The Prince George's County (Maryland) district is celebrating the opening of five middle schools built as part of a unique public-private partnership program.
WJLA-TV reports that the five schools--Hyattsville Middle School, Drew-Freeman Middle School, Sonia Sotomayor Middle School at Adelphi, Kenmoor Middle School, and Walker Mill Middle School--as well as and the soon-to-be-completed Colin Powell K-8 Academy, were built in less than three years and cost about $486 million. The district refers to the construction program as Blueprint Schools.
Officials said if they had gone through a traditional construction process, it would have cost $869 million and taken 16 years to complete.
“These new schools ensure that, for generations to come, many tens of thousands of students will have access to the resources they’ll need to thrive,” said Jason Washington, Prince George’s County Public Schools Associate Superintendent of Supporting Services. “We did not follow the status quo. We had to be open to trying new ways of achieving big goals — and it paid off. As you walk across the schools and through the front doors, these new buildings mirror our expectations that our students will excel.”
The Sotomayor and Powell schools are new campuses. The other four projects replace existing schools, the district says. The six campuses provide space for 8,000 students.
The school district and the county will pay back construction costs over a 30-year period.
MORE: Read additonal details about the Blueprint Schools initiative.
