A slew of MCPS school addition projects will likely be delayed in the county’s next capital budget, something county officials are attributing to the failure of a school construction funding bill this year in Annapolis.
There is a roughly $230 million gap in the school system’s recommended capital budget for the next six years and what the county can pay for, according to County Council staff.
To account for the shortfall, MCPS prepared an “Affordability Scenario” that would mean one-year delays for projects with design set to start next fiscal year, including additions at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Kensington-Parkwood Elementary School and North Bethesda Middle School.
It would also mean project designs set to start in 2015 or beyond would be moved out of the six-year capital improvements program. That would affect four elementary school addition projects, including Ashburton Elementary School in North Bethesda.
“We ended up short of where we wanted to be but I think the message was heard loud and clear and I think that is a great starting point,” said Councilmember Craig Rice of the state delegation’s efforts at a state school construction bill. “The fact of the matter is we’re still not where we need to be and therefore we have to make some adjustments and changes.”
The bill lawmakers pursued in Annapolis would have provided up to $20 million in state construction funding a year to the “big three” counties — Montgomery, Prince George’s and Baltimore. But it failed to gain traction with lawmakers from around the state, despite the county’s overcrowding concerns and growing student population.
In March, County Council staff asked MCPS for ideas about how to adjust the budget in the case that the legislation didn’t pass.
“We figured out a way in which we can cause as little disruption as possible to our school construction schedule,” Rice said at a joint Public Safety and Education Committee hearing on Monday. “It is my expectation that whoever comes in as governor next year will address this problem.”
The Council Committee also agreed to cut funding for the school system’s HVAC/Electrical Replacement project in half (from $49.8 million to roughly $24 million) in fiscal years 2015-2018.
There would be no change for projects already under construction, including additions at Bethesda Elementary, North Chevy Chase Elementary and Rosemary Hills Elementary. There would also be no schedule changes for project already in design, including construction of a second middle school for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster.
The County Executive’s office will send over an alternative plan that would allow for some mitigation to the reductions recommended by the Council committee.
The B-CC High School addition was one of two new projects added to MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr’s recommended capital budget in October. It had been scheduled to be ready for the start of the 2017-2018 school year.
MCPS projects B-CC will surpass 2,000 students by the 2016-2017 school year. The existing school’s capacity is 1,692 students, with enrollment of 1,872.
