Background on Wheaton Woods

Wheaton Woods Elementary School is located at 4510 Faroe Place in Rockville, MD 20853.  

 

(source: Montgomery County Public Schools)

(source: Montgomery County Public Schools)

The original facility opened in 1952 and was added onto in 1976.  The building is 66,763 square feet, and the site size is 8 acres. The school has a capacity of 334 and has been over capacity for several years. There are currently 8 relocatable classrooms on site.  
There are currently about 472 students enrolled. 

(Source: GWWO Architects)

The demographic characteristics are as follows:
58.3% Hispanic
26.9% Black or African American
7.2% Asian
6.1% White
1.5% Two or more races

The community is diverse. The school serves Head Start and preKindergarten students through 5th grade.  There is a countywide program in the building called Linkages to Learning.  

(Student artwork display. Source: self)

A series of Feasibility Study meetings were held with the community during spring 2011.  The purpose of the feasibility study was to develop three viable options for the modernization of the building and improvements to the site and the costs associated with each, identifying one option as the preferred option based on the consensus from the participants.  Participants included representatives from Montgomery County Public Schools Division of Construction, Division of Long range planning, the Maryland State Department of Education, Montgomery County, GWWO Architects, school staff, parents, neighbors, etc. 

Wheaton Woods site (source: GWWO Architects)

Some of the characteristics of this community school are:

-  extensive community use of the facility and the fields
- a predominately walking/car riding community with fewer bus riders
-  desire for an outdoor plaza area for parents to drop off and pick up students
- desire for a science garden
- extensive rock outcroppings exist in front of the school and in the courtyard

The next stage is called schematic design and meetings with the community will be starting in late May 2013.  Schematic design will run through the summer and will involve a series of refinements to the preferred option to develop it into further detail, including appropriate classroom adjacency, building elevations, etc. The final product will be presented to the Board of Education and will proceed into even more detailed design, called design development.  The project will be bid in fall 2014.  Construction will last 18 months, from January 2015 until the new school is ready to open until August 2016.  During construction, the school will move operations to another building, called a holding center.  

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