Lincoln Elementary dominates hearing on construction budget

This year, the hearing was dominated by Lincoln Elementary School advocates who came to thank commissioners for moving modernization of the 86-year-old historic school from 2012 to 2011.

The change will allow design of the project to start in fiscal 2009, which begins July 1.

‘‘Lincoln is a proud school with a long history in Frederick County,” said Lincoln’s co-principal Ann Reever. ‘‘It is important to preserve the original Lincoln High School.”

Lincoln Elementary, formerly Lincoln High School, is one of the oldest schools in Frederick County. It has open-space classrooms, no sprinklers, no smoke detectors, and no elevators. It has two separate buildings, which creates a constant safety hazard for students crossing the street, parents said.

Heather Ford, a Lincoln Elementary graduate and a mother of a first-grader at the school, said the school, which has not been renovated since 1972, cannot wait any longer.

‘‘That school has been the same since I went there, [since] my parents went there,” Ford said. ‘‘It needs to be brought up to date.”

It was the first time in years that only one school was represented at the commissioners’ annual public hearing on the six-year budget. Typically, the hearing brings out parents and teachers from across the county who come to advocate for new school projects and school improvements in their areas.

‘‘We’ve usually had longer meetings, and we have had multiple schools,” said Frederick Board of County Commissioners President Jan H. Gardner (D).

Last year’s decision to increase the recordation tax helped prevent that this year, Gardner said.

The recordation tax is paid when property ownership changes hands. Commissioners raised the tax last year from $5 per $500 of the sales price to $6. The extra money was dedicated to school construction.

‘‘Just because of that, we were able to advance a dozen school projects,” she said.

This year, the budget includes funding for some major and long-awaited school projects: the Linganore High replacement, the West Frederick Middle renovation, and the Walkersville Elementary addition.

Advocates for these projects had been showing up for the hearings for years, did not need to come up this year, Gardner said. ‘‘People see their schools are on schedule,” she said.

To date, the county’s plan includes 168 construction jobs, totaling about $755 million. That is about $77 million less, or 9.3 percent, than what was included in the six-year plan last year.

So far, county commissioners are proposing to spend $293 million on school construction projects from 2009-2014. Last year, they dedicated $291 million.

The plan also allocates $35.7 million for projects at Frederick Community College. If the plan is executed as proposed, by 2014 Frederick County elementary schools will gain 1,648 seats and high schools will gain 2,300.

That means by 2014, elementary enrollment in the county will be at 101 percent capacity, middle schools at 90 percent, and high schools at 85 percent.

To Commissioner David Gray, that was a sign that the county is on the right track to eliminate overcrowding. ‘‘I don’t know how long it’s been since we’ve seen high schools at 85 percent,” he said. ‘‘As we look at 2014, we may finally be there.”

Important dates

March 27: Board of County Commissioners to consider public feedback from public hearing

May 13: Commissioners to finalize the construction budget

June 3: Commissioners to adopt the 2009-2014 construction budget