The Carroll County Board of Education will be asked to approve the school system’s $45.9 million capital budget request for fiscal 2025 on Wednesday at its monthly meeting.
The request is $2.1 million higher than the version presented last month to the school board, mostly to accommodate new classroom space at Sandymount Elementary School.
The school board said last month that it would prioritize construction projects at Liberty High, Sykesville Middle, Freedom Elementary, Cranberry Station Elementary, Friendship Valley Elementary, Sandymount Elementary and Taneytown Elementary schools in the 2025 capital budget.
The county’s share would be about $24.8 million, and the state would contribute $21.1 million, according to the meeting agenda.
About $1.9 million would go toward building new kindergarten and prekindergarten classrooms for Sandymount Elementary. The classrooms would be in the same wing of the school and provide additional elementary classroom space to try to ward off projected overcrowding at the school, according to the meeting agenda.
The budget also includes new spending of $129,000 for Friendship Valley Elementary to accommodate more space in the planned PRIDE suite, according to the meeting agenda. PRIDE stands for Positive Response to Issues of Discipline with Elementary Students and is designed to help students “gain self-control and insight into their behavior in order to reduce disruptive behaviors and increase positive school behavior adjustment and achievement,” in order to “equip students and families with the skill set to return to their comprehensive home schools,” according to the school system.
Friendship Valley also would receive new kindergarten and prekindergarten classrooms as part of the addition.
At the school board meeting in September, board member Donna Sivigny said she supports allocating $1.27 million in design funding for a Sykesville Middle School addition and $523,000 for design funding for additions at Freedom Elementary School, including a prekindergarten classroom.
“After all the extensive discussions that we’ve had over the last couple of years about redistricting, building additions and what is the best way to go about all that, I think I’m in support of this being the best way forward,” Sivigny said.
The capital budget outline also includes a request for $300,000 to evaluate options for modernizing Liberty High School by performing a feasibility study. The Capital Improvement Program included with the budget request indicates that Liberty High modernization likely will cost about $143 million.
The fiscal 2026-2030 Capital Improvement Program request totals just over $358 million, with an anticipated county share of $185 million based on a state share of about $173 million.
Funding for projects included in the capital budget becomes part of the legally adopted budget, but the longer-term improvement program is not legally binding. Current projects are prioritized, followed by projects that affect safety, then projects that replace critical building systems.
The scheduling of school modernization in this year’s request is based on the 2022 update to the March 2008 Report on Physical and Functional Assessments of Schools Constructed Prior to 1980, which now includes schools built before 1990, according to the discussion item.
Liberty High School has been identified as the county’s top modernization priority after the Eldersburg school, which opened in 1980, was recently assessed for the first time. O’Neal told county commissioners and school board members in July that Winchester Elementary, Mount Airy Elementary, Freedom Elementary and Sykesville Middle schools are among the top priorities after Liberty, based on poor comprehensive assessment scores. The recently replaced East Middle School was the only building to score worse than Liberty High.
Maryland only contributes to construction projects and expenditures that are deemed eligible by the Code of Maryland Regulations, facilities planner William Caine told Board of Education members last month. So, the county will be expected to contribute more than the state in the fiscal 2025 budget because capital spending on security, technology and construction projects where the square footage per student exceeds a ratio specified by a funding formula are among the costs not eligible for state funding.
“There’s a very lengthy section of COMAR that spells out the state capital construction rules and regulations, as far as what’s eligible and what’s not,” Caine said.
Caine said the state’s share of construction costs will fall from its current rate of 59% to 57% in fiscal 2025, and further decrease to 54% in fiscal 2026.
Fiscal 2025 begins July 1. Carroll should receive a state share of 53% according to updated calculations, but Maryland won’t modify a share more than 5% percent over two years, Caine said. The state will recalculate in time for fiscal 2027.
According to the proposed budget, the school board will ask the county for $900,000 for security improvements, $1 million for technology improvements and $1.2 million for paving.
“With enrollments going up, it’s possible that our percentage could go back up in the calculations, so there’s hope,” Caine said. , “Hopefully in the future it’ll come back to where it was.”
Assistant Superintendent of Operations Jon O’Neal said the state will now contribute to design costs, which often are about 10% of the cost of construction.
“[Maryland] does participate in some design work, which historically [it] never did,” O’Neal said, “so the state taketh away, but the state also giveth back.”
The school board is also scheduled to hear a report about ongoing school construction projects, vote to approve new high school curricula and discuss proposed updates to the school board ethics policy during the meeting Wednesday, which begins at 5 p.m. The school board also will meet jointly with the Carroll County Board of Commissioners at 1 p.m. that day.
School board meetings are open to the public and livestreamed on the Carroll County Public Schools YouTube channel and viewable on the right side of the Board of Education’s website at carrollk12.org/board-of-education/meeting-information, under CETV Livestream. Meetings are also broadcast live throughout the month on Carroll Educational Television, Ch. 21.
Anyone who wishes to participate during the public participation portion of the meeting must fill out an online sign-up form at https://www.carrollk12.org/board-of-education/meeting-information or call the communications office at 410-751-3020 by 9 p.m., on the Tuesday before a meeting.
