Why we need to prioritize our schools: Let's talk about Wootton and Option H

Last Sunday, I was invited to participate in a District 3 candidate forum hosted by the Lakewood Elementary School PTA. It was a very well-run event with a great turnout, and I want to thank the Lakewood PTA for hosting and inviting all of the District 3 candidates.

Of course, we all expected to discuss Wootton High School. I know that parents and students in the Wootton cluster are very upset about the decision announced this year to close Wooton and move the students to the new Crown High site in Gaithersburg. I was the only candidate who said that I agree with the Option H decision, and I want to say more about why without a two-minute time limit.

First off, I really appreciated the opportunity to speak directly with these parents and address the issue face to face, especially those who spoke with me personally after the forum ended. I know that in Montgomery County, we pride ourselves on our high standards for education and that issues around schools are very emotional for kids and parents alike.

I do not agree with how the decision to close the school was handled, and like many recent decisions or announcements from MCPS, it felt rushed and very late to announce. Parents should have had more opportunity for input into the decision and more time to prepare their children for such a drastic change to their expected school and routine. The lack of transparency in the county government that I have complained about is equally apparent here, and that is something I want to change if I am elected.

However, the decision to move the students from Wootton to Crown is, I believe, in the best interest of the most people. As I told the audience at the forum: your priority is the best interest of your children, but as a councilmember, I have to look at the best interest of everyone in my district, and those may not necessarily align. In this case, I believe that they do. The students of Wootton deserve to have a school that is not crumbling and filled with mold. A condition assessment from last year rates every aspect of the school in poor or failing condition, including the walls, HVAC, plumbing, athletic surfaces and laboratories. Wootton students deserve much better than this. I understand that everyone wants their children to attend a school in their neighborhood, but Crown is only three miles away and is a brand new facility where Wootton students can access state of the art equipment and learn in a safe, healthy environment. I have heard the concerns about a school community being broken up, but I believe, and have said, that a school is not the building: it is the staff and students that create a community together. I hope that the Wootton community can move to a new building and continue to support one another as they would have in their original classrooms. I have to think they'll be able to learn and teach better in a building that isn't full of mold and where they won't have to wear coats in class because the heat doesn't work.

Rather than re-arguing Option H, or using the court system to try to stop the decision and costing MCPS more money in litigation, I want us to focus on how we got here and how we can prevent this in the future. It is obvious that the Council and Board of Education have not invested appropriately in the capital improvements that our public schools desperately need. Each successive Council has seen that we needed more funding for aging school buildings, and rather than making the unpopular decisions to raise taxes or cut other programs, they delayed making the improvements and kicked the can down the road for someone else to deal with, and continued to do this for years. Now the bill is coming due, and even our top schools are in an unsafe state.

The Council needs to take concrete steps to ensure that capital improvements are prioritized, not waitlisted for another decade. We need to fund these repairs NOW and make sure kids can learn in safe buildings. They need to work with the Board of Education to set policy so that our schools do not deteriorate to this level again. They need to take responsibility and stop waiting to make it someone else's problem, because now it is all of our problem. I think that Option H was the best option for Wootton at this point, but the truly best option would have been to prevent this sad state of affairs and ensure that this doesn't happen to any of our other schools. If we don't take action, it will happen again, as many other schools are in just as bad a shape as Wootton. We need to hold elected leaders accountable and be proactive in not only funding our schools, but making sure that costly repairs are actually done. Some of these repairs will save money in the long run, as currently we have maintenance teams doing frequent repairs on things that are just too old to work properly, and their time can be spent on other school repairs and improvements rather trying to breathe life back into infrastructure that is well past its prime.

I know that many Wootton parents disagree with the old campus being used as a holding school, but given the state of many of our schools, we will need a holding school for many years in order to undertake the level of renovations needed to get our schools back into an acceptable state. A holding school will be needed for the good of the students of the county if we want to really rededicate ourselves to having the schools that we want and deserve for our children.

When Option H was first floated, I received a wave of emails from parents and a concern that was repeated was that not having Wootton on their diploma would impact the ability of students to get into college. My husband worked in college admissions for more than a decade, and confirmed to me that elite colleges care much less about what high school students attend than most parents think. They are far more interested in what a student has accomplished, than in school reputations. Honestly, we shouldn't have schools that are valued more than others. All MCPS schools should be good enough that you want to send your kids there. The difference between our best school and our worst school should be negligible, because all of our children deserve the best education we can provide for them, no matter where they live or how much money their parents make. All Montgomery County families pay taxes and deserve equal access to education.

Another thing that stood out from the many emails I got was that not one of them proposed an alternative. Everyone was very angry about Option H, but I do not remember even one email telling me which of the proposed options the writer or group would prefer. If the Wootton community had rallied behind an alternative option that they supported, I would have considered it. I still would consider it. The only proposals being put forward were Option H or No Option H. No Option H isn't an option when the school is fundamentally unsafe, so unless there is a better proposal on the table, I have to support Option H.

Again, I think the best way forward is to ensure that we make the changes now that we needed years ago to prevent more schools from being closed due to outdated and unsafe buildings. In addition, we need leaders to work with MCPS and the Board of Education to make sure that proposed changes are announced much further in advance. I saw a request for input on when to start the 2026-27 school year sent out in April. Parents already have their summers (camps, summer programs, travel, etc) planned by then, and it is too late to change them because our leaders are making decisions at the last minute. I've never seen these kinds of changes announced so late in any other place I've lived. It's these actions that create distrust with the school system and we need leadership to do the advanced planning and stop rushing decision-making and leaving parents to pick up the slack.

As a leader, I will not say here that you will be happy with every decision that I make. Anyone who promises that is lying to you. What I can promise is that I will use the information available to make the decision that I think best benefits District 3 and Montgomery County. I promise not to do just what is easy and avoid making the hard choices to get the people of District 3 what they deserve. I promise to prioritize the needs of the vulnerable people in our communities - and that includes children. And finally, I promise to be honest with you about the decision I'm making and why I am making it.