PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, Md. – Eight new schools, including two in New Carrollton, are now planned to begin construction in Prince George’s. Sonia Sotomayor Middle School opened this year, with Delegate Deni Taveras (D, District 47) spreading the announcement via email, and Fort Washington’s K-8 Colin Powell Academy is expected to open after this year’s Thanksgiving Break.
While some have criticized the novel public-private partnership for potentially ballooning the costs of school construction, numerous parents have called on the Board of Education to “build the damn schools” while noting structural deficiencies in existing facilities during this year’s meetings.
The eight new schools have a project-labor agreement in place, providing additional protections to workers on the project. Gilbane, the Rhode Island-based developer and sole builder on the original P3, and Maryland-based subcontractor Elite Wall Systems, LLC are currently facing a lawsuit from Crispin de la Cruz, who alleges he worked as a laborer on PGCPS school construction sites, had his employment status misclassified and did not receive compensation for work performed.
“In its most simplistic form, this opportunity is the same as taking out a loan to finance your home, car, or education. For most people, it would be impossible to make such expensive purchases without a loan. It is impossible for the County to finance and expedite this vast and much-needed construction project without this partnership,” said LaVonn Reedy Thomas in an interview with the Informer about her opinion on new school construction. “For years, communities in certain areas of the County have objected to boundary changes which contributes to over-crowding in some schools while reducing the census in other schools. Also, no one has studied the impact on our school system because of specialty school, charter school and parochial/private school choices by parents. Density in certain areas of the county creates overcrowded schools, but instead of spreading development equitably throughout the county, efforts are underway to curtail it. So, schools in Central and South County continue to suffer with lower registrations.”
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I keep reading about all the new schools that are on the calender to be built or torn down and rebuilt. But one school that is one of the oldest schools in the county and so out dated has never been mentioned at anytime is Nicholas Orem Middle School. I’m in my late 60’s and I went there, not to mention other family members alot older than I went there. The school is so out dated that it isn’t even handicap accessible. I know this due to the fact when I went there to watch a student program because I was in a wheelchair I could not get in the building until someone was call to remove the doors so my chair could fit through the door frame. This school is located in West Hyattsville, which the residents here call the “forgotten no man’s land”. Nothing is ever improved here, businesses don’t come here but by chance they do they don’t stay long. You have to go to Bowie or Laural to find a good restaurant not just fast food. I could go on and on about all the short comings of West Hyattsville but that would be nothing more than a waste of time. Being a resident of this city who was raised here, left because there was nothing here, just to return 40 years later to see things almost exactly the way they were when I left, I think the county needs to add Nicholas Orem to the list of schools that need to be torn down, and replaced with a larger more 21st century up to date school for the hundreds of kids that have to walk down those old worn out hallways hallways with the same color paint that was on those walls way over 60 years ago. You’ve taken away most of this areas school busses. Atleast give the kids a school worth walking 2 to 5 miles one way, to school everyday.