Dive Brief:
- Montgomery County, MD's interim schools chief, Larry Bowers, in response to a projected 10,000 more students in the next six years, has proposed a $1.72 billion construction plan that includes hundreds of new classrooms, a new elementary school and $11 million of high school turf fields, the Washington Post reported.
- Patricia O'Neill, school board president, backs the six-year plan as an aggressive response to district capacity problems and aging infrastructure. School officials say Bowers' plan also prioritizes the space needs of the county and, although most current construction projects will remain unchanged, it would delete five planned classroom additions and delay the construction of one new school by a year.
- The new plan comes in the wake of a negative county report regarding the way the school system ranks schools in line for upgrades, repairs and modernization. School officials say they are reevaluating the list of schools and will determine which ones are in most need of an overhaul.
Dive Insight:
School officials say the school's new construction plan comes at a time of tight state purse strings, but they don't plan to give up their lobbying efforts for more funds, the Post reported.
"While we've worked on this the past two years, we haven't been successful, but we will keep on trying," O’Neill said.
Craig Rice, county council member, said schools are sources of economic development for the state and that it is frustrating to request state help "only to be turned away empty-handed."