Westbrook Elementary School is consistently named as one of the top elementary schools in Maryland. Whether with standardized test scores or in the local news media, Westbrook’s name pops up again and again as an outstanding model of academic excellence and community involvement. With special emphases on character education, arts integration, and the environment, Westbrook is creative and forward-thinking in meeting the needs of its diverse student population. Programs like The Model Program for Students with Emotional Disabilities have gained national recognition, expanding Westbrook’s reach from Bethesda to communities across the country.
Westbrook’s teaching staff is stable and award-winning. Its parent community is engaged. The school and its surrounding neighborhood share a pride and commitment to Westbrook’s ongoing success.
It is no surprise that Westbrook Elementary School’s population is growing. In fall of 2008, the MCPS Demographer revisited Westbrook and, after studying our local demographic trends, radically revised our projected enrollment:
2009/10: 415 students
2010/11: 456 students
2011/12: 482 students
2012/13: 509 students
2013/14: 522 students
Westbrook Elementary School’s building capacity is 269.
The need for an addition is compelling and clear based on numbers alone, but additional challenges face the school:
- Westbrook’s last renovation was in 1989-1990.
- The school is unable to hold school wide assemblies because our all-purpose room does not hold our current population of students.
- The playing field is often unusable for outdoor play because it is too muddy due to drainage issues.
- There are insufficient common areas and the present spaces are too small.
- There are no rooms or areas for students to use for small group instruction.
- There are currently five portable classrooms
- There is insufficient parking for teachers and parents.
- Bathroom capacity is already an issue and will be an even bigger concern in coming years.
- The children in Westbrook’s Model Program for students with Emotional Disabilities have special needs and would benefit from additional space.
- Westbrook is one of the few elementary schools in the County without a gym. A gym would offer Westbrook much-needed space for indoor recess, school-wide assemblies and places for classes to break out into smaller groups.
The Montgomery County Public School’s Board of Education recognized Westbrook’s urgent need for expansion with appropriation of funds for a Feasibility Study within the fiscal year 2009/2010 Capital Improvements Program Budget. With County Council’s approval of these funds in May 2009, the Westbrook Expansion moved to a multi-phase process.
The Feasibility Phase was completed during the 2009-2010 school year during which time a list of requirements for the new space was compiled and the Facilities Advisory Committee selected Muse Architects to design the addition. A series of meetings was held with the community to collect input and comments and at the completion of the Feasibility Phase Muse presented 3 options to the community.
In May 2010 the County Council approved funding for the second phase of the our project, the Design Phase. During the fall of 2010 Muse Architects held a series of community meetings to obtain input on the final proposed design of the addition. The school advocated for and lobbied the County Council during the 2010-2011 year for the allocation of construction funds in May 2011. These fund were approved.
Over the summer of 2011 Muse Architects began working on a set of construction drawings. In October MCPS determined that a construction manager was needed to help manage the process most efficiently and Hess Construction was hired to oversee the job. On October 26, 2011 a community meeting was held at Westbrook to present the final construction drawings and inform the community of the phasing of the construction project. Construction is slated to begin in March 2012 and will be completed by mid-August 2013. Construction drawings will be sent out to bid to contractors in December and a selection will be made in January.
