Construction is beginning this week on six new schools in the Prince George’s County (Md.) district.
Prince George’s County Education & Community Partners—a consortium of several companies—is providing development, design, construction and maintenance services for the projects. The alternative financing arrangement will enable the district to build schools for 8,000 Prince George’s students in the next two years.
The Public-Private Partnership construction program, which the district has named the Blueprint Schools Initiative, is projected to save the district $174 million compared with a traditional construction procurement model for these projects.
The companies that are part of the consortium: Fengate Asset Management, Gilbane Development Company, Gilbane Building Company, Stantec and Honeywell.
Four middle schools—Drew-Freeman, Hyattsville, Kenmoor and Walker Mill—are being rebuilt. In addition, a new middle school, Adelphi, is being constructed, and a K-8 school, not yet named, is being built in the southern part of the county.
To address crowding at the middle school level and the many aging school facilities in Prince George’s County, the district pursued alternative financing to accelerate construction.
“We have made tremendous strides in the area of long-range facility planning to advance from a capital program of primarily emergency repair projects toward a major modernization program with a plan to address each older facility in our inventory over the next 20 years,” said Monica Goldson, the district’s chief executive officer. “The Blueprint Schools initiative helps us accelerate delivery of new schools and modernizations for safe, sustainable educational facilities to fully support 21st-century instruction for our students, staff and community.”
All six schools are scheduled to be completed by summer 2023.
