Save Rock Creek Hills Park? Well, we sure tried!: Board of Education Votes to Take Rock Creek Hills Park.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Board of Education Votes to Take Rock Creek Hills Park.

Today the Montgomery County Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the Montgomery County Public Schools proposal to take the site of of Rock Creek Hills Park from the Parks Department in order to build a middle school.

Mr. John Robinson, President of the Rock Creek Hills Citizens' Association, said:

"The residents of Rock Creek Hills are very disappointed that the Board of Education selected Rock Creek Hills Local Park as the site for the proposed B-CC Middle School # 2 without further discussions with the Montgomery County Planning Board. Planning Board Chair Carrier made clear that the Planning Board was willing to discuss North Chevy Chase Local Park as another alternative. However the Board of Education declined to discuss the issue further even though the North Chevy Chase Local Park site is much larger and would likely involve less construction costs than the local park the Board of Education selected."

No comments:

Post a Comment

Who Said That?

"When the [Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission] developed [Rock Creek Hills Park] in the early 1990s they accepted funds from the Program Open Space. This is a program managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to distribute funds from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund to preserve open space. The use of Program Open Space funds was inconsistent with the reclamation terms of the transfer agreement under which the M-NCPPC took title to the property. This was the case since use of these funds places restrictions on future public use of parks, in contradiction with the terms of the original transfer agreement..."
– Dr. Joshua Starr, Superintendent, Montgomery County Public Schools.

From the MCPS Site Selection Advisory Committee Minority Reports:

The B-CC High School NAACP Parents' Council wrote that they "... cannot support the recommendation to build the new middle school in a potentially racially divisive and socially isolating location. ... We, therefore, ask the Superintendent and the Board of Education to decline to adopt Rock Creek Hills Local Park as the site for the new middle school."

The Lyttonsville Civic Association wrote that "...MCPS staff set inappropriate boundaries for discussion... ...MCPS staff cut off discussion to insist that a vote be taken before the committee had finished considering all their options. Staff ... made procedural rulings that affected the ability of some representatives to speak freely. Some representatives voiced concerns that they were being led to a predetermined conclusion."

Ms. Brooke Farquhar (Parks Department) wrote: "Costs were not thoroughly evaluated in the process and misinformation may have prejudiced the votes of committee members.... The process lacked a robust analysis. The potential sites should have been analyzed more thoroughly, based on detailed information that would allow consistent comparison across the sites."

Mr. Frederick V. Boyd (Planning Board) wrote: "[T]he rating process used for selecting sites did not provide a real opportunity to consider the community character and quality of life consequences of choosing a candidate site. ... [D]escriptions appear to have been written to enable easier consideration of some public sites..."