Montgomery County parents plead for high school upgrades

Budget woes jeopardize modernization schedules at Gaithersburg, Paint Branch, Seneca Valley and Wheaton

County Executive Isiah Leggett’s capital improvements budget for fiscal years 2009-2014 includes $266 million for school projects — $75 million short of what MCPS had requested.

Weast has outlined several belt-tightening scenarios in response, with a one-year delay of four planned modernizations saving $72 million. Another option that delays the Wheaton project by two years would create a $44 million surplus.

Advocates of Gaithersburg High School were about 130 strong at the Feb. 6 forum. A sea of blue shirts and signs warned that delaying the school’s upgrade would make an ‘‘already dire situation far worse.”

‘‘Gaithersburg — along with Paint Branch, Wheaton and Seneca Valley — have waited too long already,” said Laurie Augustino, president of Gaithersburg High’s PTSA. ‘‘Further delay would unfairly impede learning opportunities for our cluster of students.

‘‘At Gaithersburg, we are appalled and frustrated by the condition of our high school,” she added. ‘‘Our students deserve facilities that are as modern as those elsewhere in this county. The only solution you can offer Gaithersburg is to replace its building sooner rather than later.”

Leggett’s proposed six-year capital budget fully funds school projects planned in fiscal 2009, allowing Walter Johnson High School’s upgrade to stay on track.

Of school modernizations currently on the books, Paint Branch is due to begin in 2009 and be completed by 2011; Gaithersburg would begin in 2010 and be completed in 2012; Wheaton would begin in 2012 and be finished in 2014; and Seneca Valley would begin in 2014 for completion by 2016.

The County Council has final say on all budgets, but it only approves the final dollar figure, not the details of how the money is spent. Weast and the school board have final say over MCPS’s construction schedule.

Overall, the county is facing a $400 million deficit for fiscal 2009. Council President Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown reminded parents that the projected deficit is putting the squeeze on services throughout the county.

Built in 1951, Gaithersburg High is the county’s school most in need of a modernization, according to a MCPS facility assessment. The 2,200-student school got an addition last year, but the rest of the school has been showing its age for about 20 years, Augustino said.

‘‘Our facilities are failing our students in too many ways,” she told the council before outlining a litany of woes that includes leaking roofs, near-daily electrical failures, locker rooms without exhaust fans and classrooms with faulty heat and air conditioning.

‘‘Gaithersburg’s replacement should not be delayed any more than it has been, nor do we want to cause delays for Wheaton, Seneca Valley and other schools on the modernization schedule.”

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