“Just the beginning”: Dismayed MCPS families vow to fight decision to move Wootton High
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Ashlyn CampbellMarch 30, 2026 11:36 a.m.
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Thursday’s vote by the Montgomery County school board to overhaul Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) programming model and shift attendance areas – including moving Thomas S. Wootton High to Gaithersburg – left many community members feeling let down, they told Bethesda Today.
“My disappointment is that the board is looking at this in short-term solutions, not long- term benefit to the county overall,” Rockville City Councilmember and Wootton parent Adam Van Grack said outside the county school board headquarters in Rockville after the vote on MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s recommendation regarding the district’s boundary studies.
The dismay came after the 7-1 vote that approved new school attendance zones and a change to regional programming for high schools – two moves that will result in sweeping changes for the district. Taylor’s recommendation was the culmination of the district’s two boundary studies and an analysis of high school programming. Board member Julie Yang opposed the decision.
The programming and attendance zone revisions are set to go into effect for the 2027-2028 school year. With both initiatives generating growing controversy in the weeks leading to the vote, the board’s decision seems set to further enflame passions and to also likely result in legal action.
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By Thursday night, local advocacy group Community and Education Policy Alliance (CEPA), formed recently to fight against the Wootton move known as Option H, announced in a statement that it had retained a law firm to “assist in exploring all available legal options to challenge the implementation of ‘Modified Option H,’ including claims arising from procedural deficiencies, inequitable impacts on students and families, and potential violations of state and federal law.”
Elisa Sukhobok, a representative for CEPA, told Bethesda Today on Thursday that the board’s decision was not unexpected.
“I’m extremely disappointed, but not surprised,” Sukhobok said. “It is the final vote. It is not the final decision. It is just the beginning of our fight.”
Prior to the vote, a coalition of MCPS parents, including CEPA, had asked the school district to pause a decision on Taylor’s recommendation, citing concerns about the data used by the district and a lack of community engagement and transparency in the ongoing boundary studies. The school board chose not to pause, voting on all of the options in Taylor’s recommendation as a block that called for just one vote by the board to approve the changes.
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In explaining her vote, board member Rita Montoya said the programming changes were necessary to improve equitable access to all students.
“So why do I support the idea of expanding access through a regional program model? Because Black and brown students deserve access to these programs as well,” Montoya said during the board’s meeting. “A vote against this model is a vote against perpetuating the racist access to these programs that has been going on for quite some time.”
Supporters and opponents of the recommendation attended the meeting. People clapped and cheered, with many holding signs in protest. Some yelled in protest when Montoya and other board members shared their perspectives on the vote. Following the vote, some of those in the audience “shame” as they left the meeting room.
Outside, community members milled about discussing the changes.
Van Grack on Thursday after the vote said that data shows the county is growing – despite assertions from MCPS that enrollment is decreasing, leading to the need to shift some school boundaries.
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Many in the Wootton community view the vote to move the high school to the upcoming Crown High in Gaithersburg as breaking up their school community, such as Sam Huang, a parent of former MCPS students. MCPS has said the move is necessary due to declining enrollment and the costs of fixing the aging school, which would then be used as a holding school for others schools undergoing construction and renovation.
The board is “only thinking about the money issue,” Huang said, noting that Wootton is a prestigious school.
Those outside of the Wootton community who are waiting on desperately needed renovations at their schools also expressed frustration with the vote.
“This is what I was expecting coming in after seeing especially the last work [session] meeting” of the school board, Col. Zadok Magruder High School PTA President Dan Silva told Bethesda Today. “I believe there are other paths for [Magruder] based on private conversations, but, you know, they need to start publicly acknowledging what they are, so that we can start to advocate and fight for that funding.”
Moving forward, Van Grack and others said there was time for the district to change course.
“We’re going to have a new county executive,” Van Grack told Bethesda Today, referring to this year’s November election. “We’re going to have a new county council, we’re going to have a new board of education, and there still can be an opportunity to make this right.”
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine