Students who expected to attend Rockville’s Thomas S. Wootton High School will instead go to a newly constructed campus in Gaithersburg if the school board approves Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s boundary plan.

The idea, recommended by Taylor at a Thursday school board meeting, has faced vocal community opposition over the past several weeks. Still, the superintendent said it was the best option to emerge from a contentious redistricting process that has set many Montgomery County Public Schools families on edge for months.

New boundary lines would begin to take effect in the 2027-28 school year.

“While I’m excited to bring the result of this work, I know that change is hard,” he said. “Critical family decisions are made about where people live, what they do and how they go about their lives, often tied to the schools their children attend.”

Wootton’s campus needs repairs, while the Crown Farm High School building in Gaithersburg will be brand new. Moving existing students out of Wootton’s building would allow the district to use it as a “holding school” to house other students while their own campuses undergo renovations.

The plan isn’t finalized, but Taylor’s formal recommendation Thursday is an important step.

The school board is expected to vote on it at its March 26 meeting. Even then, the revised boundaries would have a staggered rollout, with underclassmen moving to their new high schools in the 2027-28 school year and full implementation coming in the 2029-30 year.

A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Feb. 23.

Also presented Thursday were new attendance zones to accommodate the reopening of Rockville’s Charles W. Woodward High School and expansion of Northwood High School. Those impacted by that set of changes can weigh in during a Feb. 24 hearing.

The ripple effects of high school redistricting will be felt across the county and at the middle school level.

Taylor wants to tackle elementary school boundaries next — meaning heated school board meetings will be mainstays at district headquarters for the next several years.

He and the school board are charged with charting “a sustainable course for equity, operational excellence and, ultimately, student success,” he said. “We have to separate some of the emotions that are tied to these important decisions.”

Why Wootton?

Wootton families have shown up in force at recent MCPS meetings, demanding the board reject so-called “Option H.”

Ananya Sharma, a Wootton junior, told school board members Thursday that her campus’ building represents a tight-knit community.

“The cohesive society we have now would take years to rebuild if the students are transferred to another location, with overcrowded classes, longer commute time and friends that live farther away,” she said.

Sharma acknowledged that families have been asking for campus updates to deal with the leaky roof, mold and other facilities issues.

“Yes, the students have been asking for improvements for a long time, but we didn’t ask to be completely uprooted from the site itself. We have a perfectly good school right here, which just needs a bit of TLC,” she said.

Adam Van Grack, who sits on Rockville’s City Council, has spoken out against the plan.

“Using Wootton’s existing building as a holding school is a financial and operational mistake,” he wrote in a January memo.

Wootton is one of many Montgomery County campuses in poor physical shape. The backlog of problems includes broken HVAC systems, aging roofs and pervasive mold. To make safe and quick progress on these upgrades, Taylor said, the district needs a space for students while their home campuses are refurbished.

Wootton’s campus would fill that need under his plan.

Moving Wootton into the Crown building, about 3 miles away, hits several other goals of the redistricting, including balancing the demographic composition of campuses and dealing with overcrowding, he said.

He added that his plan allows more students to walk to campus.

For those opposed to the boundary change, the fight may not be over.

Robert Roudik, who is part of the Save Wootton committee, said the group is raising money to pursue legal action in hopes of stopping the move.

“We are regrouping,” Roudik said, “and, short of pitchforks, we are ready to take on the school board.”