MCPS FACT CHECK: Community "Tricked" by Parents' Coalition Blog

[Howard Hartman]

For Immediate Release	February 28, 2011

MCPS FACT CHECK: Community
"Tricked" by Parents' Coalition Blog

Parents' Coalition Blog

Once again, the writers of the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County blog are spreading misinformation about a new elementary school in the McKenney Hills neighborhood of Silver Spring.

Under the headline "$38,570 Report Trashed - Community Tricked," the writer, Janis Sartucci, accuses the Montgomery County Board of Education of ignoring a feasibility study for the site and changing the plans for the McKenney Hills school building. Ms. Sartucci also suggests that the feasibility study calls for a 57,035 square foot school, but instead was "super-sized" at 95,475 square feet without the knowledge of the community. But Ms. Sartucci doesn't have her facts straight.

The report was far from being discarded. In fact, the school, which will open in August, adheres very closely to the recommendations outlined in the feasibility study.

The June 2009 study by Architecture, Incorporated was meant to assess the feasibility of reopening the existing building at the McKenney Hills site. Working closely with a Feasibility Advisory Committee (page 1 of the feasibility study), the report stated that the existing facility could not be upgraded to handle the educational needs of the school community (page 2 of the feasibility study).

It was recommended that the existing building be torn down and a new school be constructed. The construction option favored in the feasibility study was for a 96,224 square foot building (see Option #1 on page 6 of feasibility study).

The educational specifications for the school (page A-6 of the feasibility study) called for 57,035 square feet of "instructional spaces," such as classrooms, a media center, a gymnasium and other instructional areas. The remaining square footage includes spaces such as mechanical rooms, bathrooms and hallways, as well as the space taken up by walls and ceilings. In the feasibility study, the "core capacity" for the building is listed at 640 students (page 2 of the feasibility study).

Final designs for the school on the McKenney Hills site calls for a 95,475 square foot building. The enrollment is expected to be around 640 students when the facility opens.

At this point, it appears the only people "tricked" were those who paid any attention to Ms. Sartucci's blog.

McKenney Feasibility Study

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[Janis Sartucci]

Yes, the McKenney Hills Elementary School is being supersized. The MCPS Public Relations department can try to hide the truth. But the pictures tell the true story.

On this site an elementary school sat along side a Silver Spring forest for 60 years. But because the elementary school building is now being supersized, trees are coming down.

See for yourself:

http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.c...ing-trees.html

There are many other elementary school sites in Silver Spring that are not being used for public schools right now. The choice was made to supersize this elementary school site and take down the trees.