An appeal challenging the relocation of Rockville’s Wootton High School has been referred for further review.
In April, local parents filed with the State Board of Education against the decision to move Wootton’s population to the new Crown High in Gaithersburg. These parents believe the relocation actually is a school closure under state law.
According to an update from parents Monday, the appeal was moved from the State Board of Education over to the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH), where an administrative law judge can do an independent review.
A spokesperson with the State Department of Education confirmed to MCM that the case has been referred to OAH.
The appeal questions whether a school board can avoid school closure requirements by calling it a relocation.
Parents filed the appeal against the Montgomery County school board as the Community Education and Policy Alliance, Inc. (CEPA). These parents want the State Board to require Montgomery County Public Schools to reconsider the decision. The group is represented by the law firm Silverman Thompson.
“Today it’s Wootton. Tomorrow it could be any community in Maryland,” CEPA Vice President Elisa Sukhobok said in a written statement. “If school systems can sidestep Maryland’s school closure laws simply by renaming a closure a ‘relocation,’ then every Maryland family has a stake in this case. As MCPS prepares for another round of elementary and middle school boundary decisions, parents deserve to know whether the protections the legislature enacted can be set aside by changing a single word.”
The school system states the move to Crown is a strategic one that “addresses both immediate safety and infrastructure concerns, and long-term fiscal health.” MCPS claims it is not a closure of Wootton, rather a move of the school into a new building, one that MCPS calls “a state-of-the-art facility.”
MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s now-approved boundary plan will relocate students and staff from the aging campus at Wootton — which has maintenance issues like heating, cooling and plumbing problems — to Gaithersburg’s new Crown High School. The Wootton building will be converted into a holding school for campuses under renovation. The school board voted 7-1 to approve the plan in March.
The release from parents Monday noted that MCPS is preparing for another round of elementary and middle school boundary planning.
The move to Crown High is set to take effect in fall 2027.
