Recommendation for New B-CC Middle School Site Postponed

The Montgomery County Board of Education Monday postponed hearing from a committee on a proposed site for a in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster.

A site selection committee has been meeting to review potential locations for the proposed new middle school, and the committee will deliver their recommendation to the Board of Education, according to county schools spokesman Dana Tofig.

The recommendation was originally scheduled to go before the board at a Monday meeting, but due to scheduling issues, the board will hear the recommendation at later date. “Given the length of the agenda today …and given the magnitude of that decision, we thought it was best to move that to a separate meeting,” board president Christopher Barclay said at the meeting.

A proposal for the new school was set forth Oct. 15 by schools superintendent Jerry Weast as part of a to combat overcrowding in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster. Once a site is selected, a feasibility study to hash out options for constructing the new school will follow.

the only middle school that currently serves students in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster, is already at capacity with close to 1,000 students and is expected to become overcrowded in coming years as enrollment numbers rise. The school is also located a long distance from many Chevy Chase neighborhoods.

In the interim period before the new middle school is built, how best to educate sixth graders at Chevy Chase and North Chevy Chase elementary schools has been a The two schools are the in elementary school settings, and sixth grade students there receive less instruction time and less class offerings than students who attend sixth grade at Westland.

The proposed new middle school is geared to encompass Chevy Chase sixth-graders.