Montgomery County parents and residents are furious that the county school board picked a Kensington park as its top contender for a new school site just hours before the board voted on the location, leaving residents in the dark. The board voted 6-1 to explore using Rock Creek Hills Park as the site of a new middle school for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster, citing increasing enrollment and plans to shift sixth-graders out of the local middle schools.
Rock Creek Hills was originally the board’s runner-up choice, until the Department of Parks slammed the school board over its No. 1 choice, a Silver Spring park to which the school board had no claim. County Executive Ike Leggett urged the school board to go with Rock Creek Hills, a property that used to belong to the school system, and can be bought back.