Community concerns over how Montgomery County Public Schools prioritises repairs and renovations dominated a public hearing in Rockville on Monday, as officials weighed a capital budget against a multibillion-dollar maintenance backlog.
The hearing focused on which ageing school buildings should receive investment first and which may have to wait. The decisions could affect thousands of pupils across the Maryland district, where officials have identified around $3 billion (£2.3 billion) in deferred maintenance needs.
Rockville City Councilmember Adam Van Grack questioned whether the proposed construction plan properly reflects the condition of schools in the Rockville and Gaithersburg area.
He cited the district’s Facility Condition Index, a recently completed assessment of school buildings and major systems including roofs, plumbing, electrical equipment and heating and air-conditioning. The index gives buildings a score closer to one when they are in poorer condition.
“What I found was, of the five worst elementary schools and five worst secondary schools, 70% was from the Rockville/Gaithersburg area,” Mr Van Grack told the hearing. “And yet in this amendment, none of those top seven schools are gonna get a rebuild or renovation.”
He said the figures raised questions about whether the school system was applying clear and objective criteria when deciding which campuses should be repaired.
Mr Van Grack also challenged the proposed use of Thomas S Wootton High School as a temporary site for pupils from Springbrook and Sherwood high schools while work is carried out at those campuses.
“Wootton was rated as the single worst-rated plumbing school in the school system, and it was rated poor for the HVAC,” he said. “So we have two schools coming into Wootton that have better HVAC systems coming into Wootton.”
MCPS’s published assessment gives Wootton a facility condition score of 0.624582. The district says the index is intended to inform long-term planning but does not, by itself, determine the order in which construction projects are carried out.
School officials have said the district’s average building is more than 30 years old and that it requires about $560 million a year for routine capital replacement. The wider capital plan is also being shaped by falling enrolment in some parts of the county, rising construction costs and limited funding.
MCPS said its current capital-budget amendment cycle does not recommend changes to individual school construction projects. The proposed plan instead includes targeted measures, including a feasibility study examining the future needs of Col Zadok Magruder High School.
Mr Van Grack has separately called for a transparent plan to address the district’s most deteriorated buildings and for a permanent comprehensive high school to remain on the Wootton Parkway site. He has also pointed to projected growth in the central region, despite an expected decline in enrolment across Montgomery County as a whole.
A second public hearing will be held virtually on Tuesday, October 27. The Montgomery County Board of Education is scheduled to take action on the capital budget and Capital Improvements Program on November 19.
