Editor’s note: This story, originally published at 3:56 p.m. April 15, 2025, was updated at 4:06 p.m. April 15, 2025, to include a repsonse from an MCPS spokesperson.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is shifting the leadership of its community engagement efforts for its upcoming boundary study from a subcontractor to district staff, according to a Thursday presentation to the county school board.
The discussion of a shift in leadership came during the presentation, which detailed the school district’s community engagement plans as it embarks on producing a study that will impact almost all public high schools across the county.
“This decision is aimed at ensuring a more comprehensive and meaningful engagement experience for everyone involved in this process,” MCPS Chief Operations Officer Adnan Mamoon told the board. “To do this, our staff will follow a series of goals voiced by our community and importantly, by the Board of Education.”
Those goals include ensuring that engagement is culturally responsive regardless of the language that community members speak and that all communication occurs frequently and is clear, timely and translated into the required languages.
Following Thursday’s presentation, board Vice President Grace Rivera-Oven noted the issue is “not a sexy topic for a lot of people. We just want to make sure we don’t miss any opportunities” to communicate.
The Montgomery County school board approved a $1.3 million contract in December to hire FLO Analytics, an “employee-owned consulting” company with offices in Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts to conduct a school boundary study. The school board must adopt new boundaries by March 2026 since new schools that will be impacted by the revised boundaries are scheduled to open in August 2027. Bloom Planning was hired as a subcontractor to focus on community engagement as part of the study.
MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram said Wednesday that the first few community engagement sessions were managed by FLO Analytics, and that was a “small hand off” from Bloom because the first community survey was managed by the subcontractor. Cram didn’t answer whether the change will impact the cost of the contract.
The boundary study is required because of the expected completion of three MCPS capital projects for the 2027-2028 school year, according to MCPS. 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.
The boundary study would determine the attendance areas for the three high schools and alleviate space needs across the district, according to board documents.
Though initial plans for an analysis of programs offered by all MCPS schools were removed from the contract, MCPS decided to conduct its own analysis concurrently with the boundary study. That analysis is underway.
Boundary study update
MCPS is currently in phase two of the boundary study, which includes finalization of community engagement plans and collection of initial community feedback. Phase two is scheduled to last until the end of April.
Mamoon told the board the boundary study community project team is also helping MCPS “through this process” of shifting leadership to district staff.
MCPS held its first public information session and rolled out a community survey for its ongoing boundary study on April 2, kicking off the community engagement aspect of the study. The first community survey, which can be completed by anyone in the MCPS community, is centered around the boundary study’s priorities and determining which are most important to the community.
Mamoon said that with the shift in leadership, the community engagement plan will be led by the MCPS division of communications and family and community engagement.
MCPS operations Executive Director Catherine Malchodi said the district was also exploring ways families could access boundary study information and provide feedback without attending scheduled information sessions.
Rivera-Oven said she’s heard feedback that the survey can be taken multiple times or even by people who may not live in the county and asked what can be done to ensure that the responses are representative of county residents.
Malchodi said the intent with the first survey was to not create barriers, and that the district is collecting IP addresses and will be able to see if one IP address filled out the survey multiple times.
“You have our promise that is something we are well aware of and are mindful of … and also looking for feedback and suggestions along the way,” Malchodi said.
