MCPS is conducting a boundary study to determine which students will attend the soon-to-be-opened Woodward High School. In a move that will affect an estimated 19,800 students for the 2027-2028 school year, MCPS is reopening Woodward High School. Currently, the district is in the second phase of boundary study, which aims to increase community engagement. Overall, eight high schools could be redistricted in the Woodward study, and MCPS hopes Woodward will provide a permanent solution for WJ’s enduring overcrowding.
Woodward was previously the location of Tilden Middle School for 29 years. The unfinished campus currently hosts the 1,795 students of Northwood High School, while an expansion is being added to the Northwood campus in Silver Spring. Last year, Northwood students staged a walkout to protest the lack of communication about the move to Woodward, which currently lacks a theater, athletic facilities and adds an average of six minutes to the commute from Silver Spring.
Originally scheduled to open in the 2025 school year, Covid and budgetary issues have pushed its opening back to the 2027-28 school year. Student capacity has been slashed by over 500 to 2,160 students, and an MCPS miscalculation led to a $39 million budget gap. The boundary study is meant to find which neighborhoods and students will attend which school. In early May, the project entered its second phase, to increase community engagement. Currently, no boundary maps have been released to the community. MCPS has released a boundary study page, where questions can be submitted.
Woodward aims to curb overcrowding in high schools across the county. The largest impact will likely fall at WJ, which has the worst overcrowding of any high school in the county at 652 students over capacity, and the second highest number of portables of all MCPS high schools.
MCPS signed an up to $1.3 million contract with FLO Analytics in early December to map out which students will attend Woodward, along with the new Crown High School and expanded Damascus High School. FLO Analytics, a national consulting company, has previously redistricted schools in The School District of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and Hartford County Public Schools in Maryland.
“We are in the process of coming up with a strategic plan specifically for students,” project planner at FLO Analytics, Rebecca Laoch, said. “If [students] have any ideas on how to do that, please send us feedback.”
However, Berger believes that there has been less communication than desired.
“We would like to have more information given. We feel like they are giving us a general timeline, but not as specific as we want,” Berger said.
MCPS identified eight high schools, including WJ, that the reopening of Woodward would impact: Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Montgomery Blair, Albert Einstein, John F. Kennedy, Northwood, Wheaton and Walt Whitman.
“Our goal is to follow the [MCPS] policy, and provide the options as best as possible, meet [MCPS] criteria as best as possible, then we take it to the board,” Chief Operating Officer for MCPS Adnan Mamoon said. “Not everybody will be satisfied with the outcome. Our goal is to follow the policy.”
Last time MCPS conducted a boundary study in 2019, the district looked at how redistricting could reduce overcrowding, though redistricting wasn’t planned. Many students favored redistricting, which would have increased diversity in schools, but some parents complained that families were being unfairly punished. The study was quietly released during Covid but not acted upon.
On May 8, MCPS announced in-person community meetings about Woodward on May 28 and 29 that continue into June. Additionally, there are meetings about Crown High School, and virtual options for each.
Riley Berkowitz and Seyun Park contributed to this story.
