MCPS boundary lines are one step closer to being redrawn. If you live in Potomac, Rockville, Gaithersburg, or anywhere upcounty, this affects you.
Last June, I wrote about the MCPS boundary study and why some of the early proposals broke community logic. Eight months later, the superintendent has made his pick, and it’s the one that drew the most pushback from the community.
On February 5, Superintendent Thomas Taylor presented his boundary recommendation to the Board of Education. The centerpiece is modified Option H, which would permanently relocate Thomas S. Wootton High School from its longtime home on Wootton Parkway in Rockville to the newly constructed Crown Farm building in Gaithersburg, more than four miles away.
To be clear, this is the superintendent’s recommendation, not a final decision. The Board of Education has the final vote, currently scheduled for March 26. The Board can adopt it, modify it, or reject it. But the direction of travel is now set, and what happens between now and that vote matters.
This is not a quiet administrative reshuffling. Dozens of Wootton families turned out to oppose the plan. Rockville City Councilmember Adam Van Grack was among those who showed up to push back. A parents’ group called Save Wootton says it is prepared for legal action if the move goes through. And yet, the superintendent is pressing forward.
Let me walk through what’s actually being proposed, what comes next, and what it means from a real estate perspective.
What the Recommendation Actually Says
Taylor’s February 5 presentation covered two boundary studies and a regional programming overhaul. Here’s the breakdown.
Crown and Damascus: Modified Option H
Wootton High School would physically move into the brand-new Crown building at 9410 Fields Road in Gaithersburg for the 2027–2028 school year. MCPS is framing this as a relocation, not a closure. The school keeps its identity and moves into a state-of-the-art facility.
The current Wootton building, built in 1970 and last renovated in 2001, would become a holding school where students from other schools can be housed during major renovations.
That holding school piece is central to the superintendent’s argument. MCPS has requested $2.7 billion over six years for capital improvements and says even that covers only about half of what is actually needed. Aging buildings at Damascus, Magruder, and others need full renovations. Without a holding school, those projects stall. By choosing relocation over opening a 27th high school, the superintendent argues MCPS can respond to declining enrollment projections while putting its newest facility to immediate, permanent use.
Damascus High School’s attendance zone would expand into parts of Laytonsville and other areas currently zoned for Gaithersburg and Clarksburg, setting the stage for its own expansion project slated for completion by 2031.
Woodward and Northwood: Modified Option B
The new Woodward High School’s attendance zone would center on North Bethesda and Rockville. Students from Farmland, Luxmanor, Viers Mill, and Wheaton Woods elementary schools would form the foundation of Woodward’s community.
Garrett Park and Kensington-Parkwood elementary schools would feature split articulation between Woodward and Walter Johnson. Kemp Mill Elementary would be reassigned to Kennedy High School, and Flora Singer Elementary to Northwood.
Regional Programming
Taylor is also recommending a shift from countywide magnet and consortium programs to a regional model with five program themes: STEM; Leadership and Public Service; Medical Science and Health; Visual and Performing Arts, Design, and Communication; and IB, Humanities, and World Languages.
The goal is to put more program options closer to where students live, though the teachers’ union and some parent groups have pushed back on the pace of implementation.
The Timeline
The Board of Education will hold work sessions and public hearings in March. The final vote is scheduled for March 26, 2026.
If approved, phased implementation begins with the 2027–2028 school year. Ninth and tenth graders move first for high schools, and sixth and seventh graders for middle schools. Rising upperclassmen remain at their current schools. Full implementation would be in place by the 2029–2030 school year.
Why This Matters for Real Estate
MCPS does not consider real estate values in its boundary decisions. Buyers absolutely do.
School assignment remains one of the most consistent drivers of home-buying decisions in Montgomery County. Families plan years ahead. They buy based on feeder patterns. They stretch budgets to land in specific clusters. When those lines move, the calculus changes.
Here’s what I’m watching.
Wootton
The Wootton cluster is the epicenter. Families who bought in the Wootton zone, often paying a premium for that assignment, are understandably anxious. The building moves more than four miles. Feeder patterns shift. Walk zones change.
Whether the market adjusts meaningfully or absorbs this over time remains an open question, but uncertainty alone creates hesitation. In the near term, I expect some buyers to pause while the March 26 vote plays out.
Research from Greater Greater Washington, looking at DCPS and Howard County boundary changes, found no clear evidence of sudden price drops immediately following reassignment. That’s useful context, but it’s not a guarantee. Montgomery County has its own dynamics, and Wootton carries a strong brand that families actively seek out.
Potomac and Churchill
The headlines are about Wootton moving to Crown Farm. But if you live in certain parts of Potomac, the story that matters most is quieter and closer to home.
For many families, the current pathway has been Cold Spring Elementary to Cabin John Middle School to Wootton High School. Neighborhoods like Foxhills West have followed that route for years. Under this recommendation, that entire pathway changes. Cold Spring would be reassigned to Herbert Hoover Middle School and Winston Churchill High School.
Let me be direct: nobody is going to be upset about a Churchill assignment. It’s one of the best high schools in Maryland, and for most Cold Spring families it’s the closer school. The shift that actually matters here is the middle school. Kids who grew up together at Cold Spring currently move to Cabin John as a group. Under this recommendation, they’d go to Hoover instead, separating them from the peer group and community connections they’ve built through elementary school. That’s the disruption families feel most, even when the high school destination is a strong one.
Separately, Potomac Elementary would also be reassigned to Cabin John Middle School under this recommendation.
If you live in the Cold Spring or Potomac Elementary areas, don’t assume you’re unaffected by the Wootton headlines. Check your specific address against the proposed maps. The changes here are real, even if they look different from the ones making the news.
Upcounty
For Damascus, Gaithersburg, and Clarksburg, the expanded Damascus zone and the loss of Crown as a standalone school create a mixed picture.
Families in the Crown Farm area who were expecting a brand-new neighborhood school are instead getting Wootton’s student body relocated into their building. That’s a different community dynamic than what many expected when the Crown project was first announced.
For anyone buying or selling in the affected areas right now, the single most important thing you can do is check the proposed maps. MCPS provides interactive tools where you can enter your address and see exactly how the recommendation would affect your assignment.
My Take
From the start, I’ve believed boundary planning should reflect how people actually live: geography, commute patterns, and community ties. Moving a school more than four miles disrupts those realities in ways spreadsheets don’t capture.
At the same time, the fiscal reality MCPS faces is real. The system needs holding schools to accelerate renovations. It has more building capacity than projected enrollment requires. And the Wootton building’s condition has been declining for years with no major CIP funding on the horizon.
What concerns me most is the speed. Save Wootton families feel unheard. The teachers’ union has raised concerns about the regional programming rollout. And the March 26 vote is coming fast.
This decision will shape school communities and neighborhoods for a generation. It deserves the scrutiny it’s getting.
Remember, this is the superintendent’s recommendation, not the final word. The Board can still change it. If you’re a homeowner in any affected cluster, now is the time to pay attention, attend the public hearings in March, and make your voice heard before the vote.
Resources
MCPS Boundary Study Website: montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/facilities/boundary-study
Crown and Damascus Recommendation (Superintendent’s PDF): Available on BoardDocs: https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DQZPB463C37A/%24file/Supt%20Rec%20Crown%20Damascus%20260205.pdf
Interactive School Assignment Tool: gis.mcpsmd.org
Board of Education Final Vote: March 26, 2026
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