$10 Million Pledged for High School In Waldorf
County Offers Less Than 1st-Year Bill
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Sunday, October 4, 2009
The Charles Board of County Commissioners unanimously voted last week to give $10 million to the Board of Education to open a high school in Waldorf.
The commissioners, who had promised the funds at a work session with the board earlier in the week, said the money would come from fees charged to builders to secure infrastructure, including schools, to support new developments.
The new school is designed to relieve crowding at Charles County's other high schools, which are 1,200 students over capacity.
"We are doing everything to support" the schools, despite the economy, said Wayne Cooper (D-At Large), president of the commissioners.
Several Board of Education members said at the work session that $10 million would not cover the cost of opening a high school. They said it would take closer to $18 million to operate the high school in its first year and more than $14 million in the following years. The school board members urged the commissioners to promise the school more money and said they feared building a school and either having to cut programming at other schools or being unable to afford opening the new one.
"If I thought there was any doubt, I'd say let's not do it," Cooper told his board.
Donald M. Wade, chairman of the school board, followed the work session with a letter to the commissioners formally requesting them to make good on the $10 million pledge and to provide resources and support to the school as necessary.
Commissioner Edith J. Patterson (D-Pomfret) called the request to support schools unusual because "we have shown our commitment to schools" through continued operations funding and financing of school construction.
Commissioner Gary V. Hodge (D-St. Charles) said the school board had worked with the commissioners and had taken "extraordinary measures" to bring the proposed high school's cost down from more than $100 million to $73 million.
He said it would be "extremely ill advised" if the school board did not move forward in getting state approvals because the county would miss out on cheaper construction rates and have to compete with more projects from across Maryland that are on hold because of the lackluster economy.
It is a "reasonable expectation" that the economy will recover before the school is scheduled to open in 2013 and that the county will have adequate funding, Hodge said.
