Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson high schools are experiencing an overcrowding issue, and time is running out.
Although Rockville currently has a moratorium on building new residential buildings when schools reach 120 percent capacity, Rockville City Council member Mark Pierzchala is proposing increasing this moratorium cap to 150 percent rather than building new schools. Richard Montgomery, which is located in Rockville, is already at 112 percent of its capacity.
Many parents, residents, and students worry overcrowding could be detrimental to students’ mental and physical health. Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson have both tried to mitigate the effects of overcrowding by implementing measures such as building portables, but students like Walter Johnson junior Etai Pinto believe that these efforts are not enough.
“It’s a complicated issue,” he said, “There are more freshmen coming in than seniors leaving each year. If push comes to shove, I think they’ll need to feed kids into a different school.”
Walter Johnson’s student population has been growing steadily since its 2007 renovations. With 2,289 students, many of which are in 9th grade, all signs point to a further increase.
Attorney Bob Dalrymple, a representative of developers wanting to build in Rockville, says not increasing the moratorium cap would hurt Rockville’s economic growth. However, Mayor Bridget Newton agrees with parents that increasing the moratorium cap is not the right thing to do.
As MCPS enters the second semester and approaches the new school year, now is the perfect time for Rockville and other cities in the MCPS system to find new solutions to the overcrowding problem.
Article by MoCo Student staff writer Shannon Engel of Walter Johnson High School.