MCPS Unveils New Layouts for Proposed Middle School

New layouts for the proposed middle school on Rock Creek Hills Park feature more space for recreational activities and student drop-off, but will require more trees to be removed from the property.

Samaha Associates, the architects designing the school, presented three more possible layouts to residents on Thursday in the fourth public meeting on the design of the proposed school.

All three options feature an expanded drop-off area, allowing for up to 43 cars to queue on the site at one time, which architect Paul Falkenbury said will ease the school's impact on the neighborhood.

"The idea is to get as much traffic as possible off the streets and onto the site, and to separate parents from buses," he said.

In the first option, the drop-off area is at the southern end of the site, off Saul Road, and the bus entrance is northwest of that, on Haverhill Drive. The school is divided into two wings: a three-story area with classrooms and labs, and a two-story area that houses the gym and cafeteria. The basketball courts are separate from the bus area, unlike in previous options, and a six-lane sprinting track is overlaid on the tennis courts.

The second and third options were similarly laid out, except that both feature a courtyard in the middle of the school, which provides students with natural light in every classroom and an outdoor space in emergency situations when they can't leave the building, said Deborah Szyfer, senior planner for Montgomery County Public Schools.

In all of the options, expanding the drop-off area and recreational spaces means removing many of the trees on the parks hillside, and residents were concerned that would change the character of the neighborhood.

Park and Planning rules require that any removed trees be replanted, said Dennis Cross of MCPS, but they don't necessarily need to be placed on the site from which they were removed.

Cross asked everyone in attendance to write down the pros and cons of each proposed layout and bring them to the next meeting, . MCPS wants to have a preferred layout ready to present to the Board of Education in October.