Significant Damage to New MCPS Elementary School #3yearsold

Clean-up crews set to work through night at Silver Spring school

Clean-up crews planned to work through the night Wednesday to reopen a Silver Spring elementary school that was closed for a day after a flooding problem led to significant damage in the building.
Montgomery school officials said families at Flora M. Singer Elementary School would be notified as soon as an official decision is made about whether classes will be held on Thursday.
Schools spokesman Dana Tofig said a coupler on a pipe broke, resulting in the water problem. There was no immediate cost estimate of the damage.
Singer’s kindergarten orientation, which was scheduled for Thursday and Friday, has been rescheduled to May 28 and May 29, according to a message that principal Kyle Heatwole sent to school families.

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/clean-up-crews-set-to-work-through-night-at-silver-spring-school/2015/05/06/ea124f6c-f444-11e4-bcc4-e8141e5eb0c9_story.html

Bethesda: Outdoor classroom for you!

Silver Spring? Tricked and gets parking lot instead.  Maybe the Board of Education will make it up to the Silver Spring school by giving them a nice cell phone tower.

Gazette:  Westbrook Elementary in Bethesda to gain new gym, classrooms

...The $13 million expansion, which is being managed by HESS Construction and Engineering Services, also will more than double on-site parking at the school, modify the bus loop to accommodate more buses, and replace aging playground equipment.
To facilitate outdoor classes, the courtyard will feature a tiered seating area built into the ground, said Principal Rebecca Jones. Construction began about three and a half months ago...

MCPS Lies Through Planning Process, Robs Kids of Basketball Court and Outdoor Amphitheater

Through out the multi-year planning process for the modernization of the old McKenney Hills Elementary School site MCPS staff represented that a parking lot at a neighboring pool would be used for the new school.  MCPS had no agreement to use that lot. 
Weeks before the school is set to open, MCPS finally admits that they can't use the neighboring parking lot.  MCPS staff pave over the planned basketball court and outdoor amphitheater for parking without taking this site plan change to the Board of Education for approval.
Silver Spring loses again...

MCPS opts for parking lot, eliminates basketball court at Flora M. Singer Elementary
Though the new Flora M. Singer Elementary School in Silver Spring will open on time for the upcoming school year, the county was forced to eliminate a proposed basketball court to make way for the construction of a 33-car parking lot, county school officials said.... 

http://www.gazette.net/article/20120807/NEWS/708079941/1007/news&source=RSS&template=gazette?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

PTA Says Avoid Retaining Walls

From the Churchill Cluster PTA public comment to the Board of Education on November 14, 2011:

...School Security Systems - New schools need to have a Safety and Security
Representative in the planning process.  Following the construction of Bells Mill ES and
Cabin John MS, it has become apparent that a Safety and Security Representative
should be placed on all future new school construction and planning boards. Schools
would be able to avoid the following concerns: 

• The stairwells and many spaces in Cabin John MS are all glass.  Although very
attractive, during an evacuation due to severe weather or criminal activity the
stairwells are left unprotected and vulnerable to the situation. 

• At Cabin John MS large walls with approximately 15 foot drops were built.  These high walls in proximity to both athletic fields and walkways, should be avoided in future designs.  

• All schools have the need of security cameras and a security specialist will be able
to incorporate the most efficient use of a system in the planning of site...

McKenney Hills Elementary School Site Back Before Planning Board

EXCERPTS OF PLANNING BOARD AGENDA FOR THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2011

9:00 a.m.  PLANNING BOARD MEETING
* Item 1  -  Consent Agenda includes...
ADOPTION OF RESOLUTIONS (of past decisions)
-  Mess Property Preliminary Plan
-  Kensington Heights Preliminary Plan
-  A-305 Snowden Farm Parkway Water Quality Plan

RECORD PLATS
-  DAMASCUS, Moxley Estates, 2 lots in RDT and R-200 Zones, on southeast corner 
of Bethesda Church Rd. and Clarksburg Rd.
-  KENSINGTON, Kensington Heights, 2 lots in R-60 Zone, on north side of Decatur 
Ave. 100 ft. east of Pearson St.
-  BETHESDA, Oakmont, 1 lot in R-60 Zone, on south side of Oak Pl. 875 ft. west 
of Old Georgetown rd.
-  CHEVY CHASE, West Chevy Chase, 1 lot in R-60 Zone, on north side of Drummond 
Ave. 2300 ft. west of Wisconsin Ave.
-  BETHESDA, Rosedale Park, 1 lot in R-60 Zone, on north side of Maple Ave. 75 
ft. east of Maryland Ave.

OTHER CONSENT ITEMS
-  Corrected Resolution for 4900 Fairmont (in Bethesda CBD) Project Plan

APPROVAL OF MINUTES of April 21, 2011 meeting

Item 2  -  Reconsideration request for the Final Forest Conservation Plan for 
Downcounty Consortium School #29 (McKenney Hills Elementary School)

3  -  Great Seneca Science Corridor (GSSC) Sector Plan Implementation Advisory 
Committee - appoint new members

*4  -  SILVER SPRING, Chelsea School site, request for rezoning (Local Map 
Amendment G-892) from R-60 to RT-15 for 77 dwelling units, including 76 
townhouses and 1 existing structure, on 5.25 acres located at 630 Ellsworth Dr., 
between Ellsworth and Pershing Dr. along Vale Rd.--public testimony will be 
limited to two hours (action needed for hearing by Hearing Examiner on 5/26/11)
[NOTE:Ex parte communications with Planning Board or County Council members on 
this issue is prohibited.]

1:00 p.m.  LUNCH

2:30 p.m.  PLANNING BOARD MEETING Continues
Item 5  -  Kensington Fire Station #25 - Forest Conservation Plan and Mandatory 
Referral for property in PRC Zone on northeast corner of Connecticut Ave. and 
Bel Pre Rd. in Aspen Hill

6  -  Weller Road Elementary School Modernization - Forest Conservation Plan and 
Mandatory Referral for property in R-60 Zone on north side of Weller Rd. west of 
Georgia Ave., between Connecticut Ave. and Valleywood Dr., in Glenmont

7  -  Roundtable Discussion includes Planning Director's Report, and the 
Operating Funds and Enterprise Funds 9 Month Financial Reports including 
projections to June 30, 2011
_________________
* Ex parte communication on these items is prohibited with any member of the 
Planning Board. Inquiries or communications will instead be redirected to the 
appropriate staff person.
__________________
Unless otherwise noted, public testimony allowed on individual items (except 
briefings and discussions).

Listen to live audio feed or view live video feed of Planning Board sessions 
over the internet with link on their website.  The Planning Board Viewer works 
best with use of Microsoft's Silverlight free plug-in.  Information on 
Silverlight (and link to free software download) available on this webpage:
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/faq/#sys-req

To view entire Planning Board agenda, go to www.montgomeryplanningboard.org --in 
menu on left side of screen, click on "agenda".  The Board's agenda is now 
posted as an HTML document, which does not require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.

Sign up online to testify on an item before the Planning Board, up to 10 days 
prior to the hearing, by going to http://www.montgomeryapps.org:80/planning_board/testify.asp 
, or call 301-495-4600 before 4:00 p.m. the day before the meeting.  On the day 
of the meeting, see the clerk in the auditorium to sign up.

NOTE--CHANGED PROCEDURES: Written comments must be received in the Chair's 
office at least 24 hours in advance of the hearing date (referencing the hearing 
date and item) to be reviewed by the Board and included in the official record 
of the hearing.  Written comments received within 24 hours before a hearing will 
be placed in the file, but will not be considered by the Board or included in 
the official record.  Copies of testimony presented orally or copies of 
correspondence will not be distributed at the hearing.

Staff reports for upcoming agenda items are posted online--ten days prior to 
meeting when Board will discuss--in PDF format, which requires Adobe Acrobat 
Reader to view.
_____________________
-Excerpts compiled and distributed by Jim Humphrey

Weast's Supersized McKenney Hills Elementary School

What does it look like when a neighborhood elementary school for students is replaced with a supersized elementary school for 740 students? Take a look. 


Here is the original 29,278 sq. ft. McKenney Hills Elementary School built to hold around 350 students that sat on this site for decades (image on left). That building was demolished and a new 95,475 sq. ft. building is going to be built in its place (image on right). Superintendent Jerry Weast has said the new building was going to be built up. Well, the new building is actually going up and out compared to the old building!


Now you can see why the Board of Education demanded that parts of the old forest be cleared to support Superintendent Weast's new supersized elementary school. This is going to be one large elementary school! 

Only Boards Can Down This Tree

Apology to Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall henceforth see,

a schoolhouse where there was a tree.

A tree that stood for eighty years

and heard the laughing children’s cheers.

A tree that braved the Winter’s cold:

stood tall and firm while growing old.

A tree that in the Summer breeze,

would  keep us cool and make us sneeze.

A tree that lasted all this time,

and prompted me to change a rhyme.

This little thought from me to thee,

that only Boards can down this tree.

~Jim Zink 

Supersizing McKenney Hills Elementary School

You have seen the trees that are coming down to make way for the supersized elementary school being built on the 60 year old McKenney Hills Elementary School site.  Now see how the McKenney Hills enrollment will stack up next to the rest of the elementary schools in the county when the building is complete. 

This chart shows the enrollment for all 132 elementary schools in MCPS. (Each line represents one elementary school.)  The average enrollment for all MCPS elementary schools for 2010 was 501 students.  


The blue arrow on the chart shows the line for the average enrollment of 501. 


The red arrow on the chart shows where the new McKenney Hills Elementary School will fall based on the coming enrollment of 640, as now stated by MCPS.


The new McKenney Hills Elementary School building will actually be able to hold over 700 students under state of Maryland guidelines. 

RIP: Silver Spring Trees

Thanks to Jerry Weast, Christopher Barclay, Shirley Brandman, Patricia O'Neill, Judy Docca, Phil Kauffman, Mike Durso and Laura Berthiaume, Silver Spring is saying good-bye to some very old trees in a significant forest.  These pictures were taken this week at the 60 year old McKenney Hills Elementary School site where the previous elementary school for under 500 students is being supersized to hold 700+ students.


Their lasting legacy to Silver Spring shown in pictures.  

Gazette: Silver Spring elementary school plan still causing controversy

Forest preservation group considering legal action if school system doesn't decrease environmental impact

By Jeanette Der Bedrosian | Staff Writer

As Montgomery County Public Schools officials prepare to break ground on the site of a new elementary school in Silver Spring, a neighborhood feud over the forest conservation plan for the school keeps heating up...
..."You have people literally scouring and counting trees and asking questions about water pipes," she said. "It blew me away, to tell you the truth.''
Members of the McKenney Hills Forest Preservation Group don't agree. The group got the school system to sign an eight-point environmental compromise that would do things such as reroute a stormwater pipe and use boulders instead of pipes to prevent erosion. But they said the school system went against the agreement's intent by increasing the number of trees set to be removed from eight trees with diameters of more than 30 inches to 15 trees of that size.
They say they hope to engage MCPS in a dialogue to make the school greener and reduce the number of trees that may be removed. But if they aren't successful, they're prepared to seek legal action, according to a statement sent to The Gazette by preservation group member Jack Gleason...

Fox5: Silver Spring Group Wants to Preserve McKenney Forest Trees

Silver Spring Group Wants to Preserve McKenney Forest Trees: MyFoxDC.com

http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/maryland/silver-spring-group-wants-to-preserve-mckenney-forest-trees-030911

Sold out by the County School Board

Conservation Montgomery's report on the pending loss of 90 to 120 trees in the McKenney Hills forest.

Cut List: The McKenney Hills Trees Slated to be Removed under Board of Ed Plan

What's all this talk about trees being cut down at an elementary school site? Here's the story. For decades an elementary school stood on the McKenney Hills site in Silver Spring. In 2009, the Board of Education demolished that building. The Board wants to build a new school on the site. But this time they want a building 3 times the size of the previous building. 


While the previous building co-existed with the forest, the new building plans call for the removal of dozens and dozens of trees. The estimate from a neighborhood group is that over 90 trees could be removed. 


What trees? Well, to the left is a list of trees with either remove or request for permission to remove in the future from page 9 of the Final Forest Conservation Plan. Below is a list of trees by type from the Final Forest Conservation Plan (Attachment C in the packet.) See the highlighting on the list when the tree is listed as "removed."

Imminent Destruction of McKenney Hills Forest and Continuing Efforts to Save It

McKenney_Hills_Forest_MCPS'_Plans_For_Destruction_+_Our_Response_03.02.11

Wayne Goldstein's advocacy to preserve the trees next to McKenney Hills Elementary School site

WWWD?


What would Wayne do? 


What would community activist Wayne Goldstein do if he thought that the forest that he advocated to preserve might be in jeopardy?  


Will the Board of Education plans for tripling the size of the school on the McKenney Hills site adversely impact the Legacy Open Space forest that Mr. Goldstein sought to preserve for future generations? 


What would Mr. Goldstein say today if he knew that less than 4 years after this forest was designated as a protected area that Board of Education plans could cause the destruction of 90 to 120 trees on the slopes that lead to the forest he worked to preserve, eroding the soil and placing the protected forest in serious jeopardy? 


Mr. Goldstein was a tireless advocate on land use issues including the preservation of green spaces in the county. One of the properties that Mr. Goldstein worked to preserve is the forest that runs along part of the McKenney Hills Elementary School site in Silver Spring. 


On December 20, 2007, the Montgomery County Planning Board approved the plan to purchase 7.15 acres of forest on the border of the McKenney Hills Elementary School site through the county's Legacy Open Space program. The cost to the County of this land was $1,285,000.  Mr. Goldstein was at the Planning Board hearing to make sure the purchase was approved. 


Here is the audio of the Planning Board voting to approve this purchase and the statement of the late Wayne Goldstein.  Click play:

$38,570 Report Trashed - Community Tricked

3/2/11 UPDATE: MCPS' Public Relations Department has now confirmed via a press release that the new McKenney Hills Elementary School will open with space for 640 students, not the 550 planned for in the Feasibility Study below (See page 1. Core capacity refers to the size of the gym and cafeteria to support student use at a future date. The future is now for this elementary school! 640 is the MCPS number, but under State capacity guidelines the new building will be able to support upwards of 700 students.) 


Classrooms that were shown as empty shells on the Feasibility Study below will now be built out under the new plans, thus increasing the classroom capacity of the new school building. Thanks to the MCPS PR Department for confirming that the Feasibility Study plans have been changed.


What's $38,570? Nothing to the Board of Education.


$38,570 is what the Board of Education spent on the June 2009 Feasibility Study shown below for the McKenney Hills Elementary School site.  (The document is in three parts, it's a big document! This document is not available on the MCPS website but was obtained via a Maryland Public Information Act request.)


The Feasibility Study that the Board of Education ordered called for an elementary school for 552 students and a 57,035 sq. ft.* building. Architecture, Inc. was to be paid $38,570 for this study. Meetings were held. (See the list of PTAs, neighbors, parents, community members and a Maryland State Department of Education official that met to plan this building in the Feasibility Study below.)  All those people were given Educational Specifications for the site that showed that the Board of Education was building a school with a student capacity of 550 for the McKenney Hills site. 


But they aren't. 


The Feasibility Study plans for the McKenney Hills site were tossed in the trash. 


A new architect was brought in and the elementary school was super-sized to hold upwards of 734 students in a 95,475 sq. ft. building!


The $38,570 Feasibility Study and the months of meetings and plans that went in to creating this report were discarded without a word from the Board of Education. 


The original McKenney Hills school building was 29,278 sq. ft. 


The Feasibility Study for this site called for planning for a school of 57,035 sq. ft.*


But the Board of Education is actually building a school that will be 95,475 sq. ft.


You can bet some trees are going to pay the price for these changes to the original school site, and that it will be quite a surprise for the neighbors that attended meetings to plan a 57,035 sq. ft.* school building for 550 students. 



*Per page A-6 of Feasibility Study under Educational Specifications for this project.


McKenney Hills Traffic Study (March 3, 2010) stated that the school will serve 640 students.


McKenneyHillsJune2009


Part 2 of McKenney Hills discarded Feasibility Study

Part 3 of McKenney Hills discarded Feasibility Study

87+/- year old trees to make way for super-sized school

The following comes to us from a member of the McKenney Hills Forest Conservation Group, which has devoted countless hours since September to save the forest surrounding the site of the former McKenney Hills Elementary School.  

MCPS, in a belated response to overcrowding at Oakland Terrace ES in Kensington and other elementary schools, designed a school for three times the number of students compared to the school that stood on the site (until they razed it to the ground last year).  As a consequence, MCPS had asked the M-NCPPC Planning Board for permission to expand the site by cutting 90 - 120 trees on slopes that M-NCPPC staff describes as "steep and highly erodible".  

If you have Google Earth on your computer, enter the location of the school (2600 Hayden Drive Silver Spring MD 20902) to see the site and surrounding forest, all of which belongs us, the citizens of Montgomery County.


The image in this blog post is of the McKenney Hills site taken from the location of the former school. The former school was demolished in 2009. The trees shown in this photograph are the ones along the part of the site that borders the Legacy Open Space land that the late Wayne Goldstein worked to protect.  


Here's an update on how the Board of Education tricked the community into thinking that a smaller school would be built on this site.

Reconsideration of Tree Agreement at McKenney Hills school site. Will MCPS be held to its agreement?

UPDATE: February 25, 2011 - The answer to this question is no. 


On Thursday, February 10, 2011, the Montgomery County Planning Board will take up a request for Reconsideration of the agreement reached to preserve the forest at the McKenney Hills school site in Silver Spring, Maryland.  Here is the letter from the McKenney Hills Forest Conservation Group on that issue. 

Carrier Letter Re Rubin Memo on FFCP + MOU 02.08.11

ABC7: Retaining Walls at School Site in Silver Spring

ABC 7 News

Retaining Walls at Key Middle School

On a previous post announcing the 6 surprise retaining walls planned for the McKenney Hills Elementary School site the Parents' Coalition received an anonymous tip that said, 


"MCPS was also not transparent in sharing its plans with the community to install the large retaining walls as part of the Key MS modernization. However, at Key there was a second issue of transparency: the reason for the retaining walls. 


At Key MCPS did not disclose its plan to make an extreme change in the school’s elevation and how this would impact the surrounding residents. Is this the case with the other MCPS schools that are getting retaining walls, too?"




Here are pictures of the retaining walls at Francis Scott Key Middle School in Silver Spring. And what incredible retaining walls these are! 




Take a good look at these walls at Key Middle School. This is what MCPS is now doing at school sites as the buildings are modernized. In addition to Key Middle School communities are seeing these massive retaining walls at Parkland Middle School, Cabin John Middle School, and in the plans for the McKenney Hills Elementary School.