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After introducing a revised method to assess building conditions last August,聽a聽Montgomery County Public Schools鈥� (MCPS) contractor聽has finished assessing聽224 buildings owned by the county school board 鈥撀燬ummit Hall Elementary School聽and Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg are among the worst.
Previously, MCPS used 鈥渒ey facility indicators鈥� to measure building conditions. The color-coded system聽identified聽whether physical systems of a given building were 鈥渢rending positive,鈥� needing review or 鈥渘earing the end of anticipated life span.鈥�
According to the MCPS website, the district contracted Bureau Veritas Technical Assessments in February to conduct facility assessments of schools, offices and holding centers聽built before 2023.
The building reviews include assessing aspects such as roofs,聽plumbing,聽electrical聽and聽HVAC聽systems. Instead of using its former system of key facility indicators, the district is now using a聽metric known as the facility condition聽index聽depleted value as the main measure of building conditions.
According to the MCPS website, an聽聽at the end of the 2024-2025 school year, with the remaining buildings being assessed over the 2025-2026 school year.
The finished assessments聽comes聽before the district embarks on an聽elementary and middle school closure process and elementary school boundary study, set to begin in聽August.
鈥淎s part of this聽facility聽condition without a doubt will play an impact聽in聽this,鈥澛燗ndrea Swiatocha, deputy chief of facilities management told聽the聽school聽board聽on July 16.
The elementary schools with the highest depleted values include:
- Summit Hall Elementary in Gaithersburg with聽0.727
- Piney Branch聽Elementary in Takoma Park聽with聽roughly聽0.715
- Burning Tree聽Elementary in聽Bethesda with聽0.702
- Beall聽Elementary in Rockville聽with a score of聽nearly聽0.697
- Stone Mill聽Elementary in North Potomac聽with聽0.696
The study comes on the heels of a middle and high school boundary study that resulted in the school board approving in March boundary lines that will permanently move Rockville鈥檚 Thomas S. Wootton High School into the upcoming Crown High in Gaithersburg 鈥� along with sweeping changes to the district鈥檚 programming model.
The聽middle and high聽schools with the highest depleted values include:
- Quince Orchard High in Gaithersburg with 聽0.694
- Col. Zadok Magruder High in Rockville with 0.649
- Earle B. Wood Middle in Rockville with 0.625
- Westland Middle in Bethesda with聽0.625
- Thomas S. Wootton聽High in Rockville with聽0.625
The聽entire list聽of schools, their scores and the accompanying report can be found聽
