MCPS has completed its comprehensive assessment of school facility conditions across Montgomery County, and the results for the Rockville-Gaithersburg area should be a wake-up call.

Of the five worst-conditioned elementary schools and five worst-conditioned middle and high schools identified by MCPS, seven of the ten worst-conditioned schools are located in or serve school communities in the Rockville-Gaithersburg area. That is 70%.

Those schools are:

• Summit Hall Elementary School – highest depleted-value score among MCPS elementary schools

• Beall Elementary School – fourth-highest elementary score

• Stone Mill Elementary School – fifth-highest elementary score and part of the Wootton High School cluster

• Quince Orchard High School – highest depleted-value score among MCPS secondary schools

• Col. Zadok Magruder High School – second-highest secondary score

• Earle B. Wood Middle School – third-highest secondary score

• Thomas S. Wootton High School – fifth-highest secondary score

MCPS’s Facility Condition Index evaluates the depleted life and value of major building systems, including roofs, windows, plumbing, electrical equipment, heating and air-conditioning systems, and other infrastructure. Higher scores indicate poorer physical conditions and greater facility needs.

MCPS has correctly noted that these scores should not, by themselves, determine the order of every future construction project. Factors such as overcrowding, functionality, enrollment projections and educational needs also matter.

But 70% of the schools at the very bottom of these two condition rankings being concentrated in or serving the Rockville-Gaithersburg area is far too significant to ignore.

This Is Bigger Than Wootton

I have advocated for years, both before and during my service on the Rockville City Council, for the renovation or rebuilding of Wootton High School. I repeatedly expressed disappointment as needed improvements were delayed and Wootton was removed from MCPS capital plans.

More recently, I strongly opposed the decision to permanently close the existing Wootton High School campus and relocate the school to Crown.

I support Crown High School and want it to be an extraordinary new school for every student who attends it. But supporting Crown and questioning the long-term elimination of a comprehensive high school on Wootton Parkway are not mutually exclusive.

The current Wootton location has served surrounding communities for more than 50 years, including neighborhoods where many students can walk or bike to school. Rockville and Gaithersburg also continue to face substantial growth and school-capacity pressures. Permanently removing a high school site from that corridor is a long-term infrastructure decision that deserves careful scrutiny.

The new facility-condition data makes clear that Wootton is also not an isolated problem. Some of MCPS’s most deteriorated school facilities are concentrated throughout the Rockville-Gaithersburg area, including elementary, middle and high schools. Further, this list does not even include Rockville's Twinbrook Elementary School which desperately needs a rebuild, was on the MCPS Capital Improvement Plan, and then was inexplicitly removed prior to this current year's budget analysis.

Equity Must Include the Buildings Where Students Learn

Much of the recent discussion surrounding MCPS has appropriately focused on equity and whether students of different races and backgrounds receive fair access to resources and opportunities. That same commitment should extend to the physical schools where our children learn.

Working air conditioning, reliable plumbing, safe bathrooms, functioning electrical systems and properly maintained classrooms are not luxuries. They are basic components of a public education system.

The fact that some schools nearby are in excellent condition does not lessen the

needs of students attending schools that rank among the worst-conditioned in the County. Good facilities for one group of students do not somehow offset deteriorating conditions for another.

Every student deserves a safe and functional learning environment, regardless of race, income, background or ZIP code.

The County and MCPS Should Explain How We Got Here

The 70% figure does not, standing alone, prove that every past capital decision has been inequitable. But it raises an important question that MCPS and Montgomery County should answer with the broader data.

I am asking MCPS and Montgomery County to examine how we reached the point where 70% of these ten worst-conditioned schools are concentrated in or serve the Rockville-Gaithersburg area, publish the geographic distribution of past and planned school capital investments, and provide a clear plan to address these facilities.

That review should include:

• Facility-condition data across the entire school system

• Past and planned capital investments by geographic area

• Existing overcrowding and school functionality

• Projected enrollment and population growth

• Projects that have been delayed, reduced or removed from the Capital Improvements Program

If the broader analysis shows that capital investments have been distributed equitably, then we should follow the data wherever it leads.

But we should not simply look past the fact that seven of the ten schools at the bottom of these two MCPS facility-condition rankings are connected to the Rockville-Gaithersburg area.

MCPS and the County now have better facility data than ever before. They should use it, explain how we reached this point, and show our communities how these needs will be addressed.

Our students deserve nothing less.