The Montgomery County school board approved Thursday a $1.3 million contract to hire a company to conduct a school boundary study, agreeing to increase the study’s cost while also excluding a proposed analysis of district programs.
The eight-member board voted 7 to 0 to approve the contract with FLO Analytics, an “employee-owned consulting” company with offices in Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts. Member Grace Rivera-Oven, who represents District 1, abstained.
Though the program analysis was removed, the contract represents an increase of about $300,000 over the maximum amount of an earlier version, reflecting an increase in community engagement requirements, according to board documents. The school board must adopt new boundaries by March 2026 due to new schools opening in August 2027.
The boundary study is required because of the expected completion of three Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) capital projects for the 2027-2028 school year, according to an MCPS staff presentation. The projects include the reopening of Charles W. Woodward High School in Rockville, an expansion of Damascus High School and the construction of the new Crown High School in Gaithersburg.
Northwood High School students are using the Woodward building on Old Georgetown Road in Rockville as a holding facility while the Northwood building in Silver Spring is rebuilt. The Woodward building is still under construction.
The boundary study would determine the attendance areas for the three high schools and alleviate space needs across the district, according to board documents. It would include 19 of the county’s 25 public high schools and 31 middle schools.
At the board’s Nov. 21 business meeting, the board postponed a decision to hire FLO Analytics, the only vendor to submit a proposal, to conduct the boundary study after several members raised concerns over a proposed contract’s lack of clarity and whether the company has the ability to conduct diverse community engagement.
Board member Brenda Wolff also raised concerns over the exclusion of the eastern portion of the county from the boundary study, considering that the study was expected to include a program analysis. She also noted the lack of diversity among the vendor’s staff. At the time, board member Julie Yang, who was voted president of the board Thursday morning, also raised concerns about a lack of clarity in the contract.
No program analysis
According to the district’s board presentation, the contract with FLO Analytics no longer includes a program analysis, a part of the project that Dana Edwards, chief of district operations, described as a “critical component” of the study at the Nov. 21 board meeting.
Edwards said Thursday the program analysis was removed because the boundary study doesn’t include the entire county. Removing that task will give the vendor an opportunity to focus on the complex nature of the boundary study, she said.
MCPS will conduct its own program analysis concurrently with the consultant’s boundary study, according to staff.
“The program analysis piece … is very much within our capacity and we do not need to pay for or to spend money on that,” Superintendent Thomas Taylor said. “We can provide that [information] very early on and very preliminarily to the selected partners.”
A higher cost
The study will include six main tasks including validating enrollment projection data, development and facilitation of community engagement and impartial analysis of boundary options, according to school board documents.
The contract information provided to the board Thursday was more specific than what members received Nov. 21, and included additional tasks with more detailed information and associated costs. For example, the impartial boundary study option analysis is expected to cost $152,999 and includes up to 16 draft boundary scenarios and a final scenario with data visualizations, according to board documents.
After board members raised concerns about community engagement, the number of community engagement sessions jumped from 10 to 32, which increases the cost of the project. The vendor is expected to submit the community engagement plan to the board for approval prior to implementation.
According to the Nov. 21 school board meeting, the contract with 10 community engagement session could’ve total as much as $1 million — a base price of $605,677, with a $400,000 allowance.
Now, the project will have a spending limit of $1.3 million, funding that will come from facility planning funds in the MCPS capital budget, according to staff.
Concerns continue
Board members continued to raise concerns about hiring FLO Analytics, particularly concerning whether the consultant can provide culturally responsive communication and the lack of staff diversity among its staff. FLO Analytics staff attended the meeting virtually, but the company’s subcontractor, Bloom Planning, a Pennsylvania-based company that provides planning services, was unable to attend. Bloom Planning will focus on culturally proficient community engagement, according to school board documents.
A FLO Analytics representative said Bloom and FLO work to understand the communities they work in, tailoring their efforts to ensure that all voices are heard.
Rivera-Oven said she was disappointed Bloom was unable to attend, adding that not being able to hear from the subcontractor made her “uneasy.”
Edwards said MCPS will create a steering committee of employees from different departments and offices as well as local advocacy groups to help address the issue of culturally responsive communication. The board would be informed about who was serving on the committee, she said.
According to the staff presentation, MCPS will now work on onboarding with FLO Analytics, creating a community engagement plan, implementing culturally responsive community engagement and providing monthly updates to the board on the boundary study progress.
