At the recent Montgomery County Board of Education meeting on Thursday, Feb. 23, the Board discussed future school boundaries, including the relocation of Burtonsville Elementary School and reopening of the Charles W. Woodward High School in Rockville, and how these changes will affect countywide matters.
In Nov. 2021, the Board of Education approved Burtonsville Elementary School’s addition process, according to Shiho Shibasaki, the assistant director of facilities management at Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). But in Nov. 2022, the board updated the plan by approving the construction of a new Burtonsville Elementary School in a different location. In addition to the active site selection process this year, further analysis will be conducted to determine school bus transportation in the area. MCPS contacted Burtonsville’s staff and parents for feedback on the project and planned to hold community engagement meetings to discuss the relocation and new school building.
In the board meeting, the county board also discussed the reopening of the new Charles W. Woodward High School, which is currently being built. The reopening, scheduled for Aug. 2026, will address crowding at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda and other high schools in the nearby areas such as Northwood High School.
Walter Johnson junior Selina Chan believes the reopening has the potential to benefit students.
“With the reopening, students would no longer need to worry if there will be enough spaces for the classes they choose for the next school year. Currently, [at Walter Johnson], there have been issues with students not being able to be accepted into their first option electives due to the surplus of kids,” Chan said.
According to MCPS officials, the rebuilding and expansion of Northwood, along with the Woodward reopening, revealed the need for a boundary study. The Board approved shifting Northwood staff and students to Woodward for two years. This would start from the 2024-2025 school year when Northwood is under construction.
The current boundary study focuses on high schools like Bethesda Chevy Chase, Montgomery Blair, Albert Einstein, Walter Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Northwood, Wheaton and Walt Whitman, as well as their middle school clusters. There are also discussions of the reopening of Crown High School in Gaithersburg and the opening and expansion of Damascus High School.
These relocations and reopenings have been met with mixed reactions from the community.
“I think Woodward High School is going to be an amazing place for many students. I just don’t know how much I agree with the changing of boundaries. I think taking students out of a school that they have already been in for a few years depending on if they are a junior or senior seems like a disadvantage, if that’s what they’re planning to do,” Walter Johnson junior Shanna Summers said.
The reopening has also sparked concerns and questions about how the change will affect students.
“There are many other concerns for the students. For instance, what happens to the high schoolers that are at WJ when Woodward High School has finished renovating? Do some of them have to be relocated to Woodward or can they continue to attend WJ despite the boundary line? And how will this change the overall demographics of WJ and Woodward? How would this change the overall ranking of the schools?” Chan said.
A county public hearing is scheduled for March 9 to gather feedback on the Superintendent’s recommendation for the boundary study. On March 14, a session will discuss the public hearing testimony. Final decisions on the recommendation are expected to be made on March 28.
Written by Allison Xu of Walter Johnson High School
Photo Courtesy of The Ticker