Exclusive: See Jack Smith's New Cell Tower for Old Georgetown Road - Woodward High School Reopening

The Parents' Coalition has obtained a copy of the construction plans for the new cell tower at the Woodward High School Reopening site at 11211 Old Georgetown Road in Rockville.  

On Tuesday, May 11th, Superintendent Jack Smith attempted to get the Board of Education to approve this new cell tower.  However, Superintendent Smith's Memorandum to the Board of Education was factually incorrect and was pulled from the Agenda prior to any Board discussion or vote. 

Superintendent Jack Smith's Memorandum to the Board of Education did not include the plans for the new cell tower or any images showing what the cell tower might look like.  

The Board of Education was poised to approve this new cell tower sight unseen. 

Below is an image showing approximately where we believe the new cell tower would be placed based on the construction plans.  

This new cell tower would be toward the front of the new Woodward High School building (after demolition and construction) on Old Georgetown Road.  The new cell tower will be 75 feet high and taller than the new high school being built at this site.  There will be a 40' x 40' compound around the base of the cell tower. 

We have created this image based on the plans submitted to Montgomery County for the construction of this cell tower.  This image is our best guess as to where the cell tower would be located.  

Obviously, Superintendent Jack Smith would be in the best position to release an accurate image of the location and size of this new cell tower, but to date an official image has not been made public.   

This image is taken from the Montgomery County Board of Education's presentation of the plans for the new high school at the Woodward High School site on Old Georgetown Road in Rockville.  

We have added to the image a cell tower in the approximate location shown in the construction plans. The image shows the front of the building as it would be seen from Old Georgetown Road.

Woodward High School Site has 1.75 Acre Parcel For Expansion

This week the Montgomery County Board of Education discussed the Initial Concepts for the re-opening of the Woodward High School site.  MCPS staff seem to think the site is constrained and will not be able to accomodate a stadium.

However, MCPS staff and the Board of Education have failed to include the entire school site in their planning.  The Woodward High School site includes a 1.75 acre parcel on Edson Road.  Neighbors and advocates fought hard back in 2004 to keep that parcel and two others open for future school use.  

January 2004:  “All of our schools are overcrowded,” said Janis Sartucci, cluster coordinator for the Churchill PTA. “We have enough trailers on the ground to make a new elementary.” Sartucci added that Cabin John Middle School splits its graduates between Churchill and Wootton high schools.#“We don’t know what the future holds for this cluster other than growth,” Sartucci said. “I don’t think were at the point where we can say ‘we’ll never need it for a new school.’”   The future is now.  

The red dot shows the location of the unused Edson Lane parcel.  This is land that was dedicated for public school use and can be reclaimed for that use today.

From MD land records. 

Location of unused, dedicated public school land shown in red.
MCPS Initial Concept drawing presented to Board of Ed.