...Surprisingly, the use of portables, or “relocatables,” according to the county, has decreased slightly despite the increasing numbers. Since 2007 the number of portables in use has fluctuated, but hovered around 400, Crispell said.
Last year, students had classes in 404 relocatables, up from the previous year’s 382. This school year, the number dropped back to 381.
Just over 87 percent of these portables are in use at the elementary school level, versus the 7 percent in use in middle schools and the just over 5 percent in high schools.
Howard, Anne Arundel, Frederick and Baltimore Counties are also seeing increasing enrollment, along with several other counties. Prince George’s and Baltimore City both decreased in enrollment, with Baltimore City’s decreases at rates comparable to Montgomery’s increases, according to a report released by Montgomery County.
Four Montgomery County schools are scheduled to open within the next five years to help ease overcrowding in the county: Clarksburg/Damascus Middle School in Clarksburg, Bethesda-Chevy Chase Middle School #2 in Kensington, Richard Montgomery Elementary School #5 in Rockville and Northwest Elementary School #8 in Germantown.
Within the same period of time, 13 schools throughout the county are scheduled for “revitalization/expansion,” according to Montgomery County data.
One of the new schools is causing controversy within the B-CC cluster community. The location of Bethesda-Chevy Chase Middle School #2, the temporary name for the second middle school in the B-CC cluster, has raised concerns. The school is set to open in August 2017 in Rock Creek Hills Local Park, and construction starts in the next few days.
The new school will be on land formerly used for Kensington Junior High, but the site size raised concerns for some community members.
The land available for the new school is not the same size used for the previous school, because some land is no longer available. The county addressed this concern and others in a letter to the community in May meant to “clear up” citizens’ fears about the new location...
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
WTOP: New school enrollment data for local Md., Va. counties show growth
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Let's assume a new middle school adds 1,200 seats and a new elementary school adds 600 - we're only adding 3,600 new seats. If MCPS is adding 1,500-2,000 additional students every year, these 4 new schools won't come close to meeting the new demand for seats, let alone ease overcrowding - they will do NOTHING to ease the *current* classroom deficit problem.
ReplyDeleteThat's right. Do you assume that the goal is to eliminate overcrowding? It isn't. Overcrowding is the visual that Montgomery County needs to maintain. It's how they beg for more and more money every year from taxpayers and from Annapolis. If our elected officials got rid of overcrowding, what would be their whine for more money?
DeleteMCPS has been using classroom trailers for over 30 years. They are a great way to push parents to advocate for "more" "education" funding. Trailers make parents "think" there is a funding problem and they run to Annapolis and Rockville to beg for more money for MCPS.
Meanwhile, the "more" goes to administrators and perks and not the students. Same cycle is repeated year after year after year.
You know how much of the Capital budget goes to pay salaries of MCPS staff?
Answer: No one does. It's not revealed in public budget documents.
No, I don't think that was MCPS' goal necessarily - it's what WTOP wrote though: "Four Montgomery County schools are scheduled to open within the next five years to help ease overcrowding in the county:... "
ReplyDeleteCheck the MCPS press release on this. Much of what passes for reporting these days is simply press releases.
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