Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Until parents in the affected clusters make their voices heard, little will be done to address the overcrowding. Just more portable classrooms.
They've been asking for relief for decades. MCPS simply doesn't make addressing that a priority. It's worst for the close-in schools that don't have the property for the portables without sacrificing playgrounds, fields, etc. Highland View...smh.
The thing is that there's not a clear majority directly affected by severe overcrowding, and the needs of the minority get trampled.
And getting it. It's not like MCPS is building nothing. MCPS is building a lot.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/facilities/construction/projects/
There are a number of projects, sure. They are expensive, yes. That doesn't mean they are doing an adequate job.
They are behind. They have been behind for decades. They have not been nearly frequent enough to keep up with either the age of buildings (renovation) or the increase in student population (expansion/additional schools).
They are regularly downscoped (notable exception: Potomac ES, with both building upscoping during planning in reaponse to extensive interaction with the community and additional earthwork added better to ensure water management -- go figure). Once begun, they have been regularly delayed vs. the original timeline -- a semester, a year, more -- with change orders that reset the clock so that the report to the BOE show them as "on schedule." When "finished" for occupancy, the punch list denoted by the last 1-3% on the report can, itself, last a long time beyond.
How many years should large numbers of portables be an adequate stop-gap, especially those that take playground/field space on smaller properties? I'd say two to three, maybe five at the absolute most if there was a clear catchment population bulge that equally clearly would be going away. How many has it been at HVES? A dozen? More? Rolling Terrace? Elsewhere?
How long is it OK for a facility to close half its bathrooms (in a full building) due to plumbing failure? One or two months to get the emergency fixes together? Three months? How about something like a decade, as seems to have happened at Eastern MS?
These school communities have been continually told to wait as they are "next" for a renovation. HVES was supposed to get funding a few years back, not independently, but carved out of funding for next-door SSIMS/SCES that decimated already-insufficient plans for that old building. Then that money was repurposed -- yet another delay in being "next."
Those may be on the list, now, but far too late, and now there are others that are falling behind just the same. It's not that the projects that are out there shouldn't be happening. It's that the county should be keeping up with the county-wide need, and not doing it on a beyond-last-minute emergency basis or only for a fortunate few who might be on the list during a "sweet spot" time of budgetary leniency (again, looking at you, PES). "It's their turn" should happen when and where the need is, not just where it's greatest at the moment, expedient or on an it's-been-a-while/we're-getting-pressure-from-a-vocal-community mental calendar.
There are always things that will get in the way --
unexpected conditions (e.g., the pandemic), inflation, etc. Adequate funding with proper risk management should be able to handle this. I'm not sure if we've had the latter, but we certainly haven't had the former (and that makes the latter somewhat impossible).
School bonds used to afford more timely addressing of this need. When was the last time we saw that on a ballot?
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