Category Schools

Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) Division of Construction is wrapping up the Schematic Design phase and beginning the Design Development phase for the reopening of Charles W. Woodward High School project.

In previous work sessions, in which the designs of building and site amenities were discussed, they received a lot of helpful feedback and input from various stakeholders and agencies. In an effort to continue community engagement, they will hold another community work session to share how the project is developing, and what has been discussed and considered with other agencies.

Reopening Project Community Work Session Date: Tuesday, January 21st, 2020 Time: 6:30 pm Location: Tilden Middle School Media Center 11211 Old Georgetown Road Rockville, Maryland 20852

If you have any questions regarding this process please contact Ms. Shiho Shibasaki, project manager, at 240-314-1000

As you may have heard, MCPS has embarked on a boundary to study “how existing school and cluster boundaries support or impede the effective use of school facilities .” You can read all the MCPS information on this topic here. This document details the regulations they are using for the MCPS boundary study.

Over a 20-year period, student enrollment at MCPS has increased by more than 30,000 students. This growth has propelled MCPS into one of the largest and most diverse districts in the nation. Unfortunately, facility construction has not been able to keep pace with this significant growth.

External consultants from WXY, working on behalf of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), have launched the first phase of the Districtwide Boundary Analysis, an initiative designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of MCPS boundaries. WXY will analyze various data points, such as school facility utilization and capacity, student demographics, school assignment and travel patterns.

This comprehensive study is different from the boundary study that will need to be done in our area with Woodward High School opens.

Because school boundaries have impacts beyond where a child attends school, FOWF is letting you know about this study, in case you haven’t heard about it already.

MCPS is holding a series of public meetings on this topic, one of them at WJ High School.

Multiple Regional Open Meetings across the County – RSVP for one of the meetings

Wednesday, December 4, 2019, 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Gaithersburg High School
101 Education Blvd, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Wednesday, December 11, 2019, 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Julius West Middle School
651 Great Falls Rd, Rockville, MD 20850

Saturday, December 14, 2019, 10:00am – 12:00pm
White Oak Middle School
12201 New Hampshire Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20904

Tuesday, January 7, 2020, 7:00pm- 9:00pm
Walter Johnson High School
6400 Rock Spring Drive, Bethesda, MD 20814

Saturday, January 11, 2020, 10:00am – 12:00pm
Blair High School
51 University Blvd E, Silver Spring, MD 209010

Tuesday, January 14, 2020, 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Northwest High School
13501 Richter Farm Road, Germantown, MD 20874

Virtual Public Meeting (Dates and Locations Coming Soon)

From Bethesda Beat

At a meeting on Monday, staff members showed updated plans for the roughly $120 million project that will serve about 2,700 students.

The new plans show two phases of construction. The first will include renovating the building for use as a temporary school for Northwood High School students from 2023 to 2025 as Northwood undergoes an extensive renovation. Then, in 2025, Woodward will reopen as a new MCPS high school, complete with athletic facilities.

The square building has a large central courtyard, to be used for performances, teaching and casual activities. Staff members are considering dividing the courtyard area into smaller sections, possibly including an amphitheater, a terrace and seating.

The school, proposed to include a performing arts magnet program, has arts space on all three floors.

Many of the classroom spaces will be “flexible,” with movable walls to create classrooms that “respond to the school’s needs.”

Read the rest of the article on Bethesda Beat.

The Planning Board will review the annual schools test next Thursday, which will determine if a school cluster (including the Walter Johnson cluster) would be placed in moratorium and if a Preliminary Plan of Subdivision could be submitted .

The staff report can be found here and recommends the Walter Johnson cluster be put in moratorium for one year because WJ is at 129.3% of capacity.

From Bethesda Beat

The Montgomery school board plans to funnel $125 million into renovating the former Charles W. Woodward High School in Rockville and on Monday appointed a Calverton architectural firm to lead the design process.

Grimm and Parker Architecture Inc. was selected as the “most qualified firm to provide the necessary … services,” according to school board documents. The board will pay Grimm and Parker about $6.2 million for its services.

Known as a holding school, Woodward is next scheduled to house students from Northwood High School in Silver Spring, which is slated for a $123 million expansion to begin in 2023, and students will be moved off-site during construction.

Read the rest of the article at Bethesda Beat.

From Bethesda Beat

The county school board is exploring using the former Charles W. Woodward High School in Rockville for the first countywide secondary-level arts magnet program and has turned to the former chief executive of the Strathmore arts center to lead a committee studying options.

Woodward, on Old Georgetown Road, is the current home for Tilden Middle School students while their building is being remodeled and expanded.

Known as a holding school, Woodward is next scheduled to house students from Northwood High School in Silver Spring, which is slated for a $123 million expansion to begin in 2023, and students will be moved off-site during construction.

Smith said the school system will convene an “exploratory committee” to determine what the program at Woodward might look like and how it would be best implemented.

Smith said the school system will convene an “exploratory committee” to determine what the program at Woodward might look like and how it would be best implemented.

The committee will be chaired by Eliot Pfanstiehl, former chief executive officer of the Strathmore performing arts theater in North Bethesda.

County Council President Hans Riemer and Catherine Leggett are teaming up to propose renaming the former Woodward High School after the Rev. Josiah Henson, who was enslaved on a plantation near the North Bethesda school.

Montgomery County Public Schools plans to overhaul and reopen the high school on Old Georgetown Road to relieve crowding in the Walter Johnson High School cluster and in the Downcounty Consortium. The school is currently accommodating students from Tilden Middle, whose building is being modernized. The Tilden project should be completed by 2019, and Woodward High is slated to reopen in 2022, the letter from Riemer and Leggett stated.

Read more on Bethesda Beat.

As a former Woodward Wildcat, it gives FOWF executive director Amy Ginsburg great pleasure to announce that the Board of Education last week approved a $1.83 billion school construction plan that includes reopening Woodward High School.

The board also approved a resolution to begin the site selection process for a new elementary school in the Walter Johnson Cluster in the spring of 2018.

From Bethesda Beat

The drafted Rock Spring growth plan could bring as many as 423 new students to the crowded schools of the Walter Johnson cluster. Previously approved projects in the area could yield another 135.

The drafted White Flint 2 Sector Plan could add 690 more students, and another 149 could arrive courtesy of the drafted Grosvenor-Strathmore plan, according to county estimates.

Concerned parents in Bethesda and Rockville are wondering where the new students will go.

“[T]here’s no place to put them,” PTA representative Wendy Calhoun told County Council members last month.

County Council members, who are considering all three long-range growth plans at once, often stress that many new homes will take years or even decades to appear, and some projects might never get off the ground. However, they agree with parent advocates and Montgomery County Public Schools officials that the plans should say something about the need for new schools.

Now, consensus has formed around an approach that proponents say will give planning officials more flexibility to negotiate with landowners. The language that council members are expected to insert in all three plans states that every property undergoing development review should be evaluated for a potential school site.

Read the entire article here.