Wootton parents say they were left out on graduation venue

Some say Comcast Center would fill needs better than Constitution Hall

Because DAR’s size restricts the number of attendees, Montgomery County Public Schools decided last June to shoulder the majority of the $38,000 cost for schools with graduating classes larger than 500 to choose a Comcast graduation.

DAR costs $5,700. Wootton, with a graduating class of more than 600, was eligible to switch.

‘‘We have heard some horror stories about the fact that there’s a limited amount of seats and parking’s a nightmare [at DAR],” said Kenneth Cho, whose daughter will graduate from Wootton next month.

Cho said he needed more than the four tickets Wootton parents are allocated in order to accommodate members of his family who are attending, some of whom were flying in from Korea. Though he did receive the extra tickets that he requested, he said that he felt the Wootton community wasn’t involved enough with the decision to nix the Comcast option.

‘‘Our concern is basically that there is not really enough room at Constitution Hall and that people who were concerned about it were not really given a chance to voice their opinion and the alternative was not openly evaluated,” Cho said.

Cho’s wife, Monica, voiced the couple’s concerns in a Jan. 31 letter to Weast.

Some members of the Winston Churchill High School community have expressed similar complaints. Churchill was eligible to appeal to MCPS to request a change of venue, but did not.

According to Michael Doran, Wootton’s principal, he made the decision to stick with DAR after consulting with Wootton’s PTSA. However, after receiving complaints, he said he has changed the process of how the decision has been made to allow more input.

Doran said a PTSA meeting was held in February for parents to lend their ideas for a graduation venue for 2009, and a similar meeting will be held in the first semester of next year.

Doran said he chose DAR Constitution Hall because of its stately atmosphere as opposed to Comcast’s sports-arena feel.

‘‘It’s really a wonderful facility – there’s not a bad seat in the house,” Doran said of DAR. ‘‘It lends a bit of gravitas to the whole thing where kids come out feeling that it was a special event, not a sports event.”

Wootton’s PTSA President Stuart Levin said that a ‘‘small faction” of parents opposed the choice, and that the decision had already been made to stay at DAR for 2008 by the time complaints were received. ‘‘We were already locked in and committed to DAR,” Levin said.

Doran said that the school has been working to accommodate those who requested extra tickets, and will implement shuttle service in order to alleviate some of the concerns about parking. Overflow seating at the Constitution Hall where the ceremony can be viewed via live feed will also be used, Doran said.

Some parents have expressed concern about the overflow seating, including parent Lorrie Rudin, whose son will graduate this year. Rudin said the school didn’t inform her about the use of the overflow seating.

‘‘It’s one of those situations where you can argue very eloquently on both, and be right,” Doran said of the choice between Comcast and DAR. ‘‘But at some point, the school has to make a decision.”