Tues. 8/23/22: Board of Ed to Delegate Authority to Park 22 Buses at Each High School - Magruder/Wootton/RM/Rockville/Gaithersburg/Watkins Mill

On Tuesday, August 23, 2022, the Montgomery County Board of Education is going to hand over the power to make major, controversial land use decisions to the Superintendent who can then hand over that power to the MCPS Director of Facilities, Seth Adams. 

Under the Board of Education's current policy these same school land use decisions can only be delegated to the Superintendent and only for non-controversial matters.  

But on Tuesday, that will all change with the Board vote.  Not only will the Superintendent be given the power to delegate these important land use decisions to a mere staff member, but the land use decisions subject to delegation will include controversial matters. 

One example of how this vote on Tuesday will impact the County is the current plan to park MCPS school buses at high schools instead of using the Shady Grove Bus Depot.  The Shady Grove Bus Depot currently holds over 400 school buses.  The MCPS plan is to move about 270 of those buses to a County lot in the City of Rockville and the rest of the buses to high school parking lots with routes served by those school buses.  

Over 130 MCPS school buses will be parked at the following high schools:  Magruder, Wootton, Richard Montgomery, Rockville, Gaithersburg and Watkins Mill.  

That works out to about 22 school buses parked at each high school.  

In order to move the 400 school buses to these various locations, land use documents will be needed. Memorandums of Understanding, permits, easements etc...  

After Tuesday, August 23, 2022, if the Board of Education approves the Resolution to Delegate their land use authority to the MCPS Director of Facilities, Seth Adams, all of those controversial land use decisions will be made without public notice and without a public vote of the Board of Education.

It won't matter who you vote for in November, Board of Education members will have already given away their power to decide controversial school land use matters.