An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) denied Montgomery County Public Schools' bid to dismiss the legal challenge to Wootton High School's planned move to Gaithersburg.

The ruling came at a Tuesday, Sept. 1 prehearing conference. It means the appeal brought by the Community and Education Policy Alliance (CEPA) will advance to evidentiary hearings Dec. 8, 9 and 10. CEPA expects to call MCPS officials, Montgomery County personnel and other witnesses to testify, according to a CEPA press release issued Wednesday, Sept. 2.

The ALJ dismissed the motion without prejudice. The case will now move through discovery before the December hearings.

No ruling has been made on the merits of the appeal, Bethesda Magazine reported. But for the parent group and its law firm, Silverman Thompson, the outcome keeps alive a challenge that CEPA says raises a statewide question about how Maryland applies its school-closing protections.

CEPA's appeal targets the school board's 7-1 vote on March 26 to create new attendance zones and adopt a regional programming model for high schools. That decision requires Wootton's roughly 1,870 students and staff to move to Crown High School in Gaithersburg. Board member Julie Yang cast the sole dissenting vote.

The changes are set to take effect for the 2027-2028 school year. After the move, the Wootton building would likely become a holding school for campuses under renovation, according to MCPS officials.

CEPA argues the board's decision was "arbitrary, unreasonable and illegal," based on faulty enrollment data, and that it sidesteps Maryland's school-closing protections by labeling a closure a "relocation." The group also contends MCPS lacks proper state approval to change Crown High's intended use after receiving state construction funding.

MCPS has maintained the move is not a closure and that its data is accurate. The district has described the relocation as a strategic decision addressing safety, infrastructure and fiscal concerns. The Wootton campus has documented heating, cooling and plumbing problems, and capital improvements had been repeatedly postponed, according to MyMCMedia.

CEPA's press release also tied the case to broader capital funding concerns, noting that Montgomery County recently reallocated $36 million from the fiscal year 2027-2032 Capital Improvements Program to support the MCPS operating budget.

CEPA Vice President Elisa Sukhobok signaled the group's posture in July 2026, when the State Board of Education referred the case to the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings for independent review. "The question is whether the evidence drove the decision—or whether the decision came first and the explanations followed," Sukhobok said at the time.

Some current Wootton students are slated to move to Winston Churchill High School, while others would attend Crown High several miles away. Evidentiary hearings begin Dec. 8.