MoCo sells former Rockville high school

Montgomery County will sell a hotly-contested former school building to the private school that has leased the land for more than a decade, after the County Council voted Tuesday to approve the sale.

The Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy had sought to purchase the former Robert E. Peary High School in Rockville under the terms of their lease, which allows the sale pending approval from the county executive and County Council. But the Montgomery County Board of Education, the county PTA and others had opposed the deal, saying that school buildings shouldn’t be sold during a time of overcrowding and budget crunches.

Some also questioned the purchase price.

The final vote was 8 to 1, with council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville) opposing the deal.