Task force, residents favor moving to Carver site

Montgomery College committee tells the public about its recommendations for overcrowding

The top three recommendations the task force generated include acquiring the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Carver administration building and site, which is located across Mannakee Street next to the college; acquiring nearby off-campus space for administrative offices; and constructing additions to current buildings in the form of additional top or underground floors.

Of the three recommendations, acquiring the Carver site seemed to be the most popular, and the school system has expressed interest in relocating to a larger, more modern facility.

‘‘I think it would have the least impact on the neighborhood,” Judy E. Ackerman, vice president and provost of the Rockville campus, said.

Members of the task force, which is comprised of college staff, government officials and representatives from the surrounding neighborhoods, presented their findings at an evening forum May 2 and a daytime forum the next day. Approximately 25 people attended.

Many who attended agreed that acquiring the Carver site was a good idea, but were concerned about whether Montgomery College would get the funding it needs to fully address the overcrowding problem.

Cathy Galasso-Schwartz, assistant to the deans at Montgomery College, attended Thursday’s meeting and said she was worried.

‘‘I have a concern about funding for any of this,” Galasso-Schwartz said. ‘‘We were so incredibly disappointed that the state funding we were expecting for the new science building was not provided. It all kind of depends on money.”

David Capp, chief facilities officer at Montgomery College, said specific costs were not discussed during task force meetings, but that the options were chosen based on whether they seemed manageable.

Terry said the Carver site appeared to be the most manageable option because a building already exists.

‘‘There were no specific costs discussed because it’s so conjecture,” Terry said. ‘‘If Carver is not available for another five years, that’s a whole different set of costs than if it were available now.”

Both Terry and Capp said that while the Carver site seemed the most cost effective for the college, there are concerns whether MCPS can afford to move its central administration office.

‘‘There are tremendous costs associated with this option,” Capp said.

Rockville residents and neighbors of the college Kerry Brenner and Kay Jaouni said they thought the options were good ones.

‘‘They were reasonable recommendations given all of the constraints,” Brenner said.

Jaouni said she was happy that the college is keeping the surrounding community informed as it goes through the process.

‘‘I’m really glad they’re making an effort to outreach to the community because we’ve had a lot of difficulties getting information,” Jaouni said.

Judy Pretka and Joanrae Sparks, also neighbors of the college, said the task force recommendations were good and thorough, but were upset about students parking along their neighborhood streets.

‘‘It feels like we live on Montgomery College’s parking lot,” Pretka said.

Terry said she was pleasantly surprised to see virtually no objection to the recommendations themselves.

‘‘I think it’s interesting that nobody said boo about the actual going over to Carver, so that’s pretty good, that’s a positive sign,” she said.

The only heated moment came when two women were upset because they felt they were not properly informed about not only the forums, but also the whole process. They said that the last public meeting was in 2004.

However, Terry countered that the 2004 meeting was about the college’s master plan and not related to the plan to expand the Rockville campus.

Woodley Gardens West Civic Association President Erin Stamets, who also served on the task force, insisted that her community was well informed.

‘‘The college has been totally up front and spreading information all along,” said Stamets.

Many attendees offered their own suggestions, which college officials said were all recorded and will be submitted with the report to the college’s Board of Trustees. Some suggested moving the campus to another location in the county, building a fourth campus, or moving specific departments to off-campus locations.

‘‘We’ll take the comments back to the task force when we meet [in June] and see if there are any changes, but I don’t think these forums are going to change the recommendations,” Terry said.

The task force will meet one final time on June 6 to finalize its report. The report will then be turned over to Ackerman, who, after discussions with college officials, will turn the final report over to the Board of Trustees in the fall.

For more

Background on the task force’s work, including its complete draft recommendations, minutes of all past meetings and other background, can be found on the Montgomery College Web site at www.montgomerycollege.edu⁄rvexpansion.