Parents Opine on School Construction Budget Tonight

Parents will head to Rockville tonight to comment on Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett’s proposed $4.2 billion construction budget.

The public hearing is 7 p.m. at Montgomery County Council headquarters in Rockville.

A likely point of contention is a one-year delay proposed for high school upgrades, which would hold up plans to revamp Seneca Valley High School by 2017.

The school has never been modernized since it was built in 1974, school officials have said.

Leggett’s construction budget includes $28.2 million to build a new elementary school within the Northwest cluster, whose boundaries include Germantown.

Waters Landing Elementary School, which is in Germantown’s Seneca Valley Cluster, would receive $8.5 million for classroom additions.

The county executive's budget for 2013-18 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.

Public hearings are an early part of a lengthy budget approval process. The council has until June 1 to make changes and approve the budget, according to the county charter.