Last year, we celebrated the grand opening of the new Harriet Tubman Elementary School on the East side of Gaithersburg. I’d like to share the story of my part in helping to make that happen.
It all started for me late in 2014, at my very first meeting as a new member of the Gaithersburg City Council. My neighbors were restless. A group of Kentlands residents had arrived in force to complain about overcrowding at the local elementary school, Rachel Carson. That school has 10 portables to accommodate a student population that was nearly 50% over that school’s rated capacity.
“Our kids have to eat lunch starting at 10:30. They walk outside in the snow to get from class to use the bathroom. We need a new school!”
And there was I, well aware of conditions at the school – my daughter had gone there.
“By god, you’re right, we need to fix this,” I declared, banging my fist on the dais.
Later, a more experienced elected official had a quiet chat with me. “You don’t want to go there. It’s too hard. MCPS is difficult to work with, and everything takes forever.”
I thought, then why are we here? Why get elected if we don’t take on the hard jobs? Clearly, I was not cut out to be a career politician.
During the next year or two I learned a lot, including the fact that Rachel Carson was one of the most overcrowded schools in the county, but that many other schools in Gaithersburg were also very much over capacity. There were more portables in Gaithersburg schools than anywhere else in the county.
Over lunch with Rebecca Smondrowski, our district’s Board of Education member, she suggested setting up meetings with the senior staff at MCPS. After clearing that idea with Mayor Ashman and our city manager, Tony Tomasello, Rebecca made it happen. In fact, there were several meetings over the course of the next year. Jud and Tony and I were joined by deputy city manager Dennis Enslinger and Planning Director John Schlichting, and we met with various staffers to discuss the issues. Aside from the elementary schools, we also had some land at Crown Farm that was given to the city by developer Aris Mardirossian for use as a high school – but if 2 years passed after the land grant, it would no longer be available to be used for a school and would become a city park. Ten years had already gone by.
Finally, we met with three chiefs – the MCPS Chief Operating Officer, the Chief of Staff to the Superintendent, and the Chief of Staff to the Board of Education. Jud, Tony, Dennis, John and I made our points, and the three chiefs discussed their issues and their constraints. We showed them some options for land that might be used for a new school to relieve Rachel Carson, and made sure they were clear about the timeframe for the land at Crown Farm.
Now, I was not the most senior person in the room, but perhaps the loudest or the most insistent – in my day jobs, I’ve done a lot of deals, and it seemed like my role was to keep MCPS focused on our needs in Gaithersburg. After an hour, suddenly the chiefs turned to me and said, “What is your ask?”
A lesson from my deal-making roles – always be ready with an ask.
“We need a new elementary school on the west side of town, we need a new school on the east side of town, and we need you to move forward with the Crown Farm high school.”
Before too very long, MCPS came back to us with the plan. They would start looking for a location for the new school on the east side. They would not build a new school on the west side but they would expand Dufief Elementary School and redistrict some of the kids from Rachel Carson. And they would start the process for the Crown Farm high school so it would be open before the 20-year deadline expired.
Hallelujah!
Because nothing is ever easy, it turned out that the selected location for the new school, carving off 20% of the city’s Kelley Park, was quite controversial and led to a 2-year process of meetings, testimony, and negotiations with neighbors and MCPS. Even after getting agreement on almost everything the neighbors asked for (except, of course, for putting the school somewhere else!), there was a very unhappy group that made their feelings known at the next election, costing several of us 15% of our votes – but we still managed to keep our seats. I guess the lesson is that it’s easier to get elected if you don’t do anything difficult. Clearly, I was not cut out to be a career politician.
The fight was worth it for our kids, and now we have the brand new $38 million Harriet Tubman Elementary school opening this coming Monday.
The Crown Farm school is being planned and should be ready in time.
Ironically, the expansion of Dufief is on hold, partly due to the student population at Rachel Carson decreasing. It’s less overcrowded but still needs help, and we will keep working with MCPS to get something done.
Is it worth it to try to do the slow, hard, risky things? You tell me. And tell Jud, and Tony, and Dennis, and John, and Rebecca, and the 3 other council member who had the courage tp vote to approve the project despite the controversy.
I wrote this not to brag (although happy to take a share of the victory lap), but to share this story in the hope that more people will take on the hard projects. There is work to be done on housing, on transportation, on economic development. None of these are easy. So, let’s work together and get the hard things done.
Why did it work? Gaithersburg’s requests of MCPS were entirely reasonable – we showed the evidence of the need and ability to provide the land. We also had their backs all the way – we worked with the residents to understand their concerns and provided a list of what else was needed to align everyone’s interests. And of course we were persistent. We made it easier for MCPS to provide what was needed – in fact, I forgot to mention that once the Harriet Tubman project was approved, MCPS moved ahead on an accelerated 2-year timeline instead of the usual 6 years. It was a team effort by elected officials, professional staff, and citizen advocates.
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