Overview:
As concerned residents of the DuFief, DuFief Manor, Potomac Hunt Run, Westleigh, the Woods at Muddy Branch, and Flints Grove communities, we call on the Montgomery County Board of Education to reject all four proposed boundary change options that would remove DuFief Elementary School from the Frost Middle School and Wootton High School cluster. These changes would disproportionately affect a small, diverse, immigrant-rich community—severing decades-long ties with Frost Middle School and Wootton High School—without offering any clear benefit to students or the school system.

The Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Board of Education is currently reviewing boundary change proposals that would reassign DuFief Elementary School away from Frost Middle School and Wootton High School. These proposed changes are harmful, inequitable, and disruptive — and we strongly urge the Board to reject all four options under consideration.

📍 Why This Matters:
DuFief Elementary has been a part of the Wootton cluster since the 1980s. We are a small school — with around 40 students per grade — and removing us from Frost and Wootton would not improve capacity issues, and exacerbate other MCPS goals. Instead, it would:

• Break decades-long community ties that provide crucial stability, especially for students with learning differences or mental health needs. Students with 504 and Individualized Education Program plans benefit from well-established coordination between DuFief, Frost, and Wootton staff, ensuring a smooth transition and consistent support. The proposed options disrupt this trusted network, jeopardizing the academic and emotional well-being of the students and families who rely on it most.
• Decrease diversity in Wootton and Frost by removing DuFief, a school with significantly more free and reduced-price meals, African American, and Hispanic students. Several of the proposed options would reduce the minority population at Wootton, while offering no positive impact on the diversity at Crown or Quince Orchard High Schools. These proposed options disproportionately impact an immigrant-heavy, lower-resourced community, creating potential equity and discrimination concerns. 
• Overcrowd other schools and worsen underutilization. Currently, Quince Orchard High School is over its capacity, but the proposed options for relocating DuFief to Quince Orchard would not ameliorate that situation. Instead, having DuFief remain at Wootton High School would decrease the capacity burden on Quince Orchard, while Wootton would remain under capacity projections. Several of the proposed options would exacerbate the current underutilization of both Frost Middle School and Wootton High School.
• Isolate DuFief students and split families, sending them to schools where they have no peer continuity. The proposed options create an articulation path where DuFief students would be the only children from their middle school to attend the proposed high school, socially isolating them from their peer groups. In addition, several families would be forced to have children attend different middle and high schools from their siblings, increasing the burden on those families.
• Endanger student safety, as buses and student drivers would have to head westbound on Route 28, a stretch of road that is already dangerous due to poor traffic flow and the absence of a traffic light

⚠️ The Options All Fail DuFief:

• Option 1 sends DuFief to Ridgeview MS and Quince Orchard HS — geographically disconnected and socially isolating.
• Option 2 adds DuFief to a chaotic mix of split articulations. It would be the only school south of Darnestown Road to be reassigned to Crown HS, isolating it from nearby peers. Like Options 3 and 4, this also severely impacts peer continuity.
• Option 3 keeps Frost MS but sends DuFief alone to Quince Orchard HS— with no other school making that same jump. All other elementary schools going to Frost MS do not go to Quince Orchard HS, severely impacting peer continuity.
• Option 4 keeps Wootton HS but sends DuFief alone to Ridgeview MS, breaking ties to Frost and isolating students socially. All other elementary schools going to Ridgeview do not go to Wootton, severely impacting peer continuity.

In all scenarios, DuFief is facing severe disruptions. There is no status quo option being considered, despite our small size and low impact on capacity. Elementary school data seems to have been ignored in preparing these options. This seems less like thoughtful planning and more like DuFief is being used as a pawn to force change elsewhere.

📣 We demand better for our students.
 DuFief is a tight-knit, diverse, and deeply rooted community. These proposed boundary changes offer no meaningful benefit to the district and cause disproportionate harm to our children and families.

We call on the Montgomery County Board of Education to:

• Reject all four proposed boundary change options.
• Include a status quo option in the final proposal that maintains the current DuFief–Frost–Wootton articulation, which already meets all four of the county’s boundary study priorities—or to modify an existing option to reflect this alignment.
• Respect decades of continuity and protect the well-being of our children.
• Recommit to true equity and community-based planning.

✍️ Sign this petition to stand with the DuFief Elementary School community.
 Help protect our students, our families, and the integrity of our schools.

Here’s what else you can do to strengthen our cause:

– Fill out the MCPS Community Survey

– Sign up to speak at BOE meetings

– Contact/email all members of the BOE

Julie Yang , President - Julie_Yang@mcpsmd.org 

Grace Rivera-Oven, Vice President - Graciela_Rivera-oven@mcpsmd.org  

Karla Silvestre, At Large - Karla_Silvestre@mcpsmd.org

Rita Montoya, At Large - Rita_M_Montoya@mcpsmd.org  

Natalie Zimmerman,  District 2 - Natalie_Zimmerman@mcpsmd.org