Summary Perspective
The Clarksburg Cluster serves northern Montgomery County through ten schools that enrolled 7,823 students in the 2023-24 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Clarksburg High School, with 2,214 students in grades 9 through 12, is the single destination high school, assigned by address. Two middle schools feed it: Rocky Hill Middle, with 1,041 students in grades 6 through 8, and Hallie Wells Middle, with 944 students in the same grades. Seven elementary schools complete the cluster, ranging from 349 students at Cedar Grove Elementary to 609 at Little Bennett Elementary.
Five of the cluster's ten schools split articulation with neighboring clusters, a structural feature that distinguishes Clarksburg from clusters with clean feeder chains. Cabin Branch Elementary, Clarksburg Elementary, and William B. Gibbs Jr. Elementary each send some students to the Seneca Valley Cluster. Hallie Wells Middle and Cedar Grove Elementary each send some students to the Damascus Cluster. NCES reports that 2,840 of the cluster's 7,823 students attend these shared schools. An address within one of these five attendance boundaries does not by itself determine whether a student will attend Clarksburg High School or a different high school. MCPS assigns the specific feeder path based on residential address, and the district publishes a School Assignment Tool for verification.
Clarksburg High School is over capacity. The FY2027 Capital Improvements Program, published by MCPS in October 2025 using 2025-26 planning data, reports 2,210 students against a program capacity of 2,020 seats, a deficit of 190 seats. The same CIP chapter identifies Wilson Wims Elementary as having substantial surplus seats. MCPS attributes enrollment demand in the area to residential development authorized under the Clarksburg Master Plan, which allows up to 15,000 residential units, while systemwide projections reflect continued declines in resident births that could moderate growth.
Three scheduled changes will reshape this cluster over the next several years. First, the Board of Education adopted new secondary boundaries on March 26, 2026, reassigning portions of the Clarksburg Cluster to Damascus High School and Seneca Valley High School, as documented in a Board update and a district news release. Middle school changes begin with grades 6 and 7 in the 2027-28 school year, with full implementation in 2028-29. High school changes begin with grades 9 and 10 in 2027-28, with full implementation in 2029-30. Grade 8 middle school students and grades 11 and 12 high school students are grandfathered at their current schools. This is the second boundary change to affect this cluster in seven years, following a November 26, 2019 adoption as part of an upcounty high school boundary study.
Second, the Board adopted the scope of a School Consolidations and Closures Study for elementary and middle schools on March 26, 2026. The adopted resolution establishes that all Clarksburg Cluster elementary and middle school attendance areas fall within the study's scope. The superintendent's recommendation is scheduled for April 2027, with Board action in May 2027. No school-specific recommendations have been selected as of the Board's March 2026 adoption.
Third, a capital project to replace Damascus High School is planned for completion in August 2031. MCPS states in the Damascus Cluster CIP chapter that the replacement adds high school capacity at Damascus and is designed to work in concert with the adopted boundary changes. The boundary changes begin phasing in 2027-28, six years before the replacement school opens. During that interval, reassigned students from the Clarksburg area will attend the existing Damascus High School facility.
The Board of Education has also adopted a regional programs model beginning in the 2027-28 school year, as reported by Bethesda Magazine, but this does not alter the address-based assignment that governs the Clarksburg Cluster. Clarksburg High School is not part of either high school consortium. The cluster's students are assigned by address, not through a lottery or choice process.
Key takeaways for families
The cluster enrolled 7,823 students across 10 schools in 2023-24, according to NCES. Five of those schools are shared with other clusters, accounting for 2,840 students whose enrollment is counted in full here but also appears in neighboring cluster totals.
Clarksburg High School enrolled 2,214 students in grades 9 through 12 in 2023-24, per NCES. The FY2027 CIP, published by MCPS in October 2025, reports 2,210 students against a program capacity of 2,020 seats, a 190-seat deficit.
Five schools split articulation with other clusters in 2023-24: Cabin Branch Elementary, Clarksburg Elementary, and William B. Gibbs Jr. Elementary share with the Seneca Valley Cluster; Hallie Wells Middle and Cedar Grove Elementary share with the Damascus Cluster. An address within one of these boundaries does not by itself determine the high school destination.
The Board of Education adopted new secondary boundaries on March 26, 2026, reassigning portions of the Clarksburg Cluster to Damascus High School and Seneca Valley High School. Middle school changes begin with grades 6 and 7 in 2027-28. High school changes begin with grades 9 and 10 in 2027-28. Full implementation occurs in 2028-29 for middle schools and 2029-30 for high schools.
Grandfathering applies under the March 26, 2026 adoption. A student entering grade 8 at Rocky Hill or Hallie Wells in 2027-28 will finish middle school at that school. A student entering grade 11 at Clarksburg High School in 2027-28 will finish high school there.
The Board adopted the scope of a School Consolidations and Closures Study on March 26, 2026, covering all Clarksburg Cluster elementary and middle school attendance areas. The superintendent's recommendation is scheduled for April 2027, with Board action in May 2027. No school has been named for closure.
A capital project to replace Damascus High School is planned for completion in August 2031. MCPS states the replacement is designed to work in concert with the adopted boundary changes, but boundary changes begin phasing in 2027-28, six years before the new school opens.
MCPS attributes enrollment demand to residential development authorized under the Clarksburg Master Plan, which allows up to 15,000 residential units. Systemwide projections in the FY2027 CIP reflect continued declines in resident births as a factor that could moderate enrollment growth.
Clarksburg High School lists approximately 28 Advanced Placement courses on its AP course page and does not host an International Baccalaureate program. Students seeking an IB diploma apply through the countywide process to IB host schools elsewhere in MCPS.
Clarksburg High School hosts two application-based programs: the AP Power Scholar program, restricted to students within the Clarksburg boundary, and the P-TECH Network and Information Technology program, an interest-based application program leading toward an associate degree through Montgomery College. MCPS does not publish cluster-specific admission odds for either program.
The Board previously adopted high school boundary changes affecting this cluster on November 26, 2019, as part of an upcounty boundary study involving Clarksburg, Northwest, and Seneca Valley clusters. The 2026 adoption is the second boundary change to affect this cluster in seven years.
The regional programs model adopted by the Board takes effect in 2027-28 but does not change the address-based assignment for the Clarksburg Cluster. Clarksburg High School is not part of either consortium, and families in this cluster do not participate in a high school selection process.
At a glance
The following table presents key dimensions for the Clarksburg Cluster. Enrollment figures are from the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for the 2023-24 school year. Utilization figures are from MCPS planning data and reflect a different collection vintage than the NCES enrollment counts.
Cabin Branch Elementary, the tenth school in the cluster, does not appear in the MCPS capacity data source. NCES reports its enrollment as 498 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 4 for 2023-24.
The utilization figures use enrollment counts from MCPS planning data, which differ from the NCES Common Core of Data enrollment figures because they are drawn from different collection periods. The NCES figures reflect the 2023-24 school year. The MCPS planning data reflects a different vintage used for facility planning. The FY2027 CIP, published by MCPS in October 2025, reports Clarksburg High School at 2,210 students against 2,020 capacity, a figure that differs slightly from both the NCES count and the capacity data source.
Five of the cluster's ten schools are shared with other clusters. NCES reports that 2,840 students, approximately 36 percent of the cluster's enrollment, attend these shared schools in 2023-24. Because enrollment in shared schools is counted in full for each cluster they serve, the 7,823 total overlaps with totals for the Seneca Valley and Damascus clusters and must not be summed across clusters.
How to read Maryland accountability and star ratings
The Maryland State Department of Education publishes a school report card for every public school in the state, including each of the ten schools in the Clarksburg Cluster. MSDE's framework, described in its 2024-25 overview document, assigns each school a star rating from one to five based on the percentage of accountability points the school earns across a defined set of academic and nonacademic indicators. Five stars indicate that a school earned at least 75 percent of available points. Four stars correspond to 60 to less than 75 percent. Three stars correspond to 45 to less than 60 percent. Two stars correspond to 30 to less than 45 percent. One star indicates less than 30 percent. MSDE published these ratings for the 2024-25 school year.
The indicators that feed the star rating differ by school level, and this distinction matters for interpreting results across the Clarksburg Cluster's ten schools. MSDE's 2024-25 overview specifies that the Academic Progress indicator, which measures student growth, applies to elementary and middle schools but not to high schools. Clarksburg High School is evaluated under the high school accountability model, which does not include this growth measure. The two middle schools and seven elementary schools in the cluster are evaluated under models that do include it. A direct comparison of star ratings between Clarksburg High School and the cluster's lower schools therefore compares schools measured on different indicator sets. The ratings are not strictly equivalent across levels, and MSDE does not present them as such.
The star rating also omits information that families may weigh heavily. It does not capture the breadth of Advanced Placement courses available at a school, the availability of application-based programs, or the specifics of dual-enrollment arrangements. It does not reflect class size, facility condition, or the capacity utilization figures that MCPS publishes in its Capital Improvements Program. The rating summarizes performance on the indicators MSDE selected for its accountability model, and it does so at a single point in time.
MSDE published 2024-25 report cards for all ten schools in the Clarksburg Cluster. The report card for Clarksburg High School, published for the 2024-25 school year, reports the school's star rating, chronic absenteeism rate, and improvement status. The report cards for each elementary and middle school in the cluster are published on the same MSDE report card website, with indicators appropriate to each level. MSDE also publishes lists of schools designated for support under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, through either Comprehensive Support and Improvement, known as CSI, or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement, known as ATSI. MCPS maintains a separate page listing district schools that carry ATSI designations.
Statewide, MSDE reported that 43 percent of Maryland schools earned four or five stars in 2024-25, up from 41 percent in 2023-24 and 38 percent in 2022-23. The share of Maryland schools receiving three or more stars reached 86 percent in 2024-25, compared with 83 percent in 2023-24 and 80 percent in 2022-23. These aggregates describe the state as a whole and do not indicate the rating of any individual school in the Clarksburg Cluster.
How this cluster fits into MCPS
MCPS is a county-wide public school system governed by an elected Board of Education, and the Montgomery County Council appropriates its operating budget under Maryland's Maintenance of Effort requirement, which sets a per-pupil funding floor the county must meet each year (MCPS).
The Clarksburg Cluster is one of several high school attendance areas within this single county-wide system. It is not a separate district. It has no independent governance, no independent budget, and no NCES LEA ID of its own. The cluster exists as an organizational unit for assigning students to schools by address and for administering the feeder pattern that connects elementary and middle schools to Clarksburg High School. MCPS operates as one PK-12 system with its own elementary, middle, and high schools, and no tuition-student arrangement exists with partner districts (Wikipedia). The Maryland State Archives identifies MCPS as a county-wide system governed by an elected Board of Education under Maryland Code, Education Article, Title III, Subtitle 9, with district territory coterminous with Montgomery County (Maryland State Archives).
The cluster spans two communities in northern Montgomery County. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, seven of the cluster's ten schools carry a Clarksburg mailing address in ZIP codes 20871 and 20841, while three carry a Germantown mailing address in ZIP code 20876. Clarksburg High School, Rocky Hill Middle, Little Bennett Elementary, Wilson Wims Elementary, and Hallie Wells Middle are located in Clarksburg. Fox Chapel Elementary, William B. Gibbs Jr. Elementary, and Cedar Grove Elementary are located in Germantown. The Maryland State Archives identifies Germantown as a census-designated place within Montgomery County (Maryland State Archives).
In the 2023-24 school year, the cluster enrolled 7,823 students across ten schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That total includes one high school, Clarksburg High, with 2,214 students in grades 9 through 12. Two middle schools serve the cluster: Rocky Hill Middle with 1,041 students and Hallie Wells Middle with 944 students, both serving grades 6 through 8. Seven elementary schools round out the cluster, with enrollments ranging from 349 students at Cedar Grove Elementary to 609 students at Little Bennett Elementary.
A defining structural feature of this cluster is shared articulation. Five of the cluster's ten schools also feed students to other high school clusters, because MCPS splits articulation at those buildings rather than assigning all students to a single destination. Cabin Branch Elementary, Clarksburg Elementary, and William B. Gibbs Jr. Elementary each send some students to the Seneca Valley Cluster. Hallie Wells Middle and Cedar Grove Elementary each send some students to the Damascus Cluster. The NCES reports that 2,840 of the cluster's 7,823 enrolled students attend these shared schools. Because NCES counts each shared school's full enrollment within every cluster it serves, totals across clusters overlap and must not be summed to produce a county-wide figure.
For a family living in this attendance area, the practical implication of shared articulation is that an address within the boundary of one of these five schools does not by itself determine the high school destination. MCPS assigns the specific feeder path based on residential address, independently of the elementary school name. The assignment depends on where the residence falls within MCPS's attendance boundaries, not on which elementary school building the student attends.
The cluster is not part of either of MCPS's two high school choice consortia. The Downcounty Consortium and the Northeast Consortium use a lottery-based selection process rather than address assignment. Students in the Clarksburg Cluster are assigned to Clarksburg High School by address, not through a choice process. The Board of Education has adopted a regional programs model beginning in the 2027-28 school year, under which high schools are organized into six regions and the consortium lottery ends. That change affects the consortium structure, not the address-based assignment that governs this cluster.
The Board of Education that governs MCPS consists of seven members elected to four-year terms under a mixed election structure, with the next election scheduled for June 23, 2026 (MCPS Board of Education). Board members set policy for the entire county-wide system, including the Clarksburg Cluster. MCPS headquarters are located in Rockville, and the cluster's schools are administered through the system's central administrative structure, with principals managing individual buildings.
Academic outcomes at these schools
The Maryland State Department of Education publishes a school report card for every public school in the state, including each of the ten schools in the Clarksburg cluster. MSDE's report card framework, as described in its 2024-25 overview document, assigns each school a star rating from one to five based on the percentage of accountability points the school earns across a defined set of academic and nonacademic indicators. Five stars indicate that a school earned at least 75 percent of available points. Four stars correspond to 60 to less than 75 percent. Three stars correspond to 45 to less than 60 percent. Two stars correspond to 30 to less than 45 percent. One star indicates less than 30 percent. MSDE published these ratings for the 2024-25 school year. The rating is an action MSDE took, not a property of the school itself, and it summarizes performance on the indicators MSDE selected for its accountability model.
The indicators that feed the star rating differ by school level, and this distinction matters for interpreting results across the Clarksburg cluster's ten schools. MSDE's 2024-25 overview specifies that the Academic Progress indicator, which measures student growth, applies to elementary and middle schools but not to high schools. Clarksburg High School is evaluated under the high school accountability model, which does not include this growth measure. The two middle schools and seven elementary schools in the cluster are evaluated under models that do include it. A direct comparison of star ratings between Clarksburg High School and the cluster's lower schools therefore compares schools measured on different indicator sets. The ratings are not strictly equivalent across levels, and MSDE does not present them as such.
MSDE's report card for Clarksburg High School, published for the 2024-25 school year, reports the school's star rating, chronic absenteeism rate, and improvement status. Chronic absenteeism appears as a nonacademic indicator on the MSDE report card. The report card also indicates whether the school has been designated for support under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, through either Comprehensive Support and Improvement, known as CSI, or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement, known as ATSI. MSDE published a list of CSI and ATSI schools in a June 2023 document, and MCPS maintains a separate page listing district schools that carry ATSI designations. The MSDE report card for each of the cluster's elementary and middle schools is published on the same report card website, with indicators appropriate to each level.
Statewide, the share of Maryland schools earning the top two ratings has increased over three reporting cycles. MSDE reported that 43 percent of Maryland schools earned four or five stars in 2024-25, up from 41 percent in 2023-24 and 38 percent in 2022-23. The share of Maryland schools receiving three or more stars reached 86 percent in 2024-25, compared with 83 percent in 2023-24 and 80 percent in 2022-23. MSDE published these statewide figures in 2025. These aggregates describe the state as a whole and do not indicate the rating of any individual school in the Clarksburg cluster. The three-year trend begins in 2022-23, following the cancellation of state testing in 2020 during the pandemic. No comparable statewide star ratings exist for that interrupted year, and the trajectory MSDE reports starts from the first full post-pandemic reporting cycle.
The Clarksburg cluster enrolled 7,823 students across its ten schools in the 2023-24 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data. NCES identifies the cluster's composition as one high school, two middle schools, and seven elementary schools. The federal data show that 33.4 percent of students in the cluster qualified for free or reduced-price meals. The demographic composition NCES reports for 2023-24 is 29.2 percent Asian, 26.7 percent Black, 23.3 percent Hispanic, 15.0 percent White, 5.3 percent of two or more races, 0.2 percent American Indian, and 0.1 percent Pacific Islander. These figures provide the enrollment context within which the MSDE accountability results are produced, but they do not themselves constitute academic outcomes.
Five of the ten schools in the Clarksburg cluster are shared with other clusters, a structural feature of MCPS articulation. NCES reports that 2,840 students, approximately 36 percent of the cluster's enrollment, attend these shared schools. MCPS splits articulation at several buildings, meaning that some students who attend an elementary or middle school counted within the Clarksburg cluster will proceed to a different high school cluster. Because enrollment in shared schools is counted in full for each cluster they serve, enrollment totals across clusters overlap and must not be summed. This structure affects how academic outcomes can be interpreted at the cluster level. The performance of a shared middle school, for example, reflects the achievement of students who will scatter across multiple high school clusters, not only those bound for Clarksburg High School. A family examining a shared school's MSDE report card is seeing results for a student body that does not exclusively feed Clarksburg High School.
MCPS supplements the MSDE report card with its own accountability publications. The MCPS Department of Shared Accountability published reports for the 2024 school year covering Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exam enrollment, participation, and performance, and separate reports covering SAT and ACT participation and performance. These are system-wide documents that present data by school. They offer a different perspective on academic outcomes than the MSDE star rating, focusing on the rate at which students take advanced coursework and college entrance exams and on their results. MCPS also publishes a school-at-a-glance page for each school through its Department of Shared Accountability, compiling enrollment, assessment, and demographic data in a single document that supplements the MSDE report card. MCPS published its 2024-2025 annual report, which provides system-level context for the academic outcomes reported by MSDE. The annual report sits alongside the school-level report cards and the Department of Shared Accountability's focused reports as part of the body of public information about academic performance in the district. A family seeking county-level figures for comparison against a cluster school's results would consult these MCPS publications.
The Board of Education has adopted a regional programs model that takes effect in the 2027-28 school year. Under this model, high schools will be organized into six regions, and the consortium choice process that currently operates in the Downcounty Consortium and the Northeast Consortium will end. The Clarksburg cluster is not part of either consortium. Students in the Clarksburg cluster are assigned to Clarksburg High School by address, and that assignment mechanism does not change under the regional model. MCPS published a Board of Education update in May 2026 addressing the transition, and Bethesda Magazine reported on the programming model changes in February 2026. The Clarksburg cluster page on the MCPS website provides the current list of schools and articulation information.
Variation between the schools in this cluster
The ten schools serving the Clarksburg cluster differ in enrollment size, grade configuration, geographic location, and articulation structure. The National Center for Education Statistics reports these figures for the 2023-24 school year.
Enrollment at the seven elementary schools ranges from 349 students at Cedar Grove Elementary to 609 at Little Bennett Elementary, a spread of 260 students. Between those endpoints sit Wilson Wims Elementary at 521, Fox Chapel Elementary at 598, William B. Gibbs Jr. Elementary at 601, Cabin Branch Elementary at 498, and Clarksburg Elementary at 448. The largest elementary school enrolls roughly 75 percent more students than the smallest. These size differences reflect attendance boundaries drawn by MCPS and the residential density within each catchment, not building capacity alone.
Grade configurations vary across the elementary schools in ways that affect when children enter and leave the elementary level. Four schools, Cabin Branch, Fox Chapel, William B. Gibbs Jr., and Wilson Wims, include pre-kindergarten. Three schools, Clarksburg Elementary, Little Bennett, and Cedar Grove, begin at kindergarten. Cabin Branch Elementary is the only school in the cluster whose grade span ends at grade 4 rather than grade 5. Students in the Cabin Branch attendance area therefore do not complete grade 5 at that building and attend a different MCPS school for that grade before moving on to middle school. MCPS sets these grade spans through boundary and facility planning.
The two middle schools differ modestly in size. Rocky Hill Middle School enrolls 1,041 students in grades 6 through 8. Hallie Wells Middle School enrolls 944 in the same grades. The gap of 97 students is smaller than the spread among elementary schools. Both middle schools send students to Clarksburg High School, though Hallie Wells also feeds Damascus High School under a shared articulation arrangement. Clarksburg High School enrolls 2,214 students in grades 9 through 12, making it larger than the two middle schools combined. The high school exceeds the larger middle school by more than 1,100 students, a function of consolidating the cluster's entire secondary population into one building.
Five of the ten schools in this cluster are shared with other MCPS clusters. NCES reports that 2,840 of the cluster's 7,823 students, approximately 36 percent, attend schools whose articulation splits between Clarksburg and at least one other high school cluster. Cabin Branch Elementary, Clarksburg Elementary, and William B. Gibbs Jr. Elementary also feed the Seneca Valley cluster. Cedar Grove Elementary and Hallie Wells Middle School also feed the Damascus cluster. A student living within the attendance zone of one of these five schools may be assigned to Clarksburg High School or to a different high school depending on the specific address. The enrollment figures reported here include shared schools in full, so the 7,823 total for the Clarksburg cluster overlaps with totals for the Seneca Valley and Damascus clusters. Summing enrollment across all MCPS clusters would double-count the 2,840 students in these five shared buildings.
The geographic distribution of the ten schools spans two communities. Eight schools carry a Clarksburg mailing address in zip codes 20871 or 20841. Two elementary schools, Fox Chapel and Cedar Grove, carry a Germantown mailing address in zip code 20876. Both Germantown schools sit in the southern portion of the cluster's attendance area.
At the cluster level, NCES reports a free and reduced-price meal rate of 33.4 percent for 2023-24. The aggregate racial and ethnic composition across all ten schools is 29.2 percent Asian, 26.7 percent Black, 23.3 percent Hispanic, 15.0 percent White, 5.3 percent two or more races, 0.2 percent American Indian, and 0.1 percent Pacific Islander. These are cluster-wide figures. They describe the combined enrollment of all ten schools, not the composition of any individual building.
MCPS reports academic outcomes for Clarksburg High School. For the 2021-22 school year, MCPS Schools at a Glance reports a combined SAT score of 1,111 with 66 percent participation. The Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section averaged 561. The Math section averaged 550. MCPS also reported one corporate-sponsored National Merit scholarship recipient at the school in 2024. These figures represent the high school level only. SAT and National Merit measures apply to high school performance and do not exist for the elementary or middle schools in the cluster.
Advanced academics and pathway access
Clarksburg High School lists approximately 28 distinct Advanced Placement courses on its AP course page. Clarksburg High School does not host an International Baccalaureate programme. Students in the Clarksburg Cluster who seek an IB diploma apply through the countywide process to IB host schools elsewhere in MCPS.
Programs housed at Clarksburg High School
Clarksburg High School houses two application-based programs. The Advanced Placement Power Scholars program, known as APPS, is a four-year cohort available only to students who live within the Clarksburg High School boundary. The program combines honors, AP, and dual-enrollment experiences across four years and includes a capstone research project. MCPS does not publish a cut score for APPS admission on the program's page. Because APPS is restricted to students within the Clarksburg boundary, it is not accessible through the countywide choice process. A student who lives outside the Clarksburg attendance area cannot apply.
The P-TECH Network and Information Technology program is an interest-based application program that MCPS lists for the Clarksburg eligibility area. Families apply through the ParentVUE portal during the high-school application window. MCPS does not publish an academic cut score for P-TECH. The P-TECH pathway is described as no-cost and leads toward an associate degree through Montgomery College. MCPS indicates that students may complete at least two college courses at no cost during fall and spring semesters under the dual-enrollment arrangement, and the P-TECH associate-degree pathway is specifically described as no-cost.
Countywide and regional programs available to Clarksburg students
Clarksburg Cluster students may apply to several criteria-based programs hosted at other MCPS high schools. Application is through ParentVUE during the published high-school application window. Admission involves central review of student data and application materials. Seats are limited for every program described below, and MCPS does not publish cluster-specific admission odds for any of them.
The Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet is a regional criteria-based program. Clarksburg Cluster students may apply to magnet sites such as Montgomery Blair High School or Poolesville High School. Admission involves centralized review of applicant materials, and seats are limited.
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is available to Clarksburg Cluster students through countywide application to IB host schools. The program is criteria-based with central review. MCPS does not publish cluster-specific odds.
Poolesville High School hosts two programs accessible to Clarksburg students. The Global Ecology House is countywide. The Humanities House is regional. Both are criteria-based with centralized application and review. Seats are limited, and odds are not published.
The Visual Art Center at Albert Einstein High School is a countywide criteria-based program. Applicants may need to submit a portfolio or other materials. Application is through ParentVUE. Seats are limited, and odds are not published.
Middle school pathway and gifted identification
MCPS identifies gifted and talented students through systemwide universal screening of all Grade 2 students. Selected students in Grades 3, 5, and 7 may be re-screened. The Cognitive Abilities Test, or CogAT, is one criterion in the identification process, not a stand-alone decision instrument. This screening applies to all MCPS elementary schools, including those that feed into the Clarksburg Cluster, as described on the MCPS enriched programs FAQ page.
Two recent changes affect the pathway from elementary enrichment into advanced middle school and high school coursework. Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, MCPS began phasing out the Grade 4-5 Enriched Literacy Curriculum and replacing it with two enrichment models, according to the MCPS enriched curriculum page. For 2026-27, MCPS established new initial math-cluster criteria for rising Grade 4 students. These criteria use multiple measures and professional review rather than a single assessment score. MCPS published this policy in its Math Groups parent document in May 2026.
Placement toward taking Algebra I by Grade 8 is determined systemwide using multiple measures and professional review. The measures include report-card marks, district assessments, MAP results, MCAP scores, and ACCESS scores where applicable. MCPS does not use a single test to determine this placement. The Montgomery County Board of Education held a work session on math compression on May 7, 2026, according to a Board update, and a 2026-27 rollout is scheduled. This pathway determines which students arrive at Clarksburg High School having already completed Algebra I, positioning them to reach higher-level mathematics during high school.
Dual enrollment
Eligible students who meet Montgomery College requirements and course prerequisites may take approved college courses for dual credit that appear on the high-school transcript, as described on the MCPS dual-enrollment page. MCPS indicates that students may complete at least two college courses at no cost during fall and spring semesters. Montgomery College is the partner institution. The P-TECH associate-degree pathway at Clarksburg High School is described as no-cost.
Regional programs model, 2027-28
The Montgomery County Board of Education has adopted a regional programs model beginning in the 2027-28 school year, as reported by Bethesda Magazine. Under this model, high schools are organized into six regions, and the consortium lottery that currently governs the Downcounty Consortium and the Northeast Consortium ends. Clarksburg High School is a standard attendance-area cluster where students are assigned by address. It is not part of either consortium. The end of the consortium lottery therefore does not change how students are assigned to Clarksburg High School. The regional model restructures how countywide and regional special programs are organized and accessed across the system.
Enrollment, capacity, and boundaries
The Clarksburg Cluster enrolled 7,823 students across 10 schools in the 2023-24 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data. MCPS assigns students to schools in this cluster by home address. This is not a consortium area. A family living within the Clarksburg High School attendance boundary is assigned to that high school, to one of two middle schools, and to one of seven elementary schools, based on where the residence falls within mapped articulation lines. The cluster is a subdivision of Montgomery County Public Schools, not a separate district, and has no independent NCES LEA ID.
Schools and feeder structure
Clarksburg High School, located in Clarksburg (20871), served 2,214 students in grades 9 through 12 in 2023-24, per NCES. Two middle schools feed the high school. Rocky Hill Middle School, also in Clarksburg (20871), enrolled 1,041 students in grades 6 through 8. Hallie Wells Middle School, also in Clarksburg (20871), enrolled 944 students in the same grades. Hallie Wells is a shared articulation school: some of its students feed Damascus High School rather than Clarksburg High School, according to MCPS.
Seven elementary schools comprise the cluster's lower grades. Little Bennett Elementary (609 students, KG-5, Clarksburg 20871) and Wilson Wims Elementary (521 students, PK-5, Clarksburg 20871) feed within the Clarksburg Cluster. Fox Chapel Elementary (598 students, PK-5, Germantown 20876) also feeds within the cluster. Four additional elementary schools split their articulation between Clarksburg and other clusters. Cabin Branch Elementary (498 students, PK-4, Clarksburg 20841), Clarksburg Elementary (448 students, KG-5, Clarksburg 20871), and William B. Gibbs Jr. Elementary (601 students, PK-5, Germantown 20876) each share articulation with the Seneca Valley Cluster. Cedar Grove Elementary (349 students, KG-5, Germantown 20876) shares articulation with the Damascus Cluster.
Because five of the cluster's 10 schools are shared with other clusters, their enrollment counts appear in full in the 7,823-student total but also appear in the totals of neighboring clusters. The NCES data notes that 2,840 students are enrolled in these shared schools and that unit totals across the county overlap and must not be summed. Split articulations mean that two homes on the same street can feed to different middle schools or high schools. MCPS publishes a School Assignment Tool that maps specific addresses to specific schools, and the district advises families to verify their exact address rather than relying on school proximity or neighborhood names.
Capacity and utilization
The FY2027 Capital Improvements Program, published by MCPS in October 2025 using 2025-26 planning data, reports that Clarksburg High School had 2,210 students against a program capacity of 2,020 seats. That is a 190-seat deficit. The same CIP chapter identifies Snowden Farm Elementary School and Wilson Wims Elementary School as having substantial surplus seats. The cluster thus presents a mixed capacity picture: the high school is over capacity while some elementary schools within its attendance area have available space.
MCPS attributes enrollment demand in the Clarksburg area to residential development authorized under the Clarksburg Master Plan, which allows up to 15,000 residential units. At the same time, systemwide projections in the FY2027 CIP reflect continued declines in resident births as a factor that could moderate enrollment growth across MCPS. These two forces, development-driven demand in Clarksburg and declining births countywide, operate simultaneously. The net effect on this cluster's enrollment over the coming years will depend on how many of the authorized residential units are built and occupied by families with school-age children, and how far the birth-decline trend offsets that inflow.
MCPS has not published a Clarksburg-specific analysis showing where departing attendance-area students go, with destination counts. The adopted boundary changes described below do specify which areas will move to Damascus High School and Seneca Valley High School, but a broader accounting of outflow patterns through transfers, private school enrollment, or other departures is not available in a Clarksburg-specific publication.
Adopted secondary boundary changes
The Montgomery County Board of Education adopted new secondary boundaries on March 26, 2026, that will reassign portions of the Clarksburg Cluster to Damascus High School and Seneca Valley High School. The stated purpose is to address capacity and program distribution. The changes affect the Clarksburg High School attendance area, the Rocky Hill Middle School attendance area, and the Hallie Wells Middle School attendance area. The Board's action is documented in its March 27, 2026 update and in a district news release.
Implementation is phased. Middle school changes begin with grades 6 and 7 in the 2027-28 school year. Grade 8 students remain at their current school. Full middle school implementation, covering grades 6 through 8, takes effect in the 2028-29 school year. High school changes begin with grades 9 and 10 in the 2027-28 school year. Grades 11 and 12 remain at their current school. Full high school implementation, covering grades 9 through 12, takes effect in the 2029-30 school year.
This phasing means that a student entering grade 8 at Rocky Hill or Hallie Wells in 2027-28 will finish middle school at that school. A student entering grade 11 at Clarksburg High School in 2027-28 will finish high school there. A student entering grade 6 at an affected middle school in 2027-28, or grade 9 at Clarksburg High School, will be subject to the new boundaries. The Board adopted this grandfathering policy on March 26, 2026. Families should verify whether a specific address is affected by consulting the School Assignment Tool and the district's boundary study information.
The Board previously adopted high school boundary changes affecting the Clarksburg Cluster on November 26, 2019, as part of an upcounty high school boundary study involving Clarksburg, Northwest, and Seneca Valley clusters. That action grandfathered grades 11 and 12. The 2026 adoption is the second boundary change to affect this cluster in seven years.
Elementary and middle school consolidation study
Separately from the adopted secondary changes, the Board of Education adopted the scope of a School Consolidations and Closures Study for elementary and middle schools on March 26, 2026. The adopted resolution establishes two phases. Phase 1 examines potential consolidations, closures, and program delivery changes at the elementary and middle school levels. Phase 2 develops countywide elementary and middle school boundary changes.
The timeline calls for a consolidation and closure report with a superintendent recommendation in April 2027. Board action on consolidations and closures is scheduled for May 2027. Boundary option development and community engagement would run from June 2027 through March 2028. A boundary report and recommendation would follow in April 2028, with Board action in May 2028. Implementation of any approved changes would occur in the 2029-30 school year.
The study's criteria include enrollment projections, facility condition, utilization, geography, proximity, walkability, fiscal and operational efficiency, and program-delivery alignment with Board policies. All Clarksburg Cluster elementary school attendance areas fall within the study's scope, as do Rocky Hill Middle School and Hallie Wells Middle School. No school-specific consolidation or closure recommendations have been selected as of the Board's March 2026 adoption. The next signal will be the superintendent's recommendation in April 2027. The surplus seats identified at Snowden Farm and Wilson Wims elementaries in the CIP could factor into consolidation deliberations, but no recommendation has been made and no school has been named for closure.
Transfers and residency
Families assigned to Clarksburg Cluster schools who wish to attend a different MCPS school must obtain a Change of School Assignment approval. MCPS permits COSA requests for defined reasons, including hardship, family move, sibling attendance, and qualifying academic sequence, according to the 2026-27 COSA booklet. The deadline for COSA requests was April 7, 2026. Approvals depend on available space, enrollment, and staffing at the receiving school. Families approved for a COSA must provide their own transportation. MCPS does not publish approval rates or volumes by school.
Sibling preference is considered under the COSA process and may permit a student to attend a sibling's school when the siblings are enrolled concurrently. It is not a standard address-assignment rule. A family cannot invoke sibling preference to override a boundary change; the preference operates only within the COSA framework.
MCPS does not offer general open enrollment for nonresident students, according to the district's student services FAQ. Nonresident students may request admission as tuition-paying students, subject to approval. The Residency Office cannot waive tuition upon request.
MCPS enforces residency requirements through documentation, as specified in Policy JEA-RB. Homeowners provide a current property-tax bill. Renters provide a current lease, and a current utility bill if the lease has expired. Families in shared-housing arrangements submit notarized shared-housing documentation, host property records, and recent official mail tying the parent or guardian to the address. Proof of student age and identity and the enrolling adult's photo ID and relationship are also required. If residency is found not to be bona fide, MCPS may withdraw the student and assess full or retroactive nonresident tuition for the ineligible period. MCPS staff and pupil personnel workers may conduct verification activities, including home visits, when documents are insufficient.
The 2027-28 regional model
The Board of Education has adopted a regional programs model beginning in the 2027-28 school year, under which high schools are organized into six regions and the consortium lottery that governs the Downcounty Consortium and the Northeast Consortium ends. This change does not alter the assignment mechanism for the Clarksburg Cluster. Clarksburg High School is not part of either consortium. Students in the Clarksburg attendance area are assigned by address, not by lottery. The regional model reorganizes how MCPS administers programs across the county but does not convert Clarksburg into a choice school. Families in this cluster do not participate in a high school selection process and do not need to take action in response to the regional model.
Application-based programs
Clarksburg High School hosts application-based programs. MCPS confirms that these programs use a process that can place applicants on a waitlist, with invitations or waitlist numbers issued to applicants. These programs operate separately from the address-based assignment that governs general enrollment. A student who lives in the Clarksburg attendance area attends Clarksburg High School by right. A student who lives outside the attendance area may apply to a program there but is not guaranteed admission. The waitlist mechanism means that even qualified applicants may not receive an invitation in a given cycle.
New capacity pipeline
A major capital project to replace Damascus High School is planned for completion in August 2031, at 25921 Ridge Road in Damascus. MCPS states in the Damascus Cluster CIP chapter that the replacement adds high school capacity at Damascus and is planned to contribute to relief of overutilization at nearby schools, linked to the adopted reassignments from Clarksburg. This project is funded as a capital expenditure. The boundary changes adopted in March 2026 are designed to work in concert with the additional capacity once the replacement school opens. The sequence matters: boundary changes begin phasing in 2027-28, six years before the new Damascus High School is scheduled to open. During that interval, reassigned students from the Clarksburg area will attend the existing Damascus High School facility.
The fiscal picture for these schools
The Montgomery County Council appropriated $2,457,319,156 as the local contribution to MCPS for FY 2027, which was $161,540,160 above the state Maintenance of Effort floor of $2,295,778,996, according to the MCPS FY 2027 operating budget.
The Superintendent's FY 2027-2032 capital plan proposed a $2.704 billion six-year Capital Improvements Program and called the backlog of critical infrastructure and school-replacement projects "extensive," according to MCPS CIP documentation. The plan stated that even the proposed $2.704 billion did not address the full need. MCPS did not publish a single quantified deferred-maintenance or capital-backlog estimate in the reviewed plan.
MCPS cannot issue bonded debt. Montgomery County issues general obligation bonds for school construction, and the County's credit ratings determine the borrowing cost. Moody's affirmed an Aaa rating on October 29, 2025, according to a County press release. S&P affirmed a AAA rating with a stable outlook on April 1, 2026, according to S&P Global. Fitch affirmed a AAA rating with a stable outlook on October 28, 2025, according to Fitch Ratings. These ratings affect the cost of borrowing for capital projects across all MCPS clusters, including Clarksburg.
MCPS's own reported obligations, separate from County-issued debt, consist of finance agreements, leases, and subscription liabilities totaling $332,195,754 outstanding as of June 30, 2025, according to the MCPS ACFR for FY 2025. MCPS reported FY 2025 principal and interest debt-service expenditures of $35,363,050 but did not publish that figure as a percentage of its budget.
The adopted FY 2027 operating budget is balanced as an appropriation but is not fully balanced on a recurring basis, according to MCPS. It uses a one-time $25 million OPEB Fund allocation to support the Employee Benefit Plan Fund. The budget identifies future planned lapse-and-turnover reductions of up to $30 million over three years and Employee Benefit Plan deficit-recovery amounts of $70 million in FY 2028 and $40 million in FY 2029. It also projects enrollment down by 4,956 students for FY 2027. Declining enrollment affects per-pupil funding calculations under the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, which sets state policy and funding formulas across this period.
When federal ESSER grant funding ended, MCPS stated that it moved resources and services from the discontinued grant into the recurring operating budget, according to MCPS. The adopted FY 2025 budget nevertheless required $30,592,295 of reductions, including 122.7 FTE from raising class-size guidelines, reduced staff-development allocations, central-office position cuts, elimination of the Montgomery Virtual Academy, delayed pre-K expansion, and contractual-service reductions, according to MCPS.
MCPS reported an unassigned General Fund balance of $21,478,157 as of June 30, 2025, according to the MCPS ACFR for FY 2025. That balance rose over three audited years: $8.2 million in FY 2023, $11.9 million in FY 2024, and $21.478 million in FY 2025. At June 30, 2025, the Board reported a net pension liability of $327,438,904 and a net OPEB liability of $1,780,817,031. These are MCPS and Board obligations reported in its ACFR and are not County general obligation debt.
For Levy Year 2026 and FY 2027, a standard Tax Class 1 property outside a municipality carries Montgomery County components totaling $1.0401 per $100 of assessed value, according to the Montgomery County property tax rate schedule. That total includes a County-administered $0.0470 component labeled "General County Tax (MCPS Only)." Adding Maryland's $0.1120 state rate gives $1.1521. MCPS itself has no independent taxing authority. The County Council rejected the County Executive's proposed 6.3-cent FY 2027 property-tax increase.
The comparable service-inclusive Montgomery County rate rose from $0.9905 in FY 2022 to $0.9915 in FY 2023 and $1.0402 in FY 2024, then eased to $1.0392 in FY 2025 and remained $1.0392 in FY 2026, according to the County. The current FY 2027 standard outside-municipality County-component total is $1.0401 per $100. For comparison, the Department of Legislative Services publishes FY 2026 county rates of $1.1100 for Frederick County, $1.2500 for Howard County, and $1.3740 for Prince George's County, according to the Department of Legislative Services.
Montgomery County Question A on the November 3, 2026 ballot would amend Charter Section 305 to require unanimous approval by all Councilmembers, rather than seven of eleven, when the County operating budget grows faster than the specified Washington-area CPI, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. It is a county fiscal charter amendment, not an MCPS bond or independent school levy.
The municipal and land-use context
The Clarksburg cluster enrolled 7,823 students in 2023-24, according to MCPS. Development in the cluster's attendance area operates under county-wide policies that connect residential construction to school capacity through two mechanisms: school impact taxes and the Adequate Public Facilities school test.
Montgomery County's Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit program requires developers of projects with 20 or more units to set aside 12.5% to 15% of units as moderately priced housing. The Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs administers this mandate. Projects that include at least 25% MPDUs or Workforce Housing Units receive an exemption from school impact taxes, which the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services collects. The Montgomery Planning Board establishes student generation rates that determine the school impact tax owed by a residential project. These rates estimate the number of school-age children a given type and size of housing unit will produce. A single-family detached home generates a different expected student count than a high-rise apartment, and the tax scales accordingly. The revenue flows to MCPS capacity planning. No official source quantifies a net MCPS fiscal impact from the MPDU mandate or the impact-tax exemption. The documented nexus runs through the impact-tax revenue stream and MCPS enrollment and capacity projections, not through a direct fiscal accounting of the mandate's costs or benefits.
The Adequate Public Facilities ordinance provides a second mechanism linking land-use decisions to school capacity. In municipalities such as Rockville, residential development proposals must pass a school adequacy test before approval. Annexation petitions filed with the City of Rockville intersect with this test. The City's resolution descriptors state that annexation petitions may require an MCPS determination on whether school capacity is adequate to serve the proposed development. This mechanism means that municipal annexation decisions can trigger a formal assessment of whether schools in the affected area have sufficient seats.
Three annexation movements in Rockville and Gaithersburg illustrate how development proposals interact with school capacity planning in Montgomery County. The City of Rockville is advancing a proposal to annex land near the Shady Grove Metro Station under petition ANX2023-00147. The City announced it was advancing the proposal on March 31, 2025. A consultant presented annexation plans to the Mayor and Council on April 30, 2025. The City issued public hearing notices for March 9, March 23, and April 13, 2026. According to the City of Rockville's resolution descriptors, this annexation petition intersects with Rockville's Adequate Public Facilities school test, potentially requiring an MCPS determination on school adequacy.
A second Rockville annexation, petition 2026-234-ANX for 1000 Westmore Avenue, involves approximately 10.45 acres. The Rockville Mayor and Council introduced the proposal on February 2, 2026, following a petition submitted by Interstate Westmore, LLC. City staff released a report on March 25, 2026. The City issued a public hearing resolution in March 2026 and announced neighborhood meetings for April 9, 2026.
In Gaithersburg, the Crown Farm High School annexation agreement has been approved. The City of Gaithersburg states that under the terms of the annexation agreement, the City will transfer the Crown Farm High School site to MCPS once two years of construction funding have been secured. This provision directly links a municipal land-use action to the MCPS capital pipeline. The funding milestone has not yet been met, according to the City's July 2026 project page.
The fiscal relationship between MCPS and Montgomery County government determines how school capacity responds to development pressure. MCPS is a fiscally dependent school system. The Board of Education prepares and adopts a requested budget. The County Executive recommends a funding level. The County Council appropriates the final amount. The Board of Education then adopts a spending plan within the available revenues. For FY2027, MCPS reported that the County Council's action left approximately a $36 million gap relative to MCPS's original request. The Board of Education subsequently adopted reductions affecting 415 positions. The final FY2027 budget adoption totaled $3.72 billion, according to MCPS.
Montgomery County maintains AAA general-obligation bond ratings, and county reserve levels stand near policy targets, according to county financial materials. FY2027 recommendations note revenue enhancements and cost pressures. As a fiscally dependent local education agency, MCPS experiences county fiscal conditions through the County Council's annual appropriations to MCPS operating and capital budgets. State law requires the county to appropriate at least the prior year's per-pupil amount under Maintenance of Effort. Funding above that floor is discretionary and is the recurring point of contention between the Board of Education and the County Council. The Blueprint for Maryland's Future sets state policy and funding formulas across this period. These county-level fiscal decisions determine the resources available for school construction, staffing, and operations that serve the Clarksburg cluster and all other clusters in the system.
Real estate and the price of admission
ZIP code boundaries and Montgomery County Public Schools attendance boundaries do not share the same shape. A Clarksburg mailing address does not guarantee assignment to the Clarksburg cluster, and the cluster's attendance area may include addresses with neighboring ZIP designations. The cluster is defined by MCPS attendance lines, not by postal routes.
The Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs maintains a Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) rental list that includes properties in the Clarksburg area. The MPDU program sets maximum rents for units reserved for income-eligible households in qualifying developments, below what the market would otherwise charge. The County's MPDU rental list shows Elms at Clarksburg Village with posted maximum MPDU rents of $1,494 for a one-bedroom unit, $1,796 to $1,887 for a two-bedroom unit, and $2,167 for a three-bedroom unit. The list directs renters to the property manager for availability and does not assert live vacancy for each unit type. These figures represent regulated affordability ceilings for income-eligible households, not a survey of asking rents across all available units in the area.
Montgomery County publishes an estimated tax map that identifies development districts, which carry special tax rates overlaid on the standard county property tax to fund infrastructure in growing areas. The map lists Clarksburg Village and Clarksburg Town Center as proposed development districts, though the cited page shows no current special-tax rate for either. A proposed development district designation indicates that the county has identified the area for infrastructure financing through supplemental property taxes, but the absence of a posted rate means no such surcharge is currently in effect on the cited page.
The residential pipeline in the Clarksburg attendance area includes several projects at different stages of the county planning process. The Montgomery County Planning Board approved a Preliminary Plan Amendment for the remaining residential phase of Clarksburg Town Center, which consists of 390 low-rise multifamily units within an overall 1,300-unit entitlement. An entitlement in land-use terms is a government approval granting the right to develop at a specified density. The Planning Board's record for this phase documents testing for school adequacy under the county's Annual School Test, which evaluates whether sufficient school capacity exists before residential development can proceed. The remaining multifamily dwellings represent the next build-out component of a long-planned community.
The Planning Board approved Ruby Senior Living on March 13, 2025, for age-restricted residential care serving people age 62 and older, with up to 120 beds across eight buildings. The Planning Board found that this application has no impact on school capacity, because age-restricted housing does not generate school-age children. Willow Manor at Clarksburg, a Development Plan Amendment heard by the Planning Board on June 26, 2025, would raise the permitted senior-living cap within the Cabin Branch area from 500 to 650 units overall, and from 100 to 150 in Study Area A. Staff noted that the amendment would not itself add units. It raises the cap and requires later preliminary and site plan approvals before construction.
The Montgomery County Council approved the Clarksburg Gateway Sector Plan on March 24, 2026, with Planning Board adoption following. The plan reorients approximately 969 acres east of I-270 from employment and industrial uses toward mixed-use CR and CRT zoning, which permits residential development at higher densities than the prior zoning allowed. The plan envisions enhanced transit and roadway links, including a transit network and the Little Seneca Parkway connection to I-270. These are plan-level recommendations, not construction contracts. The plan's adoption means that future development proposals in the Gateway area can seek residential and mixed-use approvals under the new zoning, subject to the county's MPDU requirements.
A draft of the Clarksburg plan includes a recommendation for a tax increment financing (TIF) district on the former COMSAT campus site at 22300 Comsat Drive. A TIF diverts a portion of new property tax revenue generated by redevelopment back to the project area to finance infrastructure. No TIF district has been established, and no executed agreement has been located. The former COMSAT Laboratories campus is in transition, with demolition of the former laboratory building reported in April 2026 by Bethesda Magazine. The site is planned for mixed-use redevelopment including employment, research and development, life science, and retail or residential uses, but no site-plan approval or project value has been published.
The Clarksburg Town Center commercial area received Planning Board approval on November 6, 2025, for a Weis filling station with three pumps and six fueling positions and a 500-square-foot kiosk, using an existing 106,920-square-foot commercial entitlement. This addition does not change the residential capacity of the site.
Choice and alternatives to the assigned school
Families residing in the Clarksburg cluster are assigned to Clarksburg High School by address. This cluster is not part of the Downcounty Consortium or the Northeast Consortium, the two attendance areas in MCPS where students select among several high schools through a ranked Choice lottery rather than receiving a single geographic assignment. The Board of Education has adopted a regional programs model beginning in the 2027-28 school year, under which high schools are organized into six regions and the consortium lottery ends. That reorganization changes how choice programs are structured across the county, but families in this cluster currently receive a single high school assignment based on their home address.
MCPS operates countywide application programs spanning kindergarten through grade 12. Elementary options include immersion and enrichment centers. Middle school options include magnets and consortia. High school options include application and signature programs such as International Baccalaureate, STEM, the Visual Art Center at Albert Einstein High School, P-TECH, and career academies. Families apply through the ParentVUE portal during posted application windows. Consortia use ranked Choice lotteries. Criteria-based programs use defined admissions criteria. Immersion programs use a lottery for entry grades when demand exceeds capacity. A student who applies to and is admitted to a countywide program attends the host school rather than the geographically assigned school.
Transportation for these programs is provided according to program rules. Local and consortium routes use neighborhood stops. Regional and countywide programs may use central stops rather than door-to-door service. The specific transportation arrangement depends on how the program is classified, and families confirm stop locations through the district's transportation department.
Several countywide programs are hosted at buildings outside the Clarksburg cluster. The Visual Art Center, a portfolio-preparation program, is sited at Albert Einstein High School. The Cybersecurity regional program offers industry credentials including CompTIA Network+ and CompTIA Security+. Dual enrollment pathways through Montgomery College allow students to earn college credit. Students admitted to these programs travel to the host sites.
MCPS permits home instruction under Maryland state law. The district tracks home-schooled students and provides information through its curriculum website. Families filing for home instruction comply with state requirements as administered through MSDE's home instruction provisions.
The BOOST program, administered by MSDE, provides grants for certain students attending nonpublic schools. BOOST operated in 2025-2026 with an application window from March 9 through May 8, 2026, with priority for current recipients and siblings. A 2026 fiscal note described priorities and prospective funding. No MCPS-specific recipient count or local fiscal effect was published.
Under Maryland law and MCPS Policy CFB, the Montgomery County Board of Education serves as the primary local charter school authorizer. The Board voted 6-2 on April 30, 2026 to revoke a charter effective June 30, 2026. The revocation involved special-education compliance, student-privacy, staffing, and financial concerns, Bethesda Magazine reported. No later stay or appeal disposition was located through July 26, 2026.
MCPS publishes current application deadlines, eligibility criteria, and available seats through its special programs admissions page and school choice department. Families seeking alternatives to the assigned school consult these published procedures, which vary by program and year.
Programs, logistics, and special populations
The Clarksburg cluster comprises 10 schools serving 7,823 students in the 2023-24 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Five of these schools are shared with other clusters, meaning MCPS splits articulation at several buildings so that some elementary and middle schools feed into multiple high school clusters. Enrollment in those shared schools totals 2,840. Because shared-school enrollment is counted in full for each cluster, unit totals across the county overlap and must not be summed.
MCPS provides special education services across the district through several program models. The district's offerings include the Home School Model, LAD/Resource Services, Learning for Independence, School Community-Based Services, Autism services, Deaf and Hard of Hearing and vision services, and a Preschool Education Program. These are system-wide program categories. Which specific programs operate at individual buildings within the Clarksburg cluster is determined by the district based on student need and staffing, and families confirm building-level placements through the school's IEP team.
MSDE has required corrective actions from MCPS in two recent special education complaints. In Complaint 26-390, MSDE amended an April 30, 2026 finding on the provision of speech-language services and required corrective actions with completion documentation deadlines. In Complaint 26-361, MSDE issued findings on service-plan goals, progress measurement, and annual review timeliness, requiring determinations and staff guidance by June 18, 2026. Both matters are documented in MSDE complaint letters published in 2026.
English learner services in MCPS include English Language Development, Spanish-English Two-Way Immersion using a 50/50 model, and one-way world-language immersion in Chinese, French, and Spanish. The Two-Way Immersion programs operate at Brown Station Elementary, Kemp Mill Elementary, Gaithersburg Elementary, Oakland Terrace Elementary, Rolling Terrace Elementary, and Washington Grove Elementary. None of these buildings are within the Clarksburg cluster. MCPS indicates that English language learner enrollment data are presented to the Board of Education. No districtwide count or percentage is published on MCPS's English learner web pages.
Transportation eligibility in MCPS is set by distance from school. Elementary students living more than 1.0 mile from their school are eligible for bus service. Middle school students must live more than 1.5 miles away. High school students must live more than 2.0 miles away. Hazardous conditions and transportation required by a student's IEP may override these distance thresholds. MCPS indicates that regular education schedules are available but some routes may experience delays. Updated route sheets are uploaded daily by school, and route and stop information is available through posted route sheets. School-specific bell-time sheets are posted by school and are subject to change near the start of the year.
Bell times vary by school and level. MCPS publishes bell schedules illustrating the tiered structure: Rockville High School operates 7:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Kingsview Middle School operates 8:15 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and Beall Elementary School operates 9:00 a.m. to 3:25 p.m. These examples show the staggered schedule, with high schools starting earliest, middle schools next, and elementary schools latest. Bell-time sheets for schools in the Clarksburg cluster are posted by the district and subject to change near the start of the school year.
Class sizes in MCPS are governed by staffing guidelines rather than hard caps. For the 2024-2025 school year, MCPS set elementary kindergarten at 25 students, grades 1 and 2 at 26, grade 3 at 27, and grades 4 and 5 at 29. In Focus and Title I schools, the guidelines are lower: kindergarten through grade 2 at 19, grade 3 at 25, and grades 4 and 5 at 27. Middle and high school guidelines set English classes at 30 students and other courses at 33. These are staffing targets used to allocate teachers, not enforceable maximums. According to NCES data for 2023-24, 33.4 percent of students in the Clarksburg cluster qualified for free or reduced-price meals.
Before and after school care is provided through outside organizations operating in MCPS buildings. Bar-T Kids Club reports serving 33 MCPS schools. Montgomery Child Care Association lists specific elementary sites. Availability is provider- and site-specific, and no districtwide waitlist is published. Pricing is set by the provider, not the district, and varies by school, schedule, and subsidy eligibility. Montgomery County's Working Parents Assistance program may offset costs for eligible families. Families apply directly with providers and inquire about current waitlists well before the school year begins.
Prekindergarten in MCPS follows a mixed model and is not universal. Eligibility depends on age, residency, income, and space availability. After registration through ParentVUE, eligible children are assigned to a school location based on space and eligibility rather than every neighborhood school offering a seat. MCPS does not publish a districtwide seat or waitlist total on its prekindergarten web pages.
The traditional 2026-2027 student calendar runs from August 25, 2026 through June 11, 2027. Arcola Elementary and Roscoe Nix Elementary operate on the Innovative, extended calendar. MCPS does not operate on a four-day week.
Safety, climate, and community
MCPS publishes a School Safety and Security at a Glance report for each school. The most recent published edition for Clarksburg High School covers the 2021-2022 school year. MCPS reported 57 serious incidents at the school in that period. MCPS reported that police were called for 8 of those incidents. The report listed 0 incidents in its arrest category. The overall safety-related out-of-school-suspension incident total was suppressed in the published table. MCPS defines the categories and counts in this report internally, and they are not interchangeable with the discipline tables the district publishes separately.
Clarksburg High School does not have a School Resource Officer stationed in the building. Effective April 4, 2022, MCPS and the Montgomery County Police Department implemented a Community Engagement Officer model under a memorandum of understanding. The model assigns sworn officers, called Community Engagement Officers, to clusters with designated office space and response duties. Officers are not permanently stationed at individual schools. This model replaced the prior SRO program.
On December 11, 2024, an off-campus lunchtime altercation near Clarksburg High School involved students associated with Clarksburg and Damascus high schools. One student was evaluated by the school nurse and transported to a hospital. The principals of Clarksburg and Damascus high schools notified families, asked that video of the incident not be redistributed, stated that restorative practices would be used to address and prevent further conflict, and reported that a police investigation was underway. (Yahoo News, DC News Now)
MCPS's 2025-2026 Student Code of Conduct emphasizes accountability, repairing harm, and restoration of learning communities, consistent with a restorative approach to discipline. The code governs student conduct across the district, including Clarksburg High School.
For the 2025-2026 school year, MCPS permits high-school students, including those at Clarksburg High, to use personal mobile devices before and after school, on buses, during lunch, and between classes. During instructional time, devices must be off and out of sight, with limited documented exceptions. Maryland adopted HB 525, the Joanne C. Benson Maryland Phone-Free Schools Act, requiring each county board to develop and implement a phone-free schools policy by the 2027-2028 school year. MCPS already operates a system-wide phone policy and can adjust it to meet the statewide requirement.
MCPS administered its Districtwide Culture and Climate Survey, a streamlined instrument, in May and June 2025. The district published system-wide results. MCPS flagged what it termed "emerging concerns" where 15 to 24 percent of respondents expressed disagreement on survey items related to student feelings of safety and peer respect. These figures reflect system-wide response patterns, not Clarksburg-specific results.
A parent coalition and several local officials disputed the transparency, engagement, and enrollment assumptions underlying MCPS's boundary recommendations. The Board of Education adopted the boundary plan on March 26, 2026, including a future reassignment involving the Clarksburg Cluster. (Bethesda Magazine, MCPS Board Update, Board Adopted Plan) No public Inspector General or Maryland State Department of Education finding was identified resolving the complainants' allegations.
Leadership and community
The Clarksburg Cluster is a subdivision of Montgomery County Public Schools and has no separate governance. Leadership decisions affecting the cluster are made by the MCPS superintendent and the Montgomery County Board of Education, both of which operate system-wide.
Superintendent Thomas W. Taylor began a four-year term on July 1, 2024, under a contract running through June 30, 2028, with a starting annual salary of $360,000, according to the employment contract published by the Montgomery Perspective. Before joining MCPS, Taylor served as superintendent in Stafford County and Middlesex County, Virginia, accumulating more than 25 years of experience as a teacher, coach, principal, and district leader, according to MCPS.
Taylor's appointment followed a period of leadership turnover. Jack R. Smith retired as superintendent on June 1, 2021, according to MCPS and the Maryland State Archives. Monifa B. McKnight served from June 1, 2021, until February 2, 2024, according to MCPS. Her departure came under a separation agreement that paid $1.3 million, according to WUSA9 and MyMCMedia. Monique Felder served as interim superintendent from February 6, 2024, until Taylor's start, according to MCPS.
The Montgomery County Board of Education consists of eight members: one from each of five geographic districts, two at-large members, and one student member who serves a one-year term. According to MCPS, Grace Rivera-Oven, first elected in 2022 from District 1, serves as President with a term expiring in 2026. Brenda Wolff, first elected in 2018 from District 5, serves as Vice President with a term expiring in 2026. The remaining members are Rita Montoya (At Large, elected 2024, term expires 2028), Karla Silvestre (At Large, elected 2018, term expires 2026), Laura Stewart (District 4, elected 2024, term expires 2028), Julie Yang (District 3, elected 2022, term expires 2026), Natalie Zimmerman (District 2, elected 2024, term expires 2028), and a student member elected in 2026 with a term expiring in 2027. The Clarksburg Cluster's specific Board representative is determined by the voter's address within one of the five geographic districts.
Recent Board elections have been contested. In the November 8, 2022, general election, Karla Silvestre won At Large, Grace Rivera-Oven won District 1, Julie Yang won District 3, and Brenda Wolff won District 5, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. In the November 5, 2024, general election, Rita Montoya won At Large, Natalie Zimmerman won District 2, and Laura Stewart won District 4, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. In the June 23, 2026, primary, Brenda M. Diaz and Omar Lazo advanced for At Large, while Sally A. McCarthy and Cassandra Sung advanced for District 3. The general election remained pending as of July 26, 2026, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections.
Taylor's cabinet, as listed in MCPS's organizational leadership directory, includes Chief of Staff Essie McGuire, Chief Safety Officer Marcus G. Jones, Chief Technology Officer Kimberly Fields, Chief Academic Officer Niki Porter, Chief Equity and Development Officer Nyah Hamlett, Chief Operations Officer Adnan Mamoon, Chief of Legal Services Robyn Seabrook, Chief School Leadership Officer Peter O. Moran, Chief Financial Officer Ivon Alfonso-Windsor, Chief Student Support Officer Margaret Cage, and Chief Talent Management Officer Renee McCall.
Three bargaining units represent MCPS employees. The Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), with approximately 14,000 members, has a contract expiring June 30, 2027, according to MCEA. SEIU Local 500's most recent posted agreement expired June 30, 2026, and MCPS had not posted a successor as of July 26, 2026, according to MCPS's Association Relations page. The Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals / Montgomery County Business and Operations Administrators (MCAAP/MCBOA) holds a contract running through June 30, 2028, according to MCPS. MCEA publicly describes 2026 as an active bargaining year, according to MCEA. The sourced record shows open and uneven bargaining across units, but no reported impasse or strike authorization.
The last MCPS work stoppage occurred in 1968, when employees struck for 10 days from February 2 through February 11, 1968, returning on February 12, 1968, according to Montgomery History.
MSDE issued a final special-education complaint finding, numbered 26-361, on April 17, 2026, and required corrective-action documentation by June 18, 2026, according to MSDE. The investigation was final. Public confirmation that MSDE closed the corrective action was not located. Separately, the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits issued a financial-management audit in September 2022 with 13 findings. MCPS agreed with the recommendations and listed implementation dates through August 2024. That audit did not establish a continuing monitor or takeover. In January 2024, the Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General issued employee-misconduct-process findings. MCPS publicly tracked corrective actions, including a complaint database, policy and manual revisions, staffing, and training.
MCPS publishes class-size planning guidelines rather than statutory caps. For 2024-2025, the guidelines set general elementary kindergarten at 25 students, grades 1-2 at 26, grade 3 at 27, and grades 4-5 at 29, according to MCPS. For Focus and Title I schools, kindergarten through grade 2 was set at 19, grade 3 at 25, and grades 4-5 at 27. At the secondary level, the guideline for English classes was 30 students and for other courses 33. Review is triggered when three or more classes in a grade exceed a guideline, but extra staffing is not guaranteed. These are staffing guidelines, not legal caps, and no compliance finding was located.
The federal civil rights case Mahmoud v. Taylor reached settlement in February 2026. The U.S. Supreme Court held 6-3 on June 27, 2025, that the parents were entitled to a preliminary injunction and remanded the case, according to the Supreme Court. The parties signed a consent judgment on February 19, 2026, requiring MCPS to give advance notice when covered storybooks will be used, permit affected families to opt out, administer the consent judgment, and make a reported $1.5 million payment, according to Maryland Matters and K-12 Dive. The reported judgment leaves the federal court with compliance jurisdiction.
On December 11, 2024, an off-campus lunchtime altercation near Clarksburg High School involved students associated with Clarksburg and Damascus high schools, and one student was transported to a hospital, according to Yahoo News and DC News Now. The two principals notified families, discouraged redistribution of video, described restorative follow-up, and said police were investigating. The principals are not named in the published reports.
Risks and watch items: the forward calendar
MSDE issued a final special-education complaint finding, numbered 26-361, on April 17, 2026, and required corrective-action documentation by June 18, 2026, according to MSDE. For this complaint, MCPS had to document the required funding and IEP-team determination and school-staff notifications to MSDE. The public letter does not state that closure has occurred. The corrective-action deadline has passed, but public confirmation of closure was not located as of July 26, 2026. MSDE is the deciding body for closure of this corrective action.
The 2026 Board of Education general election remained pending as of July 26, 2026, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. In the June 23, 2026, primary, Brenda M. Diaz and Omar Lazo advanced for At Large, while Sally A. McCarthy and Cassandra Sung advanced for District 3. Four seats have terms expiring in 2026: District 1, District 3, District 5, and At Large. The Maryland State Board of Elections administers the election, and voters decide the outcome. The composition of the Board affects future decisions about boundary changes, capital projects, and system-wide policy that apply to the Clarksburg Cluster.
The Board of Education has adopted a regional programs model beginning in the 2027-2028 school year, under which high schools are organized into six regions and the consortium lottery ends. The Downcounty Consortium and the Northeast Consortium, where students currently select among several high schools through a choice process, will transition to the regional structure. The Clarksburg Cluster is not part of either consortium. Families in this attendance area are assigned to Clarksburg High School by address, and that assignment mechanism does not change under the regional model. The Board of Education is the deciding body.
MCPS must have a county-board personal-electronic-device policy implementing Maryland HB 525 in place for the 2027-2028 school year, according to the Maryland General Assembly. The state requirement may cause MCPS to revise or formalize existing phone restrictions at Clarksburg High School. MCPS already implemented system-wide high-school phone restrictions for the 2025-2026 school year, according to MCPS. Under those restrictions, devices are off and out of sight during instruction but permitted before and after school, on buses, during lunch, and between classes, with limited exceptions. The HB 525 implementation window runs from August 2027 through June 2028. The Maryland General Assembly enacted the requirement, and the MCPS Board of Education must implement it.
The MCEA contract expires June 30, 2027, according to MCEA. The Board of Education and MCEA are the deciding bodies for any successor agreement. SEIU Local 500's most recent posted agreement expired June 30, 2026, and no successor was located as of July 26, 2026, according to MCPS. The Board of Education and SEIU Local 500 are the deciding bodies for any successor agreement.
MCPS announced boundary recommendations and proposed regional programs in February 2026, according to MCPS. The Board of Education approved the system-wide boundary and regional-program plan on March 26, 2026, according to MCPS. For the Clarksburg Cluster, the adopted materials reassign the Snowden Farm Elementary attendance area from Clarksburg High School to Damascus High School, according to the Board's adopted materials. This reassignment is phased after the Damascus High School capital project. The phased implementation begins with grades 9 and 10 in the 2031-2032 school year. Full implementation across grades 9 through 12 follows in the 2033-2034 school year. The Board of Education is the deciding body for this boundary change.
Best fit: who this cluster serves well
Clarksburg High School lists approximately 28 distinct Advanced Placement courses on its AP course page. This breadth positions the cluster to serve students who want to pursue AP coursework across multiple subjects without leaving their attendance-area school. The AP Power Scholar program, known as APPS, is a four-year cohort restricted to students who live within the Clarksburg High School boundary. It combines honors, AP, and dual-enrollment experiences across four years and includes a capstone research project, as described on the special programs page. Because APPS is restricted to boundary residents, it is not accessible through the countywide choice process. A student who lives outside the Clarksburg attendance area cannot apply. This restriction means that APPS is a structural feature of residence within the cluster boundary, unlike countywide magnet programs that require application and are available to students across MCPS.
The P-TECH Network and Information Technology program at Clarksburg High School is an interest-based application program that leads toward an associate degree through Montgomery College. MCPS describes the P-TECH associate-degree pathway as no-cost, and students may complete at least two college courses at no cost during fall and spring semesters under the dual-enrollment arrangement. This program positions the cluster to serve students interested in information technology who want to earn college credit during high school. The program is application-based, so it is not guaranteed to every student in the attendance area, but it is sited at Clarksburg High School and does not require transferring to another building.
Dual enrollment with Montgomery College is available to eligible students who meet Montgomery College requirements and course prerequisites. MCPS indicates that students may complete at least two college courses at no cost during fall and spring semesters. This pathway is available system-wide, not exclusively to Clarksburg students, but its availability at Clarksburg High School means that students can pursue college credit without leaving the building.
The cluster is not structurally positioned to serve students seeking an International Baccalaureate diploma. Clarksburg High School does not host an IB programme. Students in the Clarksburg Cluster who seek an IB diploma must apply through the countywide process to IB host schools elsewhere in MCPS, as described on the MCPS special programs page. Admission to those programs is criteria-based with central review, seats are limited, and MCPS does not publish cluster-specific admission odds. The IB pathway requires leaving the attendance-area school.
Countywide and regional criteria-based programs, including the Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet at Montgomery Blair High School or Poolesville High School, the Global Ecology House and Humanities House at Poolesville High School, and the Visual Art Center at Albert Einstein High School, are available to Clarksburg Cluster students through application, as described on the MCPS admissions page. These programs are not housed at Clarksburg High School, and admission is not guaranteed. The cluster's structural position is that of an attendance-area school with AP coursework and specialized application-based programs, not a magnet or choice school.
The high school's capacity constraint affects the conditions under which programs operate. Clarksburg High School operated at 109.8 percent utilization in the FY2027 CIP, with 2,218 students against a program capacity of 2,020 seats. The adopted boundary changes will reassign portions of the cluster to Damascus High School and Seneca Valley High School beginning in 2027-28, as documented in the Board's March 27, 2026 update. Full high school implementation takes effect in the 2029-30 school year. Until then, the school continues to operate above its program capacity.
At the elementary level, the cluster's seven schools vary in size from 349 students at Cedar Grove Elementary to 609 at Little Bennett Elementary, according to NCES for 2023-24. Four of the seven include pre-kindergarten. Cabin Branch Elementary is the only school whose grade span ends at grade 4 rather than grade 5, meaning students in that attendance area attend a different MCPS school for grade 5 before moving on to middle school. This configuration is a structural feature of how MCPS has organized grade spans in this cluster.
Surprising insights
MCPS cannot issue bonded debt. Montgomery County issues general obligation bonds for school construction, and the county's credit ratings determine the borrowing cost for every capital project across the system. Moody's affirmed an Aaa rating for Montgomery County on October 29, 2025. S&P affirmed a AAA rating with a stable outlook on April 1, 2026. Fitch affirmed a AAA rating with a stable outlook on October 28, 2025. In many states, school districts issue their own bonds through voter-approved referenda and bear their own credit risk. In Maryland, MCPS is fiscally dependent on county government, and voters do not approve a school budget or a school bond. A family evaluating whether promised capital projects will be built is evaluating county fiscal capacity, not district fiscal capacity.
The cluster simultaneously contains severe overutilization and substantial underutilization within the same attendance area. According to the FY2027 Capital Improvements Program published by MCPS, Clarksburg High School operated at 109.8 percent utilization, with 2,218 students against a program capacity of 2,020 seats. Wilson Wims Elementary operated at 66.6 percent utilization, with 474 students against 712 seats. Cedar Grove Elementary operated at 74.9 percent, with 314 students against 419 seats. The high school's deficit of nearly 200 seats coexists with hundreds of empty elementary seats in the same cluster. Capacity pressure at the secondary level does not translate into uniform pressure across all grades.
The secondary boundary changes adopted by the Board of Education on March 26, 2026, begin phasing in during the 2027-28 school year, but the replacement Damascus High School designed to provide capacity relief is not scheduled for completion until August 2031. MCPS states in the FY2027 CIP that the Damascus replacement adds high school capacity and is planned to contribute to relief of overutilization at nearby schools, linked to the adopted reassignments from Clarksburg. During the intervening years, students reassigned from the Clarksburg attendance area to Damascus will attend the existing Damascus facility. The boundary changes and the capital project are designed to work in concert, but the sequence means that capacity relief arrives years after the reassignments begin.
The FY2027 MCPS operating budget is balanced as an appropriation but is not fully balanced on a recurring basis, according to MCPS. The budget uses a one-time $25 million OPEB Fund allocation to support the Employee Benefit Plan Fund. It identifies future planned lapse-and-turnover reductions of up to $30 million over three years and Employee Benefit Plan deficit-recovery amounts of $70 million in FY2028 and $40 million in FY2029. A family examining the fiscal sustainability of programs at Clarksburg schools is looking at a budget that MCPS itself describes as requiring future corrective action.
The Board of Education has adopted boundary changes affecting the Clarksburg Cluster twice in seven years. The first was adopted on November 26, 2019, as part of an upcounty high school boundary study. The second was adopted on March 26, 2026. Both actions grandfathered students in grades 11 and 12 at their current schools. The frequency reflects the tension between residential development authorized under the Clarksburg Master Plan, which allows up to 15,000 residential units, and systemwide enrollment declines driven by falling resident births that MCPS projects in its FY2027 CIP. These two forces operate simultaneously and in opposite directions, and the net effect on this cluster's enrollment will depend on how many authorized units are built and occupied by families with school-age children.
Questions parents should ask
Questions for the MCPS Division of Planning:
- Which specific addresses in my neighborhood are affected by the secondary boundary changes adopted on March 26, 2026, and what is the phasing timeline for my child's current grade cohort?
- What are the projected enrollment figures for Clarksburg High School after the boundary changes are fully implemented at the high school level in the 2029-30 school year?
- How will the School Consolidations and Closures Study, whose scope the Board adopted on March 26, 2026, evaluate elementary and middle schools in this cluster?
- When will the superintendent's consolidation recommendation be published in April 2027, and how will families be notified before the Board's May 2027 action?
Questions for the MCPS Board of Education:
- How does the Board plan to address the structural imbalance between Clarksburg High School operating at 109.8 percent utilization and Wilson Wims Elementary operating at 66.6 percent utilization in the same cluster?
- What is the status of residential development authorized under the Clarksburg Master Plan, and how many of the 15,000 authorized units remain to be built?
- How will the regional programs model taking effect in 2027-28 affect access to countywide and regional criteria-based programs for students in the Clarksburg Cluster?
Questions for the MCPS Student Services Office:
- What is the approval rate for Change of School Assignment requests at Clarksburg High School and at each elementary and middle school in the cluster?
- How does sibling preference interact with the adopted boundary changes for families with children in different grade cohorts during the phasing period?
- What is the deadline for COSA requests for the 2027-28 school year, the first year of boundary change implementation?
Questions for the MCPS Residency Office:
- What documentation is required for families in shared-housing arrangements under Policy JEA-RB, and how are verification activities conducted when documents are insufficient?
- Under what circumstances does MCPS assess retroactive nonresident tuition, and how is the ineligible period calculated?
Questions for the Clarksburg High School administration:
- What is the application process for the APPS program, and what selection criteria does MCPS use?
- What is the application process for the P-TECH Network and Information Technology program, and what is the timeline for the 2027-28 school year?
- How does the school's operation above program capacity affect class sizes and access to the approximately 28 AP courses listed on the school's AP course page?
Questions for Montgomery College:
- What courses are available through the dual-enrollment arrangement with Clarksburg High School, and what are the prerequisites?
- How does the P-TECH associate-degree pathway articulate into Montgomery College degree programs?
Questions for the Maryland State Department of Education:
- What were the specific star ratings for each of the ten schools in the Clarksburg Cluster for the 2024-25 school year?
- What is the chronic absenteeism rate at each school in the cluster, and what support designations, if any, apply under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act?
Scope, method, and sourcing notes
This report covers the Clarksburg Cluster of Montgomery County Public Schools for the 2023-24 school year through the 2025-26 planning period. It describes the cluster's schools, enrollment, capacity, academic outcomes, programs, boundaries, and fiscal context. It does not cover extracurricular activities, athletics, transportation routes, individual teacher assignments, or detailed school climate survey results. It does not predict future enrollment, future boundary decisions, or future budget outcomes.
Enrollment and demographic figures come from the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for the 2023-24 school year. NCES is a federal statistical agency within the U.S. Department of Education. These figures represent a federal collection and carry the vintage of that collection. Where MCPS or the Maryland State Department of Education has published more recent figures for the same measure, those more recent figures supersede the NCES collection in this report.
Academic accountability data comes from the Maryland State Department of Education, which publishes school report cards for every public school in the state. MSDE published star ratings and related indicators for the 2024-25 school year. The report card framework and statewide summary figures are MSDE publications. MCPS supplements the MSDE report card with its own Department of Shared Accountability reports, covering Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, SAT, and ACT participation and performance for the 2024 school year.
Capacity and utilization figures come from the FY2027 Capital Improvements Program published by MCPS in October 2025, using 2025-26 planning data. Boundary change information comes from Board of Education actions documented in the Board's March 27, 2026 update and in a district news release. The School Consolidations and Closures Study scope was adopted by the Board on March 26, 2026.
Fiscal figures come from several bodies. The Montgomery County Council appropriated the FY2027 local contribution to MCPS. MCPS published the FY2027 operating budget and the FY2027-2032 capital plan. The MCPS Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for FY2025 reports fund balances and long-term obligations as of June 30, 2025. Montgomery County publishes property tax rate schedules. Credit ratings for Montgomery County are published by Moody's, S&P Global, and Fitch Ratings. State funding formulas are governed by the Blueprint for Maryland's Future.
Program information comes from MCPS publications, including the Clarksburg High School AP course page, the special programs page, the MCPS special programs admissions page, and the enriched programs FAQ. Course information comes from the MCPS high school course bulletin for 2026. The math groups parent document was published by MCPS in May 2026. The Board update from May 2026 addresses the regional programs model transition. Bethesda Magazine reported on the programming model changes in February 2026.
Every dated figure in this report carries the year of its publication. Where two figures conflict, this report prefers the more recent publication by the governing body with jurisdiction over that measure. Government agencies revise their data, and a figure published by MSDE, MCPS, or the Montgomery County Council in a later release supersedes an earlier federal collection of the same measure. Figures from different vintages are labeled with their year and are not combined into a single comparison unless they come from the same publication.
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SchoolDecision.com publishes neutral, source-attributed reports on public school districts and school clusters for families making housing decisions. The publication does not rate, rank, or recommend districts or schools. Every figure in a SchoolDecision.com report is attributed to the public body that published it, whether the National Center for Education Statistics, the Maryland State Department of Education, Montgomery County Public Schools, or the Montgomery County Council. The publication describes what is true and lets families decide.
Covered in this report
The schools and districts below are part of the source record used in this report.
- Montgomery County Public Schools