Testimony for Northwood Cluster Board of Education

2017-2022 CIP Hearing Monday, November 9, 2015

Dear Members of the Board, Interim Superintendent Bowers, Mr. Song and MCPS staff, The Northwood Cluster thanks you for your work throughout the year addressing concerns identified by the eight schools within our cluster. We recognize that the number of schools you work with can make providing support a Herculean task. Northwood Cluster actively works with neighboring Blair Cluster and seeks to support solutions that benefit all students within the Down County Consortium. Northwood requests that MCPS not fast track the countywide installation of artificial turf at the remaining 19 high schools that have grass. While laudable and seemingly beneficial, parents and staff have expressed disbelief that such an expense would be incurred when the school system has such dire facilities needs that directly impact instruction. We request that the public have ample opportunity to learn about the benefits, potential health risks and costs associated with both grass and artificial turf fields. The funding model and financial projections should also be available for comment. In short, the entire process should be transparent and involve community input.

Northwood We would like to thank the Board, Division of Construction and Maintenance for the completion of the following projects at Northwood High School:

Resurfaced tennis courts & repaired posts;

New paint for exterior vent cover facing the stadium;

Repair of the hardwood floor in the main gym;

And, after a two year delay, the installation of tinted window film to reduce heat and glare from the sun in the main gym.

Computer Labs have been converted to regular classrooms and the power poles have been removed. Teachers now have open

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classroom space for better instructions.

A plan for the Child Development playground was forwarded to Northwood for review 10/21/15.

Two additional projects are in the progress but cannot be completed during the school year due to the complexity and duration of work. Last year Northwood requested a new gym stage floor, ADA compliance, padded mirrors, and a replacement of the cage-like structurei with folding doors in the former stage area that is now used for both dance classes and wrestling practice. Also in this area are exposed pipes, peeling paint and remnants of rigging and ductworkii from the old stage. The PLAR office and architect are prepared to perform work next summer pending the availability of funds. Northwood requests that work go forward as scheduled to provide a safe learning environment for students and to accommodate the growing popularity of the Academy of Musical Theatre & Dance. Northwood also requested ADA access to the auditorium stage for wheelchair bound students who must access the stage from back stage. The Division of Construction is working with the school to install a lift that keeps the orchestra pit intact. This work is scheduled to be performed during the summer because it is extensive and the auditorium schedule is heavily booked. Northwood is the only school within MCPS that doesn’t have a FACT score. The building reopened with an expanded cafeteria and new administrative offices but the rest remains antiquated time capsule of the 1950’s. As such, the list of needs is long:

Requests that the original 1950s lighting system in the auxiliary gym be replaced because the lights must be specially ordered and replacement bulbs cost $80 each.

The “gang showersiii” in both the girls’ and boys’ locker rooms are non-articulated and non-functioning. They need to be replaced.

Last year Northwood requested that the drinking fountainsiv and their pipes on the side of the school with the girls’ locker room be replaced. Maintenance capped the disintegrated pipes but was unable to find clean lines to run new ones. As a result, students do

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not have adequate access to operable drinking fountains outside the auxiliary gym. The disrepair of Northwood’s plumbing has resulted in multiple drinking fountains being capped off throughout the building. Students wishing to get a drink of water must walk to other hallways to locate an operable fountain. As student and staff populations grow this will increasingly become unsustainable.

The gym lobby entrance needs to be expanded to adequately accommodate the number of people who purchase tickets. The current configuration has room for five individuals; additional patrons must wait outside, as students did in the rain to attend the homecoming dance. The ticket area leads directly onto the gym floor so attendees cannot enter the gym unless play is stopped. The bathrooms near the ticket area only have two stalls apiece, not nearly enough capacity.

Northwood High School requests lights for the baseball/softball fields.

Northwood is starting the year over capacity with 1583 students and will welcome new students on a rolling basis throughout the year. The school requests portable classrooms due to inadequate office and classroom. We look forward to the results of the 2016 DCC High School Capacity Study.

Additions An addition to Arcola elementary school was completed yet the portables remain because it is still over capacity. Last year, additions to Glen Haven Elementary and Kemp Mill Elementary schools were included in the Superintendent’s CIP recommendations as both a relief to their own overcrowding issues and to Arcola Elementary’s. Even though enrollment projections at Glen Haven and Kemp Mill is projected to declined and their proposed additions removed from the superintendent’s recommendation, Arcola will remain over capacity. The Metro Pointe and Safeway buildings developments in the Wheaton sector are in Arcola’s catchment area so Arcola will need to look to other schools to provide relief. We ask that the addition project at Glen Haven be put back on the schedule and an addition at Highland Elementary be considered to relieve capacity at Arcola. Should the additions go forward they should include additional program space, i.e.,

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cafeteria space, as in the planned additions to the lower DCC elementary schools. Forest Knolls Elementary School is disappointed that its request for an addition was not recommended and the community has concerns about reassigning part of the community to Montgomery Knolls ES. Parents prefer the K-5 model where siblings can attend the same school. They have also expressed apprehension about putting their children on buses that drive through Four Corners, one of the worst intersections in Montgomery County. There are questions about whether the students would articulate through the Blair or return to the Northwood Cluster. The community may be more accepting of reassignment to a new school perhaps at the closed locations of Parkside ES and MacDonald Knolls. These sites could potentially relieve Sligo Creek ES and Highland View overcrowding as well. Another proposed option is to provide FKES with portables so the school community could ride out the enrollment wave without being reassigned. Highland View Elementary School is very disappointed in the recommendation to not build its addition. It has been waiting a long time for relief. HVES’s 112 students didn’t meet the 125 over capacity benchmark but would like to note that, at 39% over capacity, it has the highest percentage overage than any other DCC elementary school, including FKES’s 37% [(seat deficit * 100)/program capacity]. An addition at HVES could potentially relieve overcrowding at Rolling Terrace. RTES has used HVES’s site for its summer program in the past. HVES requests that because it will not receive an addition, at minimum, the "Room of Dirt"v should be emptied and appropriately insulated. HVES also requests that its six portables that were installed in the 1990s be evaluated for replacement. The portables and their canopies show signs of decay and water damage. They are poorly insulated so are warm in the summer and cold in the winter. When it rains students have difficulty hearing instruction.

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HVES also requests the installation of security cameras (cameras need to be encased to prevent tampering) near and around the portables on the sides of the school to prevent more vandalism and intruders.

Silver Spring International Middle School Tree trimming and removal work was recently completed along Wayne Avenue at Silver Spring International MS. Many trees in the aging canopy are dying and dropping limbs, posing a hazard to students on their way to and from school and to PE class. SSIMS thanks MCPS and the Board for attending to the safety of its community. Enrollment at Silver Spring International Middle School exceeded 1,000 students this year, receiving 30 more than projected. While not included in this CIP, SSIMS requests that its planned addition be placed in the CIP. SSI was denied its addition because Takoma Park Middle & Col E Brooke Lee were more over capacity. However, the addition is intended to address long standing safety and ADA compliance issues and provide core programmatic space we lack but every other middle school has. Please refer to slide #19 in Lukmire Partner’s presentation to see list of needs addressed by addition. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedfiles/departments/facilities/construction/project/SSIMS_2015-03-09Meeting1Presentation.pdf All references to slides refer to this presentation. Programmatic: • SSIMS is the ONLY middle school that does not have a stage. SSIMS is an

MYP/IB school with a robust performing arts program but our students are being denied a baseline experience afforded their peers in other schools. Where are dancers, chorus, drama students and band supposed to hold dress rehearsals and perform? Plays are held in the band room which limits the types of productions the school can put on due to space limitations and lack of curtains and a back stage.

• SSIMS lacks a gathering space to conduct general business – class town halls, Back to School Night, assemblies – making it difficult to communicate with the school community and conduct programs.

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Safety & ADA issues as identified during previous CIPs and the feasibility study for the addition: • Several hallways that are narrow (5 ft wide) and do not meet the

accepted standard for new schools (12 ft) • During class change 1,040 students go in to two directions through single-

frame doorways (Stairwell #7). Last year a student broke her ankle when she fell down the stairway. A few years before that a student fell down the stairs due to sheer volume. Last year, a student testified about her harrowing experience being trampled in a crowded, narrow hallway during class change.

• Students must exit the main school building to participate in PE class in the Field House. This space is unsecured during school hours with a public bus stop in front of the building. (Refer to slide #14).

• The sole elevator is in the rear of the building. It is not uncommon to have students on crutches and they must leave class early and arrive late, usually with a friend, to use the elevator. This technically meets ADA requirements but is a physical hardship for students resulting in lost instructional time and fatigue.

• On the occasions when EMS has been called to assist students who’ve fallen ill, EMTs must enter the building via Sligo Creek ES. While SSIMS has an ADA compliant ramp to enter the building, gurneys do not fit through the narrow hallway abutting the entrance. Entrances at the rear of the building and to the Field House are not accessible. (Refer to slide #14).

• All schools require that visitors check in at the front office and are constructed in a way that they must enter the office or pass the office upon entry. SSIMS is not constructed in this way and is unsecured.

• The building service manager’s office has been grappling with serious mold problemvi for the past three years. He must wash the wall of his office every two weeks with bleach to prevent it from becoming overrun. He has had to throw away coats and other personal items left in the vicinity because the mold grows on them. This is a serious health hazard that must be addressed.

Building Configuration: • SSIMS’s square footage shows building capacity to be 1118 students but

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this does not take into account the building’s non-standard configuration and irregular classrooms. Many of our rooms are non-standard sizes and shapes posing challenges to both teachers and students. Health class can have as many as 40 students. The room can accommodate them all but some students’ view of the Promethean board is at a 5 degree angle from their seats. I affectionately refer to SSIMS as Frankenstein, an amalgamation of multiple buildings, patched together like a crazy quilt. It is an open secret within MCPS that SSIMS is the stepchild of middle schools.

• Rooms on the 3rd floor are long and have gabled ceilings that reflect sound in unusual ways. Several teachers use microphones to ensure students in the back of the room can hear.

• There is no space for portables due to the school’s topography. (Refer to slide #11 for topographical map).

Solution: SSIMS is unique in that it the third floor and basement provide space into which it can expand and provide the basic programmatic and security features a school should have. The feasibility study is complete and architectural plans have been drawn up. For fifteen years SSIMS students have been going without the minimum programmed space and staff have adapted to the challenges an old building and topography present. It’s time to do right by these students many of whom will spend another four years in a reopened high school with similar issues.

Sligo Creek Elementary School Sligo Creek ES supports the addition to Silver Spring International Middle School to relieve its own overcrowding. SCES is especially concerned about new residential development in its catchment area and the impact it will have on enrollment.

Requests that measures be taken to secure the area around the trash receptacles along Schuyler Ave. There is a continuing problem with neighborhood dumping in the school’s containers, including items that would be “special pick-up” or need to be driven to the dump.

Is in need of drainage improvements at the front of the school by the grand staircase entrance. That entrance is at the bottom of a steep

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hill, and the runoff from the slope and lack of adequate drainage creates a continual muddy and slippery area.

Requests the replacement of the recess fence that is rusty and has obvious holes.

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) Compliance Glen Haven Elementary requests wheelchair accessibility to the special needs recess area. Students in wheelchairs cannot access the recess area because the ground is covered in woodchips. An ADA appropriate surface should be installed.

HVAC Arcola Elementary School requests that its older model HVAC be upgraded. There are multiple units and they work intermittently and the computerized management system goes offline. Sligo Creek Elementary School requests that its school be moved up in the schedule for HVAC replacement. As a result of HVAC deficiencies, SCES must contend with continual condensation and water leaks, leading to huge temperature fluctuations throughout the school and malfunctioning units. The Northwood Cluster supports proposed additions within the DCC to relieve overcrowding but requests that the construction of an elementary school continue to be considered. We are concerned that reassigning Forest Knolls ES will only add to Blair Cluster’s overcrowding woes and it unnecessarily disrupts the continuity of kids moving up with their peers. Building community takes time and effort and should not be quickly dismissed with numbers. We appreciate your attention to these needs and look forward to working collaboratively to achieve equitable and satisfactory solutions. Respectfully submitted by: Heather Powers Sauter & Michele Moller Northwood Cluster Coordinators

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i Cage in main gym - Northwood

ii Hazards to be demo-ed on dance stage in main gym.

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iii Non-articulated showers in locker rooms

iv One of several capped off drinking fountains throughout Northwood. Access to water is not readily available near the gym & cafeteria.

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v Highland View’s Dirt Room

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vi Recurring mold in SSIMS Building Services Office