Joshua Starr, Superintendent of the Montgomery County School system in Maryland, is asking for an additional $220.8 million in school construction funding after expansion and renovation projects at 37 schools were put on hold due to inadequate funds.
"We have grown over the last six year by 16,485 students," Starr told CBS affiliate WUSA 9. "That’s enough to fill 22 new schools.”
As a result of the rapid expansion, the school district has had to use more than 400 portable classrooms, the majority of which have no plumbing. The portable classrooms have been utilized mostly at elementary schools. This requires students to have to walk back and forth to the permanent buildings to use the restroom and to wash their hands.
"They need to go away," one parent and member of the PTA said of the temporary classrooms in an interview with WUSA 9.
Starr's requests for additional funding would increase the 2015-2020 Capital Improvements Program Budget to $1.75 billion from the $1.53 billion approved by the Montgomery County Council in May. The request would have to be approved by the Maryland General Assembly.
