MCPS Boundary Proposal Could Split Darnestown Students From Peers, Parents Say (Opinion)

March 24, 2026

On Thursday, the Montgomery County Board of Education is set to vote on Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s school boundary redistricting recommendations. While his controversial proposal to close Wootton High School has received significant attention, another aspect of “Option H” has been largely overlooked – its impact on my Darnestown neighborhood. Unless altered by the School Board, this recommendation would split off our neighborhood’s students from their middle school peers and send them as far as twelve miles away. As a parent of two children in MCPS – at Darnestown Elementary School and Lakelands Park Middle School – this concerns me and many others in my community. 

Background: How Darnestown Students Are Currently Assigned

First, some background. Darnestown students have attended Lakelands Park and Northwest High School since Lakelands opened in 2005. Darnestown students currently attend Lakelands Park Middle School. Nearly all Lakelands Park students go on to Quince Orchard High School. Only our Darnestown Elementary School students and a portion of Diamond Elementary are peeled off and sent to Northwest. For years, our children have dealt with the emotional trauma of transitioning to high school without the friends they developed in middle school. This boundary study offered an opportunity to correct that issue with a more logical feeder pattern for our children. Unfortunately, the Superintendent’s recommendation will only create more disruption in the lives of our children and families. 

Proposed Changes Would Send Students Miles From Their Community

The “final” recommendation has Darnestown students attending Kingsview Middle School in Germantown and then Poolesville High School. Darnestown’s small student body (roughly 37 students per grade per year) will—again—be the only children pulled out of their middle school and sent elsewhere, this time, to Poolesville. All other Kingsview students will go to Northwest High School.

Questions Raised About Capacity, Geography, and Planning

The recommendation for Darnestown is wholly inconsistent with the Board’s FAA policy for the boundary study, which is supposed to consider facility utilization, geography, school stability and demographics.

With respect to facility utilization, the superintendent’s recommendation puts Kingsview over capacity. Meanwhile, Lakelands Park has plenty of space. Even retaining Darnestown students, that middle school will be at 55-61% capacity. While Quince Orchard and Northwest High Schools would come in slightly over capacity with the addition of Darnestown students, both schools would be far below their current levels and at a capacity less than some other high schools, such as Winston Churchill.

When it comes to geography, the Darnestown to Kingsview to Poolesville path makes even less sense. My family lives on the east side of Darnestown, walking distance to Quince Orchard High School. For nearly all of Darnestown, Quince Orchard is the nearest high school. For a few, Northwest is slightly closer. Even our neighbors who are on the western edge of Darnestown are equidistant to Poolesville and Northwest, but still closer to Quince Orchard. Meanwhile, Kingsview MS and Poolesville HS are in completely different communities, twelve miles apart from one another. This will be a significantly longer trip for Darnestown students and their parents. And those of us who will have children in more than one school, as I will, stand to spend hours in the car just getting from one school to the next and back when they need to be picked up or dropped off. 

In addition, the proposal ignores typical commuting patterns. Many of us work down county, in Northern Virginia, or in the District. We drive by Quince Orchard going to and from work and Northwest isn’t far out of the way. But Poolesville is in the complete opposite direction, adding a significant burden for working families.  

Concerns Over Student Stability and Peer Cohesion

Nor does this approach advance stability. If stability in our community and cohort cohesion are the goals, a far more logical feeder pattern would be to send Darnestown Elementary School students to Kingsview and Northwest or to Lakelands Park (or Ridgeview) and Quince Orchard (one of the prior but abandoned “options”). We have enjoyed belonging to the Lakelands Park and Northwest communities. But we know, from experience, that splitting students off from their peers when they go to high school is the definition of instability and it is not good for their mental health. And this time, they’ll be sent miles away.

The superintendent’s recommendation for Darnestown does not have any measurable impact on the demographics of any school. Darnestown students account for just 10% of the population of Lakelands Park and 6% of Northwest’s student body. Moving Darnestown students from Poolesville to Quince Orchard or Northwest will not appreciably increase or reduce the diversity of any of these schools.

Complicating this picture further is MCPS’s Academic Program Analysis, which will divide the county into six regions. In the first set of school boundary options, Darnestown was slated for Quince Orchard High School, our nearest school, in Region 5. In the second, all options (except “D” which split DES between Northwest and Poolesville – the most illogical option of all) sent Darnestown to Northwest, our current placement, in Region 6. The final recommendation, however, suddenly and surprisingly shifted us to Poolesville, presumably to make room for Wootton’s student body to occupy much of the new high school in Crown Farm, instead of relieving crowding in upper county schools like Northwest and Quince Orchard. Doing so, forces Darnestown’s students into Poolesville instead of allowing us to stay in schools within our community.

Impact on Families: Longer Commutes and Daily Logistics

The Academic Program Analysis has good intentions – to provide students with greater access to academic programs no matter where they live – but, as implemented, it will place a heavy burden on Darnestown parents and children. For example, the county has said that it will bus students from their local high school to magnet programs at other high schools within their region. Imagine having to drop off and pick up your child twelve miles from home at Poolesville High School so that he or she could catch a bus (another hour away) to attend a special program at, for example, Damascus. Imagine the number of hours wasted in travel over the course of the year – time that could be spent on homework, activities, or getting needed sleep. This burden will result in fewer Darnestown students attending magnet programs when the point of expanding the academic programs is to increase access. Ironically, they can already attend the highly ranked program at Poolesville High and some do.

When it comes down to it, many of us would support a move to Poolesville High if we were also afforded the opportunity to attend John Poole Middle School, which would at least keep our kids on a path together through their school years. MCPS has recognized, however, that this path is not feasible, as John Poole Middle School cannot fit additional students. The only thing worse than sending our kids miles away would be sending them miles away to attend classes in a portable. Meanwhile, by MCPS’s own metrics, Lakelands Park and nearby Ridgeview Middle School will be far under capacity with plenty of room for Darnestown students. And, even after adding Darnestown students to Quince Orchard or Northwest, those schools will have a reduction in their head count. 

Conclusion: Call for a More Stable, Community-Based Approach

All of these schools are academically strong and we are fortunate to have them as options. When the school board considers the Superintendent’s recommendation on Thursday, it should remember that cohort continuity matters for the children’s well-being. It should adopt an approach that promotes the stability of our neighborhoods and that supports our families. Fragmenting Darnestown into two completely different communities does not advance these goals, it actively does the opposite.

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