Building for the Future: The Impact of New Schools in Our Communities

When I first came into office, Prince George’s County faced an $8.5 billion school construction backlog. Many of our students faced overcrowded classrooms, and many more attended schools in dire need of maintenance.  

We knew that we needed to change the way we approached education—not just here in Prince George’s County, but across Maryland. So, we made a historic set of changes to our public schools. Thanks to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, we’ve provided historic funding for our school systems across the state, including increases to teacher salaries and budgets for programs that benefit students.  

While this important legislation sets our state on the right track, we needed to take additional steps to make sure our students had schools that set them up for success. That’s why, in 2019, we partnered with County Council and our legislative delegation in Annapolis to push for the Alternative Construction Finance Program (ACF). We were the first county in the nation to adopt this innovative Public-Private Partnership (P3) model for students. This first-in-the-nation program allows us to build high-quality blueprint schools in record time.

Our ACF program is unprecedented—both in terms of its structure and its success. Under a traditional school construction model, building this many schools could take more than a decade. Thanks to the ACF, we’ve opened six new schools in just 3 years. Now the program is in phase 2, and we are breaking ground on an additional 8 new schools.  

The ACF is a public-private partnership; our partners design, build, finance, and maintain these new schools. We build and design each of these schools to complement the appearance of the community, and we work hard to reduce the impact of construction on neighbors. Phase 2 of our school construction program includes a 35% Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) requirement as well as a 20% County-based business requirement. This helps us make sure our tax dollars are supporting new schools and the local community.  

By the end of my administration, we will have opened or begun construction on 18 new schools—a historic achievement. Our construction program is now a national model. Each of our ACF schools have a story, but Fairwood Elementary represents what a lot of these new schools mean to the communities they will serve.  

Since the beginning, Fairwood held so much promise for residents moving in to make the community home. Since the beginning, residents of Fairwood have tried to build a school for their children. Even though a school was promised, it was never built.  

As a County Government and as a community, one of our most important jobs is to invest in our children. Their experience in Fairwood is an example of why I vowed, if elected County Executive, to do everything I could to keep this promise. I am proud to say that we broke ground on Fairwood Elementary, and the school will be completed at the same record-breaking pace as all of the other ACF schools we’ve built so far.  

Each of these new schools represents real change for students and real change for their education. For example, Fairwood Elementary will provide 650 elementary school seats. This two-story school will serve Pre-K through 5th grade, helping to address overcrowding and aging buildings in Bowie, MD.  

Each of our new schools has a similar story. Our ACF model for school construction will help meet the needs of 136,500 students and 22,000 employees, improve learning conditions, and improve educational outcomes for the next generation of brig

 

Yours In Service, 

Angela D. Alsobrooks