St. Mary's seeks new elementary school for 2014

State asked to approve early planning

Friday, Sept. 11, 2009

They want money to finish a planned Leonardtown Middle School renovation and for planning approval for a new elementary school, which could open in 2014.

The state has already approved $17 million for the major renovation at Leonardtown Middle where work will start next summer and last through 2011.

The new elementary school would be built in Leonardtown on the Hayden farm property acquired by the county earlier this year.

The capital projects schedule currently calls for the school to open in August 2014, according to current construction planning documents. That is a year earlier than listed in similar documents last May, when it appeared that the school would open two years later than originally planned.

Population projections and the anticipation of opening up prekindergarten to all families played into the decision to request planning approval for the school for fiscal year 2011, said Brad Clements, chief operating officer for St. Mary's public schools.

Plans from the newly opened Evergreen Elementary School will likely be a template for the new school.

Enrollment projections constantly fluctuate and new schools and school addition projects are often shuffled in and out of the plan. A population bubble is moving through grades 2 to 4 this year, said Kim Howe, coordinating supervisor of capital planning and construction.

A third new elementary school is now slated to open in 2019. Before that, to help alleviate overcrowding, a 120-seat addition is planned for Lettie Marshall Dent Elementary School for 2015 and an early childhood center with a capacity of 366 students could be built on the grounds of Evergreen Elementary to open in 2017.

The early childhood center could be used in a number of ways, Clements said. There could be a regional special education program housed there and it could be classrooms for lower elementary grades.

The center, along with the addition at Dent, will also help keep pace with the possibility for universal prekindergarten for all students by 2014. While there is no official state mandate for this yet, it is anticipated by school officials.

Track and tennis courts cost more

It will cost nearly four times more than initially expected to resurface tennis courts and tracks, according to school officials.

The high school tennis courts and tracks are set to be resurfaced on a 10-year life cycle replacement. If at 10 years they are determined OK, the school will hold off on the resurfacing.

Likewise, if they are deemed in disrepair before the 10-year mark, work can be done sooner.

Great Mills High School's track and tennis courts were last resurfaced in 1997. The school board approved a contract last month to have the track and court resurfaced this year for a price of $47,428. The schools will have to add another $135,000 to that.

The school board had $65,000 budgeted to resurface each high school's tennis court and track approximately every 10 years. Now the capital improvements plan lists the cost at $250,000, based on what was learned by the Great Mills project, Howe said.

Leonardtown High School was not due up for a resurfacing until 2017. That job has been moved up to fiscal year 2012 because of a continuing problem with a sinkhole; it has been repaired twice in the last several years.

Chopticon High School, which last had its courts and track resurfaced in 2000, was to be done again in 2013 but it has been moved out two years to 2015 with the new capital improvements plan. The projects are budgeted at $250,000 each.

Other county-funded projects next year include a $75,000 replacement for the elevator at Chopticon. The elevator was put in during the original construction of the school and refurbished during renovations years ago. It breaks down periodically and replacement parts are hard to find because it is so old, Clements said.

To increase safety, crews will modify the parking lot at Oakville Elementary School to separate the bus loop from student drop-off and parking areas. A $1.5 million wastewater treatment plant at Margaret Brent Middle School is also set for fiscal year 2011.

Elms improvements could be on the way

Board member Sal Raspa questioned why there are no improvements to the Elms Environmental Center listed on the capital improvements plan. He said he often hears that the outdoor education park is sorely lacking in needed improvements.

Howe said that school staff is currently working with the county's zoning department as well as the state Critical Area Commission, which must give approval to projects near tidal waters.

She said the school system is requesting approval for many projects at once for the Elms, including trail work, a bridge, greenhouse, outdoor classroom pavilion and picnic tables. The soonest permission could come from the commission is next spring, she said.

"You begin to wonder what about our programs there," Raspa said. "It just bothers me that we'll go another year without a bridge down there."

A trail that loops around a wetlands pond was disjoined when a bridge was dislodged. Students can still use the trail, Howe said, they just can't loop all the way around it.

School employees have done upgrades to the site over the last several years, including a new entranceway. "We got through the battle with the hunters and all that," Raspa said, adding that now the school system should move forward with its plans for the Elms. Raspa personally offered to help convince people at the various agencies to approve of the school system's needs.

jyeatman@somdnews.com