A bigger, better Paint Branch High could cost $100M

Early plans for new three-story school add educational amenities, expand capacity to 2,400 students

‘‘We hope it will be the jewel of Burtonsville,” Principal Jeanette Dixon said. ‘‘We’ll have everything we need to deliver our outstanding educational programs.”

The new building would have 93 classrooms, including 12 science labs, a 900-seat auditorium and a greenhouse. The entire campus, scheduled to be finished in 2011, would have a new football⁄soccer stadium, a track located around a practice field and 400-500 parking spaces. A third access road would be added near the southwest corner of the campus for buses, and fields available for use by the whole community would be placed near Old Columbia Pike.

However, the plan would leave Paint Branch without its current stadium for as many as three years, as it is converted into practice fields.

Jim Henderson, a project manager with Moseley Architects, the Harrisonburg, Va.,-based firm chosen by the county for the project, showed parents updated drawings of the building’s interior, exterior and surroundings Jan. 16. Moseley has previously helped design Parkland Middle School in Aspen Hill and A. Mario Loiederman Middle School in Wheaton. Henderson was accompanied by Dennis Ross, a senior facilities designer, and Deborah Szyfer, a senior planner, both with MCPS.

The two dozen parents in attendance had questions about some of the details of the plan, but overall were pleased. ‘‘I think it’s going to work,” said Tamara Stoner, whose daughter is a freshman at Paint Branch.

Carlos Hunter, whose son is also a freshman, agreed. ‘‘It’s more space for more students [and] I like the idea of community involvement,” he said.

The plan was chosen last year by a committee of Paint Branch staff, students and PTSA members and county and state education officials.

Community input was also taken into consideration. ‘‘This has been the most inclusive process for a project of its size,” Ross said.

In fact, concerns about student safety if renovations were done in the existing building or if construction were done adjacent to the existing building, the other two modernization options considered, made the committee’s choice clear. ‘‘That was fundamental in our decision to build a new building,” Henderson said. Originally built in 1967, Paint Branch High School added a wing on its northeast side in 1986.

Dixon, the committee’s chairwoman, said the new building would be on higher ground than the current one, meaning passersby will have to look up instead of down as they do at the existing building. ‘‘It will be beautiful and inspire those that learn there,” she said of the new building. ‘‘We wanted to be a marker in Burtonsville.”

‘‘It’s a much more positive presence at the top of the hill,” added Don Hauprich, the PTSA president.

One topic not discussed at the meeting was the cost of the new building. In a feasibility study presented to MCPS in September, Moseley estimated the total cost of the plan at $97 million, but Henderson said that was only an early projection.

The project was approved by the County Council in May 2006 as part of the 2007-2012 Capital Improvements Program, Szyfer said, but that it may be amended when the 2009-2014 Capital Improvements Program is approved later this year.

Budgeting and construction deadlines are out of Hauprich’s hands, but he is glad the vision of the Paint Branch community has been kept in mind for the new school. ‘‘Everyone is focused on what’s good for the community and the school, and that’s a blessing,” he said.