School Construction

Gov. Martin O'Malley will ask for $350 million in school construction funds in next year's budget, an increase of $40 million, according to a spokeswoman. The governor will announce the funds Tuesday at morning event in Annapolis. He will be joined by House Speaker Michael E. Busch, who has been pushing for an aggressive capital budget to jolt construction jobs in the state. The backdrop for the event will be familiar: Germantown Elementary School in Annapolis. During the 2006 campaign, O'Malley held a news conference at the school to pledge $1 billion in funding if he was elected.

Baltimore County Public Schools resemble Baltimore City Public Schools in that both have aging infrastructures and many of the schools are not air conditioned, but there are major differences in enrollment trends and available local funding. While Baltimore City has had a net loss of students over decades, Baltimore County has experienced major increases in student enrollment, requiring additional seats. County public school enrollment was approximately 81,000 in 1979, is 108,000 today, and is projected to exceed 120,000 in the next decade.

In our recent report, "Buildings for Academic Excellence," the ACLU of Maryland credits the state government, particularly in the last four years, for increasing funding for school construction. That is a significant trend that ought to continue. The ACLU is well aware of the need to upgrade school buildings in many counties across Maryland and has worked in state coalitions, and with leaders like Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith, toward that end. The question is one of scale and local resources.

Baltimore schools chief Andrés Alonso went to Annapolis last year seeking approval for a bold $2 billion plan to replace many of the city system's crumbling buildings. The idea didn't even make it out of committee. Prospects still looked bleak in January when the Senate president described the financial package as "ridiculous. " But by the end of the legislative session in April, a $1 billion version of the proposal had cleared both chambers by overwhelming margins. The plan - signed into law Thursday by Gov. Martin O'Malley - went from ridiculous to reality because of hard work by scores of people in both Baltimore and Annapolis, and a host of political forces were in play.

I was pleased to see the commentary by David Lever in the June 10 Sunpaper regarding the debate over the funding amount and distribution for school construction and renovation in the State of Maryland ("School facilities' foundation of fairness"). I was also pleased to see the support of the IAC (Interagency Committee on School Construction). As an entity, this committee has been in place for almost 40 years. In my past positions in three metro area counties, I have worked with them for 25 years, asking for state support for projects in those counties.

With bipartisan help from sympathetic lawmakers, Baltimore won a House committee's approval Tuesday for a $1 billion plan to replace and repair old schools. The Appropriations Committee voted 21-3 to send the plan to the House floor. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch agreed on the legislation this week. Fixing the city's ailing schools is a top priority of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Baltimore schools chief Andrés Alonso and city legislators.

A Baltimore delegate plans to introduce legislation to create an authority to oversee a new stream of school construction money that the city would get under a plan envisioned by schools CEO Andrés Alonso. Del. Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. said his bill would trigger a referendum in which city voters would be asked to create the Baltimore City Schools Construction Authority. If voters approved, the authority would administer a lump sum that the state would provide to the city each year to meet school construction needs.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said Thursday afternoon that his school construction requests for the fiscal year starting this summer recognize the need for spending restraint in difficult times, but he said the same economic challenges "make the education of our future work force and leaders more important than ever," according to his prepared remarks. The executive's annual message to the 15-member planning board on capital spending for 2012 offered highlights of a $670 million spending plan.

The latest school facilities construction plan, which was presented to the Harford County Board of Education during its meeting June 13, shows once again that the school system and the county government are not on the same page when it comes to planning future school construction. The plan ranks the Homestead Wakefield Elementary reconstruction as the first priority, followed by construction of a new John Archer School, which would be built as an addition to Bel Air Middle. Next in line behind those two will be the renovation or reconstruction of Youth's Benefit Elementary in Fallston, followed by the reconstruction of William Paca/Old Post Road Elementary in Abingdon.

Some Baltimore legislators, determined to win state approval of the city's ambitious plan to launch a $2.4 billion, 10-year overhaul of the state's aging school facilities, are actively considering bringing in the Maryland Stadium Authority to provide construction expertise and financial oversight. The lawmakers' concern is that some state leaders who are otherwise sympathetic to the plight of Baltimore schoolchildren have concerns that the city school system lacks the ability on its own to manage a project of that scope.

County Executive Kevin Kamenetz deserves thanks for his leadership on the new school in Mays Chapel. It's disheartening to see baby boomers, most of whom benefited from public education (and a boom in school construction), refuse to support the needs of today's children. As the county grows, officials must choose between "infill" - building densely in existing neighborhoods and filling in greenspace within developed neighborhoods - or expanding into the outer suburbs. Infill is almost always the right choice, leading to stronger communities, reduced traffic congestion and preservation of greenspace farther out in the county.

The state agency charged with overseeing Maryland's public school construction projects was found to have lacked proper monitoring of contracts, projects and maintenance inspections, according to a legislative audit. The audit, released Friday, examined the fiscal and managerial operations of the Interagency Committee on School Construction (IAC) primarily in fiscal year 2011, when the agency approved 355 district-level contracts totaling $566 million - $249 million of which was state funding.

Baltimore County would add classrooms for thousands of students under a budget proposal unveiled Monday by County Executive Kevin Kamenetz - a plan advocates hope signals a commitment to solve the overcrowding that has plagued the school system. "There's an acknowledgment of the number of seats needed, and there seems to be the will to fund the additional seats," said Yara Cheikh, president of the PTA at Hampton Elementary School in Towson, the county's most overcrowded school. Kamenetz's proposal includes a $2.8 billion operating budget and a $339 million capital budget.

A year ago, city officials left Annapolis distraught, their plans to obtain massive funding for school construction in the General Assembly's trash bin.   What a difference a year makes. On Wednesday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Schools CEO Andres Alonso and the city's elected officials celebrated what they're calling a banner year at the General Assembly in which they pushed for and won passage of a $1.1 billion funding plan for city schools' construction. “This is a special, unique effort for Baltimore City,” Rawlings-Blake said at a City Hall news conference.

It was a Good Friday indeed for Baltimore city school students--who in the next few years will begin seeing their dilapidated school buildings undergo a major facelift. An unprescedented $1 billion financing plan that will renovate or rebuild roughly 50 schools is effectively on its way to the bank, our statehouse reporter Michael Dresser reports. According to Dresser, when the plan went for its last whirl through the Senate "the measure passed easily on a bipartisan vote of 40-7.

In a long-sought victory for Baltimore, the Maryland Senate approved a $1 billion financing plan Friday for an unprecedented systemwide drive to rebuild and renovate the city's crumbling school buildings. The measure passed easily on a bipartisan vote of 40-7. It now goes back to the House of Delegates for approval of a minor amendment and then will move to Gov. Martin O'Malley's desk. Takirra Winfield, a spokeswoman for O'Malley, said the governor will sign the bill. "He's always been a supporter of Baltimore City and Baltimore City public schools, and he is very pleased that a deal has been reached," she said.

The Baltimore city school board voted Tuesday to pass a resolution that supports the plan proposed by schools CEO Andres Alonso to execute a rapid and massive overhaul of the city's debilitating school facilities by borrowing $1.2 billion--six times more than the school system's current bonding authority, and an amount that far exceeds the $300 milllion plan proposed by the mayor. The plan is notably different than the one proposed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who has remained non-commital since Alonso appeared in Annapolis.

A Senate committee approved legislation Wednesday that would launch a $2.4 billion plan to rebuild aging Baltimore city schools, putting the measure on an apparent fast track toward final passage. The Budget & Taxation Committee cast a bipartisan 13-0 vote to approve the House-passed bill, which would provide the first $1.1 billion for the plan, with no substantive amendments. That means that if it passes without further changes on the Senate floor, the measure would likely avoid a conference committee and quickly land on  Gov. Martin O'Malley's desk.

Long-held dreams of freshly painted walls, hallways bathed in natural light and classrooms buzzing with technology could become a reality in Baltimore as schools watch with cautious optimism as a financial plan to overhaul the district's buildings moves forward in the General Assembly. "I didn't think it was going to happen," said Claralyn McCallister, the parent of a first-grader at Northwood Elementary School, whose 60-year-old building is slated for replacement in 2017. "I'm glad that things are being followed through.