The Board of Education met last night [Wednesday, March 22, 2000] and, among other items, approved several new actions and amendments to the currently approved capital budget request for Fiscal Year 2001 and the Capital Improvements Program (CIP) for Fiscal Years 2001-2006. Actions requiring capital funds are subject to final approval and funding by the County Council.

Montgomery Blair High School facility and program review

The Board approved the reopening of Northwood High School in September 2003 as part of a Silver Spring consortium with Montgomery Blair, Albert Einstein and John F. Kennedy high schools. The consortium would feature signature programs for all four schools and a student assignment plan patterned after the preferred choice model of the Northeast Consortium. In addition, the Board approved the concurrent development of a signature program for Wheaton High School and the inclusion of Wheaton High School in the planning for the consortium.

Quince Orchard Cluster middle school site

The Board approved the initiation of studies to identify possible sites and costs to build a second middle school in the Quince Orchard Cluster. This would address rapidly growing enrollment in the area and eliminate the necessity of expanding Kingsview Middle School.

Collocation of Stephen Knolls and Glen Haven Elementary School

The Board approved plans to reconvene the Special Education Centers Advisory Committee to identify a new school site to collocate the Stephen Knolls special education program. (The original plan to collocate the program at Glen Haven Elementary School was withdrawn because of inadequate site size.)

Richard Montgomery Cluster school boundaries

The Board approved the inclusion of the Fallsgrove development in the school service areas for Ritchie Park Elementary School, Julius West Middle School and Richard Montgomery High School. (The area, which is bounded by Shady Grove Road, Route 28 and Darnestown Road, was formerly a farm within the Wootton cluster.)

Albert Einstein and Walter Johnson Cluster school boundaries

The Board approved the assignment of all of the incorporated area of the Town of Kensington within the attendance area for Walter Johnson Cluster schools, including Kensington-Parkwood Elementary School, North Bethesda Middle School and Walter Johnson High School.

Current replacement and modernization projects

The Board approved the acceleration of the Richard Montgomery High School replacement project by one year to open in September 2004 by permitting an onsite construction of a new building adjacent to the current facility. The Board removed funds that had been requested for the collocation of the Stephen Knolls Special Education Program at Glen Haven Elementary School and added funds that had been omitted for the Rockville High School modernization project.

See link below for minutes of Board Meetings.