Starting in the 2027-2028 school year, two new schools will be opening in Montgomery County. Crown High School will be opening in Gaithersburg and Woodward High School will be reopening in Rockville. MCPS is conducting a boundary study to accommodate these new schools, as well as addressing issues in the county about overcrowding, understaffing, and long bus commutes.
Currently, MCPS has released four options for boundaries per new school. The Crown HS options apply to up-county schools like Poolesville High School, Quince Orchard, Gaithersburg, and Damascus, while the Woodward boundary options include schools in the southern part of the county, such as Whitman, Bethesda-Chevy Chase, and Walter Johnson. PHS faces an expansion of boundaries from the proposed Crown options.
Some options only propose PHS absorbing small areas, in Comus and Boyds or Germantown. Other options project PHS expanding to include the area west of 270 highway, from the county line to Germantown.
Whichever option is chosen, PHS can expect a jump in student population. According to Principal Mark Carothers, this was part of the plan when designing the new building.
“The new building has a capacity of 1,500 [students], with what we have now, we hover right around 1,350,” Carothers said in an interview.
According to Carothers, the “academic wing,” which houses the Global and SMCS hubs, is reserved for expansion to accommodate another 300 students if the need arises.
“Right now we can only focus on the students who are in front of us now, making sure you all have a good experience,” stated Carothers. “I don’t want us so worried about the future that we’re shortchanging your experience. But we’ll definitely have some shifts.”
Following the feedback about these options from the community, a second round of map options will be sent out throughout October in public Zoom sessions for further feedback.
At-large Board of Education member Rita Montoya is part of deciding the new boundaries, along with her seven colleagues.
“These are hard decisions that we have to make…because it does have impacts on real people and I take that very seriously,” stated Montoya. “We also have to think of just logistical things like transportation and again, safe routes to school, making sure that we can put the resources where they’re needed… I think that we can also try to, again, keep these things [in] account that we are not here to disrupt the flow of our families lives.”
One of the motivations behind the new boundary study is overcrowding. Schools like Clarksburg, Churchill, and Quince Orchard have already exceeded their building’s capacity.
Northwest High School is another school that has exceeded its capacity, at 104% facility utilization, and faces district changes as a result of the boundary study.
“Some hallways were completely packed, you had people pushing you from both sides,” stated Northwest senior Karma Shah.
As October goes on, the county will be seeking community opinions on the next set of options, before deciding on one in time for the 2027-2028 school year.
