Portable Classrooms in the (western) Downcounty Area

What do the residents of Montgomery County need?  Classrooms or soccer fields?

According to the latest budget information from Dr.Weast, our students are still in portable classrooms around the county.  Read about it in the recent MCPS Capital Improvements Program here.

The newly named western DownCounty area is no exception. 

In the area surrounding the Brickyard Middle School site, the following "learning cottages" (better known as temporary portable classrooms) are in place:

BCC Cluster          27
Churchill Cluster     10
Whitman Cluster      8
Wootton Cluster     14

Total                     59 portable classrooms

Sounds like we can use some additional school capacity in the area.

But for some reason, the available future school sites in the area aren't in the "right" location.  Most are located on the border between two adjacent school clusters, so some creative boundary shifting must be done if a new facility is to reduce the strain on existing capacity.  So MCPS prefers to supersize the schools, rather than to open a new facility.

Funny thing about supersizing new schools.  The kids just keep coming, and even after an expansion or two, eventually the kids outgrow the facility - we only need to look at our neighbors in the original downcounty area, to see what we can expect in the future.  Oakland Terrace ES has had how many additions?  At least two, and its so packed now the kindergarteners are housed at Sligo MS. 

In tight budget times, what provides the best dollar value?  A soccer field or classrooms?

Time to let the BOE and the County Council know what you prefer.  Its your tax dollars at work.