The Board of Education tonight unanimously approved Superintendent George Arlotto’s recommended $172 million FY2020 capital budget, which includes funding for nine major school projects, including the first round of funding for a new Old Mill West High School.
The budget request also contains funding for classroom additions, and additions for kindergarten and prekindergarten. It also allocates nearly $101.6 million to the following existing major projects, in priority order:
- George Cromwell Elementary School renovation (construction), $4.7 million
- Edgewater Elementary School renovation (construction), $24.0 million
- Tyler Heights Elementary School renovation (construction), $19.3 million
- Richard Henry Lee Elementary School renovation (construction), $16.3 million
- Crofton Area High School construction, $24.4 million
- Quarterfield Elementary School (feasibility study), $947,000
- Hillsmere Elementary School (feasibility study), $784,000
- Rippling Woods Elementary School (feasibility study), $1.2 million
- Old Mill West High School (design), $10.0 million
In addition, the request includes $11 million for prekindergarten and kindergarten additions at Millersville and Linthicum elementary schools and $6 million for classroom additions at Solley and Crofton Woods elementary schools.
The Board also approved Dr. Arlotto’s recommended six-year Capital Improvement Plan, which allocates requested funding for projects through FY2025. That plan contains funding for two more high school projects – feasibility study and design funding to renovate Old Mill High School ($7.4 million in FY2023) and design funding for a new West County High School ($11.7 million in FY2024).
The Board’s request will now be submitted to the State of Maryland for funding consideration. The plan will also be part of the school system’s overall FY2020 budget request, to be forwarded to the County Executive in February 2019 after the Board holds additional public hearings. The County Council will review that plan and adopt a final capital budget for the school system by June 2019.
The complete budget request can be found here.