Montgomery County Public Schools has recently planned to rebuild Seneca Valley and Wheaton. About 38 percent of students have free or reduced lunch at Seneca Valley, while about 58 percent of students at Wheaton have free or reduced lunch, according to high-schools.com.

Wheaton and Seneca Valley have recently won their bids for reconstruction, while Schools like Winston Churchill and Wootton have not been renovated even though they have requested it for years. Five percent of students were eligible for free or reduced lunch. Only four percent of students from Churchill are eligible.

Do these numbers make a difference?

People believe that because of this poverty difference the MCPS administration renovate the school that is struggling more. Wootton has been on the list for years but continues to get pushed off. “Our school is getting old, but the county continues to push our time to get rebuilt, this is ridiculous,” freshman Ryan Feldman said.

This school is 47 years old and still has not gotten rebuilt while Seneca Valley high school was built in 2003. We are 33 years older than them, yet we still haven’t gotten renovated.

According to the administrators here the socioeconomics do not affect the decision to rebuild schools. “Absolutely not, just look at the upcoming projects,” Business manager Philip Hill said.

The reason for the push back is because MCPS has decided to build a new school. There is a huge population around the Crown area in Gaithersburg, so the superintendent decided to build a new school there.

The new school in Crown has pushed back the dates of all reconstruction, which proves that the poverty levels do not affect the order of rebuilding. “The poverty levels do not impact the order, I believe that they are just planning to build this new school,” freshman Sarah Woodward said.

This means that MCPS does not factor in the socioeconomics of the schools, and instead hey care about what is best for the students in the county. “It has taken a while, but I believe it is just about the timing and what other schools need it more,” freshman Sarah Woodward said.

Miller Romm

Staff Writer