The public comment portion of the Montgomery County Board of Education meeting Thursday was dominated by parents who oppose the proposal to close Wootton High School and send those students to the future Crown High School instead.
It’s just one element of the school district’s redistricting plan that would draw new boundaries in the state’s largest school district.
Throughout the meeting, parents held up signs and many wore tee shirts emblazoned with a large “W” featuring stars and stripes.
Parent Thomas Zeitzoff told the school board he felt the plan affecting Wootton, identified as Plan H in MCPS documents, was added very late and that it was “a fundamentally rushed and unfair process.”
Sitting at the witness table at the school board meeting, he held up a sign and told the board, “I hold here a sign that my 7-year-old made that says, ‘Save Wootton.'”
“There is a bigger process. As many have said here before me, Option H effectively slates Wootton for closure. Abandoning a well-performing high school like Wootton is a risky and bad decision,” Zeitzoff said.
“Wootton is a community school, and a school of excellence. Why would MCPS close or relocate a high-performing school?” Norean Qadir asked board members.
Brian Rabin, president of Wootton High School’s Parent Teacher Student Association, told the board he wants to see investment in the existing school.
“Wootton needs a renovation plan, not an eviction notice. Keep Wootton on Wootton Parkway,” he said.
Jeremy Press also protested the plan to close Wootton, and made reference to the aging school system’s many infrastructure problems. He concluded his testimony with what he said was a nod to the Wootton Patriot Players’ production of “Seussical the Musical” when he said, “Though our HVAC is poor and our plumbing is shoddy, if you come to close Wootton, it’s over my dead body!”
The comment drew “oohs” from the audience, followed by applause, but Board member Rita Montoya took exception to the language.
Montoya said the meeting was being streamed, and that children were listening: “Including my own children. And I want you to take a second to imagine how it might feel for a child to hear someone tell his mother and their colleagues that if they take a particular action as a part of their job, it will be over their dead body.”
Board of Education President Grace Rivera-Oven also said she was “taken aback” by the comment. She told the crowd she knows that boundary changes are emotional issues.
“Our intentions when we wake up are not to make people’s lives miserable. I want you to understand that,” she said.
Board member Brenda Wolff said there were comments from the public that suggested the decision had already been made.
“We want you to know that no decisions have actually been made yet,” she said. “We are still listening and learning.”
Wolff’s fellow Board member Karla Silvestre said the board was listening to every single piece of testimony and called the upcoming decision “very difficult.”
Several board members noted that a survey on the plan would close Friday, and urged residents to share their feedback, saying it would be considered in the board’s deliberations on the boundary plans.
A final decision by the board of education is expected March 26.
