Update: Prince George’s County School system reversed course on a plan to move students out of a Montessori school in Seabrook to an abandoned school in Bowie following dozens parents and students protesting in front of the school headquarters.

Monica Goldson, CEO of county schools, told Robert Goddard Montessori School parents Thursday afternoon that their students would be staying in their current school building.

“There were many factors to consider making this decision, but we believe this is the best course of action,” Goldson wrote in a letter to parents Thursday afternoon.

Instead, students from Hyattsville Middle School, which is currently under reconstruction, will be divided into two buildings. Sixth-grade students and seventh and eighth grade students in the Creative and Performing Arts Program will be sharing the Montessori school with Goddard students. All other seventh and eighth grade students will move to the abandoned Meadowbrook School in Bowie.

“We don’t see this as a victory,” Erica Edelen-Barnes, a Goddard school parent, said in a statement to WAMU/DCist. “The truth is that Prince George’s County simply lacks enough school space for all our children and even this welcome decision means that our school will be quite full next year, and other parents – particularly our friends and neighbors whose children attend Hyattsville Middle School – will now have to face a new set of challenges.”

Meanwhile, Hyattsville Middle School parents told school officials at a town hall meeting Thursday night that they were surprised with the changes to the relocation plan and raised questions about the equity of the school relocation process. A PGCPS spokesperson declined to comment. On the Hyattsville Middle School parent-teacher organization Facebook page, one parent wrote that the reconstruction of county school infrastructure and lack of space for Hyattsville students in one school building “seemingly pits school communities against each other.”

Catarina Correia, president of Hyattsville’s parent-teacher organization, posted a statement on Goddard’s parent-teacher organization Facebook page citing research from Penn State University which says that Prince George’s County Schools’ specialty programs, like Goddard’s, “have successfully advocated for their programs against the detriment of neighborhood schools that often lack the same well connected, economically advantaged, and vocal parents.”

“I understand why you were upset, but I truly believe that as your children have been at [the Goddard] school for so long, you are woefully unaware of what other PG County public schools deal with on a daily basis and how truly lucky you and your children have been,” Correia wrote to Goddard parents. “I hope we can work together to make the [county school system] work as best it can for ALL our students.”

Original: Dozens of parents and students at a Montessori school in Prince George’s County held a protest Wednesday demanding that the school officals halt plans to relocate students.

Prince George’s County School officials plan to move students from the Robert Goddard Montessori building in Seabrook to the abandoned Meadowbrook School in Bowie, about seven miles away. The relocation is part of a strategic game of chess in which county school officials are trying to accommodate students from six other schools in the county that are being rebuilt into other schools. Most of the school buildings in the county are more than 40 years old.

“For whatever reason in this school system and in this county have not built schools as fast as we probably should have or could have,” Mark Fossett, an associate superintendent for county schools, told Goddard parents at a town hall Wednesday night.

Hyattsville Middle School is one of the schools under reconstruction, and its students will be temporarily moved to the Goddard building, according to the county school officials’ plan. While parents at the Goddard schools say there isn’t enough room for both schools’ students given COVID-19 social distancing protocols, they are also not in favor of moving to the abandoned school building.

At a demonstration in front of county school headquarters, and later at a school town hall meeting Wednesday night, Goddard parents pushed back on the move, saying they found out about it through a Facebook post and felt blindsided by the decision. Students and parents held signs saying “SOS! We love RGMS” and “Meadow Brook is not an option,” and chanted slogans like “Hey, hey, ho, ho, RGMS don’t want to go!”

Ade Adebayo from Lanham protested at school headquarters with her three sons Alvin, 13, Elvis, 12, and Amin, 8.

“We were so shocked and confused,” Adebayo told DCist/WAMU. “We were not part of the decision. They should let us get involved and make the decision…this is their future.”

Adebayo explained that Alvin managed to get into the school through the county’s lottery system and that allowed his two brothers to be admitted with him. “The deadline for the lottery is over this year…if they had let us know [in advance] we would have played the lottery to go to another school,” she said.

Adebayo was attracted to the school were the after-school curricular programs and community support. As were other families.

“Everyone just kind of has this close bond,” 7th-grade student Iris Robinson told WAMU/DCist. “And I’m not saying that moving to Meadowbrook would take that away, but the place that we’re at has such a good environment…and it’s been a safe spot.” Iris said she’s worried she won’t be able to play basketball or do sports at the new school building and “sports are just my comfort zone,” she said.

In February, RGM’s parent-teacher association wrote in an email to CEO of County Schools Monica Goldson that their school has “insufficient space (classrooms, lockers, facilities, etc.) to house additional students.”

Goldson responded in an email, stating, “I am hopeful that we will arrive at an option that will help all parties involved as we work to address our overcrowded status in several of our schools. Once a decision has been made I will make sure the Robert Goddard Montessori community is informed.”

Last week, Jasmy Methipara, president of Goddard’s parent-teacher association, took a tour of the abandoned school building in Bowie and said that the building does not meet students’ learning needs. She asked the school officials to allow students to stay at their current school.

“The status of temporary classrooms and needed facilities all came with a budget-dependent unknown timeline,” Methipara wrote in another letter to Goldson and school officials.

The letter cited issues with Meadowbrook School’s outdated HVAC system and ventilation, its location on the outskirts of the county, making students’ commutes longer, and lack of space for gym classes, orchestra, and other programming.

Methipara adds that Goddard already made renovation in the school recently, including new lighting, floor and ceiling tile replacements, outdoor classroom space, and new playgrounds. “Sacrificing that certainty to a list of unknown timetables is not something we can risk for our children, particularly in this time of COVID.”

School Officials Responds To Parents’ Concerns

At Wednesday’s virtual town hall meeting David Curry, an associate superintendent with the county schools, apologized for how the relocation news was released to the RGM community last week.

“It was never our intent for any of our information to feel like it was blindsiding anyone in the community,” Curry told parents. “It’s actually not the manner in which we do business.”

County school officials said they went through the list of pros and cons of Goddard sharing their current building with Hyattsville Middle versus moving to Meadowbrook. If Hyattsville Middle students were to move to Goddard, they would have to be divided among three different school buildings.  And this would not be the first time the Goddard school has had to share its building. Over the past two decades, the school has shared at least three times.

Helen Coley, chief of the county school’s leadership and support staff, told parents that she’s aware of their discontent in having to share their school space.

“We…explored options for what might be in the best interest of our students from both schools [Robert Goddard Montessori and Hyattsville Middle],” Coley said. “We’re in the business of making sure that school structures and spaces for all of our students are done in a way that we are keeping students first in their academic achievement.”

Coley added that she wanted to “dispel talk” that the school facility at Meadowbrook was not conducive to student learning.

At the meeting, Goddard’s Principal Deatrice Womack tried to assure parents that their concerns about moving to a new building will be addressed.

“Together we can overcome any obstacles that are put forth in our direction and this is no different,” Womack said. “We will do what it is that we need to do.”

Students wouldn’t move to the new school until the end of August, and school officials say the move could be temporary. Meanwhile, county school officials are making updates to Meadowbrooks’ HVAC system and facility to prepare to receive students.

Parents and students were not permitted to comment during the town hall meeting following the county schools’ presentation of the relocation plan. County school officials say they will provide opportunities for parents to share their questions and concerns about the relocation.

This story was corrected to reflect that the decision on school relocations was made by school officials not the school board.