Two Montgomery County schools could join together under a new proposal from interim superintendent Larry Bowers.
The proposal calls for locating Rock Terrace School, which serves special education students ages 12 through 21, and Tilden Middle School at a new facility at 6300 Tilden Lane in Rockville.
The plan would enable the school system to move the special education students out of the 65-year-old Rock Terrace School and prevent them from being isolated from general education students. Although the two schools would be in the same building, they would largely remain separate, according to Bowers.
“Collocating Tilden and Rock Terrace will allow both schools to be housed in a state-of-the-art facility and provide more opportunities for students from the two schools to learn together,” Bowers said, in a statement. “Even though these schools will share space, they will maintain their separate identities and missions, and will have staff dedicated to ensuring student success.”
A roundtable discussion group composed of parents and staff from both schools, which explored the issue prior to Bowers’ recommendation, believed that the schools should maintain separate classrooms and staff, but could share facilities like the kitchen and media center.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) wrote in a statement, “The shared facility would allow for collaboration among staff and, when appropriate, interaction among students. For instance, middle school students in Rock Terrace could participate in social activities and assemblies with students from Tilden. Older students in Rock Terrace would be able to work with students from Walter Johnson High School. Both Tilden and Water Johnson have active Best Buddies programs, which foster friendships and collaboration among students with and without developmental disabilities.”
The proposal now goes to the Board of Education, which will hold a work session on Apirl 14, a public hearing on April 27 and is expected to make a decision on the plan on May 12. If the board approves the plan, then a study would be done to determine the cost of building a facility to house both schools, according to MCPS. If that process goes smoothly and funding is available, the new facility could open in August 2019.
Superintendent Recommendation – Collocating Rock Terrace and Tilden Middle
