There were few surprises Tuesday night when the Montgomery County Board of Education finalized the county school district’s fiscal 2020 capital budget and amendments to the 2019-2024 capital improvements program.
The school board has spent the past month poring over Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Smith’s recommendations for the budget and CIP, holding multiple work sessions and two public hearings to gather input from the public. Throughout the process, few alternatives were proposed by school board members, and Smith’s recommendations were largely approved Tuesday.
Included in the approved fiscal 2020 capital budget and CIP amendments were elementary school capacity studies for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Walter Johnson high school clusters, a boundary study for Clarksburg, Northwest and Seneca Valley high schools, and a boundary study for Forest Knolls, Montgomery Knolls and Pine Crest elementary schools in Silver Spring.
Each boundary and capacity study is intended to find ways to relieve overcrowding, and the studies are expected to begin within the next year.
The board also reassigned three groups of students from Wilson Wims Elementary School in Clarksburg to Clarksburg Village Site #2, an elementary school currently under construction and expected to open in September. Two groups of students from Cedar Grove Elementary School in Germantown were also reassigned to Wilson Wims.
The boundary changes will take effect in phases, beginning in September 2019.
Previously, planning funds were approved to begin a renovation project at Northwood High School in Silver Spring, and with construction to begin in 2023, the school board on Tuesday approved a plan to move Northwood students out of the school during the construction period.
Where the students will move to has yet to be decided, but utilizing the former Charles W. Woodward High School in Rockville, commercial property or other school property have all been discussed at previous board meetings. The decision to move out of the school during construction will allow for a more comprehensive design to be developed and quicker building process, school board members said.
“I think to really do justice to the building, to build it right, we need to move the kids off-site,” member Pat O’Neill said.
Also approved Tuesday night were funding to begin planning for addition projects at Highland View, Lake Seneca and Thurgood Marshall elementary schools; major capital projects, with scopes to be determined later, at nine county schools; additional funding for school security projects; and $5 million to fund maintenance projects.
Board member Jill Ortman-Fouse motioned to include $150,000 for a design study at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring, but her proposal did not receive enough votes to pass.
But members voted 5-1 to pass another motion by Ortman-Fouse requesting $2 million in supplemental funds from the County Council to install water bottle-filling stations in every school.
Outgoing Board President Mike Durso was the dissenting vote, voicing concern about “unanswered questions” about the cost of implementing and maintaining the filling stations, as well as different models and providing uniformity throughout each of the district’s 206 schools.
“I think there are more questions than answers,” Durso said. “There are new members coming aboard next week and they may have issues about this they want to deal with, so I’m reluctant to jump in now.”
Other board members were supportive of Ortman-Fouse’s proposal, noting a potential positive environmental impact.
Smith said installing the filling stations is a “symbolic” step to change the way MCPS staff view county schools.
“When we build a school, we should put up a sign, supply lights for athletic fields and so on. When we think about building or renovating a school, this should not be thought of as an extra,” Smith said. “This is a really good first step in shifting how we think about fully outfitting our schools.”
