A Sign of What’s Coming?

Months ago, Montgomery County Public Schools System off its list of places that could temporarily house Upcounty students during long-term construction projects, a move that assuaged conservationists trying to preserve the wooded site.

So why did a new sign that says “School Site for Future Growth” recently pop up there?

According to MCPS spokesman Dana Tofig, Montgomery County Board of Education members directed staff to post signs on at least 12 MCPS-owned properties throughout the county, including Waring Station, “to raise the awareness of citizens that such sites may be used for construction of a school sometime in the future,” Tofig said in an email to Patch. 

But that doesn’t mean a new school is coming to Waring Station — at least not right now. Tofig continued:

"At this point, there are no plans for the Waring Station site. But it has been identified as a future school site in the Germantown Master Plan, approved and adopted in 1989 by the Montgomery County Planning Board." 

Located across the street from Roberto Clemente Middle School, the wooded plot of land off Waring Station Road is being leased to Montgomery County government, Tofig said, which subleases a modular unit and a parking lot to a child care provider.

Waring Station was one of the nine sites MCPS was considering for a possible holding school site, according to the site selection committee’s report. Push-back came from parents and residents who claimed the Waring Station site was unsuitable for a holding facility and would have caused environmental damage.

Ultimately, MCPS went with Emory Grove Center in Gaithersburg, .

Tofig said the signs had been placed on MCPS properties within the past couple of months.