More News

Parents and school officials in the Clarksburg school cluster are pleased that county schools Superintendant Jerry D. Weast has proposed a capital improvement budget that recognizes the overcrowding at every level in the community's schools.

"We were certainly hoping it was coming," Donna Pfeiffer, cluster coordinator, said of the proposed funding.

Four times a year for the last two years, the cluster has pressed its case for new elementary and middle schools and an addition to the high school in testimony before the Board of Education and County Council, she said.

Weast's proposed capital budget for the next six years, released Oct. 13, includes funding for an addition to Clarksburg High School and money for new elementary and middle schools in the Clarksburg Cluster.

The Board of Education is scheduled to vote on the capital improvement budget on Nov. 19. From there, the proposal will go to the County Council for funding next year.

The county imposed a moratorium on new housing construction in Clarksburg in November 2007 that is still in effect because middle school and high school enrollments are projected to be well over capacity as building continues. The moratorium affects residential communities whose developers applied for preliminary plan approval after Jan. 1, 2007, but had yet to receive it.

The county's Annual Growth Policy maintains that a moratorium must be placed on new development in any community where the school cluster exceeds 120 percent of capacity.

But plenty of new housing had been approved before the moratorium and the community continues to grow.

"The growth is still here, the growth is continuing," Pfeiffer said last week. "Everybody feels it. It's a huge challenge for everybody."

The halls of Clarksburg High School and Rocky Hill Middle School are packed during class changes, she said, and Rocky Hill has to schedule four lunch periods to handle everyone in the cafeteria.

"It really chops up lunches, grades and the day," she said. "[Overcrowding] just puts a strain on the entire facility."

This year the school held pep rallies outdoors when the weather was good or two pep rallies in one day because all students could not fit in the gymnasium at one time, Clarksburg High School Principal James Koutsos said.

"Those are adjustments we can make," he said.

He worries more about the strain on classroom space as enrollment continues to grow. The school uses four portable classrooms.

Some teachers no longer have their own classrooms, but carry their material on carts from room to room, Koutsos said. He worries that one day the school will not have enough science labs or classrooms.

If the addition is approved, the school will get 16 classrooms plus offices, storage space and laboratories, Koutsos said.

Clarksburg is projected to grow to nearly 40,000 residents within the next 20 years as community is developed according to the 1994 Clarksburg Master Plan.

Weast is asking for funding to begin the architectural design of an addition to Clarksburg High School in 2012 in order to have the rooms ready to open for the 2014-2015 school year. Clarksburg High opened in August 2006.

He recommends funding to plan the architectural design for a new middle school in 2013 with a projected opening date for the school in August 2015 and funding next year to design a new elementary school so it will be ready to open in August 2013.

A site has already been reserved for a middle school in Arora Hills, but the school system requires the project go through a formal site selection process, said Joseph Lavorgna, acting director of Montgomery County Public Schools' Department of Facilities Management. The proposed school site is a 23-acre parcel of land along Ridge Road (Route 27) between Skylark Road and the planned extension of Little Seneca Parkway.

A site selection committee that will include parents of students who will be affected by the new school will be appointed and probably begin meeting in early January, he said.

Rocky Hill has 1,156 students in a building designed for 939, according to school system figures. The overcrowding is projected to increase dramatically in the next few years if no new schools become available.

At the same time, John T. Baker Middle School in the Damascus Cluster has been losing students in recent years and is 73 students under capacity, according to the school system. The decline is projected to continue into the foreseeable future because few new homes are being built in Damascus.

Weast proposes a boundary study in the spring to explore reassigning Lois P. Rockwell Elementary School students to Baker for the 2011-2012 school year, Lavorgna said. Rockwell students are the only students that go to Rocky Hill in Clarksburg but matriculate to Damascus High School.

"Most of the parents who live there are walking distance from Baker and [students] are bused now," said Jennifer Zaranis, who serves as Rockwell PTA president and Baker PTA vice president.

She expects parents will be split in their opinions.

"One Rockwell mom e-mailed me that her street was having a party they're so happy. They'll be able to walk to school," Pfeiffer said.

With a current enrollment of 646, Baker lost some teachers and programs in recent years. It no longer offers vocal music classes. More students will mean more funding for programs, Zaranis said.

"Personally, I think the more children there, I think it would be a good idea," she said.

William B. Gibbs Elementary School opened in August, the second elementary school to be built in the Clarksburg Cluster in the last three years. Three-year-old Little Bennett Elementary School is 106 students above capacity and that number is expected to rise to 279 by 2013.

Gibbs relieved overcrowding at Cedar Grove Elementary School, but by 2012 the school is again projected to be over capacity and Clarksburg Elementary School is also projected to be over capacity by 2013.

A site has been reserved for the next elementary school in Clarksburg Village, Lavorgna said, but the school will have to go through the formal site selection process. The elementary school site is at the intersection of Grand Elm Street and Snowden Farm Parkway.

The developers of Clarksburg Village and Arora Hills were required to set aside the parcels of land for future school sites as a condition for site plan approvals by the county Planning Board, so the school system will receive the land free of charge.

"If the economy takes off, we're going to be building more schools up there," he said.