[Baltimore Sun] New pre-K classroom funded for Robert Moton Elementary in Westminster
Read Time:1 Minute, 52 Second
Robert Moton Elementary School will join four other Carroll County public schools that are scheduled to get new classroom additions for prekindergarten, the county Board of Education unanimously decided on Sept. 11.
Although the scope of construction for additions at Friendship Valley, Sandymount, Taneytown and Cranberry Station elementary schools were reduced in May to lessen construction expenses, there was a surplus in the budget for project design. The school board decided that surplus could best be used to include Robert Moton Elementary in the first round of prekindergarten renovations.
“That is good news,” board member Donna Sivigny said, “and we don’t get a whole lot of that these days.”
For designing additions at four schools, $755,000 was budgeted, but the design contract with Moseley Architects cost $545,875. An additional $116,290 will be used for Moseley Architects to design the Robert Moton addition, according to the meeting agenda.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a multibillion-dollar public school reform effort designed to make Maryland’s schools among the highest performing in the country, requires that school systems offer universal prekindergarten for 3-year-olds, allow high school students to enroll in unlimited community college classes at no charge, and incorporate a $60,000 starting salary for new teachers, among other initiatives.
Prekindergarten programs in Carroll County will nearly double in scope by 2028, and the school system has doubled the number of private providers from two to four in the last year, according to a June plan to implement new Blueprint initiatives.
Three phases of prekindergarten additions are planned in Carroll County to fulfill Blueprint requirements, school facilities planner William Caine told the board. Robert Moton, at 1413 Washington Road in Westminster, would have been included in the second phase, beginning in July 2025, if additional design funding was not available.
Robert Moton Elementary was included due to the high number of prekindergarten students already attending the school, according to the agenda.
Sivigny said it may be tempting to allocate the funds to other projects, but completing the Robert Moton project before inflation can escalate costs makes sense.
“I understand that we have to do it eventually and these costs might go up if we wait,” Sivigny said.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0