3/2/11 UPDATE: MCPS' Public Relations Department has now confirmed via a press release that the new McKenney Hills Elementary School will open with space for 640 students, not the 550 planned for in the Feasibility Study below (See page 1. Core capacity refers to the size of the gym and cafeteria to support student use at a future date. The future is now for this elementary school! 640 is the MCPS number, but under State capacity guidelines the new building will be able to support upwards of 700 students.)
Classrooms that were shown as empty shells on the Feasibility Study below will now be built out under the new plans, thus increasing the classroom capacity of the new school building. Thanks to the MCPS PR Department for confirming that the Feasibility Study plans have been changed.
What's $38,570? Nothing to the Board of Education.
$38,570 is what the Board of Education spent on the June 2009 Feasibility Study shown below for the McKenney Hills Elementary School site. (The document is in three parts, it's a big document! This document is not available on the MCPS website but was obtained via a Maryland Public Information Act request.)
The Feasibility Study that the Board of Education ordered called for an elementary school for 552 students and a 57,035 sq. ft.* building. Architecture, Inc. was to be paid $38,570 for this study. Meetings were held. (See the list of PTAs, neighbors, parents, community members and a Maryland State Department of Education official that met to plan this building in the Feasibility Study below.) All those people were given Educational Specifications for the site that showed that the Board of Education was building a school with a student capacity of 550 for the McKenney Hills site.
But they aren't.
The Feasibility Study plans for the McKenney Hills site were tossed in the trash.
A new architect was brought in and the elementary school was super-sized to hold upwards of 734 students in a 95,475 sq. ft. building!
The $38,570 Feasibility Study and the months of meetings and plans that went in to creating this report were discarded without a word from the Board of Education.
The original McKenney Hills school building was 29,278 sq. ft.
The Feasibility Study for this site called for planning for a school of 57,035 sq. ft.*
But the Board of Education is actually building a school that will be 95,475 sq. ft.
You can bet some trees are going to pay the price for these changes to the original school site, and that it will be quite a surprise for the neighbors that attended meetings to plan a 57,035 sq. ft.* school building for 550 students.
*Per page A-6 of Feasibility Study under Educational Specifications for this project.
McKenney Hills Traffic Study (March 3, 2010) stated that the school will serve 640 students.
McKenneyHillsJune2009
Part 2 of McKenney Hills discarded Feasibility Study
Part 3 of McKenney Hills discarded Feasibility Study
This blog post was updated to include specific references to the Educational Specifications for this site as shown in the Feasibility Study.
ReplyDelete3/2/11 UPDATE: MCPS' Public Relations Department has now confirmed via a press release that the new McKenney Hills Elementary School will open with space for 640 students, not the 550 planned for in the Feasibility Study below (See page 1. Core capacity refers to the size of the gym and cafeteria to support student use at a future date. The future is now for this elementary school! 640 is the MCPS number, but under State capacity guidelines the new building will be able to support upwards of 700 students.)
ReplyDeleteClassrooms that were shown as empty shells on the Feasibility Study below will now be built out under the new plans, thus increasing the classroom capacity of the new school building. Thanks to the MCPS PR Department for confirming that the Feasibility Study plans have been changed.