Montgomery County school leaders hear concerns over construction budget, project priorities
ROCKVILLE, Md. - Montgomery County school leaders heard from the community on Monday about the district’s construction budget as local leaders raised concerns over how school repair and renovation projects are being prioritized.
What we know:
The public hearing in Rockville focused on which aging facilities will be repaired and which will be forced to wait. Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is facing billions of dollars in needed school improvements. The outcome could determine whether thousands of students attend updated facilities or continue waiting years for relief.
READ MORE | Montgomery County Public Schools faces $3 billion maintenance backlog amid aging infrastructure
Rockville City Councilmember Adam Van Grack raised questions about the district’s proposed plans. He pointed to data from the facility condition index released in August, which covered all 200 schools.
What they're saying:
"What I found was, of the five worst elementary schools and five worst secondary schools, 70% was from the Rockville/Gaithersburg area," Van Grack said. "And yet in this amendment, none of those top seven schools are gonna get a rebuild or renovation. Maybe it’s a matter of there not being an objective criteria of what schools we're deciding to fix."
Van Grack also criticized the district's strategy for Wootton High School. Under MCPS plans, the Wootton campus would be used to temporarily house students from Springbrook and Sherwood high schools while their respective campuses undergo repairs.
Van Grack questioned the logic of relocating students into a building with its own severe infrastructure challenges.
"Wootton was rated as the single worst-rated plumbing school in the school system, and it was rated poor for the HVAC," Van Grack said. "So we have two schools coming into Wootton that have better HVAC systems coming into Wootton. There seems to be some disorganized way that the school system is prioritizing fixing the school."
What's next:
The district is continuing to hear public testimony. A second hearing is scheduled to be held virtually on Tuesday.
The school board is slated to make final decisions on the construction plan and budget on November 19.
FOX 5 DC reached out to MCPS for comment and is awaiting a response.
The Source: Information in this article is from a Montgomery County Public Schools hearing.