Politics & Government

County Budget Funds New Elementary School, Delays SVHS Upgrades

Budget allocates $28.2 million for Northwest Elementary School, delays upgrades to Seneca Valley High School

(Updated Jan. 25) Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett’s $4.2 billion construction spending plan includes funding for a new elementary school, but would delay upgrades to Seneca Valley High School.

Last week, the county executive released a proposed six-year construction budget for 2013-18 that sets aside $1.35 billion for school projects — about 9 percent less than the $1.48 billion the Montgomery County Board of Education asked for.

Leggett said the budget was intended to address overcrowding by allocating funding for two new elementary schools — including $28.2 million to build an elementary school in Germantown's Northwest Cluster, Northwest #8 ES.

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Montgomery County Board of Education officials have said the school would alleviate swelling enrollment at and Elementary Schools in Germantown. According to MCPS records, 1,036 students are enrolled at Spark Matsunaga despite its capacity of 650. The school also has 15 portable classrooms, according to MCPS data, among the highest in the county.

But Leggett’s budget would place a one-year delay on high school upgrades beginning with Wheaton High School and Thomas Edison High School of Technology, which,

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Delaying the modernizations would also hold up modernization plans for Seneca Valley High School, whose upgrades would have been complete in 2017 under the school board’s November vote. Seneca Valley was built in 1974 and has never been modernized, .   

Elsewhere in the Seneca Valley Cluster, Waters Landing Elementary School would receive $8.5 million for classroom additions under the county executive’s proposed construction budget.

Public hearings for the six-year construction budget will be held at Montgomery County Council headquarters Tuesday, Feb. 7, through Thursday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m. The hearing for school construction is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 9.

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This article has been updated since it was originally published. The new elementary school slated for Montgomery County Public School System's Northwest Cluster has not yet been named is tentatively referred to as Northwest #8 ES.


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