A proposal by Baltimore city school officials to renovate or construct fewer schools than initially called for in the first year of the district’s ambitious makeover program is drawing criticism from some residents.
Several parents waiting to pick up their children at the Lake Clifton Building on St. Lo Drive, were upset that the school building may not be renovated in the first round of schools slated for major facelifts or replacements.
"The school should be renovated like everybody else’s schools," said parent Angela Davis, whose whose daughter attends the Reach Partnership School, located in the Lake Clifton Building.
The Lake Clifton campus was supposed to be renovated or replaced in the first year of the district’s 10-year plan to update crumbling and outdated schools. However, a recommendation before the school board now calls for Lake Clifton’s renovations to be deferred, which doesn’t sit well with Davis.
"These kids need air conditioning and new everything in this school and I don’t know why they won’t do it. They did a little when it first opened but nothing like tearing it up and putting all brand new stuff in it," Davis said.
The Lake Clifton Building, which has potholes along its driveway and peeling paint on all sides of the building, houses both Reach Partnership and Claremont High School. Claremont is scheduled to be moved to another location in coming years.
As buses picked up students at the large campus this week, Yolanda Parker waited for her daughter, a ninth-grader, to come out of the building. She says this is the first year her daughter has attended public school and she had not heard that the building’s renovations might be deferred. The news, discussed at Tuesday's school board meeting, surprised her because she says the building obviously needs a lot of work.
"Walking into the building, I could see some of the foundation and construction seemed a little faulty," Parker said. " It would be great if they renovated it."
The Lake Clifton building is not the only one whose renovations maybe delayed by district officials. A delay is also proposed for the Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy. In addition, the number of schools set to be renovated or constructed in the first phase of the building plan would drop from a range of 30to 35 schools to 23 to 28. Eleven schools would be built or renovated in the first year of the multi-year refurbishment plan.
The Maryland Stadium Authority oversees the finances for the school building initiative. According to Gary McGuigan, an MSA senior vice president, the school district’s original estimates of what it would take to build and overhaul the larger number of schools identified for the first phase of the program were based on limited information.
"City schools conducted feasibility studies for the schools, which supplied a greater deal of information," McGuigan said. "Consultants went into the buildings, they looked at systems and came up with options and designs of what to do with the schools. So with that additional information, the range (of schools to be renovated or rebuilt) was changed to 23 to 28.
McGuigan said the main discrepancy involved renovation costs, which were much higher than expected. The district is funding the building program through bonds, which McGuigan said will be issued this fall. He estimated that nearly a billion dollars will be raised for schools through the bond issuance. And although McGuigan is optimistic about the latest number of schools that will get facelifts, he says prospects could change.
"There are still unknowns today, not only on the costs of schools, but also on the revenue side on how much money can be generated when we go to the bond sale. Even though it’s a lot of unknowns today, and that’s the reason for the five-school range, I feel pretty confident that by the end of the program we will be between 23 and 28 schools," he said.
A school board official did not know when board members will cast final votes on the first 11 schools to be renovated and rebuilt. Nor is it clear how long renovations for Vivien and Lake Clifton will be pushed back. But officials said they expect all of the phase one building fix-ups will be completed by 2020.