Staff proposes using Crown High School as holding site to speed Magruder and Wootten renewals

Montgomery County Public Schools staff presented Crown High School as a candidate holding (swing) site intended to accelerate capital projects at nearby high schools and reduce total program length. Staff said the district originally planned Crown as a comprehensive replacement; changing Crown temporarily into a holding site could allow a cleaner build sequence for Damascus High School and speed renewals at Magruder and Wootten.

What staff showed: the presentation compared three options for Damascus, Magruder and Wooten: (1) keep Damascus on-site and perform phased occupied renovations at Magruder and Wooten, (2) replace all three on-site, and (3) replace Damascus and use Crown as a holding site to permit faster renewals (shorter construction windows) at Magruder and Wooten. The third option was presented as the one with the greatest time and cost savings: staff estimated it could shorten the combined construction schedule by about seven years and reduce capital costs across the projects by roughly $273 million compared with prolonged phased-occupied renewals.

Logistics and rationale: staff explained that an off-site holding location lets construction teams demolish and rebuild or do full renewals without maintaining occupied instruction zones on the same campus. For Damascus, staff said an off-site holding arrangement would allow designers to reimagine the long-term on-site layout, instead of forcing a replacement to be built on the existing football field while students remain on campus.

Student programming and continuity: staff said academic and career-technical programs would move with students during temporary relocations where feasible; staff gave examples that some technical equipment (large simulators) can be relocated to classroom spaces and that auto or specialized shops might need temporary off-site arrangements during construction. The board asked for follow-up on how program continuity and athletics would be handled during any temporary relocations.

Funding and risk: staff noted estimated savings assume access to Crown as swing space and continued availability of planned county capital funding; if the county reduces capital support staff said priorities would be adjusted. The board discussed equity and community impacts, timing for student cohorts who might occupy Crown for one year, and the need to engage Crown, Damascus and cluster communities about any temporary use.

Next steps: staff proposed further study of a hybrid Crown model that would retain some local students on site while also hosting out-of-bound students as swing space; the board asked for scenario cost comparisons and operational impacts (transportation, program continuity, athletics and community uses) before any decision.