TODAY: Board of Education to Approve FIRST Ever Cell Tower on MCPS School Land

May 13, 2021 Update: As noted in our original blog post the memorandum from Superintendent Jack Smith to the Montgomery County Board of Education was not factual. The Montgomery County Transmission Facility Coordinating Group had NOT approved the placement of a new cell tower at the Woodward High School site on Old Georgetown Road.  This agenda item was pulled from the May 11th Board of Education Agenda during the meeting because the memorandum from Superintendent Jack Smith was not correct.

Currently, there are 12 cell towers located on Board of Education property.  

However, NONE of those cell towers were ever approved by the Board of Education.

ALL of those cell towers were placed on public school land by former Superintendent Jerry Weast (1999 - 2011) without the approval of the Board of Education.    

The Board of Education never voted to approve any of those cell tower construction projects.

But, TODAY the Montgomery County Board of Education will VOTE to approve a NEW CELL TOWER at the Tilden Middle School/Woodward High School on Old Georgetown Road.  

The lease for the cell tower on the Tilden Middle School/Woodward High School is about to expire. And the entire site is about to be leveled for the construction of a new high school.   

Superintendent Jack Smith has told the Board of Education to grant HIM the power to sign a new, 20 year lease for a NEW cell tower at the Tilden Middle School/Woodward High School site.  The new cell tower will go somewhere on the site of the new high school, but the public doesn't know where the NEW cell tower would go if approved.  

Under the Board of Education's cell tower approval process, the principal and the community are supposed to be involved in the placement of any NEW cell towers.  The MCPS New Cell Tower Process is shown on the image to the left. 

BUT, Superintendent Jack Smith does NOT WANT the public or the school community involved in this decision, so today he is telling the Board of Education to give HIM total control of the placement of a NEW cell tower at this site.  

Today, is a historic day!  Never before has the Montgomery County Board of Education voted to place a cell tower on a public school site.  But today, the Board of Education will vote to approve a NEW cell tower at the Tilden Middle School/Woodward High School site and turn over that entire decision to the Superintendent, thus bypassing any school, PTSA or community notice or input into the decision.  The public will have no opportunity to be heard on whether or not this NEW cell tower should be built on this school site, or where a NEW cell tower could be placed on this school site.  

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/C2NJD54C7B68/$file/Charles%20W%20Woodward%20HS%20Telecom%20Lease%20Amend.pdf