MCPS rep a no-show at Olney Civic Assocation Meeting

No explanation and no apology issued by MCPS

Community leaders and residents from Olney, Brookville, Sandy Spring, and upper Rockville were left without a keynote speaker at the Greater Olney Civic Association (GOCA) meeting this evening when no one from MCPS showed up for a 30 minute presentation about the solar power plant proposed for the MCPS site on Cashell Road.

No one from MCPS phoned or emailed anyone from GOCA to advise that the MCPS representative would not be present.

The meeting went on without the speaker, but at the end of the meeting, the president of one of the HOAs adjacent to the site announced that his HOA was considering litigation over the proposed solar power plant.

Community members had requested that a Board of Education member attend an MCPS meeting held in November 2015 about the proposed solar power plant, but no one from the BOE was willing to attend.  Only a few community members had been advised in advance by MCPS about the November meeting.

BOE Handing Over Closed Schools and Vacant Land to County for Future Use as Schools #forgotAboutSolarPanels

MCPS Planner at work.*

Here is a perfect example of how Board of Education long range planning is based on which way the wind is blowing on any given day.  

In the letter shown below from MCPS we learn that the Board of Education is now offering up closed school sites and vacant school land for use as future school sites in Montgomery County planning.

That means that any organization currently using a closed school site should be prepared to vacate the property in the future.  For example, the Montgomery County Health Center on Dennis Avenue in Silver Spring should get ready to move when the school is needed back by MCPS.  In addition, the Washington Waldorf School, Acorn Hill School, Interages, The Woods Academy, Yeshiva of Greater Washington, Centers for the Handicapped, Clara Barton Day Care Center, The Ivymount School, Crossway Community, YMCA and all of the other users of closed public schools should be prepared to find new locations in the future.

What is amazing about this letter is that the Board of Education seems to be completely forgetting that they are in the process of handing over 60 ACRES of public school land to a private company for use as solar panel installations.  

At the three public meetings on these open pieces of BOE land, the MCPS position was that these 60 ACRES would not be needed for public school use in the next 20 years.  

Yet, at the same time, the Board of Education is offering up these vacant public school sites for use in County planning over the next 20 years. 

   2015 December 10 Letter Berliner Roger Et Al Mstr Plan Collab by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

*Photo Credit: New York Public Library