the Damascus cluster not only improve the articulation for Laytonsville and Clarksburg communities, who will attend Damascus High School, it also addresses the overcrowding at neighboring schools. We request that the board and M.c.p.s. Make a commitment to a sustained
period of boundary stability following this decision, allowing our communities to sow seeds of connections for years to come. We know that right after this middle and high school boundary study is approved, you are moving on to the elementary school boundary study that is already in the pipeline. Please instill the
same principles to maintain cohesive boundaries and neighborhood communities. We recognize these decisions require balancing many competing factors. We appreciate the work of the superintendent and the M.c.p.s, BOE, and staff to weigh the demographic equity, facility
utilization, geographic proximity to the schools, and stability of assignment. Together, the decision to keep students together, rather than have numerous split articulation paths, reflects that stability and community connection are not just nice to haves, they are foundational to student success. Thank you for
your consideration. Good evening, president Rivera-Oven, Superintendent Taylor and members of the Board of Education. My name is Susan Livesey and I am the Winston Churchill Cluster Coordinator. Thank you for this opportunity to testify regarding Superintendent Taylor's
recommendation concerning the Crown Damascus Boundary study. Our community, like so many others, recognizes how hard the boundary study process has been. There have been months of discussion, anxiety, and speculation leading up to this
point. Some of the options presented during this process have placed school communities against each other, each vying for space in a particular middle or high school. Our PTSA cluster leadership has worked very hard to stay united, even at times when their interests
have diverged, because at the end of the day, we are a community and our children, our students go to school together, play sports together, participate in community activities together, and are friends and neighbors. We appreciate your engagement with
our community. During the in-person engagement sessions, our community members told you their concerns about the various boundary study options. They backed up their concerns with data and lived experiences regarding how the options would affect their students. We are grateful. Board of education
members, Doctor Taylor M.C.P.S. leaders and county council members attended these sessions to get a better understanding of the needs of our community. Our community members also provided their thoughts, opinions and concerns in their survey responses. This has been
an iterative process. We're cognizant how some of our community feedback is reflected in the superintendent's recommendation. Less split articulation and consideration of geographical proximity. For example, an elementary school community no longer has to hop
over its neighboring middle school to attend another middle school. This is very much appreciated. They provide stability, especially for those with IEPs, and maintain walkability for our students. As we get to the final stages of this process. When
recommended and non-recommended changes are on the table, we're able to better focus on the necessity and potential impact of these specific changes on our cluster change. Just for the sake of change is not necessarily positive. Our cluster does not support split
articulations that are new to the current articulation pattern. Non recommended options would split articulation to middle school and also to high school for some of our elementary schools. For school like Potomac Elementary School, host of the Chinese Immersion program. The
double split articulations would fracture the community beyond recognition. Students in elementary and middle school programs across the county, like those in the Chinese immersion program, need to be assured a clear and cohesive program path that supports
academic, social, and emotional stability. Shifts in articulation patterns within our cluster based on enrollment may not be necessary and would negatively affect the walkability and emotional and social stability of these communities. Data projections anticipate Churchill High
School enrollment will decrease over time without any boundary changes. In addition, under the regional program structure for region four, enrollment at Churchill is projected to decrease even further in Nonrecommended options, caution is raised since new boundary
lines, split farms, dense neighborhoods from less farms, dense neighborhoods resulting in less diverse middle and high school populations. Thank you again for all of the thought and consideration you have given to this process. Our shared goal with you has always been to support and do what is
academically, socially, and emotionally best for our students. Hello Doctor Taylor and members of the board. I'm Doctor Tina Junior and I am a proud M.C.P.S. parent. I have a seventh grader at Rocky Hill Middle School, in the fourth
grader in the Rs at Fox Chapel Elementary School. I am also representing the northwest Cluster as one of three Northwest Cluster Coordinators for the Montgomery County Council of PTAs. I am here to speak on behalf of the family, students, and staff across the Northwest Cluster. As you
consider the updates to the Capital Improvement plan, I want to be transparent this cycle. Our cluster only submitted one CIP request. It was a sidewalk installation at Darnestown Elementary School. Just one, and I'd ask you to not mistake that restraint for satisfaction, because our
communities are thoughtful and they're careful about how they use this process. But make no mistake, their needs are very real and they are growing. But let me tell you about Darnestown Elementary. First, every school day, the children arrive at darnestown without a safe, dedicated path to walk.
Parents worry, staff worry, and frankly, in a county that prides itself on investing in his children, the absence of that sidewalk at an elementary school is not a minor inconvenience. It's a safety issue. It's an equity issue. It's the kind of thing that when a child's hurt, we'll all look back and ask, why didn't
we act when we had the chance? A sidewalk is not a grand ask. It's a fundamental one. And so we are asking you to approve this request and send a message to every family at Darnestown that their children's safety matters. But I also want to talk about something larger tonight, because the sidewalk
at Darnestown is a symbol of a broader truth. Our schools have needs that the capital improvement plan exists to address, and those needs cannot be deferred indefinitely. Across the northwest cluster, our school buildings are aging. Maintenance needs accumulate, safety improvements get pushed to the next cycle, in the next
cycle, in the next cycle, each time a need gets deferred, the cost grows not just financially, but in the daily experience of every student, faculty, staff who walks through all of those doors. Children can't learn effectively in environments that are deteriorating around
them. Teachers can't do their best work when they're navigating facilities that fall short, and families lose trust in institutions that consistently deprioritize the physical spaces where their children spend the majority of their waking hours. The capital Improvement Plan is one of the most powerful tools the board has to demonstrate its commitment to students. It's
not just a budget document, it's a statement of values. It says, we see your school, we see your community, and we're investing in your future. I'm proud of the Pka's in the northwest cluster. They show up, they volunteer, they fundraise, they advocate, and they trust that when they bring a need forward through the proper
channels, that it'll get taken seriously. But that trust is not unconditional. It's built and maintained through action. When a request has straightforward as an elementary school is approved, it reinforces that trust. And when it's denied or deferred without explanation, it erodes it. So we're asking you to be
partners with us in maintaining safe, functional and welcoming school environments not just this year, but consistently year over year, with the long term commitment to the physical infrastructure our students deserve. So in closing, please approve the sidewalk installation at Darnestown Elementary School. And as you
deliberate on the broader Capital improvement plan, I urge you to ask yourselves for every school in every cluster, are we meeting the needs of our students? And if your answer is no, this plan is your opportunity to change that. Thank you for your time.
Superintendent Taylor and members of the board. My name is Anne-Marie Luciano. I'm a proud Wootton and Frost mom and a resident. I urge you to support the superintendent's recommendation and to reject the Rockville amendment. I support the recommendation because I want to see Wootton. Wootton has earned its
reputation as a very top, prestigious high school because of its dedicated teachers, our motivated students and robust academic offerings. This prestige has been earned despite the building, not because of it. Over the past decade of neglect, learning and teaching in a building with multiple health hazards,
including mold and nonfunctional science labs has been quite a feat. I applaud the superintendent for saving Wootton from this endless wait for budget funds to fix these issues, and fast tracking us to a modern building equipped with all the bells and whistles. Wootton isn't closing. We
struck gold. I do ask for one targeted amendment Travilla and Stone mill should articulate together to cabin John rather than being split to preserve stability and continuity for those students. Second, although I appreciate the intentions of our Rockville Council friends to keep one on
the Parkway, the proposal is fundamentally flawed. They propose that Crown serve as a hybrid holding school, forcing a tiny group of a few hundred students to separately coexist as a school within a massive school. We don't need to relitigate history as to why separate but equal is unequal. This unequal hybrid model
should be rejected outright. Further, Rockville's amendment is premised on a debate about enrollment data. We could engage in months of debate, and M.c.p.s could even agree with a much larger enrollment projection. But that will not change and conjure up hundreds of millions of dollars for this
budget cycle to renovate both Wootton and Magruder. Magruder isn't even scheduled to be renovated at the price tag of $300 million until the next budget cycle in 2033, after which Wootton would begin its renovations at hundreds of millions of dollars more. Just
weeks ago, the county council rejected Ehrlich's request to increase the county's bond limit to buy $40 million per year to 340 million to fund M.C.P.S. spending plan. This is a giant flashing warning light from the county that the check isn't in the mail, the money is not coming. And that is the
financial reality within which this county is constrained. Critics warn of a parade of horribles that if the enrollment projections are wrong, Crown will be over capacity and Wootton feeders will be sent out. Yet Crown was already designed with an opening capacity of 2200 students and common spaces
already built to support 2700 students. Plans for a four floor addition have already been drawn should we need it. Future problem solved. The public debate is often framed as should M.C.P.S. close one of its best high schools in the state. This framing is emotionally powerful and
deliberately misleading. You are not elected to tell voters what they want to hear and pledge fidelity to a building. Instead, as the board, your stewards of our taxpayer dollars to ensure the best for all students. Thank you. Hi, my name is Thomas and I'm a
kindergartner at the feet. Thank you for keeping the fifth one with someone taller. Please keep us together and make sure all kids have a safe zone. Now. My friend saw me until I need some help too. Thanks. Hi, I'm Andy, and this is my brother Tommy. We are students at
Travilah Elementary School. We stand with our friends at Dufief and Stonemill and wanting to keep our community together in a safe building. Helping friends feel like they belong is very important to us, and we hope you will consider sending Stone mill and Travilah
both the cabin down so that we can enter Wootton with a greater sense of belonging. We think this will go a long way in helping friends from across the Wooton cluster all come together with confidence and compassion. Thank you. Over to sawmill. Hi, I'm yuna. Hi, I'm
Harper. We go to Stonemill today and we all go to Cabin Trai next year. Also, we want to stay at Cabin John with Travilah because we want to make friends with Travilah. And also we don't want to go to a whole different school right after our first year. We're excited about Wootton and Crown
at Crown because Wootton is old and needs repairs, and Crown will be brand new and a new technology. We have a few small requests though. Keep Dufief aligned to Wootton period. Keystone will enter together at Cabin John. We were North
Potomac community that wants to make school transitions easier. We support the superintendent's plan overall, but please keep Stonewall and Travilah together at Cabin John. We like we like the focus on access and equity. Please do what's right for all
kids in our community. Thank you for listening. Bye. Very good evening. Members of the board and Superintendent Taylor. My name is Tiffany Griffith and I'm a proud resident of
Gaithersburg and parent of two children currently enrolled in M.c.p.s. I'm here tonight in support of Superintendent Taylor's recommendation to adopt modified option H. My husband and I chose to move to Gaithersburg Gaithersburg in
2015 with intention. We chose a neighborhood zoned to Quince Orchard High School, a school with deep alumni networks, established traditions and institutional stability. We understood what that meant for our children's future. Under modified option H, our family
would be rezoned to Crown High School and my oldest child would be part of its inaugural class. That is not something we take lightly, and it's something we are prepared to happily embrace. At the February 5th board meeting, board member Wolff reflected on
how policies once created with good intentions can, over time, unintentionally create structural barriers. Her reflection was a reminder that equity requires vigilance and sometimes courage. When change feels uncomfortable. The reality is that stability and
access are not always distributed evenly, even when no one sets out to exclude anyone. I understand the attachment families feel to long standing school identities and traditions. Those connections matter. They shape childhood memories and family
pride. That perspective is important, and at the same time, as a black mother, I carry a lived understanding that permanence in education has not always been equally experienced by families who look like mine. Stability and long term investment have not always been
guaranteed to black and brown communities. Gaithersburg is one of the most racially and economically diverse communities in this county. It is home to families across the income spectrum, all invested in their children's future.
That diversity is a strength it deserves permanence, not uncertainty. Opening Crown as a permanent school signals that our community is not temporary, that we are worthy of the same institutional commitment as anyone else. Modified option H gives us the chance to build
something new. New traditions, the continuation of academic excellence, and a shared sense of pride. It allows students from Rockville and Gaithersburg to come together not as communities in opposition, but as one community moving forward.
Modified option H does not take opportunity from one group. It expands it. It does not erase history. It builds the next chapter. Please adopt modified option H. Please choose permanence and inclusion. Thank you. Good evening, Doctor
Taylor and members of the board. My name is Sasha Tsarev. I'm a parent in the Wooton cluster, and I strongly support the superintendent's recommendation for Wooton at Crown. Our small community in Dufief has been advocating to keep the cluster together and for a safe school facility since the beginning of
the boundary study. Thank you for hearing our concerns and addressing them. I understand how many Wooton parents are disappointed that the recommendation doesn't provide additional spending to keep Wooton on Wootton Parkway, but I see it as a fair and responsible compromise. The
money saved from not having to rebuild Wooton will provide the opportunity to fund other critical infrastructure improvements for schools all over the county. With this recommendation, we're excited that our children will be able to maintain most of their friendships and will also have
the opportunity to make new friends as the cluster grows to include our neighbors at Field Road and Crown, we feel fortunate to finally have a brand new facility that will put an end to leaking pipes, moldy air, and Ada deficiencies and give our students and staff
a building they can be proud of. One with brand new classrooms, lab equipment, and security features. All that said, I'm not here just to express support. I do want to take this opportunity to ask the board to take action. Before you vote yes on the superintendent's
recommendation, I ask that you consider putting forth an amendment to resolve an issue with the middle school articulation. Our neighbors in Stone Mill and Travilah are slated to change middle school assignments, resulting in a split articulation. Stone mill will be the only Wootton feeder to go through. Hoover, and
Travilah will be the only Wootton feeder to go through Cabin John. There's no reason these communities should have students go through middle school in isolation on their own, before finally ending up at Wootton. Send them to Cabin John together. There is a capacity to do that. If you
keep Potomac at Hoover. This change maintains stability for all three feeder schools, allowing Stone Mill and Travilah to move through middle school together, and keeps all of Hoover as a straight articulation to Churchill. Additionally, we're concerned about students in the Wootton
Crown Walk zone that would have to cross route 28, Great Seneca Highway or Key West Avenue on their way to school. These major roadways present a pedestrian safety hazard that needs to be addressed. Please ensure that these families have bus service as an option, and crossing guards or other
pedestrian safety measures in place for those who choose to walk. With a simple amendment to fix middle school articulation and a commitment to transportation safety, the superintendent's recommendation is the right choice. I urge you to lead with confidence and put the needs of the students and
staff first. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Kate Scaletta and I'm the parent of two children in M.C.P.S. within the Northwest Cluster. My seventh grader attends Lakelands Park Middle School and my fifth grader attends Darnestown Elementary. Darnestown is a small, tight knit community of about 50 students per grade. For nearly
20 years, our students have gone from Darnestown Elementary to Lakelands Park Middle, then to Northwest High School alongside peers from surrounding Gaithersburg and Germantown communities. Our children have played sports and participated in activities together, building longstanding relationships with their peers. Under Doctor Taylor's recommendation, Darnestown Elementary students would be
reassigned to Kingsview Middle School and then to Poolesville High School. Kingsview does not articulate to Poolesville, which means our children would enter one middle school community where all peers move on to northwest, only to separate again for high school and join a Poolesville cohort that has been together since kindergarten. The mental health impact of forcing students to
integrate into two entirely new communities during adolescence should not be underestimated. Geographically, most of us are closest to Quince Orchard and Northwest high schools. Poolesville, by contrast, is significantly further. In fact, my children could walk to Quince Orchard or bike to northwest faster than they could reach Poolesville by car.
Travel time and daily logistics matter for families and for students well-being, and I have serious concerns regarding how long my children will be on a bus to and from Poolesville, as well as the logistics of picking them up from school for appointments. For example, when we live and work in Gaithersburg. This proposal undermines geographic proximity,
articulation patterns and stability, facility utilization, and even common sense. Lakelands Park and Ridgeview would remain significantly underutilized, while Kingsview would be near capacity. If change is required, there are more logical options to keep Darnestown students at Lakelands Park and send them to
Quince Orchard or, if moved to Kingsview, allow articulation to northwest. If assignment to Poolesville is unavoidable, then our students should attend John Poole Middle School for continuity, opening Crown Heights as originally intended to alleviate crowding in upper county schools, would allow for these changes without huge
utilization impacts. It would provide a logical articulation for our children to Northwest or Quince Orchard High School. These options were offered in the first and second rounds, and are still what makes the most sense for our community. When considering all stated goals of the boundary study. With each round of this boundary study, Darnestown has
been shifted to a different combination of schools. It feels as though our community is being reassigned based primarily on demographic targets rather than on geography, stability or student welfare. Compounding this concern is the county's plan to conduct an elementary school boundary study soon, which means students could face yet
another reassignment in high school. My current fifth grader will attend two different middle schools and potentially face a change of high school assignment in 10th grade. That is not stability. I urge the board to reject this recommendation and reassess the boundary data, considering the planned elementary study, and allow Darnestown students to
follow one of the more logical articulation patterns that were already presented. Please prioritize utilization, geographic proximity, and the well-being of our children. Our students deserve thoughtful, stable, long term planning that supports their academic success in mental health. Thank you for
your time and consideration. There are very few universal truths in this world, but I think there's one thing we can all agree upon. Middle school is hard. It's a tough age when our elementary school kids are transitioning into teenagers.
It's a big transition and a difficult time in their lives. Under the superintendent's proposed plan to open Crown High School, the class of students that's graduating fifth grade right now, it feels Road Elementary School would go to Ridgeview Middle School next
year for sixth grade. After building new friendships and going to outdoor education and hopefully figuring out how to work their locker, they will then go to seventh and eighth grade and switch schools and go to Frost Middle School. I completely understand that there's no easy way to to open
a new school and to phase in new articulation plans, but I respectfully request that we consider starting the middle school articulation next year, rather than the 2728 school year. This would ensure that no students would have to attend
two different middle schools over a three year period. The students that are in middle school right now would stay all three years in the middle school, and the fifth graders that are moving to middle school next year would start in their new middle school and
stay there for all three years before going to their high school. I think it would be a relatively easy modification, and if there's anything we can do to make middle school just a little bit easier, I think we should consider it again. I completely understand that the Board of Education has much bigger issues to deal with
right now, and much bigger fish to fry. But I hope we won't. We won't forget about the little fish that are moving to the much bigger pond in middle school. Soon we support the superintendent's recommendation for Crown High School, and we look forward to building a new
community with Wootton at Crown. I think this idea would ease that transition and start building that community a year earlier in middle school. Thank you for your time and thank you for considering this idea. Hello members of the board. My
name is Delphine Duncan. I am a parent and a proud residents of Clarksburg. But today I stand before you as a heartbroken parent. I'm here to speak for the children of Clarksburg, a community that is beautifully diverse, fiercely inclusive, and right now feeling
fundamentally discarded. School boundaries, decision and capital planning plans are not just logistical adjustments. They're decisions that impact our children emotional well-being, stability and a sense of belonging. We chose
Clarksburg because we wanted our children to grow roots. We believed in a promise that our children could grow up in their neighborhoods, build lifelong friendships, and attend the schools in the community they call home. Instead, we are watching those roots be pulled up. Imagine telling your child
that they cannot attend a high school. They can see from their front window a school that's less than a mile away, because they have been assigned to a facility miles away. This is not just boundary change. That is emotional disruption. That
is a message that proximity, stability and community do not matter. And the logic is deeply troubling. You are busing children out of their own neighborhood while bussing children in from nearby cities
like Germantown to attend schools here. At the same time, some of our children are being assigned to an aging facility with documented environmental and foundational concerns, a building that has needed rebuilding for years and has
been postponed. Time and time again. We are being asked to trade a safe, local environment for an overcrowded, deteriorating and hazardous school. How is that equity? Change in a child's environment
matters. Longer bus rides means less time for homework, less time for family, less time for extracurriculars. Stability during the teenage years is critical, disrupting peer groups that have grown together since elementary school affects
mental health, academic performance and confidence. Our children are not capacity solutions. They're not overflow. Clarksburg family are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for consistency, fairness, thoughtful planning.
We are asking that our community not be split apart to solve an overcrowding issue we did not create. Why is community growth and best education a standard protected in other parts of Montgomery County, but negotiable here? We
deserve to see our community kept whole. We deserve safe and modern facilities. We deserve decisions that prioritize our children over spreadsheets. Do not tell our children they are overflow. Tell them they belong in a community they call home.
Thank you. Members of the board. Doctor Taylor. Good evening. My name is Ryan Johnson and I'm a parent of two students at Fields Road Elementary School. I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak to you again on the Crown Boundary Study matter, and apologize that my work travel prohibits me from participating in person
this evening. I'm speaking this evening to to voice my support for the superintendent's recommendation from February 5th on the Crown boundary study, it's clear that a lot of careful consideration went into crafting this recommendation by Doctor Taylor and by his team, and it includes a lot of input
from communities across the affected areas. The result of this thoughtful process is a recommendation now with you for deliberation. This recommendation achieves the best balance of the board's goals and is a truly good outcome for the kids of our of our county. It's a compromise,
to be sure, but one that strikes the right balance. While there's still a lot of discussion going on regarding the outcome of the study, I think it's important to reiterate what this equitable and progressive recommendation does well. This recommendation promotes equitable and
accessible education for more students, including those who will benefit from less overcrowding in Gaithersburg and Quince Orchard high schools. It also is the most fiscally responsible option for MCPs, and avoids any further tax increases while staying within
what's approved in the CIP. It allows for greater number of walking students while simultaneously improving countywide integration, particularly in the unification between Gaithersburg and Rockville. It is future looking and well adapted to the ongoing changes to distribution of kids
across the county, while also aligning with the county wide mission of economic growth and the development of the Great Seneca Tech Corridor. Finally, the recommendation improves overall diversity and will benefit MCPs students at Crown, who will see a more diverse and unified school, giving them a
more global perspective and preparing them for the world they will inherit from us. As the board continues to deliberate on this important decision, we urge you to approve Doctor Taylor's recommendation, the modified recommendation that would see Crown High School serve as a holding school is simply not
viable, as it comes with an implicit request for hundreds of millions of dollars for renovations, which simply aren't available to the district at this time. I was heartened to hear Miss Wolves words when the recommendation was delivered, and agree that this recommendation shows a commitment to a paradigm where
opportunity isn't reserved for just a few. It is my sincere hope, then, that the board will approve Doctor Taylor's recommendation, as is, thereby sending a message to the students of M.C.P.S. that they are each one valued and deserving of the opportunities that this fantastic county can
offer. Thank you very much. That concludes the prerecorded testimony for this evening. The next item on the agenda is an opportunity for board member questions. I will turn it back to President Rivera-Oven. Thank you very much. If my colleagues
have any comments or questions could raise their hand, that would be great. I will quickly ask mine now instead of at the end. And if I could ask the staff if they can give us any update because we have heard about the Darnestown elementary
sidewalk issue before. So if if anybody can can talk to that Doctor Taylor, that'd be great. Hi. Good evening, Andrea Sueoka. Yes, we have engaged with the principal on this sidewalk. We
will reconnect with them and loop in the community on options that are available at the site. And do you know, kind of like the timeline of that when that's happening? We do not know. But I can follow up with the board in March. Okay.
That would that would be great. If we can go to Miss Zimmermann. Thank you. I have a couple questions and I understand if we need to go multiple rounds. But first, I really want to
shout out O'Looney for her bravery and sharing so much about herself, but then also the bravery that she was reading in front of all of us and sharing her struggles with reading just really showed how much strength she had. And it
felt. I felt a lot of pride for her. It was just really wonderful to see that. So I hope that she is watching, or that someone gets in touch with her and lets her know how. How really proud of her that I'm speaking for myself. But I'm sure my colleagues are really
proud of her too. Then when it gets to some other questions, I'm. I'm curious if we have set forth an option or heard more from the community about the one that was set forth by the city of Rockville. To me, it sounded kind of similar to
option G that we had set forward, but I was wondering what what we had and hadn't considered there. Thank you, Miss Zimmerman. Yes, that is option G with a modification, but essentially it is option G with a modification. Okay. So
if out of curiosity, if I wanted to look and see some other like input from the community, like the feedback that we've submitted and things, I could look more specifically at option G there. Correct. Great. And then I also wanted a
little bit more context on when we're talking about cost that having visited Wooton High School and seeing, you know, images of Wooton High School, having heard testimony about the state of Wooton High School, I know that the building has
some structural needs. And my question gets at if we aim to use that as a holding school in the future, that will have a cost kind of. What can you tell us about the difference between cost to make that a viable holding school versus making it a renovating it fully and
keeping it as a comprehensive high school? What's the cost difference there? So we can give you a very 30,000 foot view answer right now, but go into more detail at your next work session. That'd be great.
Essentially, what we would do for a holding school would we would restore the systems and make sure that the systems were up to date, but probably invest a little less in some of the esthetic treatments. And, and, and it wouldn't be as, as
comprehensive in terms of maybe moving walls and maybe resizing classrooms and some of the other work that we would do if we were going to truly do a full refresh. The cost differential is you're looking at 100 million or less for
holding school modifications and adaptations, but you're looking at closer to 200 million or more for a full refresh. Okay. Got it. And last question before I'll hold. I know other folks have questions
too, but I would also like to know more about potential plans for Magruder High School being renovated when it comes into entrance into a CIP and potential for renovation. And I know that that gets a little bit up in the air depending on which option the board chooses
to go with. So I understand if that's something else that will be brought forward at a future work session. We absolutely can bring that forward at at the next CIP work session. It is speculative because it's based on current FCI and FCI may
change, but it's clearly a project that's in the queue, and there's some logical thinking that we could map out for the board's consideration. Great. Thank you, Miss Yang. Thank you, thank you. I have
some data requests. I have requested looking at middle school articulation about steel mill and travilah. And the staff has provided me with the number. I would like that to be discussed during our work
session on boundary please. Second is that 20 Rock view 2040 Comprehensive plan was mentioned in Mayor Ashton's testimony and also Rockville
Town Center plan was also mentioned. Can we cover that? Also in the work session about future projection? Thank you.
Thank you, Miss Stewart. Your your mic. Thank you, thank you. I think my colleagues covered most of my questions, but I
also wanted to see if we could see the some possible future ramifications from the Rockville request from there.
You know, like if we had modified option G, how does that affect sequencing down the road? Okay. Just just so that we're rock solid on giving you what you're looking for. You're
talking about capital improvement plan projects and how the sequence could be impacted by going with a modified option, G versus the recommendation that I made. Correct? Correct. Okay. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mr.
Miss. Silvestre. Yes. I've also gotten a lot of feedback about capacity at our schools, future capacity and planning documents, and approved, I believe I've heard in one of our last
meetings that we only take into consideration approved projects and not master plans for what's because master plans are are could be in the planning phase for years and years and years
and years and never. So could you just can you confirm that I'm that I heard that correctly, that we only look at approved projects and you know, how much of a risk are we taking by going that route, if in fact,
those projects in the master plans get approved? Thank you for asking that. And we'll certainly go into a lot more detail during your work session. But MCPs does not make projections. We actually make
our projections based off of county data that comes from approved plans. So even municipal data is included in approved plans that go through county planning. All of these
things are considered and are a part of our data that that made our recommendation or form the basis of our recommendation. So when when considering even approved plans, it may be
several years between when approved. When a plan is approved, it does not necessarily mean that a builder is actually going to build on that approved plan. Even within 1 or 2 years. There, there, there may be 1020 years and
several even approved plans. We consider approved plans we do not include in our data plans that have not been approved because they are. They are. They may be considered as part of the pipeline, but they are not far enough along to to have
made it to that approval process. And even though they may be a part of the consideration, it may be decades before they're acted on. Okay. Yeah, it's much detail, as we can have at our work session about the for the public. I think that would help
everyone. And you mentioned $100 million for a to renovate Wootton for a holding school, but that's not in the current six year CIP. So that would be a longer term investment for the future correct? That's
correct. And I would say up to $100 million, because I think that there are some systems that we would start working on now and that we would make some improvements on. That may be in your smaller buckets of your CIP planning in terms of roof
work, in terms of windows, in terms of plumbing, in terms of electrical, we may be tackling them one at a time, not as a whole package, or we may tackle them as a package, really, depending on which direction the board wants to go and how aggressive you want to be in terms of construction in the
future. You also don't have a project in the queue right behind it necessarily either. So these are some things that may feature prominently in your CIP planning process two years from now. As you start some of the other projects that are
already in the queue. So there might be some adjustments based on just having facility utilization at a higher level. So it's up to 100 million, but it could be a lot less than that. Just to cover the basics. Yes okay. Thank you. I don't
see my other colleagues have any questions, but Doctor Taylor, I have an additional follow up to my colleague, Miss Silvestre about the data of development. That's the county data that we received include the approved planning for the
different municipalities like Rockville and the city of Gaithersburg. It does. And we've also reviewed the municipal data as well, just to make sure we haven't missed anything. Okay. Thank you. Okay. With not seeing any more
questions. Oh, Miss Zimmerman. Thank you. My apologies. I have a follow up to Miss Yang's question about middle school articulation. I'm also curious about different implementation options for middle schoolers.
Middle school is such. It is your shortest educational tenure with only three years. So I'm curious what different options we might have in implementing these boundary shifts to minimize disruptions for our students. Thank you. Yeah, we'll certainly bring that forward. Thank you so much.
All right. Let's start moving on. Thank you. I will now ask our board staff to continue with our next round of speakers. We will now move to live testimonies from MCPs students, who will each have three minutes apiece and MCPs PTA
cluster representatives who will have five minutes each. Up next will be mini Reemsnyder, followed by Jackie Dove and the Wooton Cluster coordinator. All right, now go ahead, Doctor
Taylor and members of the board. My name is Mini Ron Snyder, and I'm a ten year old fourth grader at Cedar Grove Elementary School. Last week, I had the chance to speak in front of the county council and asked that Damascus High School be a better place for students
to learn and grow. It was something I had never done before. I was a little nervous, but afterward I felt really proud of myself. So when my mom told me I could come speak to you today, I said, yes, I know the boundary study will be
decided soon, and I understand that not every decision will make everyone happy, but I want to share some things. I'm really thankful and excited about. It can be hard to make and keep friends, and I was worried that my friends and I
might get split up. I'm really happy that we will get to that. We will all get to go to Halliwell's and then Damascus High School together. I know it has been hard for my older sisters to be separated from their friends. I'm very thankful that I won't have to
go through that. I started out doing cheer and now plays travel softball for the Damascus Lady Jackets. I have teammates and friends from Cedar Grove, Snowden Farm and other schools in the Damascus area. Montgomery County is big,
but where I live feels small. I can walk to my best friend's house, and my neighbors feel like family. I also have friends from other schools like Harper from Woodfield, Bolen from Snowden Farm, and my
cousins who go to Rockwell. One of my favorite days of the year is the Damascus Parade in July, where we all come together, walk in the parade, eat way too much candy, and Jimmy Cone, stay up late and watch the
fireworks. I know it's not a part of the boundary study, but I think it would be pretty cool if you all came and walked in the parade too, just to see what Damascus is really like. I love where I live and I love my school. One of my favorite things to do is seeing teachers
and friends out in the community. I even see my second grade teacher, Miss Doyle, at high school games, and sometimes she comes to watch me play too. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but she's pretty high on my list.
Growing up like this is really special, and staying together is something I'm so grateful for. Even though I live in Clarksburg and go to a school in Damascus, I'm excited that it will feel less like two towns to different towns and more like one big community. I
have one big request I graduate graduate in 2034, and I would love to start high school in a newly renovated Damascus high school. That would mean so much to me and to all the students
who. Thank you many. Next up is Jackie Dove, followed by the Wooton Cluster Coordinator and the Watkins Mill Cluster Coordinator. Hello, I'm Jackie Dove and I'm an 11th grader at Clarksburg High School. Our
Clarksburg residents are mostly immigrant and minority families. Your outreach during this boundary process was not at all friendly to populations who don't come from cultures where advocacy is acceptable or customary. Clarksburg students and residents are tired of being shuffled around from cluster to cluster. Too many of
our neighborhoods have been split from our cluster, and modified option H will take away close to 600 more. You are taking Halliwell's Middle School, one of two neighborhood middle schools away from Clarksburg, and you are pushing out another elementary school. You should have designated money to expand Clarksburg, but
Doctor Taylor is choosing to push even more students out of Clarksburg. And to add insult to injury, he is giving us just one criteria based program. While every other school in region six will have at least two, that isn't right. That isn't equity throughout my
entire M.c.p.s. Academic career. Rarely have I felt that the BOE or the superintendent truly care about my student voice. Students have got a lot to say. If only you would listen. Student voice matters for academics, boundaries, policies and programs. Anything and
everything that impacts us should involve our voices. A small group of students from four schools that are handpicked by their principals is not representative of MCPs. Yet. That's what MCPs used primarily to capture student voice, to inform grading policy
changes. Why should that small percentage be interpreted as the thoughts and opinions of tens of thousands of students? When you limit access to who has a voice, you aren't being equitable or inclusive. Stop leaving major decisions to people who won't be impacted by them. I'm here telling you that
you need to include more student voices. Curriculum 2.0 was a disaster. Advanced English isn't advanced. Honors English is not honors. Students supports aren't equitable from school to school. The grading policy disproportionately hurts
juniors and seniors. Students don't want a year of health and a year of PE. College and career planning is not equitable. Across high schools. We want to be heard. I'm happy to share more. Just reach out to me. And just so you know,
MCPs isn't representative of the student voice. They do a subpar job of soliciting student input and involvement at most M.C.P.S. schools, including mine, involve us MCPs because the student groups that are supposed to. Don't all of
our voices matter. Thank you. Thank you Jackie. Next up, Alex Chusid from the Wooton cluster, followed by Watkins Mill and Magruder. Thank you. Good evening. Buenos noches. My name is Alex Chusid. I'm here as the
Wooton High School cluster coordinator for Wooton High School. My son is a ninth grader at Wooton. He previously attended Frost Frost Middle School, Chapel, Fox Chapel, CES, and Fields Road Elementary. So it's a pleasure to see so many familiar faces from across the
region testifying today. I hope the district can reach a solution that works for everyone. I would like to start my testimony with our story about buying a house in the area a few years ago, in 2022, my family and I began searching
in the area for a house. We cria garage, and it had to be ranked as one of the best academic experiences in the state, and I wanted to be able to expose my son to academic excellence. So
we purchased our house. Our house was highly valued, highly prized, and had some flaws. Although we love our house, after moving in, we found out that it had a lot of deferred maintenance. The roof leaked, the appliances broke, the shower leaked, and the electrical box was 40 years old.
In short, it was a lovely house in a desirable situation, but had been neglected for years and it had a brand new front door. Which brings me back to Wooten. Our house was built right around the same time as Wooten. It may have even been
done by the same builders. Unlike our house, Wooten is well loved, well regarded, and sadly neglected. Wooten remains one of the best ranked high schools in the state, ranked third by U.S. News World Report just in 2025, and their best high schools in Maryland. And
yet, Wooten's building is crumbling with poor plumbing, poor HVAC, poor electrical, and a myriad of other issues that the district CIP report acknowledged. This all leads Wooten to be one of the bottom three high schools in the district facilities wise, with Magruder and Damascus as the
other two, with power outages, mold rats, and other unsanitary health conditions, it's undisputed that Wooten must be repaired before suffering a catastrophic failure. Excuse me. As a result, the superintendent has correctly identified that
Wooten needs repair. However, I'm here to speak about the plan that has been put forward to put Wooten in as a holding school to take the school, which is ranked third in the state and second in the
district, and eliminate it. I'm here as a cluster coordinator to say no, please fulfill your obligations to the school and to the cluster. Keep Wooten Cluster together at Wooten Parkway and fix the building, you might say. Why would Wooten
parents not support moving the cluster to Crown? Because the building is in such poor condition. And in fact, some members of our cluster have asked that question. The reasons that I would put forth are multitudinous. First, that kicks the problem down the curb.
While the crown today does not have enough students to open without students from other schools, with the building growth anticipated in the area, especially if the Rio Plan development comes into fruition with the demolition of the the
the the Mervyns building and the not Mervyn's. I'm sorry, with the building there and the planned building in five years, this may no longer be the case. Second, under the superintendent's plan, Wooten would be used as a holding school. Repairs would need to
be made anyway. Why not repair it altogether? Third, using Wooten as a holding school would place an undue burden on bussing. The crown would not. Crown is much more geographically convenient to Magruder and Damascus, which
would need repairs next. Fourth, abandoning Wooten creates overcrowding in Rockville area schools, for which Crown was built in the first place. Richard Montgomery High School, Quince Orchard, and Gaithersburg High School. All of which the Crown Building was
designed to ease those issues. I would suggest to the board that closing Wooten is contrary to the board's own stated mission to provide the highest quality education to every student. As the cluster coordinator, I know my voice is
one of many. However, I am here to reiterate out the message. Fix Wooten, keep Wooten on Wooten Parkway and keep the cluster together. I would add that the superintendent's proposal, if amended, to to look at Crown as the holding location, which I believe is
the amended option G that the City of Rockville is putting forward, would accomplish those goals for all students. My hope is that we can build a legacy that our children deserve. Thank you Alex. Next up is
Alicia Wolff for the Watkins Mill cluster, followed by Magruder and Richard Montgomery. Good evening. My name is Alicia Wolff and I serve as the elementary PTA vice president representing the Watkins Mill High School cluster. Tonight. I'm here on behalf of the
families from our elementary and middle schools who feed into Watkins Mill High School. We understand that you're facing difficult decisions about boundaries and alignment, and we appreciate the time, analysis and public input that have gone into the superintendent's recommendations. Our central message tonight is about unity.
We strongly urge the board to keep the Watkins Mill High School cluster united, and to continue limiting our articulation pattern to no more than two middle schools that feed into Watkins Mill High School, whether that ultimately includes Montgomery Village Middle School, paired with Forest Oak Middle School or with another middle school. Our
priority is that our elementary communities not be divided across more than two middle schools or multiple high schools. We also recognize that any middle school change is personal for families, and since Neillsville is no longer part of our cluster in any of the proposed eight options that
some parents who have had positive experiences at Neillsville Middle School understandably hope that any new assignment to another middle school within the cluster would offer a similar supportive environment. For that reason, we are in support of Superintendent Taylor's recommendation of a modified
option H for region five articulation pattern because it keeps our children together and preserves the unity of the Watkins Mill cluster. In addition, this option offers a slight decrease in the projected facility utilization at both Montgomery Village Middle School and Watkins Mill
High School. It also maintains the socio economic and racial and ethnic diversity of our school communities near their current levels. We are opposed to options A through G because each of these articulation patterns in them fragments our community in ways that would be harmful to students and
families. Options A, B, C, and D split Southlake Elementary into a different high school, dividing a core part of our community. Options F and G are given are even more concerning. These options splinter our cluster across too many middle schools, elementary schools, and another high school. They
create the most fragmented outcomes for our families and would significantly weaken our collective voice. We are a relatively small cluster within a very large district, and our our vision is to be a fully united Watkins Mill High School cluster community. We are actively working toward that
goal and have been for years strengthening collaboration among families, school leaders and PTAs so that we advocate together and show up together. A cohesive cluster is not just an ideal for us. Unity is essential to ensuring that every student is seen, heard, and supported. When a community
like ours is divided across multiple middle schools or high schools, that unity is weakened. Students who have grown up together are separated. Parent networks are fractured, advocacy becomes diluted, and for a small but vibrant and diverse community like ours, that fragmentation has real
consequences. Our cluster is one of the most diverse communities in Montgomery County and in Maryland, and that diversity is a strength. We are proud of it, but we also know that size and demographics matter when it comes to influence and access. Maintaining a unified cluster helps us ensure that our
students have equitable access to resources, programing and opportunity. But regardless of which option the board ultimately adopts, please know that this message is not new. Many parents, educators, and community leaders have called for a stronger focus on youth and community development in the Watkins Mill cluster, and
I'm proud to uplift their voices. Tonight, we will continue collectively and persistently to advocate for increased and equitable investment in structured, out of school time, opportunities and a recreational community center that is accessible to our youth and families. As our cluster schools are designated
title one and Community schools, we appreciate the board's continued commitment to supporting the wraparound services that help our students thrive. Access to high quality after school programs, enrichment, athletics, tutoring, summer learning, and safe recreation spaces is essential to student achievement,
lifelong success, and well-being. Our students deserve the same level of structured opportunities, high quality recreation facilities, and community infrastructure that exists in other parts of the county to support the development beyond the school day, we encourage the district, in partnership with county
leaders, to continue to align boundary decisions with broader investments in youth and community development. Boundary decisions alone will not solve disparities. Sustained, equitable resource allocation must remain a priority, and we urge you to support our boundary preference so our
community can continue to advocate with a unified voice. Tonight, we respectfully ask that as you deliberate, you keep our communities unity at the forefront and specifically the articulation pattern for Watkins Mill High School cluster that is evident in option H. Limit our articulation to no more than
two middle schools and keep our students feeding into Watkins Mill High School. Thank you for your service and for your commitment to all students. Thank you Alicia. Next up is Dan Silva for the Magruder Cluster, followed by Richard Montgomery and Seneca Valley.
Good evening. I'm Dan Silva, a magruder cluster coordinator, and on December 9th, I interviewed Doctor Taylor at our Magruder Town Hall. And while I did ask some tough questions, I wanted to end on a positive note. So my last question was kind of a softball. I asked, what would you like to say to the Magruder community
that has felt so neglected for so long to assure them that you have their students best interests in mind, rather than something like, of course, I care about your students as much as I do everyone else's. He answered little defensively and said, well, I'm not going to tell you that you're my number one priority because
you're not. You're my seventh. We're just going to follow the data, which is a claim I've heard many other times. While lacking in empathy, we actually took some solace in his words, because if that was true, at least we knew where we stood and could plan to endure. Which is why we again felt so
betrayed when he recommended option H. Now you're all well aware that Magruder has the lowest high school FCI at about 0.65. Okay, and that your objective rankings prioritize Damascus, Magruder and then Wootton as six, seven and eight.
And with only six schools included in this CIP, this process has pitted these communities against each other, all fighting for the same scraps. And while everybody digs in on the importance of these individual projects, I'm imploring the BOE tonight to take a more holistic, forward thinking and equitable approach
by looking at these three projects as one single problem. And here's why that makes sense. When you look at the list of the top 52 priorities behind me, there isn't a single other high school project, not one. That means if you can find a way to navigate this logjam of overdue
high school projects at the top, you have a ton of runway to work through. All these much smaller middle and elementary school projects, while also working out sustainable holding school solutions before the next batch of high schools are due for replacement. Now, until option H was announced, most of the conversation revolved
around how to best utilize Crown. You all vehemently defended your right to use it as a holding school, so we know that's possible. The timelines presented had it been utilized first for Damascus, then Magruder, then Wootton, corresponding with their objective prioritization, with
Magruder being completed right on the heels of Damascus. And if M.c.p.s still wants to relocate Wootton to crown, that means Wootton and Magruder would both move into their long term homes at the same time. If you decide to rebuild Wootton instead, it could be turned over to the Crown community
just two years after that, 3 to 4 communities equitably served within 2 to 4 years of each other, and the whole region stabilized for decades to come. Instead, the recommendation is to immediately relocate Wootton to Crown. And since there are obviously other considerations behind or beyond the published
data, let's consider a comparison of the experience that would create for our students. Wootton students would just pick up their books and head down the street to their new home, somehow bypassing the whole process, skipping from eighth to first and avoiding any construction related disruptions. Damascus would have the added burden of
disruptions caused by attending on site during construction, and Magruder would just be left on the vine to continue rotting. We would not only see another school jump ahead of us, but necessarily another capital project to repair Wootton. If and when we are eventually added back to the CIP, we would
have to endure a longer commute to a holding school further away and in a building deemed no longer suitable for a comprehensive high school. And while we wait indefinitely, Doctor Taylor has explicitly called for a halt of all off year spending. As the rate of our deterioration continues to escalate exponentially. If we
do see the benefit of a capital repair, such as our roof in 2029, that will trigger a reevaluation of our FCI, and we could be penalized by moving us even further down the list, as we've already been reminded tonight. As we've also heard tonight, the renovation standards for Wootton as a holding school are lower than that of a comprehensive high
school, so our students would be the only ones to have to endure an unnecessarily diminished high school experience for multiple years, while others may use it for six months or a year to expedite smaller HVAC and similar projects. Rubber stamping option age dooms Magruder to
another decade or more of suffering to the Magruder community, this recommendation is seen as a politically expedient one, not an equitable one that prioritizes the best interests of the county as a whole. Relocating Wootton, or opening crown as a permanent high school are both irreversible decisions based on long range projections that
remain contested and uncertain. If those projections shift, we could either lose needed future capacity or strain the operating budget with an underutilized school. Using Crown as a holding school preserves flexibility while allowing MCPs to prioritize modernization based on objective data. The clearest
measure we have of actual building need. Keeping Crown as a holding school lets the district accelerate projects equitably across the region now, while making a more informed, informed, long term decision once enrollment trends are clearer. Lastly, I urge you all to let your not to let your
fiduciary duties cloud your moral obligation to all students in M.c.p.s. Thank you Dan. Next up is Rodney Peele for the Richard Montgomery Cluster. This will be followed by Seneca Valley and Quince
Orchard. Hi. Good evening. The Richard Montgomery Cluster, composed of Richard Montgomery High School, Julius West and our five elementary schools, appreciates the opportunity to testify today about the superintendent's recommendation
for the boundary study for Crown High School. I'm cluster coordinator Rodney Peele, my fellow cluster coordinators, Jenny Hardesty and Jonathan Thiessen, and I have children who have collectively attended five of our cluster seven schools. And I've had children in our cluster schools for the last 16 years. First, thank you
for recommending boundaries for Richard Montgomery High School. That on their face seemed to reflect our cluster priorities. Efficient utilization of schools, especially Richard Montgomery. Coherent articulation pathways that support lifelong relationships, and the International Baccalaureate program from elementary to middle to high.
Reasonable geographic proximity to our schools, as well as to the other high schools assigned to our future region, and maintaining the incredible diversity of our cluster located in one of the most diverse cities in America, not just in terms of race, but also socioeconomics, national origin, religion, gender, and more.
However, we are skeptical about M.C.P.S. and this boundary process and programs analysis. We do not yet understand how you project Richard Montgomery High School, which is overcapacity necessitating nine portable classrooms, will experience a decline in student population from 107% of
capacity to 89.3%. Your projection appears to be based on resident students and disregards existand planned development, as our Rockville Mayor and City Council have aptly noted, our city has approved 2330 new housing units by 2030. We really be able to
remove the portables you predict we no longer need. We also object to M.C.P.S. practice for the last several years of overstating overstating building capacities, which results in schools looking underutilized on paper by needing every inch of available space to adequately serve students basic
educational needs, as well as the needs of special education students, emerging multilingual learners, mental health and wellness, physical education, the arts and music. Further, M.C.P.S. has yet to provide and explain its predictions for the scope of student migration to
new and altered programs and schools within its new regional concept. Nor has M.c.p.s adequately explained the criteria and expectations for adjusting program counts in the future. We are alarmed that Richard Montgomery's 40 year old flagship IB program might
be downsized up to 75% from its current successful format that serves as many as 600 of the county's most highly able students. We continue to dispute MCPs contention that the only way to provide more access and opportunity to programs such as countywide IB
magnet is to restrict them from 84% of the county high school students downsizing the RM IB magnet program and or lowering its standards undermines quality and student outcomes, including access to robust course offerings for the rest of our student population. Not
enrolled in the full IB curriculum. A long term downward spiral in results and desirability for students to program the school and eventually M.C.P.S. You still have not come to our cluster to have a discussion about what our programs and schools really need? When is the board going to hold a hearing on the
program's analysis, as it is done multiple times for boundaries such as tonight, MCPs resolved that you should provide multiple options and several rounds of public feedback on programs, rather than the propaganda exercise you conducted. Instead, when the PTAs and teachers have no
confidence you can deliver what you're promising, you have a problem. We also question whether m.c.p.s. Is following its own rules, and whether the superintendent's recommendations adequately allow for and consider community input. We empathize with our Rockville friends and neighbors in the Wootton High School cluster and also the city of Gaithersburg,
specifically the neighborhood that's home to Crown. Our cluster borders these communities, and we understand why they feel the rug was pulled out from under them with these major shifts and proposals, we also border communities likely to be assigned to Woodward, even though we were not part of that boundary study. But we know they have concerns, too. We
worry that you will arbitrarily conduct the planned elementary school boundary review in this way, too. So we asked Superintendent Taylor and each of the members of the Board of Education, why do so many of us PTA leaders feel that MCPs seeks to impose its will on communities across the county,
rather than work with communities to make changes that we readily seek and support? Why do so many of us continue to feel that MCPs makes decisions behind closed doors, rather than in an open process? We need leadership, not dictates from on high. We need engagement, not check the
box exercises. We need transparency, not propaganda. We need accountability from the BOE, not a rubber stamp. And before you finalize the Crown boundary study, we ask you to better explain your short and long term enrollment projections for Montgomery. And we implore you to come to our cluster to explain how your programs analysis will preserve
the outstanding IB program we have at Richard Montgomery and provide access to deserving students countywide. Thank you. Thank you Rodney. Next up is Sarah Bologna for the Seneca Valley cluster, followed by
Quince Orchard and Gaithersburg. Miss Bologna, are you here? We will come back to Seneca Valley. Next up would be Shruti Anand
from Quince Orchard. Board of Education and community members, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening on behalf of the Quince Orchard Cluster Community, we express our support for opening Crown High School as a permanent school, consistent with the
superintendent's recommendation and aligned with the long term educational needs of our students. As a boundary study data shows the proposal would reduce projected overcrowding at Quince Orchard High School, an early factor in the decision
to build Crown. We are pleased that the request to keep our communities together has been addressed in this proposal. The superintendent's recommendation removes experience of neighbors in one community, potentially matriculating to two different high schools. The Fields Road
Elementary School PTA has publicly expressed support for joining Robert Frost Middle School, and one high school at Crown. This position reflects a forward looking perspective grounded in diversity, alleviating overcrowding and
ensuring a balanced utilization of school resources. Opening Crown High School as a permanent school that includes the surrounding residences, would offer stability to the community and support broader system goals of stability of
school assignments, close geographic proximity, and optimal facility utilization. I really appreciate you, Doctor Taylor, and thank you for your time for listening to the Quince Orchard Cluster. Thank
you. Shruti. Next up, Sumi Moses from Gaithersburg cluster. That'll be followed by Clarksburg Cluster and Seneca Valley. Good evening, President Rivera-Oven, members of the board. Doctor Taylor, thank you for the opportunity to share
feedback gathered from families across the Gaithersburg cluster. Our community is not unified in one position on this recommendation. Some families strongly support it. Some strongly oppose it, while others remain uncertain. What unites them is not politics, but the concern about student impact. Across survey responses,
one theme emerged consistently stability under a fall 2027 implementation. Our current eighth graders would begin high school at one school and then be reassigned for their sophomore year. That is not a minor adjustment. Sophomore year is when students begin building transcripts, selecting pathways, and solidifying their peer networks at a middle
school level. Current sixth graders may remain at their existing school, while younger siblings could be assigned elsewhere. Families are not asking for exceptions. They're asking for clarity and predictability. The recurring question is simple what is the sibling plan at this? At this time, families do not see a clearly defined transition plan.
If continuity and stability are guiding principles in this recommendation, families are asking that those principles be applied consistently across the entire cluster. Many families, including some from Laytonsville Elementary, support ending split articulation. They value keeping cohorts together from elementary through high school and aligning schools with their
communities. For them, continuity equals stability. At the same time, the plan introduces new split articulation for other communities, including Gaithersburg Elementary, Harriet Tubman Elementary, and Rosemont Elementary. Harriet Tubman Elementary is not currently a split articulation, although the recommendation materials indicate that it is.
The recommendation also includes portions of South Lake Elementary and Whetstone Elementary articulating the forest Oak, and then back to the Watkins Cluster for high school. In effect, continuity is strengthened in some areas, while introduces disruption in others. Families express concern about fragmenting elementary cohorts and
disrupting peer relationships as students enter middle school. There are also concerns about potential disruption to the to the established Gaithersburg Elementary two way immersion to Gaithersburg middle Spanish immersion pipeline, which relies on continuity for program integrity and student language development. Boundary changes do not affect entire
schools equally. They shift specific neighborhoods, creating new transitions within communities that have already adjusted to prior changes. There is also concern about the anticipated Future Elementary boundary study, which could create additional disruption for students and dismantle parent communities that have only recently stabilized.
Clarity and consistent implementation matter. Families who require special education services raise concerns about continuity of services. Parents who want want to understand how IEP supports specialized programs and staffing will transfer students to transfer. If students are reassigned. For
these families, stability is not only emotional, it is instructional and legally significant. Clear guarantees of service continuity are essential to maintaining trust. Families also express concern about potential reassignment of students to Damascus High School. While it is over capacity and undergoing construction, moving students
to an environment that may already be strained raises questions about class size, access to programs, safety and overall learning conditions. Implementation timing must align with facility readiness to avoid compounding disruption. Before concluding that Gaithersburg cluster supports or opposes this recommendation,
it is important to clarify that the cluster is not synonymous with the city of Gaithersburg. The cluster spans multiple municipalities and unincorporated communities, including areas within the city of Rockville. Letters from one municipal body should not be interpreted as representing of the full cluster. Since early
January, I've emailed members of this board and your staff multiple times requesting a town hall so families could share their feedback directly. On February 20th, I received a response indicating that my request would be shared with the board. Again, I remain hopeful that we can schedule this dialog if families want to engage constructively and transparently and direct
conversation with strength and trust in a process that is already complex and deeply personal, boundary maps may appear clean and efficient on paper, but lines on a map do not automatically translate into community, trust, stability, or long term planning. Those outcomes require equitable engagement,
transparent implementation, and careful attention to how decisions affect students in real life. If the board moves forward, families are asking for a clearly defined transition plan for current eighth graders who would be reassigned during high school. A transparent and equitable sibling alignment policy,
explicit guarantees for special education continuity implementation aligned with facility readiness and construction timelines. Consistent application of continuity principles across all elementary communities. For families, this is not a map exercise. It is about major changes during critical years
in a child's development and educational path. When students are forming identity building, academic direction and establishing belonging. Stability during these transitions is foundational. We respectfully ask that students stability remain at the central lens in all implementation
decisions. Thank you. Thank you Sumihiro. Next up is Aarti Varanasi, Audra Dove and Nadia molina for the Clarksburg cluster. That will be followed by Seneca Valley and then board
questions. Good evening. I am Aarti Varanasi, one of the three Clarksburg Cluster coordinators, in collaboration with Audra Dove and Nadia molina. I'm here to testify on behalf of our cluster schools and our Clarksburg community. We appreciate the challenge of
conducting boundary analyzes and acknowledge the hard work that goes into it. But you're continuing to do wrong by Clarksburg. As the kids say, don't get it twisted. Make no mistake, our advocacy for Damascus, the modernization and
the rebuild of Damascus High School was not a nod to support increasing capacity for the purpose of moving nearly 600 resident students in from Clarksburg into Damascus. Why should the county spend millions of dollars to expand a
small town Under-enrolled school by 700 seats, instead of using that money to expand seats in an area that is far more densely populated and would be a much closer relief valve for other densely populated areas, transportation costs would go down, neighborhood access would
increase, and a relief valve for Germantown students would not require pushing the majority of Clarksburg students out of their communities. This marks the fifth, I say fifth boundary study for Clarksburg 32,000 residents in just over ten years, MCPs has split our
neighborhoods every few years, and Doctor Taylor's modified option, H continues that careless tradition. His recommendation pushes 53% of high school aged Clarksburg students out of our town and out of our cluster, 53%. That's
1000 kids from Clarksburg are six elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school could comfortably hold all of the school aged students in the 20871 Clarksburg ZIP code. Instead, our students articulate to three different high schools so that we can
make space for Germantown neighbors. And now, instead of expanding Clarksburg, we're putting money toward the incredulous 700 seat expansion of a school that will only ever continue to draw more and more kids away from Clarksburg and will deplete walkability. That
50% 53% will keep increasing. Modified option H pushes the majority of our kids out of our neighborhood schools and out of our town. It is not only fiscally irresponsible, it's pejorative to our diverse community. Modified option H strips the Clarksburg Cluster
of yet another one of its neighborhood elementary schools, and it takes away one of our clusters two neighborhood middle school. Stop. Stop treating Clarksburg and our majority minority residents like second class citizens. Stop slicing and dicing our
community. In 2020, you pushed out 1550 Clarksburg students to the Seneca Valley Cluster. Now you want to push out more? Say no to the outrageous 700 seat expansion of Damascus High School that will pull 29% of our resident students away from
our cluster saying no to the removal of Snowden Farm Elementary School from Clarksburg High School, saying no to the reassignment of Halliwell's Middle School to the Damascus cluster, solely say yes to a reassessment of the modernization and rebuild of Damascus High School and a
reduced seat expansion. Say yes to keeping Snowden Farm Elementary School at Clarksburg High School as a feeder school, and Halliwell's Middle School in Clarksburg cluster, even if that means split articulation, say yes to a more sustainable long term solution to the
growing needs of our Clarksburg and Germantown communities. We've asked and continue to ask, that MCPs ensure more of our students articulate to Clarksburg High School, not less. Stop the bleed and stop treating our neighborhoods and our children like interchangeable chess pieces in
your CIP strategy. While you leave the boundaries and demographics of Poolesville, Whitman, Churchill, Walter Johnson, and Richard Montgomery relatively untouched, and you leave the Damascus neighborhoods with 100% articulation to Damascus High School. Clarksburg is an
expansive, vibrant garden of socioeconomically diverse majority minority, and largely immigrant families who want to be rooted in neighborhood schools and community. But you keep removing our soil and ripping out our seedlings. We are a community with historic
roots that date back to the 1700s. We have shared values and a clear vision for our children. The whims. Snowden and Wells families who donated their land were pillars of our community, and they donated their land so that future generations could continue to
grow and thrive in Clarksburg, pulling 53% of our students outside of our hearts. High school cluster is not okay. Please make it right. Commit to Clarksburg and to Germantown. We invite and welcome further
discussion. Thank you. Thank you Artie. We understand we'll be receiving written testimony from the Seneca Valley Cluster, so that will move us to board questions immediately. Following board questions will
be Brian Rabin, Christina Yang, and Janet Reemsnyder. I will turn it back to President Rivera-Oven. Thank you very much, colleagues. If you have any specific questions for staff follow up at this time,
please raise your hand. Seeing none. Oh, Miss Silvestre. Just wanted to go back to Richard Montgomery. I think the capacity of Richard Montgomery
has been brought up in in several testimonies tonight. And if you could do it here or at the work session, just help us understand how the overcapacity of Richard Montgomery will be addressed. And this discrepancy that the
mayor brought up in terms of that it was overcapacity at one month and then another month later in a different document, it was shown as no longer overcapacity. Trying to understand that. Thank you, Miss Silvestre. The simple
answer is this that in the CIP document, the enrollment reflects not just those that are living in the attendance zone, but also those that are attending the school for programs. So it does include IB attendance and program
attendance in that enrollment, which does project them over capacity. But the boundary data that you're considering and that you're looking at is just those that are living within the attendance zone. So and it does show them under capacity as a consequence. So that
that's the high level view. But we'll do a slide for comparison purposes at your next work session for sure. Miss Yang. Yes. To follow up, Silvestre
questions that in our boundary study, the building utilization rate currently is program capacity built into the utilization rate that we see on the chart for different options.
That's correct. Okay. So so the Richard Montgomery number will be future program capacity and future student enrollment. That's what's showing correct?
Correct. Okay. Thank you. Miss Stewart. I made a note from the Gaithersburg testimony about the concern with. Their two way
immersion program and the way they will be able to move up through middle school and high school, with the support for those students to continue
immersion. So can we please review if there is a plan to continue this pathway? Well, yeah, we could certainly bring that forward. I will say that
the Gaithersburg cluster did articulate a couple of of reoccurring themes that you're going to be confronting as well. When you address your elementary boundary study, one of which is island assignments, which creates a lot of split
articulation. And so you you will see that as a reoccurring theme in terms of two way immersion. This is also a theme that's happening on the other side of the county and in other parts of the county as well, where having clean articulation
from one feeder pattern to the next is a priority, and that needs to be something that features prominently as well. So they're elevating important themes for the board's consideration for sure. And and these are these are not things that are going to be solved
with just this boundary study. You're going to have to look at these in the context of elementary as well. That is correct. It is over in where I am as well. The last question,
we had a request to look at the three high schools as one large project. And so we haven't really scheduled McGruder yet. Even though they are, we expect
to see them in some way come up in the next CIP with that hasn't been said, but we're at least going to be looking for that. And then then then there's the third right? Wooten.
So if we could talk about the sequencing there, possible sequencing in our work session, if we were going to look at those three as one large project. Absolutely. High level. You only get a six year window
to look at your CIP in a very formal way. And there's dollars that are ascribed to that as part of the county process. Long story short, you really need two things. For a high school project in Montgomery County. You need a lot of money
and you need a holding school, neither of which we have at the moment. So those are going to feature prominently in any of your planning, looking at at all of the high school projects, not even just the three that are identified are worth some
consideration because there are some other high school needs as well that are have not risen to the top in the conversation that I'm sure will feature prominently in the next several years. As you unpack your CIP for the next decade or so, because this will continue to
to grow as until we address some of these needs, which is going to be a financial challenge for the county for quite some time. Thank you. Me check one more time with my colleagues. I think that's all the questions. Doctor Taylor, I
have, and it's okay if we don't have the answers tonight. But you heard very passionately from the Clarksburg High School community. I just want to make sure there is no there is no money in the works here to make any additions and so on to
Clarksburg High School, correct? That is correct. And, you know, two things can be true at the same time. We are a school system that overall is declining in enrollment, but that that is not exclusive to the fact that we do have some
areas of growth South Rockville is certainly an area of growth, as well as the Clarksburg Damascus corridor, and it's definitely getting crowded there. And there are some some challenges associated with that
growth. And the or has a lot to sort out in that space. So we really appreciate the Clarksburg cluster for elevating that concern. And none of the choices are particularly amazing, because you do have a lot of elementary schools that are clustered very close together geographically,
and a lot of them are within the walk zone of the high school, as well as the majority of their their attendance boundary is in, is close to or near the walk zone of the high school. So difficult choices ahead, that's for sure. Yeah, I just wanted to elevate it
because I know somebody from that community. Our first day of school at Clarksburg High School, we started with portables from day one, and it has been a you know, it's quite difficult when you have to. And it happened to me with my kids.
When you drive by, you know, elementary schools that are literally in your backyard or middle school. So, you know, so your kids have to go to school really far away. So I get the pain and the anxiety that the families of Clarksburg High
School are, are feeling. But I just don't want us to give anybody false hope that there is any funding down the, you know, down the pipeline that is going to relieve any of that with an addition or anything else in the future. So I just
wanted to just to be clear, thank you. With that, I don't see any any other hands. Thank you so much. I will ask now that we take it back to the staff. So we continue with testimonies. Thank you, President Rivera-Oven. We will
now move to testimony from individuals who will each have three minutes. First up will be Brian Rabin, followed by Christina Yang and Janet Reemsnyder. Good evening. My
name is Brian Rabin, and I'm here to urge you to reject the superintendent's recommendation to relocate Wootton High School to the Crown site. This proposal is, in effect, a school closure disguised as a relocation. This recommendation conflicts with the core principles of policy FAA, which requires long range, fiscally
responsible planning, meaningful community engagement, accurate and transparent data, and equitable investment in aging facilities on every one of these measures. This proposal falls short. Relocating Wootton Crown eliminates a comprehensive high school in the Rockville Gaithersburg Growth Corridor.
FAA requires clarity, public understanding and meaningful engagement when a school's future is on the line. Instead, this recommendation reframes closure as a relocation to avoid the scrutiny and community process that FAA demands. The superintendent stated publicly that the move is controversial in one part
one community. This is simply not true. Opposition has come from Magruder, Damascus, Richard Montgomery, the Maryland Building Industry Association, the City of Rockville, Senator Kagan, and many others. Dismissing these voices violates the spirit of FAA's requirement for authentic
stakeholder engagement. Previous testimony from the community has highlighted concerns about inconsistent and incomplete data on the Protect Crown. Facebook. It is stated M.c.p.s. Is attempting to ignore our documented growth, our demonstrated need, and the commitment made to this community to reduce the
overutilization of existing Gaithersburg schools. Similarly, testimony from the Silver Spring International Middle School Sims community emphasized the urgent need for renovation rather than closure of their school. The Sims PTSA president testified after more than 15 years of advocacy
asking for renovations to our building. The closure announcement came as a shock to our community. We need immediate funding for roof repairs, mold remediation, HVAC replacement and safety improvements. Strong opposition from the Sims community and some board members successfully stopped the closure of Sims. Now it is Wootton that faces
closure. These voices underscore the importance of transparent, accurate data in meaningful, meaningful community engagement in decisions affecting these communities. For years, MCPs has allowed Wootton, like Damascus and Magruder, to deteriorate. Now the poor condition of the building is being used as a justification
to relocate the school entirely. That is backwards. FAA explicitly ties facilities planning to modernization, revitalization and maintenance. It does not say neglect the building until it fails and then move the student somewhere else. Every other high school built in the 70s or earlier has been modernized, except Damascus, Magruder and Wootton.
That is not a coincidence. It is a pattern, and this recommendation would deepen that inequity. FAA requires equity and public trust. This process is undermined both for years, Damascus, Magruder and Wooden have been told the same thing we don't have the money, but M.c.p.s receives 2 billion
per year. The issue is not the absence of money, it is the absence of will to prioritize the high schools in the poorest condition. Our facilities are failing because the system has chosen not to repair them. FAA requires fiscally responsible
long range planning, not short term reshuffling that avoids. Thank you Brian. Next up, Christina Yang, followed by Janet Snyder and Jordan Khan. My name is Christina Yang, and I am a lifelong M.c.p.s resident and Dufief parent in
the Wooton cluster. I am here today in support of the superintendent's recommendation. It prioritizes two things all children deserve stability and safety. Our community has been advocating since the beginning of last summer, as our small elementary school was slated to be moved around the school system without a stable and
consistent peer pathway. In many of the options. Before, we were the only elementary school moving to one middle school and then joining a completely different high school. Through these iterations, we were advocating that you don't move dufief that our school should not be moved around by itself, and I feel that we were heard.
I appreciate that this was addressed. The stability for our children's social and emotional well-being is important. Then I learned about the condition of Wootton. I attended a tour of the school in the fall, and I could not believe the condition of the school that I would potentially be sending my children to. The health and safety issues
quickly became my top concern for where we would end up in this boundary study. How can I send my children to a school in this condition? What about the staff that have been at Wootton for even longer than the standard four years of a student? At least students get to move on. But if staff are a big part of what makes Wootton
great, how can we keep them in these conditions? Current Wootton High School parents have told me that advocacy to get Wootton redone has been going on since their children were in kindergarten. I started to fear that would be my future. Finally, as the study progressed with more options and while a loud portion of the
community is up in arms, I am grateful and hopeful for the future. I love that we are bringing in two additional elementary schools to our community, at both the middle school and high school level together. I truly believe this will help create a stronger cluster community. Not only that, but it will be a true
state of the art facility that will allow children to thrive without having to worry about gas leaks or power outages or electrical fires. Stuff that is happening at an ever increasing frequency. So I'm also relieved. I felt a bit of panic about exposing my children to the
unsafe conditions at Wootton. Do I think the recommendation is perfect? No. So I request two changes that I think are reasonable. One, please fix the middle school articulation for both Travilah and Stone mill so that they are able to attend the same middle school. The board was sent a letter with
over 300 signers from three of the feeder elementary schools supporting the superintendent's recommendation. With this adjustment, and two, please address the supposed walk zones that are on the other side of 28. They need busses. It's truly non-negotiable. I've reminded my own children
throughout this process that while we might not, while we might have an idea of what we think is best, we can't always get what we want. It's worth it to try, though, as long as it as it's in the interest of the greater good. And then whatever happens, we will be fine. So
the too long didn't read of it all. I am a parent of students that will actually be impacted by this boundary study, and I ask you to fix the middle school articulation and bussing in the superintendent's recommendation and then ask you to vote yes on it. Thank you,
thank you Christina. Next up, Janet Reemsnyder, followed by Jordan Khan and Lauren Clancy. Doctor Taylor and members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. I could speak for many perspectives as a PTSA
president, a mom of four, a Clarksburg resident with kids in Damascus schools, and a lifelong Montgomery County resident. Tonight, I'd like to let a few wiser voices help tell part of the story. As I've reflected on Doctor Taylor's words when he shared his recommendation, one thing he
said has stayed with me many of the things people fight for or fight to reject are often the very things they fight to preserve. Just a few years later, our family has lived through a boundary study. It was hard. There were tears. The outcome was not what we wanted
and our beloved community was split in half. But it was necessary and I learned something important. Sometimes the lessons we need only come when we allow life to be our teacher. Stephen Colbert once said, it's a gift to exist, and
with existence comes suffering. But if you're grateful for your life, you have to be grateful for all of it, even the things you wish didn't happen because they gave you a gift. Once the final decision is made at the end of March, my hope is this that our entire community comes
together to support one another through the changes, not continue fighting against them. I recognize there will be sacrifices. The decision may feel disappointing, even painful for some, but this is not the end. It is the
beginning of something new, and it may become the very thing that gives our community a gift. I want to thank the board for minimizing split articulation up county and creating predictable pathways for our students. In our experience, our older children were part of
a small minority entering high school from Clarksburg, where most students had been together since kindergarten. In Damascus, it was difficult not to feel like outsiders for our younger children. I believe this change will strengthen their sense of belonging and long term
experience. I also want to thank the many M.C.P.S. employees and board members who have gone above and beyond to show up, listen and engage with respect and open minds. Doctor Taylor, thank you for coming to our DHS PTSA meeting and yes, for wearing the green tie. And
to Mrs. Stewart, thank you for spending time in Damascus, touring our schools, visiting local spaces, and experiencing our community. Some might call that political. I call it intentional care. I want to close with this for Damascus. For some, there is fear about losing what feels familiar and
concern about new students coming into the community. But our hope is bigger than our fear. Our hope is for a new high school, a building that reflects the strength of our students and the pride of our community. When my daughter looks at Damascus, she doesn't see a boundary map or a capital project. She sees her friends,
her community, and her future. The question before you isn't just where the lines are drawn, it's whether students are excited to come together. Will have a school ready for them. Damascus is ready for the. Thank you Janet. Next up, Jordan Khan, followed by Lauren
Clancy and Monica Bassi. Good evening, members of the M.C.P.S. board. I am Jordan Khan, a Gaithersburg resident, Rosemont PTA member, and a proud parent whose child will next year be the first freshman at the new high school being constructed on fifth road. I
commend the M.C.P.S. superintendent for his bold and innovative recommendation that advances fiscal responsibility, equity and inclusion. It is based on solid data showing furtherance of all of M.c.p.s. Policy goals. Capacity. If
implemented, all area high schools will have capacity over 85% and all but one under 100%. This is the sweet spot. Given budgetary constraints we cannot afford under capacity schools, but we cannot have our children struggling in crowded
classrooms. That's why Gaithersburg deeded the land to M.c.p.s. To alleviate overcrowding, proximity, the recommendation places 167 additional students in the walk zone. You can see these students lined up for the bus across Fields Road from the new
school. Stability. The recommendation keeps five of six feeder elementary schools intact. Responding to extensive testimony from last year about the need to keep these feeder schools together. Diversity. The key M.C.P.S. indicators show dramatic improvement. The
farms rate climbs from 14 to 19%, the m l rate nearly doubles to 6%. These much better metrics result from adding only Fields Road, a small, not a big elementary school, and a small portion of Rosemont west of 270. Given
that all factors would be substantially improved, I fully support the superintendent's recommendation, and I urge the board not to be deterred by threatened lawsuits. As a litigator who has argued administrative law cases since the 90s, my opinion is that these claims are completely
without merit. Procedurally, ample process has been afforded. There continues to be extraordinary stakeholder input, with surveys, workshops and hearings like today. In fact, the recommendation specifically responds to the extensive
testimony about unsafe facility conditions. Nothing is more important than school safety. Substantively, relocating a school is not a closure. Forest Oak Middle School, where my daughter goes relocated years ago and nobody would claim the school closed. If the Yankees
move three miles to a brand new stadium and pick up a few new players, they are still the Yankees, and the team's performance will be greatly benefit from both state of the art facilities and a more diverse composition. All communities will be welcomed at the new high school in
Gaithersburg, especially our Rockville neighbors. If the recommendation is adopted. I look forward to working alongside families from different socioeconomic backgrounds to achieve not only academic success, but to foster an inclusive school spirit.
Thank you. Thank you Jordan. Next up, Lauren Clancy, followed by Monica Bassey and Nicole Hast. Taylor and members of the board. A lot of work has
gone into Doctor Taylor's recommendation and prior proposals, but somehow this plan is still failing our communities, guaranteeing near-term overcrowding, fewer choices and greater risk to our students. I understand what these proposals are trying to do for our county, and there is some value in that. Where I am most concerned, however, is the
fact that Doctor Taylor's recommendation normalizes schools like Wooton being allowed to deteriorate, then close because standards don't matter and the people inside the building are not a priority. We have heard from Doctor Taylor that the numbers have suggested we build Crown were not accurate. As a parent with young children, how can I trust that these same numbers now
support closing a school in the highest growth corridor of Montgomery County? I am worried such growth will cause my children to be the ones suffering in massive classrooms and portables in a decade due to poor decision making. Today we have seen it before. Overcrowded schools are widely accepted within M.c.p.s. Despite data showing they have
a negative impact on students responsible, fiscal management means funding unavoidable obligations before they compound into a greater liability. Aging buildings do not stop deterioration because budgets are tight. You already are going to need to invest significantly in Wooton even before Crown opens in 2027, so
make those dollars count and allow community children to benefit from those investments. Everyone keeps saying that there is no money to renovate Wooton, but the people on this call are not the decision makers. I would like the board to consider amending the Crown Boundary study timeline to align with the County Council
decisions that will be made on the CIP in June. If the CIP funding is allocated towards Wootton and Magruder, the board can consider an amendment to Doctor Taylor's proposal that would spread the burden of m.c.p.s past mistakes across multiple one. Until then, pause
the study that has proven to be problematic on multiple occasions. Delaying your decision for a few short months will give M.c.p.s. Time to review missing data from major planning documents. As outlined in last week's letter from the Rockville Mayor and Council and Doctor Taylor. Time to actually meet with the Wootton community, who has not had a chance to
meet with him despite multiple efforts. I would be remiss if I also did not address the middle school split articulation as outlined in Doctor Taylor's recommendation. While this is a secondary concern to many in the Wooton cluster, the board should consider the impact of having Stone Mill and Travilah elementary schools shift into
high schools by themselves, severing longstanding relationships at existing middle schools. There are significant and avoidable social and emotional implications to this proposal that need, acknowledged Wootton. Families should not have to permanently change buildings to be safe. Dismantling Wootton to fill Crown with a future promise to review data later
that has already proven to be faulty creates unnecessary anxiety and chaos for students in their most vulnerable years of life. We cannot change the last ten years, but you can break the cycle of terrible choices. Now pause your decision. Amend the boundary study timeline to align with upcoming CIP hearings, and adjust strategies accordingly.
Thank you. Thank you Lauren. Next is Monica Bassey, followed by Nicole Hast and Nihar Shah. Evening, doctor Taylor, president Rivera-Oven and members of the board, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to begin by
recognizing the time, care and thought you all invest in engaging with communities and making the best decisions for students across Montgomery County. I know many of you are also parents yourselves and balance this work alongside demanding careers. So I come to this meeting with genuine
gratitude and humility. I'm here today to express my support for Doctor Taylor's recommendation on the school boundaries, and to encourage the board to approve it in March. Doctor Taylor has exhibited inclusiveness and invited many perspectives throughout this process. His
recommendation is grounded in logic and equity, and aligns closely with the board's FAA policies. The policy that resonates most deeply with me is stability. As someone who attended nine different schools between kindergarten and graduation, I know firsthand how the pressure to make new
friends, adjust socially, and find your place can distract from learning. Constant transitions can weigh on students in ways that aren't always visible. That experience is one of the reasons I've advocated so strongly for the new high school in Crown to open as a permanent school that
Gaithersburg is happy to share with neighboring regions. Stability allows students to focus on academics, growth, and well-being instead of continually adapting to change. It creates continuity for families and strengthens the foundation for meaningful school communities. At the same
time, I recognize that this boundary study has required compromise across every region. In M.c.p.s, change hasn't been easy for anyone, including those of us in Gaithersburg. But change is part of life, and as adults, we have an opportunity to model resilience,
adaptability and perspective. If we rise to meet this moment and embrace the opportunities this recommendation offers, we show our children how to navigate the changes they will inevitably face themselves. It's also been encouraging to see neighborhoods across Rockville and Gaithersburg
already coming together around the promise of this new high school a s modern facility that brings communities together and fosters belonging. For months, many of us have shown up respectfully and collaboratively, unsure whether our voices were truly making a difference. This recommendation
signals that equity progress and fiscal responsibility remain priorities and that community engagement matters. Once again, I strongly support Doctor Taylor's recommendation, and I'm encouraged to hear so many others who are speaking today supported as well. The high school at Crown should
open as a permanent community school, and I sincerely hope to see the recommendation approved with the necessary votes. Thank you for your time and for all that you do for our children. Thank you Monica. Next is Nicole Hast, followed by Nihar
Shah and Rachel Fitzpatrick. Doctor Taylor and members of the board. Good evening. My name is Nicole Hast and I'm the parent of two current and one future Dufief Dragon. I'm also the one who writes and sends you the letters that garners the engagement of hundreds of Dufief area community members.
In fact, just last night you received my latest manifesto entitled Letter of Community Support for Superintendent Taylor's recommended option for the opening of the Crown High School site. Admittedly, not my best title. And yet, somehow, as of 5 p.m. that letter has been signed by more than 585
people from 235 unique households. Put simply, the number of area households who signed in support of this recommendation is significantly higher than the number of boundary students at Dufief Elementary. In preparation for tonight, I was brought back to the testimony that I provided
in late October, which focused on lessons that I try to instill in my own children and how they may be modeled through our work on this boundary study. Now, as we enter the homestretch, finally, I wanted to share a few more thoughts about similar lessons as they relate to this juncture of the process, a process that our
children have in fact been watching one work with what we have. It's okay to wish for more or for for things to have unfolded differently. At the same time, we have to operate within the reality in front of us. Do I wish there were unlimited funds to meet every need, both in my personal life
and for M.c.p.s? Of course. Probably like most others watching tonight, but acknowledging where we are and committing to making the most of the resources currently available allows us to rightsize responsibly and begin rebuilding our financial reserves so that hopefully we won't face a future that
involves such tough choices. Number two choose courage over comfort. As a therapist, I understand that we are evolutionarily wired to seek safety. I also know that the greatest pride and sense of fulfillment often comes when we stretch into the full extent of our capacity. You ran for seats
on the Board of Education to make a meaningful impact on our schools and our students. Meaningful change is inherently uncomfortable, and it's precisely that willingness to step into discomfort that will shape the experience of our students and define the legacy of your leadership. And this
final point, like the others, is not at all original. In fact, it's been echoed several times by different board members throughout the season. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the better. Is the superintendent's recommendation perfect? No. Sorry Doctor Taylor, I personally hope to see thoughtful refinements such
as streamlining middle school articulation and ensuring safe transportation for students whose walk zones include major thoroughfares. That said, the recommendation represents meaningful progress in a direction that advances equity and access while also maintaining fiscal responsibility for M.C.P.S. in
the county as a whole. And that is something we should all unequivocally support. In closing, as acclaimed poet Amanda Gorman said, let us not return to what was normal, but reach towards what's next. In that spirit, I'm honored to be here with you tonight as we reach towards what's next for
m.c.p.s. Thank you Nicole. Next is Nihar Shah, followed by Rachel Fitzpatrick and sigh Maggie. Good evening. My name is Nirav Shah and I'm M.c.p.s parent and a Gaithersburg
resident. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I'm here as a father first. Like many parents, I care deeply about where my children go to school, their quality of education, and the stability of their experience year from year to year. I also understand that
the decisions that are in front of you are complex and affect many communities. After listening to the presentation and reviewing materials over a number of months, I fully support superintendent's recommendation. What stands out to me is that it is grounded in
far factors that guides this process. Demographic characteristics of the student population, geography, stability of school assignments over time, and facility utilization. When I look at the recommendation through these lenses, it makes sense. It considers who our students are
and how our communities are changing. It reflects geographic realities and how students move through their neighborhoods and school cluster. It aims to provide stability for families over time, which is something that every parent values, and it makes responsible use of school
facilities, which is critical given the pressures on financial resources across the county. It is also fiscally responsible. Recommendation as Crown Sites provides the ability to expand capacity even further after the initial
construction, as the population data can tend to change from time from year to year. I've listened to concerns from different sides and I respect them. Every family wants what is best for their children, but for this parents perspective, the recommendation feels like a
balanced approach that weighs those factors carefully. Rather than just focusing on one priority or one community. It also shows an effort to respond to immediate needs while thinking about the long term. Our students need solution now, and they also need consistency
and planning that will hold up over time. Grounding this decision in demographic realities, geography, stability, and facility use helps create that balance. I know not everyone will agree with every part of the plan and that is
understandable. These are personal decisions for families and communities. But after following this process for a long time, it seems clear that the recommendation is thoughtful, data informed and aligned with the framework the county itself has set for
making boundary decisions. I urge the Board of Education to vote for Doctor Taylor's recommendation in March and show that all students matter. Thank you for your time and your work that you do. On behalf of our students and families. Thank you Nihar. Next
is Rachel Fitzpatrick, followed by Simon G. And Brady Chenault. Good evening, Board of Education and Doctor Taylor, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Rachel Fitzpatrick and I am the mom of fourth grade twins who attend Woodfield Elementary
School, where I'm also the PTA president. I want to thank you for your recommended choice of all the options presented. A modified option H I know you probably aren't hearing a lot of things for this option, but I'm happy with this choice for the Damascus cluster. We are also more than thrilled to have Damascus staying in the CIP
budget for a rebuild, as it has been needed for too many years now. It fixes articulation, balances farms, and aligns diversity between two neighboring clusters, Damascus and Clarksburg. Creating balance between all the clusters was a key goal, and this option shows work put in
to create it. One of our cluster goals was to keep our kids together in their school paths by recommending modified option H. Many schools that had split articulation before are now staying together through high school. Damascus High School has been recognized to help alleviate overcrowding in
Clarksburg, Laytonsville and Gaithersburg. Our clusters are neighbors, and many of the elementary schools and middle schools currently have split split articulation between Damascus and Clarksburg. Today, there are three schools that have split articulation to Damascus, and Clarksburg has
four. That experience split articulation. In this new recommendation recommended option, the splits decrease to zero for Damascus, and Clarksburg decreases to two. This is a huge improvement and shows a straight school path for our students. Another goal that's been mentioned in many board meetings and boundary
studies that have taken place is balancing farms numbers, looking at the current data for middle and high schools for both Clarksburg and Damascus clusters, versus the recommended changes made in option H, you can see how the numbers between the two clusters even out the percentages, eit drop or needed or increase where needed.
We will never know how much time was spent considering these options, and I'm not sure you all know how much time you spent on this, but I can say I think we can see the efforts made in the end result. This wasn't a quickly thrown together plan. The modified option shows a lot of work incorporation of survey feedback and collaboration from
many teams in M.c.p.s. Something we haven't seen in the past. This has been a welcome change. Our voices are being heard, not just another exercise used to check the box. Damascus is a small but strong community. We are growing, thriving and proud of where our
future is going. The whole community has been and always will be extremely supportive of our students. We are excited to watch them grow in a school that will better fit their needs, and allows our town to keep our high school at the center of it all. Thank you very much. Thank you Rachel.
Next Simon G. Followed by Brady, Chenault and Darrell I. Good evening. Members of the board and Superintendent Taylor, thank you so much for all that you do for the well-being of our children. I'm Doctor Simon, and I am here to speak against
Doctor Taylor's recommendation towards a modified option H. I want to begin by noting that I have testified earlier. I raised concerns about transparency, about process, meaningful community engagement. Those concerns were not addressed. Instead, we are here
today since the recommendation is the very option that most of my community has been rallying against. It is deeply discouraging and feels like another gut punch when families take time off work, arrange childcare, show up to participate in a civil dialog,
only to be ignored. It erodes trust in this institution. One of the primary concerns since the beginning of this process has been lack of transparent data analytics process. We told that the amendment is data driven, but we have not seen the data. Where is the
methodology? Where are the assumptions, the weighing criteria, the models that were used to determine projected outcomes. We have not seen a clear explanation of how trade offs were evaluated, how equity metrics were defined, or alternative scenarios were compared. Say, forle, the
special ed program in Wootton. Without transparency, data driven just becomes a slogan rather than a standard. A truly data informed process would make analytics accessible to public in plain language. It would provide underlying assumptions for scrutiny, allow
independent review as well. From multiple testimonies before me, I'm learning Doctor Taylor engaged with other communities, but the only community that was not included seems to be Wootton, the one that he has decided to close. We're instead being asked to trust conclusions without being
shown the work. That is not how public decision making should function. One other narrative that surfaced in this discussion is the idea that families who want to live close enough for their children to walk to school are somehow acting out of elitism. That framing is unfair and divisive.
Planning to live in walkable distance is about safety, reducing traffic congestion and environmental responsibility. Walkability is a cornerstone of healthy, sustainable communities. Many families have made housing decisions, often stretching financially to do so
based on school proximity. Another aspect that was addressed time and again tonight, though in a different context. If equity was the goal, let's have an honest, transparent conversation about how to achieve it. Equity cannot be built on opaque analytics, disregarding community input. I urge the
board to reject the amendment to option H, release the full data model, explain the metrics used, and engage in a genuine dialog with the community, including those you've already spoken with. Trust, once broken, is hard to rebuild. Please choose a path that restores
transparency, respects community voice, and prioritizes accountable decision making. Thank you so much. Thank you Cy. Next Brady Chenault, followed by Daryl I and Uzma Kawas. My name is
Brady Schnell. I'm the parent of a seven year old son currently at Dufief Elementary and a five year old daughter starting at dufief in the fall. This year, she attends the Wuhan lab program, and I'd be remiss not to start with a quick thanks to all the staff, administration, police officers
and community members that supported the school during the shooting two weeks ago. I could not be more grateful to build on that. Thanks. I'd like to spend my time tonight to talk about the subject of gratitude. As the mother of young kids as well as a career educator, I spend a lot of time reminding
people to say thank you. To that end, I'd like to thank Doctor Taylor and the board in three ways. First, for what our community has been given. Second, for the things that you have not prioritized. And last for the things I thank you for going forward. So first, thank you for listening to Dufief
throughout this process. Much like my children, we may be small, but we're feisty. Thank you for considering the needs of the fields, road, Crown and Rio communities in a careful and deliberate manner. We can't wait to join you new friends. Thank you for granting the Wooton community the use of a
brand new, state of the art building. Future healthy kids and staff. Rejoice! Second, thank you for not prioritizing home values over education. Money matters, but our kids matter more. Thank you for not prioritizing a plan that no
longer made sense for the population. It couldn't have been easy to pivot in the fall when the new numbers came in. Thank you for your bravery in keeping Montgomery County at 26 high schools. Thank you for not prioritizing the controversy created by the louder voices in the community. As you said,
Doctor Taylor, there are silenced parts of the community that have echoed a very different sentiment. Thank you for listening to us. Lastly, thank you for considering a few tweaks to the recommendation. Thank you for considering a switch between the middle school articulation for Stone
Mill Elementary School and Potomac Elementary. With this trade, Potomac students would matriculate from Hoover to Churchill with their peers, and Stone mill students would matriculate from Cabin John to Wootton with their travel for friends. It's still a split, but it doesn't leave schools siloed without peers for
transition to high school. Thank you for considering a possible adjustment to the walk zone to ensure the safety of all students as they cross 28 to attend. Crown. To my new friends and allies in this boundary study, I'm so grateful to have met you. It's truly incredible how advocating for
reasonable change and thoughtful tweaks has brought parents across North Potomac and Gaithersburg together. To date, our joint letter has more than 300 signatures from Dufief Stone mill and Travilah in support of the superintendent's recommendation. With the middle school switch, Doctor Taylor
and members of the Board of Education, I can't thank you enough for your calm, leadership and balanced approach to this boundary study. Please know that many parents and community members support you and have tremendous gratitude for all you've done.
Thank you Brady. Next is Daryl Guy, followed by Uzma and Claire Mata. Good evening, Doctor Taylor and members of the board. My name is Daryl I and I'm a father of children
who attends Falls Mead Elementary School. I'm here to express my concerns regarding the superintendents boundary study recommendation. Montgomery County is actively increasing housing with Crown, the Crown neighborhood as a center of growth. Thousands of
housing units are already under construction or approved for development. Crown High School was specifically built to meet the surge in new students due to this housing, Montgomery County justified building Crown High School by citing increased
enrollment projections tied to the new housing developments already underway. Now, the superintendent recommends closing Wootton High School and moving its students to Crown High School using data that omits enrollments from these
new housing units. Because of the superintendent's omission, Crown will be severely overcrowded when these new homes fail and Wootton area students will be scattered into all other already overcrowded
schools, superintendent Taylor stands by his data, but it does not live up to scrutiny. We requested the data and methodology behind your enrollment projections and you have refused to provide it.
Using faulty data to close a high school is a profound mistake. This is why residents across the county voted overwhelmingly against the recommendation in your online survey. This is why over 300
people stood outside Wootton in the snow, protesting the recommendation. I urge you to incorporate the amendments proposed by the City of Rockville. The City of Rockville recommends using Crown to serve the immediate surrounding communities, and to
only move Wootton and Magruder High School students to crown on a temporary basis. This approach preserves school capacity and ensures that MCPs can absorb inevitable growth. It is the responsible way to keep our school infrastructure
strong. I ask you to base your decision on accurate sound data. Thank you for your time and your service. Thank you Daryl. Next is Uzma Kawas, followed by
Claire Mata and Tory Liu. Greetings members of the board, members of the board, Doctor Taylor and M.c.p.s. Staff members present today. I'm thankful for the opportunity here to present our concerns. I'm a parent of two children in the wooden cluster, and my
family will be directly affected by Doctor Taylor's recommendation to relocate Wootton High under Crown Farm High School. For us and many other families, this feels like a soft closure of Wootton as we know it. Over the past two months or so after option H was
introduced, many members of the community, along with the mayor and council members of the City of Rockville, have shared data, projections and thoughtful analysis about the long term impact of soft closure of Wootton High. At a January public session, the president of the board encouraged us to
send our testimonies, assuring us that they would be read and considered. My question is simple how would the community's feedback and data meaningfully incorporated into the superintendent's recommendation? Referring to a slide that Doctor Taylor
included in his February 5th recommendation titled highlights from What We Heard, this slide acknowledged community's input on maximizing proximity to neighborhood schools, minimizing traffic impacts, avoiding long commutes, maintaining stability in school
assignments, and ensuring responsible facility utilization. Yet the current recommendation does not adequately address these issues. If anything, it risks creating a short term fix that could produce long term challenges. We recently witnessed hours of gridlock on Wooden Parkway
after a school incident, presenting clear evidence that the surrounding roads are not designed to absorb significantly increased traffic. Why would we make traffic congestion a daily reality of relocating wooden neighborhood schools to crown an increasing neighborhood? Traffic patterns?
While it has been stated that M.c.p.s does not intend to open a 27th high school, we should not achieve that goal by dissolving Wootton High and what it has represented for more than 50 years. Wootton high is not simply a building, it's a cornerstone of this community, a center for
academic excellence, a gathering place and a visible role model for students in our elementary and middle schools. That identity cannot simply be transferred without consequence. I urge the board to carefully consider the amendment presented by Rockville Mayor
Ashton and Council Member Adam Venrock and other Rockville leaders. This proposal offers a more sustainable path, one that would address long overdue renovations at Wootton and Magruder High, while planning responsibly for projected enrollment growth in Rockville and Gaithersburg growth is real
infrastructure coordination, school capacity, housing development and equitable public investment must be considered together, not in isolation. In closing, I respectfully ask you to choose a solution that preserves Wootton High on Wooden Parkway. Let's plan thoughtfully,
address growth responsibly, and preserve the identity and excellence that generations of families have relied upon. Thank you Uzma. Next is Claire Mata, followed by Tory Liu and Deborah D'Agostino. Good
afternoon, President Rivera-Oven, Doctor Taylor and members of the board. My name is Claire Stein Mata. I am here to echo the fierce opposition of the city of Rockville to the closure of Wootton and to endorse their proposal to keep Wootton open and use Crown as a partial temporary holding
school. Permanent displacement of the Wootton community is not a progressive policy to uproot a school from its walkable community center and move it miles away is a choice to prioritize administrative convenience over community anchored infrastructure. This
move imposes a time tax on working families and a carbon tax on our on our county. Stable neighborhoods are the foundation of a healthy working class. We should be investing in them, not liquidating them. To member Stuart, you have
stated your leadership is guided by Tikkun olam, the sacred responsibility to repair a fractured world. I was raised with these same values, and they teach us that tikkun begins with a recognition of pain. Our community at Wootton
is deeply suffering. Our students have endured anti-Semitic and homophobic graffiti. They have seen anti-black slurs carved into their desks, and this month they have lived through the ultimate trauma of gun violence in their own hallways. How do you repair a child's sense of
belonging? If, after bearing witness to hate and a week of tragedy, you tell them their anchor is being permanently displaced? You cannot heal a traumatized community by dismantling its home. You cannot repair the pain of neglect by hollowing out the
heart of a community. Tikkun is not achieved by breaking one community to solve a budget deficit. It is achieved through the labor of repair, and both Wootton and Magruder are long overdue for repair. The Rockville City Council has
provided the tools for Tikkun by using the Crown facility as a temporary swing space. You modernize Magruder and Wooten's infrastructure without fracturing our spirits. You choose the path of restorative stability. Choose restoration over closure. Please honor the
students who are currently healing by keeping their support systems intact. Doctor Taylor, you say you need a holding school for Magruder, yet Magruder is not on the CIP and there is no funding to fix up Wootton and make it into a holding school. I respectfully ask this board to delay the
drastic decision to close Wootton and wait until the CIP process is further underway. Please align this boundary process with the CIP. Support the city of Rockville's proposal. Repair the world
where it stands. Thank you. Thank you Claire. Next is Tory Liu, followed by Deborah D'Agostino and Greg Durbin. Good evening. My name is Tory Miller Liu. I am a parent of a
second grader and a pre-K student at Dufief Elementary. Tonight, I want to express my gratitude to the board, Doctor Taylor and his staff for your leadership throughout the boundary study process. Thank you, Doctor Taylor, for a recommendation that keeps Dufief in the wooden cluster
and gets our kids into a safe facility. Wooten's facility assessment in August reported mold, asbestos, Ada noncompliance, gas leaks, and HVAC failures. The reality is there are no county or M.C.P.S. funds available to make Wooten safe as a holding school or
permanent school until 2033 at the earliest. Please do not leave students and staff in those conditions. When a new safe facility exists in such close proximity. As a parent in the Wooten Cluster, I believe Doctor Taylor's recommendation immediately remediates a
critical problem while keeping our community together and not closing Wooten, but relocating it. Wooten is a diverse cluster with a clearly diverse opinions about the recommendations before the board. The loudest voices do not speak for all of us, and respectfully, some of
the opinions shared by our representatives tonight do not represent me and many in our community. Over the past few weeks, parents from Fields Road and Rosemont and schools across the Wooton cluster have come together to advocate for relocating Wooten to Crown.
Through our collaboration, we are already creating a community community that I know can work, and it has filled me with genuine optimism for what Wooten at Crown can become. It is why I and many others wholeheartedly support the superintendent's recommendation, with two modest modifications.
Currently, the recommendation splits Travilah and Stone mill into separate middle school feeders. Keeping them together at Cabin John would be a simple fix, and one of my deepest concerns about the original options was that defeat was being isolated. I don't want to see that to happen to anyone
else. Also, swapping Stone mill for Potomac would hopefully allow Potomac to remain at Hoover, creating a clean, straight articulation to Churchill. Second, I ask that bus service be provided for students in the Stone Mill and Lakewood walk zones so they have safe passage to school.
Continuity and community are vital. Safety is non-negotiable. Thank you for making these hard decisions that prioritize the emotional and physical well-being of our students. And thank you for giving me a chance to testify tonight. Thanks. Thank you. Tory. Next
is Debra D'Agostino, followed by Greg Durbin and Marie Boyajian. Good evening. I'm here as a member of the Fields Road Elementary School community, this time to urge the board to vote in favor of Doctor Taylor's recommendation
on the Crown High School boundary. As Vice President, Wolff noted on February 5th, this recommendation lays the foundation for a truly equitable system. It's not the easiest solution, but it's the right one in the face of backlash, especially around moving. Wootton. Thank you for
choosing what benefits all students, particularly those who depend most on M.c.p.s. To open doors of opportunity. I've seen firsthand what happens when a child is given a chance. In fourth grade, my daughter navigated compact math over zoom. No small feat. That
summer, we were notified that she and many of her classmates would be moved back to regular math. Her teacher took a closer look, saw mixed race African American girl who loved math, and he believed that she could rise to the challenge if given the opportunity he advocated for her. She was placed back
into compacted math, and she thrived. Doctor Taylor's recommendation reflects that same conviction. It says, we see your potential and we're willing to build a system that reflects it. A Crown High School. Our kids will rise to the occasion. We're also grateful that this plan opens
Crown as a permanent school. It weighs resources to use Crown as a holding school when there's no school for it to hold, because there's no money for renovations any time soon. Many of my neighbors were skeptical when I said that I believe Doctor Taylor's recommendation would reflect his stated interests in making
fiscally responsible decisions, but they're pleasantly surprised. Operating one school wouldn't crown rather than two is a fiscally responsible use of scarce dollars. Wootton's tradition of academic excellence will endure and
thrive wherever it's housed. Outstanding teachers, motivated students, and committed families create excellence, not brick and mortar. Opening. Crown is a permanent school gives us the opportunity to build something meaningful from the ground up. Because while homecoming dresses, football
games, and 6 a.m. swim team breakfasts may not appear on college applications, those are the moments that create belonging, and those are the ones everyone remembers. Years later, our children are watching how we respond. Yes, there's loss in transition, but there's also growth. And our
kids will be more than all right. Families from Fields Road, Crown and now Dufief Villa and Stone mill are collaborating on what this new high school community can be. If our WhatsApp threads are any indication, this PTSA that we build together will be epic. This is more than a boundary
decision. It's a statement about who we are and what we believe about our children. Please vote yes. Not because it's easy, but because it's equitable, not because it's popular, but because it's principled and not because change is comfortable. Because it's the right thing to do.
Thank you. Thank you Deborah. Next is Greg Durbin, followed by Marie Boyajian and Rodrigo Moscoso. Hello, board members and Superintendent Taylor, my name is Greg Durbin and I live in the Rockshire community walking distance to Wootton
High School. My two daughters, ages five and seven, attend Falls Mead Elementary. Their favorite thing to do is to run around the Wootton track and pretend they're in a real race to amp them up. I always yell out, whose track is this? My daughters look at their crazy dad and yell back our track! We
love that track. We love that school. Thanks to the Falls Mead Wootton student teacher program, my oldest daughter insisted we see the play Wicked at Wootton to support her favorite student teacher. As part of the Wootton Community Outreach. My girls got to cheer alongside the high school
cheerleaders at Wootton first football game this year. These types of bonds make my daughter's so excited to attend Wootton. This sense of community is what you dream about. But today that dream feels like it's being ripped away. We feel betrayed. The heart and soul of our community is being closed. This was
supposed to be a boundary study. Yet somehow the recommendation is to close Wootton High School. Our community did what we were supposed to do. We voted unanimously on the boundary options that would keep Wootton High School on Wootton Parkway. We've organized, we've testified against the
recommendation. We have over 5000 verified signatures on Change.org petition to save Wootton High School. What more can we do? You can call it Wootton at Crown all you want, but the recommendation is closing Wootton High School and opening Crown four miles away. Crown would not be walkable to
the majority of Wootton students. You want to go to Crown? This is not a long term solution. It ignores the thousands of housing units planned for Rockville, Gaithersburg and North Potomac. Overcrowding is inevitable at a time where trust in our federal
government is at an all time low, we need assurance that we can at least trust our local government and elected officials. So here we are. You do not have to support the superintendents recommendation. There are other options. I'll repeat, you do not have to
support the superintendent's recommendation. Instead of voting for the superintendents recommendation, we're asking you to adopt the modified recommendation supported by the City of Rockville Mayor and Council in that matter. In that modified recommendation, Wootton and Magruder will
remain as comprehensive high schools with defined paths to renovation. This does not mean Wootton jumps ahead of Magruder in any capacity for renovations. Open Crown to serve its local community in Gaithersburg immediately as planned. Use limited construction sequencing
to modernize facilities without permanently closing campuses. We ask you to find solutions that strengthen all our schools rather than choosing winners and losers. Keep Wootton and Wootton Parkway. Thank you. Thank you Greg. Next is Marie
Boyajian, followed by Rodrigo Moscoso and Matt Mickelson. Good evening. My name is Marie Boyajian and I'm here tonight as a parent. A parent who loves this community, believes deeply in our children's future and cares about the decisions we make on their behalf. I'm
speaking in full support of the superintendent's recommendation for Crown High School. Over the past several years, those of us living along the Rockville, Gaithersburg Germantown corridor have watched our communities transform the borders that once separated us emotionally and geographically
have faded. We shop in each other's neighborhoods, we work across city lines, and our students spend their afternoons and weekends together. We have become one connected community, and Crown High School should reflect that reality. I also want to acknowledge the transition our community is
making. For many families, Quince Orchard has been a meaningful part of our educational journey and we are grateful for the strong community built there. Change is never simple, but our families are approaching this shift with openness and a focus on the opportunities ahead. Growth requires adaptation, and
we are ready to support Crown High School as it builds a new, vibrant school community. What has stood out throughout this process is the remarkable grace, resilience and willingness to compromise shown by our neighbors. We are choosing to step forward, build new
relationships and imagine something even better. At Crown, we understand the economic realities facing Montgomery County. We recognize that this is the most fiscally responsible option, especially with limited capital funding, and we also recognize that we are living in a moment when every community is being asked
to sacrifice something, whether it's economic pressures, shifting political dynamics, or the realities of responsible growth, none of us are exempt from making hard choices. Responsible growth requires responsible choices. And for the first time in a long time,
many of us feel seen in this process. The February 5th recommendation reflected thoughtful listening. It reflected genuine engagement. It reflected modern leadership, leadership rooted in collaboration, transparency, and authentic community input. We also see that how this
decision aligns with the county's future. The Crown community sits at the heart of the great Seneca Science and Tech Corridor, where growth, innovation and opportunity are expanding. Our children deserve access to a school aligned with that future. So yes, this recommendation involves change,
but it also brings community. It brings connection, it brings opportunity, and it brings a vision of Montgomery County that reflects who we are becoming a united, forward looking region committed to doing what's right for its children. As a parent and as a member of this community, I
wholeheartedly support this recommendation, and I urge the board to adopt. Thank you. Thank you. Marie. Next, Rodrigo Moscoso, followed by Matt Michaelson and Tara Gorecki. Good evening. My name is Rodney
Moscoso, and I'm pleased to offer testimony regarding the recommendations related to the Crown Damascus boundary study. My wife and I are empty nesters living in Mission Hills, directly across from Washingtonian Woods. We've been part of the fields, Road and Crown community for nearly 30 years, and it's been a wonderful thing to watch our
community grow and evolve over time, and to see our diversity expand, to incorporate new cultures and ideas. Despite this evolution, we are united in a common vision to create and sustain a supportive environment for our children and our families. As a representative of this community, I strongly endorse
the superintendent's recommendation to open the Crown Farm Site High School as a fully operational school, not a holding school. This accords with the stated goals of FAA policies, eliminates geographic islands, some of which would have created conditions of inequity. Represents an
improvement over prior plans following the incorporation of feedback from the community, and ensures that every student in the county will have a lasting school assignment. Those of us immediately surrounding Crown and who have been have made direct financial contributions to its construction via special tax
assessments, and we are pleased to support this vision of a fully operational school that serves the community over the long term. However, given the ongoing discourse surrounding the current recommendation, I would like to comment on alternative proposals suggesting that the Crown Farm site to be opened as a holding
school only if the board chooses to open Crown as a holding school next year, and our community is slated to attend it, we will be placed in an inequitable position that negatively impacts our children's and family. Our board members are surely aware the students, teachers,
counselors, coaches and other staff members are what make up a school. When a school moves to a new location, even temporarily, the new building becomes that school. Whether it be Damascus, Magruder, Wooten or any other school and holding school scenario, our community will be relegated as outsiders,
ironically, to the high school that is closest to us. It will not be our school and our students will likely face some level of disenfranchisement from the actual school that temporarily resides there. They will be at a disadvantage from day one, and will likely never feel like they belong to their own school. Worse, some of our
students may find themselves having to navigate becoming part of a different school twice, given the timing of school reconstruction. In short, it will create an inequitable environment for the students of our community during some of the most formative years of their lives. For these reasons, I strongly endorse the opening of a fully operational high
school at the Crown Farm site. Whether this be high school number 27 or the relocation of an existing school. Lastly, I'd like to thank the Board of Education and their staff for shepherding this large, disparate, and wonderfully diverse community through what we know has been a challenging and often thankless process. On
behalf of the many people who understand the enormity of the task that you have taken on, we thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Rodrigo. Next is Matt Michaelson, followed by
Tara Gorecki and Tula. That's. Hello. Thank you for your time today. My name is Matt Michaelson, and I'm here tonight to express my and my family's support for Doctor Taylor's recommendation from earlier this month and to urge you to commit to opening Crown High School as a permanent high
school for the neighboring communities. Superintendent, board members and all staff involved. First, thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for considering all of the options. And thank you for being bold and making a recommendation that aims to position our communities
towards a successful and bright future. I know our community feels heard and our proposals taken into consideration. My eldest child, who attends Field Road, doesn't enter high school for another seven years, middle school for another four. This recommendation allows for us to
prepare her and our younger kids properly for what's to come. We've already been dipping our toes into our currently aligned Quince Orchard High School community through programs like Junior Proms and Junior Cheer, and had already begun seeing the gears in our child's head start spinning, imagining herself
roaming those halls as a cougar. Now we're changing direction. We will shift our eyes toward Crown with the state of the art facility, and with the middle school articulation that keeps students together in this noisy world in which we live, I imagine we all strive for a bit
more simplicity and a bit more stability. While I believe this entire boundary study process is far from simple, this plan delivers what families like mine value most stability over time, and a feeling of knowing what's coming, which would not
be the result if full or partial holding school options would keep the Crown High School community in a constant state of change and upheaval. In this current plan, five of six current elementary feeder stay intact Fields Road, Rosemont west of 270, gains a
clear, sensible path. Robert Frost to Wooten at Crown. So our kids grow up with peers they can count on, and we as parents have the privilege to develop an amazing community with which we can all engage. I now look towards the future on March 27th, when these communities, who are not
feuding with one another yet feel at odds, come together to craft the best and brightest future for our children. This is a chance to turn the page and build a meaningful community together one that is stable, inclusive and oriented toward the future of our kids.
To my fellow residents who remain opposed to the recommendation, I know we don't currently share a view of success, but I hope that should the recommendation be supported by the Board of Education, we can all come together to create a nurturing, vibrant and engaging environment for our families and our collective community. Please know that
there are many of us watching and grateful for the decision you, Doctor Taylor, and your team have made. In the current recommendation. Board members, I look to you and extend my thanks. This has not been an easy process for you. There's emotion, feeling, passion, and all of us who come before you
to share our truths. Thank you. On behalf of our children, I ask you to adopt Doctor Taylor's recommendation and open Crown as a permanent school. Thank you. Thank you Matt. Next is Tara Gorecki,
followed by Tuleb Evans and Kim Monoski. Good evening, president and members of the board. My name is Tara Gorecki, and I am here tonight to urge you to reject the proposal to permanently close Wooton High
School and instead support the Rockville Modified recommendation. My family moved to this community because of the stability of the Wooten neighborhood. We built our lives here not because of rankings, but because of relationships. I have three
Wooten grads and two children here at Wooten. When my daughter ran girls on the run at Lakewood Elementary, she ran along Wooten Parkway with one goal in mind make it to Wootton High School. That was the dream. For years. My children could literally look up the hill and
see their sibling at Robert Frost Middle School sharing the same campus, the same teachers, the same community. Our cross country teams, band program and arts program are interconnected. This is not accidental. This is a village built over decades.
Closing a school can sound logistical, a boundary shift, or a capacity adjustment, but for students, it's deeply personal. Stability is not a luxury, especially at a time when teen mental health challenges are rising. Stability is protection. You've
heard tonight from other clusters as well. Stability is so important to our families. This proposal would fracture long established feeder patterns and send students mile away, potentially eight miles, while their siblings remain behind. Imagine having one
child at Cabin John Middle School and another assigned to Crown in a different city. That is not thoughtful. Planning for families. Equity matters, but equity should lift communities up, not tear one down to support another. Asking one
cluster to support to absorb the full weight of a community of a countywide capacity problem is not equitable. This decision also sets a precedent for how Montgomery County Public Schools plans growth. Countywide development planning
has not been coordinated with municipalities, and this proposal is being rushed. Without full community engagement, there is a better path. The City of Rockville has proposed keeping Wootton High School open while using Crown as a hybrid holding school and aligning decisions with the
Capital Improvements Program. Timeline. This approach preserves stability, addresses equity and capacity, and allows thoughtful rebuilding of Damascus. Magruder and Wootton High Schools, once a school community is dismantled, you cannot rebuild it with a vote.
Traditions disappear, trust erodes, and students carry that distrust with them. Please do not make Wootton Cluster the sacrifice for a rushed solution. Please protect the students who depend on this community project. The superintendents proposal. Support the Rockville
amendment. Keep Wootton High School open on Wootton Parkway. Thank you. Thank you Tara. Next to lab Athat's followed by Kim Monoski and Nancy Zhang. Hi.
Good evening. My name is Tula mathis. As a parent, I'm very disappointed, discouraged and disheartened by this entire boundary process. Why? Because I know there's a better way to do this. It didn't have to be so complicated and convoluted. I work in the humanitarian sector, which operates on the
core principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. I know what complex matrix decision making with a variety of stakeholders and variables requires, and what it looks like when done well in our work life and death, decisions are made on reliable, extensive data and analytics
through negotiations and consultations with a myriad of stakeholders where transparency and collaboration is king, where operational decisions are made with respect for the gravity of its consequences and the lives it impacts, it would behoove M.C.P.S. to operate under these same principles.
There has been zero diplomacy, impartiality or equity in this process. The superintendent hasn't even met with the Wooten community, the very people that stand to lose the most in this decision. The community engagement was rushed and boundary surveys weren't offered in any Asian language
despite Asian majority. And your data is flawed and incomplete. Decisions determine destiny. Your decision is serious. It will impact trajectory of thousands of children and families lives. The stakes are high. Please take the time to earnestly and unbiasedly analyze all the
arguments, evidence and factors at stake. Assess the gaps in your data. Don't make permanent decisions based on incomplete information. Consider the consequences, intended and unintended, that your decision will have. If you vote for the superintendent's recommendation, you'll be sowing the seeds that
will hurt our students, district and county for years to come. This path will lead to added cost and operational complexity, school overcrowding, undue stress for students families, greater traffic and bus complexity, modernization delays, dangerous precedent setting in your tarnished
reputation Is this what you want your legacy of board service to be? I challenge you to overcome the politics, pressures, and perceptions attached to this decision. Be impartial. Choose flexibility over finality. Compromise. Choose what benefits the majority over the minority.
What benefits? Multiple clusters over one community. There is an option that gives both Crown and Wootton communities most of what each wants. That option is the City of Rockville's proposed modified recommendation, which is supported by both Wootton and Magruder PTSA. Please support this amendment. The
modified recommendation provides a more sustainable path forward and keeps the superintendent's framework largely intact. No change in articulation. Crown opens immediately and serves its local students. However, Wootton and Magruder remain comprehensive high schools with defined modernization paths.
During the renovations, Magruder occupied part of Crown High School temporarily and never displaced Crown students. Then, after modernization, M.c.p.s. Addresses a larger permanent population of Crown, but without capacity risk. This is the kind of creative
solution and compromise we need. This is the. Thank you to. Next is Kim Menosky, followed by Nancy Zhang and Len Incognito. Hi, my name is Kim and I'm the
parent of two middle schoolers at Ridgeview and Roberto Clemente. I am here to support Doctor Taylor's recommendation and respectfully ask the board to vote in favor of the Wootton Crown recommendation. Doctor Taylor and the board. We know you didn't get into education with Grinch like goal of upsetting people and causing lots of stress. Like most
people who dedicate their lives to service, careers likely started as idealists, leading with big hearts and best intentions. We're grateful for you and everyone out there who still has some save the world fight in them. We need you, especially now. But as you advance in your responsibilities, you all have been forced to make very hard
decisions based on the reality of available funds. It's hard when your heart wants to give every kid all they need and all they deserve, but you can't do it all within the budget you're asking. You're all taking the painful but necessary corrective steps to realign needs and resources. We know you were trying to dig M.C.P.S.
out of a budget hole you didn't create, based on decisions made well before your times. No option was perfect. No one got all they wanted. But your recommendation is a fair compromise and is more equitable than what is historically existed. M.c.p.s. Is dealing with unprecedented fiscal uncertainty as revenue
streams are being dramatically challenged. Our state, and particularly local economies are losing huge tax revenues because of the massive federal layoffs. Most can't take on higher property taxes to make up the difference. The dismantling of the Department of Education and ongoing loss of federal funding is
devastating. The. For those of us with kids with disabilities, it's terrifying. There have never been adequate special special ed services or programs that even actually fit many needs. Within my own autism parent community. We are literally losing sleep and have continual knots in our stomachs. Doctor Taylor, we have
genuinely appreciated your attention to Special Ed in your tenure, and we're starting to feel hopeful. But the fiscal circumstances well beyond M.C.P.S. control make us all worried that those special ed corrections won't happen and are even at risk of further cuts if the board passes the recommendation. We are getting
a beautiful, new, safer, state of the art building, but it is only a building. We need to make the school. We need to make the school community one that our kids will be proud to attend. As parents, we may now feel divided, but in reality we are already a community. We are colleagues in the same
companies. We, some of us share family. Our kids already play sports together. Many worship together. Our value systems align much more than they compete. We need our united energies going forward to fight the next big fights. The kids will lead us in this merging of
communities of Wootton, that they will naturally become friends and make this new building a home. They already know how to be better than us adults in so many ways. Thank you. Thank you and again hope to have your vote in favor of
Doctor Taylor's recommendations. Thank you Kim. Next, Nancy Zhang, followed by Len Incognito and Anuj Sharma. Good evening members of the board. My name is Nancy Zhang. I'm a
mother of three children and parts of the Wooton cluster. I'm here today to strongly oppose Doctor Taylor's recommendation to relocate and effectively close. Wootton, I urge you to vote. Now. I ask you to support the City of Rockville proposal. Keep
Wootton on Wootton Parkway and include its renovation in FY 27 to 32. CIP Crown was built to reduce overcrowding. Close Wootton was never the problem. Crown was created to solve opposition to close Wootton is
not emotion, it's broad and consistent. It includes elected leaders, PTAs, students, teachers, thousands of residents and even the Maryland Building Industry Association. At the town hall, 93% of attendees opposed closing.
Wootton. Our online petition has more than 5000 signatures in both boundary surveys, with over 18,000 total responses closing. Wootton was never the leading or preferred option. It never showed a clear community support. We were told that
feedback was critical. If feedback is truly critical, please show us not in words but in outcomes. Show us how it shaped this recommendation and how i shaped your vote. We were told that young people are watching. Yes, they are watching. Wider participation
makes a difference or whether decision moves forward. Despite overwhelming concern. Wootton is a 55 year, high performing, high walkable community school. More than 500 students can walk there today under this recommendation. They will not.
If a stable, successful workforce school can be closed. Despite this level of unified opposition, then no community can feel secure in this long term stability. If this recommendation passes, this issue will not end. It will
permanently reshape how this community will public engagement. It will weaken trust in all future boundary decisions. It will set a perception that every community across this county will remember. Decisions like this
do not disappear. They become parts of institutional memory. And once trust at this scale is broken, it's difficult to rebuild. Let the record reflect. We oppose closing Wootton. We supported Independent High School for both Rockville and
Gaithersburg. We asked for transparent, consistent and verifiable data. We asked to include Wootton in the CIP. Before you vote, please pause. Choose stability. Choose trust. Choose to keep Wootton on
Wootton Parkway. Thank you, thank you Nancy. Next is Glen incognito, followed by Anuj Sharma and Jillian Dove. Lan.
We're not able to hear you. No. I'm sorry, we can't. Perhaps
you can log off and log back on and we will circle back to you. Thank you. Next is a new Sharma, followed by Jillian Dove and
Andrew Vallance. Good evening, board members and superintendent Doctor Taylor. Thank you for staying so late. It's not easy to hear so many people, but I do appreciate that. I'm Anuj Sharma, I'm a community resident. I'm here
again from requesting rejection of option H to now requesting rejection of superintendent's recommendation. February 5th seems like ages ago. Superintendent stated in one of his in recommendation and his later interviews that moving
forward with option H is partly based on silence. Part of that community. A wise person once told me, silent majority is usually an argument to justify decisions that cannot be backed up by numbers. M.C.P.S. own polls showed that supporting option H was not the majority,
yet a term silence community was used to justify the recommendation. In fact, ignoring the community that engaged in a civil process and advocated for what it sees best for their community as loud is a bit insulting. I recognize
that there are members who support option H and respect their choices, but in my own conversations, many believe community will move back to current Wootton campus after the repair and renovations. When told it is not so, the opinion changes to that's not right. I did not know that all
this confusion is because M.c.p.s chose either deliberately or not, to work under such a tight schedule on option H, that many in the community do not really understand the recommendation. It is M.C.P.S. ethical and moral responsibility to the
community to explain what are the options. Not by few zoom sessions on boundary study, but by a meaningful engagement using all resources possible so that every affected member has a reasonable chance to understand what is being done.
Two months to dismantle a school that has served for more than 50 years is neither ethical nor morally responsible on your part. A second argument to support closure of current Wootton campus as relocation is also misleading. More than $270
million were used to build crown, ignoring the dire need for repair and updates of Wootton, Damascus and Magruder, and likely many more. Now, M.c.p.s cannot populate the school, so the recommendation is to sacrifice a demonstrably silent community that is in past quietly accepted multiple
removals from CIP. Once relocated, the upcoming boundary study may very well reassign the middle and elementary schools that currently feed into Wootton to other high schools, essentially dismantling the Wootton cluster. Wootton at Crown will be without Wootton, but by then
there will be no voices to be heard. Neither the loud one nor the silence. Make no mistake, the current recommendation is to close Wootton and permanently silence Wootton community. I urge board to reject the recommendation and engage with Wootton Community,
something that Doctor Taylor has never done that and consider options that can provide safe and healthy environment.nk you. Anuj, I'm going to go back to Len Incognito, followed by Jillian Dove and Andrew Vallance. Can
you hear me now? Yes we can. Okay, gre Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. Quote by President John F Kennedy, 1963. Good evening, Doctor Taylor. Madam President, and respected members of the
board. My name is Len Incognito. I've lived in Montgomery County for nearly 30 years and am now a Crown Gaithersburg resident. Thank you for the opportunity to speak again this evening. Indeed, change is hard. Doctor Taylor acknowledged that when presenting his recommendation.
These decisions are not easy. They require diligence, careful analysis, fiscal responsibility and importantly, the courage to think beyond emotion and toward the future our students deserve. I am a son of Filipino immigrants who came to the United States many decades ago.
We were a military family, moving frequently along the East Coast. I changed schools, often leaving friends, adjusting to new environments, and starting over many times that I could count. It was difficult, but we adapted, we grew, and we became stronger
because of it. That experience taught me something important our children are resilient. In Montgomery County, one of the most diverse communities in the nation, we see that resilience every day. Families from every background have navigated change language barriers,
cultural transitions and economic challenges. And students do continue to rise. Tonight, we have the opportunity to rise with them, opening Crown Heights High School as a permanent high school is not simply a facilities decision, it is a forward looking investment in
our students and our region. Located along the I-270 technology corridor, Crown is uniquely positioned to become a premier Stem hub with neighboring industry leaders such as AstraZeneca and GSK, as well as federal institutions like NIST and NCI. The
potential for meaningful partnerships, internships, mentorships, and real world learning is extraordinary. Designating Crown as a permanent school creates that stability, that identity and long term opportunity to do otherwise, and making it a
swing space, even temporarily, risks undermining that vision while failing to address the persistent overcrowding in neighboring schools. Those enrollment pressures will not simply disappear. So we must ask whether that truly advances equity, and overcrowding affects far more than hallways.
That limits course availability, restricts access to labs and specialized programs. It increases teacher workload. It impacts student mental well-being. A state of the art building like Crown with modern science labs and updated infrastructure, should be fully leveraged to relieve those
pressures and expand opportunity. We fully support Doctor Taylor's recommendation because it is transparent, stable, and future focused. It reflects thoughtful planning and responsible stewardship. Tonight, we have the opportunity to choose that future for our students, for
our families and our county. Thank you all for your time and your leadership. Thank you Len. Next, Jillian Dove, followed by Andrew and Matt Wadsworth. Good
evening. My name is Jillian and I'm a 2025 graduate of Poolesville High School and have taken the time to reflect on my 13 year journey through M.c.p.s. I've attended four schools and three magnet programs spanning four clusters, expanding access to programs that students genuinely want is a positive goal. However,
M.C.P.S. must ensure that every student in every region receives the same level of rigor and the same opportunities right now, based on how this plan is outlined and how you intend to roll it out in 2027, there are significant gaps. What M.c.p.s has presented to date is nowhere near the level of
funding required to ensure that students receive the rigor and quality they deserve. When the Clemente Humanities Program moved to MLK in 2018, M.C.P.S. promised families and the BOE that its quality would remain unchanged. But it didn't. Field trips were reduced, there was
no written curriculum, and teachers had to create lessons from a shallow framework compared to its once mirror image program at eastern, the Up County Humanities program lost much of its rigor. More than six years later, MLK and eastern still aren't aligned, and you don't expect them to be
for another three years yet. M.c.p.s. Plans to launch dozens of new programs by 2027 with equal rigor and quality. By November, M.C.P.S. rolled back its commitment by saying that these regional programs will not be equal, but merely similar. Similar is not good
enough. I experienced similar not only in my magnet classes, but in almost every course I've taken. M.c.p.s can't even ensure that a student in one school is reading material with the same level of rigor as a student in another school, or in another classroom down the same hallway. You can't even
ensure students are reading the same number of books. What M.C.P.S. has shown you is not even close to what is required to fix the variance problems in academic courses, let alone entire regional programs. Yet, Doctor Taylor has stated that M.c.p.s. Will be able to
release curriculum annually and uphold accountability. MCPs hasn't been able to implement a consistent curriculum for an existing magnet program over the past ten years. How can you realistically expect it to launch dozens of new programs within a year, when it will continue to rely on the same
systems that have led to these inequities? This is not only a matter, a matter of equity, it is a matter of equality in the opportunities being offered, the quality of the curriculum, and the qualifications of the staff hired to teach it. This is not a new issue. For decades,
M.C.P.S. has struggled to give its students the strong courses and consistency they deserve, and this new plan certainly is not going to change that. I fully support expanding the opportunities these programs can provide. However, in its current form, there is no way this plan will fulfill that
mission in an equitable way, because the quality and access of these programs will quickly become different from region to region, and you'll be right back to the drawing board. Dig deeper, get it right, and stop using your students as your guinea pigs while you build your plane. Their futures are
on the line. Thank you, thank you Jillian. Next is Andrew, followed by Matt Wadsworth and Krishna Sankara. Good evening. I want to thank the board and
M.c.p.s staff for your efforts on these complex boundary decisions. As someone who grew up here, I left to help build and scale global tech platforms, but I came back specifically so my daughter could benefit from the academic excellence M.c.p.s. Is known for, and especially the opportunity offered by Wooton. That experience gives
me both personal and personal stake in a professional perspective on getting this right. So let me be clear I'm focused on results and will reserve judgment, not on the good intentions of this plan, but on its outcomes. Right now, Doctor Taylor's proposal represents a significant operational gamble, a vision
for Wooten built upon fragile assumptions, growth trends that may change capital, funding that lacks guarantees, and a real risk of destabilizing a high performing academic environment. That's a high stakes gamble with little margin for error. The data shows that even under Doctor Taylor's proposal, Churchill
remain over capacity at 112%, Damascus will be temporarily overcrowded and the community will be displaced to a new facility. Never asked for your upgrading the entire school community for an outcome that is uncertain with no contingency plan. As far as I know, when I was responsible for systems used by over 100
million people, we always built in redundancy. We planned for failure because, as we all know, when systems at scale break, they don't break softly, they break hard. This plan lacks a safety net, and the socioeconomic consequences of failure could be tremendous. If you undermine academic
opportunity in a high performing cluster, without strong data and clear alignment, you will see families like mine vote with their feet. And for that reason, I support maintaining Wooten at its current location unless and until it is demonstrably proven that an alternative delivers better results academically,
operationally and socially. However, that evidence does not exist today. Therefore, any plan must include a clear contingency strategy, and if the board insists on moving forward with Doctor Taylor's proposal, then at minimum it must be phased. Start small
tree crown as a pilot, measure impact rigorously and commit to course correction if outcomes fall short and above all, maintain full transparency with families throughout the process. We should never execute full scale disruption on unproven assumptions. We all want M.c.p.s to thrive. We cannot
let our decisions today mortgage the opportunities of tomorrow. Our children deserve certainty and not wait and see. Experiment. Thank you. Thank you Andrew. Next Matt Wardleworth followed by Krishna
Sankara and Robert Stoltz. Matt, we can't hear you. Good evening and thank you to all the board members for the opportunity to testify this evening. My name is Matt Wardleworth and I'm a
parent of two young children in the Wooton cluster. I'm here to voice my strong opposition to Superintendent Taylor's recommendation to permanently close Wootton High School. Closing a high school in a designated growth corridor is not strategic planning. It is a fundamentally anti-growth decision that contradicts the
very future Montgomery County is trying to build. This plan is built on a foundation of rush and flawed data. The October CIP document completely ignored the Rockville 2040 Comprehensive Plan and the Rockville Town Center Master Plan, which reflect thousands of planned housing units, while
the state has also asked Rockville to add over 2300 units by 2030. The superintendent's proposal is built on cherry picking data and ignores that over 1000 residential units are already approved in the Richard Montgomery Cluster alone, as
the Maryland Building Industry Association formally warned, removing durable high school capacity in a high growth area is inconsistent with sound planning and creates avoidable constraints on future housing delivery. Furthermore, forcing the Wootton community into the
new Crown High School creates a capacity time bomb. Wootton currently operates at a reasonable and sustainable utilization rate. In contrast, models show Crown High School opening with as little as 4% remaining capacity from day one,
with 1200 new housing units already approved within just two miles of crown, that school will fill organically, there is a more appropriate path forward. The City of Rockville has urged the board to adopt a modified recommendation under this logical middle ground. Wootton and Magruder students will be
placed at Crown temporarily during their respective renovation or rebuild periods. This allows the Crown community their walkable school immediately preserves the promised capacity for Gaithersburg and accounts for the expanded residential development already approved and already being planned.
Finally, I must address the glaring contradiction in the budget. M.c.p.s claims there is no money to renovate Wootton for its own cluster, yet suddenly there is funding to fix it up as a holding school. If the building is safe enough to be a holding school for other communities, and if capital exists or is being
planned for that purpose, that investment must be used to keep Wootton open for the Rockville community. Please vote to amend the superintendent's recommendation. With this more reasonable plan presented by the City of Rockville, this is the only logical next step given the faulty growth data, the lack of engagement from
Superintendent Taylor directly with the Wootton community, and the rust nature of this last minute effort to close Wootton High School. Please do not close Wootton High School. Thank you. Thank you Matt. Next is Krishna Sankara followed by
Robert Stoltz and Lisa Sontheimer. Krishna, are you here? We will come back to Krishna. We'll move to Robert
Stoltz. Good evening. Members of the Board of Education and Thomas Taylor. We met once at the Board of Education. I don't know if you recall, but I showed up there to deliver some handwritten letters from the
community, and. And I happened to see you. And I called out very loudly, but you were gracious enough to come and greet me and hear me out, and I'd like you to hear me out again, because I don't think you've listened. I don't think you were listening then, actually, because you still went forward with this
recommendation, even though the community is overwhelmingly against this recommendation. I don't think you've even heard, I don't know, maybe 10% of the community because there's still so many people that haven't even heard about the
recommendation. Last week I was by chance I met a guy completely random in another state, and in the news of Wootton from the tragic shooting was was top of mind. And then that led to the discussion of what's happening to Wootton. And he had no idea, even though he still lives in
this community, that Wootton was going to be closed. So I think when the elections are coming next summer and this is if this does go through, I think there will be a very large outpouring of very upset community members who will be either voting with their feet,
as has been mentioned previously, but they will certainly be voting in the booth because this is an election issue that everybody should be aware of, and it has not been fair to the community to give such a short amount of engagement. I mean, really, there was no honest engagement. We can come and we can speak
our mind at these events as we've all done, but there have been no reciprocation. We have no engagement with the Board of Education, where we hear your opinions on this, except for the one you know, presentation that you made. So I grew up in the Wootton community. I
attended the local schools and I left. I went in the military, I lived overseas, I served around the world. And there's other places in the world where I might have expected something like this. But we live in one of the most affluent communities in the country, and
by that, the whole world. And when I have come to discover the the way our schools have been neglected in this community of, you know, I mean, it's just insane that in Montgomery County, these schools have been neglected for so long. And now, to fix a short term budget issue, you're
going to sacrifice our the future of our students. And this is not just a Wootton community. This is the entire Montgomery County. You're making a decision based on bad data, excluded data from the city of Rockville's planning. And you're going to propose
something that has permanent consequences. Let's not mince words. You cannot relocate Wootton. Right. It's brick. You're not going to physically move Wootton. You can send some of the students to a new school, but that is closing Wootton and sending kids to a new school and making it a new school.
Okay. Having grown up in the community, I appreciate the importance of keeping that community school. It's the heart of our community, and I urge you to adopt the City of Rockville recommendation. Thank you Robert. Next is Lisa
Sontheimer. Then return to Krishna Sonohara and then board questions. Go ahead Lisa. Good
evening. Yes, we can hear you. That silence was only 10s. Now imagine that silence for ten years. That's how long Wootton has been waiting for answers. In the interest of time, I've
shortened my testimony. Please read my entire testimony because it has some really good points, especially about the City of Rockville's recommendation. I'm here to talk about prevention and accountability, two basic things that literally fix everything for the boundary
study. Prevention is critical. Converting Wootton, an established high school, to a permanent holding school is a huge mistake. Crown was built to alleviate overcrowding. Moving Wootton to a different building does not solve this problem. It's a zero sum game. As much as a beautiful new
building is enticing and as much as we need it, it creates a much larger problem overcrowding. With no other room and other buildings to accommodate this, you have the ability to hold M.c.p.s accountable. It's in your hands now. Please reject the
superintendent's recommendation. Otherwise, in a few years students will be split and relocated or moved into portables. Splitting and moving from school to school is actually harmful to students. The split articulation plan for middle schools is harmful to students. There is no chance to
build relationships, and everything in this stage of life is built on friendships and peer groups, and that's everything. And it's all preventable. Without real connections that you can build on, you have nowhere to turn to for help. That brings me to the shooting that happened at
Wootton. Skipping over the trauma to learn that this was a retaliation from one group to another is truly infuriating, to say the least. This was preventable. This was about bullying, not knowing proper conflict resolution skills, and
not having a trusted adult to go to in the school for help. And adults who don't follow through are not trusted. Accountability. This is fixable and it's free. All it takes is basic organic relationship building. Without this, you
can't establish trust. Without trust, no one will say something when they see something, including staff. Stability is essential for this to happen. Stability can't happen when everyone shifts to different places every couple years to new communities, our
clusters, our communities. It has nothing to do with one being better than the other. Each one is filled with great people no matter where you are. But clusters are great because of stability. The people matter, the connections matter, and the camaraderie matters. We've had
years to build these relationships. You cannot pick out and plop segments of people and expect it to not have serious repercussions. Please focus on keeping the heart of the clusters intact. The stability is the heart. Okay.
Thank you. Lisa. Last call. Krishna. Sankara. Not seeing Krishna. The remaining item on the agenda is a final opportunity for board member questions. I will turn it back
to President Rivera-Oven. Thank you very much. Colleagues, if you have a question, please raise your hand virtually. Miss Stewart. Since I was called out, I feel like I should respond.
Yes. I grew up with tikkun olam, and I I'm going to say right here, I absolutely acknowledge everyone's pain. These are not easy decisions. And I also want
to acknowledge the pain that I saw when I. Entering some of these schools and see the state of disrepair, and also that our systems are not working to
provide the kind of learning spaces that I would like to see. We are going to get through this as a board. We are determined to make the best decision for the system, and that helps the most kids and
staff and something that we all can live with in the end. And knowing that we have a clear conscience, that we did our best and listened to everyone. And I was really happy to hear all the viewpoints. Today I'm
thinking about them. I am going to look at the data that's provided to me, and I look forward to our work sessions. So thank you. Thank you so much, Miss Stewart. Any other my other colleagues. Going once,
going twice, three times. I know we're all tired. It's been a long day. I would like to say thank you so much to the staff, to everybody who provided testimony. And just to echo the fact, Miss Miss Stewart, what
you said, some of us have been in the community and we have been hearing from all sides, and I just want people to know that we're not sacrificing the future of any child. We're not lowering our standards. We're
not lowering our academic standards or the academic rigor. That's not what the purpose of that is. So I just wanted to to say that with that, I'm going to say a few words in Spanish.
Gracias. Y la reunion publica. Gracias a todo el mundo por su testimonio. If there are no additional questions, this concludes the public hearing. Thank you to everyone who provided testimony and have a blessed evening. Buenas noches.
Good night.