When 11th grader Justin Tom entered the music suite at Col. Zadok Magruder High School one day last summer, he was disgusted when he saw a dead mouse. The presence of the vermin is just one reason why Tom believes the Rockville school deserved to be included in the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).
“This shriveled, grim, gray mouse reminded me of Magruder: neglected and left to rot,” Tom told the Montgomery County school board Monday during a hearing on amendments to the district’s 2025-2030 facilities plan. “Our infrastructure, school environment, and funding are crumbling, denying a sense of security and safety among students. Magruder’s version of CIP is more like TBD.”
Tom was among dozens of students, parents and community members, including Rockville Mayor Monique Ashton, who attended the hearing at the board’s headquarters in Rockville to push board members to fulfill needs they see in their buildings every day.
Several Magruder students testified about the difficulties with structure, safety and security at their school. Senior Alba Costa Lara, vice president of the Student Government Association, pointed out her school has just two elevators, located on either side of the building – one is out of service and the other isn’t reliable.
Returning to school on crutches after surgery recently, Lara said she was forced to use the stairs to get to class because the elevators weren’t working. Lara and other Magruder students also raised concerns over potholes, cracks and other problems in the school’s parking lot.
“We are talking about safety and security in our school, we are talking about the well-being of our people, our students and our staff members,” Lara told the board.
Other students raised concerns about the quality of Magruder’s athletic fields, stating that athletes face injuries from dips, divots and other irregularities. Students also pointed to moldy ceiling tiles, mice, faulty heating and air conditioning and broken chairs as concerns about the building.
Board member Julie Yang said many of the issues at Magruder sounded like maintenance issues, and recommended that MCPS staff members walk through the building with students to see if any of the issues could be resolved.
While testimony from Magruder students dominated the student portion of the public hearing, other students including fifth-grader Oliver Glenn also advocated for changes. Oliver, who attends Fields Road Elementary School in Gaithersburg, said he wanted the school board to make his school building have more charisma, or “rizz.”
“Our school has not been rizzified in a very, very long time,” Oliver told the board. “In giving our school a makeover by making small changes, like improving the sign, adding fence covers that show our Falcon pride … you could help make this a school where students actually want to be.”
Despite concerns, plan may not have major changes this year
Although many community members raised concerns about the district’s facilities, MCPS Chief of Staff Esther McGuire and Praneel Suvarna, the student member of the board, explained that major additions to the CIP likely won’t occur this year due to the plan’s biennial schedule. This year is an “off year,” meaning the district can only make amendments, or minor adjustments, to the 2025-2030 CIP. Next year is an “on year,” meaning the district will review the CIP in full to address large-scale projects, McGuire said.
“We’re probably not going to be seeing a whole major capital improvement added to the CIP this year for Magruder,” Suvarna said. “But by you guys coming here today and speaking, it does elevate it to the attention of MCPS.”
Ashton and several parents representing parent teacher associations and school clusters, also shared their concerns.
Ashton raised concerns over $3 million budgeted for Rockville’s Twinbrook Elementary School that is facing reallocation, urging the board to ensure the project is completed in the fiscal year 2025-2030 CIP. The $3 million is part of a total of $12 million budgeted for four elementary schools that MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor has recommended be reallocated to finish current construction projects. McGuire said there’s still funding available for planning the project.
Clare Bolek, who is the John F. Kennedy High School cluster coordinator for the Montgomery County Council of PTAs (MCCPTA), highlighted several safety issues that occurred at the Silver Spring school last year, including a student from another school coming into Kennedy and threatening students and staff with a knife.
Bolek said small maintenance issues such as fixing doors and locks shouldn’t be overlooked. She noted that adding more cameras and adequate lighting were two major issues she brought to the board when she testified last year.
“At that time, it was said that it would come out on a schedule that was predetermined, and JFK and other Kennedy cluster schools were on that timeline,” Bolek said. “It feels like an empty statement when we are asking for them again this year because the ones installed last year left gaping holes in the coverage.”
MCCPTA President Brigid Howe asked the board to reinstate timelines to projects that have been remanded to “TBD” and for schools that have waited patiently, sometimes for decades, for a set date for school improvements.
Howe also asked for an acknowledgment of the $1.1 billion backlog of facility maintenance issues and a plan to remedy the situation.
“It’s our kids who shoulder the burden of learning loss when facility failures force teachers and staff to make an emergency pivot, and in some cases, even close schools,” Howe said.
Magruder PTSA President Kim Glassman said that since 2019, the school’s requests submitted through work order processes have been denied due to the anticipated construction included, but delayed, in the CIP.
“After two prior delays, our page in the latest amended CIP is a large blank sea of white with nothing planned and nothing anticipated,” Glassman said. “So I ask each of you, what is your plan for Magruder now?”
