Parents, community urge board to reject 'Option H' that would relocate Wootton High School

Dozens of parents, students and local officials on Thursday urged the Montgomery County Board of Education to reject “Option H,” a boundary and facilities proposal that would close or permanently relocate Thomas Wootton High School and move its students to Crown High School.

The public commenters — including PTA leaders, Wootton parents and local officials — said the plan was rushed, lacked a thorough transportation and risk analysis and would fracture established feeder patterns that include Robert Frost Middle School and Frost’s shared campus. “Closing Wootton would rip the heart out of a community that has grown around it for decades,” said Alex Koch, a Wootton cluster parent.

Speakers also raised equity concerns. Joe Williams, who described himself as an education‑policy researcher, noted Wootton is the only high school in the area with an Asian‑majority student body and said closing it without a formal equity review would “raise an equity flag.” Multiple speakers said the county’s facilities planning had repeatedly delayed repairs to Wootton and that the proposal appeared to treat chronic deferred maintenance as a reason to displace a functioning school.

Parents detailed practical impacts if students were sent to Crown: longer bus rides for Damascus‑area students, unsafe merges onto I‑270 during rush hour, loss of walkability for hundreds of neighborhood students and higher transportation costs. “This creates cross‑area travel instead of local circulation and directly contradicts your stated goals of reducing transportation time, cost and risk,” one parent said. Another parent urged immediate air‑quality monitoring if construction occurs on site.

Rockville Mayor and City Council members joined speakers in asking the board to keep Wootton on Wooton Parkway. A Rockville City Council speaker described the proposal as “a careless shortcut based on incomplete data” and warned that moving a fully utilized community school because of deferred repairs would create a precedent that threatened other schools.

Board members thanked the community for its turnout and reminded speakers that no decisions had been made and that the boundary survey remains open. President Rivera Oven said the board is listening and expects further discussion in the weeks ahead.

What’s next: The board is continuing its boundary review process, including public input and survey results. No formal vote on Option H was taken at Thursday’s work session.