No BOE Vote/No Budget for Move Leads to: ‘Hasty, haphazard, sloppy’: Community meeting raises concerns about plans for alternative education

A community meeting about Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) relocating an alternative education program from Silver Spring to the Flower Valley and Manor Lake neighborhoods of Rockville became chaotic Thursday night as Rockville residents largely voiced their opposition to the move. 

“That is not what we were told,” one audience member in the Flower Valley Elementary School cafeteria called out during the MCPS presentation. “Can we see the data? Since we can get a straight answer?” another one asked.  

Dozens of community members from the two neighborhoods were gathered for a meeting hosted by councilmember Natali Fani-González (D- Dist.6), who represents the area, after the community raised concerns for safety and security and for a lack of transparency from MCPS on the move.  

“MCPS did not get off to a good start,” Del. Vaughn Stewart (D- Montgomery County), who lives in the neighborhood, said at the Thursday meeting.  “It appeared hasty, it appeared haphazard, it appeared sloppy, and that’s not the way that we want this relationship, and this partnership, and this program to start off.” ..

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/07/11/community-meeting-concerns-alternative-education/

BOE Authorized MCPS Staff to Evaluate Possible Locations, Not to Completely Move a Program without a BOE vote or public notice.

WUSA9 reported on a Montgomery County community that was surprised to learn that MCPS was moving a program for middle and high school students to their local elementary holding school. 

The community isn't the only group that is surprised. The Board of Education is surprised too. 

The plan has never come before the Board of Education for discussion, there has not been a feasibility study, and there is no funding in the MCPS budget for any renovations or modifications to the holding school.

In May of 2024, the Board of Education discussed the lease of the space being used for the Ewing @ Plum Orchard Alternative Education Program. That's apparently a Level 2 Program for middle and high school students.  The lease was up and apparently the BOE wanted to discuss possibilities for relocating the Program.  

Instead of presenting the BOE with possibilities, requesting funding, and obtaining a BOE vote, someone in MCPS administration made their own decision to move the Ewing @ Plum Orchard program to an elementary holding school. 

WUSA9 reported on the surprise announcement. 
 

 

Program Moving with out Board of Education Vote. WUSA9: "The lack of transparency from MCPS I think is the most frustrating for residents,” she said.

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Some residents in Montgomery County are concerned about a new education program that they were recently told will be coming to their neighborhoods.

In the upcoming school year, Montgomery County's Alternative Education Program, which is for students who need extra support outside of their regular schools, will be run in a holding school that's between two Rockville neighborhoods: Manor Lake and Flower Valley. Some neighbors said they are worried about safety, and what they call a lack of transparency from Montgomery County Public Schools.

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/education/montgomery-county-residents-concerned-alternative-education-program-location-neighborhood/65-0df11dc4-9ea8-46ad-be19-daeba7d9a8ed

WTOP: Violence, mold, asbestos: Staffers at Montgomery Co. alternative school voice safety concerns

Teachers and staff at a building that houses two Montgomery County, Maryland, schools — which cater to students with additional needs — claim the school system is not doing enough to ensure students and staff have both a healthy and safe place to learn.

One half of the Blair G. Ewing Center on Avery Road in Rockville has been home to one alternative learning school known by staff as “Avery Road.” The school is one of three that serves students who have behavioral issues or other learning difficulties that require they be removed from their prior public school.

At the beginning of this school year, a second school, known as “Cloverleaf” in Germantown, relocated to the vacant side of the Blair Ewing facility. Two staff members who spoke with WTOP said they arrived to find mold and even warnings about asbestos.

“When we first came in, we had visible mold on ceiling tiles and walls and floors. We had leaks in some of the bathrooms that dripped and flowed down the wall when it rains,” said one teacher WTOP will refer to as “Teacher A.”..

Violence, mold, asbestos: Staffers at Montgomery Co. alternative school voice safety concerns - WTOP News

Arrest of Poolesville High School (PHS) student last week and connection to Clarksburg High School

Poolesville High School Com... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...

NEW: MoCo Police responded to Blair G. Ewing Center in Rockville on Tuesday for a student with a loaded gun, sources tell me. The school serves as an alternative learning center for students within Montgomery County Public Schools.

NEW: MoCo Police responded to Blair G. Ewing Center in Rockville on Tuesday for a student with a loaded gun, sources tell me.

The school serves as an alternative learning center for students within Montgomery County Public Schools.

I've contacted MCPS seeking more information. pic.twitter.com/ItCFmAIALi

— Kevin Lewis (@KevinLewis7News) June 10, 2022

 https://wjla.com/news/local/montgomery-county-public-schools-blair-ewing-center-student-brought-handgun-ammunition-bullets-found-police-sro-resource-officers

Superintendent Met with County Executive about Bus Depot

That's all we can tell you. 

The Superintendent gave the Board of Education a report about his meeting with the County Executive at the Closed Session Board of Education meeting on May 21, 2018. 

The Superintendent and Board of Education do not want the public to know anything about what was discussed by the Superintendent and County Executive Ike Leggett.

MCPS teacher suspended from work at the Blair G. Ewing Center, in Silver Spring, a school with programs for students with academic and behavioral problems.

A Maryland public school teacher faces robbery charges after police say she chatted up two men at a bar, learned they were in the jewelry business and lured them into a parking garage where minutes later a masked gunman appeared.

“Give me the watches,” he said, making off with time pieces valued at $6,000 and $8,450, according to court records filed Tuesday.

The events, as described in the court records, unfolded in and around the Old Town Pour House in Gaithersburg in the early morning July 15. The teacher, Lakeisha Burrison, 33, was arrested this week and remains jailed on no bond status.

She has been suspended from work at the Blair G. Ewing Center, in Silver Spring, a school with programs for students with academic and behavioral problems. Burrison had been a teacher and recently held the title of a community and career liaison, according to Derek Turner, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Public School System. She joined the system in November 2014, Turner said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/court-documents-teacher-befriended-bar-patrons-lured-them-to-armed-robbery/2017/08/02/6c891378-7773-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html?utm_term=.67c765f8ce3f#comments

Overflow crowd says no to bus depot at Blair Ewing site on Avery Road

It was standing-room-only last night [September 8th] at the Bauer Drive Community Recreation Center, as residents from Rockville, Aspen Hill, and other neighborhoods near the Blair Ewing Center turned out to oppose a potential school bus depot at that school site on Avery Road. Citizen association leaders, activists, and a handful of elected officials were in attendance, and unified in one message to Montgomery County officials - no bus depot at Ewing, which also has a public park, and is adjacent to the environmentally-sensitive Rock Creek watershed.

The meeting was moderated by Aspen Hill Civic Association President Jamison Adcock, who fought this battle to save Blair Ewing from demolition along with a citizen coalition once before, just a couple of years ago.

"This whole issue

is a mess"

Last night's meeting was a success in terms of the objective for holding it - to clearly demonstrate the strength of the community opposition to a depot at the Ewing site. But citizens are still very much in the dark as to what the County's next move will be on the depot site selection, as well as the specifics on the secretive deal the County worked out with a developer to redevelop the existing bus depot in Shady Grove...

http://www.rockvillenights.com/2016/09/overflow-crowd-says-no-to-bus-depot-at.html

Huge Turnout to Stop Bus Depot on Avery Road

Although 150 chairs had been set up in the Bauer Drive Community Recreation Center for a meeting to discuss the plan to tear down the Blair Ewing Center and Mark Twain Athletic Park on Avery Road to make way for a school bus depot, many more were needed for a standing room only crowd.
Community members were concerned about the process which Montgomery County would use to make a decision regarding a site for a bus depot. Pointing out that when people showed up about a recommendation for the use of the site on Westmore Avenue at a Planning Board meeting, $12 million had already been spent to purchase the property before a decision was made on the appropriateness of the site...

 http://www.rockvilleview.com/huge-turnout-to-stop-bus-depot-on-avery-road/

Tonight: Community Mtg to Discuss Demo of School and Field for use as Bus Parking Lot 6:30 PM Bauer Drive Community Rec Cen

Ewing school and field

TONIGHT:

 

Community meeting in opposition to putting a school bus depot at 14501 Avery Road in Rockville, MD. 

 

As you may know, this would result in the demolition of a school (The Blair Ewing Center) and a park (The Mark Twain Athletic Fields), snarl traffic along the Norbeck Road/Route 28 corridor, and cause severe environmental damage to Rock Creek Park.  It would also waste MCPS's resources that could be better spent on schools and reducing the number of portables currently in use.  Indeed, Montgomery County may well lose money on relocating the current bus depot from Crabbs Branch Way in Derwood.

County Executive Leggett has not released the details of his bus depot relocation plan yet, but we have heard through various channels that the Avery Road site is still very much in play.  We intend to fight putting bus depot on Avery Road, and demand real smart planning instead.

The meeting is being held by 

 

CAARD (the Coalition Against the Avery Road bus Depot), and will be held on 

Thursday, September 8, from 6:30 – 8:00pm at:

    The Bauer Drive Community Recreation Center

    14625 Bauer Drive

    Rockville, MD 20853

"Where are you going to put the students?" #ewingcenter #busdepot

...Jamison Adcock, president of the Aspen Hill Civic Association, has spoken out against relocating buses to the site for the last two years as part of the "Save Blair Ewing" group.

"Less anybody just think this is NIMBYism, the people who are opposed to this, they're from all over the area," said Adcock. "This is people scattered all over the place."

He cited environmental, traffic, educational and cost concerns for opposing the site. 

"Number one, the fact that it wasn't pulled speaks volumes to me," said Adcock. "That's a terrible location for an industrial use such as a bus depot. It's in the Rock Creek watershed. It's 400 feet from the creek. It's on top of steep hills dropping into the creek."

For the traffic, he noted the two-lane road is windy like a country road.

Meanwhile, the Ewing Center is one of six secondary alternative school programs run by Montgomery County Public Schools, located in a wooded area northeast of Norbeck Road and east of the RedGate Golf Course.

"Where are you going to put the students?" said Adcock...

http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/newsx/local/item/3796-ewing-center-now-in-spotlight-for-bus-depot

Leggett Still Wants to Tear Down Entire School for School Bus Depot

Montgomery County officials are considering more than two sites for relocating hundreds of school buses from the Shady Grove bus depot but they’re only publically acknowledging two of them by name.

Department of General Services Director David Dise said there “may be interim sites” established for the buses but the County Council has asked staff to not select any sites until they decide on a permanent location for the buses, none of which will be named until they’re presented to the County Executive between late July and early September.

According to DGS Deputy Director Greg Ossont, he and other County staffers “need to do our due diligence” while considering sites under the new criteria established by the County Council.

 “We are looking at other sites right now,” said Dise, adding DGS officials have to look at the net buildable area for different sites as well as their environmental impact.

Dise and Ossont said Monday the Blair G. Ewing Center on Avery Road in Rockville and the former Oaks Landfill in Laytonsville are still both potential sites for moving up to 250 buses from the Jeremiah Park location.

“There is no one single site to accommodate all 450 buses,” said DGS Director David Dise.

He said County officials have so far considered more than 200 sites for relocating the buses but have ruled out most of them.

Rockville Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton said the lack of disclosure about other sites under consideration “speaks to the greater problem of transparency and lack thereof.”...

 http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/newsx/local/item/3836-county-considers-dividing-bus-depot-into-two

City of Rockville: Comprehensive Overview of MCPS Shady Grove Bus Depot Replacement Saga

The City of Rockville, City Manager has put together a comprehensive overview of the events that have occurred in the last few years concerning County Executive Ike Leggett's attempt to move the MCPS Shady Grove bus depot to make way for developers to build housing.  The City Manager's memo discusses the four most recent sites that have been proposed for some or all of the Shady Grove bus fleet and includes concerns that have been brought up by the public.

...Following completion of their presentation MCPS opened the meeting to public comment and questions. All of the speakers voiced opposition to the project and expressed several concerns related to the proposal. The following is not an exhaustive list of all concerns expressed, but is a summary of general themes presented:

• noise impacts associated with the operation of the proposed bus depot at this location, given its adjacency to residential uses;

• health concerns given the concentration of over 100 buses at a single location and resultant air quality impacts;

• traffic impacts on the intersection of Mannakee Street and MD355;

• multiple buses utilizing neighborhood streets in the vicinity of the proposed depot;

• impact upon the adjacent historic district and Carver High School building; and,

• incompatibility of the proposed bus depot with the surrounding neighborhood.

MCPS staff indicating that there would be a follow-up meeting on the subject, however no date was provided...

 https://rockmail.rockvillemd.gov/clerk/egenda.nsf/d5c6a20307650f4a852572f9004d38b8/d473390b99a92f7c85257fb1005b0778?OpenDocument

In search of a new home . . . 100 MCPS Buses

Subject: COMMUNITY MEETING Re BUS DEPOT TUESDAY NIGHT 3/22

Hello friends, 
You may be aware that MCPS and the County Council have plans to place 100 buses on county property fronting 355 at Mannakee Street. The community is strongly opposed to this. Currently both BOE and the County Council are passing the buck to each other on this and residents are being left in the dark. 

You can find some background here:

http://www.rockvilleview.com/community-protests-bus-depot-at-carver

We are holding our first community meeting on this issue on Tuesday, March 22, at 7 p.m. at Montgomery College in classroom 216 in the Technical Center Building (TC), room 216. The TC building is in the rear left corner of the campus.  Parking will be allowed without permits in Student Lots 5,6,7, or 8 which are close to (and behind) the TC building.  You must park in one of those STUDENT lots and not in any Faculty/Staff lots.  The lots are shown on the map as well, highlighted in yellow. 

Thanks in advance.

March 1st: Blair Ewing Center Construction Update

Ewing Center

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is scheduled to update the feasibility study for the Alternative Education Programs at the Blair G. Ewing Center (14501 Avery Rd. in Rockville, MD).

There will be a public information meeting on Tuesday March 1, 2016, at 7pm where the updated concept plans for the Alternative Education Programs at Blair Ewing Center will be presented. Everyone present at the public information meeting will have the opportunity to hear about the updated plans and provide input about the proposed project.

The meeting will be at the Blair G. Ewing Center (14501 Avery Road in Rockville, MD 20853) onTuesday March 1st from 7:00pm - 8:30pm.

More information is available from Barbara_M_Ruppel@mcpsmd.org, or from the Division of Long-Range Planning (240-314-4700.

Sign language interpreter services will be provided upon request with notice as far in advance as possible, but no less than 5 business days prior to the event. If you need this service or other services/aids to participate in this event, please email Barbara Ruppel, administrative secretary at Barbara_M_Ruppel@mcpsmd.org; TTY users should call Maryland Relay (711).

MCPS Bus Slides Off Icy Road in Rockville

A Montgomery County school bus slid off an icy road in Rockville, Maryland, Tuesday morning. 

Police say the accident happened on Avery Road near Norbeck Road at 7:30 a.m. 

No one was injured when the bus slid into a guardrail along the icy road. The bus did suffer some damage, according to police...

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/School-Bus-Slides-Off-Icy-Road-in-Rockville-367336161.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_DCBrand

Council committee recommends lower MCPS operating, capital budgets

...The school board asked for $84.7 million above maintenance of effort, according to school system spokesman Dana Tofig.
Incorporating proposals from Leggett and the school board to pull money from various sources, the budget plan the Education Committee recommended still leaves a gap.
The budget would pull about $33.2 million from the district’s fund balance. Another $27.2 million would come from the Consolidated Other Post Employment Benefits Trust to pay some of the school system’s retiree health costs.
The district also would reduce a contribution to its pension plan by $10 million and use the money elsewhere.
On the capital budget side, the Education Committee endorsed a plan the school system created that sits about $210 million below what the school board requested in November for its fiscal 2015-20 Capital Improvements Program.
The board asked for an amended capital program totaling $1.75 billion. Its request was $223.3 million higher than the previously approved program of $1.53 billion...

...The district also would not add a requested $32 million bus depot project. Instead, the committee recommended adding $700,000 for planning work as school and county officials search for opportunities to relocate the depot...

 http://www.gazette.net/article/20150501/NEWS/150509842/1124/council-committee-recommends-lower-mcps-operating-capital-budgets&template=gazette

County school bus depots and the Rockville follies

One of the most common stories in local news for the last few weeks is the drama surrounding the relocation of the county school bus depot.

Currently residing in the Shady Grove corridor, where it has been for years, the county school system has to move the bus depot by the first of next year because the county is trying to develop the area around the Shady Grove Metro for retail outlets and suitable living space.

Part of the so-called “Smart Growth” move to encourage such development around the county’s red-line Metro stops, the county has been planning this move for years.

And that, sadly, is the problem.

The county has planned additional development which will further stress its infrastructure without taking care of the infrastructure it already needs to handle the development it already has.

The school system is stuck right in the middle – between angry residents who don’t want the bus depot anywhere near them – and the county council which has punted the issue down the road without addressing it adequately....

 http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1926%3Acounty-school-bus-depots-and-the-rockville-follies&Itemid=750

Tour the Public School Building that the BOE wants to Demolish for Bus Depot

Ewing School

Would you like to visit the Blair G. Ewing Center?
If so, now is your chance!
MCPS is arranging two tour dates so residents can see the school for themselves:

- Wednesday (tomorrow) April 29, 2015 at 2:30pm
and
- Thursday May 7, 2015 at 3:30pm

To participate, visitors need to sign in at the main entrance. The Ewing Center's address is:
14501 Avery Road
Rockville, MD 20853